Casey’s Reviews > The Power of Myth > Status Update

Marriage is a life commitment... the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you're not married.

I'm not certain I like this...phrasing, at least. Concern does not give a positive connotation of the marriage. I hardly think about my marriage, it's not a concern at all, does that mean I'm not married? I wonder if Campbell's personal views got in the way here of saying what he really meant

The death and resurrection of the god is everywhere associated with the moon, which dies and is resurrected each month. It is for two nights, or three days dark, and we have Christ for two nights, or three days in the tomb. ...the birth of Jesus has been put on what used to be the date of the winter solstice, when the nights begin to be shorter and the days longer.

Why 'used to be' the winter solstice?

(Speaking of the spirit of the goddess being in exile, the transition from female earth power to matriarchal societies)
M: power...was male dominant
C: you can put an accent on it that way, but it's too strong bc there were the great female saints. Hildegard or bingen...Eleanor of aquitane... the situation of women was not that bad by any means.

Oh boy. I hope his wife whacked him for this one.

Life in its becoming is always shedding death, and on the point of death. The conquest of fear yields the courage of life.

Age old truth, even Mufasa knew this (and I think Mufasa said it better).

Religion turns poetry into prose. God is literally up there, and this is literally what he thinks...
M: You don't have to believe that there was a King Arthur to get the significance of those stories, but Christians have to believe there was a christ, or else the miracles don't make sense.

"Fairy tale is the child's myth" I wonder if that's insulting to some adults who love fairy tales, or do they recognize the youthfulness of fairy tales as part of the joy? Did he mean to be insulting? Is he right?

They've repeated now that we don't have these rituals anymore than make boys into men, leading to them finding their own rituals in gangs or of movies serving as myth. Gangs are a clear choice as they have literal initiations, but there are so many values that people mythologize these days: sports, arts, academics like the authors. People choose their own myths and join its ritual structure... to some extent

Movers would be fast friends with the guys in Alt-J. They'd be like two points of a triangle (oof).

"You can keep an old tradition going only by renewing it in terms of current circumstances...when the world changes, then the religion has to be transformed."

"...some people have a very hard time loving God, because there's no imperfection there. You can be in awe, but that's not real love. It's Christ on the cross that becomes lovable."