The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell is a powerful, classic book, not for the faint of heart.
Mythology is a huge part of our lives for better and for worse. This book helps make sense and better use of it all — also for better or worse.
I see it useful as a guidebook, opening up different ways to interpret some of our inspirations, motivations and perceptions; a bible for the bible; an antidote to propaganda (or alternatively, a way to make your propaganda more compelling); a template for every epic story; a piercing passageway to the other side; a justification for getting more sleep; and a call to adventure — and more humor! — among others.
I’m probably overdoing it. But in a world where mythology plays such an impactful role on so many levels of our society and our existence, taking a deep dive into the origins of stories and narrative (and its impact on our psyche) is relevant and, in this case, in my humble opinion, truly enlightening.
There were too many great excerpts to list here, so I’m only including a few. These don’t come close to doing the book justice, so do us all, and yourself, a favor: pick up a copy and take the plunge!
“…myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.” p. 1
“Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved.” p. 49 (Refusal of the Call)
“Humor is the touchstone of the truly mythological as distinct from the more literal-minded and sentimental theological mood. The gods as icons are not ends in themselves. Their entertaining myths transport the mind and spirit, not up to, but past them, into the yonder void; from which perspective the more heavily freighted theological dogmas then appear to have been only pedagogical lures: their function, to cart the unadroit intellect away from its concrete clutter of facts and events to a comparatively rarefied zone, where, as a final boon, all existence — whether heavenly, earthly, or infernal — may at last be seen transmuted into the semblance of a lightly passing, recurrent, mere childhood dream of bliss and fright.” p. 155
AF: Every person is a gatekeeper and the social connection between any two people is — in a sense — another universe, an adventure, a doorway to a new “other side.” So the more social connections we create, the more the universe expands, and the more opportunities we have to cross the threshold.