This episode of Living Myth begins with a consideration of the value of folk tales that remind us how easily that which can rejuvenate our souls, and reveal inner wisdom can become lost in the churning seas of time. Ancient wisdom tales survive the upheavals of history and can provide esoteric threads that trace back to the original sources of awakening, rejuvenation and revelation.
Beginning with elements of folk myths that appear in epic tales like Gilgamesh and teachings found in the Bible, the Torah and the Koran, Michael Meade follows threads that lead back to the mysterious figure of Khidr, known as the Green One or the Verdant One.
Khidr represents the sea of inward knowledge and was called the long living one, who continually rejuvenates himself. As such, Khidr can be seen as the embodiment of archetypal powers of imagination and wisdom, and as a personification of the process of spiritual transmission. Some stories say that every saint is visited by Khidr, while other tales say that everyone will be visited by Khidr at least once in their life.
Khidr stands for the archetypal energy inside each person which can lead them to their own experience of revelation and awakening. Whoever follows Khidr, they used to say, can seek freely amongst the many teachings that exist in the world, but can also find their own way to the place where the two seas meet, a place also known as the center of one's own heart, where the energy of one world pours into the other, the place where the opposites can meet, the place where creation began, and ever seeks to begin again.
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