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object:2.02 - Meeting With the Goddess
alt:MWTG
book class:The Hero with a Thousand Faces
author class:Joseph Campbell
subject class:Mythology
subject class:Psychology
class:chapter

2
The Meeting with the Goddess
The ultimate adventure, when all the barriers and ogres have
been overcome, is commonly represented as a mystical marriage
(Is o y/jLo) of the triumphant hero-soul with the Queen God
dess of the World. This is the crisis at the nadir, the zenith, or at
the uttermost edge of the earth, at the central point of the cos
mos, in the tabernacle of the temple, or within the darkness of
the deepest chamber of the heart.
In the west of Ireland they still tell the tale of the Prince of the
Lonesome Isle and the Lady of Tubber Tintye. Hoping to heal
the Queen of Erin, the heroic youth had undertaken to go for
three bottles of the water of Tubber Tintye, the flaming fairy
well. Following the advice of a supernatural aunt whom he en
countered on the way, and riding a wonderful, dirty, lean little
shaggy horse that she gave to him, he crossed a river of fire and
escaped the touch of a grove of poison trees. The horse with the
speed of the wind shot past the end of the castle of Tubber Tintye;
the prince sprang from its back through an open window, and
came down inside, safe and sound.
"The whole place, enormous in extent, was filled with sleep
ing giants and monsters of sea and landgreat whales, long
100

slippery eels, bears, and beasts of every form and kind. The
prince passed through them and over them till he came to a
great stairway. At the head of the stairway he went into a cham
ber, where he found the most beautiful woman he had ever seen,
stretched on a couch asleep. Til have nothing to say to you,'
thought he, and went on to the next; and so he looked into
twelve chambers. In each was a woman more beautiful than the
one before. But when he reached the thirteenth chamber and
opened the door, the flash of gold took the sight from his eyes.
He stood awhile till the sight came back, and then entered. In
the great bright chamber was a golden couch, resting on wheels
of gold. The wheels turned continually; the couch went round
and round, never stopping night or day. On the couch lay the
Queen of Tubber Tintye; and if her twelve maidens were beauti
ful, they would not be beautiful if seen near her. At the foot of
the couch was Tubber Tintye itself the well of fire. There was
a golden cover upon the well, and it went around continually
with the couch of the Queen.
" 'Upon my word,' said the prince, T i l rest here a while.' And
he went up on the couch and never left it for six days and
nights."
The Lady of the House of Sleep is a familiar figure in fairy
tale and myth. We have already spoken of her, under the forms
of Brynhild and little Briar-rose. She is the paragon of all
paragons of beauty, the reply to all desire, the bliss-bestowing
goal of every hero's earthly and unearthly quest. She is mother,
sister, mistress, bride. Whatever in the world has lured, what
ever has seemed to promise joy, has been premonitory of her
existencein the deep of sleep, if not in the cities and forests of
the world. For she is the incarnation of the promise of perfec
tion; the soul's assurance that, at the conclusion of its exile in a
world of organized inadequacies, the bliss that once was known
will be known again: the comforting, the nourishing, the "good"
28

29

2 8

Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1890), pp. 101-106.
Supra, pp. 57-58.
29

