Campbell quote for young parents?

Are you looking for a quotation that you can't quite place? Trying to track down a hard-to-find publication? Here, folks can help you find the answers, or discuss ways for you to discover them for yourself.

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Martin_Weyers
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Campbell quote for young parents?

Post by Martin_Weyers »

I'm searching for a Campbell quote that relates to babies and / or parents: parenthood as a way of transformation, sacrificing one's life to a new being, the ritual of birth, etc. etc.

Would like to share it with a young a couple and their newborn. Any ideas?

Naturally, something stressing the pleasant (rather than the nerve-wracking) aspects of parenthood and coming into being would be preferred ...
Works of art are indeed always products of having been in danger, of having gone to the very end in an experience, to where man can go no further. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Nermin
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Re: Campbell quote for young parents?

Post by Nermin »

Martin_Weyers wrote:I'm searching for a Campbell quote that relates to babies and / or parents: parenthood as a way of transformation, sacrificing one's life to a new being, the ritual of birth, etc. etc.
Martin,
Family relations are intriguing but it's difficult for me to assume that any middle
class parent is a hero. Sometimes people sacrifice their individuality to the
benefit of a particular relationship and Campbell points out that it is slightly
different than sacrifice per se to the 'other'.
Aren't there also selfish parents who think of their children as a source of prestige,
who 'invest' in them and who love them because they're 'theirs'? :(
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Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

This was a tough one, Martin, and I did devote some time to looking. What I settled on was this bit of Campbellian advice for a new family: We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. What do you think?

Cindy
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Nermin
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Post by Nermin »

'A marriage is a relationship.
When you make a sacrifice in marriage, you’re not sacrificing to the ‘other’,
you’re sacrificing to the relationship.
You’re no longer ‘this’ but you’re (now) the relationship.
And marriage is an ordeal –sacrifice of the ego to the relationship of two-ness’
That’s all that I can remember, folks; there has to be a much more comprehensive
discussion between Moyers and Campbell about marriage somewhere in PoM but
he agrees and appreciates that motherhood is a totally different story, a totally different
kind of relation, too :)
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Martin_Weyers
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Post by Martin_Weyers »

Thank you very much, Cindy and Nermin, for your considerate response! I love the quotes about relationship and blissful living (though not necessarily related to parenthood).

Here's another interesting one, related to the relation between mother and child. (Thanks to Jeff, our Mythological RoundTable® leader in Newnan, Georgia!
The woman with her baby is the basic image of mythology. The first experience of anybody is the mother's body. [...]

The earth and the whole universe, as our mother, carries this experience into the larger sphere of adult experience. When one can feel oneself in relation to the universe in the same complete and natural way as that of the child with the mother, one is in complete harmony and tune with the universe. -- Joseph Campbell, MYTHOS I
In my memory I’m relating this quote to the „ritual“ of putting the baby on mother’s belly. I thaught Campbell is referring somewhere to this usage, but I couln’t found that part of the quote, neither in MYTHOS nor in the books (The Transformation of Myth through Time & The Power of Myth).

It’s possible that I made it up, or (more probably) that I quoted Campbell a few years ago, and someone responded, referring to the image of the baby laying on mother’s belly.

I like that idea very much, the idea of the inner world of the belly (placenta) and outer world (skin) The mythology of the lady or goddess of the hills comes into mind (from Campbell’s lectures on the Grail), and also the placenta as world tree. (The latter topic was discussed by one of our German MRTs, in Essen, some while ago.)
Works of art are indeed always products of having been in danger, of having gone to the very end in an experience, to where man can go no further. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Nermin
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Post by Nermin »

The woman with her baby is the basic image of mythology. The first experience of anybody is the mother's body.


Martin,
I wish I was one of those anthropologists who witnessed what Campbell compared
to participation mystique :) But the system, I think, has the ability to claim
even the most innocent of relationships :(
Prejudice?
True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts

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