Myths to Live By
Page 30
We live today—thank God!—in a secular state, governed by human beings (with all their inevitable faults) according to principles of law that are still developing and have originated not from Jerusalem but from Rome. The concept of the state, moreover, is yielding rapidly at this hour to the concept of the ecumene, i.e., the whole inhabited earth; and if nothing else unites us, the ecological crisis will. There is therefore neither any need any more, nor any possibility, for those locally binding, sociopolitically bounded, differing forms of religion “in its objective sense” which have held men separate in the past, giving to God the things that are Caesar’s and to Caesar the things that are God’s.
“God is an intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.” So we are told in a little twelfth-century book known as The Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers.19 Each of us—whoever and wherever he may be—is then the center, and within him, whether he knows it or not, is that Mind at Large, the laws of which are the laws not only of all minds but of all space as well. For, as I have already pointed out, we are the children of this beautiful planet that we have lately seen photographed from the moon. We were not delivered into it by some god, but have come forth from it. We are its eyes and mind, its seeing and its thinking. And the earth, together with its sun, this light around which it flies like a moth, came forth, we are told, from a nebula; and that nebula, in turn, from space. So that we are the mind, ultimately, of space. No wonder, then, if its laws and ours are the same! Likewise, our depths are the depths of space, whence all those gods sprang that men’s minds in the past projected onto animals and plants, onto hills and streams, the planets in their courses, and their own peculiar social observances.
Our mythology now, therefore, is to be of infinite space and its light, which is without as well as within. Like moths, we are caught in the spell of its allure, flying to it outward, to the moon and beyond, and flying to it, also, inward. On our planet itself all dividing horizons have been shattered. We can no longer hold our loves at home and project our aggressions elsewhere; for on this spaceship Earth there is no elsewhere any more. And no mythology that continues to speak or to teach of elsewheres and outsiders meets the requirement of this hour.
And so, to return to our opening question: What is—or what is to be—the new mythology?
It is—and will forever be, as long as our human race exists—the old, everlasting, perennial mythology, in its “subjective sense,” poetically renewed in terms neither of a remembered past nor of a projected future, but of now: addressed, that is to say, not to the flattery of “peoples,” but to the waking of individuals in the knowledge of themselves, not simply as egos fighting for place on the surface of this beautiful planet, but equally as centers of Mind at Large—each in his own way at one with all, and with no horizons.
Fig. 12.5 — Earthrise
Acknowledgments
The Clarendon Press:
From The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith, 1963.
Harcourt Brace Jovanavich, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.:
From “Burnt Norton” by T. S. Eliot.
Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., and Chatto and Windus Ltd.:
From pp. 22–24 in The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. Copyright 1954 by Aldous Huxley. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.
The Macmillan Company, The Macmillan Company of Canada, and Mr. M. B. Yeats:
From “The Second Coming” from Collected Poems by William Butler Yeats. Copyright 1924 by The Macmillan Company, renewed 1932 by Bertha Georgie Yeats.
Penguin Books Ltd.:
From The Politics of Experience, R. D. Laing. Copyright © 1967 R. D. Laing.
Random House, Inc.: From Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Copyright 1924 and renewed 1952 by Robinson Jeffers.
University of Chicago Press: From “Fable of the Four Treasure-Seekers” from Panchatantra, translated by Arthur W. Ryder. Copyright 1923 by the University of Chicago.
I wish to thank Dr. Stanislav Grof for permission to adumbrate in my last chapter some of his findings, soon to be published in a work entitled Agony and Ecstasy in Psychiatric Treatment (Science and Behavior Books). [This manuscript was never published in the form in which Grof shared it with Campbell; however, Grof did incorporate it into his later works. Cf. "Envoy - No More Horizons," note 12.]
The editors would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the following, who helped to make this new edition possible:
Beta team: James Baquet, Yuria Ceridwen, David Eppstein, Brian Geremia, Carl Golembeski, Cohen Liotta, Marcus Rendon, Bob Wagner, Kelly Wyatt,and Louis Ziegler
The JCF Working Associates: David Fox, Stephen Gerringer, Carol Gunby, Jasmine Kazarian, Michael Lambert, Mark Oppenneer, Phil Robinson, Mary Shapiro, Clare Ultimo, and Martin Weyers
The JCF Board: Roger Epstein, Katherine Komaroff Goodman, Edward Horton, David Miller, and Elise Collins Shields
The associates of the JCF—on our website, on our Facebook page, and in our local Mythological RoundTable® groups around the world: you are the sphere whose circumference is infinite and whose center is everywhere
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This edition was created by David Kudler, using Apple Pages® 4.04 and Sigil 3.4.
Editor's Note
We hope that you have enjoyed the first of what we know will be many electronic editions of Joseph Campbell's written work.
