‘NYPL obtains Joseph Campbell archives’

     

Courtesy Jeopardy!/Sony Pictures Television

Who is Professor Joseph Campbell?!?

In 2016 and 2017, the New York Public Library acquired the papers of Professor Joseph Campbell from two sources and spent this year organizing the 203 boxes of archives and cataloging the material so that it all may be available to you now. From the publicity:


Joseph Campbell was a mythologist, author, lecturer, and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College. His papers date from 1905 to 1995, and contain his writing, research, lectures, correspondence, photographs, and press clippings. The collection consists of files pertaining to Campbell’s career in academia, and his research and writings on comparative mythology and literature. Most of the collection was previously held and maintained by The OPUS Archives & Research Center at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, which acquired Campbell’s papers from Jean Erdman and the Joseph Campbell Foundation in 1991. The foundation continued to deposit materials at OPUS in subsequent years, while also utilizing the collection for book projects and research purposes. Therefore, the collection does include some materials added to the collection after Campbell’s death.

The Joseph Campbell papers date from 1905 to 1995 (bulk dates 1930s-1980s), and consist of materials related to Campbell’s career as a college professor, lecturer, researcher, and author. The collection is arranged into eight Series, and holds Campbell’s original writing; teaching materials; files from his appearances in film and television; his research files; correspondence; photographs; and press clippings. Campbell’s files detail his research and writing work on mythology and literature, and chronicle the many lectures he gave throughout his career. The papers were previously held and processed by The OPUS Archives & Research Center at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, and include some materials that were added posthumously, such as lecture transcripts and outgoing correspondence. Projects started by Campbell in his lifetime and completed after his death, such as The Historical Atlas of World Mythology, are also held in the collection.

The Joseph Campbell papers are arranged in eight series:

Series I: Diaries and Journals
1917-77

Series I contains an assortment of handwritten notebooks and some typescripts composed by Campbell between 1917 and 1977. This includes the Grampus journals, in which Campbell discusses his time in California in the 1930s, and his trip to Alaska with Ed Ricketts. The Grampus materials also contain a typed copy of an Ed Ricketts manuscript, and some materials related to John Steinbeck. Of note are Campbell’s journals from his trip to Asia in the 1950s, which encompass an assortment of handwritten diaries, notes, outlines, an address book, and typed journals. Additionally, there are four bound books of original writings that were assembled posthumously. The writings are original, but the order is artificial. These bound writings contain project plans, notes, schedules, banking information, seminar outlines, lecture notes, and lists.

Courtesy NYPL

Series II: Writing
1927-95


Series II dates from 1927 to 1995, and holds Campbell’s original writings, comprising a mixture of manuscripts, drafts, materials intended for publication, and unpublished items. This includes pieces Campbell edited or produced in collaboration with other scholars; typed manuscripts; proposals for writing projects; published articles; and materials related to Campbell’s published books.

Editing and Collaborations comprises writings in which Campbell served as an editor, as well as pieces he authored with other writers. Of special interest is a handwritten draft script and notes from an opera collaboration with John Cage that was never produced, and a folder of Maya Deren’s writings that Campbell edited.

Among Campbell’s writings is also a selection of manuscripts, most notably his 1927 Master’s thesis, “A Study of Dolorous Stroke.” Also included in the manuscript files are Campbell’s fiction and short stories and a number of unpublished works.

The Published Books files comprise notes, images, and manuscripts from Campbell’s books. Included are materials from A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Masks of God, The Mythic Image, Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Flight of the Wild Gander, and Historical Atlas of World Mythology. The most comprehensive materials are from the Historical Atlas of World Mythology files, some of which were compiled after Campbell’s death. There are handwritten and typed manuscripts, notes, research files, proofs, and many files of images intended for inclusion in the final text. The research materials are arranged alphabetically by topic, and also include some posthumously bound research notes.

Series III: Teaching
1932-87

Series III contains files related to Campbell’s work as a college professor and lecturer.

