The Mythopoetic Impulse

The essays contained in The Mythopoetic Impulse: Selected Essays, 2017-2022 first appeared in the Joseph Campbell Foundation's weekly newsletter, MythBlast, which contains an original essay interpreting a monthly theme within the context of a highlighted work by Joseph Campbell. We at JCF intend for MythBlasts to deliver little "blasts" of mythology that will introduce readers to a deeper, more considered understanding of myth and Joseph Campbell's work.

Myth reaches into nearly every domain of human experience, and influences nearly every human thought and endeavor. Myth has the power to delight, console, inspire, fascinate, and illuminate, while simultaneously touching upon the deepest mysteries of human existence. Myth is a world-building tool with the power to imagine symbolically the archetypal energies and forms that contribute to the order and structure of daily life. There can be no doubt that myth shapes our world, and when the symbols and stories of myth are taken literally or understood as dogma, the worlds it helps create are inevitably brutish, greedy, and unjust.

These selected essays explore myth as it intersects with psychology, literature, art, and culture studies, and each domain lends understanding and relevance to the other. This essential reciprocity moves one into a deeper relationship to beauty, to the fascinating mysteries of existence, to nobility and creativity-in short, to life itself.