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This Collected Works of Joseph Campbell electronic edition was published in March, 2011. It contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition. Illustrations and illustration source notes have been added. Some spelling and stylistic changes have been made to bring the edition into accord with the style of the Collected Works series. In addition, some endnotes have been added to make references clearer, or to refer the reader to Campbell’s deeper discussion of an issue in other works. Where new notes are commentary, rather than purely referential, they are set in brackets as follows: [...]
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March 11, 2011
Endnotes
I - The Impact of Science on Myth
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture (L45) by the same title. As Campbell stated in the preface, all of the chapters at in this book were drawn from lectures delivered at the Cooper Union. The year below the chapter title indicates the year in which the lecture was given. The archive number (i.e., L45) refers to the catalog of items in the Joseph Campbell Archive and Library, hous
ed at the OPUS Archives and Research Center.
[Back to Nt. 2] [This exchange is likely with Indian author Yashoda Mehta. Cf. Joseph Campbell, Baksheesh & Brahman: Asian Journals—India, edited by Robin and Stephen Larsen and Antony Van Couvering (Novato, California: New World Library, 2003), p. 197.]
II - The Emergence of Mankind
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture (L163) by the same title.
[Back to Nt. 2] [This was the consensus at the time of Campbell's writing (1972). The date range for Homo habilis is currently thought to have been from 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, and scientists have unearthed numerous earlier homonid fossils. As Campbell recognized, science is a relentlessly self-correcting mythos. It reshapes our understanding of the world even as it reshapes itself to fit new information. This change in data is an example. The device upon which you are reading this book is another. Cf. Joseph Campbell's subsequent revisiting and revisioning of science's understanding of human prehistory in The Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume I — The Way of the Animal Powers (New York: Alfred van der Marck, 1985; Harper and Row, 1988). ]
[Back to Nt. 3] Thomas Gospel, 1.113; translation by Guillaumont, Puech, Quispel, Till, and abd al Masih, The Gospel According to Thomas: Coptic Text Established and Translated (New York: Harper & Row, 1959).
[Back to Nt. 4] Carl Etter, Ainu Folklore: Traditions and Culture of the Vanishing Aborigines of Japan (Chicago: Wilcox and Follett, 1949), pp. 56-57.
[Back to Nt. 5] George Bird Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916), pp. 104-112. Cf. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, Vol. I: Primitive Mythology (New York: The Viking Press, 1959), pp. 282-286.
[Back to Nt. 6] William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King and Company, 1876), pp. 77-79; cited in Campbell, Primitive Mythology, pp. 198-199.
III - The Importance of Rites
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture (L90) entitled "The Need and Importance of Rites." Recordings of two later lectures (L96 & L536) on a similar theme were combined and released as "The Necessity of Rites," pt. 4 of Man and Myth, volume 4 of The Joseph Campbell Audio Collection.
[Back to Nt. 2] [Following the New York premiere of The Skin of Our Teeth, Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson wrote a two-part article entitled “The Skin of Whose Teeth?” This article and a discussion of the ensuing controversy are included in Joseph Campbell, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce, edited by Edmund Epstein (Novato, California: New World Library, 2004).]
[Back to Nt. 3] Robinson Jeffers, Roan Stallion, Tamar, and Other Poems (New York: Horace Liveright, 1925), p. 232.
IV - The Separation of East and West
[Back to Nt. 1] From lectures (L43 & L44) entitled "Oriental Concepts of the Individual" and "Symbolism and the Individual."
[Back to Nt. 2] C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Collected Works, Vol. 12 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, second ed, 1968), p. 222.
[Back to Nt. 3] Śaṅkarācārya, Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 293, 296, 307.
[Back to Nt. 4] Mānava-Dharmaśāstra 5.147-151, 154 and 166.
[Back to Nt. 5] Grimnismol 23.
[Back to Nt. 6] Julius Oppert, "Die Daten der Genesis," Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Nachrichten, No. 10 (May 1877), pp. 201-223.
V - The Confrontation of East and West in Religion
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture (L321) by the same title.
[Back to Nt. 2] W. B. Yeats, A Vision (New York: The Macmillan Company; First Collier Books Edition, 1966), p. 300.
[Back to Nt. 3] The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956), pp. 184-185.
[Back to Nt. 4] Isaiah 49:22–23; 61:5–6; etc. Quotations from the Bible from the Revised Standard Version (RSV).
[Back to Nt. 5] Exodus 21:12–17, 20:13.
[Back to Nt. 6] [For more on Campbell's transformative trip to India and to East Asia, cf. Joseph Campbell, Baksheesh & Brahman: Asian Journals—India and Sake & Satori: Asian Journals—Japan (New World Library, 2002).]
