The Power of Myth
18 January 2005

"This continued romance of Beauty and the Beast stands this afternoon on the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Seventh Street, waiting for the traffic light to change."

This statement, fanciful as it sounds, is simply a shorthand way of saying that everyone is a creature of myth; the old legends and tales of the races are still the master keys to the human psyche. The science-minded Victorians who sneered at myths as mere superstitious twaddle were guilty of a kind of scientific superstition themselves—the belief that reason could explain all human motives. Aided by psychoanalysis, anthropology, and nearly a century of archaeological discovery, modern scholarship has replaced the Victorian sneer at mythology with respect, even awe.

Mythology, we now know, tells us as much about humanity—our deepest hopes, joys, sorrows, fears—as dreams tell about an individual. "Myths are public dreams," said Joseph Campbell, probably the leading expert on mythology in the last half of this century. "Dreams are private myths. Myths are vehicles of communication between the conscious and the unconscious, just as dreams are."

The trouble is that this communication has broken down in the modern western world. The old myths are no longer operative; and effective myths needed to replace them have not yet arisen. As a result, the West is going through an agony of re-orientation matched only by the Sumerians replacing the concept of a chaotic world ruled by capricious deities with the concept of a mathematically ordered cosmos.

What is Myth?

In Campbell's jargon, it is a dream-like symbol that evokes and directs psychological energy. A vivid story or legend is but one part of a larger fabric of myths. When all of these kinds of stories of a group of people are taken together, we have a culture's attitude toward life, death, and the universe itself.

Examples:
What Should Mythology Do?
  1. Through rites and imagery, mythology wakes us to a sense of awe, gratitude, even rapture rather than fear, to the mystery both of the universe and of our place in it. (E.g., what should the Mass say to us about this world?)
  2. Mythology offers us an understandable image of the world around us. (What is our story of creation?)
  3. A living mythology supports the social order through rites and rituals that will impress and mold the young. (In India, the impersonal power of Brahma causes the Hindu to take the caste system as a necessary feature of the universe. Cruel as this may seem to us, the myth of caste does give Indian society a stability and does make life bearable to the lower castes.)
  4. The most important function of mythology is to guide the individual through the psychological crises of a useful life (birth, education, entrance into adulthood, marriage, job, family, death). Is this available in our complex, late twentieth-century society?
Traditional Myths

Churches and synagogues still provide mythological guidance for many. Others turn to Christian fundamentalism, the religions of the East, new age cults, psychoanalysis, twelve-step type groups, sex, sports, even the "fitness cult." For many, the absence of traditional authority has been disastrous, Campbell claims. Primitive communities have been unsettled by white civilization; with their old beliefs discredited, they immediately go to pieces, disintegrate, and become places of vice and disease. Today the same thing is happening to us.

Twentieth-Century Myths Attempted
  1. The communist Chinese attempted to create dedication by celebrating Mao's "Long March" & his living in the caves of Yenan.
  2. Churchill tried to resurrect the myth of St. George & the dragon in World War II (little Britain v. Nazi horde).
  3. In the U.S., we have had: The New Deal, The Great Society, The Great Frontier
  4. Utopia/Walden: The commune or sectarian conventicle (withdrawal, intimacy, simplicity give us the insight into real human values). Christ in the desert, Mohammed in his cave of meditation at Mount Hira, anchorites, Buddha under his Bodhi-tree.
Some Possibly Operative Myths:
  1. Education (in its widest sense). Knowledge is Power.
  2. Frontier Myth: Opportunity lies beyond. Freedom and change will enable us to become successful.
  3. Love can change the world (Greek metamorphoses, Christ, Buddha, saints).
  4. Behaviorism: Science can explain everything and solve all problems.
  5. Empiricism: Only what can be proven is real.
  6. Travel gives one the needed insight into how to live life (ancient Greek odysseys, the medieval knight and pilgrim and Crusader, the pioneer).
  7. Progress: history, science, society, as well as humanity, is evolving into a greater reality, improving over time.
Discussion Questions:
  1. From this analysis, how do you see myths differing from fables or fairytales?
  2. What are the relationships between myth and truth? Myth and fact? Myth and falsehood?
  3. Which of the above-mentioned myths make the most sense to you?
  4. Are there other myths you know which make even better sense?