Remembering Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was born March 26^th, 1904 and passed on October 30^th 1987.

He was a mythologist, writer, and speaker and is best known for his PBS series with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth that aired posthumously. He was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. His many books have had a huge impact upon understanding the purpose of myth in various cultures, throughout time, and include important insight into the functions of myth. Campbell’s book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, influenced George Lucas’s Star Wars and provided Lucas with a foundation to create a consistent mythology.

He had a great influence upon me as a writer and as a video lecturer, his is beyond comparison to any other speaker in his videos, particularly with Bill Moyers. His advice to “follow your bliss” is important to my personality, but his concept to MYTH – Make Yourself The Hero, was mind changing. His MYTH concept was the imbus for the “cattle raids,” which we held at many gatherings in the mid-west in the early 1990s. In the “cattle raids” we would steal each other’s stuffed toy cattle using and then tell stories about the evening fire. The stories would grow in the telling, often to mythic proportions. The story telling, where your actions became the basis for the development of new myth, became the stuff legends come from.

Likewise, The Masks of God was an important influence upon my understanding of how deity is interpreted by different cultures at different times. The cultural context of the people is fundamental to understanding the development of their myths as well as understanding how spiritual relationships develop.



Today, on the 108th anniversary of his birth, I remember Joseph Campbell and give thanks to him as an Ancestor.

"Solitary Druid" = murder your family - NOT

I always worry when the State wants to use their ignorance about Druidism as the basis for motive.  The idea that someone calling themselves a "solitary Druid" means that they wanted to get rid of their family is ludicrous.
I hope the judge bars the mention of the defendant's beliefs as no good can come to anyone, either the defendant or the Druid community, if the prosecution want to use such information in such a way.

That said, I would think that the defense would want the person's Druid beliefs brought up.  That Druidism holds that all life is sacred is an important tenet. And that "solitary Druid" only means a person following a Druid path without benefit of a grove, congregation, or in-person clergy.

I sincerely hope that Vaughn didn't do it and is found not guilty, but if he did it, there is no amount of honor price that could be paid for such a despicable act.  (Illinois abolished the death penalty last year.)  
Christopher Vaughn's defense team seeks to bar mention of his Druid beliefs - chicagotribune.com

In one dated April 24, Vaughn asked, "does anyone know of anyone in the Yukon territories by chance?" and added that he wanted to move there "permanently," said Assistant State's Attorney John Connor. Vaughn spent time in Canada a month later, he said.

Prosecutors also want to include a posting Vaughn made in which he called himself a "solitary Druid." Connor said it was another indication Vaughn wanted to rid himself of his family.

Author seeks essays on polytheistic experiences

Saw an interesting request for essays for inclusion in a book being done by an author, William McGillis. I think maybe I'll write up an essay about my encounter with a mountain lion and submit it. That encounter was probably the most spiritual, sacred, experience in my life. 

William McGillis « Cambridge Centre for Western Esotericism

Seeking thoughtful, original, and previously unpublished non-fiction essays recounting first-hand encounters with Gods, ancestors, spirits, disembodied intelligences, and sacred presences in nature.

Biography of Isaac Bonewits is in the works

I came across this website where someone is writing a biography about Isaac Bonewits. Certainly, Isaac had an important influence upon the Henge and upon Keltrian Druidism.  I hope that Seligman's book focuses upon Isaac's impact upon the Druid community as he suggests it will.  I'll be interested in reading the book when it comes out.

The Argothald Journal - A Biography of Isaac Bonewits

My name is Bill Seligman. I am writing a biography on the life of Isaac Bonewits. I intend to tell the story of his life; how he influenced the Neopagan, Druid, and Wiccan communities; and to include a generous share of "Isaac stories." It will be a biography, not a hagiography; I don't think he'd want his image to be polished (nor tarnished!) from anything other than what it was.


Please share this web page (http://bit.ly/IBbio) and my e-mail addresses ([bonewits.research] of [gmail.com] or [william.seligman] of [gmail.com]; sorry for the obfuscation) with anyone you know who is strongly connected to Isaac's life.

New Discoveries at Stonehenge?

Archaeology Magazine is one of the magazines I subscribe to, so I am always pleased to see when they run bits about western Europe, particularly the Celts or megalithic monuments. They're reporting "new discoveries" but I'm not sure what is new in their report.

• There is evidence that there may have been alignments between specific stones and posts at the solstices.
• Some of the bluestones were quarried in Preseli Hills in West Wales.

It is techno-cool that they apparently figured out where one of the stones was quarried to within a 6 by 15 foot area, but I'm not sure that is is really "new."  Anyway, glad to see a bit about Stonehenge.

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From the Trenches - New Discoveries at Stonehenge - Archaeology Magazine

Stonehenge and its surrounding area continue to offer new information about how the prehistoric site was used. A ground-penetrating radar survey led by Vincent Gaffney of the University of Birmingham has revealed evidence of two large pits that, when viewed from the Heel Stone, a small standing stone near the entrance to the site, align with sunrise and sunset on the summer solstice. The pits may have held wooden posts or standing stones, and the area between them and the Heel Stone may have been used for summer solstice rituals.

Some of the stones from the site were the subject of a different study, by geologists Rob Ixer of the University of Leicester and Richard Bevins of National Museum Wales, to determine where they came from. The researchers used a technique called "petrography," a common tool for geologists for more than 100 years. It involves looking at extremely thin slices of rock under a microscope and describing the way the minerals that compose it blend with one another to form a unique texture—as distinctive as a fingerprint. By comparing rock fragments from some of the site's "bluestones" (a generic term used to describe stones outside the site's iconic center) to samples from a rhyolite outcropping at Preseli Hills in West Wales (above), Ixer and Bevins were able to narrow down the area where at least one stone had been quarried to a six-by-15-foot space. The information could lead archaeologists directly to the places where Neolithic people cut the rock that was made into Stonehenge up to 5,000 years ago. The geologists have examined about 700 pieces of rock from Stonehenge but have only completed analysis on a few pieces of rhyolite. "I've been at this for 20 years," says Ixer, "but it is really just the beginning."