Living Myth

Imagination Applied to Life

MYTHS IN PROGRESS

Orpheus and Eurydice - A Myth Rewritten
Part One: The Return of Eurydice
Part Two: The Beauty of Goodbye
Part Three: The Flight of the Black Swan

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Translations from the Andromedan
An Alternative Myth of Human Origins and Gender Conflict

Preface by the Translator
C O N T E N T S

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Tree-Nymphs and Tree-Hung Shamans
I The Myth of Adonis
II The Chthonian Romance
III The Nature of Consciousness

INTRODUCTION TO LIVING MYTH

§ 1 The Use and Misuse of Creative Mythology

Toward the end of his life, comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987) filmed a six-part series for the American TV station PBS entitled "The Power of Myth," consisting of interviews with liberal journalist, Bill Moyers. Widely regarded as a general public guru—a mythological maven, you could say—Campbell was also known for having advised Steven Spielberg and George Lucas on the plot for their projected multi-film epic, Star Wars. He provided the directive theme of the entire Star Wars serialization by proposing a story line based on the cosmic battle between Good and Evil, Light and Dark, Ohrmazd and Ahriman, drawn from Persian mythology.

With all due respect, I must say that I think Campbell made a poor choice in this matter. Spielberg and Lukas were ill-advised and the result is, Stars Wars is little more than overblown juvenile entertainment from start to finish. The entire story is hokey, hackneyed, trite. Worst of all, the plot does not carry the kind of inspirational power that could effectively guide humanity toward a sane path of development. On the contrary, it endorses a duualistic myth that fits the victim-perpetrator bond. In Not in His Image I warned against Persian single source duality, by contrast to two-source duality as seen in the Sophia myth:

Gnostic cosmology is dualistic, but not in the same way as the cosmology of Zoroaster—Persian duality... The religious doctrine of Persian duality, absorbed by the Hebrews during the Babylonian Captivity, posits the opposition of Good (Ahura Mazda) versus Evil (Ahriman) at the cosmic level. This is absolute duality. It assumes a split in the Godhead, in the divine realm, at the one source of all that exists.... It may be called single-source duality because it assumes that good and evil have the same origin, due to a split at the source, in the Godhead—an idea flatly refuted by Gnostics. In their protest against Christianity, Gnostics opposed Christian theology and dualist ethics based on the Jewish notion of a wrathful, punishing father god who was also, believe it or not, the source of divine love.

Split-source duality is not what the Sophia mythos presents, however. It is of the utmost importance to distinguish Persian split-source duality from the two-source duality of Gnostic teachings. In the Gnostic view there is no split in the Pleroma and consequently there is no absolute opposition of Good and Evil. In fact, Gnostics did not characterize the problem posed by the Archons in terms of evil at all. They framed it in terms of error. They taught that we come to understand how evil arises in the world by tracing the working of error, the Archontic factor. (Ch. 13, The Passion of Sophia)

Campbell's choice of a directive myth for the movie epic steers us right back into Biblical dualism and the Old Testament mythology of the Father God, represented by inversion in the figure of Darth Vader (Ahriman). The father-son motif linking Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader presents yet another hook into divine paternalism—just where we don't want to go, in my opinion.

Worst of all, Star Wars does not incorporate any genuine elements of the Divine Feminine—Princess Lea is, as best, an Valentine Card goddess figure—and says nothing about the natural beauty or supernatural mystique of our planet. It does not reveal anything about the origin of our species, the intelligence embodied in nature, our bond to other sentient species, the deviance of the artificial or archontic mind-set, or the unique but not superior status of humanity in the cosmic order. It teaches nothing but glorified paternalism and singtle source duality, Cosmic Good versus Cosmic Evil, the basis of salvationist religion.

Imaginatively speaking, the entire Star Wars sequence was a tired rerun before it was even made.

ADDITION: September 23, 2015 (six years later)

In the first commentary on Living Myth, I am leading with this negative judgment of Stars Wars.

I take it for an outstanding example of a misuse of the creative mythology that Campbell proposed and outlined, but did not put into practice himself, either professionally or (as far as I know) personally. My criticism of the master's choice in this regard will also give occasion to introduce what I consider to be the primary directive myths of humanity that might serve in leading our species toward a sane, enlightened way of life.

In development...

jll: Andalucia 9/9/09