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The Power of Joseph Campbell’s Myth (published 1991, Anchor Books) and the Love of Sophia (Episode 1)
Mythology is almost as ancient as the hills. It stretches back to an origin in time we cannot easily fathom—to a time when we were perhaps not as fully aware of ourselves, and our world as we are today. There was a time, for example, when we did not have particular names for particular people and may not have buried the dead. This was before the time that man was looking up to the heavens to measure time beyond the events of the hour and the day. William James, the author of Principles of Psychology defined Psychology as the “Study of Mental Life: its Phenomena and Conditions”. He noted that the tramp concerned himself for the needs of the hour whilst the Bohemian concerned himself for the needs of the day: the Bachelor for the needs of his life: the family man for the needs of his children: the politician for the needs of the nation he is leading: and the Philosopher concerns himself for the needs of humanity for all eternity. Mythology may love life and Eros, but it is not clear that it loves “Sophia” given that it conceives of the sacred in “local” spatial and temporal forms, which do not meet the universal requirements of Aristotelian and post-Aristotelian Philosophy. Mythology too stretched itself over a time period where man in general was too untutored to appreciate the experience of the sublime, fearing what he did not understand (for example. a powerful waterfall) instead of seeing its symbolic significance, seeing its relevance to the power of our human agency.
The breadth and depth of Campbell’s concerns manifest themselves clearly in this series of interviews for which the intent is neither popular nor academic, representing instead the legacies of William James’ Pragmatism and American Transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Margaret Fuller).
The introductory quote to the first chapter reads: (Open quote)
“People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I do not think that is what we are really seeking. I think what we are seeking is an experience of being alive, so that or life experiences, on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” (Close quote)
In his first comment of the interview entitled “Myth and the Modern World” Campbell notes that we “Moderns” interest ourselves primarily in the news of the day and the problems of the hour. Such a life precludes attention to spiritual matters of the transcendental realm of the sacred: a state of affairs which, he argues, we will regret as we age. Campbell himself regrets the changes he has witnessed in education where emphasis has moved from Greek, Latin and Biblical stories to less spiritual narratives. These Greek Latin and Hebrew/Christian texts have built civilisations and supported our human communities for millennia. Even great novels such as those written by James Joyce and Thomas Mann no longer influence our lives as they used to and we are no longer exposed to the aesthetic evaluation of the lives of the tramp and the bohemian: evaluations that attempt to provide us with the truth about or lives. What is common between world-myths and these great novels is that they are both intended to provide us with a glimpse of the timeless transcendental aspect of our “Being-in-the-world” via spatio-temporal forms that are “symbolic”. The length of these narratives can be as long as Joyce’s “Ulysses” or as short as the parable of the Eastern Mystic about to give a sermon interrupted by the song of a bird which he then claims was the sermon. Such a transcendental view of life ,which sheds light on all other forms has of course been lost in our modern age but the Philosophical view of Heidegger, for example, is that this “fall” began occurring even during the time of the Greeks with the work of Aristotle. This may not be an accurate judgement but the process of alienation from the spiritual concerns of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle certainly began relatively shortly after the work of Aristotle and accelerated during the Roman era. Heidegger also indicates how the age of Techné has further estranged us from understanding the transcendental aspects of human life.
Campbell argues that Myths keep us in touch with that aspect of our minds designated as “noos” by Aristotle. Paul Ricoeur characterises this transcendental realm, which we are seeking to understand as “the realm of the sacred”. Campbell refers to this realm and its relation to our everyday institutions such as marriage: (Open quote)
“Read Myths. They teach you that you can turn inward and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other peoples myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts—but if you read other ones, you begin t get the message. Myth helps to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive. It tells you what experience is. Marriage for example. What is marriage? The Myth tells you what it is. It’s the reunion of the separated duad. Originally you were one. You are now two in the world, but the recognition of the spiritual identity is what marriage is. Its different from a love affair. It has nothing to do with that. Its another mythological plane of existence……By marrying the right person we reconstruct the image of the incarnate God, and that’s what marriage is.” (Close quote)
This is what marriage is in the realm of the sacred: a realm in which religious confession of ones trespasses, for example, are cathartic and just because of fulfilling that function will be in some sense “forgiven”—such is the power of “knowing oneself”. For the Bohemian marriage is the love affair that will soon dissipate (as do all biological urges) and end with separation. For the bachelor there can be no ideal marriage which for him entails taking responsibility for the well being of future generations, ensuring that ones own children lead good spirited flourishing lives (eudaimonia).
See http://michaelrdjames.org for transcript of podcast