The Sarah Lawrence files contain course lecture notes, outlines, and typed lecture texts and transcripts from Campbell’s tenure at the college. The Lectures files are all arranged chronologically, and include each lecture’s title, date, and the location, when this information was documented. The files comprise an assortment of notes, outlines, and transcripts that span over five decades. Materials from Campbell’s lectures further assist to provide a detailed record of his public speaking and travel itinerary throughout his career.

Series IV: Film and Television
1963-87

Series IV holds files that relate to Campbell’s appearances and work in film and television. Files from Mask, Myth and Dream and The Power of Myth both contain transcripts of Campbell’s televised lectures and conversations. The Series also hold a television proposal for The Mythic Landscape, and filmmaker’s logs and notes for The Hero’s Journey.

Series V: Research Files
1926-1980s

Campbell’s Research Files consist of handwritten notes and outlines, as well as some images, prints, and slides. The Authors and Philosophers files comprise Campbell’s notes on individuals such as William Blake, Franz Boas, Geoffrey Chaucer, James Joyce, Immanuel Kant, Marcel Proust, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Friedrich Nietzsche, and W.B. Yeats. The Series also holds files of reading notes, which includes materials removed from Campbell’s personal book collection.

Series VI: Correspondence
1929-87

The majority of the files are incoming letters, and are generally professional in nature. While most correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or organization name, there is a selection of letters to Campbell commenting on his books and lectures, which are filed by title. Most folders in the Series contain a single letter, and include a label displaying a typed summary of the letter’s content.

Series VII: Photographs
1905-87

Courtesy NYPL

Most of the images are personal photographs, and portray Campbell’s immediate family, friends, colleagues, his travels, and Campbell himself. The Series includes photographs of Campbell as a child, as a participant in college sports, and on vacation with his family. There are also professional portraits of Campbell, and photographs of such individuals as Christine Eliade, Simon Garrigues, Angela Gregory, C.G. Jung, Einar Palsson, Ed Ricketts, Dick Roberts, Carol Henning Steinbeck, Herbert K. Stone, and Heinrick Zimmer.

Series VIII: Press
1918-87

These files have been subsequently arranged by topic, which includes Awards; Books; Film and Television; Interviews and Profiles; Lectures; Reviews; and a scrapbook of press clippings dating from 1924 to 1944.

The archives are found inside the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division in the Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. Advance notice is required for access.
     

‘The professor’s reading list’

     
I meant to get to this yesterday, but let me send belated happy birthday wishes to the late Joseph Campbell, who would have turned 114 years old on March 26. To mark the anniversary, let me share the professor’s reading list from his days—38 years, actually—teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. This comes courtesy of Mr. David Kudler, publications director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and via goodreads.com, where Mr. Kudler is a librarian. Now read these books before Monday for a group discussion.


Ovid. Metamorphoses.

Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough. One-volume ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.

Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think. Trans. Lilian A. Clare. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books.

Three Contributions to a Theory of Sex. Trans. A. A. Brill. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1962.

Totem and Taboo. Trans. A. A. Brill. New York: Vintage Books, 1950.

Moses and Monotheism. Trans. Katherine A. Jones. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.

Jung, Carl Gustav. Integration of the Personality. Trans. Stanley M. Dell. New York and Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.

The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a foreword and commentary by C. G. Jung. Revised and augmented edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1962.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane: according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English renderings. Compiled and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. The Dance of Ṥiva. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., 1924.

The Bhagavad Gita. Trans. W. J. Johnson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Okakuru, Kazuko. The Book of Tea. Tokyo & New York: Kodansha International.
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen. New York: Pantheon, 1957.

Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. New York: Vintage Books.

Lao-Tze, The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Tao Te Ching). Chinese and English. Trans. D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus. La Salle, Ill: Open Court, 1974.

Sun-Tzu, The Art of War. Trans. Thomas Cleary. Boston: Shambhala.

Confucius. Analects. Trans. and annotated by Arthur Waley. Reprint of 1938 Allen & Unwin edition. London and Boston: Unwin Hyman.

The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot. Trans. Ezra Pound. New York, 1951.

