ABSTRACT
Joseph Campbell’s life’s work in comparative mythology sets forth a variety of extremely insightful viewpoints on the world’s myths, legends, and religious systems throughout history. However, Campbell discusses this goal of going beyond the ego on many different occasions, in the context of his written oeuvre, making it quite clear that many levels and gradations of mystical realization exist, and that the perennial philosophy is not a matter of “all or none.” At the pinnacle of many mythological systems lies the phenomenon of mysticism. In this age in which for many the word myth has either no meaning at all or signals a false one, one of Campbell’s prime goals is to resurrect the meaningfulness and the usefulness of traditional myth as well as to clarify the relationship of myth to psychology for modem humanity.
