How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Sigmund Freud stresses in his writings the passages and difficulties of the first half of the human cycle of life—those of our infancy and adolescence, when our sun is mounting toward its zenith. C. G. Jung, on the other hand, has emphasized the crises of the second portion —when, in order to advance, the shining sphere must submit to descend and disappear, at last, into the night-womb of the grave. The normal symbols of our desires and fears become converted, in this afternoon of the biography, into their opposites; for it is then no longer life but death that is the challenge. (10.2)
Again, look at the way Campbell phrases it here. Death is a "challenge," and part of this larger cycle. You have to accept and embrace it for the cycle to continue revolving the way it's supposed to.
Quote #2
Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. (15.2)
The cycle; it all comes back to the cycle. We do not stay static and unchanging, for that really is death. We need to change, just as the universe changes, and that usually means surrendering the old – in other words dying – in order to bring forth something new.
Quote #3
The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died. (83.1)
Rebirth and immortality can't happen until you die. In this case, Campbell is talking about surrendering your fears and embracing the scary stuff in front of you. You may die but then discover whatever it is you're looking for and be reborn.
Quote #4
The ordeal is a deepening of the problem of the first threshold and the question is still in balance: Can the ego put itself to death? (100.1)
Whoa… so you're saying we have to die? Well yes – it's inevitable – but it also means surrendering your identity and sense of self. The ego is a block to the things the hero needs to understand about the universe. Death of the ego, death of your own identity, is the only way to get there.
Quote #5
It represents one of the basic ways of symbolizing the mystery of creation: the devolvement of eternity into time, the breaking of the one into the two and then the many, as well as the generation of new life through the reconjunction of the two. (141.1)
Death is implied here as a breaking, the one into many. But the many eventually move back into the one, which means that death and loss are an important and necessary part of the universe's cycle.
Quote #6
We are taken from the mother, chewed into fragments and assimilated to the world-annihilating body of the ogre for whom all the precious forms and beings are only the courses of a feast; but then, miraculously reborn, we are more than we were. (149.1)
There is no permanent death here…only destruction and rebirth, which is pretty much how the universe has decided to operate.
Quote #7
The research for physical immortality proceeds from a misunderstanding of the traditional teaching. On the contrary, the basic problem is: to enlarge the pupil of the eye, so that the body with its attendant personality will no longer obstruct the view. (175.1)
We think of immortality as never aging or dying, but by limiting it to the physical plane, we're missing out on the bigger picture.
Quote #8
Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being. (179.2)
There's an interesting wrinkle here. Campbell seems to be suggesting that in order to properly enjoy immortality, you need to stay away from the normal world, which just isn't set up to process mojo that huge.
Quote #9
Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. (230.1)
Myth itself is subject to death? Oh yes. That's one of the reasons people don't like poking at cherished myths, like George Washington and the cherry tree. Knowing that it never really happened robs the myth of its power…and that power can be very important.