<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Joseph Campbell Foundation]]></title><description><![CDATA[JCF]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/mythblast-newsletter</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:18:09 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.jcf.org/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Singing in Love of the Self: A Musical Initiation into Apotheosis]]></title><description><![CDATA[Where does the power lie, and how is it extracted to take the plunge into the dark, the dangerous temptation of the unknown—for…love? 



Revisiting the psyche’s Road of Trials for the soul and… 

Let’s revisit something we all might know: the myth of Psyche and Cupid. Psyche undertook the quest, laden with challenging tasks set by Venus, the mother of Cupid, for love. Venus laid out the trials carefully, one after another, each task a challenge, each challenge a step in the journey. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/singing-in-love-of-the-self-a-musical-initiation-into-apotheosis</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3dc04b43356881844a0864</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2026 23:34:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_a6c7f75534c849879fd0c0da83c99a68~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_748,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Priyanka Gupta</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“How Can I Keep from Singing?”]]></title><description><![CDATA[Holding a hymnal, standing in a pew, and singing with a congregation is often where I find myself in times of deep loss, uncertainty, or desolation. Not necessarily to change anything or feel comforted by those standing with me, but to sing collectively, to feel the music flow through me, to reach for something greater than myself for solace.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/how-can-i-keep-from-singing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a33396238520286278f68dd</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2026 23:37:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_99fdad02563644f7a5d28861c2f61cf5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_960,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Stephanie Zajchowski, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Initiation on Bald Mountain]]></title><description><![CDATA[It’s no small miracle that the VHS copy of Disney’s Fantasia (1940) survived all of the times I rewound it to the Night on Bald Mountain sequence when I was three to four years old. The imagery of the grand demon Chernabog summoning skeletal wraiths from their graves and initiating a frenzied Walpurgisnacht upon an near-volcanic Bald Mountain utterly entranced my childhood psyche. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/initiation-on-bald-mountain</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a2b360c418318a8f7df179a</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 23:26:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_ed700570d17241ca847b3473e56b8d2e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_816,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Teddy Hamstra, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hamilton, My Mom, and Me]]></title><description><![CDATA[My mother liked to read history; I like to read myth. She listened to classic Johnny Cash; I prefer the American IV album. She loved college basketball; I love Stranger Things. But we did find one media experience we agreed upon: she and I watched the movie version of Hamilton together approximately eighty-seven times. How did Hamilton work this miracle? The show activated our imaginations, embodied Joseph Campbell’s functions of mythology, and enabled us to connect with each other.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/hamilton-my-mom-and-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a21612908c355371fa11873</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 23:09:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_44026ea1187a49638654895edc57519e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_563,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Joanna Gardner, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Monomyth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]></title><description><![CDATA[How rarely can we tap into the well of inspiration and transcend universal ideas and emotions? How special it is to exit Plato's Cave of shadows and return with illumination. Two brilliant minds stand at the mouth of Plato’s Cave, blinking from an excess of ideas: Joseph Campbell, the cartographer of myth, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, its composer. One maps the journey; the other lends voice to it.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/the-monomyth-of-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a18f785bfee2278d079f155</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 22:49:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_4890ca28ca6b43b3abc8aa90d8006ec0~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_725,h_483,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lejla Panjeta</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Sand and the Bow: Music, Chaos and the Initiated Soul]]></title><description><![CDATA[There’s an experiment first performed in the eighteenth century by the physicist Ernst Chladni that reveals something about the nature of transformation that no amount of psychological attribution or theological conjecture quite manages. Chladni would scatter fine sand across a circular, flat, metal plate then draw a violin bow slowly down its edge. The sand, disturbed by the vibration, would skitter and scatter—seemingly at random—and then within moments, the sand would gather itself...]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/the-sand-and-the-bow-music-chaos-and-the-initiated-soul</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0e5d22dd66a932defa90f7</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 24 May 2026 21:25:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_4f3a9b887c9846c684113f9f44a557fc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_960,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Kristina Dryža</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Birdsong, Thresholds, and the Infinite: Initiation Ascending with the Lark]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every year on my birthday, I listen to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.

I have for most of my life.



