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"The individual has to find an aspect of myth that relates to his own life. Myth basically serves four functions. The first is the mystical function—realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery. Myth opens the world to the dimension of mystery, to the realization of the mystery that underlies all forms. If you lose that, you don’t have a mythology. If mystery is manifest through all things, the universe becomes, as it were, a holy picture. You are always addressing the transcendent mystery through the conditions of your actual world.


"The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned—showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through…


"The third function is the sociological one—supporting and validating a certain social order. And here’s where myths vary enormously from place to place. You can have a whole mythology for polygamy, a whole mythology for monogamy. Either one’s okay. It depends on where you are. It is this sociological function of myth that has taken over in our world—and it is out of date.


"But there is a fourth function of myth, and it is the one that I think everyone must try today to relate to—and that is the pedagogical function, on how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myths can teach you that".


Campbell, Joseph. The Power of Myth. Entrevista con Bill Moyers. 1988. 233 pp.

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