No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community to endure, together with the rest of nature, the season of the terrible cold.
Joseph CampbellRead
When you see the earth from the moon, you don't see any divisions there of nations or states. _x000D_ This might be the symbol, really, for the new mythology to come. _x000D_ That is the country that we are going to be celebrating. _x000D_ And those are the people that we are one with.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes our shared humanity and unity beyond national boundaries.
Joseph Campbell reflects on the view of Earth from the moon, suggesting that it symbolizes a future mythology of unity where divisions of nations and states become irrelevant. This perspective encourages us to celebrate our commonality as human beings, transcending political and geographical divides, and recognizing that we are all part of the same global community.
Themes
UnityHumanityEarthPhilosophyCommonality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about global collaboration at a conference.
More from Joseph Campbell
All quotes →Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
Joseph CampbellRead
Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today. What’s moving people’s lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It’s a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn’t even an ideal that anybody’s fighting for.
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Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.
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The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
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And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
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