Myth Matters Catherine Svehla

"Well, that's the trick: the sudden unexpectedness inside the over-known."
--- Heather McHugh

What type of mood does the word "poetry" evoke for you? Do you associate poetry with the profound and weighty? The concerns of the soul and the seriously sacred? 
I rarely look to poetry for a laugh and I wonder why, when there are many brilliant moments of humor to be found there. In celebration of National Poetry month, here are ten or so humorous poems from Roald Dahl, Billy Collins, Carol Ann Duffy, and others.

I'm joined by poet and songwriter Rags Rosenberg, a longtime friend of Myth Matters who adds a few of his thoughts and poems to the mix. Thank you Rags!
I hope you enjoy the episode and please share your favorite poems of the moment with me! 
Thanks for listening.
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Fate and free will, and the longing for purpose and prospect of destiny that hangs somewhere in-between. How do these forces shape our lives? Do we play assigned roles in a cosmic plan or make it all up as we go?

These questions weave through many myths and stories. What answers do we find and how can we live with the questions?
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 “A yogi sees Me in all things and all things within Me.” Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad-Gita is an important Hindu teaching story embedded in the Mahabharata, an astonishing epic poem. Astonishing for its length- 100,000 verses-- and for its beauty. Astonishing for the complexity of the social and spiritual world constructed in the poem and the exploration of the moral dilemmas we face while attempting to live our lives correctly. 
In this episode, I take a look at the Bhagavad-Gita with the help of Gabriella Nagy, an embodied yoga instructor and yogic life skill guide. 

Gabriella has a deep love for this story and far more understanding of the text. I'm grateful for her guidance through some of the puzzles the Gita presents and hope our conversation aids your reflections.

GABRIELLA NAGY is an embodied yoga instructor and yogic life skill guide who has practiced yoga and mindfulness since high school. She believes that yoga ultimately is the science of inner transformation and the first step is to purify our hearts so that we can see clearly. 
Her unique teaching approach which she calls “yoga of awareness” is named to honor the main yoga that Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita.Her classes support spiritual seekers longing to embrace yoga as a life skill and cultivate balance and strength on the mundane level as well as on the subtler realms.
Gabriella lives on the sandy beach of Baja California, Mexico with her multimedia artist husband and their four-legged chihuahua children Merlin and Maya.
You can find Gabriella at: www.yogaofawareness.com
Instagram: @yoga.of.awareness


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Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com
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Last Monday, February 26th was Tell a Fairy Tale Day. I began preparation for this episode with the intention of telling  you a fairy tale, perhaps one that was connected to the holiday. This process opened up reflection on the necessity of a well-developed imagination to meet life challenges in a creative and satisfying way, and the role fairy tales play in cultivating this capacity. 
In fairy tale language, some of these life challenges could be called "ogres,"  the people and forces that hoard the gold and will eat you up, take your life, if they can. Ogre is a pretty good metaphor for some of the challenges that we meet. And, of course, an ogre appears in the story in this episode.
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Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com
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We have an ever- increasing wealth of myths and stories, fueled by new discoveries and ongoing mythmaking. There are also dominant myths and stories, and dominant ideas about myths and stories, that limit the usefulness of this inheritance and the possibilities we entertain. 
In the last episode, I turned to the Hero's Adventure, a mythic pattern articulated by Joseph Campbell,  to reflect on some of the many ways that we can hear a call to a new life. A bigger life, a life of purpose.
In this episode, I pick up the hero's adventure once again to consider the final phase of the process, what Campbell called "The Return." This final phase is essential to the image of a hero as a person who serves the community, and yet it rarely receives much attention.
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Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com
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Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com
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It's only January and 2024 already feels like a year of consequence. Crazy weather and climate change, war, elections, ideological, religious, and cultural conflicts, and Pluto's move into Aquarius, heralding a long underworld journey of transformation in our communities, social contracts, technology, idea of service, and visions of freedom.
What role might mythology and myth-making play in the cultural and personal changes underway? Are our inherited narratives an obstacle to overcome or an aid in imagining the future?
These are questions I take up in this episode as an opening meditation on endings and beginnings in 2024. Thanks for joining me in this reflection. I'd love to hear from you if this opening foray sparks thoughts in response.
Support the show
Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com
Post a positive review on apple podcasts!
Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com
Buy me a coffee. Thank you!