The Power of Myth

“When the story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening in your own life. It gives you perspective on what’s happening to you. With the loss of that, we’ve really lost something because we don’t have a comparable literature to take its place.”

The stories Campbell refers to in this quotation are those of the Greek, Latin, and biblical traditions that used to be taught in schools. These stories, among other mythologies, have a rich history of questioning the universe as well as representing how to navigate the stages of human life. Campbell believes that, without receiving this knowledge, young people must start from scratch when making sense of themselves and the world around them.

“Read other people’s myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts—but if you read other ones, you begin to get the message.”

Here Campbell urges Moyers and his audience to read mythologies beyond their religious traditions because reading the stories from only one tradition can limit understanding of universal human experiences. Through comparing mythologies, as the book does, the individual can see similarities as well as local differences that bring the individual closer to grasping the “message” of mythology, which is how to experience the rapture of life.

“But the models have to be appropriate to the time in which you are living, and our time has changed so fast that what was proper fifty years ago is not proper today. The virtues of the past are the vices of today. And many of what were thought to be the vices of the past are the necessities of today. The moral order has to catch up with the moral necessities of actual life in time, here and now.” 

Campbell describes the need for mythologies to reflect the times in which they exist. If the figures of these stories reflect dated values, people will be deterred from looking to them for guidance. However, modern society also changes so quickly that it is difficult for mythologies to capture the collective imagination before new developments or changes occur.