PROJECT

FEATURE ARTICLE

ROBERT KENNEY

The Bliss of Joseph Campbell

 

– ABOUT THE PROJECT

Academic, writer and myth-making power ranger, Joseph Campbell  was and remains the shining light for generations of artists and spirituality seekers through his masterful writings – particularly with his seminal work, The Hero Has Two Faces (1949) which explores his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies. Through his many years of academic research into the core texts of diverse religions and cultural  cosmologies, Campbell put forward the idea that there is a monomyth at the centre of all faiths. Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey has been culturally pivotal and his dictum that people, to achieve personal and spiritual fulfillment, should “follow your bliss”remains potent. Campbell’s writings were a key inspiration for the work of my client Robert Kenney who sought to explain why they matter so personally to his life’s work. Authenticity is the core commitment of his artistry.

 “On a trip up the Inland Passage in 1932 that brought him to British Columbia (he had tea in Nanaimo while fogged in), Campbell was profoundly affected after seeing the ruined native village of Masset in Haida Gwaii.   All those old totems of identity were gone and the community was suffering spiritual neglect.  Without myth, Campbell wrote, modern society would also ‘fall to pieces’.  Myth makes man whole.” 

Barry Dumka 

EXCERPT

ROBERT KENNEY

The Bliss of Joseph Campbell

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”        

 – Joseph Campbell

 

Authenticity is as much a buzz word these days as fame.  In my opinion, one is made of earth, the other plastic.  There are a million brightly-lit reasons for fame’s magnetic appeal, but the value of authenticity –  the deep line that runs through so much of our contemporary yearning for spiritual purpose – was ploughed by just one man: Joseph Campbell.

 

Most people remember Campbell for his influential series of conversations with the PBS interviewer, Bill Moyers, aired in 1988 and the best-selling companion book, The Power of Myth.  Both lit a fire in the public imagination and elevated Campbell into a cultural visionary and cult figure.

 

But it was Campbell’s first book , A Hero With A Thousand Faces, published in 1949, that marked out the path for how to lead a life of meaning.  George Lucas re-wrote the screenplay for Star Wars based on the book, turning his script from a lost in space story to a hero’s journey toward mythic fulfillment.  Campbell had a long habit of provoking creative exploration and he knew enough about the value of myth to make his own life mythic.  One long adventure toward purpose.

 

 

— (end of excerpt)

 

 

© Barry Dumka/BCREATIVE CONSULTING

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