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| Tam Zelig Journal Of Power Of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers Introduction: In this course we’ll be looking at how communication works in an interdisciplinary context. I have chosen to view communication in terms of diverse spiritual applications. Our lives, whether we are religious or not, are very much affected by the spiritual values that surround us as well as those spiritual elements that controlled our ancestors. To that end it becomes vital to know the sources of those ancient voices and their power over us. This is what Campbell presents in this book. Chapter 1 – Myth And The Modern World According to Campbell, the loss of Classical Literature as a commonly taught subject has brought about a loss of perspective. We get that perspective from our stories. I agree with Campbell, although what neither he nor I would suggest is strictly the Western Classics. What we should be taught are the stories from all cultures that help us grasp a meaningful life for ourselves. This is different than grasping the meaning of life, as Campbell says, “People say that what we’re seeking is the meaning of life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive….” (5) We learn from these stories about the rituals that are needed to bring us this life – the rites of passage. It is society’s obligation to provide these rituals. According to Campbell, JFK had it wrong when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Campbell says instead, “Man should not be in the service of society, society should be in the service of man. When man is in the service of society you have a monster state, and that’s what is threatening the world at this minute.” (8) Here is the great frustration of so many people. We know that we should have roles and position and worth and value. We are taught from day one, at least here in America, that we have freedom to control our own destiny, we have a voice and our voice matters, and yet when we begin to speak we are slammed against the walls of beauracracy and paraded before a justice system that is not only blind but deaf. It is not the individual that matters, but the system, and all too often we find that the only way we can be heard is by acts of terrorism, and so gradually this will and has become the new rite of passage for modern man. I don’t believe that most people, given the choice, would choose to harm innocent people. However, if forced to choose between harming the innocents or living with a life of frustration and meaninglessness, there will be many who will choose the former. If society doesn’t provide the means for people to have rituals that demonstrate their individual power and worth, then we will see many more Oklahoma City incidents before we’re through. Moyers asks the question of where kids today get their myths. Campbell’s answer was to say that they make them up themselves, but I say more pointedly that we see it through the music and other entertainment forms. Violence and sex become the anthems and unless we can channel that energy into ritual, it will become the end rather than the means of life. So it is myths that give us the nature of life, the nature of ourselves and the nature of society. Chapter 2 – The Journey Inward This chapter deals with transformations of self. Campbell talks about the archetypal images of the eagle and the snake battling representing the struggle between earth and air, heaviness and lightness or on a wider plane the battle of opposites like light and dark. There is a quote that starts the chapter that I have much to comment on. Campbell states that “One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.” (37) This concept was brought home to me recently. I was asked to lead a Seder meal for Passover. This is the great storytelling time for Jews all over the world. Like Campbell, our Rabbis have told us that it is only by retelling the story throughout every generation can we hope to keep our people together. This year the Dalai Lama also heard this story in New York. He has also been trying to find a way to keep his exiled people together and he has perceived an ally among the Jews who lived successfully for almost 3000 years in exile. At any rate, as I was preparing to lead the Seder it dawned on me that the greatest message contained in the story is not that some remote people had managed to free themselves from tyranny, but rather it was a formula for how each one of us can free ourselves from our individual tyranny. I looked at the ten plagues, not as something that happened to an incredibly stubborn ruler, but as a process that we each go through as we move from whatever it is that enslaves us to being set free. The important element to note, which corresponds to Campbell’s quote, is that the plague of darkness is the last plague prior to the slaying of the first born at which point we are set free. Another words once we’ve gone through the darkness we are then able to slay that which claims our attention, just as a first born child lays claim to our possessions. Remember that Pharaoh himself was firstborn. So it is the darkness that becomes the prelude to salvation in this story. I may attach my segment of the Seder dealing with the Plagues for your amusement later. Campbell later goes on to talk about the concept of opposites. He says that myths require us to think in opposites, but he really doesn’t explain why very effectively. Buber and Cabala also dealt with this concept. The ultimate truth has to do with paradoxes in that at some point the opposites must come back together; male and female, good and evil, light and darkness, love and