On this episode, Michael Meade turns to ancient stories of the Titans in order to understand all the tragic events and extreme behaviors that keep making the world a darker and more dangerous place.

There are times when myth and fact coincide, when events in the common world become mythical in shape and scope. In such radical times, myths can offer ways of understanding what otherwise appears as completely unprecedented events and impossible dilemmas. In mythological terms, we are facing the end of an era during which everything can seem to collapse back into chaos and darkness before a regeneration of the dream of life can occur.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade talk more about the themes and ideas in this podcast by joining his new online series “Light Within Dark Times” that begins on Thursday, December 1. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.  

You can save 30% on this series and 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 460 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.

If you enjoy this podcast, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen 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 thank you for your support of our work.

This episode of Living Myth begins with a report that shows that younger people, voting in larger numbers, made the difference in an election that many viewed as a struggle for the future of democracy and the direction of modern culture. At the same time, a large study found that as people become older they tend to go from being optimistic about the future to being realistic about the present, and from there to being pessimistic about the future.

The tendencies towards pessimism become more pronounced in times of uncertainty and radical change, as many seek to return to idealized visions of the past. The trouble now is that the radical changes affecting and threatening all levels of nature and all aspects of culture make a return to the past, not just unwise, but also impossible.

Michael Meade turns to old ideas that show how a culture renews itself from both the dreams of young people and the visions of the elders. Traditional societies around the world had the idea that youth and elders were secretly connected through a deep sense of imagination that can hold past and future together. Seen that way, finding visions that heal the divisions in society and help realign human culture with nature cannot be the sole burden of young people.

When older people act out of self-interest or fear, they fail to have foresight and genuine vision. They also fail to make the kind of sacrifices that connect them on one hand to young people, and on the other hand to wise ways of thinking and understanding. The idea is not simply to age well, but to become wise in ways that draw upon the archetypal knowledge that sustained our ancestors and can also provide guidance for the future.

When we find ourselves at the end of an era, when even the young can feel older than they otherwise would be, it becomes important to reconnect to the capacity for genuine vision that exists in each person. For, imagination can go places that logic does not know and that fear fails to find. Youth and elders meet in places where imagination blossoms and the inner eyes of the soul open to genuine visions that can unite the old with the new, the past with the future.

This episode of Living Myth begins with the fact that what was once known as “election day” has become a stormy election season as social polarization leaves many outcomes too close to call. The political balance hangs in the troubled air as if to make palpable the sense that the world itself is divided. It is our mutual fate to be alive during a period of extreme divisions and radical changes that endanger the balance of nature as well as the stability and sanity of human culture.

In troubled times, everyone is affected by the storms of life as what happens in the outside world also stirs the internal depths of our own psyches. The deeper self or soul within us knows that politics alone cannot solve the global issues that threaten both culture and nature; yet avoiding the political storms and cultural divisions can secretly add to the collective turmoil.

Michael Meade tells an ancient myth that places the first human ancestor right in the middle of the tension between self-interest and serving something beyond oneself. The circumstances may change, but life has always been hanging in the balance with humanity implicated in the outcome. Once again, humanity faces the elemental tension between simply consuming the resources of life and becoming a true friend of nature and the earth.

The ancient story shows that at crucial times a small change can lead to a great effect that can shift the underlying patterns of both nature and culture. When we listen to the subtle voices that can come from any area of life, it becomes possible to awaken more fully to the creative impulses that sleep within our souls.

Despite feeling overwhelmed by the dramas and challenges of change, our hands are never far from finding again the old practices that help us weather the storms, while keeping our hearts open to the language of nature, and the inspiration and imagination trying to enter this troubled world through each of our souls.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new free online event “Gratitude and Grace” on Thursday, November 17. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.  

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 450 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.

If you enjoy this podcast, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen 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 thank you for your support of our work.

This episode begins with a report on the radicalization of a radio station where extreme political views began to be mixed in with the local weather and local news. Ironically, the name of the town was Normal, as if to underline the sense that “normalizing” extremist movements and disinformation causes any sense of what might be normal to be a thing of the past.

The dramas and conflicts happening locally are also occurring throughout the world as the rise of social media, where anything goes, becomes added to the strong arm politics of gaining power by any means necessary. In the midst of all the misinformation, fear mongering and rabble rousing, people don't know what to believe or who to trust. To be alive at this time means to be a witness, willingly or unwillingly to the upheaval of the world.

The conditions in which we find ourselves are the conditions through which we must find our true selves and the genuine purpose of our lives. If we accept that we live amidst a great metamorphosis that involves all levels of life, we can become more able to tolerate and endure the troubling and tragic events that threaten both nature and human culture. In times of upheaval we are being called, not to return to normal, but to find a greater imagination as well as a deeper understanding about life on Earth.

As things fall apart in the outside world, a deep sense of purpose and meaning seeks to awaken within us. The inner alchemy of the human soul includes a settling self-center, but also resilient resources of great vitality and transcendent creativity. Ancient traditions held that the individual soul could be the source of “vertical imagination” that allows us to reconnect the inner with the outer, the upper with the lower, the older with the younger, each other with one another, and help bring human culture and great nature back into balance.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new free online event “Gratitude and Grace” on Thursday, November 17. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.

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 450 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.

If you enjoy this podcast, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen 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.