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The Children of Myth and Pixar
 

by John Bucher

In circles where myth is a topic of discussion, the name Disney has sometimes brought about unsympathetic commentary, and often for justifiable reasons. The perceived bastardization of the stories of Hans Christian Anderson and...

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This month’s theme is The Child. Enjoy our Weekly Offerings...

News & Updates

John the Baptist earned his title on this day, January 9, the Baptism of the Lord.

Rinzai Buddhists turn to their origin story: The Linji Memorial, January 10, recalls the death of the sect’s founder, Linji Yixuan, who stressed the “abrupt awakening” of transcendental wisdom. The Koan is a favored pedagogy.

January, 10, Seijin-no-Hi, or “coming of age” day, is a Japanese civil holiday with deep spiritual roots—some petition spirits at Shinto shrines, others go to Tokyo Disneyland.

Maghi, January 13, commemorates an 18th Century battle in which Mai Bhago led forty ‘martyrs’ to protect her spiritual leader, Guru Gobind Singhi Ji. She survived and spent the rest of her life serving as one of his bodyguards, dressed as a man and apparently accepted as such.

The act of eating is sanctified this time of year with the January 14 Hindu harvest festival, Makar Sankranti.

Using the Julian calendar, Orthodox Christians calculate that New Year’s is January 14.

Featured Audio

I.4.5.5 - Symbols of Childhood and Maturity - an excerpt from this lecture.

Featured Video

On Becoming an Adult

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Monthly Gift

Our gift to you this month is eSingle titled The Fairy Tale (Esingle). Access this download for free until the end of the month.

“The folk tale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul.” — Joseph Campbell

Originally written as the foreword to The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (released in 1944), this fascinating essay explores the basis and the structure and types of fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm in the early nineteenth century. In this early work, he lays out the distinction between a myth, a tale, and a fable, setting up a framework that he would elaborate on throughout his career.

Got ideas? Share them with a community of like-minded mythmakers at our discussion forum – the Conversations of a Higher Order.

Joseph Campbell Book Club

Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber breathed steamy new life into traditional fairy tales. Here, you’ll find no mere nursery stories. This now-classic collection delves past the surface of familiar plots, fleshing out their latent horrors as well as their beauties. Myth, folklore, and Gothic fiction all intertwine in the weave of Carter’s sumptuous language and her unflinching gaze. Frightening, animalian, macabre, and baroque, The Bloody Chamber will change the way you read fairy tales forever.

Joanna Gardner, PhD
Editorial Advisory Group,
Joseph Campbell Foundation

Weekly Quotation

The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale—as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea.

-- Joseph Campbell