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PODCAST

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.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

27:25

Episode 346 - Facing Inner Fears

Living Myth ·

2023/08/30

This episode of Living Myth takes up the issue of deep inner fears that keep us from finding our way in life. Rapid changes in nature and culture cause an increasing loss of context in life and that gives rise to greater levels of fear, both collectively and individually. Typically, our inner patterns of fear derive from early life feelings of abandonment and from early experiences that suggest the world is too overwhelming for someone as insignificant as us. Later in life we continue to harbor

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28:47

Episode 345 - Your Calling Keeps Calling

Living Myth ·

2023/08/23

This episode brings a focus to the need for having a calling in life and the idea that as the world seems to fall apart there can be an acceleration of calling. The human heart carries an indelible expectation of being called to a greater sense of meaning and a revelation of our true aims in life. In the old sense of a rite of passage, the deeper point is not simply to grow up and take more responsibility in society, but rather to awaken to the story trying to unfold from within oneself. The point

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24:05

Episode 344 - The Thread of Life

Living Myth ·

2023/08/16

This episode begins with the idea that at critical times all of life can just hang by a thread. Michael Meade then describes the ancient rites of passage that involved the “upavita” or thread of life. The upavita was imagined as the red thread of passion that runs within the blood of every being. It was also envisioned as the green thread of existence that is dancing through the endless windings of the vegetal realm. Either way, it's the vine of eternity that secretly unites all living tendrils

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21:35

Episode 343 - The Right Trouble

Living Myth ·

2023/08/09

This episode of Living Myth begins with the report on the increase of perfectionism in the world. Whether caused by comparisons found on social media or notions of meritocracy, young people especially suffer from perfectionism. Beginning with the idea that something perfect is finished, and therefore closer to death than to life, Michael Meade turns our attention instead to the value of trouble. Not just any trouble, but the importance of getting into the right trouble, the kind of trouble

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24:05

Episode 342 - A Climate of Overwhelm

Living Myth ·

2023/08/02

This episode considers the record breaking heat waves that are currently plaguing many parts of the planet and how easily we can feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of worldwide crises. “In radical times like this, great emotions can fall upon us in a similar way that massive storms and heat waves now settle over entire areas of a country. The overwhelming facts about disasters in the world around us can quickly become overwhelming emotions inside our individual psyches. We can suffer

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29:02

Episode 341 - A True Path in Life

Living Myth ·

2023/07/26

This episode of Living Myth is about accepting elements of fate in order to find the threads of destiny that are woven within our own lives to begin with. “Each child must be born to a particular family, yet the purpose of each soul rises from a different conception and aims at a different destination. Each has a family legacy of some kind, yet each also has a deeper birthright waiting to be discovered. Elements of fate and destiny press upon us from within and also call us from outside the

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25:34

Episode 340 - When Men Are Lost

Living Myth ·

2023/07/18

This episode begins with excerpts from an article entitled “Men Are Lost.” The writer describes how many “young men struggle to relate to women, don't have enough friends…and lack long term goals.” In addition, recent data shows that “men now account for almost three of every four deaths of despair that come from suicide, alcohol abuse, or overdose.” In what seems to be “a widespread identity crisis,” the question becomes: What does it mean to be a man? The article concludes with the notion that

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25:52

Episode 339 - On Not Being Perfect

Living Myth ·

2023/07/12

This episode of Living Myth deals with perfectionism and the inner dynamics of gifts and wounds in the human soul. Some people were told as children that they had to be perfect; others were told they were somehow defective and could never be perfect. Either way can cause a kind of spell and a life-long struggle with perfectionism. And sadly, the stress of trying to be perfect can lead to great feelings of anxiety and aching feelings of low esteem, to eating disorders, sleep disturbances and an

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21:09

Episode 338 - Waves of Change

Living Myth ·

2023/07/05

Michael Meade uses current scandals in politics along with the recent discoveries in science to show how we live in revelatory times. We are in the midst of a cultural, political and emotional catharsis, yet for those willing to look behind the veil, an apocalyptic period can mean a time of revelation on many levels. The archetype of apocalypse involves a “lifting of the veil” in which many scandals and misdeeds become uncovered, while at the same time both ancient wisdom and new knowledge can be

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23:31

Episode 337 - Original Mind

Living Myth ·

2023/06/28

Despite the narrowing of mind and loss of imagination that characterize much of modern life, we each still have an old knowing mind within us. Not the mechanics of the brain that contemporary science seems obsessed with, but the ancient mind untouched by the passage of time, the intuitive and instinctive mind, which knows both basic survival and great consciousness and awareness. This original mind is logical in its own way, that is to say it is mytho-logical, it is psycho-logical, and it is

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27:53

Episode 336 - A Divine Wake-Up Call

Living Myth ·

2023/06/21

This episode begins with the surprising story of a spiritual seeker who meditates and fasts and abstains in order to know the divine and serve something that transcends the common fate of human experience. After many austerities, the god Vishnu grants his wish and gives him a mission. Somehow, on the way the seeker forgets the divine errand he was on and becomes immersed in the dramas and delights of earthly life. It will take a shocking wake-up call to return the seeker to his conversation with

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22:16

Episode 335 - A Clash of Worldviews

Living Myth ·

2023/06/14

Surviving modern life requires learning to navigate a clash of worldviews. People look at the same facts, yet draw radically different conclusions. On one hand people carry different worldviews; on the other hand, many people remain unconscious of the fact that they carry a limiting worldview. Collectively we find ourselves in uncharted waters in terms of the future of the planet and in unmapped territory in terms of human culture. In that sense, the biggest problem we face involves the need to

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17:02

Premium Episode 116 Excerpt - The Subtle Ground of...

Living Myth ·

2023/06/10

On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade explores how inside of each of us is a mostly hidden, mostly golden and mostly eternal image and aspect of being similar to the gold that is buried in the Earth. In seeking out this inner gold, we meet egoic resistance and must find ways to break the ego’s shell to tap the deeper wisdom within. Along the way, part of what opens this territory is a courageous act of facing death, for a death of the ego is required in order for the

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25:52

Episode 334 - Living in the Shadow of Doubt

Living Myth ·

2023/06/07

On this episode, Michael Meade turns to a myth from Mesopotamia that tells how the genesis of mistakes, as well as the source of conflicts comes from the shadow of doubt felt by the primal god at the beginning of creation. Surprisingly, the origin of what troubles the world to this day comes not from an original sin by a creature, but from a seeming mistake on the part of the creator. At this troubled time when people feel painfully polarized and come to believe that we live in different

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23:52

Episode 333 - The Forgotten Language of Myth

Living Myth ·

2023/05/31

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

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24:36

Episode 332 - The Deep Self Within

Living Myth ·

2023/05/24

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

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26:33

Episode 331 - The Depths of Renewal

Living Myth ·

2023/05/17

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

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22:43

Episode 330 - Surviving Catastrophe

Living Myth ·

2023/05/10

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

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22:30

Episode 329 - What We Love is the Cure

Living Myth ·

2023/05/03

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

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29:02

Episode 328 - Fear of Change

Living Myth ·

2023/04/26

There are certain, critical moments that say directly to us: You must change your life. Collectively, we are in time when great changes are necessary; yet the idea of truly changing is too fearful for most people. On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade tells a surprising story from ancient India in which a fearful tiger suddenly awakens to its true inner nature and becomes transformed. It turns out that learning about one's true self can be like approaching a tiger. The authentic self has

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