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The Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance
Many know Joseph Campbell as the charming, erudite, best-professor-you-ever-had figure chatting with Bill Moyers in the The Power of Myth series. But Campbell's posthumously published Collected Works (500,000 copies sold) reveal a perhaps unsuspected range of interests and knowledge. The Ecstasy of Being is a prime example. Modern dance was the profession of Campbell's wife, Jean Erdman, and the project the pair collaborated on when Campbell retired from teaching and the couple formed their Theater of the Open Eye. In these writings Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the 20th century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan; and, as ever, probes the idea of art -as the funnel through which spirit is poured into life.-
245 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2018
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About the author
Joseph Campbell
427 books6,243 followersJoseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles.
Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
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December 29, 2020What a delight it is to explore Joseph Campbell's thoughts on myth & dance.
The first part of the book consists of lectures & articles about dance from 1944-78, and these are gems. Campbell explores the symbolism as well as elementary connections of dance, and for someone like me who loves to dance as well as the art of dancing, these are unlooked for insights that I will continually cherish.
The second part of the book (Mythology & Form in the Performing & Visual Arts) is one of the last manuscripts that Campbell was working on. And as he chronicles the entrance of myth into modern dance, there are many lighting rods readers can enjoy.
Here a few favorites:
The archetypal figures of myth undercut the rational interests of our conscious life, and touch directly the vital centers of the unconscious. The artist who knew how to manipulate these archetypes would be able to conjure with the energies of the soul. For the symbols are as potent as they ever were. The artist who really knew their secrets might still play magician -- the priest of the potent sign -- working marvels purging the community of its pestilential devils and bringing purity and peace.
The void, which in the beginning emitted the world, is continually, now and forever, creative of the forms we behold. The void, that is to say, is our own interior, the perpetual source.
The function of this art, that is to say, in throwing its own veil of rhythm and movement over the forms of this physical world, is to reveal through them an internal, eternal distance. However, in order to render the revelation of this distance, the artist himself must be standing somehow where Siva stands: in the middle between right and left, between the beat of time and the flame.
The first part of the book consists of lectures & articles about dance from 1944-78, and these are gems. Campbell explores the symbolism as well as elementary connections of dance, and for someone like me who loves to dance as well as the art of dancing, these are unlooked for insights that I will continually cherish.
The second part of the book (Mythology & Form in the Performing & Visual Arts) is one of the last manuscripts that Campbell was working on. And as he chronicles the entrance of myth into modern dance, there are many lighting rods readers can enjoy.
Here a few favorites:
The archetypal figures of myth undercut the rational interests of our conscious life, and touch directly the vital centers of the unconscious. The artist who knew how to manipulate these archetypes would be able to conjure with the energies of the soul. For the symbols are as potent as they ever were. The artist who really knew their secrets might still play magician -- the priest of the potent sign -- working marvels purging the community of its pestilential devils and bringing purity and peace.
The void, which in the beginning emitted the world, is continually, now and forever, creative of the forms we behold. The void, that is to say, is our own interior, the perpetual source.
The function of this art, that is to say, in throwing its own veil of rhythm and movement over the forms of this physical world, is to reveal through them an internal, eternal distance. However, in order to render the revelation of this distance, the artist himself must be standing somehow where Siva stands: in the middle between right and left, between the beat of time and the flame.
October 30, 2017
Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he died.
Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces.
The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell’s previously uncollected articles on dance, along with “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time.
In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as “the funnel through which spirit is poured into life.” This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell’s lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.
Praise for Joseph Campbell:
“No one in our century — not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Lévi-Strauss — has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness.”
— James Hillman
“Campbell has become the rarest of intellectuals in American life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”
— Newsweek
Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces.
The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell’s previously uncollected articles on dance, along with “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time.
In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as “the funnel through which spirit is poured into life.” This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell’s lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.
Praise for Joseph Campbell:
“No one in our century — not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Lévi-Strauss — has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness.”
— James Hillman
“Campbell has become the rarest of intellectuals in American life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”
— Newsweek
February 7, 2018
Joseph Campbell has always been my mythological "Yoda," so I was thrilled when I heard the Joseph Campbell Foundation was releasing some of his collected works on dance. I was surprised to discover that he and his wife Jean Erdman, a student of Martha Graham and a great dancer in her own right, had developed their own theatrical company. The forward by one of their students was a revelation. Campbell did not disappoint. I was especially moved by his analysis of Shiva as Nataraja. Beautiful, beautiful book.
October 25, 2024
No suelo escribir reseñas, me parece un despropósito, así que seguiré sin hacerlo.
