Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation

Ever since Bill Moyers’s TV series, “Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth,” aired in the 1980s, I have been a fan of Joseph Campbell. I have completely read some of his books and perused many others. The Joseph Campbell Foundation began in 1991, just a few years after Campbell’s death. One of its goals is to keep Campbell’s works in print. This volume, Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation, is a collection that David Kudler created from the Campbell archive, building out many of the chapters from Campbell’s public lectures. Because I have re-watched “The Power of Myth” so many times, I can hear Campbell’s voice with his particular emphases and inflections as I read these previously oral documents. show more

Kudler cultivated a set of works that focus more on the “hows” and “how-tos” than most of Campbell’s published works. For example, he explains “Today, we don’t have the stasis that is required for the formation of a mythic tradition. The rolling stone gathers no moss. Myth is moss So now you’ve got to do it yourself, ad lib” (xxiii), and “You can get some clues from earlier traditions. But they have to be taken as clues. As many a wise man has said, ‘You can’t wear another person’s hat’” (xxiv).

Campbell takes his audiences through the major persons and ideas in both Eastern and Western philosophy and psychology, aligning Freud’s big concepts with those of Jung and those of the Eastern traditions, including kuṇḍalinī yoga.

Most of these lectures were given in the 1960s and 1970s. They have some moments that were very much “of their time.” One that stood out to me is Campbell’s dismissal of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. He posits that people should focus less on “survival, security, personal relationships, prestige [and] self-development” (89) in order to follow their bliss and a more spiritual existence. There’s a flippancy in this, whether intended or not, of a privileged white man who brushes over the idea that people can’t “follow their bliss,” if they are hungry, cold, and have no place to live.

Nevertheless, Campbell says many smart things about how Western religions (particularly, not exclusively) do not adapt well with the passage of time: “one of the great calamities of contemporary life is that the religions we inherited have insisted on the concrete historicity of their symbols” (88). I enjoyed coming back to Campbell’s slow and methodical style of teaching after many years of not reading his works. I especially identified with this statement: “Alan Watts once asked me what spiritual practice I followed. I told him, ‘I underline books’” (138). show less

More of a self-help and psychology book than an anthropology book on myth, however it really clarifies the relationship of the individual psyche and the society to myth and folklore. I think far too many people study myth through a historical/anthropological/fiction lens rather than as a present psychological power. This book brings myth into the personal realm instead of the historical fairly well. I don't agree with some of his understandings of Jung however and I think he misrepresents a few of Jung's theories but it's not really important for the purpose of this book.

This book is classic Campbell, and more approachable than his officially authored books. “Pathways” is part of The Joseph Campbell Collection, a series of books edited together from various lectures, manuscripts, and articles over the course of two decades. It carries the engaging tones and rhythms of his lectures and is a fun and easy read.

I first picked up this book in hopes of finding a guide to practical guide to applying Campbell’s ideas. While the book offers very little of this, there are one or two short sections which offer a taste of just that. That, in addition to the insight that Campbell offers to understanding psychology, society, and the symbols of the soul, makes this and incredibly satisfying read.

This was fascinating - the material itself, and the way it was presented. I learned a lot.

Hate the title; love the book.