Living Myth

Michael Meade
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  • PHILOSOPHY
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Living Myth Podcast

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.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Episode 401 - Why We Resist Change

    On this episode, Michael Meade explores how life is change and to be truly alive means to be repeatedly transforming ourselves. There's an old statement that says, "The soul is here for us to transform". Yet at the same time, something within us resists changing, even when the time for transforming our lives has come. In the mysterious way of the world, the metamorphosis of the butterfly offers ways to understand why we resist the exact changes we most need in order to transform ourselves and help change the world.   Along with this potent image of the butterfly, Meade also looks at transformation through the core practice of ritual. Creative rituals can help release the burdens of our lives while connecting our minds and hearts in ways that reduce fear and anxiety and ease the grief of isolation. Ritual gives a place for constricting attitudes to loosen, for emotions to flow and for the reservoir of genuine hope to renew. On the ground of ritual, undiscovered parts of ourselves can awaken and strengthen our sense of meaning and purpose in life.    Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online series “The Soul of Change” beginning on Thursday, October 17. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.    You can save 30% on this new 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 680 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.

    33 min

  2. SEP 11

    Episode 400 - In the Face of Tyranny

    This episode of Living Myth focuses on the struggle between the force of tyranny and the power of liberation from falsehoods and injustice. The old Greek word tyrant was applied to despotic kings and rulers, but was also used to describe popular usurpers who claimed to be all powerful and above the law. In modern usage, a tyrant can be any oppressive or cruel ruler, a would-be dictator or autocrat. The rule of divide and conquer has been a favorite tool of tyrants who typically ascend to power through the manipulation of people's fears and the proliferation of confusion and chaos.   A key characteristic of such a tyrant is an insistence upon complete obedience from other people. And there lies a sad irony, for tyranny is not something simply imposed upon people without their agreement. Rather, the rise of tyranny requires consent from those willing to lose their own sense of individual freedom and liberty. Needless to say, it is when people are becoming smaller at the level of their self that they give the power of their lives over to those who claim to be the strong men, but who turn out to be empty within themselves and lacking that very thing that makes each person meaningful and purposeful, that is to say, a soul.   Opposite tyranny's unfair and cruel use of power would be a greater sense of autonomy and freedom. The word liberal can mean “generous, noble or free,” but can also mean “selfless and unrestricted.” Although it has become common for conservative politicians to use the word liberal as something derogative, it remains the key concept and core spirit of any genuine democracy. The American experiment in democracy was founded upon the liberal principle that all humans are endowed with natural rights and that government exists to protect those rights.   Authoritarianism has always posed the most potent challenge to liberalism, and it has now returned as an ideological force armed with previously unimaginable tools of social media, disinformation and social controls, even reaching into the heart of liberal societies, seeking to undermine them from within.   The dream of America as a liberal democracy was never simply an economic enterprise, never only a search for personal aggrandizement. Rather, America has always been a dream of freedom needing to be renewed and be reimagined by each generation. The seeds of that dream have always included longings for opportunity, but also a desire for living with a sense of justice for all that includes care for those less fortunate and mercy for those suffering illness or trapped in poverty. There has always been a deeper dream of America, not simply the political notion of a union of states, but an intuition of a deeper unity of life. Not simply the chance to win an election, but an opportunity to keep dreaming the dream forward and even the opportunity to sacrifice for a future of renewed meaning and universal ideals.   The word vote can mean more than “the formal expression of a wish or a choice for a candidate or a proposal.” Vote comes from old radical roots that mean “a vow, even a promise to God or a solemn pledge.” And there are times when casting a vote can be both an act of recalling the origins of the dream of freedom and also a strike against tyranny in all its forms. For it is exactly in times of great conflict and fear that the ideals of humanity must be remembered while meaning and truth are being struggled for again.   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 680 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 y

    26 min

  3. SEP 4

    Episode 399 - Messages from the Cosmos

    One of the problems in the modern world is that people now tend to believe that science and technological inventions can solve problems that exist on much deeper and much greater levels. As Albert Einstein expressed it: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” In the upward and onward at all costs rush of the modern world, it is the heart and soul of humanity that most often becomes lost.  Fortunately, it turns out that the missing elements that make life meaningful, purposeful and beautiful do not simply disappear. Rather, what is sorely missing in the outside must be sought in the deeper, greater sense of self that is the natural birthright of each human soul. Times of radical change and great uncertainty can become the exact conditions in which we each become the potential recipients of messages from the cosmos that remind us that what we are most desperately looking for already exists inside us in the form of a unifying and guiding sense of self and soul. Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael live by joining his free online event “Finding a Calling in Life” on Thursday, September 5. 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 675 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.