hate. In regards to knowledge there is also a paradox which is expressed by Campbell quoting from the Tao-te Ching “He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows that he doesn’t know, knows. For in this context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know.” We spend most of our lives in this information age trying to know things. Perhaps we should learn that it is far more important to spend most of our lives trying to live. Chapter 3 The First Storytellers I think the key to this chapter is wrapped up in Campbell’s statement “No, guilt is wiped out by the myth . Killing the animal is not a personal act. You are performing the work of nature.” (74) The purpose of telling and hearing the stories is to help us deal with our animal natures. We all have them, but too often society becomes a system of “Thou Shalt Nots.” We have these feelings of lust and hungers that society says we should stifle, and if we can’t, we must repent by being tormented by guilt. The stories tell us that we are a part of nature and that we have a duty to nature. With guilt comes frustration. With frustration comes anger. With anger comes violence that is uncontrolled and non-productive. Welcome to our nightmare. When we are cut off from the stories we no longer see the Buffalo as our brother, supplying our needs, but the thing supplying our greeds. There is a great reference to Buber (not credited) in this chapter when Campbell says : “The Indians addressed all of life as a ‘thou’ – the trees, the stones, everything. You can address anything as a ‘thou,’ and if you do it, you can feel the change in your own psychology. The ego that sees a ‘thou’ is not the same ego that sees an ‘it.’ And when you go to war with people, the problem of the newspapers is to turn those people into ‘its.’” (78) I have to draw another analogy between Campbell in this chapter and Cabala. Campbell speculates that women do not have to go through the initiation ceremonies because she is initiated by nature herself speaking of menstruation, “A woman is a vehicle for life. Life has overtaken her.” (83) Cabala also addresses the issue of why women are excluded from many of the rituals that men are compelled by Law to do, and one of the reasons that is given is that during the Exodus before the commandments were given, it was the men who lacked faith and commitment not the women. They were therefore released from many of the obligations that the Law required of men. In a way I see this as saying the same kind of thing. A woman is able to make her transformations far more naturally then men. Campbell says, “Woman is what its all about – the giving of birth and the giving of nourishment. She is identical with the earth goddess in her powers….” (83) I can’t remember if I gave you this in another paper or not. If I did, consider it the ramblings of senility, but this would be an excellent place to include a Midrash or story that I wrote last year. It was written in response to the idea that women have been so mistreated by mankind, and when you take into account the sufferings that they endure from menstruation which would seem to come from nature or God or?, it just seemed completely unfair. So I wrote a story to help give some meaning: EVE 1 Shortly after the Garden was removed from Adam and Eve a son was born to Eve. This was a blessed event that brought great joy to all. The presence of God was strong at the time of the circumcision and naming and God also was full of joy upon this occasion and offered to Eve a gift of her choosing. Eve looked upon Cain and thought about his future and she decided to ask God to show her the future of Cain and all her descendants. This God did. Eve saw the good and the evil and the patience of God through it all. Eve saw the first destruction which brought great sadness, but she took heart at the hope brought to the world through Noah and his children. She saw the greatness of Abraham and Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob. She saw the beauty of Joseph and the love of Moses for his people Israel, a love that on more than one occasion saved them from God’s wrath. She heard the beautiful voice of David and the wisdom of Solomon, and saw the magnificence of the Temple, and she felt great joy that once again God would dwell among her children. But all of a sudden a great terror seized her, and she could see no more. She cried out to God to explain this abysmal dread that racked her body with an unnamable fear. And God explained that all hope and joy for man rested in the people Israel, but that at last their sin was too great and when the temple, God’s dwelling place was destroyed because of the sin, God was removed from the world and along with God, hope, and soon after all mankind died away and was no more. At this Eve flung herself before God and wept as she had never wept before and not only Eve, but a cry rose up from all the unborn mothers within her, and there was a sound heard throughout the universe, and the pain of that sound moved even God to tears, and God took counsel with Eve as to how she and all the mothers inside of her could save their children, and this is what was decided. Eve asked that her body would be in place of the temple and that she would endure the pain of the sacrifice of atonement for all her life, and not only this pain, but that she would be despised and rejected of men who would not know the great sacrifice that was taking place for their sakes, and all the mothers inside of her asked the same thing for themselves. And God was moved and agreed not to destroy the world for the sins of Israel because of the great sacrifice made by Eve and all the unborn