Chiera, Edward. They Wrote in Clay; The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today. Ed. George G. Cameron. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.

Bible, New Testament, Book of Luke.

Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound. Trans. James Scully and C. J. Herrington. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Euripides. Hyppolytus. Trans. Richard Lattimore, In Four Tragedies. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1955.

Alcestis. Trans. William Arrowsmith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus. Trans. and ed. by Luci Berkowitz & Theodore F. Brunner. A Norton Critical Edition. New York, Norton, 1970.

Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. R. Hackforth, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns. Bollingen Series LCXXI. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.

Symposium. Trans. Michael Joyce, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato.

The Koran. Trans. N. J. Dawood. 3rd rev. ed. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1968.

The Portable Arabian Nights. Ed. Joseph Campbell. New York: Viking Books, 1951.

Beowulf. Trans. Lucien Dean Pearson. Ed. Rowland L. Collins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965.

Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Trans. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916. Also, trans. Jean I. Young. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.

Poetic Edda. Trans. Henry Adams Bellows. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1926. Also, trans. Lee N. Hollander. 2nd ed., rev. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962.

The Mabinogion. Trans. Jeffrey Gantz. New York: Dorset Press, 1985.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Pantheon, 1944.

Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932. Also New York: New American Library, 1961.

Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1940.

Mann, Thomas. “Tonio Krøger,” trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter, in Stories of Three Decades. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936.

Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929.

Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians. New York: The American Folklore Society, 1938.

Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.

Stimson, John. E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki. Honolulu: The Museum, 1934.

Melville, Herman. Typee. The Library of America. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, distrib. by the Viking Press, 1982.

Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C. Fox. African Genesis. New York: B. Blom, 1966.

Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture. 2nd ed., rev., with additions. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.

Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. New Paltz, NY: McPherson, 1983.
     

‘A Midsummer’s Night Mythology’

     
New York Mythology Group, the New York City Chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, will take it outside for a night under the stars in Central Park on Wednesday. From the publicity:

A Midsummer’s Night Mythology:

Stories Under the Stars

With Antoine Faddoul

Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m.

Antoine will present stories of the constellations as viewed by different civilizations’ myths, with expressions through artworks, and artifacts. Join us for an enchanting evening. Bring refreshments, if you like.

Meet at Cleopatra’s Needle behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 79th Street.

Antoine Faddoul is a polymath designer, artist, storyteller, and futurist with a multidisciplinary approach combining elements of astronomy, general science, archaeology, history, art, ancient mythology, and linguistics. He has lectured, written, and edited dozens of books, papers, and articles.
     

‘The Hero’s Return’

     
The Joseph Campbell re-releases keep coming. The professor’s biography, originally published in 1990—and has been in and out of print half a dozen times since—has been revised for a new paperback printing. The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work is out now. Amazon offers it for $15.

From the publicity:

New World Library and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are pleased to announce the release of a newly revised and reformatted paperback edition of The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work.

In this volume, Joseph Campbell reflects on subjects ranging from the origins of myth, the role of the artist, and the need for ritual, to the ordeals of love and romance. With poetry and humor, he recounts his own quest and conveys the excitement of a lifelong exploration of the mythic traditions that Campbell called “the one great story of mankind.”

This paperback edition is more “user friendly”—and less expensive—than the oversized, hard to find, hardcover volume.
     

‘The Book of Symbols at Mythology Café’

     

At the meeting next Tuesday of Mythology Cafe, the New York City Roundtable of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, the group will discuss that wonderful publication The Book of Symbols. Written and compiled by skilled hands of the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, and published by Taschen in 2010, The Book of Symbols runs more than 800 pages and delivers hundreds of illustrated lessons on how man has harvested meaningful symbologies from the natural world and ages of human culture. It’s difficult to describe; I’ll have to dig up the review I wrote of it four years ago for some magazine or other. The book is a masterpiece, and I have found it useful countless times in aiding my own understanding of symbolisms in various esoteric contexts. It’s all here: the mystical, the practical, the mythological, the factual, the astral; animal, mineral, vegetable; the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s an amazing document.

