Campbell the Mystic and the Spiritual Function of Myth
I owe a great deal to the work of the eminent comparative mythologist, Joseph Campbell. My exposure to Campbell’s ideas and observations has deepened both my love for and appreciation of mythology. Like many people, I first encountered Campbell’s profound, passionate, and erudite teachings about myth from the celebrated PBS television series with Bill Moyer, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.
As a scholar, Campbell was fascinated by the universal and perennial themes and archetypal characters that appear repeatedly across the world’s many mythologies. Most famously, Campbell traced the many forms and variations of the figure of The Hero in the now-classic Hero with a Thousand Faces, the book that launched Campbell from academia out into the public sphere.
That said and despite the enormous attention given to Campbell’s work on the archetypal Hero, I find his work on the spiritual dimension of myth to be equally if not more significant. If we look for evidence supporting this idea in Campbell’s own words, we need only remember that he assigns the first and most primal of the functions served by myth to the metaphysical aspect of the human experience:
“First is the metaphysical function. Myth awakens and supports a sense of awe before the mystery of being. It reconciles consciousness to the preconditions of its own existence. Myth induces a realization that behind the surface phenomenology of the world, there is a transcendent mystery source. Through this vitalizing mystical function, the universe becomes a holy picture.”
Because of the meticulously scholarly and intellectually rigorous quality of Campbell’s work, people often overlook or underestimate this mystical dimension of his teachings. This is complicated by Campbell often denying that he was a mystic. For example, in an interview with Jeffrey Mishlove, Campbell said “I’m not a mystic, in that I don’t practice any austerities, and I’ve never had a mystical experience. So I’m not a mystic. I’m a scholar, and that’s all I’m doing. I’m no guru or anything of the kind.” Frankly, I’m not so quick to dismiss the mystical nature of Campbell or his work.
One of the hallmarks of the mystical is the experience of what is called “unitive consciousness,” an awareness of the oneness of all things transcending the many dualisms of ordinary awareness. Understanding mysticism in these terms, the mystical and the mythic are inextricably intertwined for Campbell. Indeed, as Campbell understood, the spiritual potential of the mythic perspective – most importantly its ability to open us to the experience of the mystical experience of oneness — was of paramount importance.
The mystical foundation of Campbell’s approach to myth is based on two powerful, interrelated concepts. The first of these concepts is summarized by the phrase “transparent to transcendence.” For images, symbols, and narratives to function effectively in mythic terms, Campbell observed that they need to point beyond themselves to an ultimate and perennial reality beyond all concepts and categories of thinking. In contrast, when mythic material becomes “opaque to transcendence,” specific cultural, ethnic, historical, or sectarian interpretations block the power of such material to transport us beyond the boundaries of rational consciousness.
The second of these core concepts is reflected in the phrase the “Masks of God,” the title of Campbell also gave to his monumental four-volume study of comparative mythology. The “God” referred to in this phrase is not the personal deity of the monotheistic traditions, but rather points to the mystical idea of the “God Beyond God,” as the Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart named it. Alternatively described as “the ground of being” and “cosmic consciousness,” this mystical understanding of divinity is also known as Brahman in Hinduism, the Tao in Taoism, and Ein Sof in the Jewish Kabbalah.
Since this ultimate consciousness is beyond all forms of thought, we can never directly access it via ordinary rational consciousness or discourse. Happily, that ultimate consciousness can be glimpsed symbolically behind and beyond the “masks” of mythology, but only so long as they remain transparent to transcendence. When this happens, writes Campbell, “every deity is a metaphor, a mask, for the ultimate mystery ground, the energy source of the universe, that is also the mysterious source of your own life.”
Whether we follow a more traditional religious path or consider ourselves more “spiritual but not religious,” Campbell’s insights about the mystical underpinnings of myth can greatly deepen our capacity for deep spiritual awareness. In future postings, I will continue exploring both this essential aspect of Campbell’s work as well as the larger question of the relationship between the mythic and spirituality.