Finding Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell

Christ Invests Himself Organically with the Very Majesty of His Universe

by Michael Dvortcsak

from the article on this website: Jesus and the Resurrection

Saint Peregrine by Nicholas Markell

St Peregrine Icon by Nicholas Markell

Avalokiteshvara dressed like Saint Peregrine from the article Pilgrimage

Chenraizee as Our Lady of Guadalupe

Chenraizee (Avalokiteshvara in Tibetan) as Our Lady of Guadalupe
by Ralfka Gonzales

Kip's bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara sculpture by Kip Dollar

Here's a wonderful description of the Bodhisattva by Joseph Campbell

the dorje and bell

The worn dorje and bell on Toby's altar

Monty's bottle of sand

The bottle incrusted with sea sand, and smelling faintly of spearmint, that Monty (the Buddha) gave me

———

Reviews of Finding Your Own True Myth

Will Roscoe wrote:

A deep dive into the power and relevance of myth

Finding Your Own True Myth is a deep dive into the power and relevance of myth. The author draws from Eastern religion, philosophy and psychotherapy, and the many lessons of a long and rich life, inspired by his great mentor, Joseph Campbell. — Will Roscoe, author of Queer Spirits: A Gay Men’s Myth Book and Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same-Sex Love.

Dennis Merritt wrote:

Johnson interweaves his impressive knowledge of religions and their myths ...

Johnson interweaves his impressive knowledge of religions and their myths with stories of his own journey through life in teaching how we can each create our own myths, the myth we choose to define ourselves, the myths we use to map our journey finding our own bliss.

For those interested in comparative religion, what the spiritual quest means today, this is a great read. Inspired by the author's connection with Joseph Campbell who studied and understood the common themes in the myths of all the major and minor religions of the World. (How important was Joseph Campbell? Remember the 'myth's of the original Star Wars? Luke? Trying to learn the 'force', Yoda the spiritual teacher, the old masters, and Darth Vader representing the dark forces... That all came out of their consultation with Joseph Campbell. Those were great movies. Been supplanted by a lot of CGI graphic wizardry in the later movies.) Follow your Bliss. (Joseph Campbell as well.)

Toby Johnson is extremely well read, and intertwines a history of religious thought with his own life's journey expanding on Campbell's ideas to how we can each create the myths that shape our lives, can reach for the Bliss Joseph Campbell described.

Toby Johnson writes:

Dennis Merritt is author of the wonderful and mind-blowing book Reflection. This book has come through my life twice (1992 & 2017) and each time it's been an affirmation and reminder of the Great Secret theme in my life. Dennis Merritt is like the guy in the "Interlude" chapter who leans across the table and says: "Let me tell you a secret…"

Jerry L. Wheeler wrote a very nice review in Out in Print:

Unlike some other atheists, I certainly have nothing against spirituality. Anything that helps you examine your own life and your relationship to those around you and the world in general is a positive thing. Self-reflection is a wonderful tool and one that is in all too rare use these days. In his time as seminarian, monk, author, lecturer, psychotherapist, Toby Johnson’s experiences and insights rival those of his mentor, Joseph Campbell, and many of them are laid out in this third edition of what may become Johnson’s Leaves of Grass, The Myth of the Great Secret.

This edition focuses on Johnson’s relationship with and assimilation of the teachings of myth-master Joseph Campbell, providing well-chosen anecdotes as well as teaching stories to illustrate his points. Johnson also includes a great deal of personal history pertinent to his own path, but he never intimates his journey must be your own. One of the points he stresses is that the spiritual search is an extremely individual one, and what works for some may not for others. His example provides both a model and a point of departure for those on their own mythic hunt.

If all of this sounds frightfully boring, it’s not. Johnson uses his novelist’s skills to infuse a bit of life into what could have been a very dry read and also uses his own history as a gay man to make his philosophical points salient to other gay men. This common ground proves indispensable in making the material accessible. And although Johnson always comes back to Joseph Campbell, he uses Campbell’s myth-making to include Eastern religious modalities, occultism, and even parapsychology, ranging far and wide among these subjects to bring us a gestalt of the lessons he has learned.

Finding Your Own True Myth, then, is more of an instruction booklet than dogma, presenting possibilities and potentialities that the reader can choose from. It provides a light by which you can walk your own path, and in these days of homogenized, ready-made belief systems, that’s an invaluable service.

JW

Rollan McCleary wrote:

The book helps the reader to better understand a whole period of time and range of cultures

Toby Johnson has been and remains an important figure in the expression of the gay spirituality which has been spreading since the seventies in America into the wider world. From being a former seminarian, a Servite friar and would-be physicist he would become a gay activist, journalist, novelist, editor, therapist and you name it. So it is therefore of real interest to know more about TJ’s background and his colourful views in the way this well written book allows and also to know more about the renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell. This writer-guru of the “follow your bliss” mantra, greatly influenced Johnson at a crucial stage and Johnson had the privilege of personally knowing him as opposed to Thomas Merton and Barnabas Ahern without whom perhaps he might not have been so open to Campbell. The book helps the reader to better understand a whole period of time and range of ideas, some of which they might dissent from even while under the umbrella of the same gay spirituality they would agree in seeking to realize and affirm.

