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Living Myth

Mosaic presents Living Myth, a podcast with Michael Meade, renowned mythologist and storyteller. Meade presents mythic stories that offer uniquely insightful and wise ways of understanding the current dilemmas of the world we live in. Living Myth proposes that genuine solutions to the complex and intractable problems of our world require both transcendent imagination and cohering, transformative narratives.
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Now displaying: July, 2024
Jul 31, 2024

This episode of Living Myth begins with the series of shocks and radical changes that have occurred in contemporary American politics and the current election campaign. Michael Meade expands the theme of dramatic changes to include both nature and culture as we find ourselves “in the midst of a transformation of life on earth.” Whether we want to admit to it or not, we have entered a radical transition of life in which we are being pushed and pulled into territories that we would not choose to go on our own. We keep finding ourselves in uncharted waters in terms of the future of the planet and in unmapped territories in terms of human culture.

 

At the same time, the human soul is not separate from the living world, but rather is secretly attuned to it. The radical changes sweeping through both nature and culture at this time can be felt by our souls, and because humans are implicated at all levels of the current crises in the world, a transformation of humanity is also required. Without a renewed sense of genuine imagination, the battles between lies and genuine knowledge will grow, just as the divisions between the mind and the body, humanity and nature will also expand.  When everything seems about to fall apart or even come to a tragic end, what we need is not a sense of evolution over time, but a felt connection to the possibilities of recreation and renewal at this particular time.

 

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 660 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 and thank you for your support of our work.

Jul 24, 2024

We live in a time when seemingly all possible conflicts and oppositions come crashing all around us. Each day leaves us more exposed to raw emotions and rocked by the harsh energies of life. The tragedies and calamities of this era leave us in the lurch of history as antagonisms harden into stone and life seems increasingly stuck.

 

In order to imagine ways to pass through the dire straits of these troubled times, Michael Meade turns to ancient myths which can offer a third way to see when we find ourselves caught between opposing ideas and hardened ideologies.

 

The old myth of Jason and the Argonauts includes the quest to recover the Golden Fleece, the symbol of justice, authentic authority and balance needed to bring peace back to the world. The tale also involves facing the famous obstacle of the clashing rocks that represent the danger of being crushed between the rocks and the hard places. The story illustrates that some greater imagination must be found, and something must be consciously sacrificed, or else more people will become unconsciously and unnecessarily sacrificed.

 

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 650 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 and thank you for your support of our work.

Jul 17, 2024

On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade suggests that in times of change, just as in periods of personal crisis, there can be an intensification and an acceleration of calling. Whether it comes as a daunting challenge or a crushing blunder, a big dream or a cutting loss, each major life event has within it an opportunity to awaken to the call of the deeper self and the resident genius of the soul.

 

What calls us calls for the giving of the inherent gifts and natural talents we brought to life to begin with. What calls to us calls to the dream set within our soul before we were born. Answering the call opens pathways of genius and imagination that can lead to finding one’s “dharma” or natural way of being in life and serving in the world. We are each called to become more fully ourselves and our transformation liberates our spirit, but it also serves something beyond ourselves. In transforming each of us, genius also transforms the world.

 

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael speak more about the themes in this podcast by taking his new in-depth course “Healer, Mentor, Elder, Guide”.  Purchase and learn more at courses.mosaicvoices.org.

 

You can further support this podcast and save 30% on this new course by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 650 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 and thank you for your support of our work.

Jul 10, 2024

On this episode of Living Myth, edited from a Shift Network Summit on mysticism, Michael Meade suggests that we each arrive at turning points where the map we have been given does not match the territory we find ourselves in.  Because each soul is unique, each life journey leads to the pathless path where we must awaken to the dream of our own life. When we open the eyes of the heart, we find the ways of the mystic souls and visionary seers, the outsiders and wounded healers who hold the threads to the underlying unity of life.

 

In seeking after what the soul desires we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow. As the old proverb says, “Before you begin the journey, you own the journey. Once you have begun, the journey owns you.” After all, what good is a dream that doesn’t test the mettle of the dreamer? What good is a path that doesn’t carry us to the edge of our capacity and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.

 

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael speak more about the themes in this podcast by taking his new in-depth course “Healer, Mentor, Elder, Guide”. 

Purchase and learn more at courses.mosaicvoices.org. 

 

You can further support this podcast and save 30% on this new course by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 650 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 and thank you for your support of our work.

Jul 3, 2024

This episode begins with the sense that the recent presidential debate and the series of radical Supreme Court decisions add to the long line of broken moments that leave us in a deepening state of loss about the present and in an increasing condition of uncertainty about the future. Michael Meade turns to ancient ideas about how the process of elevating people to positions of power and authority is related to the web of life. At critical times the web of life becomes more fragile and we find ourselves in danger of losing that which secretly holds us together.

 

One of the great dangers in the modern world involves the accumulation of great power in the hands of few people without a corresponding education of the people regarding the inevitable shadow sides of power. The more power a single person or a single group can wield, the more damage they can do to the delicate threads of humanity and the subtle web of things. The manner in which power becomes misused or mishandled relates directly to the character flaws of those being elected.  For, being elevated to high office inevitably intensifies the shadow side of whoever handles power.

 

Because of human nature, whoever is given great power will have specific ways in which they become attached to power and become inflated about their own importance in the given situation. Those handling power become tempted, not only to misuse their authority, but also to hold on to it in order not to suffer a loss of a sense of self.

 

The oldest meaning of the term “king” involved a sense of sacrifice, and the sacrifice means “to make things sacred.” Ancient rites of elevation to high office were intended to be a reminder of what is sacred in life, and also be a renewal of the ideals and core values that bind us all to each other and connect humanity to the web of life.

 

Each occasion of electing a leader is an opportunity to recall how handling power corrupts in predictable ways and that the ways that we empower people or use power ourselves either contributes to the vitality of the web of things, or the web of life, or else it diminishes, unravels, and can destroy the web of life.  

 

The word crisis refers to “a point in the treatment of an illness or a disease where things can go one way or the other.” We live in truly critical times amidst a series of shocking events and broken moments that are likely to continue. We are in a collective rite of passage that requires that we find deeper ways to understand the shadows of power and greater ways to reimagine the meaning of leadership and sacrifice in service of the ideals of humanity and the living web of life.

 

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 650 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 and thank you for your support of our work.

 

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