Cover image: “Cyclorama of Souls” by María DeGuzmán
Ripples on the Pond:
Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey
“It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.”
—Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, “Prologue”
Note from the Editor
Like many people, my introduction to Joseph Campbell was the series of interviews with Bill Moyers, published under the title The Power of Myth. Perhaps this book remains the best introduction to Campbell’s lifelong pursuit of the cross-cultural patterns found in mythic stories and archetypal figures. What was striking to me about Campbell’s work is how it connect us. Of course, there are the fascinating similarities in the stories told around the globe—stories of origins, crisis, death, rebirth—that serve to connect the people who experienced vastly different lives in terms of daily practices and material surroundings. In addition, as the quote above states so beautifully, myth connects one to the cosmos, places one in a context beyond the measurable, observable particulars of daily life.
Through an understanding of myth, parallels emerge between our present-day culture and our ancestors of the deep past. Our concerns regarding environmental collapse, ethical dilemmas, the development of the self are remarkably consistent over the millennia, although the details are dependent on time and place. Most importantly, though, fostering a worldview that seeks connection among cultures, acknowledging the basic human needs shared by all—the need for community and sense of belonging, the need for a life with purpose and a commitment to a larger whole, the need to communicate the wisdom learned through generations of experiences—is, it is safe to say, desperately needed in our lives today.
This project is a way of sharing the importance of Joseph Campbell’s work and providing a place to display his influences on the creative spirit of the artists and writers collected here. Each of the selections in this special issue of The Closed Eye Open engage in some way with the “hero’s journey” theme. Without further ado, let’s begin…
-Daniel Morgan, with Maya Highland and Aaron Lelito
Below, we have featured a small selection of work from the issue. The full issue is available for online viewing with the link above.
In addition, we will send a PDF download of our two previous issues for any “tip jar” contribution to our PayPal account.
If you like what you see in the issue, you may also want to check out our ongoing “Maya’s Micros” feature. As the name suggests, it will be curated by contributing editor Maya Highland and will exclusively feature micro-poetry and micro-fiction pieces.
If you are a writer or artist and want to be considered for upcoming issues, see our Submittable page for the current submissions that are available.
Also, you may follow us on Instagram @theclosedeyeopen.
Featured Selections
Josephine Napiore
Comfortable
“The longest journey begins
with a single step” – Lao Tzu
The path winds away
before me.
Lao Tzu beckons
but I stand
unsure of my steps.
There is so much
in this place
that I know:
The chirping sparrow,
the swaying trees.
Their leaves clap
together in the wind,
sounding like rain.
The smell of lilies
reminds me
of when I was a girl
and my aunt
of the same name
would hug me
to her bosom
– soft and warm –
Why would I want
to walk away
from these down
the nameless
path? Would they
be there too?
Or would there be
new things?
Different things?
Things that are:
Unknown,
Un-meaningful,
Unfamiliar.
My feet stand in mud
– soft and warm –
as it rises up
between my toes
to cover my feet
and ankles.
Comfortable.
Leah Oates
David Radavich
The Father
I can’t say I knew him fully.
No one ever does.
Life is such pretense—
for pleasure and defense
against the unforeseen.
He was a scientist,
sometime scholar, a man
who knew his rocks
and geologic time, and hawks
that made their homes high
above the flooding river
then swooped down with grace.
He could sing, and he regarded
everyone as inferior to himself—
not in a mean way, jovial
and benevolent,
often without caring.
But reading was his passion,
thought his life—a secret gift
he bequeathed his wayward son,
who shambled along the shoals
of life’s creeks with an untutored eye
and found arrowheads
of ancient ancestors
to fill his longing for the lost.
Cindy Rinne
Find my Way
At dusk, grasping a sunstone, I walk
through seven layers of gates of seven
colors to reclaim lost parts of my soul.
Ghost women haunt above wooden stairs.
Burial soil lured into beauty.
Are the orbs in the photograph real?
Later, I hold a moonstone and pray
looking at two upper windows
under circles of solar signs.
Souls of monks appear at night to paint
bright colors and gold leaf halos,
frescoes of time.
Ancient oak remembers summer solstice
dances under spectral suns to honor family
and marriages occur.
It is okay for me to pull back from certain
people. Get inspiration from stars. I lift
branches of language reaching skyward.
Angela Ruth Dagostino
Contribute to the next edition of the Ripples on the Pond project
Theme: Brave New World
The Ripples on the Pond project will seek to connect the creative work of our contributors with some of our own perennial favorites—writers who have influenced us greatly, who have inspired us to create, who have furthered our learning about ourselves and the world around us.
If you think about your own creative process—maybe even back to how you got stared with it in the first place—you might find a few helpful guides such as teachers and mentors, perhaps a wise sage or slightly more advanced contemporary who pushed you beyond your limits. If you have collected artifacts from the pre-digital age, maybe you’ll find some yellowed, coffee-ringed copies of the books you have returned to time and time again.
The particularly strong influences we encounter send ripples into later life. The messages carry on and disperse, only to become enveloped within another ripple pattern….
The next rock we will toss into the pond is novelist, philosopher, and psychedelic pioneer Aldous Huxley. Brave New World remains his most widely read novel, and its anticipation of the future—a dystopian vision in this case—is certainly a large part of Huxley’s concerns as a writer. Furthermore, Huxley’s final novel, Island, offers another vision of society, and perhaps, of a future in which institutions such as school, work, and religion are shaped out of egalitarian interests and an intentional fostering of individual’s self-development.
(For a quick refresher, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World & en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_(Huxley_novel).)
This submission is open to any written work (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and hybrid forms), as well as visual art in any medium. They can relate to any of the following speculations, musings, forecasts, or concerns about the future—near or far. We are open to the creative possibilities that you have to offer, in all of their craft, experimentation, and intuition. Both literal and figurative interpretations of the “brave new world” theme are welcomed.
Online publication is planned for summer 2021.
