Standing Stones

Joseph Campbell Mythology Group discussion page. Joseph Campbell Mythology Group Home Page. Mythology Calendar Message Thread Archive CHATS Regular Chat Every Saturday. 11:00 PM (US/Eastern Daylight Savings Time Specially Scheduled Chats None at present. This section updated as warranted. Click TimeandDate.com to find time in your area. TimeandDate.com Contents Regular Features New Members Coming Events Insight This Issue Member Snapshot What Color is The Hero's Parachute? - Unemployment as a Mythic Journey Featured Image: Sheila Ashlin, Flying with the Thunderhorse	Featured Image Flying with the Thunderhorse Copyright, Sheila Ashlin. See more of Sheila Ashlin's mythology inspired art at Art By Ashlin. Founder's Note Welcome to the fist edition in Volume 2 of Standing Stones, the group's bi-monthly (more or less) journal and newsletter. The next edition is planned for May 2002. We're a Group. We survived being Group-ified or whatever it was, with only minor scrapes and bumps. Kupina'i had a package of information on standby, ready to send out to members as soon as conversion happened. This helped explain the similarities and differences between the "Club" format and the "Group" format and eased the transtion. The first "gathering" of the Joseph Campbell Mythology Group will be held June 28-29 in Monterey, CA in conjunction with two seminars by The Center for Story and Symbol and Jonathan Young. Attend a seminar or just visit Monterey and meet your fellow JCMG members. Meet the people behind the posts. See Post #6578 for more details. JCMG Resources. Group resources include our website, which offers links to mythic sites around the web and a useful book list of suggested reading. Submissions: Group members are invited to submit the following to Standing Stones: Myth-related quotes, links, images; poems (20-30 lines), articles/essays (500-600 words); reviews of books, movies, songs; or notice of events such as seminars, lectures, exhibits, and workshops. Please, send submissions to ruhdwulf at heartofthesky@yahoo.com. Enjoy! kupina'i and ruhdwulf, Co-founders New Members New members since the last issue include the following Yahoo IDs: acboucho, actionstockton, agasga, alanmorgan1958, alimaefin, anitalisica8, antoniolasombra, artisancorp2001, atomik2010, birminghamguy1, blackwoman78, bluejake2, brother_to_the_night_kc, buddymaguire, calvins2, chijan, cflexman, crackerjaxon, derekbrown252001, djmcnerney, doyle_moore, flute000, followbliss2000, galacticapublishing, galleonepub, grip08850, hayley9992002, h_brydon, hopiwater, isil_tindomerel, isisemerging, jakreven, joanorjb, johnkirbywoods, joni_33028, kalisara_gypsy, kerrie_perrina, lady_of_darkness369, lrdfamine, luciogq, magic66604, malcolmh2002, mcgeejeremya, mohsen_pooya, m0r1ah, mysteryman2999, mysticambrosia333, nickororke, niltsi, nonagesimus, onewithspirit_7, opal1994, ozarkdamsell, penkhullstokie, raakaamon, rocinantae, selkiedaughter, shadi_2050, shaharazad_3, spycraft9, tashenubaste, tasmasheldiablo, technotelemachus, thebostonrag1973, theheretic34116, the_pinna, thewench8, th0mps0nr, waverly_25, xiang_shui5, xxnomeatxx, and xx_outlawx_xx. Welcome to all of you! Under Discussion The new Group format now allows for searching the message archive by keyword, so this feature will be discontinued. The pre-Group archive will still be available. Insight "Since my barn burned completely to the ground, now I can see the moon" Taoist saying. "Mythology is defeated when the mind rests solemnly with its favorite or traditional images, defending them as though they themselves were the message that they communicate. These images are to be regarded as no more than shadows from the unfathomable reach beyond, where the eye goeth not, speech goeth not, nor the mind, nor even piety. Like the trivialities of dream, those of myth are big with meaning." Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, p. 270. >>> Top of Page >>>
Co-Founders, Joseph Campbell Mythology Group: kupina'i, ruhdwulf Editors: kupian'i, ruhdwulf Contributing Editors: bodhibliss, isis1037 © 2001, Joseph Campbell Mythology Group. All rights for orignial material revert to the authors. Permission is granted for brief quotations from this web publication for research or review with proper attribution of the author and the source, otherwise this article may not be used in whole or part without the permission of the respective authors. Copyrighted material used herein is for brief purposes of quoting only and is attributed to its source. If you discover copyrighted material used without permission or attribution, please notify the editors so that the error may be corrected or the material removed. Send comments or suggestions to ruhdwulf at heartofthesky@yahoo.com Statement of Purpose: This journal/newsletter is intended to provide the members with a means of staying current with group activities, to share knowledge about our common interest in mythology and, in doing so, encourage a greater sense of community and participation.	Coming Events Symbolism of Fairytales. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 1. San Fernando Valley, CA. Through the Dark Forest. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 2. San Fernando Valley, CA The Psychology of Creativity. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 5, Palm Springs, CA. The Search for Meaning. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 6, Palm Springs, CA. The Psychology of Creativity. