A Hero With a Thousand Ideas — The Thinking Of Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell brought mythology back to life
Joseph Campbell taught comparative mythology and literature at Sarah Lawrence College in New York for 40 years. As a professor, his views were different from others. His style was free form and conversational style in his class. He had a life giving perspective that his students adored. Finding his way to this position wasn’t a straightforward path, however.
After attaining his degrees – a BA and MA in literature – from Columbia University, the next logical steps were to get a PhD. All his peers were doing this, it was the done thing. Joseph, however, turned away from this road. It was too narrow, too specialised. His interests were far too varied and he wasn’t done with pursuing them all.
His daring to turn away from a secure, academic life earlier on allowed him to gather a much wider array of knowledge – ultimately creating his book later in life, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”, a work of great comparativism.
“Heaven and hell are within us, and all the gods are within us. They are magnified dreams, and dreams are manifestations in image form of the energies of the body in conflict with each other. That is what myth is. Myth is a manifestation in symbolic images, in metaphorical images, of the energies of the organs of the body in conflict with each other.”
― Joseph Campbell
Studying the mythologies that have arisen across time and culture worldwide gave Campbell a life giving perspective. No matter the age, no matter the circumstances, the human endeavour to seek for transcendence is enduring. There is always a way for each and every hero.
Backing up a little, Joseph’s perspective on myth was not that they were “false stories”, rather that they were a map of the psyche. Influenced by the works of Carl Jung, he was intrigued by the soul’s journey to ‘individuate’, to become wholly integrated and he saw that the mythologies of ancient times reflected that.
Initially as a young boy, Campbell’s fascination with Native American stories sparked a long lasting fire. Totem animals and trickster archetypes like the Raven or Coyote, were so different from anything taught within the Christian framework that he had been raised within.
Their myths seemed to be so alive.
Rather than repeating a story of the past and behaving according to it, because it said so, these myths were vibrant and current as you embodied them through storytelling. You can’t literally slay a giant serpent – but you can embody the energy told through that story to face your own fears.
I can relate to Joseph’s story. Watching Disney’s fairytales from as young as 18 months old sparked something enduring in me also.
Growing into adulthood in this modern age can feel as though you shed the magic sparkle of youth and never regain it. As Campbell said, there is no myth generated for our time. We have lost connection to these stories that point the way.
The way that leads within and also mirrors without.
Religion has largely been shaken off. Dusty and rigid, it’s a story that no longer fits us. But we are the storytelling animal. We need meaning. We need a journey. Each of us is a hero in our own life. Each of us has a unique adventure to undertake. A gift to find in the world and give back to the world.
Where are our stories to show us the way through this hyper connected, space travelling world?
Joseph’s greatest gift, arguably, is the short phrase he coined later in his life: Follow your bliss.
“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
― Joseph Campbell
‘Bliss’, in this context, carries the weight of so much meaning that an imperfect language just cannot quite translate. Campbell derived it from a phrase within the Sanskrit texts of Vedanta philosophy.
Satchitānanda – सच्चिदानन्द
The three jumping off point into the eternal, or Brahman.
Sat – /Being, existence, truth, reality/
Chit – /Consciousness, awareness/
Ānanda – /Bliss, joy, delight, rapture/
This last part – Ānanda / Bliss – being the part that Joseph thought was the most intuitive to follow. Just like we did as children. The spark that leads you through the risky but exhilarating experiences of life. Over and over again. Not just hedonism, it is the deep ‘yes’ of your soul to take on the adventure in order to become who you were meant to be.
“If your bliss is just your fun and your excitement, you’re on the wrong track. I mean, you need instruction. Know where your bliss is. And that involves coming down to a deep place in yourself.”
— Joseph Campbell
It’s simple – deceptively so, perhaps – but it carries so much in it. This philosophy has led me through dark times of confusion and grief as well as the heady excitement of possibility.
It has brought magic back to my life as an adult. Synchronicities occur frequently. Meaning strikes me through beauty everyday. It’s an easy philosophy to fit in my pocket and carry with me into the dark and scary unknown. I follow my bliss in large things and small.
George Lucas has credited Joseph Campbell’s teachings as being the inspiration for the arc of the Star Wars trilogy.
We are in strange space travelling times now, so it only fits that when we face uncertainty, we must use the force.
Before You Raise Your Voice, Raise Your Frequency