The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think they know how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without death, are unfit for illumination.
Joseph CampbellWe are kept out of the Garden by our own fear and desire in relation to what we think to be the goods of our life.
Joseph CampbellThe Navajo have that wonderful image of what they call the pollen path. The Navajo say, 'Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I'm on the pollen path.'
Joseph CampbellThe heroโs journey always begins with the call. One way or another, a guide must come to say, 'Look, youโre in Sleepy Land. Wake. Come on a trip. There is a whole aspect of your consciousness, your being, thatโs not been touched. So youโre at home here? Well, thereโs not enough of you there.' And so it starts.
Joseph Campbell