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 19, Marin, CA. Symbolism of Fairytales. The Center for Story and Symbol. April 20. Marin, CA. Through the Dark Forest. The Center for Story and Symbol. May 10. Anaheim, CA The Search for Meaning. The Center for Story and Symbol. May 11. Anaheim, CA. The Search for Meaning. The Center for Story and Symbol. June 28. Monterey, CA. ($40 off tuition for JCMG members.) The Psychology of Creativity. The Center for Story and Symbol. June 29, Monterey, CA. ($40 off tuition for JCMG members.) Joseph Campbell Mythology Group "Gathering". June 28-29. Monterey, CA. See Post #6578 for more details. >>> Top of Page >>> Member Snapshot - ruhdwulf Real Name: : Michael Gender: Male Occupation: Technical Writer, Information Technology Age: 52 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Education Background: "A Bachelor's in Journalism and an M.A. in English from the University of Missouri. An M.F.A. in poetry from the Writer's Workshop at The University of Iowa. An M.A. in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University." Favorite mythology: "Celtic, Norse, Greek, Native American, Egyptian." Favorite myth: "I like Odin hanging on the Tree of Life, Persephone, Orpheus, Cuchulain, Osiris." Favorite reference/source book(s): "The four volume Masks of God and Encyclopedia of Gods." Favorite book(s) with a mythic theme: "In no particular order... The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain), The Jungle Book, Huckleberry Finn, Heart of Darkness, The Catcher in the Rye, Leaves of Grass, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Little Prince... okay, I have to stop now." Favorite movie(s) with a mythic theme:"Again in no particular order... Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars (the middle trilogy), Apocalypse Now,Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, Into the West, The Secret of Roan Inish, Vanishing Point, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, Ghost Dog, Saving Private Ryan, Lawrence of Arabia. I could go on, but I think I'd better stop." How long have you been interested in myth and symbol? "I always enjoyed the stories... legends, fairy tales, and folk tales... but everything came together in about 1975 with a graduate course in Mythology and Literature that introduced me to Campbell and Jung." What first got you interested in myth and symbol? "The aforementioned class in mythology." Quote: "Everything begins and ends at exactly the right moment." -- Picnic at Hanging Rock >>> Top of Page >>>
	What Color is the Hero's Parachute? - Unemployment as a Mythic Journey By widowson11 I was jobless when I read Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces for the first time. But there is one luxury that an unemployed person has - Time, and lots of it - and thus I was able to read, cogitate and re-read the work before following Campbell's advice to always chase up associated books and authors suggested by the original work. It was by doing this that I came to Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey and, being myself a writer with an interest in movies, was delighted to find a book about both subjects and their connection with the Hero's Journey. It opened up new worlds for me because within it I found not only a clarification of the mythic journey as identified by Campbell but also Vogler's suggestion that the truth inherent within the Hero's Journey means that it can be applied to any situation in everyday life. It took only seconds for me to realise that, in contrast to the so-called normal world of full employment, my increasingly hopeless and shrinking universe of job applications, reduced finances and welfare payments represented a classical unfamiliar "Special World" into which I had been catapaulted without even the chance of a first refusal. Forget the movies, I WAS Luke Skywalker, Andy Dufresne, Josey Wales, Michael Corleone... Although some Campbellite purists may disagree, Vogler has done a major service to would-be novelists and screenwriters of today by refining Campbell's nineteen episodes of the archetypal journey to the following twelve. Ordinary World Call to Adventure Refusal of the Call The Mentor Appears Inside the Special World (First Threshold) Being Tested/Identifying Allies & Enemies Preparation and Approaching the Inmost Cave (Second Threshold) The Supreme Ordeal Reward The Road Back Resurrection The Return Vogler's book illustrates how these episodes form the basis of most successful movie scripts and it was these clearly recognisable steps that I now applied to my situation. I will not bore readers with the minutiae of my personal circumstances but, adopting Campbell's and Vogler's books as Mentor-tokens, I quickly identified the Guardian of the Threshold (per Step 6) that stood in the way of any job I applied for. The person to whom I sent my application and whom, presumably, would initially interview me was the Guardian I had to bypass and, in a flash of inspiration, I realised that the grail I sought was not the job but attaining an interview. Suddenly the goalposts were changed and my job applications took on a whole new character. If I could succeed at passing a first interview, a second interview might well happen but at least the Reward would still be in sight, so in the first instance all my energy and wiles had to be concentrated on getting an interview. And shortly after, whether through the new style of application letters I was now sending out (I had studied my armoury and acquired a few new weapons - per Step 7) or by pure coincidence, I was offered an interview. Of course, conducting a good interview is a skill in itself, because the person with the job has to believe that they are in charge. But the hero knows otherwise. The interviewer is a Guardian of the Threshold and has to be bypassed by whatever means the hero has at his or her disposal (although I have found that the threat of physical violence is not an option that works). Thus, a major weakness of any interviewer is their lack of awareness that they are a Threshold