Joseph Campbell

It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.

It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.

In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream.

Now began immediately a great battle for possession of the invaluable drink. One of the titans, Rahu, managed to steal a sip, but was beheaded before the liquor passed his throat; his body decayed but the head remained immortal. And this head now goes pursuing the moon forever through the skies, trying again to seize it. When it succeeds, the cup passes easily through its mouth and out again at its throat: that is why we have eclipses of the moon.

the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed

Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new.

Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream

HAPPY families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.

the adventure of the hero normally follows the pattern of the nuclear unit above described: a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return.