Mary Ann,

I do have those lectures that Campbell gave, but mine are on videos that Fritz Schuler made for me from Green Bay Public TV in Wisconsin. They were mostly lectures he gave at Sarah Lawrence College where he was a professor for many years. I can't tell you how glad I was to get those.

Joe Campbell thought that all people are talking about the same thing when they say God or Buddha, or Krishna or Jesus or Zeus or fate or The Sun or The Moon or The Earth Mother or Virgin Mary or The Force or the "powers of the universe" or the Ghost Dance or Wovoka---whatever. But I know that we who might feel that way are opening ourselves up to charges from ALL THE GROUPS that we are anti-their religion. Joe Campbell never would have seen himself as against anybody. He just enjoyed finding the similarities through time the world over---a laudible venture that he pursued for most of his life. The search became the grail for him. As Elkin Thomas said in a fine song of his, "The journey is all the time." If Campbell made a mistake, it was in sounding too certain that his facts were actually facts and not theories. In that sense, he is like me when I stand up for traditional music. I sound pretty certain that I'm correct. When that occasionally happens, please accept my before-the-fact apology.

The above is part of what Campbell was talking about when he spoke of THE MASKS OF GOD. The various names are the masks---whether it's a dragon or a pillar of fire or smoke leading the people or killing the grasshoppers in Utah (and other miracles). I mean no offense to anyone for taking Campbell's points seriously.

Art