mothers, but God’s compassion also lightened their burden somewhat and decreed that they would only have to bear this burden through the years of their child bearing and then they would be released from it. So for the sake of Eve and all women, the world has been spared until the time of the Messiah once again brings God to dwell among us. So it is that storytellers help us to make sense of the paradoxes that surround us. Chapter 4 Sacrifice And Bliss Here again is the paradox. He who loses his life shall gain it. This is the combining, according to Campbell, of two basic mythologies – animal and vegetable. The story of Persephone, of Jesus, of the Eleusian mysteries. This is the story of death and resurrection. We must be able to move beyond the knowledge that death and life are separate and opposite forces to the paradox that they are one. Campbell relates the comparison of the Cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden to the two guardians of every Buddhist shrine. They represent fear and desire. Once again opposites, and in order to enter the sacred place we must resolve those opposites. Campbell brings this interpretation to Dante’s Divine Comedy where Virgil conducts Dante through the “labyrinth of hell, which is the place of those fixed to their desires and fears, who can’t pass through to eternity.” (115) It seems to me that the key here is that they are not restrained from eternity by any force other then themselves. The secret of understanding myth might be just this, that the labyrinth which blocks our way is at the same time the entrance to eternal life. So the idea of following your bliss is to recognize that you are your own worst enemy. We should not condemn ourselves. There is no reason to do so. This is the same as a meditation given by a Cabala teacher that we should recognize that we are exactly the person we are supposed to be to accomplish what we are supposed to accomplish. We spend so much time and effort buying self-help tapes to try and become someone else. If we put that money and energy into learning to simply accept who we are we would be much better off. That’s not to say that we cannot learn from others, that after all is the purpose of myth, but we don’t learn to try and change who we are, but rather to accept ourselves. Campbell sums up the chapter and the idea by saying, “Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” (121) Chapter 5 The Hero’s Adventure This chapter is, I think, the heart of Campbell’s message. We must each see ourselves as the Hero, and our life as The Quest. This is what mythology and storytelling offer us. There is a Luke Skywalker within each of us, as well as a Darth Vader. There seems to be no room or time in our lives for adventure and so more and more we reconcile ourselves to “lead lives of quiet desperation.” Campbell sees each of our lives beginning with a great adventure – that of birth. It is in that instance that we overcome incredible odds by emerging from our watery cave into a world of giants, of lights, of noise, of air. And when we’re not certain we can go on, the mother-goddess holds us close and nourishes us and gives us the strength to continue. As children we instinctively continue the adventure, but somehow we’ve been wrongly taught that the mark of manhood is putting aside our childish imaginings and assuming the responsibility of a soulless world. Campbell defines the problem as : “Something that’s characteristic of our sedentary lives is that there is or may be intellectual excitement, but the body is not in it very much….This is exactly T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land that you are describing, a sociological stagnation of inauthentic lives and living that has settled upon us, and that evokes nothing of our spiritual life, our potentialities, or even our physical courage – until, of course, it gets us into one of its inhuman wars.” (131) Campbell defends technology’s role in all of this, but I must disagree referring back to Mander’s arguments against television. Technology, especially entertainment technology, tends to be a solitary, sedentary event. By its nature it forces us to be passive observers. This was not the case for the philosopher-generals of the Greeks who understood that both the body and the mind had to be challenged. This was also not the intent of the Rabbi-Storytellers of the middle ages. These are what Campbell refers to as the secondary heroes. “There is a kind of secondary hero to revitalize the tradition. This hero reinterprets the tradition and makes it valid as a living experience today instead of a lot of outdated clichés.” (141) Such a hero was the Baal Shem Tov who, like many such heros, not only called the people to revitalize the traditions, but to view them as a unity with nature. The story is told of the Besht (acronym for Baal Shem Tov) that he refused to spend his time in classrooms choosing instead to go out into the woods and learn from nature. It is this unification with all around us that enables us to see one another as well as that which surrounds us as “thou” rather than “it.” Part of the process of getting in touch with nature is getting in touch with yourself. This is done, according to Campbell by following the hints of the myth as well as following the guidance of a Guru or teacher. I like Campbell’s definition of a good teacher. “A good teacher is there to watch the young person and recognize what the possibilities are – then to give advice, not commands.” (141) It is much easier in the classrooms of today to simply provide a set of rules and command that they be followed exactly. This is one size fits all instruction and produces either