My birthday falls just after the spring equinox, and for as long as I can remember, The Lark Ascending has marked the beginning of the year for me far more than January ever has. January feels administrative. March feels initiatory: the air still carries winter inside it, but the world begins to open again.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/birdsong-thresholds-and-the-infinite-initiation-ascending-with-the-lark</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a066cf6875a6143a339b707</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2026 21:00:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_e968f3720bec49509bd25d2be3c176bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_800,h_600,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Leigh Melander, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“Pink Pony Club” Goes Zero-G]]></title><description><![CDATA[“Pink Pony Club” tells the story of a heroic journey strikingly similar to that of the Artemis II astronauts. In both cases, protagonists hear a call to venture far from home, be it Earth or Tennessee. “Pink Pony Club” defies the gravitational pull of societal norms and family, while Artemis II defied historical norms as well as literal gravity to take flight and then enter a space of levity, their bodies and spirits floating within the spacecraft. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/pink-pony-club-goes-zero-g</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69fbdc754f7ebdc9f6a414e0</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 21:52:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_bc6ee78eb83c47e5b113e07101125552~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Joanna Gardner, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[At-One-Ment with the Demon: How KPop Demon Hunters Completes the Heroine's Journey]]></title><description><![CDATA[Last year's KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix was an industry-shaking surprise: a high-energy animated film that mixed K-pop with Korean mythology and generated a soundtrack that spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard 200. That soundtrack also became the first ever to have four simultaneous songs in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/at-one-ment-with-the-demon</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f2a66224f9d3e5cd74618e</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 23:51:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_6f8ba2b687934f8d8e2d335441ff7043~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_1000,h_675,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jason Batt, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ritual of Survival]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some holidays are celebrated; others are survived. Đurđevdan belongs to the latter. May 6th in the Balkans celebrates the victory of summer over the winter, return of warmth, and the renewal of life. This holy-day is embedded in folk rituals and songs, such as the famous “Đurđevdan” (English pronunciation “JOOR-jev-dahn”) by Bijelo Dugme, taken from the folk Romani song “Ederlezi.” It literally translates to English as St. George’s Day. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/ritual-of-survival</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e0016447c3def1fff0f6b0</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 23:33:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_be923c2c98b3442880432e2443b8f344~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_640,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lejla Panjeta</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Quieter Music For Louder Times]]></title><description><![CDATA[In ancient times, cultures looked to their myths to preserve the harmony of their communities, or to restore it when things went awry. Often, the myths were sung aloud or accompanied by instruments to enrich the medium the narratives rode on. Music provided a tangible element for the listeners to be touched and moved by. After all, music communicates directly to our emotions. In modern times, however, we’ve turned to abstraction, conceptual language and logical deductions, to help sort things]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/a-quieter-music-for-louder-times</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69df9e71dd5b371c4c5b8434</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:37:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_0fac48bc1f2b463eabb2a576bff22bfc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_560,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Craig Deininger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Music is Muse-ical]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Mythblast series is looking into myth-and-music this year but, if you want the mythic in music, we need to reflect first of all on the bedrock of music—and to our hearts when they open to the call of music: the call of the Muses. So before we rush off to analyze our Spotify playlists, let’s take a moment to relocate the Muses in music, how music is Muse-ical, and how the Muse-ical is mythical.



Now, depending on the Muse, this can go a couple of different ways: there are nine of them. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/music-is-muse-ical</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d7e4d3a51db32c14c32d95</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:09:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_c154fad6be32459d973d2e41f755ca81~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_430,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Mark C.E. Peterson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Noodle in Charon’s Boat: Separation as Beginning and End in Gorillaz’ The Mountain]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Hero’s Journey is often represented as a wheel, with the protagonist moving clockwise through the points. The imagery forces a presumption of motion and order, each point as constant as the clock, always in sequence. Yet, in an era where the Hero’s Journey is being explored from other perspectives, criticized, and reimagined, I offer that it should be deconstructed—and the first aspect worth deconstructing is its scaffolding. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/noodle-in-charons-boat-separation-as-beginning-and-end-in-gorillaz-the-mountain</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ce9e6cd6854e26a0aa9d3f</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:37:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_6a1e4982435046ce90913b71f0ef5b6d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jason Batt, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“Musafir Hoon Yaaron”: Kishore Kumar's Musical Legacy]]></title><description><![CDATA[On the wings of melody, music breathes life into silence, the silence of the darkness that is lit with the musician’s pursuit of quiet longing. Each note, each tone, each stir of the magic spell of the song invites a wandering—a hero-dive, promising an adventure of an ever-renewing lifetime. The music of the legendary Indian singer Kishore Kumar speaks to the orders of our own life, our travels of the soul—as a herald, essential for our adventure’s mystical realizations. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/musafir-hoon-yaaron-kishore-kumar-musical-legacy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c46c64653657f03d5df18d</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2026 23:52:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_8ae4ae1b1f7c4fdc8100bd936d2bc6dd~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_600,h_600,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Priyanka Gupta</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“While the Music Plays the Band”]]></title><description><![CDATA[Joseph Campbell had met the members of the Grateful Dead not long before, over dinner at Weir’s home. Weir, percussionist Mickey Hart, and band patriarch Jerry Garcia—all familiar with his work—were as charmed by the mythologist as he was by them. They invited the 82-year-old scholar to that show at Kaiser, where he was struck by the resonance he perceived with ancient Dionysian rituals of transformation. Campbell acknowledged the musicians as “consummate artists,” ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/while-the-music-plays-the-band</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69bc3ef17ec0d59a4b4dd89a</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:03:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_cf7e794d47854c849352365071f27a12~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_300,h_300,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Stephen Gerringer</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Song That Remembers Us]]></title><description><![CDATA[Her little egocentric mind whispers, Look at all this love. It must be because of me. I must be precious. And she's right. Not just because she's special, but because everyone is. That’s what the village knows: preciousness isn't something you earn; it's something you're born with. And the village's most important job is to never let you forget it.