The meeting will take place April 1 at Caffe Dante, the historic nook on MacDougal Street near the corner of Bleecker in the Village. Just a block west from our old haunt. Will begin at 7 p.m., and likely conclude at nine. (I am a little anxious to see this new Dante. It closed for renovations three months ago, and I have not seen the new look yet. It was such comfortable and comforting space, with its incredible, illustrious history.... Well, we shall see.)

Courtesy Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York

The organizers ask that we bring our books along, as there will be group discussion. “Choose 3 to 5 images from The Book of Symbols. Subjectively engage with each image/symbol. Prepare to share your critical and intimate encounter(s).”

It’ll be a great night.
     

'The Magpie and the Tavern'

     

As you may have guessed from the slowdown of traffic here on The Magpie, I have stepped back from almost all of my Masonic activities this year to attend to other important things in life, but I hope to be back in 2012. In fact, I'll be back with a vengeance in January, with three speaking engagements in three states in two weeks. (I've been assured this is not illegal.)

I wasn't even going to publicize this event myself, except for a subtle clue at left you probably never noticed, a quick mention on Facebook, and the use of the touchscreen in the lobby of Masonic Hall , but I cannot rely on the museum to get the word out. The Sons of the Revolution e-mailed its newsletter to subscribers, but printed the wrong date and other errors that were minor but still annoying. Fraunces' website still lists events that have passed, and there is no mention of this one yet. And I didn't want to publicize it myself because the point of the lecture is to reach the public, not a bunch of my friends who already know what I'm going to say. Anyway, the museum's newsletter, which did get it right, can be read below, and hopefully it will be linked to its website soon.

In the ten or so years that I have been speaking on Masonic subjects, I have done so only to Masonic audiences, with one exception this April, when I discussed ritual elements, philosophy, and history at the New York City Chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. I broke my own rule because I've been active there for a number of years, and I know the people there to be serious thinkers and students of mythologies, religions, and similar paths of wisdom, so I don't even consider that a general audience. It was more like speaking to a college-level class on a subject they want to know, and I anticipate the same kind of audience at Fraunces Tavern Museum.

Or I would if the museum would kindly tell its members and supporters about it.

In the meantime, here is the Magpie announcement. The major details are in the graphic above. In addition, you should know seating is limited to about 60, and it is not at all unusual for this venue to sell out. NO advance reservations are taken; tickets are sold at the door at $10 per person, so I recommend arriving no later than six o'clock. I take to the podium at 6:30.

By the title of the talk, an informed Mason would know where I'm headed, but I'm hoping this will be news to the public. Drawing from Masonic literature of the Colonial/Revolutionary period, I'll explain what it is that Freemasons mean by our "profession." In addition, I'll sketch a historical picture to clarify the role Masons played, on both sides, of the Revolutionary War, which I suspect will be surprising to those who have the popular notion that all of America's Founding Fathers were Freemasons, and they all were good guys.

Afterward, I'll be downstairs at the wonderful Porterhouse Brewing Co. drinking.

     

'Finding YOU'

     
"A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life."

Joseph Campbell


This evening was the only New York City area screening of a new film titled "Finding Joe," a documentary about the work of Professor Joseph Campbell, the scholar at Vassar who delved into the world's mythologies and religious stories, discovering what he believed to be the single unifying theme found in all those morality tales: the Hero's Journey.

Arguably the most apt example of this is that first Star Wars movie from 1977. Consider the plot and you'll have the Hero's Journey concept, because George Lucas very deliberately assembled the story in accord with Campbell's teachings in his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." Luke Skywalker, a boy of uncertain parentage, suffers a life-changing shock which propels him, reluctantly, forth into the dangerous world (or galaxy, as this story has it). He meets with an older figure, someone to mentor him, and together they travel to places unimaginable. The mentor equips his apprentice with special tools, and schools him in their esoteric uses. The apprentice suffers the loss of his master, and must continue the adventure without him, relying on himself and what he has learned. He does battle with an enemy thought unbeatable, and even is swallowed whole by a monster, before conquering the enemy, achieving his goal, and returning to the world he had left in the innocence of his youth.