Jjjja, however, este libro tiene 5 estrellas por mi experiencia de lectura, por todo lo que me detonó, porque Campbell era un absoluto crack y porque la danza y el mito tienen una explosión de coincidencia (tal vez como el mito y el arte en general).
Jjjja, however, este libro tiene 5 estrellas por mi experiencia de lectura, por todo lo que me detonó, porque Campbell era un absoluto crack y porque la danza y el mito tienen una explosión de coincidencia (tal vez como el mito y el arte en general).
March 3, 2018
While I have always enjoyed every Joseph Campbell piece I've ever read, I wasn't sure about dance as a central concept. But, in usual Campbell-ian style, it works and works well. His connections to the founders of modern dance (not just in the US, but multiple countries beyond European ones) through his wife and other New York artists give it a personal touch, but still well-researched and interconnected as is his way. While I am not a lover of dance analysis now because of reading this, I do have more of an appreciation for the art.
May 14, 2018
Two of my favorite writers, Joseph Campbell and J.R.R. Tolkien, have much in common. Each was born around the turn of the Twentieth Century. Both have a great “cult” following. And they explored the great and enduring themes of mythology, the former in his books, essays, and lectures and the latter in his imagined fantasy world.
Not just that. Their estates have seen to the publication of many of their works after their deaths. This book is the latest release from Mr. Campbell and is primarily of interest to his fans. It is in two parts; the first, a series of articles and lectures on mythology, the second, a previously unpublished book, “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts.”
I enjoyed the articles and essays and save for the nuggets of mythological insight in the second part, found myself struggling to follow. Perhaps, it’s just the nature of the material, that he is talking about dance while we cannot see the dances he is describing. As he wrote, “One must have been there at the moment of the passing life and witnessed with a following eye that gesture of grace of the wonder informing all things.”
We couldn’t be there to witness the gestures of grace is the dances he describes.
Still, in the essays—and even in the second part—we do get insights into his view on great art, “of a timeless natural wisdom metaphorically rendered through the imagery of myth and legend.”
Great art conceals—and helps reveal—the essence of what it means to be human and the mysteries associated with our condition: “One never sees an elementary idea unclothed, as it were, right out in front of one’s eyes. It always appears in the costume of some specific time, place, and mentality.”
Alas that we cannot, in this book, see the specific dances that so moved the great mythologist.
Not just that. Their estates have seen to the publication of many of their works after their deaths. This book is the latest release from Mr. Campbell and is primarily of interest to his fans. It is in two parts; the first, a series of articles and lectures on mythology, the second, a previously unpublished book, “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts.”
I enjoyed the articles and essays and save for the nuggets of mythological insight in the second part, found myself struggling to follow. Perhaps, it’s just the nature of the material, that he is talking about dance while we cannot see the dances he is describing. As he wrote, “One must have been there at the moment of the passing life and witnessed with a following eye that gesture of grace of the wonder informing all things.”
We couldn’t be there to witness the gestures of grace is the dances he describes.
Still, in the essays—and even in the second part—we do get insights into his view on great art, “of a timeless natural wisdom metaphorically rendered through the imagery of myth and legend.”
Great art conceals—and helps reveal—the essence of what it means to be human and the mysteries associated with our condition: “One never sees an elementary idea unclothed, as it were, right out in front of one’s eyes. It always appears in the costume of some specific time, place, and mentality.”
Alas that we cannot, in this book, see the specific dances that so moved the great mythologist.
July 1, 2022
The Ecstasy of Being covers Mythology as it relates to dance. There are several essays in the book. Campbell never finished this book, so it is disjointed and doesn’t flow well.
I bought this book several years ago based solely on Campbell's name. I read The Hero With A Thousand Faces, you see, and I thought it was well done.
The insights presented within are fascinating, but it lacks polish, as I said. The book says as much, though. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
I bought this book several years ago based solely on Campbell's name. I read The Hero With A Thousand Faces, you see, and I thought it was well done.
The insights presented within are fascinating, but it lacks polish, as I said. The book says as much, though. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
June 27, 2022
I much enjoyed the collection essays that were republished from his early years. Campbell’s unfinished piece from his later years on ‘being’ I found to be both intellectually challenging and breathtakingly beautiful. Reading this helped me to perceive a deeper connection between dance and the collective experience of humanity.
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February 28, 2020792.8 C1887 2017
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June 1, 2024Some of my thoughts on this book can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/maenadw...
September 8, 2024
Quizá el mayor mitólogo escribe con fuerza literaria: mitología y danza. Libro imprescindible.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews