Read a myth "as
you would read a dream journal, for the task… is to internalize mythic
symbology; to realize that all the gods and demons are within; to understand
that heaven, hell and other such realms are not places somewhere "out
there" to which you go when you die, but psychological states within us
all; to comprehend, in short, that all mythological images are aspects of your
own immediate experience." (from Robert Walter’s forward to World
Mythology, Roy Willis, ed.)
Joseph Campbell has
stated:
"Like dreams,
myths are productions of the human imagination. Their images… are, like
dreams, revelations of the deepest hopes, desires and fears, potentialities and
conflicts, of the human will." "Every myth… is psychologically
symbolic. Its narratives and images are to be read, therefore, not literally,
but as metaphors." (quoted by Walter in his forward to World Mythology)
Tell me a story that
symbolically (mythically) represents you or something about your life. The story
can be one you make up yourself. It can be a story from religion. It can be a
children’s classic (a fairy tale such as Goldilocks and The Three Bears,
The Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, etc.). The story can be a
fable (e.g., one of Aesop’s fables). It can be a synopsis of a novel or movie
(classic or modern) that you somehow identify with personally. The story can be
a song or even a dream you had which struck you as symbolic of something in your
life.
In telling your
story, offer an interpretation: relate various elements of the story to your
life. Why is the story meaningful to you? What does it reveal to you about
yourself?