This episode of Living Myth begins with excerpts from a new psychological survey that a majority of American adults are worried that the upcoming presidential election could be the end of democracy in the United States. More than 7 in 10 people fear the results could lead to widespread violence. While it is clear that the political stakes are high, the levels of uncertainty and fear are even higher.

Across the board, people feel less able to predict and control things, much less integrate the flood of emotions that come from all of the upheaval. Caught between the extremities of nature and the extremes of contemporary politics, people can become inundated by fear, flooded with worries, and overwhelmed by the radical presence of uncertainty. In the radical times in which we live, human intolerance for uncertainty has increasingly become an intolerance for other humans.

Michael Meade offers an ancient story that suggests that simply turning away from the storms of life or trying to deny their effect upon our psyches does not protect us from the corrosive conditions of our human community. When the world becomes stuck and deeply divided, the solace we desperately need and the sense of unity we have so clearly lost must be sought in the unseen realm of great imagination and in the healing haunts of nature.

Traditionally, the medicines needed to heal this world have been found in the Otherworld in the form of imagination, visions and dreams and in the shape of nature with its many ways of offering healing and refuge for the human spirit.

When the realm of human culture becomes unwelcoming and toxic, whatever it might be that stirs a sense of eros and deep connectedness can quickly become the antidote to the storms of uncertainty and the currents of fear and anxiety. As many ancient stories try to remind us, the indelible spirit of life keeps trying to enter the world and can only enter it through those people who are alive at a given time.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new free online event “Arts and Practices: Antidotes to Overwhelm, Sources of Resiliency” on Thursday, November 21. 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 700 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 addresses the issue of the “strongman” in politics and the way it exemplifies and contributes to a loss of authenticity, a lack of integrity and a loss of soul in modern cultures.

“As a storyteller and someone who studies mythology, I carry stories around, maybe in the same way that someone might carry food or medicine or equipment in a backpack in case a need arises. To follow the metaphor, I need stories for nourishment. I need stories for medicine. And stories equip me with ways of dealing with trouble or tragedy or trickery that I otherwise wouldn't have. When something strikes me as troublesome, a story often comes to mind. That's what happened when I read news reports about the current presidential election in the United States coming down to gender issues and what it means to be a man.

Observers and pollsters are pointing out that while a high percentage of women say they will vote for Vice-President Kamala Harris, an even higher percentage of men say that they will vote for former president Donald Trump. Polling data also indicates that younger men are increasingly being persuaded by Trump's posturing as a strong man. And sadly, that leads him to double down on crudely demeaning the first woman to become a vice president in the United States, while also threatening to punish members of the media and anyone else who opposes him.

While the notion of a strong man as savior can seem appealing when the world is full of conflicts and uncertainty, the long history of human survival as a species depends upon something other, something more than just claiming to be strong or trying to appear as manly and invincible. The idea of people, especially young men, falling for the posture of strength and the pretense of courage brought to mind an old story from the traditions of Central Africa.

The ancient story of how a powerful hunter becomes a visionary seeker has been handed down from people who were specifically known to be crafty survivors able to withstand hardships and survive the most difficult life circumstances. They knew that in the hard times they had to draw upon their instinctive capacities for toughing it out. They also knew that at critical times the point becomes hunting for a greater sense of meaning in life and responding to the age old calling of truth and beauty, or else everyone might lose their way and wind up both empty handed and hollow inside.

We are living amidst massive storms in nature and confounding storms of conflict and chaos in culture and our survival, as well as life on the planet, depends upon our connection to our own souls, where the instincts for survival and the longing for truth and meaning dwell together. In the depths of our souls we can find the age-old connection to the Soul of the World, which has survived endless numbers of storms and natural disasters. The quest for truth and meaning is as ancient and necessary as the hunt for food and shelter and safety; for truth and beauty provide places of refuge for the heart and the soul of humanity without which we cannot find the true courage or the actual wisdom needed to survive the storms of life.”

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade talk more about finding soul in difficult times by purchasing his new in-depth course “Holding the Thread of Life”. Purchase and learn more at courses.mosaicvoices.org

You can save 30% on this new course 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.

This episode is about the need for living symbols that can give us a sense of unity and wholeness in a divided world. Symptom is an old Greek word that refers to something that “falls upon us or strikes us” in a way that wounds us or divides us against ourself. At this critical time on Earth, almost anything can suddenly become symptomatic and leave us more personally wounded and more collectively divided.

