Hero with a Thousand Faces is supposed to account the steps of the monomyth that is commonplace in the subconscious of every individual and, as a result, presents itself in the numerous mythologies around the world.
I need to reread these sections- his ideas about a "bisexual god" or father figure being the purest of forms is interesting but kind of far fetched to me. I think it's because I don't readily see it in the mythology/ culture that I surround myself with. But Campbell provides evidence with tribes in Australia (the whole initiation/ father blood dependency/ subcision process is fascinating, eerie, but a bit isolated still in my mind from the way things work in other cultures) as well as evidence in the yin/ yang concept (yang- light, masculine, agressive... yin- dark, feminine, passive aspect) and in Bhuddism.
His evidence of there often being a god merged of storm/ sun is interesting as well... the idea that both benevolent and malevolent power (sun to light the world, lightning to destroy it) can come from the same energy and be contained/ controlled by one god.
The issue of duality seems to keep coming up again- opposites existing in harmony and all that. I'm sure this will peak when I get into (Jung's) Doppleganger (anima/ animus) concept.
These are random thoughts- I need to start taking notes as I read or something to digest this stuff better- but that's not what I want to be doing as I'm reading in the 85 degree weather on the upper level of our dock....
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