A Few Helpful Books

Below are a few books that have helped me in my search—some more, some less.

Of course, there are others, not directly related to mythology, that have also had an affect.  Certainly, Endurance, by Alfred Lansing, tells of the hero’s quest.  The Mothman Prophecies, by John Keel, described the formation of a modern legend.  And all those plays of Shakespeare are filled with the archetypal characters and stories of myth and legend.

In any case, I will be searching in every book or article I read, in every movie or TV show I see.

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (John Ciardi translation)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Simon Armitage

Buddha, Karen Armstrong

The Case for God, Karen Armstrong

Genesis, Karen Armstrong

The Great Transformation: the beginning of our religious traditions, Karen Armstrong

Islam, Karen Armstrong

A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong (I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read this book.  I have sometimes found Armstrong’s exhaustive research exhausting.  But not with this book.  For a bigger challenge, try The Great Transformation.)

Lust: The Seven Deadly Sins, Simon Blackburn

History of Ancient Egypt, Bob Brier (Great Courses series, 48 lectures on DVD)  (Among the reasons Professor Brier gives for studying Ancient Egypt is: it’s fun.  Well, yes–especially when he’s the teacher.  He helps dispel a current falsehood: contrary to what we’ve been told, the kingdom of Egypt wasn’t a sleepy secluded stagnant place.  The ideas of Ancient Egypt may not be with us (at least, not the way the ideas of Athens are), but the “idea” of that faraway land definitely is.)

Mythology of Mexico and Central America, John Bierhorst

Mythology of South America, John Bierhorst

Iron John, Robert Bly  (Bly wasn’t telling men to become wildmen; Bly was telling us to look at all stuff we’d stuffed into a bag.  If we don’t, the bag will either weigh us down or something in the bag will jump out and try to devour us.  Maybe that wild man we stuffed.)

The Maiden King, Robert Bly & Marion Woodman

The Sibling Society, Robert Bly

A Short Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly

Crossing to Avalon, Jean Shinoda Bolen

The Goddesses in Everywoman, Jean Shinoda Bolen

The Gods in Everyman, Jean Shinoda Bolen

Ring of Power: A Jungian Understanding of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Jean Shinoda Bolen

Creative Mythology, Joseph Campbell

Myths To Live By, Joseph Campbell  (I find Campbell’s writing mind-numbing.  On the other hand, I love the books that are taken from his lectures and interviews.  This one may be the best of the lot.)

An Open Life, Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms

The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers  (Some have rejected Campbell, because they believe he was racist.  Okay–I think the accusations against him may have some validity.  But I’ve decided to take the best of what the man gave us.  And leave the worst on the cutting room floor.)

Reflections on the Art of Living, Joseph Campbell

Thou Art That, Joseph Campbell

Transformations of Myth Through Time, Joseph Campbell

The Way of the Animal Powers, Joseph Campbell

The Way of the Seeded Earth, Joseph Campbell

Grief Lessons: four plays by Euripides, Anne Carson  (I turned to the Ancient Greeks because I hoped to find a way to create dramatic works that cut directly through to the basic “raw” emotions that humans experience.  Well, I’m still looking.  But I’m not done with the Greeks yet.  Certainly, Euripides was a good place to start–and I think, a good place to return to, in time.  Carson is a poet, so I thought she  might provide a good translation.)

The Human Story, James C. Davis  (A good overview of human history that occasionally shifts focus so we can see how ordinary folk lived.  Very readable.  Some interesting choices.  For example, the author doesn’t discuss Julius Caesar.  But wasn’t Octavian much more important in the scheme of things?)

Don’t Know Much About Mythology, Kenneth C. Davis

Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America, Barbara Ehrenreich  (At the beginning, I thought I’d be reading a humorous take on the new-age-heal-your-spirit-heal-your-body movement.  To my surprise (and it was a pleasant surprise) I found a history of the development of religion in America.)

Blood Rites: Origins & History of the Passions of War, Barbara Ehrenreich

The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade

The Universal Myths, Alexander Eliot

The Bacchae, Euripides (trans. Moses Hadas & John McLean)  (Here’s what I learned: you don’t miss with this god, not because it’ll act like a whimsically-mean human being, but because it’ll act like a god.  By that I mean: like a force of life that doesn’t like to be ignored.)

