The First Function of Mythology - Akira the Don, Joseph Campbell

Consciousness

Has other notions

Of how things ought to be

What virtue is

And so on

And so on

One

Of the problems

That

Man has to face

Is reconciling himself to the foundations of his own existence

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

That reconciliation

Of consciousness

With the mystery of being

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

Not

Criticizing it

Shakespeare

In his definition of art in Hamlet

Where he says;

«Art»

«Holds the mirror up to nature»

Is a perfect

Definition

I would say

Of the first

Function

Of mythology

When you hold the mirror

Up to your self

Your consciousness becomes aware

Of

Its

Support

What it is

What it is

That it is supporting it

You may be shocked

At what you see

You may be greatly pleased

But one way or another

You become aware

Of yourself

Your consciousness becomes aware of that darkness

That being

Which came into being

Out of darkness, and which is its own support

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

That reconciliation

Of consciousness

With the mystery of being

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

And the realization

Of their mystery

As something that consciousness

Is not going to be able to criticize

Not even going to be able to elucidate

Not even going to be able to name

It is something

Beyond naming

Beyond all definitions

That is the first point

And when that is lost

One loses

This sense of

Awe

Which Goethe calls, «The best thing in man.»

The sense

Of gratitude for one’s

Privilege

Of having

This

Center of consciousness aware of these things

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology

That reconciliation

Of consciousness

With the mystery of being

And this

Is the first function

Of mythology