Episode 450 - Healing and Transformation
Living Myth
On this episode of Living Myth, edited from an interview with Thomas Hubl for his Collective Healing Conference, Michael Meade considers transformation as an ongoing and natural dynamic of the universe. This core theme is woven through an in-depth conversation about finding deeper self-awareness by examining the ego’s resistance to change and how the wisdom of elders protects and guides us through transformative processes. As the inner dynamic of transformation, Meade considers how initiation means the continuous breaking open of areas of the soul in order to reveal hidden...
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Episode 449 - Creative Paths in Chaotic Times
Living Myth
On this episode, Meade considers how the specific struggles encountered in life can open pathways to the center of the self where purpose waits to be found, where vitality can ever be renewed and where spirit whispers its precise calling. Each personal crisis and life transition can evoke the esoteric pattern of the soul and the deep self waiting to awaken within us. The presence of the greater self is what shifts the ground of trauma and heals the aching soul. As things fall apart all around us, the deep self seeks to awaken our primary impulses towards creativity and the...
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Episode 448 - Be Your Note
Living Myth
Beginning with the idea of “die before you die,” Michael Meade describes how a little-death can lead to a deeper sense of knowledge and a greater appreciation for life. Our encounters with sorrow, disappointment and loss can be revalued as ways in which the ego-self dies a little and the deeper self becomes more revealed. Sharing two powerful stories and a selection of poems, Meade shows how the more thoroughly we shed false aspects of ourselves, the more we can redeem our lives and sound our unique note in the world. Thank you for listening to and supporting Living...
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Premium Episode 163 Excerpt - Know Yourself, Change the World
Living Myth
On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade explores how resiliency amidst adversity is a hallmark of genius and an essential capacity for navigating a rapidly changing and confusing world. What we need now is the courage to follow our genius all the way to where it would lead us. When enough people awaken to the inner meaning and purpose in their lives, a collective shift of understanding can alter the course of history. You can hear the full episode and receive additional podcast content by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Learn more and...
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Episode 447 - Purpose and the Waking Soul
Living Myth
Currently, we are experiencing the demise of a world view and the breakup of the symbols that once functioned within it. As a result, life has become more brittle, institutions have become more hollow, and the sense of collective ethics and ideals crumbles before our weary eyes. Amidst the current flood of troubling and unsettling events it is easy to feel lost in all the chaos and discouraged by all the conflicts. Yet, it is when we lose our sense of being ensouled that we can be said to be living in darkness and lacking the protection and guidance of our natural way of...
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Episode 446 - On the Wings of Myth
Living Myth
This episode begins with a description of the youngest sisters and youngest brothers in fairy tales. They seem out of place and behind everyone else, yet they are the only ones able to break the collective spells of materialism, resentment and despair. They represent the genuine dreamer inside all of us and they are deeply connected to the dream of life and the wisdom of mythology. As agents of myth they have exactly what this troubled world most needs. However, it is the attitudes of the older brothers and sisters that prevail in the daily world. Only after all else has failed will people...
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Episode 445 - The Spirit of Life
Living Myth
This episode of Living Myth begins with the story of the Spirit in the Bottle in which a youth must confront a powerful and angry spirit in order to claim his own genius and natural gifts. One point of the tale is that we cannot become who we are intended to be unless our genius becomes conscious and is confirmed by someone other than our parents. If our inner spirit remains bottled up too long, it has no choice but to turn against us. Whereas the spirit in the old tale erupts with anger, in someone else's story it can collapse into an enduring depression. If, like the youth...
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Episode 444 - An Act of Truth
Living Myth
This episode of Living Myth addresses the rise of conspiracy theories and spread of falsehoods in conjunction with the phenomenon of a widespread loss of personal identity. Recent studies show that amidst radical social changes and growing levels of personal insecurity many people feel a greater need to feel part of a group. While being part of an in-group can relieve underlying feelings of insecurity, it can also involve a loss of true identity. As hostilities between polarized sides intensify, people can cling more tightly to social identities and partisan beliefs,...
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Episode 443 - Facing Inner Fears
Living Myth
On this episode of Living Myth Michael Meade tells a fairy tale about a realm that is rapidly becoming a wasteland because its king has become seriously ill and there is no simple cure. The only way to heal the realm is to find the Water of Life. Doing that requires the seeker let go of all arrogance and accept the condition of not knowing. For only then will the mysterious dwarf provide the guidance and resources that are needed for the quest. Part of the essential guidance involves learning how to face our deepest fears. And that inevitably brings up each person’s...
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Episode 442 - Your Lot in Life
Living Myth
This episode of Living Myth begins with the ancient idea of each soul receiving a “lot in life.” Lot basically means “a chip of wood,” but in this case, the chip comes from the roots of the World Tree, that also used to be known as the Tree of Destiny. Thus, each of our souls secretly carries a “divine word” or living symbol drawn from the Tree of Life that makes each person a divine experiment in life. We are human by lot, but we are divine by origin. We must begin life with the hand that fate has dealt us; yet our fate can be seen as more of an oracle set within us than as an...
info_outline On this episode of Living Myth the deep-seated feeling of empathy is viewed in several contexts: as it appears in a traditional story, as it occurs in personal experience, how it is currently being attacked as “toxic and sinful” and how as "suicidal empathy” it is being called “the existential threat to Western civilization.” The idea that truly caring about other people could end civilization is a new extreme in this era of extreme beliefs and what appears to be an endless onslaught of unprecedented ideas and events.
As people become increasingly uncertain about the future of the world, they also become more easily divided against each other. Uncertainty can not only cause financial markets to plunge, it can also cause people to become more extreme and absolutist about religious beliefs, secular ideologies, and personal opinions. As collective feelings of fear and uncertainty grow they can be used by self-negating ideologies, not just to claim that we are truly separate from each other, but also to insist that some of us are essentially better than others, and therefore count for more even in God's eyes.
In times of cultural upheaval, even empathy and compassion can be weaponized in order to turn those who simply seem “other” than us into those who are enemies to us. Meanwhile, the hidden message of suffering and tragedy in this world involves the sense that we can empathically feel and thereby know the pain that others suffer, precisely because it reflects our own suffering and losses. Just as charity and understanding begin at home, empathy involves being compassionate towards ourselves.
It is our mutual fate to be alive at a time in which we are in a struggle between suffering ever greater and more tragic divisions in life, or else awakening to the ways in which we are all interconnected. Rather than something toxic or suicidal, genuine empathy can be an indication of authenticity and psychological understanding. It can also be a source of hope and a deep resource which can help reveal the inner aim of our lives as well as more mutually inclusive and more wisely sustainable ways to live together.
Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for two upcoming events: his free online event “Surviving Uncertainty by Growing Your Soul” on Thursday, May 22 and his new online workshop “Paths of Awakening” on Saturday, June 14.
Register and learn more: mosaicvoices.org/events
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