Week 2 Readings

Posted by Marta Koonz Lassow on March 26, 2015 at 7:22am

A few reflections on the readings for this past week...

In the "What is mythology" reading I was struck by the line, "To be equipped with a mythology education and the means to understand it psychologically is to live on the forefront of creative adaption." Yes - myth has the potential to move us away from the literal and into a space that honors multiple possibilities. If I can see the "sacred story" as one that offers a well-dressed lesson, then I am able to imagine other stories, other potentials.

"What Good is an Archetype" brought me to a place of considering more deeply the collective nature of constellated archetypes, and their role in bringing to awareness changes that are afoot. Adding a mythic perspective to this notion opens it up for me. For instance, I have been pulled to explore the myth that might be linked to the rise in professional life coaching, and wonder what archetypal energies were constellated on a cultural level at that time in our history (1980's).

Finally, I found it interesting and disturbing to read of the multiple Plutonic references found within the petroleum industry (A Brief History of Petroleum). Not surprised, but disturbed to see so much put forth at once; Yet seeing this from a mythic perspective opens the situation up to other stories and other Gods.

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  • Bonnie Bright March 26, 2015 at 7:32am

    Thanks for your insights, Marta. As most of us probably already know, Joseph Campbell famously outlined the “Four Functions of Myth" as follows:

    1. The first function of mythology [is] to evoke in the individual a sense of grateful, affirmative awe before the monstrous mystery that is existence

    2. The second function of mythology is to present an image of the cosmos, an image of the universe round about, that will maintain and elicit this experience of awe. [or] ...to present an image of the cosmos that will maintain your sense of mystical awe and explain everything that you come into contact with in the universe around you.

    3. The third function of a mythological order is to validate and maintain a certain sociological system: a shared set of rights and wrongs, proprieties or improprieties, on which your particular social unit depends for its existence.

    4. ...the fourth function of myth is psychological. That myth must carry the individual through the stages of his life, from birth through maturity through senility to death. The mythology must do so in accords with the social order of his group, the cosmos as understood by his group, and the monstrous mystery. (From Pathways to Bliss (Novato, CA: New World Library), pp 6-10.)

    To your point, though, I think the capacity for myth to carry us to a place of pure potentiality/multiple possibilities is perhaps its fifth and most critical function...

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