| Myth
and the Body: A Colloquy With Joseph Campbell by Stanley Keleman (Center Press, Berkeley, CA 1999, 112 pages)Reviewed by Grover E. Crisswell In 1973, two pioneers in their respective fields-Stanley Keleman and Joseph Campbell began to hold what would be 14 annual seminars to trade their thoughts on the subject of mythology and the body. This book is crafted largely from the transcriptions from those years of taped seminars. The reliance on this taped material becomes both the strength and, what I see as a handicap for this brief narrative. First let’s lay out their highly creative premises. Joseph Campbell said, out of his perspective, "Mythology is a song. It is the song of imagination, inspired by the energies of the body. " Stanley Keleman echoes this lyrically: " Mytholology is the poetics of the body singing about out cellular truth. Myth is a poem of the experience of being embodied and our somatic journey. It is the song of creation the genetic experience that has organized a way to sing, to dance, to paint, to tell stories that trancsnit that experience to others." They blend these two perspectives that on the surface seem quite separate and unrelated. When they finish their dialogues, it is hard to think of mythology and the body as not being intricately intertwined, each inseparable from the other. Entering into this dialogue about the interrelationship of myth and the body requires that we think of myth in some different than usual ways. Most of us do not think of mythology as grounded in bodily processes. We see "myth" as cosmology and archetypes, as tales of the heroic journey, stories and legends of the human race, a source of symbols and images for our personal quest. When we take the step of seeing "myth" as a more intimate expression of bodily process, then we are able to recognize myth as a voice echoing our somatic development. "Myth is about the body's journey, recreating itself endlessly in a particular way. To form an individual personal structure called self." Likewise myth becomes a repository of symbols and images guiding us in the growth of our somatic humanity. Out of embodied myth, we evolve our own lived history and find the direction of our personal path. This theme of body and myth is explored from several perspectives. Our inherited constitution, our body shape, plays a significant role in what becomes our mythic journey. Utilizing William H. Sheldon's theory of constitutional types, the mythic meanings of the endomorph, ectomorph, and mesomorph are described and are seen as the basis for our unique journey. Here is one of those places where the brevity of the book is frustrating. Even though this reference to "constitutional types" is explored some here and later in the book, much more could have been said to good advantage. The next perspective is about the abandonment in our culture of the body as a source of knowledge. This objectifying of the body puts us into a mythic Wasteland. "When we do this, we are tying to objectify a process, rather than live from it. When we begin to be intimate with the pulse and quality of somatic experience, we begin to appreciate this experience as a myth, outside of objective time; as myth that forms internal knowing. As we learn to live again from our organic responses, the soma grows itself, deepens its feelings and images. In this way we grow a maturity out of the Wasteland." Here is the movement toward the authenticity of the embodied self, the truth and maturity of one's own path. The familiar myth of Parsifal is used to illustrate the journey to embodiment. The three bodies of the hero - endomorph, mesomorph and ectomorph - are brought together in the search for wholeness. In the beginning, he is attracted by the image and social code of knighthood and then lives out the warrior drama. In the end when he is able to experience love shown to him by the pagan knight, he is able in that compassion to return to the Grail Castle and reconcile with the king. This is our journey to wholeness: the inherited body, the call of imagination, the inauthentic life, forming of a social body and acting out of that, going through an experience of transformation and finding in compassion the healing of opposites into a new wholeness. The telling of the Parsifal tale by Joseph Campbell is one of the rich parts of the book. The last parts of the book are about the bringing of these insights into our own journey toward embodiment. "The quest for the Grail is the quest for that level within yourself which is beyond the little boundary of your ego thoughts. You break through to the human...the moment of compassion is the most effective." The quest is about finding your own destiny rather than being trapped in what society defines. This can be found only by returning to a somatic reference. "Being embodied is a statement that we are here: it defines a physical relationship with ourselves, with the world, and with what we call the transcendent." So what is the difficulty with the book mentioned in my opening paragraph? Mostly it has to do with the frustration of not having been there for these dialogues over a period of 14 years and for the richness of that experience. Having read extensively from the work of both of these men, I am aware of how much was left out and wonder if those not familiar with their work could have gotten the message. In a number of places, I wish they had said more. I would have liked to see the application of their conceptual frame to other myths. Does it fit? Would women have a problem with Parsifal as the pivotal myth? I would have liked more about the journey not always being sequential and about what shapes the process. The limitations of Sheldon's "constitutional types" would also be worth discussing. I regret not having the opportunity to be there and talk directly with the authors about all of this. Even with this brief summary, you can feel some of the intense creative energy that must have been present during those events. Grover E Crisswell 351 Regency Ridge, Dayton, OH 45459 To read another review of Myth & Body, by Dr John Conger, click here |