To strip this theme to its skeleton robs it of much of its appeal, but think of how many of man's stories adhere to that very formula. It's the life of Jesus, the dream of Dorothy, the quest of Frodo, the lessons of so many Greek myths. There's no limit to its application, because a story's time and place are only incidental; what matters is the story is true to each of us. Your psychology or my psychology or anyone's can be grafted onto the fundamental theme of the Hero's Journey to tell our own unique epics. Each of us has a paralyzing fear to confront and defeat as a necessary part of growth, and indeed achieving happiness. At the end of this film, it is explained that "Finding Joe" is not the documentarian's search for this famous man named Joe, but as a title, "Finding Joe" is only a rhetorical device synonymous with you finding yourself; you identifying your fundamental purpose in life, and then surpassing all internal obstacles (fear and other emotions that produce our excuses and procrastinations) to achieve your goals.

The tagline in the film's marketing quotes Campbell saying "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." An urgent lesson for anyone, but especially for those who have come in the same way and manner as all others before.

The various people interviewed in the film phrase these concepts far more creatively than I have here, and so I urge you to see "Finding Joe," and even to arrange to screen it for your brethren. This edition of The Magpie Mason is a rare commercial endorsement, so click here to purchase the $20 DVD. (My movie ticket at Symphony Space cost me $22!) The running time is only 80 minutes, but the impact of the wisdom imparted will leave you with a different understanding of any number of Masonic rituals, from the Sublime Degree to Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. All of those rites in which Masonic Man is sent forth on a quest owe their existence to this amazing anthropological dynamic Joseph Campbell discerned in the world's religions and mythologies.

"A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life."

Don't let Campbell's Hero's Journey displace any of the moral and esoteric understandings of Masonic degrees you hold already, but just make some room for another shelf amid your stock of knowledge.
    

‘Masonic Café?’

    

As promised on The Magpie Mason way back in 2010, yours truly will be the evening’s lecturer at the April 20 meeting of the New York Mythology Group. Our group is the New York City Chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and among its regular activities are these monthly discussions, collectively known as Mythology Café, or perhaps for this one evening, Masonic Café.


The topic, unsurprisingly, will be Freemasonry, consisting of a summary of the fraternity’s complicated history, with explanations of the spiritual aspects of Masonic ritual and symbol. Mindful of the audience demographic, the speaker will anticipate pointed curiosity of Masonic tenets, practices, and even the vast diversity of lodges in New York City.

We’ll meet at 7 p.m. at our usual haunt, Ciao Stella, located at 206 Sullivan St. in Manhattan, between Bleecker and Third streets in the Village.

Membership in the New York Mythology Group is open to all, and you should formally join us if you plan to attend this event because we need your reservations. Seating at Ciao Stella is somewhat limited – it’s a pretty small place – and it is not unusual for Mythology Café to fill the room. Since management allows us to take over the restaurant, it is expected we all contribute toward the night’s receipts, so even if you don’t want to order a full meal, at least have a drink or something. (I’ll be having a few.)

   

‘Never too early’

    
And from our Never Too Early to Plan Ahead Department....

In April of next year, the Magpie Mason will be the guest lecturer at Mythology Café, the New York City Chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Date TBA. Mythology Café meets at Ciao Stella Restaurant, located at 206 Sullivan St., between Bleecker and Third streets, in Manhattan.

The topic, unsurprisingly, will be Freemasonry, consisting of a summary of the fraternity’s complicated history, with explanations of the spiritual aspects of Masonic ritual and symbol. Mindful of the audience demographic, the speaker will anticipate pointed curiosity of Masonic tenets, practices, and even the vast diversity of lodges in New York City.

    

‘Mythology and Mysticism’

    
Mythology Cafe, the New York City chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, met for its monthly dinner-lecture last night, despite the disruption in the neighborhood caused by the visit of President Obama across the street. Our topic was “Mythology and Mysticism” in a conversation capably led by Morrin Bass, one of the principals of the New York Awareness Center.