101

motheryoung and beautifulwho was known to us, and even
tasted, in the remotest past. Time sealed her away, yet she is
dwelling still, like one who sleeps in timelessness, at the bottom
of the timeless sea.
The remembered image is not only benign, however; for the
"bad" mother too(1) the absent, unattainable mother, against
whom aggressive fantasies are directed, and from whom a counteraggression is feared; (2) the hampering, forbidding, punishing
mother; (3) the mother who would hold to herself the growing
child trying to push away; and finally (4) the desired but forbid
den mother (Oedipus complex) whose presence is a lure to dan
gerous desire (castration complex)persists in the hidden land
of the adult's infant recollection and is sometimes even the
greater force. She is at the root of such unattainable great god
dess figures as that of the chaste and terrible Dianawhose ab
solute ruin of the young sportsman Actaeon illustrates what a
blast of fear is contained in such symbols of the mind's and
body's blocked desire.
Actaeon chanced to see the dangerous goddess at noon; that
fateful moment when the sun breaks in its youthful, strong as
cent, balances, and begins the mighty plunge to death. He had
left his companions to rest, together with his blooded dogs, after
a morning of running game, and without conscious purpose had
gone wandering, straying from his familiar hunting groves and
fields, exploring through the neighboring woods. He discovered
a vale, thick grown with cypresses and pine. He penetrated curi
ously into its fastness. There was a grotto within in, watered by
a gentle, purling spring and with a stream that widened to a
grassy pool. This shaded nook was the resort of Diana, and at
that moment she was bathing among her nymphs, absolutely
naked. She had put aside her hunting spear, her quiver, her un
strung bow, as well as her sandals and her robe. And one of the
nude nymphs had bound up her tresses into a knot; some of the
others were pouring water from capacious urns.
When the young, roving male broke into the pleasant haunt, a
shriek of female terror went up, and all the bodies crowded
about their mistress, trying to hide her from the profane eye.
102

But she stood above them, head and shoulders. The youth had
seen, and was continuing to see. She glanced for her bow, but it
was out of reach, so she quickly took up what was at hand,
namely water, and flung it into Actaeon's face. "Now you are
free to tell, if you can," she cried at him angrily, "that you have
seen the goddess nude."
Antlers sprouted on his head. His neck grew great and long,
his eartips sharp. His arms leng thened to legs, and his hands
and feet became hooves. Terrified, he boundedmarveling that
he should move so rapidly. But when he paused for breath
and drink and beheld his features in a clear pool, he reared
back aghast.
A terrible fate then befell Actaeon. His own hounds, catching
the scent of the great stag, came baying through the wood. In a
moment of joy at hearing them he paused, but then sponta
neously took fright and fled. The pack followed, gradually gain
ing. When they had come to his heels, the first of them flying at
his flank, he tried to cry their names, but the sound in his throat
was not human. They fixed him with their fangs. He went
down, and his own hunting companions, shouting encourage
ment at the dogs, arrived in time to deliver the coup de grce.
Diana, miraculously aware of the flight and death, could now
rest appeased.
The mythological figure of the Universal Mother imputes to
the cosmos the feminine attri butes of the first, nourishing and
protecting presence. The fantasy is primarily spontaneous; for
there exists a close and obvious correspondence between the atti
tude of the young child toward its mother and that of the adult
toward the surrounding material world. But there has been
30

31

3 0

Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 138-252.
Cf. J. C. Fliigel, The Psycho-Analytic Study of the Family ("The Interna
tional Psycho-Analytical Library," No. 3, 4th edition; London: The Hogarth
Press, 1931), chapters xii and xiii.
"There exists," Professor Fliigel observes, "a very general association on the
one hand between the notion of mind, spirit or soul and the idea of the father
or of masculinity; and on the other hand between the notion of the body or of
matter (materia that which belongs to the mother) and the idea of the mother
or of the feminine principle. The repression of the emotions and feelings
31

103

also, in numerous religious traditions, a consciously controlled
pedagogical utilization of this archetypal image for the purpose
of the purging, balancing, and initiation of the mind into the
nature of the visible world.
In the Tantric books of medieval and modern India the abode
of the goddess is called Mani-dvipa, "The Island of Jewels."
Her couch-and-throne is there, in a grove of wish-fulfilling trees.
The beaches of the isle are of golden sands. They are laved by
the still waters of the ocean of the nectar of immortality. The
goddess is red with the fire of life; the earth, the solar system,
32

