Pathways with Joseph Campbell

Bonus: My Favorite Definition of Mythology

Pathways with Joseph Campbell

Show Notes

In this bonus episode, Campbell discusses his "favorite definition of mythology". He also speaks to the four functions of myth, how a moral order relates to mythology, and finally retells the myth of the Tiger and the Goat. There is no information as to where or when it was recorded.

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In this episode of Pathways with Joseph Campbell, we listen to a lecture Campbell gave at the Blaisdell Institute in Claremont, California, sometime in the mid-1970s. Speaking on what he calls “The Occidental Tradition,” Campbell explores the distinctly Western emphasis on the individual, the development of critical consciousness, and the courage required to follow one’s own path.

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Recorded in 1966 at Sarah Lawrence College, this lecture follows Joseph Campbell through the symbolic ascent of Kundalini yoga - moving from instinct and desire at the base of the spine to the awakening of the heart, where the sacred syllable OM is heard as the vibration of being itself. The chakras become a psychological and spiritual map: religion begins, Campbell suggests, when fulfillment is no longer chased outward but discovered as a dimension within. Yet even heaven is not the end. The final barrier is the subtle illusion of “I” encountering God.

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