[jamesn.]

Hello Shaheda; I’ve been thinking about your idea a lot for several days now and here is what it represents to me. Joseph talked on many occasions about Jung’s process in getting in touch with his inner myth or (mind-space) if you will; to try and understand what this thing actually was; or put another way; “to understand what it was that was forming him from the inside out”. Now if I remember correctly from his book: “Memories, Dreams and Reflections” his “Red Book” was what came out of this process. Joseph also commented several times: (via your childhood games reference); that he would move big rocks around; (the creation of his home: “Bollingen”); because building little cities and houses was what he enjoyed as child and he was recreating this activity on a much larger scale and got enormous pleasure from his home he created.

(You may know all of this already); and Joseph went on to say that the individual must find their own playground to do this. (Dennis for instance talks about his painting as an example he mentioned to us before.) Here is where we get into one of Joseph’s most well known concepts of creating one’s: “Sacred Space”. Now this may or may not resonate with your ideas; but I’m pretty sure this was the concept he was suggesting. There are certainly ideas along this line stated in various ways like: (Dream work of course); along with journaling or constructing your own art expressions mentioned in some of our MythBlast discussions. But the main term I’ve heard Joseph use that to me seems to fit this idea along with what you heard in the “Personal Myth lecture; which I’ve listened to as well; is in: “Modern Myths of Quest” – Lecture: II.I.6 of: “Symbolic Realization”; where he talks about integration within the Individuation process of going down into your inner world and finding what’s down there and accessing it to inform you of how to make this later life transition within the Sacred Space mind-space. A lot of Joseph’s lectures I’ve listened to talk about these same concepts; but in different ways. (Since I haven’t listened to that particular one in a while what you mentioned about the little girl jumping rope I believe is an example of the very same thing but of course I could be mistaken.)

Not to overstate the obvious I think the point Joseph is making is to utilize your childhood experiences as metaphoric tools through personal artistic expressions. A few helpful books I’ve come across on ways to do this would be Stephen Larson’s excellent book: “The Mythic Imagination”; where he shows various techniques like: drawing, group mask making and role playing and photography to reveal some of these inner themes that are working inside you. And I particularly like Sam Keen’s: “Your Mythic Journey” where he and Anne Valley-Fox take some of the things to think about that were used in the workshops he and Joseph put together during the yearly gatherings at Esalen Institute. Some extras to add would be Michael Toms: “An Open Life”; Diane Osbon’s “Reflections on the Art of Living – A Joseph Campbell Companion”; and of course: “Pathways to Bliss” edited by David Kudler; along with “Power of Myth”. Some of these books you probably already have but other people reading this may not be aware of them.  As for myself I developed my own process with my music, photography, reading material and writing; (much of this is connected to my own life narrative); and organized into different sequenced time periods where I can see and understand how my life has unfolded and the various ways it has changed over time. But each person develops their own process.

At any rate these are just some suggestions to explore if you’re interested; (although it sounds like you may have already started to develop your own system). But the point I think Joseph is saying is there is no necessary standard roadmap for this inner process as he mentions in the clip below because the revelations come through the alchemy of discovery within the experience of doing it; and that it should be things that you deeply love spending time doing; and “not” a procedural prescribed system like following steps 1 through 10, etc. (Certainly Stephen, Aidian, yourself, or others may have more to add about this so I’ll stop here.)

(A little synchronistic experience I had this morning I’ll share I took a clue from) while thinking about this post was that every couple of weeks or so I usually check the JCF YouTube channel to see if there are any new additional clips that have been added. Well; low and behold here was this little clip from the: “Power of Myth” series with Bill Moyers only 2 hours old that had been added. So see if this clip about: “Sacred Spaces” speaks to your question.