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Each week, an author in the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s community contributes an original essay interpreting our monthly theme and a featured Campbell work. This little blast of mythology—a MythBlast—forms the centerpiece of our weekly newsletter, which also contains curated selections from our archives.
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FEATURED WORK
THE JOSEPH CAMPBELL
ESSENTIALS SERIES
Heroic journeys often begin with separation, whether literal or metaphorical. As we embark together on a quest to experience the power of myth in music, consider consulting Joseph Campbell's distilled wisdom in the new Joseph Campbell Essentials series. These pocket-sized books contain Campbell's most beloved and inspirational quotes in a beautiful format which makes excellent gifting and easy packing for adventures of all kinds. You can find ebook editions of these books in our online shop.
The Massacre of the Innocence of Derry
Floating into the soundtrack of IT, the 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King’s infamous novel, the central musical theme of the film turns around the titular character of It, an unspeakable “alien” entity of savage violence, very much tailored to the specifications of the Freudian Id. Its relentless “compulsion to repeat” (every 27 years) expresses the mimetic dynamism of death drive (todestrieb) that animates It.
Norland Tellez, PhD
5 days ago7 min read
Nearer and Farther Than Sound: Myth and the Music of Being
I always cherish the honor of contributing to the MythBlast series. Moreover, with this first essay of the new year, I am pleased to introduce the MythBlast Theme for 2026, which we’re calling Experience the Power of Myth in Music.
Music is at least as old as Homo sapiens, and it might well be even older. Neanderthals appear to have possessed the vocal anatomy for making complex sounds, suggesting that early human ancestors used their voices to sing or hum long before de
Bradley Olson, PhD
Jan 47 min read
When the Sky Calls: Reclaiming the Magical Child Within
In December of 1977, eleven days before Christmas, Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) debuted on the big screen. Released in the season traditionally tied to the appearance of an otherworldly “magical child,” this film is more than a sci-fi masterpiece about humanity’s first direct contact with extraterrestrial life; it profoundly explores wonder, transformation, and the rediscovery of childlike awe in a jaded world.
Scott Neumeister, PhD
Dec 28, 20256 min read
Lyra Belacqua and the Return of Enchantment
When Philip Pullman’s book Northern Lights was released in the United States under the title The Golden Compass, and later adapted as a film, something more than a simple marketing shift occurred. Rather than foregrounding the Northern Aurora, the American title centered attention instead on the alethiometer, a golden, compass-like instrument derived from the Greek words for “truth” and “measure.” This device reveals the truth to those intuitive and courageous enough to read
Kristina Dryža
Dec 21, 20257 min read
E.T.’s Magical Children: An Inner Reach from Outer Space
When presented with the list of cinematic archetypes for JCF writers to choose from this year, the Magical Child immediately chose itself for me, as it had already done so over 20 years ago, when I made my initial return to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). What I share here is brief and selective, beamed through the opportunity to focus on said archetype and relevant passages thereto from Campbell. E.T. remains a sacred companion for the long journey.
Devon Deimler, PhD
Dec 14, 20258 min read
The Magical Child and the Power of Imagination
In the depths of midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere, the archetype of the Magical Child stirs. Celebrations abound: of a divine child who renews the world, of the light reborn from the longest night of Solstice, and of the threshold between one year ending and another beginning. Each of these observances invites wonder and hope, reawakening our imagination to possibility—all of which resides within the archetypal field of the Magical Child.
Stephanie Zajchowski, PhD
Dec 7, 20258 min read
Between The Matrix and The Chosen: A Journey into the Prophet Archetype
Almost immediately, two powerful narratives surfaced from my unconscious, each carrying its own prophetic figure. The first was The Matrix (1999), a landmark of science fiction, philosophy, and action that had somehow eluded me for twenty-five years. The second was The Chosen (2017-present), a series that portrays the life of Jesus with unusual freshness and emotional intimacy.
Monica Martinez, PhD
Nov 30, 20256 min read
The Cold War Prophet: Jack Ryan and the Senex-Puer Alchemy in The Hunt for Red October
“Jack! Boy! Get yourself in here!” Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) heartily greets Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) as they meet in the admiral’s office. After some banter, Greer continues, “What’s important enough to get you on a plane in the middle of the night?” These lines occur minutes into the beginning of John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October (1990), a taut thriller about a renegade Russian nuclear submarine, set in the Cold War era.
Scott Neumeister, PhD
Nov 23, 20256 min read
The Zone of Unknowing: Auschwitz and the Cinema of Prophecy
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2023) rattled me so thoroughly that I found myself returning twice more to the same theater where I first witnessed it—in December 2023—as if to the site of a haunting. Many films wrestle with the problem of evil, but very few are worthy of being labeled a cinematic theodicy. Cinema, and its sister arts, have reckoned with how—or whether—it is even possible to depict the Holocaust.