automatons or rebels, and both extremes share one thing in common. They are both out of touch with who they really are. Myths and guidance provide the keys to discover who we are as individuals and what our true role is to the society. “Myths inspire the realization of the possibility of your perfection, the fullness of your strength, and bringing the solar light into the world.” (148) Once again Campbell follows this by saying that we must follow our bliss. The conclusion that I would draw from this is that the ability to pursue that which makes us happy is predicated on our ability to be in touch with who we are. We must realize that we are each the hero in the myth of our life. I think too often we try to emulate those who we see as heroes without ever being able to accept that we are the hero. Campbell explains that heroes show us the way to truth not the truth itself. That only we can discover as we must come to understand that there is no such thing as an ordinary mortal we are all capable of achieving our highest potential. I believe that whatever the greatest among us have ever done, we are each capable of doing. Chapter 6 The Gift Of The Goddess Campbell has already touched on this subject, but he now explores it in a little more detail, although, I find it interesting that this is the shortest chapter in the book. The material did not provide me with any new insights. The basics are that all religions, no matter how much they try to repress it, reveal the necessity for the dual imaging of God as male and female. The human body is itself proof of the duality of all things, as Campbell points out, “I don’t know anything about the actual dating of all this, but sometime in the fetal period it become apparent that this child is going to become male, and that this one is going to be female. Meanwhile, it’s a body with the potentialities for either inflection. I just had an interesting “revelation.” I’m going to record it here, but recognize I haven’t really spent much time analyzing it. Our sexual desires may have a great deal to do with our need to recombine ourselves with that part of our being that is missing. Under normal circumstances, a man is in need of a woman and vice versa, but what if, in growing up, a person is subjected to an overwhelming amount of attention from one parent ass opposed to the other, either through physical or sexual abuse or absence. Might it not stand to reason that that person would then seek the union with the parent who did not provide the same intense level of attention. In other words a woman might seek the sexual attention of other women because for one reason or another the mother was not as emotionally and physically a part of the child’s life growing up. I’m sure there may be cases that will prove exceptions to this, but it might be an interesting area to explore. I have several friends who are gay, including my sister, and in all of their cases I can prove my theory. Let me know what you think. OK, back to the chapter at hand. Actually, that’s about it for this chapter. The bottom line is that it is vital for us to connect with both natures – male and female. Chapter 7 Tales Of Love And Marriage There are some very good points in this chapter. Campbell begins by explaining what he feels was the birth of personal love as opposed to societal love as a primary goal or desire. This happened with the rise of the Troubadours in the Middle Ages. Campbell ties this in with his concept of the importance of following your own bliss for the love of the troubadours was one that persisted in spite of all that was against them. Campbell would apply this kind of determination to whatever we choose as our bliss. “Any life career that you choose in following your bliss should be chosen with that sense – that nobody can frighten me off from this thing. And no matter what happens, this is the validation of my life and action.” I may be missing the point a bit here, because what I think he’s saying is the same thing as that much hated bumper sticker used to say – if it feels good, do it. I believe there has to be a balance, and I think Campbell would agree, but I’m not sure. The balance is that society, in the sense of relationships, of thous, is also very important. It isn’t just about individualism or even couplism. Perhaps Campbell is softening the idea that whatever you want or do is good by bringing up a great point which he attributes to Shaw and Dante, and that is that, “The punishment in hell is that you have for eternity that which you thought you wanted on earth.” Maybe that would be a good question to ask ourselves whenever we crave something. If I had to experience this every single moment of time without end, would it really make me happy? Campbell repeats again the antithesis of the JFK statement of ask not, and I would again agree but with some reservations. I also liked his definition of compassion – with suffering or suffering with. Compassion is not feeling sorry for someone or even necessarily trying to help someone, but truly feeling what they are feeling. In order for us to be compassionate, we must feel the pain of another. There are many times when I have wished for someone who could stand by me, not offering advice or encouragement, but just to feel my pain with me. What a great price to pay for such friendship. One of the final images Campbell leaves us with in this chapter is the Persian and Muslim idea that Satan was and is God’s greatest lover, and that it was that great love that drove Satan to hate man who he saw as a rival for God’s love. Therefore for Satan, hell means separation from his love and great torment therein. I remember an incident