The understanding of mysticism presented at Mythology Cafe causes me to concentrate especially intently to follow what is being said, as one might if conversing with a person whose primary language is foreign. It is a language barrier I encounter almost every time I attend these meetings. This is not because I’m any kind of ascetic follower of a messiah (I am far more interested in the messages than the messengers), but because I think I see the group’s terminology as the product of modern innovating; it is mostly a pastiche of Jungian psychology and what I can only call “New Age” self-improvement. I am not complaining – and it must be remembered we’re part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation! – but I always think there is a larger context that goes unmentioned or even missed.

In leading our discussion, Dr. Bass explained the purposes of mythology and mysticism, saying, in part, that both are necessary in the communication between the subconscious and the conscious, a process that is essential to those who want to change themselves, which she said is the essence of spirituality. Myths are stories that transcend space and time, using universal archetypes to reach each person on an individual level.

Mysticism, if I understood her correctly, offers a means to affect reality.

Tapping into a modern story to illustrate how transcending time and space can alter contemporary reality, she reminded us of the more serious implications of Back to the Future.

The very popular comedy is a fun movie, for sure, but also one that depicts a youth, with the aid of a wizard-figure, who journeys back through time to “tweak” the character of his father and reshape the present. “It’s up to us what to take as reality,” she said. “Our past can be our future. Our future could be our past.” Persephone, Orpheus, Beowulf, and others were cited as examples of ageless stories of transcending existence.

My own understanding of mysticism is best expressed by the great F.E. Peters, a favorite professor during my university days. From his book Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: The Works of the Spirit, excerpted:

Mysticism is sometimes taken as the esoteric understanding of God and His works given to a few chosen souls, or as the immediate apprehension of, and even identity with, God Himself. In either case, mysticism found a profound, if occasionally troubled, place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The sources of the trouble are not far to seek. For one thing, such a privileged understanding seemed to create ‘a church within a church,’ an elite group of believers who, if they did not often trouble those latter members of the flock, certainly troubled their shepherds. And among some of the adepts, their special understanding, their ‘gnosis,’ which they at least thought was more profound, and perhaps even more authentic, than that possessed by the ordinary believer, had the effect of reducing what might be called ‘ordinary revelation’ to an inferior status and, as an occasional corollary, of freeing the adept from the ‘ordinary observance’ prescribed by that other, public revelation. And finally, the mystic’s intuitive leap into the neighborhood, or even the very bosom, of God seemed to violate one of the most profound and strongly held beliefs of the three monotheistic faiths, that in the utter transcendence, the absolute otherness, of God.

Professor Peters’ take on mysticism surely is not foreign to Freemasonry, certain avenues of which are traveled by brethren who discern in its rituals and symbols secrets they appropriate for themselves. I admit to being guilty of this to an extent, but the position held by myself and those like me is not necessarily of our own making. When a member of a private society that exists to explore morality, eschatology, and other adult concerns always is surrounded by fellow members who offer nothing but “kid tested, mother approved” frivolity, even his simple sincerity in studying the rituals and lectures can make him look like an isolated hermit by comparison. He may resign himself to that identity, or embrace it, but it is not entirely of his own creation.

“If a man knows more than others,
he becomes lonely.”

  

C.G. Jung

Everybody should be actuated by both an acknowledgement of a need for self-improvement, and by a strong desire to work toward and achieve that development. I have to do a better job of understanding that there are different methods and language others employ toward that end.

The next meeting of Mythology Cafe will take place Wednesday, August 11 at 7 p.m. at Ciao Stella, located on Sullivan Street, between Bleecker and Third. The topic will be “The Evolution of Religious Belief.” Click here for a description of the topic.

    

‘The King and Jung’

   

The Ardagh Chalice, from Ireland, c. 8th century CE.

