Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

by Joseph Campbell

you may become scared that this eat-or-be-eaten horror is what you are.

The only way to affirm life is to affirm it to the root, to the rotten, horrendous base.

life is a monstrous thing, and if you’re going to live, you’ve got to live this way; which is to say, within the traditions of the tribe.

That’s the first function of mythology: not merely a reconciliation of consciousness to the preconditions of its own existence, but reconciliation with gratitude, with love, with recognition of the sweetness.

Through the bitterness and pain, the primary experience at the core of life is a sweet, wonderful thing. This affirmative view comes pouring in on on...

the Great Reversal.

Schopenhauer: “Life is something that should not have been.”

mythologies of retreat, dismissal, renunciation—life denial. Here we find the mythological orders of escape. And I mean real escape: getting out of the world.

Jainism

ahiṃsā, nonviolence,

here we have two attitudes toward the great mystery.

One is of complete affirmation. You don’t say no to anything.

The other is indeed saying no—all the way, too. And you don’t participate in the horror

Your whole game is to get out.

third ...

Zoroastri...

we can participate in that restoration.

the three main mythological points of view in the high cultures:

A mythological order is a system of images that gives consciousness a sense of meaning in existence,

which,

has no meaning—it s...

that positive thing which is the experience of being-in-being,

living meaningfully.

first fu...

to evoke in the individual a sense of grateful, affirmative awe before the monstrous ...

second fu...

to present an image of the cosmos, an image of the universe round about, that will maintain and elicit this experience of awe. This function we may ca...

The question of truth doesn’t ...

Nietzsche says that the worst point you can present to a person of faith is truth...

I like it this way; this is the sourc...

People live by playing a game,

A cosmological image gives you a field in which to play the game that helps you to reconcile your life,

existence,

consciou...

expect...

mea...

second function

to present an image of the cosmos that will maintain your sense of mystical awe and explain everything that you come into contact with in the universe around you.

third fu...

to validate and maintain a certain sociol...

fourth function

psychological.

must carry the individual through the stages of his life, from birth through maturity ...

in accord with the social order of his group, the cosmos as understood by his group, ...

The main thing is that you assume responsibility in a snap, without correcting yourself.

Xxx

The person who is torn between attitudes of dependency and of responsibility is the neurotic: he is ambivalent, pulled in two directions.

Neurotics are simply people who have not crossed the psychological ...

everyone is raised with an attitude of submission to authority and fear of punishment:

That’s the power of disposable libido.

Eternity is not future or past.