Joseph Campbell | The Sun Magazine

Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell is a world-renowned scholar and lecturer who stands in the forefront of the study of mythology.

— From September 1986
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

The Hero’s Journey

A Talk By Joseph Campbell

There comes a point, a threshold crossing, where everything that you’ve been taught is of no use to you whatsoever. This is the moment of dismemberment, of divestiture. It is symbolized in such mythological images as Jonah swallowed by the whale, the god Osiris torn to pieces, the crucifixion of Christ. The trip is going to take you, if it is really your trip, to the moment of decision: follow your way or follow the way of prudence. That is the breakthrough. And what follows are trials which become greater and greater and greater until you come down to an ultimate abyss, and the experience you were seeking.

September 1986
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