Synchronicity, 2nd Edition

17. LESSONS: ENCOUNTERING THE TRAPS

Where you stumble, there your treasure lies.

—Joseph Campbell

One day in 1987 I was with a class of Forum fellows in Portland, Oregon, telling them about the journey I had taken in the creation of the Forum—the good times, and the trials and tribulations as well. Afterwards the executive director of the Oregon chapter, Mary Ann Buchannan, came up and said, “Joe, what you just told us seemed like it was straight out of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” I told her I didn’t know who Joseph Campbell was and had never read any of his books. She was very surprised because his most recent book, The Power of Myth, had been widely read. She explained that Campbell, who had recently died, was an authority ...