The Legacy of Joseph Campbell

Mythology was once viewed as an archaic and antiquated study that only a scholar or armchair philosopher would find worthy of pursuing. Then, sometime in the last century, this impression changed for many people in our culture. Myth came to be seen as something alive, vital, and full of relevance for our lives today. No longer were we talking about absorbing and digesting a slew of facts about peoples from antiquity. We were talking about living ideas and archetypal images that can inspire modern people as much as they did the ancients, ideas that permeate our arts, sciences and social interactions - that promote the growth of our souls and the evolution of our species.

Joseph Campbell, if you're looking down upon us, I hope you're pleased with what you started.

Campbell, renowned scholar, writer and teacher of mythology, lived a rich and inspired life that spanned most of the twentieth century (1904-1987). Though he probably reached the apex of popular appeal during the 1980's when Bill Moyers interviewed him for television, Joseph Campbell had been writing and lecturing for decades prior to that.
His most widely known book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, was published over fifty years ago, and has since become a virtual bible and blueprint for artists in an array of fields. Many seek to emulate, in their own ways, the trail of the Hero's Journey that Campbell outlined - and proved to be consistent across the globe and throughout all the eras of our history.

He was the first to sift through the world's great story-cycles in order to isolate their eternal and recurring themes. When Campbell lectured about myth he was only partially interested in the mindset of ancient peoples. His primary concern was the ways in which these stories reflect the state of our own inner being and how we might draw upon their abiding wisdom for understanding, healing, and empowerment.