The Humans Who Went Extinct: why Neanderthals died out and we survived, Clive Finlayson  (The author makes an important point at the end: Homo Sapiens will not become extinct–there’s just too many of us.  But ones who survive will be those who know how to live in the margins–as happened with our distant ancestors.)

Averno, Louise Gluck

Joan of Arc, Mary Gordon  (The truth behind the legend–and I believe the truth is more interesting.  And more helpful in terms of providing insight into who we are.  Apparently, people were willing to accept Joan as their leader, because they’d already been primed by a folktale or legend.  Unfortunately, the author doesn’t tell us much about that story–my only complaint regarding this book.)

The Swerve: how the world became modern, Stephen Greenblatt

The Gods of Olympus: a history, Barbara Graziosi

The Greek Way, Edith Hamilton  (Just because a book is used in school doesn’t mean it can’t be a good read.  In any case, we need to know the ancient Greeks and Romans–they’re still very much with us.)

The Roman Way, Edith Hamilton

Beowulf, trans. by Seamus Heaney  (I’ve sometimes gone back to old texts.  One reason: I hope I might see why these books have lasted for hundreds of years.  So what am I to make of Beowulf?  Maybe I didn’t take the time to look deep enough.  But I did realize one significant motif: when his time is done, the aged hero sacrifices himself in one last battle, rather than rot in uselessness.)

War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges

It’s All Greek to Me, Charlotte Higgins

Selected Poems by Wang Wei, trans. David Hinton

Shamanism in North America, Norman Bancroft Hunt

Balancing Heaven and Earth, Robert A. Johnson

He, Robert A. Johnson

Ecstasy, Robert A. Johnson

The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, Robert A. Johnson

Inner Work, Robert A. Johnson

Lying with the Heavenly Woman, Robert A. Johnson

Owning Your Own Shadow, Robert A. Johnson  (I’ve read Jung, but taken in his ideas mostly through the work of those who wrote about those ideas.  From what I’ve found so far, I believe Johnson probably serves the general reader the best.  And Owning Your Own Shadow may be his best book.)

She, Robert A. Johnson

Transformation, Robert A. Johnson

We, Robert A. Johnson

Modern Man in Search of a Soul, C.G. Jung

Psychology and Religion, C.G. Jung

The Undiscovered Self, C.G. Jung

Fire in the Belly, Sam Keen (a “men’s movement” text; seems to be forgotten now, but still worth a look)

Wizard of the Upper Amazon: the Story of Manuel Cordova-Rios, F. Bruce Lamb  (Autobiography of a young man taken captive by a South American tribe.  As sometimes happens, an author will mention something that piques my interest, but then goes on, without giving more information.  I’m talking about what he says about the tribe thinking with a “group mind”.  Nonetheless, an excellent book–with some suspense before its bittersweet conclusion.)

Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, Cloud Hands Edition

The Psychology of War, Lawrence LeShan

Action Philosophers, Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey

Introducing Buddha, Jane Hope, Borin Van Loon

Introducing Hinduism, Vinay Lal, Borin Van Loon  (A graphic book, but loaded with information.  Particularly interesting to me is how Hindu mythology provides storylines for so many Bollywood movies.)

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: a Biography, Donald S. Lopez

1491, Charles C. Mann

1493, Charles C. Mann  (Why do I include this history of what followed Columbus’ first voyage?  In part, because it shows how madly obsessive the human psyche can be.  There’s bad crazy and good crazy.  This book mostly gives us bad crazy.  But let us not see these maniacs as “them”, but as “us”.)

Holy Cow, Sarah Macdonald (A journey into India–focusing mainly on active religious traditions.  As you can guess from the title, the tone is humorous.  That said, the inquiry is respectful and serious.)

Metaphysical Club, Louis Menand (19th American philosophical thought–unknown to me before I read this book.  If you don’t judge these men by current standards, their ideas and concepts may enlighten.)

Temples, Tombs, Hieroglyphs, Barbara Mertz

Introducing Darwin, Jonathan Miller (Yeah, I think we need a book on Darwin, considering his impact on modern thought.  A graphic book, but plenty of information.)

