I watched the entire Power Of Myth series many years ago and I remember Joseph Campell talking about Jesus on the cross being the mythological putting aright of Adam and Eve's stealing fruit from the tree. Can someone direct me to where he said this?
(It is not entirely clear that it was in the Power of Myth series that he spoke about this for I read and watched some other things by Joseph Campbell as well -- but I had I the most exposure to the Power of Myth, so I am suspect that it is there.)
Campbell's take on the Jesus story
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Myakka,
I remember Campbell saying that Jesus on the cross was like life coming from death in the planting societies.
I have a different take that i thought it might be fun to discuss. My take comes from Jung's functions of the psyche. He said that the psyche had four aspects, the intellect, emotion, sensation, and intuition. To this list I add willfulness, because I can't believe he left it out. Perhaps he lived in a different time.
In any case, from the perspective of the functions of the psyche Jesus on the cross represents emotions being crucified by the will. If you look back to the time of Christ this becomes clearer. In the year -1 the Jewish people were extremely patriarchal and on top of that they had been conquered by the Roman army. It may be said that in Rome the people worshiped goddesses, but this was not Rome. This was a patriarchal society dominated by the testosterone of the Roman army. It was the land of the will and the emotional life was violently suppressed. there was no place for the goddess and her message of love.
Into this tyranny a young man speaks the message of love, the message of his mother, and for this he is crucified.
According to Jung, people are dominated by one of the functions and so in this case the willful oppressed those who followed their emotions.
IMHO a truly just society honors the "path to bliss" of all the people no matter what is their dominant function. Our new age society values intuitive "consciousness" above the others, so we haven't learned much.
I remember Campbell saying that Jesus on the cross was like life coming from death in the planting societies.
I have a different take that i thought it might be fun to discuss. My take comes from Jung's functions of the psyche. He said that the psyche had four aspects, the intellect, emotion, sensation, and intuition. To this list I add willfulness, because I can't believe he left it out. Perhaps he lived in a different time.
In any case, from the perspective of the functions of the psyche Jesus on the cross represents emotions being crucified by the will. If you look back to the time of Christ this becomes clearer. In the year -1 the Jewish people were extremely patriarchal and on top of that they had been conquered by the Roman army. It may be said that in Rome the people worshiped goddesses, but this was not Rome. This was a patriarchal society dominated by the testosterone of the Roman army. It was the land of the will and the emotional life was violently suppressed. there was no place for the goddess and her message of love.
Into this tyranny a young man speaks the message of love, the message of his mother, and for this he is crucified.
According to Jung, people are dominated by one of the functions and so in this case the willful oppressed those who followed their emotions.
IMHO a truly just society honors the "path to bliss" of all the people no matter what is their dominant function. Our new age society values intuitive "consciousness" above the others, so we haven't learned much.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. -Isaac Newton
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I don't have the reference right at hand, but I am quite sure he addresses this interpretation of the Crucifixion in Occidental Mythology. Christ is analogous to "the fruit of the tree" in Eden, and atones for the original sin which shut the gates of heaven.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas