This episode begins with the contemporary psychological theory of a "reminiscence bump" which attempts to explain why we remember certain songs and events from our youth, while forgetting most other things. The theory includes the idea that our sense of identity comes from an internalized story that we construct to make sense of our life. Michael Meade contrasts this kind of mainstream psychology with the ancient idea that youth is not simply a stage or a phase in life, but more of a meaningful, symbolic condition connected to something eternal and enduring in our souls.

In ancient myths and fairy tales it is the youngest sister or youngest brother who represents the eternal youth that is part of the natural inheritance of each person's psyche. Although considered too slow or weird or dreamy to begin with, the youngest part of the psyche carries the dream of one's life as well as our innate connection to the roots of nature and the realm of spirit. In terms of myth and depth psychology, the eternal youth of the soul turns out to be the only one able to find a way forward when everyone else has become fearful, discouraged and stuck in life.

The old idea of "coming of age" involved coming in contact with the inner dream of one's life and the enduring passions and unique inner story already seeded in one's soul. Ultimately, the thing we are secretly trying to save is our own authentic lives. And at each critical turning point in life it is this youngest inner sister or brother that tries to awaken further and connect us with what has been long forgotten and what is being newly imagined. When the future of the world is in question, it is the youngest part of the psyche that knows what people have forgotten and what human culture most needs in order to heal, transform and reconnect to the dream 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 750 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack.

Learn more and subscribe at: michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

This episode of Living Myth focuses upon the extreme emotions generated by the war in Iran and the many other conflicts and divisions in the current world. Michael Meade addresses the increasing flood of raw emotions that we are all subjected to and what psychologists are now calling "political depression." Although political depression can present the same sense of hopelessness and despair as traditional depression, its source is different. It does not simply come from within; but rather from the violence and upheaval, the corruption and unjustness in the world around us.

According to recent studies, this sense of political depression has affected the psyches of most people, and along with issues of anger and outrage, increasingly appears in the offices of therapists and counselors. The human psyche cannot simply be separated from the conditions of the world. Whereas emotional responses can be eruptive and disruptive, emotions are also "the necessary and mysterious turbulence without which we cannot truly tell if we are alive or not."

Emotions move us because they carry massive amounts of energy that can be used to change life from within. The natural inheritance of the human soul includes an ability to "feel the feelings" and shift raw emotions to being sources of increased vitality and creativity. Ultimately, emotions are intended to connect us to our deeper sense of self and to the world as it is. In that sense, emotions would have us engage life more fully and live life more meaningfully, especially in times of crisis when a transformation of life actually becomes more possible.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can learn more about connecting to the deep self by taking Michael Meade's new course "Rites of Passage" that explores how timely and timeless practices of rites of passage can help us navigate a changing world and connect more deeply to inner wisdom and our unique genius.

Purchase and learn more at: store.mosaicvoices.org

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 750 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at: michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

In this episode, Michael Meade examines how collective fear and overwhelm can knock the ego off balance and lead to stress and despair. Since the world will not settle soon, the unity and wholeness so sorely missing in the outer world must be found within us. As things fall apart the "knowing self" within moves closer to the surface, seeking to become more conscious to us.

Despite the troubles they cause, critical turning points in life intend to change us from within, giving us access to imagination and wisdom from the deeper self while also learning to deliver something of our true self to a troubled world. The centering and guiding power of the deep self gives us our innate sense of meaning, a true source of coherence and a instinctive sense of purpose.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can learn more about connecting to the deep self by taking Michael Meade's new course "Rites of Passage" that explores how timely and timeless practices of rites of passage can help us navigate a changing world and connect more deeply to inner wisdom and our unique genius

Purchase and learn more at: store.mosaicvoices.org

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 750 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

In this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade considers the current global challenges and emphasizes the importance of living from a place of wholeheartedness. He reflects on the symbolism of an open heart and how facing personal fears contributes to living a life of meaning and purpose. Woven through this episode are poems from Rumi and William Stafford about the need for transformation and the unique role each soul plays in the world's drama.

Like the Earth, the human heart bears an inner flame that can burn with intense passions and deep longings, but can also illuminate paths of compassion, healing and renewal. Our greatest obstacles and sufferings aim at a revelation of the heart within our heart. For, what the heart loves is the cure and what cures the human heart can help heal a broken world.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online event "Finding Ways to Make a Change" on Thursday, March 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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

This episode considers the problem of resistance to change from psychological and mythological viewpoints. While we are facing radical changes that threaten both nature and culture, we are also challenged by the dilemma of human resistance to change at both personal and collective levels. The issue is not simply a lack of commitment to change. Rather, resistance arises precisely where we have the best intentions to change. The problem becomes all the more difficult as we may not be aware of our resistance because it occurs at an unconscious level. Attempts to meaningfully change can feel like an internal struggle between opposing parts of ourselves; one part that overtly wants change and another part that covertly works against it.

What some psychologists call an internal "competing commitment" or a subconscious "immunity to change" was once known as the fatal flaw that leads us away from our soul's natural goal of transformation and spiritual realization. In terms of mythic imagination, each soul has an original intention waiting to be found and a life dream waiting to awaken. And each soul also has its fatal flaw, a kind of reverse attitude that works against that original intention.

Genuine transformation develops from the inside out. Thus, when change becomes essential, not just for ourselves, but also for life on earth, we are called to awaken to the true aims of our authentic selves as well as to the fatal flaws that work against meaningful change, both personally and collectively.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online event "Finding Ways to Make a Change" on Thursday, March 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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

Michael Meade explores how stories enable us to understand the world and our place in it. Mythic narratives weave the divine and natural realms together in ways that become antidotes for our anxieties and fears. To be modern can mean to have fallen out of story or to be living in opposing stories as many people believe at this time. Yet, stories are how we understand our lives and how we make meaning of even the most overwhelming and tragic aspects of life.

At each critical juncture or time of change, the story of our soul tries to break through and become more conscious. Since myths speak to each soul differently, they can deliver to each listener the psychic facts and healing factors they most need. In that sense, stories are a form of medicine that can operate at the deepest levels of self and soul.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online event "Finding Ways to Make a Change" on Thursday, March 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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

There are certain, critical moments that say directly to us: You must change your life. Collectively, we are in a 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 beauty and unique markings. It has power and an intensity of presence similar to the fierce brightness of a tiger. Awakening the deeper self also reveals an inner sense of nobility that can shift fear to awareness and replace uncertainty with a living sense of purpose.

In mythological terms, the less people awaken to who they are in essence, the greater the amount of fear in the world becomes. If we are to find some way through the cascade of crises that currently threaten the world, we must face our deepest fears, open our hearts and begin to see with the visionary eyes of our tiger self. When the inner eyes of our hearts and souls open, we begin to see the world as we were intended to see it, and in so doing, find ways of transforming our lives that also help to transform this troubled world.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online event "Finding Ways to Make a Change" on Thursday, March 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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

Michael Meade reflects on how, if we are able to stop and listen more deeply, we can connect with subtle sources of wisdom and guidance. He shares his experiences of receiving guidance that has taken the form of dreams, birds and animals, an inner voice and the realm of myth and story. Essential to the practice of hearing these vital messages is both an embrace of humility and a willingness to stand in the place of not knowing.

