Thinking in Mythological Terms

As a child I enjoyed listening to mythological stories usually concerning the life of a hero or some heroic events.  My fascination with mythology continued throughout my life and intensified when I watched the TV interviews (6 video series) of the American mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-1987).  The series is called “The Power of Myth” and he discusses the rituals as well as the messages of myth stories.

Myth by definition is “a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature”.

According to Campbell the role of myth is to bring us to a different level of consciousness as it describes the hero’s adventures.  In fact myths and dreams come from the same place. 

Thinking in mythological terms is saying yes to the adventure of life.  It is being a maverick and going for the difficult.  The message is – don’t say no to life, it’s great just the way it is.  It is the manifestation of divinity, seeing the creator in creation, the divine presence.

Myths are stories of seeking those experiences of being alive and seeing life as a poem -that’s what mythology does for you.  In those stories animals are other human beings and are considered superior.  Caves with drawing of animals show how to hunt and how to respect animals. The rituals are about giving thanks to animals, not to God but to animals.  Rituals are enactment of the myths and good rituals give experiences of mythological lives.

In myth stories man belongs to Earth not Earth to man.  In 1852 a Red Indian Chief said "Earth is sacred, how can you buy the sacred Earth, have a sacred corner for yourself!"

Women are seen as regenerators and motherhood as a sacrifice.  Marriage is an ordeal of sacrificing the ego for the relationship.

You as you know yourself are not the final term of your being.  You must die to that, giving yourself in order to come back as real.  If you keep saying “I have never done the things I wanted to do” it means that you did not follow your bliss.  Bliss is the hubble of the wheel not the things around it.

Each incarnation has a potentiality, and the purpose of life is meeting that.  So follow your bliss.  Find that burning thing in you, the fearlessness, the perfect courage, and the revelation will follow.

Star wars is a myth of today, the future myth is the planet and the people in it not the country.