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

The King Within, Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

The Lover Within, Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

The Magician Within, Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

The Warrior Within, Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

The Real History of the End of the World, Sharon Newman  (Doomsayers throughout history.  Do humans have a secret wish to witness the end of the world?  Maybe the truth is: we have the secret desire to throw in the towel and say, “Enough’s enough–this life is just too great a burden!”  Or perhaps we secretly fear the change we must make in order to survive in peace on this planet.)

Confucianism, Jennifer Oldstone-Moore

Taoism, Jennifer Oldstone-Moore  (I knew Taoism from the Tao Te Ching and didn’t realize that those inspired by that book couldn’t leave things alone, but had to create a panoply of deities atop a mountain of texts.)

Revelations, Elaine Pagels

Fame: What the Classics Tell Us about Our Cult of Celebrity, Tom Payne

The Clouds Should Know Me By Now, Red Pine & Mike O’Connor, editors

Madness: a Brief History, Roy Porter  (The human mind is a faulty instrument.  When this instrument seems to break down, we struggle to find ways to deal with the situation.  Often our efforts have been horrific.  But as this book shows, sometimes we’ve actually been kind.  Madness also tells us: sometimes the instrument isn’t actually broken.)

Beautiful Souls, Eyal Press  (This book serves a warning: those who blow the whistle usually have their lives destroyed by the action–even if they win and, unlike in the movies, they often don’t win.  But what surprised me was a fact that, upon reflection, shouldn’t have surprised me: the whistleblower is often a “true believer”.  If they were cynics, they probably wouldn’t protest.  For those reasons, I’m including this book on the list.  That is: it goes against the story we usually tell ourselves.)

Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins, Francine Prose

A Land So Strange: the epic journey of Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Resendez

Introducing Philosophy, David Robinson & Judy Groves  (Yes, a graphic book, but from it, I learned one important lesson.  Each new philosophy tried to address a problem that a previous philosophy had failed to see.  However, the new philosophy would have its own blind spot–which another new philosophy would then try to address.  And so on.  That said, the ancients gave us such wonderful gifts of philosophy.)

Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson (When military minds dreamed of a new way of fighting. Unfortunately, bright ideas can also have a dark side and the darker expression was eventually used. The movie is fun; the book is both fun and disturbing.)

The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson  (I include this book because it presents a dilemma: what do we do about those who lack all empathy for fellow human beings?  I believe what one of the psychopaths says in this book is true: there’s a bit of him in all of us.  So perhaps that’s the most important takeaway from this book.  I can’t do much to change that psychopath over there, but I can do something about the one right here.)

Them, Jon Ronson  (A book about belief–about how some will believe whatever they want to believe, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, ignoring common sense, ignoring their “better angels”.  Not so surprising to hear now, in these times of social media craziness.  But I wanted to include this book because Ronson reveals the human side of people we might casually label as “monster.”)

The Glance, Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks

The Poetry of Zen, Seaton & Hamill, trans.

Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East, Fred Gladstone Skinner

Greed: The Seven Deadly Sins, Phyllis Tickle

The Mountain People, Colin Turnbull  (How do humans behave when living in the sparsest conditions?  Not very well, according to this book.  A sobering thought when I think of the changes our world will face in the coming years.  Published in 1972, hopefully The Mountain People retain its status as a classic in coming years.)

The Lonely African, Colin Turnbull

Classical Mythology, Vol. 1 & 2, Elizabeth Vandiver (lectures on CD)

Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner  (I say the purpose of life is not happiness.  However, I also say: we should try if we want.  Weiner travels to the “happiest countries in the world” to learn why their citizens report such a high degree of happiness.)

Man Seeks God, Eric Weiner (Why shouldn’t a difficult personal journey not have a lighter side?)

Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness, Marion Woodman & Elinor Dickson  (Read slowly during a series of solitary camping trips.  A good approach to this book I think, because (like the best books) it needs to be digested gradually.  I hope the subtitle won’t scare off men–the dark goddess is part of our anima.  And guys, we need to know our anima.  One important takeaway: there are times to go within and do our inner work.  And times to be more with the world.)