[Back to Nt. 7] Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.9–16.
[Back to Nt. 8] Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.6–7.
[Back to Nt. 9] Daisetz T. Suzuki, "The Role of Nature in Zen Buddhism," in Olga Fröbe Kapteyn, ed., Eranos Jahrbuch 1953 (Zurich: Rhein-Verlag, 1954), p. 294.
[Back to Nt. 10] Ibid., p. 319.
[Back to Nt. 11] Ibid., pp. 298–299.
[Back to Nt. 12] Ibid., p. 303.
Nt. 13 Ibid.
[Back to Nt. 14] Cf. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Amendment No. 2 to Israel’s Law of Return," July 5, 1950.
Nt. 15] “We implore Thee, Lord, by the merit of all of Thy Saints...” From the traditional Latin Mass.
[Back to Nt. 16] Skanda Purāṇa, Vol. II, Viṣṇu Khaṇḍa, Kārttikamāsamāhātmya, Ch. 17; cf. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, Joseph Campbell, ed, Bollingen Series VI (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972), pp. 175ff.
[Back to Nt. 17] Bhagavad Gītā, Swami Nikhilananda, translator, (New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1944, 1986), 11.32.
[Back to Nt. 18] Śiva Purāṇa 2.4.19.41–48.
VI- The Inspiration of Oriental Art
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture entitled “Oriental Art” (L234).
[Back to Nt. 2] Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), The Serpent Power (Madras: Ganesh and Co, 1913, 1924, 1931, etc.), pp. 317-478.
[Back to Nt. 3] Sermons and Collations, xcvi; translation by C. de B. Evans, from Franz Pfeiffer, Meister Eckhart, Vol. I (London: John M. Watkins, 1924,1947), p. 240.
[Back to Nt. 4] William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in Geoffrey Keynes, Poetry and Prose of William Blake (New York: Random House, 1927), p. 197. Cf. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008), pp. 109, 228; and Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (Novato, California: New World Library, 2003) pp. 33–35.
[Back to Nt. 5] Joseph Needham, et al., Science and Civilization in China, 7 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1958–2004.
[Back to Nt. 6] Ananda K. Coomeraswamy, Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art (North Chelmford, Massachussets: Courier Dover Publications, 1956, 2011). P. 99.
Nt. 7 Hajime Nakamura, "The Vitality of Religion in Asia," in Cultural Freedom in Asia: Proceedings of a Conference Held at Rangoon, Burma, Feb. 17-20, 1955, Convened by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1956), p. 56.
[Back to Nt. 8] J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949, 2008), pp. 34-35.
[Back to Nt. 9] Campbell's translation of Seneca, Epistle 107, 11.
[Back to Nt. 10] Bhagavad Gītā 2:47, 5:5.
[Back to Nt. 11] From the Liao Chai Stories of P'u Sung-ling, translated by Rose Quong, in Chinese Ghost and Love Stories,(New York: Pantheon Books, 1946), pp. 305 ff.
VII - Zen
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture in 1969 entitled “Zen Buddhism” (L246).
[Back to Nt. 2] Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7.
[Back to Nt. 3] Kena Upaniṣad 1.3.
[Back to Nt. 4] T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton," from T. S. Eliot: Collected Poems, 1909-1962, Centenary Edition, (Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Company, 1991), p. 177.
[Back to Nt. 5 Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra, traditionally viewed as the Buddha's first teaching after achieving nirvāṇa.
[Back to Nt. 6] Saṃyutta Nikāya 12.65 (Nagara Sutta).
[Back to Nt. 7] "The Bride of Mero: A Legend of Kwannon Bosatsu," Cat's Yawn, volume 2, issue 1 (New York: First Zen Institute of America, 1947), p. 11. Cf. Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image (Princeton, New Jersey: Princenton University Press, 1974), pp. 327–328.
[Back to Nt. 8] Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, Ch. 1. Cf. Philip B. Yampolsky, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967, 1978), pp. 131–136.
[Back to Nt. 10] Cf. Avataṃsaka Sūtra 1.1.
[Back to Nt. 11] Adapted from Suzuki, op. cit., p. 72.
[Back to Nt. 12] Adapted from Romain Roland, The Life of Ramakrishna (Calcutta, India: Advaita Ashrama, 1929, 1994), p. 208.
VIII - The Mythology of Love
[Back to Nt. 1] From a lecture with the same title (L186). A later talk on a similar theme(L528) was released as “The Mythology of Love,” pt. 2 of The Western Quest, vol. 6 of The Joseph Campbell Audio Collection.
[Back to Nt. 2] Cf. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology (New York: Penguin, 1964), pp. 451–453.
[Back to Nt. 3] Artur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality, E. F. J Payne, translator (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 1995) p. 143.