Faux Fu

Saturday, March 10, 2018

"A Ubiquitous Power Out of Which They Arise..."

"The world of human life is now the problem." 

Ain't it the truth? That's a sentence, robust, full-bodied, resonant & powerful. Of course, it's taken out context too. But it just sits there at the beginning of a chapter entitled " The Womb of Redemption," in Joseph Campbell's masterful book, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." 

I am rereading this great book. It is so wise, quite profound, very enlightening, with illuminating insights on nearly every page. If you've already read it, you might think about reading it again; you may, like me, find new insights, surprises, things that light you up now, that didn't light you up then. If you've never read it, you are missing out on one of wisest, most entertaining, thought-provoking books in the human library.

One of my favorite passages: 

"And so, to grasp the full value of the mythological figures that have come down to us, we must understand that they are not only symptoms of the unconscious (as indeed are all human thoughts and acts), but also controlled and intended statements of certain spiritual principles which have remained as constant throughout the course of human history as the form and nervous structure of the human physique itself. Briefly formulated, the universal doctrine teaches that all the visible structures of the world - all things and beings - are the effects of a ubiquitous power out of which they rise, which supports and fills them during the period of their manifestation, and back into which they must ultimately dissolve." - Joseph Campbell

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