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Mythological Beginnings
November 9, 1984 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PST
Lecture: Mythological Beginnings
This will be a slide-illustrated lecture reviewing the earliest signs of development of ritual and myth out of the powers, needs, and expectations of the maturing human body in its two aspects, female and male. The evening will open with a glance at the first signs of an evolving human (as distinct from animal) species. The primary stages of an expanding realization of the potentialities of human experience and fulfillment will then be illustrated by the art of the Paleolithic caves. The lecture will conclude with an example of the symbolic forms of a living mythology (the Navaho) to the healing and harmonization of disordered lives.
Workshop: The Hero Journey, 1984
In a world oriented rather to immediate economic and social interests than to our biologically-based potentialities of holistic enlightenment and fulfillment, the first task of the individual must be to recognize, appreciate, and follow the instructing voice from within his or her own nature. This is the adventure symbolized in the universally known myth and associated ceremonials of THE HERO JOURNEY. A consideration and open discussion of the understanding and application of those symbols today, in the United States will be the topic of this seminar. What has become of the language of symbols? How can you or I find or recover through that language our own truth?
Related Workshop: The Hero Journey
JOSEPH CAMPBELL is a pre-eminent scholar of mythology and a prolific writer and lecturer on the relevance of myth to modern culture. Among his many works are Hero With A Thousand Faces: The Masks of God; The Mythic Image; and more recently, The Way of Animal Powers, Vol I of the Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Works in progress inlcude the second volume of the Atlas, The Way of The Seeded Earth, and the soon to be published Inner Reaches of Outer Space.