    24 min

  4. AUG 28

    Episode 398 - A Deeper Sense of Hope

    For many reasons, people question whether there is any hope for the world at this time. Yet, it is the nature of hope to become lost before being found again at another level of life. In the old myth of Pandora's Box, hope only appears after all possible troubles, pains and agonies have been unleashed upon the world. At critical times, life can seem hopeless before a deeper level of hope can be found again in the depths of the human heart and soul. This deeper level of hope includes a greater vision of the world, as well as a sharper insight into one's own being, and thus the individual soul becomes the ground of all invention, becomes the root of all genuine imagination that can, in truth, alter the course of life and become the source of renewed hope for the world. When life becomes full of uncertainty and subject to radical changes and continuous shocks, what we need is a radical sense of hope that connects us to the vertical imagination that can, in truth, alter the course of life. Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael live by joining his free online event “Finding a Calling in Life” on Thursday, September 5. 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 670 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.

    23 min

  5. AUG 21

    Episode 397 - Following the Call of Soul

    On this episode, Michael Meade talks about inner genius and how without a calling we can feel lost throughout our lives. Without a genuine purpose, we can turn bitter, drifting without genuine passion and withering without the blessing of the spirit of life. Yet, the spirit of life within us does not age as we grow older. The inner genius continues to be on the verge of awakening and our calling keeps calling no matter what age we are, no matter what position or condition in life we may have. Because what calls to us is timeless, the calling can come at any time in life. This episode is edited from a Jung Platform Summit presentation. Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael live by joining his free online event “Finding a Calling in Life” on Thursday, September 5. 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 670 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.

    30 min

  6. AUG 11

    Episode 396 - Dreams of Healing

    On this episode, Michael Meade tells an old story of someone who follows a dream that leads to being stripped down and stuck, before it unfolds a path to healing and wholeness. Stories and dreams are about the mysteries of life. And penetrating the mysteries requires a different kind of vision and a different understanding than what we use to negotiate the common world. By now, most people can agree that we are living in a broken world at both the levels of nature and culture. What still seems difficult to accept is that the way to find solutions involves accepting our own participation in the woundedness of the world. The presence of the wound makes healing necessary; it is also the presence of the wound that makes healing possible. The current moment of stripping down institutions and dissolution of familiar patterns of life may be the exact condition in which we begin to see with other eyes and find the threads of the dream of life again. But, in order to find ways to awaken to the meaning of life again, we have to accept our own woundedness. The world needs healing on so many levels, that there cannot be a single idea, simple process or common belief that ends all the conflicts and begins the healing. The missing ingredient, the deep medicine, the inner gold is hidden in our own hearts. Until we can loosen the stones that we have constructed to protect our vulnerable selves, we can't find the inner medicine or the inner wisdom of the soul. Only through that kind of process can we find genuine ways to become wounded-healers and bring some healing back to the world. If enough people would do that, then enough medicines would be found that we could contribute to the healing of ourselves, and at the same time, be humbly, but creatively helping to heal the world. Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael live by joining his free online event “Finding a Calling in Life” on Thursday, September 5. 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 625 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.

    31 min

  7. AUG 7

    Episode 395 - To Not Feel Lost in the Chaos of the World

    In a world that's rapidly changing in ways that can feel chaotic and threatening, it becomes easy to feel diminished, lost and small. Although it is common now to feel like nothing but a speck in a vast, accidental universe; we only feel truly small when we lose our sense of soul. Small and insignificant as we may feel at times, we carry within our souls a spark that is connected to the galaxies and to the origins of creation. When the world becomes darker, more confusing and more chaotic, we have to learn to see with the eyes of the soul or else wind up feeling smaller and smaller when our souls would have us grow in meaningful ways.   When we begin to feel diminished by the chaos and the confusion in the world, there are two places to turn to. We can turn to our innate connection to the stars, to the origins of life and the source of ongoing creation. For that is part of the inheritance of the human soul. And we can turn the opposite way, looking inward where there is also a great expanse of darkness, in which the speck of star, the spark of life and inner light of the soul waits to receive our attention in order that it might grow, and it can only grow from darkness.   It is our nature to be betwixt and between, to be part of both the macrocosm and the microcosm; to be stretched between the mundane and the sacred, between the gravity-bound surface of the earth and the endless expanse of the starry heavens. We are here to grow our souls, despite and because of the darkness around us. For, the world is not a finished place; rather it is always on the verge of becoming. The same is true of our lives; for our souls are always on the verge of awakening further in both small and big ways that can connect with and contribute to creation ongoing.   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.

    25 min

  8. JUL 31

    Episode 394 - Living in Turbulent Times

    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.

    24 min
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4.9
out of 5
809 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Meade
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2024
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Living Myth

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