Mythopoesis and the Modern World

Mythopoesis is a Greek-derived word that means myth-making. Mythopoeia was used by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien in reference to creative art about fundamental things. Mythopoesis is therefore the creation of myth by means of the higher imagination. Thus the creation of myth is also one of the highest forms of storytelling.In this way myths and myth-making are a source of meaning for human consciousness which exists at the junction of two vast worlds or realities: the external world known to science and empirical observation and the inner world described in myth art imagination and phenomenology in general.This inner world the world of mythopoesis is present in popular culture such as novels television cinema comic books and computer games in which archetypal themes have been re-shaped according to the understanding and worldview of contemporary authors and readers.The inner world is not just an epiphenomenon of the brain. It is as extensive and autonomous as the outer world. To use the terminology of esotericist scholar Henry Corbin it is an Imaginal World which is the intermediate or transitional reality between the mundane or everyday reality on the one hand and spiritual noetic and transcendent reality or realities on the other.Mythopoesis and the Modern World draws inspiration from various authors including (but not limited to) J. R. R. Tolkien Henry Corbin Joseph Campbell Carl Gustav Jung Sri Aurobindo Mircea Eliade Ken Wilber and Jean Gebser. The book also studies mythopoesis and archetypes in the science fiction and fantasy genres in relation to mythological and metaphysical narratives.