The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The connection between dreams and mythology, Campbell begins, is undeniable. Whether myths emanate from dreams or dreams and myths are parallel processes of the human mind, the contemporary academic community largely agrees on the commonality of these two phenomena, imbuing ancient stories with fresh relevance. The characters that populate these stories stand in for “the unconscious desires, fears, and tensions that underlie the conscious patterns of human behavior” (256). The secrets of humanity lie inside these various stories throughout history and across the globe.

Although dreams and myths possess many similarities and derive from the same place in the mind, the dream is unconscious whereas the myth is made on purpose. That purpose is to instruct a society through metaphor. Shamans in tribal societies use these extensive systems of analogy effectively throughout long periods of time, creating stories on which lasting societal structures are built. The same principle applies to more expansive traditions such as the Greek and Roman myths, Christianity, and Buddhism.

All mythologies instruct people in the powerful, universal energy that animates life and matter. The universe is born of this energy and, at death, returns to the source of this energy.