Visibly, you can see it happen. THE POWER OF MYTH with Bill Moyers by Joseph Campbell 1 INTRODUCTION Once, as we were discussing the subject of suffering, he mentioned in tandem Joyce and Igjugarjuk. -- 1st Anchor Books ed. Religion historians -- United States -- Interviews. Now, the Buddha figure is like that of the Christ; of course, 500 years earlier. Mere human beings weren’t good enough for her, but here’s something that really… ah! The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there’s no doubt about it. Governments. 1. It’s the edge, the interface between what can be known and what is never to be discovered because it is a mystery transcendent of all human research. When he died in 1987 at the age of 83, he was considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on mythology, the stories and legends told by human beings through the ages to explain the universe and their place in it. I’ve been there about eight times. That you’re thinking in this way, and you have now to think in that way. Though it’s… much of the adventure in the old stories is where they go into regions that no one’s been in before. You really believe that the creative spirit ranges on its own out there, beyond the boundaries? These are all perfectly, very important concerns, but they have to do with physical conditions, mostly, and spiritual conditions of the children, of course. The tests or certain illuminating revelations. And what it will have to deal with will be exactly what all myths have dealt with: the maturation of the individual, the gradual, pedagogical way to follow, from dependency through adulthood to maturity, and then to the exit and how to do it. What’s the mythological significance of the belly? Well, if you realize what the real problem is, and that is of losing primarily thinking about yourself and your own self-protection. It’s the descent into the dark. Well, something might. Do you, when you look at something like Star Wars, recognize some of the themes of the hero throughout mythology? The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers. Well, how is the consciousness transformed? If you are not eligible for this place into which you’ve put yourself, it’s going to be a demon marriage, it’s going to be a real mess. That’s a place—in yourself—of rest. Now, the Buddha’s word is nirvāṇa; nirvāṇa is a psychological state of mind. Mythology was to him the song of the universe, music so deeply embedded in our collective unconscious that we dance to it, even when we can’t name the tune. And if it’s simply that of doing what the environment tells you to do, it certainly is pinning you down. Often it’s a blue jay or a woodpecker—or something like this—that steals the fire and then passes it to something else, and something else, one animal after another, and they’re burned by the fires as they carry it on. My favorite scene was when they were in the garbage compactor, and the walls were closing in and I thought, that’s like the belly of the whale that Jonah came out of. A lot of people spend most of it in meditating on where their money’s coming from and where it’s going to go, but that’s a level of meditation. This is the jumping-off place, and there is where you meet people who’ve been out there, and they run the machines that go out there, and you haven’t been there. The Buddhists talk of nirvāṇa, Jesus talks of peace. Title. There’s another one where one sets out responsibly and intentionally to perform the deed. Suddenly a lightning flash hit the rocks, and the gold came pouring out, and then she found reflected on rocks round about the gold. The mother is right there, you’re born from there and she’s there to nurse you. You’re in another transformation. And the first thing she sees is an enormous serpent basking on the rocks. And when it was all over, he brought me down, he said, “I want to show you where my room is.” Well, in a cathedral you have the nave and then the transept, and then the apse. That’s another motif that occurs. Unlike the classical heroes, we’re not going on our journey to save the world, but to save ourselves. Then, [in] the evening, the serpent and then the man again. Keep reading! And he’s the one that yields the bounty and the waters and all that kind of thing. That’s a form of consciousness. What I want, what I believe, what I can do, what I think I love, and all that. They are great magicians and, like many people of this kind, their hearts are not in their bodies. She turns, and there’s a little old man there, and he says, “Darling, you are in trouble. Well, that’s a different angle on heroes than I got when I was reading as a young boy the story of Prometheus, going after the fire and bringing it back and benefiting humanity, and suffering for it. Bill Moyers and mythologist Joseph Campbell begin their groundbreaking and timeless conversation with an exploration of the classic hero cycle, including consistent and enduring hero patterns in literature, real life, and even the Star Wars films.