Thinking-Training

The national bestseller, now available in a non-illustrated, standard format paperback edition The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people--including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit. This extraordinary book reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell’s work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

Examines myths and folk tales from around the world in an attempt to understand the symbolism of the hero as it appears in the mythologies and religions of mankind.

Joseph Campbell held a unique place in the culture for his ability to bring the healing power of myth and archetype to contemporary audiences. This simple, beautifully designed collection of cards continues that work, helping readers connect to wisdom ancient and modern on a daily basis. Including a built-in prop-up frame for display, Follow Your Bliss contains timeless quotes from a wide range of Campbell's work, divided into four guiding themes from his teachings: The Psychological, The Sociological, The Cosmological, and The Metaphysical. Practical yet provocative, each card features the brushstroke Zen circle that is the imprimatur of The Joseph Campbell Foundation, with a distinct color for each category in the deck. Enclosed in a box with an intricate tapestry border design, Follow Your Bliss is an ideal gift for both the committed seeker and the casual reader looking for simple guidance in a chaotic world.

The Politics of Myth examines the political views implicit in the mythological theories of three of the most widely read popularizers of myth in the twentieth century, C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. All three had intellectual roots in the anti-modern pessimism and romanticism that also helped give rise to European fascism, and all three have been accused of fascist and anti-Semitic sentiments. At the same time, they themselves tended toward individualistic views of the power of myth, believing that the world of ancient myth contained resources that could be of immense help to people baffled by the ambiguities and superficiality of modern life. Robert Ellwood details the life and thought of each mythologist and the intellectual and spiritual worlds within which they worked. He reviews the damaging charges that have been made about their politics, taking them seriously while endeavoring to put them in the context of the individual’s entire career and lifetime contribution. Above all, he seeks to extract from their published work the view of the political world that seems most congruent with it.

Discover Myth "There's no one quite like Joseph Campbell. He knows the vast sweep of man's panoramic past as few men have ever known it." --The Village Voice Joseph Campbell famously compared mythology to a kangaroo pouch for the human mind and spirit: "a womb with a view." In Myths to Live By, he examines all of the ways in which myth supports and guides us, giving our lives meaning. Love and war, science and religion, East and West, inner space and outer space — Campbell shows how the myths we live by can reconcile all of these pairs of opposites and bring a sense of the whole. This classic has been newly illustrated and annotated in its first new edition since its original publication, which also marks the first ebook in the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series. In the tradition of The Power of Myth and Pathways to Bliss, Myths to Live By remains one of Joseph Campbell's most enduring, popular, and accessible works.

The companion to the Star wars exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum explores the mythology used as the basis for the Star wars movie trilogy

This collection, first published in 1992, offers critical-interpretive essays on various aspects of the work of Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), one of a very few international experts on myth. Joseph Campbell examines myths and mythologies from a comparative point of view, and he stresses those similarities among myths the world over as they suggest an existing, transcendent unity of all humankind. His interpretations foster an openness, even a generous appreciation of, all myths; and he attempts to generate a broad, sympathetic understanding of the role of these 'stories' in human history, in our present-day lives, and in the possibilities of our future.

In his widely read guides How to Write a Damn Good Novel and How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, popular novelist and fiction-writing coach James N. Frey showed tens of thousands of writers how--starting with rounded, living, breathing, dynamic characters--to structure a novel that sustains its tension and development and ends in a satisfying, dramatic climax. Now, in The Key, Frey takes his no-nonsense, "Damn Good" approach and applies it to Joseph Campbell's insights into the universal structure of myths. Myths, says Frey, are the basis of all storytelling, and their structures and motifs are just as powerful for contemporary writers as they were for Homer. Frey begins with the qualities found in mythic heros--ancient and modern--such as the hero's special talent, his or her wound, status as an "outlaw," and so on. He then demonstrates how the hero is initiated--sent on a mission, forced to learn the new rules, tested, and suffers a symbolic death and rebirth--before he or she can return home. Using dozens of classical and contemporary novels and films as models, Frey shows how these motifs and forms work their powerful magic on the reader's imagination. The Key is designed as a practical step-by-step guide for fiction writers and screen writers who want to shape their own ideas into a mythic story.

This photographically illustrated guide charts Luke Skywalker's "hero's journey" from his farm boy origins to the fulfillment of his quest to become a Jedi Knight. Full color.