HELP! HELP! Trying to source a campbell quote in context!

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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Yeil
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HELP! HELP! Trying to source a campbell quote in context!

Post by Yeil »

I need some help tracking down a reference in context. I recall and have heard others (Dennis Slattery among them) refer to Campbell as having once posited that "Myth is the mediator between the literal and the mystical." I've been through my library and can't seem to find it. Any help here would be grand. It would be very useful for a work I'm helping a friend with.

Thanks in advance for your time,

Yeil
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

I'm sorry, Yeil, I just noticed your post.


I'm going to move your request to The Wisdom Pool forum where you're more likely to garner attention.


Also, is "Myth is the mediator between the literal and the mystical" the actual quote that you're looking for? Thanks!


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

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

Thank you very much, any help is greatly appreciated!

I'm really not sure if that's the exact quote, I've only heard it referenced by others. And it sounds familiar, but I don't know if that's just because I've it heard it so often or because I've read it in Campbell's works. That and it certainly seems like something he'd say. lol

Thanks again!
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Well, this much I do know, Yeil--that sentence is not the actual quote. So saith the all-knowing Google Search gods. :P Same for The Power of Myth, the only book I scanned, so no need to look there.

As you said, initially I wondered, too, if you might be paraphrasing notions that are common knowledge for us folks who read Campbell. I'll check with Clemsy to see if he's aware of a source that may present this information in a similar way.

And if we're really lucky, Myrtle will stop by. She can locate darn-near anything, it seems, if it exists.


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

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Post by Clemsy »

Sent a query up the line, Yeil! Will get back to you as soon, I'm sure.

Cheers,
Clemsy
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

Huzzah! I really appreciate this! Even if I can cite some material that expresses that notion directly, if not literally, it will help a great deal!
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Hey, Yeil.

Clemsy mistakenly posted this reply in another thread, so I've copied it for you here. :)

Clemsy wrote:Hi. . . I just heard back from Stephen Gerringer, the Director of JCF Community, and here's what he saus:
If Campbell said this, it's probably in one of the audio lectures, or possibly Mythos––which, for the moment, remain unsearchable ... but I'm pretty sure it's not in any of the published volumes. At best, it's likely a paraphrase.
I would tend to agree. If it had been in print, it would have found its way to being a known quote, especially to those intimately familiar with that body of work. The audio lectures, however, are mostly untranscribed at this time, so who knows?

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

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Post by Clemsy »

How did I do that? lol!
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

Many thanks for the help folks! I suspected that it might be found in the audio collection/lectures. I agree that it's almost certainly not a literal quotation, I just need to find where it was paraphrased from. I have a goodly portion of the audio collection and own mythos. This looks like a good excuse to revisit them!

If you could all keep this in back of your mind, in case you come across something useful in this regard, I'd appreciate it!

And thanks again for the support! I love this awesome community!
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

And I have yet to go re-rooting through the juggernauts (Masks of God/Historical Atlas of World Mythology) to see if it's in there.
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

If you could all keep this in back of your mind, in case you come across something useful in this regard, I'd appreciate it!
Will do, Yeil, and I'd be interested in hearing back from you, too, if you do run across the quote or something similar.

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

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

Most assuredly!
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

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Post by Myrtle »

Hi Yeil,

I couldn't find the exact quote. But here are a few that are somewhat similar:

Book
Creative Mythology/The Masks of God Page 4
The first function of a mythology is to reconcile waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is...
Audio Program
The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell: Joseph Campbell with Michael Toms
CD 4/Track 6
And since mythologies all have to do with linking these eternal forms, which are those of the psyche and of the mysteries of the universe, to the contemporary life situation, the new myth has to move into a one-world system.
Book
An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms Page 117
...So myth has got to deal with the human system in relation to the mystery of the universe.
Hope this helps.

Myrtle

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Hi, Myrtle, it's super to see you! And thanks for your help. :)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Yeil
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Post by Yeil »

All good leads! Many thanks!
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw

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