While myth is explored across many fields—the arts, humanities and sciences—what might be called an ‘Integral Mythology’ remains surprisingly undeveloped. This opens a rich and largely unexplored field of inquiry.
For many people today, ‘myth’ simply means a falsehood—something outdated or naïve. Myths are dismissed as pre-scientific origin stories, populated by gods, heroes and monsters. And yet to others, myths are deeply loved treasured narratives, rich in symbolic meaning. In a 1923 issue of The Shrine of Wisdom magazine, it was suggested that, for those who can read myths intuitively and poetically, they contain “images of what the Soul longs for and thirsts for.”[1]
Between dismissal and devotion lie deeper questions: what are myths, really? And why do they continue to matter? The word itselfcomes from the Greek mythos, meaning ‘word’ or ‘story’, and is linked to the root sound ‘mu’, a sound made through closing the lips. It is related linguistically to words like mystery and mystical. The English phrase “mum’s the word” captures something close to its original sense: “Seeing, but not telling.”
Myth, then, carries a paradox: it both reveals and conceals truth. This polarity can feel alien to the modern, literal, scientific mindset. Yet the world’s spiritual traditions have long used myth, parable and allegory precisely in this way—to disclose deeper truths indirectly.
Over the past century, myths have been interpreted in remarkably creative and sometimes dangerous ways. Some fear that such applications may obscure the spiritual significance of myth, but truth is not so narrow that it cannot be known and used in diverse ways, for different ends. If anything, this diversity itself may help us glimpse what an integral mythology could be. Here are a few notable examples.
Drawing inspiration from Plato, psychologist Carl Jung understood myths as expressions of archetypal patterns arising from the collective unconscious—the Mother, the Hero, the Shadow, the Trickster. For Jung, psychological development and healing is itself a mythic journey toward integration and wholeness.[2]
Jung’s work deeply influenced Joseph Campbell. In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces,[3] first published in 1949, he articulated the now famous universal pattern of the hero’s journey—the call, departure, ordeal, death, rebirth, and return—mapping patterns of psychological and spiritual transformation. His work widened the lens beyond a narrow Western reading of myth. Film maker, George Lucas, acknowledged Campbell’s influence on his Star Wars films and the journey of Luke Skywalker. Myth, then, is not ancient history—it’s a living pattern.
Also writing in 1949, the Swiss philosopher Jean Gebser published The Ever-Present Origin,[4] offering a different yet complementary vision. He approached myth as ‘a structure of consciousness’. Gebser described the unfolding of awareness through distinct mutations—Archaic, Magical, Mythical, Rational, and a now emerging ‘Integral Consciousness’. Mythic consciousness, he argued, experiences reality through symbol and story; it provides meaning, identity and belonging. When a structure of consciousness becomes deficient, a new one emerges—yet later structures do not eliminate the earlier; they render them transparent.
Ken Wilber later refined Gebser’s model, suggesting mythic consciousness is a necessary human development stage.[5] Myth can be both meaningful and dangerous—particularly when interpreted literally or used to justify exclusion. He remarked that “fundamentalism is mythic consciousness refusing to grow up.” We must, as he puts it, “grow-up” and “clean-up” as well as “wake-up’ and “show-up”. And yet he said, myth is not something simply to discard; it must be consciously reintegrated at a higher level.
Women scholars have also made vital contributions. Anne Baring, in her works such as The Myth of the Goddess and The Dream of the Cosmos, has helped restore the feminine dimensions of myth, and of the Divine.[6][7] Joanna Macy has shown how myth can nourish what she calls The Great Turning toward a life-sustaining civilisation. Together, these thinkers remind us that myth is not merely about the past; it is evolutionary; it shapes our future.
So what might an integral mythology look like today?
‘Integral’ suggests wholeness and completeness. From a spiritual perspective ‘integral’ unites the Above and Below, the inner and outer, spirit and matter, eternity and time; the Divine, Cosmos and Human; ways of knowing. Myths act as a vehicle of re-integration—reminding us that wholeness arises through the reunification of parts. They open a doorway to the imaginal real. As philosopher Proclus put it “Mythoi elevate the Soul to sublime speculations”. And because myth speaks of the the ‘Ineffable’ in human language, no single interpretation can exhaust it.
Why does this matter at this time?
Many feel that ‘modernism’ and ‘materialism’ are faltering and failing. Old beliefs and stories have ruptured, and reached a ‘dead-end’. People are feeling disconnected—from their deeper selves, from each other, from the natural world, and from meaning itself. Some speak of a “mythic vacuum”; a critical inflection point, when regressive and dangerous stories can rush in to fill the gap. [8]
And yet we might interpret such crises differently, not simply as decline, but as symptoms of transformation. The destruction we witness may be part of a birth process, through which a more ‘integral consciousness’ is struggling to emerge. Our task then, is not to cling defensively to outdated structures, but to participate consciously in unfolding the new.
We feel the time is ripe to restore the deep healing power of the mythic imagination – to understand myths as guides for understanding where we are, and how we might find our way forward. As the editors of The Shrine of Wisdom recognised over a century ago, there is indeed a great work of restoration waiting to be done.
[1] Shrine of Wisdom 1923: Vol. IV No.15, p. 1.
[2] Jung, C. (1912/1956) : Symbols of Transformation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
[3] Campbell, J. (1949): The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New Jersey: Princeton University Press
[4] Gebser, J. (1949/1986): The Ever Present Origin. Part One: Foundations Of The Aperspectival World. Ohio University Press
[5] Wilber, K. (1981): Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution. New York: Anchor Doubleday
[6] Baring, A. (2013): The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul. Archive Publishing
[7] Anne Baring draws on Owen Barfield’s ideas about the evolution of consciousness: Original Participation, Scientific, and Final Participation
[8] Nicolai,C.; Gellwitski,L.; J.F.G Moulton (2025): The New Age of Myth: Political Narratives and the Reconstitution of World Order. International Organization 79 (S1).
Image: Frederic Leighton - The Return of Persephone. Oil on canvas. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Check out our new Integral Wisdom course The Iliad – Empire of the Mind, by Murray Morison, as well as The Dream of the Cosmos – A Quest for the Soul, by Anne Baring.
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