Free A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell Page A
Authors: Joseph Campbell
that the work of Nemesis is wrought: doom breaks from the shell of our very virtue. Peace then is a snare; war is a snare; change is a snare; permanence a snare. When our day is come for the victory of death, death closes in; there is nothing we can do, except be crucified and resurrected; dismembered totally, and then reborn. 55
Sometimes the death is, as it were, enacted. In primitive puberty rites, there is often an enactment of dying or the young person thinks he’s about to be killed and actually experiences a going into death. I know of a number of examples in contemporary life of people who have been in a blocked situation and then have actually experienced death.
One case I know was a woman caught in an automobile accident where two trucks collided with her in the middle, and she thought she was dead. When she came out of it, the whole life that she had been living just dropped off, and she had an entirely new life. So it is a valid psychological theme, this one of death out of which life comes.
Among primitive hunting people, where the men continually kill animals, this killing of the animals is the principle sacrifice, and among those people typically we have no human sacrifices. But in early planting cultures, there is almost a fury of sacrifice, sacrifices of all kinds, and it’s in those cultures that we have human sacrifice.
Only the best are sacrificed.
Being sacrificed is a way to go home.
“He who loses his life shall find it.“
Generally, the principle sacrifice is of a major food animal. For instance, in Southeast Asia, it’s the pig; in Europe, principally, it’s the bull. Both of these animals are symbolic of the moon. The tusks of the pig are the crescents of the moon, with the black face between; the horns of the bull, the same. The moon is that which dies and is resurrected, dies and is resurrected. The bull represents, in a way, the death of the moon out of which a new life can come.
Snake and moon both die to the old,
shed their shadow to be reborn.
I n Rome, suicide was a noble act. When one was about to be captured, which would mean living a disgraceful life, there was suicide, a practice that went on among the Celts too. There is a Hellenistic picture of a Celt killing himself and his wife as they’re about to be captured.
In Japan, the highest example of ceremonial suicide is hara-kiri , an interesting and subtle ritual act. A man who has conspicuously failed in the performance of his duty, which he places above his personal wish, commits hara-kiri , for it is the only thing that can redeem him from the disgrace. The man who is to commit hara-kiri kneels in the center of a tatami mat, the four corners of which are marked off by objects—like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John around Christ: the motif of the center and the four points. He inserts his sword, the symbol of his nobility and honor, into the right side of his belly, and carries it across and down. He must fall face for-ward. It is an extremely painful way to kill yourself. You can’t just stab and go out. It is a deliberate act, and a matter of honor that you experience the whole thing. In the woman’s counter-part of hara-kiri , she cuts her jugular vein—a different act, but the sense is the same.
An Indian aristocrat, whose sword is his honor, can behead himself. You can’t practice this one either. The way it’s done, according to the illustrations, is you bend down a pliant sapling, attach a rope to it, put the rope around your head, bend over, take your sword, and cut off your head. The further the tree pitches your head, the greater the merit you’ve gained by the act. You are immediately translated to wherever the merit has brought you, and your friends ‘round about know what has happened. This type of suicide has high dignity and belongs to the ritual practice of the community.
I think the idea of life after death is a bad idea. It distracts you from appreciating the uniqueness of the here
Sometimes the death is, as it were, enacted. In primitive puberty rites, there is often an enactment of dying or the young person thinks he’s about to be killed and actually experiences a going into death. I know of a number of examples in contemporary life of people who have been in a blocked situation and then have actually experienced death.
One case I know was a woman caught in an automobile accident where two trucks collided with her in the middle, and she thought she was dead. When she came out of it, the whole life that she had been living just dropped off, and she had an entirely new life. So it is a valid psychological theme, this one of death out of which life comes.
Among primitive hunting people, where the men continually kill animals, this killing of the animals is the principle sacrifice, and among those people typically we have no human sacrifices. But in early planting cultures, there is almost a fury of sacrifice, sacrifices of all kinds, and it’s in those cultures that we have human sacrifice.
Only the best are sacrificed.
Being sacrificed is a way to go home.
“He who loses his life shall find it.“
Generally, the principle sacrifice is of a major food animal. For instance, in Southeast Asia, it’s the pig; in Europe, principally, it’s the bull. Both of these animals are symbolic of the moon. The tusks of the pig are the crescents of the moon, with the black face between; the horns of the bull, the same. The moon is that which dies and is resurrected, dies and is resurrected. The bull represents, in a way, the death of the moon out of which a new life can come.
Snake and moon both die to the old,
shed their shadow to be reborn.
I n Rome, suicide was a noble act. When one was about to be captured, which would mean living a disgraceful life, there was suicide, a practice that went on among the Celts too. There is a Hellenistic picture of a Celt killing himself and his wife as they’re about to be captured.
In Japan, the highest example of ceremonial suicide is hara-kiri , an interesting and subtle ritual act. A man who has conspicuously failed in the performance of his duty, which he places above his personal wish, commits hara-kiri , for it is the only thing that can redeem him from the disgrace. The man who is to commit hara-kiri kneels in the center of a tatami mat, the four corners of which are marked off by objects—like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John around Christ: the motif of the center and the four points. He inserts his sword, the symbol of his nobility and honor, into the right side of his belly, and carries it across and down. He must fall face for-ward. It is an extremely painful way to kill yourself. You can’t just stab and go out. It is a deliberate act, and a matter of honor that you experience the whole thing. In the woman’s counter-part of hara-kiri , she cuts her jugular vein—a different act, but the sense is the same.
An Indian aristocrat, whose sword is his honor, can behead himself. You can’t practice this one either. The way it’s done, according to the illustrations, is you bend down a pliant sapling, attach a rope to it, put the rope around your head, bend over, take your sword, and cut off your head. The further the tree pitches your head, the greater the merit you’ve gained by the act. You are immediately translated to wherever the merit has brought you, and your friends ‘round about know what has happened. This type of suicide has high dignity and belongs to the ritual practice of the community.
I think the idea of life after death is a bad idea. It distracts you from appreciating the uniqueness of the here
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