A Crazy Fact I just Learned

Follow Your Bliss.

That was the advice Joseph Campbell gave his students when he taught Mythology at Sarah Lawrence College for 38 years. Campbell understood that our mythologies are our maps, the creator of meaning in our lives, and that the symbols therein speak to the depths of our psyches which words can not penetrate.

When asked what one should do with their lives, he responded with: Follow Your Bliss.

The idea being that tapping into your center, aligning with the collective and personal natures that we inherit, and fulfilling the prescription on our heart to do what we are fashioned to do – creates an experience of Bliss – an experience of harmony between what one is and what one does in the world.

The purpose of myth is to supply the narrative through which one can find direction to fulfill this bliss.

For reasons beyond the scope of this email, and most likely the aim of my next writing adventure, many of us operate without a myth. And the myths we do have no longer match the symbolism of our modern world, creating a fragmentation in which we can no longer easily digest the wisdom therein.

In returning to the study of myth, and in returning to my experience of spending much more time in the stillness of nature, I was punched square in the face today during my morning reading.

In Pathways To Bliss, Campbell reveals that our western mythology is the only mythology which does not have a Goddess. (I couldn’t immediately disprove this, if you can, please hit me up!) Within our world view, we have supplanted Mother Nature with Man’s Kingdom. And I can’t help but draw a connection:

Our Western Culture, the only one without the natural Goddess, has the highest rates of mental unwellness and the lowest rates of connection with nature, not just mythologically, but practically.

And now I speak from personal experience:

My personal wellness is directly tied to the amount of time I spend in nature. Nature, for me, is the vehicle through which I experience awe and the means through which I quiet the endless distractions of the modern world. The more time I spend in nature, the more wellness I experience. The less time I spend in nature, the more discontented and “removed from life” I feel.

Science is catching on to this. Physicians have begun prescribing a nature version of the food pyramid, in which patients are recommended experiences in nature – with varying durations and depths of solitude - to curb anxiety and depression.

The East has been doing this for millennia. And while our modern world looks nothing like the human experience 5000 years ago, our inner worlds remain surprisingly unchanged. From a psychological perspective, the human experience remains constant – it’s just the manifestations of the constants that take on different forms.

All of this is to say: we are the least connected to nature – not just in myth, but in actuality – and we seem to suffer the most.

My time in the natural world has sustained my life, saved my life, and given my life tremendous bliss.

Bereft of this experience, I merely offer you an experiment: get outside, without the phone, for an extended period of time, and see if you feel any different.

If you do, perhaps you will accept the call to adventure for the modern individual, made possible by the abdication of our culture:

Go find the Goddess.

Your friend,
Chris