The word symbol derives from Greek roots, meaning “to throw together or bring things together.” A genuine symbol unites unlike or opposite things in a way that reveals the underlying unity of life, but also reveals other levels of reality. When most levels of Nature and culture simultaneously manifest disruptive symptoms, we have a greater need for symbols that can remind us of the origins of life, which are always nearby and able to be tapped for the energies of healing and renewal.

The antidote for the isolation and dissociation that has become so characteristic of modern life lies in finding again the ancient wellsprings of human imagination and the personal thread to the underlying continuity of all of life. In this old way of imagining and thinking, an endless story unfolds from the core of creation, and a living thread of imagination is woven within the heart that connects each of us to that unfolding story.

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 700 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 of Living Myth begins with the idea that the old terminology of 100-year storms and 1000-year storms makes little sense, since events of that magnitude now happen so often. It becomes difficult to deny that we now live in a world that is more unpredictable, more chaotic, and sadly, more dangerous. As the storms occurring in nature grow greater and move faster, a parallel intensification of cultural conflicts and political storms have also been growing greater and changing with remarkable speed. By now, the two areas of increasing turbulence can be seen to overlap in ways that add more chaos and more unnecessary suffering to those who are caught in the path of the storms.

At the same time that many communities struggle with life-altering losses and remain without water and basic services, the so called “online community” has become inundated with a storm of its own making. The disinformation, lies and conspiracy theories that have become a maelstrom in the political realm, have now been injected into recovery efforts after the recent hurricane in ways that actually endanger rescue missions and make it more difficult for people to get the necessities they need to survive. The aftermath of natural disasters can now include unnecessary and unnatural emotional torment for those already suffering losses of life and livelihood.

As the world increasingly becomes a place of chaos and conflict, we all suffer greater levels of disorientation and overwhelm, even if we are not directly in the wake of the latest natural disaster or shocking missile attack or polarizing statements by those claiming to be leaders. We are all living through a collective loss of soul, for the soul is the missing thing, the unifying element between opposing forces.

The soul is the connective tissue of the world, and without it, the darkness around us can just grow deeper and deeper. Yet, no matter how alienating the outer world can become, the deeper layers of the self and soul remain places of healing and self-forgiveness, that in turn connects us to the unifying source of life that keeps trying to awaken within us and knows how we can each contribute to the healing of a broken world and to the process of renewal that can follow all the chaos.

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 700 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 of Living Myth focuses on the sense that we are living through a radical time when change becomes necessary and a transformation of life becomes more possible. Michael Meade uses an ancient myth to depict, not just creation, but importantly the process of re-creation which secretly sustains life on earth. When we find ourselves in a time of radical changes in nature and conflicts and chaos in human societies, growing our true selves and changing our lives becomes more possible, unless we become stuck in the grip of uncertainty and fear. If we stay at the fearful, anxious level too long we can become divided from our deeper sense of self and can lose our natural capacity to be part of ongoing creation.

As difficult and fearful as it can be to live at this critical time on earth, the human soul is ancient and deep and knows that the world can collapse and renew itself at the same time. In terms of myth and imagination, we are also in a period of re-creation and potential renewal. To be human is to feel vulnerable and suffer uncertainty, but also to be touched by the divine and therefore be able to heal and transform and contribute to the natural and necessary process of re-creation.

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.

This episode begins with the idea of the Cone of Uncertainty as the front part of a hurricane or tropical storm that can veer to the right or left and change directions frequently. Michael Meade uses the Cone of Uncertainty as a metaphor for the political storms and radical uncertainties that characterize the current campaign season in the U.S. “No political forecaster could have predicted the storm of inauthenticity that overshadows so many issues and increasingly divides people into fearfully opposed sides. At this point in the amplified uncertainty of the modern world, some major candidates are boldly creating and spreading outright lies, as if their plan is to use an overwhelming storm of misinformation and easily proven untruths to simply overwhelm people and undermine any source of truth or shared sense of common humanity.”

When the world becomes flooded with anxiety and uncertainty a greater psychological understanding is needed and that can come through an awakening of the authentic self that makes each person unique and unrepeatable and valuable in the struggle for healing and renewal. When we unfold the story wound within our souls and untie the knots within our hearts, we instinctively add presence to the world and contribute to the spirit of life in ways that are authentic and meaningful. As we transform ourselves from within, even if it only consists of small steps or little ways, we also help in some way to transform the world.

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.

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.

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 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.