I’m reading “The Power of Myth,”with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. I came upon a pretty awesome quote about how myth relates to spiritual experience. I thought you guys might like it.
“Now, what is a myth?” The dictionary definition of myth would be stories about gods. So then you have to ask the next question: What is a god? A god is a personification of a motivating power or value system that functions in human life and in the universe—
the powers of your own body and of nature. The myths are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being, and the same powers that animate our life animate the life of the world.”
The book came out in 1988, and it goes on to say that at that time humanity was lacking a planetary mythos, and I realized that things have transformed a lot since then. Now we have a collective awareness of Ayahuasca and other sacred plant medicines and science and shamanically derived knowledge through the internet. The nexus and other online communities and social media are part of the the new planetary mythos, and knowledge and wisdom can be shared globally at the speed of light. And the creativity which can be expressed through all of the above as well as art. So I think things are becoming much better since 1988. To me Mythos seems to be re-awakening in people as people awaken, along with the awareness that Mother Earth is actually a living, sensing, breathing being, the Planetary Goddess with all the personalities of all the different places on the Earth. One could re-name the awakening of humanity, the hero’s journey of humanity to remember its Earthy Mother perhaps.