Guardian in a cosmically important drama and this the hero must exploit. My interview was dazzling. I thrust and parried, I mirrored and stroked, I scattered coins of relevance and I listened intently when the Guardian spoke of his own views and experience. I walked out a self-anointed hero who knew he had chosen the right key to fit the "Lock of Impenetrable Impasse" and so was understandably devastated when told I had been unsuccessful in a phone call the next day. Talk about shock. I won't bore you with the damp details of it but I will tell you that within 24 hours, having re-read parts of Campbell and Vogler and concluding that there was no way in which I could have been wrong, I headed off for a lesson in saw-sharpening as Stephen Covey would say (I highly recommend his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People also). I had reinspected my armoury and concluded that my interview skills must have been faulty somewhere. Covey says that keeping the saw sharp, i.e. keeping our skills and abilities current and up to a high standard, is vitally important, and here was a weapon of mine that hadn't been as effective as I had imagined. And who was the only person who could tell me exactly where the fault lay? The Guardian of the Threshold of course, the one I hadn't been able to bypass - and was he shocked when I reappeared! To my question of why had I not been successful, I received the stock answer that the best candidate had won, but my next question threw him. I told him that I needed to know where my interviewing strengths and weaknesses lay and asked if he could help by telling me so I could do some work on them in preparation for future interviews. There was an unnaturally long silence and then instead of an answer I was asked if I would like to do some part-time work over Christmas. In brief, I said yes, was taken on for a day's trial during which, unbeknown to me, staff around me were questioned about my performance, and at the close of the day was offered a permanent job for a 5-day-week vacancy that had only just occurred (the previous interview had been for a 4-day week position). All I can say is that in 1998 Christmas came early for my family and I after nearly four years of unemployment and I have now been in the job for over three years, having worked my way up to Assistant Manager. But in terms of the Hero's Journey, how did I get past the Threshold Guardian and attain the boon? On the surface, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, but if I hadn't reapproached the interviewer as a result of using the Hero's Journey template, I would not have been invited to undertake this Guardian's "Trial by Experience". Like Goethe says, take action and the universe moves into place behind you. But that wasn't the end of the story. As I mentioned earlier, when I am not at work I write and, enthused by my success and Vogler's exhortation that the Hero's Journey can be applied to any situation in life, I decided to start writing a book for the unemployed on how to apply the twelve steps of the Journey to their situation. Although I had been successful at getting past the Threshold Guardian and attaining the Reward very soon after applying the tenets of the Hero's Journey, I had subsequently worked out how the other steps could be applied to the search for new employment. But although I had lots of material about the mythic journey and its application to draw on, as well as relevant and contemporary self-help material by people such as Covey, Charles Handy and others, I quickly realised that if I was to claim I had a successful method to help the jobless find work then I had to at least be aware of other workers in the field. To be honest, there wasn't - and still is not - an overwhelming number, but that's because, as I discovered, Richard Bolles had got there first. And who is Richard Bolles some of you may ask. My only retort can be What Color is Your Parachute? The first notable thing about this annually produced bestseller is that in a Library of Congress poll of 3,000 readers, it proved itself as one of the 25 books that had most shaped people's lives. It's up there with The Bible, War and Peace and The Wizard of Oz, the only business book on the list. But the most remarkable thing about the book is that it successfully offers the jobless hero a revolutionary third way to employment - one that has an 86% success rate. And once I had read the book I realised why. Whether he knew it or not, Richard Bolles's book follows the Hero's Journey - just as I had identified it - and the tens of thousands who have successfully applied Bolles's ideas have been heroes who have captured a Reward that they have carried back to the everyday world, following a mythic path that has existed on this planet since human life began. Apart from self-employment, the only option for a jobless person prior to the Parachute Book's appearance was the "Traditional Job Hunt" - what Bolles describes as a matching game where the jobless person attempts to stay in the line of work they have always been in. Excellent practical advice is given by Bolles for those following both of those paths, but it is the unique "Life Changing Job Hunt" identified in the book and successfully applied by thousands, that blew my socks off; a method that aids the job-hunter in establishing their own boon, their own career grail-prize, and then helps them prepare in detail for the Hero's Journey that will attain it. Of course, such a journey if full of risks but Bolles points out that as one cannot avoid them, the adventurer sets out in advance to make them manageable, the same principle behind Steps 6 and 7 of the Journey as set out above. In fact, much of the Parachute Book is taken up by Steps 5-8 of the Hero's Journey as the