10/31/2017 Joseph Campbells Four Basic Functions of Mythology

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Joseph Campbells YOGA

Four Basic Functions of
Mythology
BY GARY Z MCGEE

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It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible
energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestations. ~ Joseph Campbell
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At our most basic nature, we are social creatures who love to tell stories. Myths are stories that may
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or may not be true, designed to be taken into deep consideration rather than believed. Myths are the
path to human understanding, and myth-making is the path to self-expansion and human
expansion. Myths help us understand reality. They are the dreams of the universe.
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Myth goes beyond science and religion, striking the flint-stone of the magical experience at the heart
of all things. In a mysterious cosmos, myth is the attempt to explain the unexplainable through the
mystical, leaving us with a sense of astonishment that keeps us engaged and desiring to know more.
Joseph Campbell described mythology as having four basic functions: The mystical, the
cosmological, the sociological, and the pedagogical. Lets break them down.

The Mystical Function

As the island of Knowledge grows, so do the shores of our ignorance the boundary between the
known and the unknown. Learning more about the world doesnt lead to a point closer to a final
destination but to more questions and mysteries. ~ Marcelo Gleiser

This function is about experiencing the awe of the universe. Its telling stories that touch the
cornerstone of what it means to be a human being engaged with the unexplainable.

From ghost stories, to alien abductions, to confrontations with angels, to long talks with God or the
gods, and even scientific stories like Schrodingers cat and the multiverse theory of reality, the
mystical function is important for relating the mind to the mystery that something exists rather than
nothing and creating awe and a connection to the sacred.

Myth, especially within the mystical function, links the unconscious to the conscious by tethering
latent instincts between nature and the human soul. The stories we tell are the reconciliation of
consciousness with the preconditions of existence. Basically meaning that we tell stories to make
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sense of our own mortality. Weve tasted the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil over and over again
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10/31/2017 Joseph Campbells Four Basic Functions of Mythology

throughout the history

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of the human leitmotif.
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Life Weve told countless stories of this sacred

tasting through art, poetry and music.
The
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mystical function is a sacred
reconciliation because it helps us to
honor fundamental change and
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insurmountable impermanence, while
Joseph Campbells Four B helping us to make sense of being or not
being in a universe that has no meaning
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other than the meaning we are able to
bring to it.

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The Cosmological Function
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Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is always merely an approximation to the complete truth,
or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of
approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet. Therefore, things must be
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learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected. ~ Richard Feynman

This function is about formulating and

rendering an image of the universe. TheYOGA
universe we live in is unfathomably huge,
inexplicably scary, and perplexingly
mysterious. It is so awe-inspiringly
enormous that we cannot even wrap our
minds around its immense structure.

So how do we explain it? Before science,

before religion, we create stories through
art, spoken word, and the mighty pen.
Using our imaginations, we mythologically
lash out. Our five senses explode into the
creation myth.

From Hesiods Theogony to Genesis in the

Old Testament, from Brahma merging with Vishnu and Shiva to the current scientific-based Big Bang
theory, cosmogonical myths are at the heart of each culture. They help us to make sense of the
nothingness from which we come. Problems arise when we cling to, instead of learn from, such
myths, but they are still important for both the psychological and sociological function of
reconciliation.

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They give us something to hang our hats on, even if the hat-rack itself is mysteriously inexplicable. As
Joseph Campbell said, The human brain has no mechanism to recognize what is relevant or what is
not. Relevance is an environmental/cultural
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10/31/2017 Joseph Campbells Four Basic Functions of Mythology

alone. And so it is through our imaginations first (the mythological hat-rack) that we make sense of
the world.
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The Sociological Function

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I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am. ~Thomas
Cooley

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This function is about supporting and validating a
Joseph Campbells Four B certain social order. These stories help to bind
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people to a certain tribe or social group.
Sociological myths are the essential building
blocks behind all codes of moral conduct. It
PREMIUM maintains the meaning of culture while shaping
the meaning of our lives. Even when were not
aware of it, cultural mythos is working behind the
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scenes.

Its the story in the mind. Its the cartoon in the

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brain. Its the way we go about being human in a
non-human and sometimes even inhumane world.
And its a huge problem when the cultural myth is
YOGA not in accord with natural order, such as the
current Western cultural myth that we are
separate from nature when, really, we are nature,
interconnected and interdependent. Ishmaels
Leavers and Takers parable is a powerful example
of this.

The Greek myth of Pandora is another good example of a myth that upholds a misbalanced culture.
The Greeks were a patriarchal society that subjugated women, and the myth helped to uphold and
justify that belief. The problem is that its not in accord with cosmic order: since healthy human
dynamic requires a balance between masculine and feminine energies.

There are many such myths that uphold unhealthy beliefs. Its our responsibility as healthy creators
of myths, in our own right, to learn from such beliefs and create healthier ones (see self-inflicted
mythology). Sociological myths are often stories wherein the moral is about what not to do, which
then directly shines a light on what to do in order to achieve a healthier social experience.

The Pedagogical Function

What we observe is not Nature itself but Nature exposed to our method of questioning. ~ Werner
Heisenberg

According to Joseph Campbell, this is the most important of the four functions. This is the
psychological function of myth, which lies at the heart of the other three functions. Its about how to
live a human lifetime under any circumstances.
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change: love and revenge, mortality and immortality, knowledge and lack of knowledge, motherhood
and fatherhood, and even mind-stretching stories of male motherhood like Zeus giving birth to
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Dionysus from his thigh and Yahweh giving birth to Adam and Adam birthing Eve from his rib, or even
stories like virgin mothers and immaculate conceptions.
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Pedagogical myths help to shape
individuals to the aims and ideals of a
particular social group or tribe, guiding
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them from birth to death through the
course Campbells
Joseph of a humanFour
life. These
B are myths
that show by good and/or bad example
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how to live a human life.

They provide patterns of thought that

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bring meaning to life. Such powerful
guidance stories as the Jewish Ten
Commandments, Buddhas Eight-fold
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Noble Path, Lord Krishnas Bhagavad Gita,
and Joseph Campbells The Heros
Journey, for example.
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These are vital stories that help us look for the truth within ourselves through the guidance of people
from the past (real or not, it doesnt matter) who have gone through similar trials and tribulations.
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Such myths as the teachings of Muhammad, the wisdom of the Buddha, the Parables of Christ, and
powerful shamanic myths like the teachings of Don Juan. Even trickster myths hold deep wisdom for
how to live a sensible and meaningful life in the face of absurdity and meaninglessness.

At the end of the day, the most powerful function of myth is the self-created kind. When we can
absorb the teachings of the mythologies that came before us, and then have the courage and
audacity to add in our own imaginative soul-signature wisdom, the universe is compelled into
revealing itself even further. We ride the wave of the human leitmotif like daring soul-surfers, Jesus in
our Solar Plexus, Buddha in our heart, Lao Tzu in our throat, Vishnu in our third eye, and self-inflicted
mythology existentially crowning out between what it means to be a human being within an infinitely
magnanimous cosmos.

Image source:

Stonehenge
Campbell quote
Creation myths
Campfire stories
Monomyth

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