“A ritual is an opportunity to participate in a myth. You are in one
way or another putting your consciousness, even the action of your body,
into play in relation to a mythological theme, and, as I hope I’ve made
clear, mythological themes are projections of the order of the psyche…
by participating in a ritual occasion you are in a magical field, a
field that is putting you in touch with your own great depth. And then
to have someone come along with an interpretation of that ritual that
does not correspond to your experience of it, you are being cut off from
the symbolic experience… The function of the church is best served when
it gives people occasions and opportunities to participate in these
great eternal mythic experiences without telling them telling them how
to experience it, without telling what the meaning must be. What I’m
saying is that the rites work but the dogmas don’t. When the rite comes
along with a dogma attached to it that was formulated in the third
century AD in the near east, and the ritual is presented here and you
are having an experience of it, forget the dogma and experience the
form. No artist sends along with the forms that he presents to you a statement of what they mean.” (Joseph Campbell)
"People say that what we're seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the
universe, to match your nature with Nature. We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. If you can see
your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not
your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why
it's your path! " (Joseph Campbell)
