The Power of Myth

The theory of archetypes comes from Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, and it describes the primal set of images and themes that all humans share in the unconscious mind. To Campbell, common motifs and structures in world myths point to this shared set of images hidden in the human psyche. Archetypes can be images, like the snake or the circle, or narrative structures such as the vision quest or father quest.

Buddhism is a religion from India that follows the teachings of the Gautama Buddha, a figure who achieved a release from the cycle of suffering in the world. Buddhism focuses on transforming human consciousness by looking inward and recognizing that suffering is a core aspect of life. Campbell defines it as a psychological religion. A Buddhist practitioner seeks to rid themself of attachment to the ego and desire for earthly pleasures, bringing them closer to enlightenment and the recognition of non-duality.

Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, a savior figure who sacrificed his earthly life out of compassion for the sufferings of humanity. Christianity employs an anthropomorphized image of God as the supreme father and source of all creation. Campbell sees Christianity as the dominant mythology in the West, though he notes that it has somewhat lost its power in the modern era.

Campbell defines consciousness as the invisible energy that animates life, sometimes referred to as the “spirit” or “soul.” Scientifically, consciousness is the awareness of the world and the self in the individual body. Campbell argues that human consciousness comes into the world from a unified energy, the transcendent, that is hidden behind the temporal world of opposites that we are aware of on earth. Humans can transform their conscious awareness by reading and contemplating mythic stories and symbols, meditating on the abstract concepts they represent.

Dreamtime is Campbell’s term for the place, beyond the temporal world, where time and opposites do not exist because everything is unified. In mythology, returning to dreamtime is the ultimate desire of humanity because in this place release one is released from suffering. Symbolic representations of dreamtime in myth, like the Garden of Eden, suggest there is an eternal consciousness that exists before entrance into the physical world.

The hero’s journey is a common narrative structure in world mythology, also called the “monomyth” by Campbell. The hero figure—usually male—embarks on a journey filled with trials, performs a heroic deed of sacrifice, and returns with something for his community. The journey symbolizes the hero’s mental transformation and reflects the transformation all humans must make from childhood to adulthood.

Hinduism is a religion from India—sometimes called the oldest living religion in the world—which has a wide diversity of beliefs, traditions, and rituals. Hinduism’s divine figures are both male and female, and Campbell often refers to the Upanishads as a source of many Hindu stories. Because of Hinduism’s long history, Campbell uses many Hindu stories to compare with world myths from other eras that contain teachings about creation, connective life energy, and the cycles of human life.

Initiation rites are primarily male rituals that transform a young person from a boy into a man. These rites involve a permanent psychological and physical transformation that boys undergo when they reach a certain age. Initiation rituals for girls are less common because womanhood is thrust upon them at the time of their first menstruation, and so they do not need to mark their transformation through external rituals.

Religions are systems of belief and rituals that stem from a body of mythological stories, usually centering on the story of a savior figure and anthropomorphized figures of God. Campbell argues that religions turn mythology into theology and doctrine, which are moral and social laws, codes, and creeds that believers must follow. Because bodies of myth are often contradictory, religions attempt to reconcile their main myths and symbols.

Rituals are systematized spiritual practices that can range from hunting initiations to saying grace before a meal to marriage ceremonies. Campbell defines ritual as a way for humans to participate in and enact myth. Rituals help individuals understand their place within society and the cosmic order.

Sacrifice occurs when the individual lets go of the ego and self-preservation instinct to help others in their community. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer notes that selfish instincts can disappear based on the spontaneous recognition of the self in the other. In ritual sacrifice, the person willingly gives up their physical body for the future prosperity of their community. Campbell notes that mythic stories of sacrifice involve celebration because of the belief that death brings new life.

The transcendent is Campbell’s term for the invisible plane of reality that looms behind the physical world, from whence waking awareness comes. The transcendent involves non-duality, where delineations of male/female, good/evil, life/death disappear into a larger unity. The transcendent is the concept that the word “God” points toward but can never fully describe. Campbell argues that the similarities among world mythologies suggest a shared human origin before birth into the physical world.

The unconscious is the hidden aspect of the human consciousness that houses the primal, archetypal images and motifs that manifest in mythology and dreams. Unconscious wisdom is the wisdom of the transcendent. The true center of life energy, Campbell suggests, is within this unconscious realm, and humans can unlock unconscious knowledge and memories through meditation, dream interpretation, and spiritual ecstasy.