Books: The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Part 2)

I am almost finished with The Power of Myth, and there is an interesting part of this interview that I wanted to share. Before I get to that, remember that last time, I talked about learning from our imperfections and shared experiences.

I've always had a fascination with the cycle of life, death, and life again. When I turned 18 years old, my mother took me to get a tattoo, so I could "get it out of my system." I was still mourning a significant loss in my life, and the tattoo I chose for myself that day was symbolic of that cycle of life, death, and life again. Unfortunately for my mother, I did not "get it out of my system," and I now have double-digit tattoos.

The thing is, there seems to be an over-arching theme to my tattoos. I currently have five tattoos that represent that cycle of life, death, and life again. Although I am not mourning that loss the way I was when I was 18, that loss changed me fundamentally to my core, for I am different person than I was before that loss.

It could be argued that in the time before that loss, I had a life that I lost. I died inside, and was eventually reborn as the person that I am today.

Coping with loss has empowered me to wear my fear on my skin. To display my vulnerabilities while simultaneously wearing my hope like a shield to protect me from that which I fear the most.

Campbell discusses this life and death cycle. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is a cycle of death, life, and death again:

"The serpent sheds its skin to be born again, as the moon its shadow to be born again. They are equivalent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life" (Campbell and Moyers 53).

Ouroboros

I wear that image of life, as well as other images of life that I wear on my skin. These images of life are also images of death. There is no contradiction here; as with the Ouroboros, that which nourishes the snake also destroys it, and in destroying itself, the snake is gathering nourishment.

Campbell continues,

"Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. The serpent represents immortal energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, constantly throwing off death and being born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way. And so the serpent carries in itself the sense of both the fascination and the terror of life" (Campbell and Moyers 53).

When I first got my diagnosis, I realized that there was something I'd never taken the time to think about as a possible future for myself. I am not yet 40 years old, and although I've lived a life most extraordinary, I had never really thought about death. I wear death on my body, but it has always been far too easy to focus on the life part of the cycle.

The death part of the cycle was suddenly brought into sharp relief. I lost that life most extraordinary and had to learn how to live again. Once again, I needed time to mourn the loss that changed me fundamentally to my core. I am a different person, once again.

And so the cycle goes.