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Description
n this 1967 lecture (transcript edited by Alexander Bazelow), Heinrich Blücher examines Indian mythology as the most comprehensive and enduring expression of mythopoetic thinking in human history. He traces the origins of myth in collective consciousness, ritual, metaphor, and poetic world-making, arguing that myth represents humanity’s earliest attempt to create a unified world view in response to the overwhelming presence of the world. Focusing on Hinduism, Blücher analyzes its central metaphysical principle—“All is One”—and its conception of reality as an immanent, cyclical unity in which gods, nature, and human beings are interchangeable manifestations of a single world substance. While acknowledging the aesthetic richness and speculative power of Indian myth, Blücher critically contends that its radical unity precludes distinction, reason, freedom, and historical change. The lecture situates Indian mythology as a foundational stage in the development of world and self-consciousness, illuminating both the creative power and the historical limitations of mythic worldviews.
Publication Date
1967
Recommended Citation
Blücher, Heinrich, "10-X. India and the Mythopoetic Mind of Man (1967)" (1967). Bazelow Transcripts. 10.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/blucher-bazelow-transcripts/10