job-hunter is already at Step 4, within the Special World of unemployment, when the need for a Mentor - and I highly recommend Bolles's book for this purpose - arises. And it is not only a single Hero's Journey that a jobless person faces. Every interview, every step towards self-employment or a dream job is a Mini Hero's Journey of its own and must be treated as such, whilst those around the would-be hero - partners and family in particular - are also forced into their own journies through the situation they find themselves part of, often becoming guardians or even temporary enemies in the process. Bolles really breaks some interesting new ground when he invokes the Myth of Osiris as a tool for ascertaining one's skills and abilities, although it is highly unlikely that this former priest was aware that he was doing so. (A strong and admirable Christian belief underlies Bolles's work although it only makes an appearance in one clearly flagged chapter and in no way affects the practical nature and applicability of the book for non-Christians) In the search for his or her dream job, the Parachute candidate has to know themself perfectly, warts and all, and Bolles has them call Osiris, Set and Isis symbolically into play. In the ancient myth Osiris was dismembered by his jealous brother Set who scattered the pieces across the land, and it was left to their loving sister Isis (also wife to Osiris) to recover and put them back together which, in one version of the legend, she succeeds in doing. In the Parachute book, the job-hunter (Osiris) is given the means to break their transferrable skills and talents right down to the basics. To do this, the job-hunter's rational objective mind (Set) must be brought into play for if they depend on their feelings, their subjective side (Isis), the job will not be done properly. One of the most depressing things I was told whilst unemployed was that I was no longer a manager but a mere unemployed person who possessed a few management skills, yet I eventually recognised that it was true, admitted it to myself and was actually motivated by it. If we are to undertake a quest of any type we must know exactly what our strengths and weaknesses are and Set supplies us with a way to do this. Isis's turn will come later when the future Hero reassembles themself in preparation for Step 8, the Supreme Ordeal. Bolles is also very big on allies and we all know that Luke Skywalker could not have freed Leia if Han Solo and Chewbacca hadn't been with him as allies. "The more people you know, the more people you meet, the more people you talk to, the more people you enlist as part of your own personal job-hunting network the better your job-finding success is likely to be," says Bolles. My identification of the interviewer as a Threshold Guardian is also verified by Bolles who offers some excellent insights about interview situations garnered from those who have successfully applied his book (did you know employers only ask about your past in order to try and predict what your future behaviour will be). He describes interviewers throughout the book as the "person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you", and, as preparation for the job-hunter's encounter with them, suggests ways in which the candidate can assess the weaponry and defence strategies they will face - true Hero's Journey stuff. But Bolles goes further and suggests that a person's dream job can also be shielded by such a Guardian even though the job doesn't officially exist - at least not yet. And here is where Bolles proves so unique, by presenting a Reward that can't be won by the Hero because it has to be actually brought into existence by the Hero. Yet, in reality it has successfully happened for thousands of people using Bolles's book, proof that the Life Changing Job Search is no idealistic chimera. The Supreme Ordeal may come as an interview or perhaps as a trial period in, or as the first months of, a new job; perhaps in replacing someone who was very effective in their job or very much loved; perhaps as the first years of struggle in a self-employment situation. Time is not uniform in such situations and it must be remembered that as much danger awaits on the Return Journey (Steps 10 and 11) as in the early stages. And as with any Hero's Journey so in successful job-hunting something usually has to be sacrificed - perhaps old working methods or mind-sets, high expectations or previous salary levels, a much-loved geographical locality because a move is necessary, professional or personal relationships, fringe benefits, self-image, etc. But for the Hero the Reward always makes such sacrifice acceptable and it is a Reward that often benefits more than just the individual who took the risks and made the sacrifice. The applied Hero's Journey works because it is true to universal principles and the success of Richard Bolles's What Color is Your Parachute? proves the point, even if the author was unaware of applying such principles when producing the work. As George Bernard Shaw said "The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." This is the way of the Hero and it is the way of Bolles's book. Long may it prosper. Steve Roberts ©2002, Steve Roberts. Material used with the author's permission. Permission is granted for brief quotations from this article for research or review with proper attribution of the author and the source, otherwise this article may not be used in whole or part without the permission of the author. About the Author Steve Roberts posts on the Joseph Campbell Mythology Group as widowson11. Steve is a former publisher and magazine Editor with an interest in mythologies and the Western Mystery Traditions. >>> Top of Page >>> Poetry Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.