Power

Comfort Zone

from THE POWER OF MYTH

By

Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers

Daedalus and Icarus

Moyers: You’re not against technology, are you?

Campbell: Not at all. When Daedalus, who can be thought of as the master technician of most ancient Greece, put the wings he had made on his son Icarus, so that he might fly out of and escape from the Cretan labyrinth which he himself had invented, he said to him: "Fly the middle way. Don’t fly too high, or the sun will melt the wax on your wings, and you will fall. Don’t fly too low, or the tides of the sea will catch you." Daedalus himself flew the middle way, but he watched his son become ecstatic and fly too high. The wax melted, and the boy fell into the sea. For some reason, people talk more about Icarus than about Daedalus, as though the wings themselves had been responsible for the young astronaut’s fall. But that is no case against industry and science. Poor Icarus fell into the water – but Daedalus, who flew the middle way, succeeded in getting to the other shore.

A Hindu text says, "A dangerous path is this, like the edge of a razor." This is a motif that occurs in medieval literature, also. When Lancelot goes to rescue Guinevere from captivity, he has to cross a stream on a sword’s edge with his bare hands and feet, a torrent flowing underneath. When you are doing something that is a brand-new adventure, breaking new ground, whether it is something like a technological breakthrough or simply a way of danger of too much enthusiasm, of neglecting certain mechanical details. Then you fall off. "A dangerous path is this." When you follow the path of your desire and enthusiasm and emotion, keep you mind in control, and don’t let it pull you compulsively into disaster.

Dr. Strange – Orb of Agamotto

The Ancient One determines that it is time for Doctor Strange to leave the monastery. The Ancient One gives Doc the Orb of Agamotto. The first thing Doc ever sees in the Orb is a run-down house on Bleecker Street in New York City.
Doctor Strange moves to New York City, into a spooky run-down house on Bleecker Street. The site has a past of Native American ritual, pagan cults and mysterious fires. Doc fixes up the building.
[Doctor Strange #56; this "Bleecker Street house as first Orb vision" is also related in the Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme Ashcan]

origin of Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme

In the Charlton book Out Of This World #7, dated February 1958, Steve Ditko writes and draws a story about a man with a "spirit self." It is an obvious precursor to Doctor Strange's astral form.
"What Lurks Beneath the Mask?" is in the middle of Ditko's long final storyline for Doctor Strange, with Doc on the quest for the secret of Eternity to save the Ancient One while pursued by Baron Mordo, who is being backed by Dormammu. Doc spends the first half of the story going to various mystics around the world for a clue, while agents of Mordo search for him.
Dr. Strange, having found out how to reach the mysterious Eternity from a probe of the Ancient One's mind, is going to a journey by way of his amulet.
This Image is from a 2/3 page shot which is probably the ultimate of the signature other-worldly mystical dimension that Ditko defined in this series and which later artists would repeatedly imitate to capture some of the same feel.
"If Eternity Should Fail" is the 10-page Doctor Strange from STRANGE TALES #138 [1965]. This excerpt is from the second page.

Supermen and Superwomen in The Matrix

Earthbound mortals are drawn to the hero and heroine with an ability to compensate for the limits of space, time, and gravity. They must be beyond the multi-tasker and super scientist. They must have their own unique super power or discover a method, ritual, or device that confers super strength, super vision, super speed, and so forth. In some situations, the power of place enters the picture as well.
The Matrix is an environment that, much as the astrosome does, provides a place where people 'in the know' can free themselves of a maze or labyrinth not to their liking. Over time, those rescued from the trap, set in motion by the machine world intellect, acquire a specialist tool chest that includes mastery of zen and the art of flying.

Out of the Maze - Out of the Labyrinth

BEATLES The Lads from Liverpool
George Harrison was born February 25, 1943, at home in Wavertreea, a neighbourhood known for 'monastic' austerity. He lived at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, England the first six years of his life. Harrison recalled, "The front room was never used. It had the posh lino and a three-piece suite, was freezing cold and no-one ever went in it. We huddled together in the kitchen, where the fire was, with the kettle on, and a little iron cooking stove."
Meditation Link: The Blind Spot - Jane Goodall Institute - The Scholar and The Poet

A powerful journey to the interior of the psyche Andrea Dezsö: Haunted Ridgefield

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Comfort Zone from THE POWER OF MYTH

Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers

Comfort Zone

from THE POWER OF MYTH