This episode of Living Myth begins with the recent Supreme Court decision to take away the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices. The current insistence on extreme abortion bans and restriction of human rights, not only favors one religious viewpoint over many others, it also misrepresents the origins and history of abortion and reproductive rights.
Michael Meade traces the issues of abortion, “personhood” and women’s right to choose back to ancient ideas of “ensoulment in the womb” and the surprising roots of religious thought and practices in early Judaism and Christianity.
Since ancient times the core mystery of life has been symbolized as the womb of the cosmos or of mother Earth, that is also embodied by each woman. We have all been born into the mystery known throughout time as “birth, death and rebirth” or as “life, death and renewal.” Despite the narrowing of minds, the hardening of hearts and the harrowing of wombs that some insist upon, life remains a mystery that does not seek to be simply defined or controlled or be reduced to fixed dogmas or intrusive laws.
As the poet Goethe once wrote, "so long as you have not experienced this, to die and so to grow, you are just a guest on this dark earth." This is not the time to allow those who would take away the rights of others and presume to judge for everyone to make decisions about life and death for the rest of us.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online series “Finding Stories to Live With” that begins on July 21.
Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.
You can save 30% on this series and further support the podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 425 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this growing community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during this challenging and uncertain times and thank you for your support of our work.
Amongst the increasing number of divisions that we now find in the contemporary world, one of the most damaging separations develops where the modern world becomes separated from, and at odds with, the realm of nature on one hand and what people used to call the “world behind the world” on the other hand. The old wisdom shared by many traditions stated that what is broken or wounded in this world can only be healed by the Otherworld, the realm of spirit and great imagination. In denying or dismissing the nearby realm of the otherworld, modern cultures wind up, not just fenced in by fixed ideas and failing ideologies, but also blindly separated from the very sources from which healing might come.
As humans we are mythic by nature, living on the verge of wonder and but a step from the otherworld all the time. We visit it in sleep and become the bearers of dreams. We fall into it whenever we fall in love. We ascend to it when we allow ourselves to be inspired and lose touch with its grandeur and deep wisdom whenever we insist that things be seen as only factual, measurable or simply rational.
The betwixt and between, intermediary realm appears in all kinds of myths and stories when the main character has become disoriented or lost and does not know which way to turn. Typically, that is the place the helping animals or the wise old woman or the bird of spirit appear as guides, teachers and healers and Intermediaries from the otherworld. As characters in our own stories, we find ourselves in a time of great upheaval and in the betwixt and between condition that comes at the end of an era. If we accept the condition of “not knowing” and being vulnerable, we move closer to the otherworld which has always been the source of imagination, healing and potential renewal.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can further support this podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 425 episodes and 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during this challenging and uncertain times and thank you for your support of our work.
On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade considers how when the certainty of the world collapses around us, the danger of cynicism, isolation, and becoming numb inevitably increases. In looking for antidotes to these feelings of overwhelm and separation, he draws on themes and ideas including cosmology, genius and our inner gifts and wounds.
If you would like to hear the rest of this episode, and receive additional podcast content, you can become a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 425 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
Currently, the common understanding of “streaming” means “listening to music or watching video in real time as part of a continuous stream of data.” An older idea describes a cosmic stream of essential knowledge constantly pouring through the world. This much needed knowledge about life on earth flows freely, but at such a fast rate of speed that most people cannot catch it or even see it.
On this in-depth episode, drawn from an event recording, Michael Meade suggests that when it comes to finding ways to respond to the climate crisis and all the humanitarian issues in the world, we may have to find ways to slow down and tap into the ancient stream of wisdom.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can further support this podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 425 episodes and 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during this challenging and uncertain times and thank you for your support of our work.
This episode brings a focus to the danger of feeling discouraged or overwhelmed by the pressure and weight of all that troubles the daily world. Something that is both primordial and enduring is trying to catch up to us, trying to inspire us and rejuvenate us so that we can become conscious keepers of the dream of our own souls and contributors to the healing of life on earth. In the dark times, when it's easy to become discouraged or lose our sense of self, we have to find our connections to the otherworld of great imagination and the underlying spirit of life itself.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online workshop “Myth and Emergent Truth” on Saturday, June 11. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.
You can save 30% on this workshop and further support the podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 420 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during these challenging and uncertain times and we thank you for your support of our work.
Sadly and tragically, those who manufacture, market and use politics to sell guns intended for war are part of a deadly cultural script that predicts an ongoing funeral march. And behind that script is a growing nihilism, as if the automatic weapons are shooting darkness from a void of inner emptiness that masquerades as power. Sensible gun laws are needed to stop the flood of killings; but also as a way to begin restoring a collective sense of the meaning and the value of each individual life.
Each mass shooting broadens and deepens the river of sorrow. Each mass casualty event marks a tragic turning point in which we either choose to continue the collective funeral march or take steps to substantiate a greater sense of the meaning of life. The only meaningful outcome of all the needless deaths and tragic loss of life can be that we find our way back to a deeper sense of compassion, to a more inclusive sense of humanity and to a greater sense of the meaning and value of the gift of life.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online workshop “Myth and Emergent Truth” on Saturday, June 11.
Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.
You can save 30% on this workshop and further support the podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 415 episodes and 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.
Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.
As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during these challenging and uncertain times and we thank you for your support of our work.