Joseph Cambell's 10 Rules For Reading Mythology

Here are ten guidelines from the late, great mythologist and cultural anthropologist Joseph Campbell about how to draw meaning from mythology and religion:
Read myths with the eyes of wonder:the myths transparent to their universal meaning,their meaning transparent to its mysterious source.
Read myths in the present tense: Eternity is now.
Read myths in the first person plural: the Gods and Goddesses of ancient mythology still live within you.
Any myth worth its salt exerts a powerful magnetism. Notice the images and stories that you are drawn to and repelled by. Investigate the field of associated images and stories.
Look for patterns; don't get lost in the details. What is needed is not more specialized scholarship,but more interdisciplinary vision. Make connections;break old patterns of parochial thought.
Resacralize the secular:even a dollar bill reveals the imprint of Eternity.
If God is everywhere, then myths can be generated anywhere, anytime, by anything. Don't let your Romantic aversion to science blind you to the Buddha in the computer chip.
Know your tribe! Myths never arise in a vacuum; they are the connective tissue of the social body which enjoys synergistic relations with dreams (private myths) and rituals (the enactment of myth).
Expand your horizons! Any mythology worth rememberingwill be global in scope. The earth is our homeand humankind is our family.
Read between the lines! Literalism kills;Imagination quickens.
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Sourced

"Those who vote decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything." - Stalin
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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. "~Jiddu Krishnamurti.

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Sourceless

I dare be positive no-one will ever endeavour to refute these reasonings otherwise than by altering my definitions… if anyone alters the definitions, I cannot pretend to argue with him, ‘till I know the meaning he assigns to these terms.

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A study unto man; a porcelain reflection of deeds undone, plans unwrought, and ideas unthought. Perhaps some day we will not be so ephemeral... would that we all could wait for such a day with the patience of a man that time forgot...

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Religion is an excellent example of the "Placebo" effect.
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Unquestioned answers are more dangerous than unanswered questions.
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