relating to the mother [in our Judeo-Christian monotheism] has, in virtue of this
association, produced a tendency to adopt an attitude of distrust, contempt, disgust
or hostility towards the human body, the Earth, and the whole material Universe,
with a corresponding tendency to exalt and overemphasize the spiritual elements,
whether in man or in the general scheme of things. It seems very probable that a
good many of the more pronouncedly idealistic tendencies in philosophy may owe
much of their attractiveness in many minds to a sublimation of this reaction
against the mother, while the more dogmatic and narrow forms of materialism
may perhaps in their turn represent a return of the repressed feelings originally
connected with the mother" (ibid., p. 145, note 2).
The sacred writings (Shastras) of Hinduism are divided into four classes:
(1) Shruti, which are regarded as direct divine revelation; these include the
four Vedas (ancient books of psalms) and certain of the Upanishads (ancient
books of philosophy); (2) Smriti, which include the traditional teachings of the
orthodox sages, canonical instructions for domestic ceremonials, and certain
works of secular and religious law; (3) Purana, which are the Hindu mytho
logical and epic works par excellence; these treat of cosmogonie, theological,
astronomical, and physical knowledge; and (4) Tantra, texts describing tech
niques and rituals for the worship of deities, and for the attainment of supranormal power. Among the Tantras are a group of particularly important scriptures
(called Agamas) which are supposed to have been revealed directly by the
Universal God Shiva and his Goddess Parvati. (They are termed, therefore,
"The Fifth Veda.") These support a mystical tradition known specifically as
"The Tantra," which has exercised a pervasive influence on the later forms of
Hindu and Buddhist iconography. Tantric symbolism was carried by medieval
Buddhism out of India into Tibet, China, and Japan.
The following description of the Island of Jewels is based on Sir John
Woodroffe, Shakti and Shakta (London and Madras, 1929), p. 39, and
Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, ed. by
J. Campbell (New York: Bollingen Series, 1946), pp. 197-211. For an illustra
tion of the mystical island, see Zimmer, Figure 66.
3 2

104

the galaxies of far-extending space, all swell within her womb.
For she is the world creatrix, ever mother, ever virgin. She en
compasses the encompassing, nourishes the nourishing, and is
the life of everything that lives.
She is also the death of everything that dies. The whole round
of existence is accomplished within her sway, from birth,
through adolescence, maturity, and senescence, to the grave. She
is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow. Thus
she unites the "good" and the "bad," exhibiting the two modes
of the remembered mother, not as personal only, but as univer
sal. The devotee is expected to contemplate the two with equal
equanimity. Through this exercise his spirit is purged of its in
fantile, inappropriate sentimentalities and resentments, and his
mind opened to the inscrutable presence which exists, not pri
marily as "good" and "bad" with respect to his childlike human
convenience, his weal and woe, but as the law and image of the
nature of being.
The great Hindu mystic of the last century, Ramakrishna
(1836-1886), was a priest in a temple newly erected to the Cos
mic Mother at Dakshineswar, a suburb of Calcutta. The temple
image displayed the divinity in her two aspects simultaneously,
the terrible and the benign. Her four arms exhibited the symbols
of her universal power: the upper left hand brandishing a bloody
saber, the lower gripping by the hair a severed human head; the
upper right was lifted in the "fear not" gesture, the lower ex
tended in bestowal of boons. As necklace she wore a garl and of
human heads; her kilt was a girdle of human arms; her long
tongue was out to lick blood. She was Cosmic Power, the total
ity of the universe, the harmonization of all the pairs of oppo
sites, combining wonderfully the terror of absolute destruction
with an impersonal yet motherly reassurance. As change, the
river of time, the fluidity of life, the goddess at once creates, pre
serves, and destroys. Her name is Kali, the Black One; her title:
The Ferry across the Ocean of Existence.
33

33

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated into English with an introduc
tion by Swami Nikhilananda (New York, 1942), p. 9.
105

