No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community to endure, together with the rest of nature, the season of the terrible cold.
Joseph CampbellRead
Gods suppressed become devils, and often it is these devils whom we first encounter when we turn inward.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Repressed inner thoughts and feelings can manifest negatively and lead to inner turmoil.
In this quote, Joseph Campbell suggests that the aspects of ourselves that we suppress or deny can transform into destructive forces, often taking the form of fear, anger, or regret. These 'devils' are manifestations of our repressed emotions and thoughts that we encounter when we self-reflect, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and integrating all parts of our psyche for personal growth and wellbeing.
Themes
RepressionSelf-ReflectionInner TurmoilPersonal GrowthPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about mental health and self-acceptance.
More from Joseph Campbell
All quotes →Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.
Joseph CampbellRead
Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today. What’s moving people’s lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It’s a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn’t even an ideal that anybody’s fighting for.
Joseph CampbellRead
Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.
Joseph CampbellRead
The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.
Joseph CampbellRead
And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
Joseph CampbellRead
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History teaches, perhaps, very few clear lessons. But surely one such lesson learned by the world at great cost is that aggression, unopposed, becomes a contagious disease.
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