Gay spirituality it seems to me goes in basically two directions. It can be an inquiry into, explanation and expression of one’s personal and cultural individuality as a gay person, or, on the basis that gayness can avoid the Yin/Yang dualities heterosexuality imposes, “acceptance” seeks to include everyone and everything on a quasi-buddhist basis within an evolutionary plan to which gay consciousness will contribute something, even much. TJ is very much of the latter “mystical” as opposed to “philosophical/theological” persuasion, and is even its chief spokesperson today. A problem with this latter path for me as a gay theologian who believes in an objective not metaphorical gay aura and whom long residence in Asia can’t permit me to be idealistic about Asian faiths, is that any Buddhist no-self doctrine has no real room for the individualism that being gay is about and the high self awareness needed to manage oneself in society. I even believe that “the story of ourselves”, gay or otherwise, that Campbell believed we make up as we go along and the “synchronicities” that TJ sets so much store by for guidance, are in fact largely given in advance by the celestial pattern at birth. Thus Campbell’s hero’s journey, less universal than he assumed, had a lot to do with his being born under very self-aware and combative Aries.

In following Campbell, TJ takes myth a long and radical Jungian way to the point good and evil become purely relative, there’s no eternity there’s only “now”, there’s no God unless we’re God ourselves, there’s only Life (which is a grand opera which hurts) and all religions are true as metaphors only. The latter point leads to something we do need to know if only because, again, we might wish to dissent from or make variation upon it, even while affirming TJ’s gay spirituality with its insights for life and culture more generally. Influenced by hints from Campbell, TJ believes the next myth, the myth of myths, the secret myth that’s evolving, a form of consciousness in itself that gays can contribute to or spearhead, is the identity of all religions. Because it’s sometimes too easy to be drawn into generalizations and lured by symbols, it seems to me it’s important to be clear that this idea beyond all the various insights of TJ’s writings across the years, is the core vision now being presented and this marks a direction many could never follow. Which the author wouldn’t object to because he is all for freedom and openness. Toby Johnson is a fascinating, and thought provoking character, a perennial hippie of the mind. His book which updates, including autobiographically, a work issued years ago, is an excellent insight into, and for many would be a fine introduction to, his life and work.

Richard Alther Wrote:

Johnson is the contemporary visionary in the spirit of Joseph Campbell

Toby Johnson is both a scholar and seductive truth-seeker of the highest order. What a wonderful accomplishment is this book that seamlessly weaves earthbound matters of bettering one's life (and, more importantly, the lives of all others) with accessible, lyrical prose to help the reader stretch beyond the mundane imprisonment of the ego. Whether expanding upon religious faith is one's concern, or exploring spiritual alternatives altogether, Johnson beautifully inspires us to embark on that journey. The book is invaluable alone for interpreting the extraordinary life and thoughts and legacy of Joseph Campbell.

Salvatore Sapienza wrote:

"The real subject of every myth is YOU."

"The myths of the world's different religions are all metaphors for the experience of being alive. We experience being God by living fully right now," writes Toby Johnson in "Finding Your Own True Myth." Though the book serves as Johnson's spiritual autobiography (from his calling as a religious brother in the Catholic Church to his embrace of interfaith mysticism to his success as an award-winning writer and editor of gay spirituality), "Finding Your Own True Myth" ultimately serves as a guidebook, pointing the way for the reader to explore his/her own spiritual journey and to discover the "myth of great secret," one of the aims of the spiritual life. As indicated in the subtitle, Johnson intersperses the book with stories of his friendship with Joseph Campbell, the great 20th Century American mythologist, who taught him that "the real subject of every myth is you." Johnson's spiritual autobiography is an interesting mix of academia, personal anecdotes and storytelling. I came away not only inspired by Johnson's and Campbell's wisdom, but also encouraged to explore my own "hero's journey" and to discover my own true myth.

Tony Frost [Lucien Gregoire] wrote:

What is this all about?

It’s about why young people describe themselves on Internet profiles as ‘spiritual, non-religious.’

Insofar as the synonym of ‘spiritual’ is ‘religious,’ just what are these people talking about?

Toby Johnson tells us what they are talking about.

“A new myth is developing all around us… It is the understanding of the mythic dimension of consciousness. It’s how you make sense of the clash between religion and science… In each person, if one has the eyes to see, resides divinity.”

The existence of the ‘indestructible soul’ cannot be challenged as long as one does not know what it is. Billions of people bank their eternity on the existence of something religion leaves undefined. Each one with their own vision. Each one with their own spirituality. Each one with their own myth.

Finding Your Own True Myth is much more than just another book. Glimpse your own indestructible soul.

Finding Your Own True Myth:
What I Learned from Joseph Campbell:
The Myth of the Great Secret III

Articles and Excerpts:

Gay Consciousness

Enlightenment

Gay Spirituality

Mystical Vision

The Hero's Journey

Seeing Differently

The Vision

People

Book Reviews

Toby Johnson's Books on Gay Men's Spiritualities:

Finding Your Own Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell

It's The Myth of the Great Secret III

Finding Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III