During this time of upheaval in both culture and nature, when we collectively stand in a greater period of uncertainty, being able to hear the guiding messengers all around us can bring us closer to the call of our deeper self. The centering and guiding power of the deep self gives us our innate sense of meaning and instinctive sense of purpose. Without this inner, unifying factor, any meaningful sense of change can become fraught with excess fears and anxiety. Since the world will not quickly settle, we have to look deep inside for a true source of coherence, for meaningful guidance and for finding our true aims in life, which are not deterred by the troubles of the world.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online event "Finding Ways to Make a Change" on Thursday, March 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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack. Learn more and subscribe at: michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

This episode begins with the recent shooting in Minneapolis in which an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti was shot ten times by ICE and border patrol agents. There are fateful occasions when a tragic event becomes a moment of truth for both individual life and the collective meaning and core values of a culture. Michael Meade suggests that: "We are now, and may be for some time, in a collective tragedy that involves a battle for truth and meaning, but also the need for a transformation of culture that is aimed not only at the need for political change, but also at a transformation of the quality of human life at this time."

Meade turns back to Plato's Republic, one of the foundational works of Western philosophy, that explores the meaning of justice and the struggle between "lies of the soul" and the need to "live in truth." Because the current administration is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It must falsify the past by trying to rewrite history. It must falsify the present by telling people not to believe their own eyes and it must seek to falsify the future by blatantly denying the truth and avoiding accountability.

In the end, it comes down to the people, as "living the lie" must be confronted with living in truth. The point becomes not only the exposure of all the false poses and hollow pretenses that living in lies requires; but also the ancient and immediate revelation that it is not only possible, but truly essential that people who seek freedom and human dignity find ways to live within truth when faced with an administration of lies.

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 740 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

Along with these free weekly podcasts, you can now read free weekly essays and long form posts by Michael Meade on Substack.

Learn more and subscribe at: michaeljmeade.substack.com

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.

On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade turns to the realms of art and practice as ways to avoid overwhelm and find coherence in an increasingly chaotic world. Since the world will not settle soon, the unity and wholeness so sorely missing must be found within us. Fortunately, as fears and uncertainty grow, a balancing imagination and healing energy tries to awaken within our souls. The creative arts and spiritual practices are the traditional paths that can lead us to the deep resources and inner resiliency of our self and soul.

The two traditional roads of practice appear as the inward path of contemplation, meditation and deep reflection and the expressive path of creative arts, such as music and dance, painting and writing. Some people are more drawn to one than the other; others go back and forth or mix the two. They each have their value, and each can connect us to the ground of being and the ever-resilient core of life.

Whether it be through meditation and introspection or art and creative expression, a practice helps us gain an emotional seating and a place of refuge to return to again and again. Having a meaningful practice can give us ways to awaken further and grow within ourselves, while also becoming more able to contribute to the healing and restoration of the world.

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 740 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.

This episode begins with the differences between paradigm shifts that replace old theories with new ones and a shifting of the archetypes that can transform all levels of life. The origins of apocalypse involve an archetypal shift that begins with a period of chaos and collapse before it leads to creation and a renewal of life. The initial phase of an apocalyptic period also involves a "lifting of the veil" that reveals what has been concealed behind closed doors and uncovers what has long been covered up.

The United States, in particular, has entered a stage where the veil lifts and ideas and motivations normally uttered in the back rooms of power become stated out loud, in public. Wildly divisive ideas and brutal practices that other regimes would try to cover over become boldly declared and are doubled down on when challenged.

Whether it is the incursion into Venezuela, threats to acquire Greenland by military force or the rush to condemn an unarmed mother of three recklessly killed by a masked "federal officer," the point is to make each tragedy a polarizing and dehumanizing event that further divides people, not just from each other, but also internally, so that the lack of empathy and loss of our shared sense of humanity becomes diminished and is replaced with a fear of living fully and freely and standing for the deeper truths of the human soul.

At a time when political and cultural divisions are intentionally driven deeper, what we need are not just better politics and policies, but also a greater psychological sense and deeper understanding of the sanctity of life and the importance of the individual soul. For, the original meaning of the archetype of apocalypse includes an awakening of the individual soul that can initiate a process of renewal of human society based upon the core values of meaning and truth, justice and inclusion and love over fear.

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 740 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 find this podcast meaningful, 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.