“What is the ‘meaning’ of a tree? of a butterfly? of the birth of a child? or of the universe? What is the ‘meaning’ of the song of the rushing stream? Such wonders simply are. They are antecedent to meaning, though ‘meanings’ may be read into them…So, likewise, are the images of myth, which open like flowers to the conscious mind’s amazement and may then be searched to the root for ‘meaning,’ as well as arranged to serve practical ends.”
– Joseph Campbell, The Flight of the Wild Gander