in childhood, you have to know that I was just as weird as a child as I am as an adult, when I was outside one night, and I was thinking about Satan. I wanted to imagine myself as leading God’s army to finally defeat and destroy him, and all of a sudden I got this incredible thought. What if that was the problem with all of man’s plans to eliminate evil. The problem was that we approached him with hate. We saw Satan as the enemy. But what if all he wanted was to be truly loved. I thought to myself, Satan, if you come to me right now, I will love you. At that instance I felt this tremendous chill, and I felt great fear and I did a very childlike thing, I ran back in the house and hid and didn’t want any part of what I had asked to happen. I often wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t run. Chapter 8 Masks Of Eternity In summation, Campbell tells us that we must have a profound sense of the mysterious. Myths do that for us. And the ultimate mystical goal is “to be united with one’s god.” (210) By doing so we transcend all dualities and merge with the mystical beyond the forms that we perceive as life. Cabala teaches us that we are each co-creators with God. The goal is not to inherit the earth, but to see the entire universe, seen and unseen, as our dwelling. We do not need a “church militant” that satisfies its lusts in the realms of the physical all the while claiming to stand for something transcendent. Campbell points out that the kingdom of God is here now, but we fail to see it. In the final analysis we can not approach who we are and who God is through rational means. Knowledge, like time, is not linear. I used to believe, because I read it somewhere, that we are past the time when it is possible to have a Renaissance Man. That is a lie, as big a lie as the belief that knowledge has progressed so far thaqt it is impossible to contain it all. This “information age” is a hoax. We are not overwhelmed with information, but with moastly useless facts. It is an economic hoax perpetrated in order to sell us bigger and faster computers and TV’s and modes of transportation in order to get us to all this “valuable” information faster. There is nothing new under the sun. All that a man like Leonardo Da Vinci knew would serve us as well today as it did him in the middle ages. We are so caught up in the world of facts that we forget the more important world of our spirits. I’ll give Campbell the last word in all this: “but this is it, this is Eden. When you see the kingdom spread upon the earth, the old way of living in the world is annihilated. That is the end of the world. The end of the world is not an event to come, it is an event of psychological transformation, of visionary transformation. You see not the world of solid things but a world of radiance.” (230) ADDENDUM: EXPLANATION OF TEN PLAGUES Ten Plagues From Slavery To Freedom Blood and Water – The lifeblood of Egypt – Livelihood That which makes us dependent. There has to be a shakeup in our complacency Frogs -- Also translates nonsense Often after we go through a change, we look back and can’t believe how foolish we were. We must examine our lives now for those things that may be foolishness. Those things we cling to that really have no truly important value in the long run Lice -- First plague magicians could not duplicate came from the dust of the earth. The transition begins with small things. Often when we try to do too much too fast it ends in failure. We should not try to duplicate or copy what works for another, but find our own way. Similarly, we should not judge others because they fail to do things our way, because they are not improving at the same rate we are. Beasts – This was Pharaoh’s first surrender point We must never become complacent. No matter how secure we may feel about our decision to begin the road to freedom, we should not be surprised when it all falls apart. Never give up on yourself or on others. We usually make the initial change because of physical reasons or discomforts in our life. The real reason for change should be to come out from the darkness into the light as we shall look at later. Pestilence – This represents a loss of possessions. (Tell story of Chafetz Chaim? A visitor questioning lack of furnishings, asked where are yours guest so am I) Boils -- Attack on self esteem Magicians could no longer face Moses. We too must learn to accept who we are and not fear that we are somehow unworthy to stand before Ha Shem. We must also learn not to judge others. Ther e are many stories of angels or tsadikim appearing to be ugly brutish humans. Hail and Thunder -- Fire and noise Attack on complacency. At some point we must act on our beliefs. Locusts – We must be prepared for the fact that when we do act, the devourers will be close at hand. It is at this time that we must closely depend on the family around us. We each have a responsibility to help those under such attack. Darkness – It is always darkest just before the dawn. This is the final attack before freedom is certain. There is a feeling of hopelessness and overwhelming despair. Now is the time to rejoice. Judaism is not about straight lines but about paradoxes. The sooner we come to see that, the easier it will be to remain free. Slaying Of Firstborn – This enables us to be free. When that part of ourselves that has always had its way, always controlled and manipulated just as a favorite child might do, no matter how unintentionally the motives. When this one who sets himself to be first above all is finally slain, then will we be elevated. Such is the paradox. True freedom is not omnipotence but subjection of one to another and all to Ha Shem. |