One quiet afternoon Ramakrishna beheld a beautiful woman
ascend from the Ganges and approach the grove in which he
was meditating. He perceived that she was about to give birth
to a child. In a moment the babe was born, and she gently
nursed it. Presently, however, she assumed a horrible aspect,
took the infant in her now ugly jaws and crushed it, chewed
it. Swallowing it, she returned again to the Ganges, where
she disappeared.
Only geniuses capable of the highest realization can support
the full revelation of the sublimity of this goddess. For lesser
men she reduces her effulgence and permits herself to appear in
forms concordant with their undeveloped powers. Fully to be
hold her would be a terrible accident for any person not spiritu
ally prepared: as witness the unlucky case of the lusty young
buck Actaeon. No saint was he, but a sportsman unprepared for
the revelation of the form that must be beheld without the nor
mal human (i.e., infantile) over- and undertones of desire, sur
prise, and fear.
Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the
totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to
know. As he progresses in the slow initiation which is life, the
form of the goddess undergoes for him a series of transfigura
tions: she can never be greater than himself, though she can al
ways promise more than he is yet capable of comprehending.
She lures, she guides, she bids him burst his fetters. And if he
can match her import, the two, the knower and the known, will
be released from every limitation. Woman is the guide to the
sublime acme of sensuous adventure. By deficient eyes she is
reduced to inferior states; by the evil eye of ignorance she is
spellbound to banality and ugliness. But she is redeemed by the
eyes of understanding. The hero who can take her as she is,
without undue commotion but with the kindness and assurance
she requires, is potentially the king, the incarnate god, of her
created world.
34

34

Ibid., pp. 21-22.

106


THE MEETING WITH THE

GODDESS

A story, for example, is told of the five sons of the Irish king
Eochaid: of how, having gone one day ahunting, they found them
selves astray, shut in on every hand. Thirsty, they set off, one by
one, to look for water. Fergus was the first: "and he lights on a
well, over which he finds an old woman standing sentry. The
fashion of the hag is this: blacker than coal every joint and seg
ment of her was, from crown to ground; comparable to a wild
horse's tail the grey wiry mass of hair that pierced her scalp's
upper surface; with her sickle of a greenish looking tusk that
was in her head, and curled till it touched her ear, she could lop
the verdant branch of an oak in full bearing; blackened and
smoke-bleared eyes she had; nose awry, wide-nostrilled; a wrin
kled and freckled belly, variously unwholesome; warped crooked
shins, garnished with massive ankles and a pair of capacious shov
els; knotty knees she had and livid nails. The beldame's whole de
scription in fact was disgusting. 'That's the way it is, is it?' said
the lad, and 'that's the very way,' she answered. 'Is it guarding
the well thou art?' he asked, and she said: 'it is.' 'Dost thou li
cence me to take away some water?' T do,' she consented, 'yet
only so that I have of thee one kiss on my cheek.' 'Not so,' said
he. 'Then water shall not be conceded by me.' 'My word I give,'
he went on, 'that sooner than give thee a kiss I would perish of
thirst!' Then the young man departed to the place where his
brethren were, and told them that he had not gotten water."
Olioll, Brian, and Fiachra, likewise, went on the quest and
equally attained to the identical well. Each solicited the old thing
for water, but denied her the kiss.
Finally it was Niall who went, and he came to the very well.
" 'Let me have water, woman!' he cried. 'I will give it,' said she,
'and bestow on me a kiss.' He answered: 'forby giving thee a
kiss, I will even hug thee!' Then he bends to embrace her, and
gives her a kiss. Which operation ended, and when he looked at
her, in the whole world was not a young woman of gait more
graceful, in universal semblance fairer than she: to be likened to
the last-fallen snow lying in trenches every portion of her was,
from crown to sole; plump and queenly forearms, fingers long

