Living Myth

In this episode, Michael Meade talks about the various ways we can find and connect with our creative muse. He brings surprising insights into practical ways of being creative and the good news that everyone, artists and non-artists alike, has a muse. Creativity is a force larger than ourselves that wants to flow through us, be expressed by us and be given to the community around us.   Meade share...

In this episode, Michael Meade tells an old story about a man whose dreams call for him to go on a long, challenging journey to find a hidden treasure of gold. The story suggests that the treasure we desire most hides where we would never choose to go on our own. Bringing a dream to life requires that we truly change and that can awaken our deepest fears and strongest resistance.     Symbolically,...

This episode begins with the idea that each person has a unique story that seeks to unfold from within their soul. If a person is lucky or adventurous or devoted, they will typically find a path that aligns with their inside story. If they follow that path far enough, they will come to a place where there are no footsteps and the only way forward involves what is called the pathless path. Taking u...

On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade looks at the growing polarization, conflict and uncertainty in the world and considers how we are living within a "re-creation myth," a period resembling ancient creation stories in which darkness, division, and chaos precede renewal. Creation myths from many cultures describe the world emerging from darkness and separation, implyin...

"Regardless of the conditions of the outside world, we are each here to transform our own lives from the inside and become a full expression of our unique soul." So says Michael Meade when he talks about one of his favorite stories, The Tiger's Whisker.  This episode of Living Myth includes a full telling of the famous tale of a woman who must face a living tiger in order to cure what ails her sou...

In this episode, Michael Meade considers how there are always two stories going on in life. The ongoing drama of what we call the world and the story of the individual soul trying to awaken to a life of meaning and purpose. The two stories are secretly related and become more intensely connected and dramatic during times of upheaval and radical change. When the way we have been taught to view life...

In this episode, Michael Meade explores how each soul born bears a personal story that involves natural gifts intended to be given and an original agreement of the soul that includes an inherent sense of purpose in life. At the same time, each family has fateful issues and inherited plotlines that strongly affect the dependent and defenseless child. The good news is that at each critical time in o...

This episode considers how until modern times, people have relied on ritual practices to heal the wounds of culture, draw upon the renewing energies of nature and rejuvenate the life of both individuals and the community. Ritual gives a place for constricting attitudes to loosen, for emotions to flow and for the reservoir of genuine hope to renew.     Creative rituals can help release the burdens...

People increasingly question whether there is any hope for the world at this time. In this episode of Living Myth , Meade suggests that it is the nature of hope to become lost, before being found at another level of life. In the myth of Pandora, hope only appears after all possible troubles have been unleashed upon the world. There is a deeper sense of hope that can arise when "all hope is lost."...

This episode of explores how as the world becomes a more chaotic and conflicted place, turning to creative practices can help us find ways to settle and center and grow a greater sense of self and soul. Throughout the ages, meaningful practices have served as primary pathways for psychological and spiritual growth, as well as for finding moments of wholeness and inner unity.     Traditional roads...

To be alive at this time means to be present as many familiar patterns simply dissolve. One major crisis quickly replaces another, so that both collective and personal levels of uncertainty grow day by day. It turns out that uncertainty is a powerful energy that makes us feel deeply vulnerable as well as susceptible to more intense levels of anxiety. It is also true that what shatters familiar pat...

This episode begins with the ancient tale of the Titans, the mythic giants who wreaked havoc at the beginning of civilization and arise again when human cultures become power driven and chaotic. For the Titans, nothing is sacred except excess, immediate satisfaction of greed and being insatiable when it comes to power and dominance. Titans were also called the strainers, as their excess of hubris...

This episode of begins with the idea that the world we used to know is gone and we have not found a footing in the world that is trying to emerge. That leaves us in a state of uncertainty and in the midst of multiple levels of tragedy. In that sense, we are in a collective rite of passage that seeks to awaken the spirit of humanity and stir the creative depths of our souls. However, if we cannot s...

This episode of Living Myth begins with the idea that we keep finding ourselves in uncharted waters in terms of the future of the planet and in unmapped territories in terms of human culture. The increasing pressures and uncertainties in the outer world create an inner tension that can only be relieved through a change of awareness coming from within us.     In order to avoid overwhelm and find me...

Clearly, we are living in radical times when almost everything can be taken to the extreme. We find ourselves in uncharted waters when it comes to the future of the planet and in unmapped territories in terms of human culture. In the midst of great uncertainty any moment can lead us to feel anxious, isolated and abandoned.     Life must be lived forward, but often can only be understood in looking...

On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade discusses the inherent longing for redemption and how it can be experienced as a life-seeking process rather than an end-of-life event. He explores the archetypes of creation and apocalypse, reframing the latter as an expression of the dynamic of collapse and renewal. Part of renewal involves connecting to vertical imagination, that...

In this episode, Michael Meade tells an old story of someone who follows a dream that leads to being stripped down and stuck, before it unfolds a path to healing and wholeness. Bringing a dream to life means changing everything and change is most often accompanied by fear and resistance. Meade suggests that living a dream requires the courage to cross not only where others fear to go, but also to...

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...

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 tra...

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...

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 u...

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...

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 mean...

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.  ...

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 sta...