This episode illustrates how myths are not intended to be believed in, but exist to be learned from. Myths are forever things that offer endless meanings to those willing to open their hearts and minds to the living mystery of life. Yet, even though it is the original language of our soul, myth has become the forgotten language.

The “once upon a time” incantation that often begins a story is an evocation of a pregnant moment that can open to things eternal that ever wait near the doors of our perception. Awakening to the stories woven into our souls can turn us into seers and soothsayers able to receive knowledge from the past and able to perceive guidance for the future. When we awaken to our true nature, we also awaken to the myth trying to live through us.

When we break the spell of time's insistent march, we can slip back into the timeless realms behind the waterfall of the present where both nature and myth speak in ancient and surprising ways. We find once again that the language of myth can be oracular and speak to us directly with insights into ourselves and with inspirations about the world around us.

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 500 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.

This episode of Living Myth begins with the idea that as everything around us falls apart, the deeper Self and ancient soul within us moves closer to the surface and seeks to become known. For whatever shatters the common patterns of daily life also opens us up to psychological and mythical levels of unusual depth that are not overwhelmed by the divisions and disruptions in the world.

The elements of great imagination and deep spirituality that have become lost in the modern world cannot simply disappear. Rather, what is sorely missing in the outside world waits to be found in the inner realm of being, in the greater sense of Self that is the natural inheritance of each human soul.

The centering and guiding power of the deep Self gives us our innate sense of meaning and instinctive sense of purpose. Without this inner, unifying factor, any meaningful sense of change can become fraught with excess fears and anxiety. Since the world will not quickly settle, we have to look deep inside for a true source of coherence, for meaningful guidance and for finding our true aims in life, which are not deterred by the troubles of the world.

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 500 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.

Michael Meade turns to what many consider to be the oldest known story, the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. The ancient tale offers guidance for these critical times, not from the heroic battles or kingly powers of Gilgamesh, but from his later life search for spiritual renewal and the plant of immortality.

The primordial plant is described as “the thing that gives immortality” or as “the flower of life that renews vitality,” can only be found in the depths of the ocean. Thus, a great descent is required in order to find the roots of renewal and the touch of the eternal.

In critical times we all need a taste of that plant that might rejuvenate us and renew the spirit of our lives. Down, back and below us, the ocean of the unconscious holds the treasure of the deep self and soul, the source of our inner life and origin of our spiritual longings.

The soul knows that the full potential of life must be sought back at the beginning, down at the source, where the underlying unity of life waits to be found and be touched again. Our ancestors, going all the way back to before recorded time, found the sacred founts of renewal in forest pools, in the rivers and at the shores where the spirit of life waits to be found again and again. When we allow ourselves to be touched by the deep waters that came from the primordial beginning, time stops, life becomes holy again, and we become capable of wisdom that the old knowers knew.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online series “Gifts and Wounds” that begins on Thursday, May 18.

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 500 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.

This episode of Living Myth uses deeper meanings of the word catastrophe to frame the tragedies and disasters that currently plague both culture and nature. We are in a deeply wounded cultural condition in which current and historical conflicts that are not fully faced will continually lead to ever greater tragedies. The flood of mass shootings, along with environmental disasters cannot simply be contained by the individual psyche, nor can they just be dismissed. In times of tragedy and upheaval, it is not simply a new world that we need; it is a new worldview that we must find.
 
Catastrophe can mean “a sudden end” or “a reversal of what was expected.” In ancient theater, catastrophe defined the crucial turning point in the last scenes of a drama. Before the final curtain could fall, the veil would lift to reveal all kinds of plot twists and undercurrents that had been present, but were hidden. Even when all aspects of the plot clearly pointed to an inevitable, tragic ending, a reversal could already be secretly underway. In other words, catastrophic conditions can lead to turning things around rather than a complete tragic ending.
 
The idea is not to deny the presence of tragedy and loss, but to realize that the great drama of the world includes twists of fate that cannot be predicted and revelations that only appear when the end seems near. Even at the edge of despair we can awaken to a deeper vision and greater understanding that has been trying to become conscious all along.  In these catastrophic times, events can go either way. Either they can lead to a fatal downfall or else to a surprising turn of events in which the saving elements and hidden capacities for renewal become revealed on both individual and collective levels of life.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online series “Gifts and Wounds” that begins on Thursday, May 18.

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 500 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

This episode focuses on the tension between fear and Eros, between widening societal divisions and our innate instinct to connect and find unity. The struggle between fear and Eros or fear and love is an old one, for one would separate where the other would unify. When fear becomes the dominant collective emotion, it can permeate an entire culture and divide all the people. When we feel surrounded by fear, the danger is that our souls will shrink and life itself will be diminished.
 
An excess of fear separates us from each other, but also divides us within ourselves. We become isolated and cut off from our inner nobility and from the creative capacities of our souls. When people fail to live the life of their soul with its instinctive Eros connections, the world becomes diminished and the garden of life becomes overburdened with the remains of unlived lives.
 
When the enemy becomes fear itself, only boldness, imagination and Eros can save us from it. Eros or love is the antidote to fear and the way in which people can find a deeper sense of imagination, and a greater vision of what is needed both for survival and for feeling connected to each other again.
 
What we love as well as who we love connects us to the life-enhancing energy of Eros and to the original force of creation that wishes to continue. An old proverb states: What we love is the cure. That we love is our connection to ongoing creation. We are being called to imagine the world anew and to open to how our own souls can grow and blossom in greater ways that might contribute to the re-imagination of community and the healing and renewal of the earth.