The Gods You Deny...

[Sunstone]

Joseph Campbell somewhere states that "the Gods you deny become [your] demons". By "deny", he seems to have meant actively suppress or oppose, rather than merely ignore.

Do you think there is any truth to what he said? Why or why not?

 

[savagewind]

Joseph Campbell somewhere states that "the Gods you deny become [your] demons". By "deny", he seems to have meant actively suppress or oppose, rather than merely ignore.

Do you think there is any truth to what he said? Why or why not?

Yes because you must always be thinking of ways to avoid them which requires thinking of THEM.

 

[Willamena]

Joseph Campbell somewhere states that "the Gods you deny become [your] demons". By "deny", he seems to have meant actively suppress or oppose, rather than merely ignore.

I think he meant that objectively (just "demons," not "your demons"), else it loses its poetry. By denial, I suspect he refers simply to "no": no, that's not god. Such denial enables a demon in what the other believes: as Campbell pointed out, the devil is met in the details.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

I heard this as "Liber Boomerang":

A god ignored is a demon born.

Think you to hypertrophy some selves at the expense of others?

That which is denied gains power, and seeks strange and unexpected forms of manifestation.

Deny Death and other forms of Suicide will arise.

Deny Sex and bizzarre forms of its expression will torment you.

Deny Love and absurd sentimentalities will disable you.

Deny Aggression only to stare eventually at the bloody Knife in your shaking hand.

Deny honest Fear and Desire only to create senseless neuroticism and avarice.

Deny Laughter and the world laughs at you.

Deny Magic only to become a confused robot, inexplicable even unto yourself.

I think it makes sense in some cases. Those who once were Christians can become obsessed with Jehovah even more than their parents. Homophobes are sometimes in the closet themselves.

 

[LuisDantas]

Joseph Campbell somewhere states that "the Gods you deny become [your] demons". By "deny", he seems to have meant actively suppress or oppose, rather than merely ignore.

Do you think there is any truth to what he said? Why or why not?

Well, it is true that attempting to suppress thoughts may easily lead to unhealthy obsession.

Does that apply to God? I wouldn't know. I can't really figure what denying a God would be like.

If pressed against a wall for a "yes or no" answer, I guess I would say that no, there is really nothing much in denying the existence of Gods.

But are you sure that he wasn't being figurative? It seems more natural to me. "Gods" standing for whatever one perceives as being symbolically significant. That sentence makes a whole lot more sense that way.

And in that sense, sure, it is indeed self-harming to be aware of our objects of reverence and attempt to deny their significance our of fear or some other control-related sentiment. It may be necessary, but it is self-harming. In a very real sense, it may lead to the need of an exorcism of some sort.

 

[Quintessence]

Because I tend to define "demons" as that which we regard as our adversaries, I follow at least a portion of what is suggested here. However, I cease following the moment he seems to regard gods and demons as categorically distinct. The demons are gods, in my seeings of things. But I suspect he was being poetic there.

 

[fantome profane]

Joseph Campbell somewhere states that "the Gods you deny become [your] demons". By "deny", he seems to have meant actively suppress or oppose, rather than merely ignore.

Do you think there is any truth to what he said? Why or why not?

I hope that I have chosen my demons well.