How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When we turn now, with this image in mind, to consider the numerous strange rituals that have been reported from the primitive tribes and great civilizations of the past, it becomes apparent that the purpose and actual effect of these was to conduct people across those difficult thresholds of transformation that demand a change in the patterns not only of conscious but also of unconscious life. (8.3)
This is the big enchilada, as far as Campbell is concerned. He claims that ancient customs were designed to do the same thing that modern customs do: connect us to something larger and maybe help expand our minds beyond our immediate surroundings in the process.
Quote #2
Most amazing is the fact that a great number of the ritual trials and images correspond to those that appear automatically in dream the moment the psychoanalyzed patient begins to abandon his infantile fixations and to progress into the future. (10.1)
Things are the same in some ways no matter what era we live in. The minute we tap into our subconscious – and whatever lies beyond that – the trappings of our 21st century life dissolve and we're on the same level as tribesmen in caves 3,000 years ago.
Quote #3
It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back. (9.2)
It's kind of ironic: we go backwards into earlier traditions in order to attain the wisdom and insight to move forward as a people… yet the more we move forward, the more distance we put between us and those traditions that helped us get here.