The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. Joseph Campbell.

The Masks of God: Creative Mythology
Joseph Campbell
New York: Penguin Books. 1970/1977.

Why read it? Joseph Campbell tries to show that we are the victims of mythology and that mythology, of which we are both conscious and unconscious, rules our responses to life, guides our actions in life. We respond to things in life in almost a programmed way because we see the world through myths. The myths are not only ancient patterns of behavior, but they overwhelm us in religion and in other aspects of our contemporary lives. Our own egos create our own myths.

Even our dreams are myths, directed by our own will. In dream and in life myths direct us to destruction and death. The underlying spirit of the dream--destruction and death--is the underlying spirit of life directed by our will to destruction and death.

Myths fill up our perception of reality. As with movies, we model our lives on the patterns of behavior that are modeled in myths.

Myths: ancient myths, the myths of our religion, the myths created by our unconscious, the myths we create consciously as we seek to shape our lives according to our perceptions. We need to realize that we are embedded in myths and we need to face reality as it is, not as we are influenced by myths to perceive reality. JFK said it. "The big lie is not the lie, but the myths that we allow unconsciously and consciously to guide our points of view."

We are the puppets of myths. This book is an exploration and history of those myths.

The book moves from statements of belief to ideas that question those beliefs.

"And in this life-creative adventure, the criterion of achievement will be...the courage to let go the past, with its truths, its gods, its dogmas of 'meaning,' and its gifts: to die to the world and to come to birth from within." p. 678.

RayS. This book is filled with information about myths of the past and present, but the essential message is that we must identify the myths that guide our lives and question the truth of those myths. We need to see the real world as it is, not as our myths direct us to see it. Begin by asking, "What are the myths that govern our lives?"