Joseph Campbell defined mythology as other peoples' religion, and as such, not solely the province of gods and monster-slayers. Secular societies develop their own mythological systems, embodied in works of art, in works of law and of history, and in all other manner of cultural expression. Nations have their own founding myths. And corporations have learned that there is mythos in marketing as well.

No company has learned that lesson so well or implemented it with such vision as Apple, Inc. The Cupertino, California company employed, from very early on, not marketing consultants but evangelists, to spread the word among the faithful.

In this month's Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal has written The Varieties of Religious Experience: How Apple Stays Divine, an exploration of the company's recent handling of problems with the iPhone, and of Apple's technological vision as a mythos.

"We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice." With this Isaac Bashevis Singer quote, JCF  Associate Romansh starts off a discussion on the nature of free will that has gathered almost 300 posts in our Conversations of a Higher Order! Romansh goes on to say, "Many of the threads on this forum deal with the deep mysteries of existence. But a good number of the reponses appear to accept free will as a given. I wonder how can we discuss subjects like [virtue] without nailing down, at least a bit more, free will. We can say virtue is whatever, assuming we have free will. Then what does virtue look like if we don't have free will? So my focus questions are: What does Campbell say about free will? What is the definition of free will you are using? What is your evidence for or against free will?" Join the Conversation!

In the six years since it was founded, Facebook has changed the way we communicate over the internet. This is true for JCF as well. We are pleased to announce that the official Joseph Campbell Facebook Page has more than tripled its number of fans since January, this week celebrating 25,000 members!

When we think of typical places, where people gather to discuss mythology, a lecture hall in Berkeley may come into mind, or a nice little cafe in New York. However, our JCF Mythological RoundTable® (MRT) Groups are spread all over the world, and one of our most committed groups is located in the midst of the Mohave desert.