A collaboration between the Joseph Campbell Foundation, OPUS Archives, and Pacifica Graduate Institute. Join the conversation, create the vision, deepen the study of myth.
Myths and fairy or folk tales can provide models for living. Although the people who told and listened to these stories may have accepted as literally true, some pieces that we reject--that the moon is made of cheese for example--the fundamental experience of being human in the world hasn't changed enough to make the wisdom obsolete or strip them of their metaphorical truth. That's one reason films like "Clash of the Titans" and "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightening Thief" are being made, and why "Avatar," a beautiful technological spectacle of the super-hero in a kind of Eden nurtured by the Tree of Life, is so popular. We call this entertainment and (depending on your taste in films) that's true. But considering the possibility that we also need these stories and that the stories we tell reflect our psychology, is where we find the real juice.
I haven't seen "Clash" or "Percy" yet but the role of nature (which is front and center in Avatar) is apparent in the titles. The Titans were elemental forces. The Olympians used elemental forces and were often experienced by humans as forces of nature, lightening, for example. I think this is interesting and wonder how many viewers will be conscious of this shift in emphasis. We typically relegate nature to the background---the natural world is the setting for our actions, not an actor, with some disaster movies as the exception. The assumed separation of human "mind" from nature is part of the modern Western paradigm that doesn't make much sense and I wonder if a reunion is underway. Too big of a topic to get into here- but something to think about. (Remember the posts last spring about the Titanamachia, the plight of the earth, and the role of the three repressed brothers?)
We have our myths and stories about being human and about being in, of, and out of nature. Lunar mythologies will be a theme here for the next three months. The earliest known calendars were lunar, based on three ten day phases: waxing, full, and waning.The words "moon," "month," and "measure" are all etymologically related and as this exploration unfolds I invite you to consider and make conscious the ongoing impact and significance of the moon on your ideas and your life.
