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Rating: 
Summary: Inspirational......
Review: For devoted fans who cannot get enough of Joseph Campbell's thoughts, I highly recommend THE FLIGHT OF THE WILD GANDER. Although the book was first published in 1969, Campbell's thinking on the subject of religion and shamanism was well formed by then, and many of the ideas he discussed with Bill Moyers in the famous PBS interviews are more fully developed in this text. Also, if you have read his HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES you will find much of what he has to say in GANDER further distills and elaborates those ideas. GANDER includes several related essays. Essays of greatest interest to me were also the most difficult to follow - `Primative Man as Metaphysician' `Mythogenesis' and `The Secularization of the Sacred' the latter essay summarizing and complementing the earlier essays.
Campbell describes first step of the process of individuation, as a growing awareness of a higher power accomplished by traveling a singular path versus merely accepting and acting on the teachings of a `religious' tradition associated with one's social group. He suggests that truly coming to know God is a frightening prospect(other people may persecute you as a heretic to say nothing of the sheer awe of the experience) and lonely experience(no one, neither priest or medicine man/witch doctor can do it for you) that one can only carry out by letting go through a `Shamanistic' experience comparable to those expeienced by American Indians, Eastern yogis, and other traditional people. Even after you have got yourself out on a limb, so to speak, you will only know finite things because `that which stands behind' the Masks of God is unknowable by humans.
Any summarization of this text I might provide is trite. You owe it to yourself to read this book and find your own path. BTW, if you are searching for more material to continue your "Da Vinci Code" experience you will find that Campbell was aware of the search for the grail long before many of today's popular writers.
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Summary: From myth symbols to temporal terms in spiritual thinking
Review: Joseph Campbell's Flight Of The Wild Gander provides selected essays by the author, which cover mythological explorations from 1944-68. From myth symbols to temporal terms in spiritual thinking, this provides many intriguing insights.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good stuff, but not clearly written
Review: This book assembles six essays written by Campbell between 1944 and 1968. The first, a commentary on Grimm's Fairy Tales, is a good historical overview of the field of folktale research. Campbell ends it by touching on some of the topics that interest him in the rest of the book--archetypes, myths as repositories of wisdom, the genesis and dissemination of folklore and myth. He ends it by saying: "The folk tale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul", a gnomic utterance that I can't quite decode.The rest of the book varies between these two poles: good historical overview and fascinating data on folk tales and myths, and complex, blurry statements about shamanic wisdom and human nature. One essay analyzes a specific American Indian tale in great detail; others delve into psychoanalysis and religious practice. I found all of them frustrating. I kept looking for a clear statement of what Campbell believes, and I couldn't find it. I was recommended this book by a friend who really likes both it and Campbell. I went back to him and asked him to explain what Campbell was saying. After I spoke to him I think I got it, but I have a low opinion of the clarity of Campbell's writing. It shouldn't be that hard! As for the content, I'll refrain from making judgements, and simply say that Campbell's primary interest--if I understand him correctly--is in the relationship between the huge body of myth worldwide, and human nature. His language is sometimes mystical--a word he dislikes; but here's a sentence of his: "The shaman, then, is not only a familiar denizen, but even the favoured scion, of those realms of power that are invisible to our normal waking consciousness, which all may visit briefly in vision, but through which he roams, a master." It's very hard to tell whether this is his transcription of the shaman's viewpoint, or whether Campbell believes there really are "realms of power". This ambiguity pervades the book, and I suspect is why he is often referred to as mystical. Overall, I can't recommend the book, unless you are already familiar with Campbell's ideas. If you're not, I think you'd find it as frustrating as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Myriad-Minded Mythologist!
Review: This is Joseph Campbell at his most wide-ranging--from intense academic essays like his foreword to the Grimm Bothers' Tales to philosophical explorations of the place of myth in today's world like "Secularization of the Sacred" and "Symbol without Meaning." My favorite essay in the collection is "Bios and Mythos", where Campbell goes into the question of the biological basis for spiritual thought. Really mindblowing stuff!
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Summary: Myriad-Minded Mythologist!
Review: This is one of my favorite JC books. The essays in this book stand up to the test of time, albeit not THAT long ago. Campbell was a romantic Jungian and Neumannian, but he took their work, and Zimmer's to greater heights and broader sights. This book is just lovely-- a treasure-filled collection of comparative mythology and psychological insight. Definitely one of Campbell's best.
It was so hard to find, I pleased that it has been reissued.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific reissue of a classic.
Review: This is one of my favorite JC books. The essays in this book stand up to the test of time, albeit not THAT long ago. Campbell was a romantic Jungian and Neumannian, but he took their work, and Zimmer's to greater heights and broader sights. This book is just lovely-- a treasure-filled collection of comparative mythology and psychological insight. Definitely one of Campbell's best.
It was so hard to find, I pleased that it has been reissued.
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