Rel Gherdan R.

Salazar
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Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”

Will Myths be able to answer our questions?

“The ground of being is the ground of our being, and when we simply turn
outward, we see all of these little problems here and there. But, if we look inward,
we see that we are the source of them all.1” This quote strucked me the most
after I finished reading Excerpts from the Power of Myth. It made me realize
important things that matter in my life and in the society I am living in.

Joseph Cambell wanted us to know what Mythology can do to us and how

it can help to our everyday lives. It is about learnings that are not being taught in
school, social constructs that we abide but not necessarily what we need, rules
that we follow without further questioning it, and inner life that we are not fully
aware yet.

Mythology is not just about inventing new stories, Campbell emphasized

that it expresses what he thinks is true in the world that he is living in. It is
something to do with unconsciously knowing that came before him without
basing it to the facts or things that are present and existing. He was already
aware before even realizing it. He even said that it is like a body with same
organs and same functions. It does not matter where that body lived or what era
it existed, these parts still function the same. They still experience same bodily

1 https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/learn-ap-southeast-1-prod-fleet02-
xythos/5a33b819beda5/2218385?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-
8%27%27Campbell%252520and%252520Darwin.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-
Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20181005T020019Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-
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Signature=53449672469e6bc6af00f14327b4304a8783fcaf4f34ee145ffdea75b8807dc5
image and that it responds to the same images. 2 We all get to experience
conflicts, and it is the same with mythologies that are passed on by generation to
generation. The conflicts or problems that people keep experiencing over and
over, generation to generation are the unconscious truth that we know. Myths
were able to express these experiences and truths. Myth is our life guidebooks, it
is one of the keys to really absorb and understand human experiences to another
level. 3

It gives us learnings that are not being taught in school, meaning it is

something we learn through experience. It is not something scientists would be
able to provide for us, we are the ones who can provide for that. Schools give us
information and knowledge but experiences give us wisdom. 4Both are important
to survive in this world but people often neglect the wisdom part. People
unconsciously favor or give more importance to the academics part or the school
concept part, the reason why we can not fully understand our selves. For
example is how we commute here in the Philippines. As for me who came from
the province, I only know how to commute from home to school and vice versa.
But because I have been studying here in Manila for almost three years, with all
of the experiences I have encountered, it made it easier for me to go to different
places without realizing that I am already proficient to do that. Another example is
being hurt multiple times. Yes, the books say things and facts about getting hurt
but actually experiencing it is a different thing. But because of this pain, you have
become a whole new person with this new wisdom about people on why they do
things or why they feel these things. We are able to understand more to what is
just in the picture, we are able to see inside the picture.

2
https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/learn-ap-southeast-1-prod-fleet02-
xythos/5a33b819beda5/2218385?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-
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3 https://www.popmatters.com/132546-joseph-campbell-on-the-power-of-myth-with-bill-moyers-2496120081.html
4 https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/wisdom
 We have these social constructs that we abide and we let it happen. We
view the world the way how the society built us. Like the bible, we were raised to
follow it because it is said to be the right thing. It is said that there is a supposed
god that would inhabit our world but it not what it really implies. 5 Sometimes, we
are blindly following it without even questioning it. People just settle for what they
know, or continue the status quo rather than accepting that there is more to that.
The main idea in the bible is that there is a source of power or strength which is
quite a mystery. It is the same with myth wherein that same kind of idea is
supposed to be the first thing to be reflected on. We should not just blindly follow
a certain rule/s. Reflect, question, and analyze first before actually believing and
applying it to our lives.

We have this part of life that we have not discovered yet, the inner life we
are not fully aware of. I have mentioned earlier about the unconscious side of us,
but in this, I want to focus on the things we have yet to discover. We still have a
lot of things to learn and yet to be experienced. There is so much more to life that
what we imagined. We can unleash all these possibilities, like the myth provided
for us. And maybe, by doing this, we get to know the essence of life and love.

I want to emphasize the quote that it is in the first paragraph. After reading
Campbell’s ideas, I had some realizations and I want to make use of this to
change our society. All the problems our society is experiencing are our own
mistakes and negligence. We are the source of all the awful happenings in our
environment. But, it is not yet too late, for we can make all these learnings from
Campbell and other people out there to actually make a change. If there is a
possibility that we might be able to help our society, we grab it. Myth is important
and can be the first step to what we want to attain, but the movement must start
with people. People having the initiative is the real first step.

5https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/learn-ap-southeast-1-prod-fleet02-xythos/5a33b819beda5/2218385?response-
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