I remember a passage from Joseph Cambell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" where he describes what happens to the hero in his/her elder years
"The hero blessed by the father returns to represent the father among men. As teacher (Moses) or as emperor (Huang Ti) his word is law.... To see him is to perceive the meaning of existence. From his presence boons go out; his word is the wind of life.
But a deterioration may take place in the character of the representative of the father. ... No longer referring the boons of his reign to their transcendent source, the emperor breaks the stereoptic vision which it is his role to sustain. He is no longer the mediator between the two worlds.... The upholding idea of community is lost. Force is all that binds it. The emperor becomes the tyrant ogre (Herod-Nimrod), the usurper from whom the world is now to be saved.
pp 347-48, 'Transformations of the Hero' in The Hero With A Thousand Faces.
John
former Campbellian Devotee
(I got better).
nysalor_at_... John Hughes
In choosing your god, you choose
your way of looking at the universe.
There are plenty of Gods.
Choose yours.
The god you worship
is the god you deserve.
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