Teddy Hamstra, PhD
Nov 16, 20257 min read
One Master After Another: The Prophets Of Paul Thomas Anderson
How do we choose our god?
I think about this question when I accompany my mother, a devout Catholic, to Mass. I am not a pious person. But whenever I’m in the Philippines, I stand in the congregation with her, understanding that the vehicle that has guided her choice is her priest. Her Prophet.
In mythology, Joseph Campbell provides a framework for the Prophet archetype and how it fits into the Hero’s Journey. The Prophet is often a charismatic leader who speaks with divin
R.A. Noble
Nov 9, 20256 min read
Future Earth
The power of mythology is, among other things, its ability to serve as a platform for the creative spirit. It provides people with a sense of their origins, for example through its narratives around the roots and foundations of the cosmos and the world, and tales of a society’s emergence or demise. Myth expresses humanity’s courageous adventures to overcome the weight of the past through trials and tribulations that has led us to the present.
Kishan Khoday
Nov 2, 20258 min read
Breaking Through in The Miracle Worker
Of course, showing someone how to do something is very different from just telling them. It’s all too common to assume teaching is merely an intellectual exercise. But what does a teacher do when there are no words? This is the conundrum facing Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft) in The Miracle Worker, the 1962 film that presents the real-life story of Miss Sullivan’s introduction to her one and only student, blind and deaf Helen Keller (played by a young Patty Duke).
Stephen Gerringer
Oct 26, 20257 min read
Fooled into Education: School of Rock and the Trickster-Teacher
This is one of my proudest moments as a trickster-teacher, an archetype blend that comes to me quite naturally. Many of my lessons contained what I label a “spinach-in-the-ice-cream” approach: some element of sweetness on the surface that belied the nutritional goodness of the information being imparted. In 2003, when I decided to switch from a career in information technology to middle school teaching, I watched (and loved) School of Rock.
Scott Neumeister, PhD
Oct 19, 20256 min read
The Pink Tyrant
High school. Wednesday. All the students wear pink sweaters, shirts, trousers, and skirts. Come any other day to our school, and you'll see the depressing black color on hormonal, buzzing teenagers who didn't get much sleep the previous night. But come Wednesday, we all wear pink with big smiles on our faces. Our chemistry professor is dressed entirely in pink and purple: clothing, shoes, stockings, bags, glasses, pencils, notebooks, nails, hairpins…teaching how to fix poison
Lejla Panjeta
Oct 12, 20256 min read
Jacket On, Jacket Off: The Karate Kid and the Archetypal Teacher Colloquy
All these years, I had only watched 60s and 70s Hindi cinema with my father. For the first time, we watched an English film together, The Karate Kid (2010). It opened a new portal of understanding how to recognize the guiding light and the hand that draws you closer to your potential through sometimes brutal confrontations to work through our prudent folly that marks the journey as a seeker and learner.
Priyanka Gupta
Oct 5, 20257 min read
Myth-Understanding the Magician
Symbolically speaking, the Magician, or Magus, (typically in the guise of an ancient Wise One) initiates a transformational, alchemical process in the world or, more to our purposes here, in the psyche of someone on their pilgrimage to a more “heroic” or authentic life. They do this by articulating the Word, the Logos, that manifests those alchemical processes in the world, or in the consciousness of everyday life—and sometimes even in the form of “the word made flesh.”
Mark C.E. Peterson
Sep 28, 20255 min read
The Ancestral Magic of Sinners
The Magician is often portrayed as a single person who can tap into the unconscious, but what if magic is the power that comes from a people? Can magic be innate, ancestral and cultural? What better way to examine our collective humanity than an action-packed vampire horror film?
Torri Yates-Orr
Sep 21, 20255 min read
Finding Success in Failure
Before we get to my MythBlast for the week, I want to draw your attention to our new Joseph Campbell Essentials Series. The first two volumes—Joseph Campbell on Bliss and Joseph Campbell on The Hero’s Journey—launch a collection of beautifully designed pocket gift books that bring together Campbell’s most inspiring reflections.
Bradley Olson, PhD
Sep 14, 20257 min read
Archetypes Of Magic And Power
With September we shift our focus to the magician archetype, which shows itself in many guises: wizards, witches, warlocks, shamans, alchemists and, even, our contemporary street-magicians, to name only a few. What exactly is magic? Well, that’s a complex inquiry, ranging anywhere from tactful trickery to genuine miracles, from subjective experience to so-called objective fact.
Craig Deininger
Sep 7, 20257 min read
The Shadow Behind a Curtain
The terror in Psycho doesn’t come from what we see, but from how we see it: through keyholes and from behind curtains. In Psycho, the shadow isn’t just a cinematographic choice—it’s a confession. The true genius of the Oedipal buffet of Psycho lies in the mirror it holds up. We scream at our own shadows. Psycho forces us to look at the parts of ourselves we’d rather flush away.
Lejla Panjeta
Aug 31, 20256 min read
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