I have missed too many meetings of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s New York City Chapter this year, but that wasn’t going to happen Wednesday night, when a trip uptown was scheduled to enjoy a lecture at the 92nd Street Y. The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology sponsored “C.G. Jung and the Mythology of King Arthur,” for which Dr. Beth Darlington, professor of English at Vassar College, skillfully explained the Arthurian legends in the Jungian context. She also is a board member of the Foundation’s Jung Institute of New York, which trains mental health professionals in Jungian analysis, and she herself is a psychoanalyst in private practice.

Janet M. Careswell, Executive Director of the C.G. Jung Foundation, introduces Professor Beth Darlington, with her own Grail, to discuss Jung and the Mythology of King Arthur at the 92nd Street Y in New York City December 3.

When examining the psychological aspects of the rituals and symbols of Freemasonry, it is inevitable that Jung’s ideas – for example, on archetypes, individuation and the collective unconscious – will factor into one’s studies, even unintentionally. And when examining Jung himself, one learns of the importance he placed on the myths inspired by the legendary King Arthur, how elements of the stories gratified his theories on the psyche.

But anyway, when viewing these legends and considering them as “cultural dreams,” the Masonic eye can’t help but see thematic connections. There are far better sources to read about the Arthurian legends than I could provide myself, so without getting into too much detail – and there are many trails to follow in different directions – I’ll quickly sketch what I think are the two main branches of the myth.

Joseph of Arimatheaea, as painted by a monk 
of the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov
in Norfolk, England.

1. The Grail is the chalice from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, and into which His blood was collected during the Crucifixion, and which was brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathaea. Christians know this symbol in their Eucharist.

The Last Supper inspired King Arthur's Round Table. Thanks to Michelangelo, we think of the table at the Last Supper as rectangular, with Christ and the Apostles improbably seated on one side, facing us. But pre-Renaissance understandings of the scene place all participants at a round table.

2. The Grail is not a vessel at all, but is a stone, possibly an emerald which had fallen from Satan’s possession during his fight with God. From this understanding, it also could be construed as the Philosopher’s Stone of Alchemy.

Either way, it is the subject of The Quest. In his own travels, Masonic Man ventures from East to West in search of That Which Was Lost.

Here are the other Grail-Craft parallels that appear to me:

There is a theory that Arthur himself is based on King Athelstan, to whom Masonic legends, dating nearly as far back as the dawn of the Arthurian myth itself, attribute Masonic parentage.

A temple is built on the Mountain of Salvation for the purpose of housing the Grail, and an Order of Grail Knights is formed. The Grail keeper is a king. Solomon built his temple on Mt. Moriah for the purpose of housing the Ark and providing his people a religious centrality. He is king, but there is a priestly Order.

This king suffers a wound; he survives but is in agony. His torment causes his idyllic land to degenerate into the Waste Land. In other words, the leader suffers an act of violence, and in the absence of his leadership, there is confusion and suffering. The return of the Grail restores peace and harmony.

The Grail, as a vessel, has the power to nourish the peoples of the Waste Land. It is bottomless. Think Cornucopia.

Three seekers succeed in finding the Grail, with varying degrees of success. There is Galahad, the virtuous knight; Perceval, the Fool character; and Bors, the ordinary man. All three are present the final time the Grail is used ritually. This takes place in the Heavenly City in the East.

There is a ritual question that must be asked by the true quester: Whom does the Grail serve? In other versions, the question is: What ails you? The answering of these questions allows the wounded king to recover (but die in peace) and for the waters of the land to return to the Waste Land, restoring its beauty and bounty.

Throughout, there are noticable opposites and dualities. There are events in the East and West. Themes intertwine Christian and pagan beliefs. Human and divine. Good and evil. Males and females are at odds. "Only conscious compassion can heal these divisions," said Professor Darlington. That compassion is that ritual question, the asking of which triggers the rebirth of the Waste Land, not very different from how the loss of the Word throws the workmen into chaos until the giving of the substitute, upon the highly symbolic Five Points of Fellowship, allows for the completion of KST.

One final note for you neo-Templars: In at least one Grail legend, the Knights Templar themselves appear as guardians of the Grail Castle. Their suppression in the early 14th century had the effect of almost outlawing the Grail myths, which had to be perpetuated sub rosa.