Monday, December 05, 2005

Living within the metaphor

I was talking to Nena last night and I found myself overexplaining my belief in myth and metaphor. I hate when I do that.

Myth and metaphor are powerful agents in one's life or could be if one allows it.

I like this, that Joseph Campbell said about it:

" . . . mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth - penultimate because the ultimate cannot be be put into words. It is beyond words, beyond images, beyond the bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told. So this is the penultimate truth.

It's important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and your own mystery. This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony, a new splendor. Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be negative moments and aspects of your life. The big question is whether you are going to be say a hearty yes to your adventure. . .

the adventure of the hero - the adventure of being alive."

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