[caption id="attachment_19409" align="aligncenter" width="720"] At the Still Point (Pinwheel Galaxy by ESA/Hubble Telescope. Used under a Creative Commons license)[/caption] At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Deleted: Neither from nor...

[caption id="attachment_19326" align="aligncenter" width="799"] "Enough is a feast" by Arul Irudayam. Used through a Creative Commons license[/caption] Here in America, November marks the celebration of Thanksgiving, and we at JCF have adopted the theme of...

[caption id="attachment_19189" align="alignleft" width="300"] Scar (photo by Daniel Pasikov; used though a Creative Commons license)[/caption] Scars are curious things given an even more curious name: the word scar is derived from the Greek word eschara,...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="335"] Statue of a skeleton as the Grim Reaper (Trier Cathedral, German, c. thirteenth century; photo by Jbuzzbee, used through a Creative Commons license)[/caption] The exploration of death in this MythBlast is...

This month at JCF we are entertaining the theme of harvest. I’m not imagining a solely agrarian notion through which to explore that theme, but rather am  also referring to the harvesting of the fruits...

In the field and scope of mythology, those of us who think or work in and around myth often discuss the apparent absence of a contemporary mythology. In conversation, Joseph Campbell sometimes noted that we...

The Nothing That Is Not There and the Nothing That Is Pt. I: The Hobgoblin of Doubt We all know about things. In fact, we all know a lot of things about a lot of...

Resurrecting the Hobgoblin of Doubt [caption id="attachment_17306" align="alignleft" width="203"] Daphne transforming to escape Apollo — from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Painting by Piero del Pollaiolo, Italy, fifteenth century. Public domain.)[/caption] We love our myths, don’t we? We...

In his 1944 preface to A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, Joseph Campbell calls Joyce’s book “…a kind of terminal moraine in which lie buried all the myths, programs, slogans, hopes, prayers, tools, educational theories,...

The Romance of Tristan and Iseult - Artist's representation of a 14th Century Tapestry The theme for the month of September at the Joseph Campbell Foundation is “Timeless Tales,” and what tales are more timeless...

MythBlast | The Radiant, Reordering Force of Art In a 1907 letter to his wife, Clara (a fine artist and sculptor in her own right, who had studied with, among others, Auguste Rodin), Rainer Maria...

I’ve been thinking a lot about this month’s theme at JCF, the theme of independence, reflecting on Joseph Campbell’s often bold, independent nature, and what it means to become an independent human being. As Campbell...

As you know, this month JCF is celebrating James Joyce, who was an important influence on the work of Joseph Campbell, and continues to be an important influence for many of my colleagues and friends affiliated...

Today, May 29, 2018, the date of the first full moon in May, is the day of celebration for the birth of the Buddha called Vesak. Mythology has it that on the night the Buddha...

This week I want to continue the exploration of what, in her MythBlast last week, Dr. Melander called "the use of myth." The uses of myth are as various as they are abundant, and exert...

Today, March 20th, is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere! Here in Flagstaff spring will arrive at exactly 9:15 AM, in accordance with a common tradition in the Northern Hemisphere of placing...

Last week JCF, through its new arrangement with Amazon, made available a new digital edition of Joseph Campbell’s The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension. As I have remarked recently in this very...

Yesterday, January 15th, we in the U.S. celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This federal holiday, declared by Ronald Reagan, was established in 1983. Other cities in the U.S. had been honoring Dr. King since...

The title of this MythBlast is borrowed from the title of this Mark Strand poem: ______ Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of the light. You wake and the candles...

Meister Eckhart, a German theologian born in the mid-13th century, once remarked that if the only prayer one ever uttered was “thank you,” that would be enough.  Eckhart reminds us of how important it may...

The Joseph Campbell Foundation is releasing a new e-publication entitled Art as Revelation, one of the last pieces that Campbell wrote and finished before his death. As David Kudler remarks in his Editor’s Note at the end of...

In Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery wrote, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” I understand her sentiment; oaks, maples, sumac are everywhere ablaze, the morning air is crisp...

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 20th, Rosh Hashana begins at sunset. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year marks the time for inner reflection, atonement, and renewal. Rosh Hashana literally means head (or beginning) of the year, and on this day it is...