107

and taper, straight legs of a lovely hue she had; two sandals of
the white bronze betwixt her smooth and soft white feet and the
earth; about her was an ample mantle of the choicest fleece pure
crimson, and in the garment a brooch of white silver; she had
lustrous teeth of pearl, great regal eyes, mouth red as the rowanberry. 'Here, woman, is a galaxy of charms,' said the young man.
'That is true indeed.' 'And who art thou?' he pursued. ' "Royal
Rule" am I,' she answered, and uttered this:
" 'King of Tara! I am Royal Rule
'
' " G o now,' she said, 'to thy brethren, and take with thee
water; moreover, thine and thy children's for ever the kingdom
and supreme power shall be. . . . And as at the first thou hast seen
me ugly, brutish, loathlyin the end, beautifuleven so is royal
rule: for without battles, without fierce conflict, it may not be
won; but in the result, he that is king of no matter what shows
comely and handsome forth.' "
Such is royal rule? Such is life itself. The goddess guardian of
the inexhaustible wellwhe ther as Fergus, or as Actaeon, or as
the Prince of the Lonesome Isle discovered herrequires that
the hero should be endowed with what the troubadours and
minnesingers termed the "gentle heart." Not by the animal desire
of an Actaeon, not by the fastidious revulsion of such as Fergus,
can she be comprehended and rightly served, but only by gentle
ness: aware ("gentle sympathy") it was named in the romantic
courtly poetry of tenth- to twelfth-century Japan.
35

Within the gentle heart Love shelters himself,
As birds within the green shade of the grove.
Before the gentle heart, in nature's scheme,
Love was not, nor the gentle heart ere Love.
For with the sun, at once,
35

Standish H. O'Grady, Silva Gadelica (London: Williams and Norgate,
1892), Vol. II, pp. 370-372. Variant versions will be found in Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales, "The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe"; in Gower's Tale of Florent;
in the mid-fifteenth-century poem, The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame
Ragnell; and in the seventeenth-century ballad, The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.
See W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales (Chicago, 1941).
108

So sprang the light immediately; nor was
Its birth before the sun's.
And Love hath his effect in gentleness
Of very self; even as
Within the middle fire the heat's excess.

36

The meeting with the goddess (who is incarnate in every woman)
is the final test of the talent of the hero to win the boon of love
(charity: amor fati), which is life itself enjoyed as the encase
ment of eternity.
And when the adventurer, in this context, is not a youth but a
maid, she is the one who, by her qualities, her beauty, or her
yearning, is fit to become the consort of an immortal. Then the

FIGURE 6. Isis in the Form of a Hawk Joins Osiris in the Underworld

3 6

Guido Guinicelli di Magnano (1230-75?), Of the Gentle Heart, translation
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante and his Circle (edition of 1874; London:
Ellis and White), p. 291.
109

heavenly husb and descends to her and conducts her to his bed
whether she will or no. And if she has shunned him, the scales fall
from her eyes; if she has sought him, her desire finds its peace.
The Arapaho girl who followed the porcupine up the stretch
ing tree was enticed to the camp-circle of the people of the sky.
There she became the wife of a heavenly youth. It was he who,
under the form of the luring porcupine, had seduced her to his
supernatural home.
The king's daughter of the nursery tale, the day following the
adventure at the well, heard a thumping at her castle door: the
frog had arrived to press her to her bargain. And in spite of her
great disgust, he followed her to her chair at table, shared the
meal from her little golden plate and cup, even insisted on going
to sleep with her in her little silken bed. In a tantrum she
plucked him from the floor and flung him at the wall. When he
fell, he was no frog but a king's son with kind and beautiful
eyes. And then we hear that they were married and were driven
in a beautiful coach back to the young man's waiting kingdom,
where the two became a king and queen.
Or once again: when Psyche had accomplished all of the
difficult tasks, Jupiter himself gave to her a draft of the elixir of
immortality; so that she is now and forever united with Cupid,
her beloved, in the paradise of perfected form.
The Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches celebrate
the same mystery in the Feast of the Assumption:
"The Virgin Mary is taken up into the bridal chamber of hea
ven, where the King of Kings sits on his starry throne."
"O Virgin most prudent, whither goest thou, bright as the
morn? all beautiful and sweet art thou, O daughter of Zion, fair
as the moon, elect as the sun."
37

3 7

Antiphons for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(August 15), at Vespers: from the Roman Missal.




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