In Kai's village, this sense of preciousness isn't reserved for fellow clan. It extends to all of it—every living thing. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/the-song-that-remembers-us</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b1f4d39f757da15ac453a9</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 23:09:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_7f30b09c4d604824960c7b87c1b8c6ea~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_667,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Carl R. Nassar</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Hope We Hear in Harmony: Mythology and the Break-Up Song]]></title><description><![CDATA[Now that Valentine’s Day is behind us, let’s talk about … breaking up.



The break-up song is universal. Billboard dedicates an entire page to it, and after asking my friends for their favorites, I now have a Spotify Playlist spanning four hours—an emotional marathon. Joseph Campbell rightly calls artists “magical helpers.” On our Hero’s Journey navigating love, the singer croons us through the fires of a relationship’s end, catapults us into new territory, and gives us the confidence to brave ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/the-hope-we-hear-in-harmony-mythology-and-the-break-up-song</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69a8b9980df7a7bf5035d648</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 23:32:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_0b45f5d9e53d40379a1070591511e49f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>R.A. Noble</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Songs from the Moon: The Mythic Howl of the Mississippi Delta Blues ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Three voices from the late nineteenth century miraculously reach out to us through crackling, hissing, scratchy recordings: Charley Patton, Henry Thomas, and Blind Willie Johnson. Blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta and scattered towns of Texas, the recordings of these African-American troubadours strike the modern ear like dispatches from a distant moon.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/songs-from-the-moon-the-mythic-howl-of-the-mississippi-delta-blues</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699fbdfc12cb2e7c18f18a20</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:57:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_f3243802bdc242fc8bd8af1bd41a03f1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_960,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Teddy Hamstra, PhD</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Refusal to War]]></title><description><![CDATA[Armed with 1980's soundtracks and fully protected with headband bandanas and plaided flannel shirts around hips, driven by courage and pride, the young of Sarajevo defend their besieged city in 1992. Using almost supernatural power, we succeed in stopping the aggressor set not only to kill, but to destroy all the culture and civilization in this multifaceted small European city. We were not separated by our religions, nationalities, ethnicities, nor color of the skin. ]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/refusal-to-war</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699276d9cf429c4fcb4a7ce6</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:30:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_0c7070b980e34584922552b91cdad69c~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_640,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lejla Panjeta</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Separation and the Lost Language of Nature in the Music of M. K. Čiurlionis]]></title><description><![CDATA[There’s an ancient saying that music is the language of the gods. Long before it was entertainment or background sound, music was understood as something closer to enchantment, a force capable of aligning the human soul with powers larger than itself. In antiquity, specific forms of elevated music were believed to hold real efficacy to heal, summon, order chaos, and attune human life to the rhythms of the cosmos.]]></description><link>https://www.jcf.org/post/separation-and-the-lost-language-of-nature-in-the-music-of-m-k-ciurlionis</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6972d22416ee2e056457b029</guid><category><![CDATA[MythBlast]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7857a_478f2affb0db4a299781a1a6800cc935~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_808,h_800,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Kristina Dryža</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>