The Power of Myth

Those are the two figures you have just spoken of -- the simple, innocent, childlike one, and the terrific threat. You see the problems of the modern day.

The myth tells me about it, how to respond to certain crises of disappointment or delight or failure or success. The myths tell me where I am.

Certain prayers or meditations are designed to hold your consciousness on that level instead of letting it drop down

These missions are mystical journeys with all of the details of the typical mystical

journey. First, there is disengagement from secular life. Everybody who is going to go on this expedition has to make a complete confession of all the faults of his or her recent living. And if they don't, the magic is not going to work. Then they start on the journey.

stories may take the same universal theme but apply it slightly differently, depending upon the accent of the people who are speaking

The themes are timeless, and the inflection is to the culture.

creation, death and resurrection, ascension to heaven, virgin births -- I didn't know what it was, but I recognized the vocabulary. One after another

When I was a kid, we wore short trousers, you know, knee pants. And then there was a great moment when you put on long pants. Boys now don't get that.

This is something that becomes beautifully realized in the second stage of marriage, what I call the alchemical stage, of the two experiencing that they are one. If they are still living as they were in the primary stage of marriage, they will go apart when their children leave.

By marrying the right person, we reconstruct the image of the incarnate God, and that's what marriage is.