Myth Matters

Send Catherine a text Message "The spirit wanders, comes here now, now here, and occupies whatever frame it pleases. From beasts it passes into human bodies, and from our bodies into beasts, but never perishes." ---- Joseph Campbell Animals have a significant presence in our mythologies. The meanings we ascribe to them illuminates our uneasy relationship to our other-than-human companion...

Send Catherine a text Message Fables are probably the best known and most widely used stories in our mythological traditions. These are simple stories that frequently include animal characters. What is their appeal? Do they offer us more than a laugh? In this episode we make some leaps, from a fable about frogs to practical philosophy, to an angry goddess, an ancient Greek comedy, and the mytholog...

Send Catherine a text Message This is our second and final podcast in celebration of National Poetry month. I devote the April episodes to National Poetry month, to honor and recognize the shared origins of poetry, myth, and song.  I also want to share some of the power of poetry. A poem, like a song or a story, can evoke a deep and necessary sense of the rightness of things. In his work titled Th...

Send Catherine a text Message "Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."  -- Rumi In the last podcast, "A Terrible Love of War, A Culture of Peace," I talked about the need to build a culture and societies that are so satisfying and compelling that we are unwilling to sacrifice them or our precious lives to the destruction a...

Send Catherine a text Message In 2004, James Hillman published a difficult and though-provoking investigation of war titled A Terrible Love of War .  He writes: "I believe that we can never speak sensibly of peace or disarmament unless we enter into this love of war. Unless we enter into the martial state of soul, we cannot comprehend its pull [...] To know war we must enter its love. No psyc...

Send Catherine a text Message Nations. Sovereignty. War. Democracy. Citizenship. I. We.  Unconscious monotheism. Polytheistic consciousness.  Diversity. Complexity. Fluid myths. Culture building. Trickster. Multiple meanings. Art.  Some thoughts and two poems. Support the show Email Catherine at catherine@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherin...

Send Catherine a text Message “The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow, and there is no humor in heaven.”  ~ Mark Twain When we get stuck, when life hands us a challenging situation and there's no clear way out, our best tool is the ability to shift perspective. To see things from a different angle. Laughter can help us make such a shift.  So can a story.  The answer might not come i...

Send Catherine a text Message My jumping off point today is a story that's generating a lot of heated debate right now, the movie "Don't Look Up."  I'm going to make some references to this movie, but this podcast is not about it, per se. So, if you haven't seen the movie, no worries. And if you have, and are perhaps tired of or already feel deeply embroiled in the co...

Send Catherine a text Message “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.” ― C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul The creation and maintenance of a shadow aspect of the personal and collective psyche is an inevitable part of psychic life.  When consciousness and a sense of personal identity emerges, so does a shadow. Recognizing your...

Send Catherine a text Message Here we are, on the cusp on the new year, 2022.  Around the world, throughout history, this is a time to rest. To pause and take stock. To restore dreams of harmony. To hope. To begin again. In this episode, I offer a few thoughts on the ancient ritual of this sacred pause, the role of myth, and our need for "happily ever after." Thank you for listening and...

Send Catherine a text Message The cycle of material and psychic life is often encapsulated as life, death, and rebirth. This cycle is the mythological context of the solstice. But in her formulation of the ancient triple goddess, Marija Gimbutas writes of life, death and regeneration. Rebirth and regeneration are not quite the same, are they?  This is the starting point of this episode, which incl...

Send Catherine a text Message   Part 2 of "Iron John," a fairy tale popularized by Robert Bly, and a meditation on outer riches, inner rewards, self-worth, and the quest to own your gold. Support the show Email Catherine at catherine@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The words "this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours" have been part of my introduction for this podcast for years. In my experience, this is an accurate picture and yet the meaning and context for the descriptors: "wide," "beautiful," and "crazy,"--especially "crazy," ---has changed over time. Many things happen that...

Send Catherine a text Message A myth from the Aztec creation cycle, the mythology of bones, and what it might mean to be in service to life today. Support the show Email Catherine at catherine@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The Celtic story of Cerridwen and her cauldron calls to me as Halloween/Samhain approaches. She's a witch in search of a potion and yet, the tug of the story is deeper. Seasonal changes amplify the energies of betwixt and between that give rise to current challenges. This is a good time to examine your creative dreams.  What do you long to bring into the world? W...

Send Catherine a text Message Personal transformation.  Do we really want it?  What can inspire that deep change, and how far are we willing to go in courting those powers? Support the show Email Catherine at catherine@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "He is a young god. Mythologically obscure, always just arriving at some new place to disrupt the status quo, wearing the start of a smile." --from Ann Carson' translation "The Bakkhai" In the northern hemisphere we began our collective descent into winter's darkness, with the fall equinox on Wednesday September 22nd. This is a good time...

Send Catherine a text Message This episode is devoted to the Greek god Dionysus, whom Walter Otto aptly named “the epiphany god,” and his wife Ariadne. Dionysus was called “the Loosener” or lysios in Greek, the loosener of limbs and of minds. The Greek word lysios comes from "lysis," which means “setting free" or "unraveling.” I want to pick up this thread to reflect a bit more...

Send Catherine a text Message What does the mythic relationship between Dionysus and the Titans suggest about our titanism and titanic culture, and ways to mitigate the destructive influence of titanic fantasies? “Oh how lucky you are, how really lucky you are, if you know the gods from within…” Euripides, The Bacchae Support the show Email Catherine at catherine@mythicmojo.com Post a positive rev...

Send Catherine a text Message "Let Zeus, born in the open, awake to all under the sky, ever-watchful, ever-noticing, be exemplar for responding to all that the senses present with a richly elaborating imagination. Only well-shaped images fed by the senses can contain and differentiate our innate titanism." --James Hillman  In this episode we consider today's battle with the titanic,...

Send Catherine a text Message " I shall sing of Zeus, the best and greatest of the Gods; far-seeing, mighty, fulfiller of designs..." Homeric Hymn to Zeus Real change begins with a change in perspective. The old myths offer a valuable lens and means to make such a shift. They reveal the shared webs of meaning and images that are the source of ideologies, theologies, and other constructs....

Send Catherine a text Message Meaning is a very powerful thing. The meaning of something is intimately connected with the nature of the thing itself, whether that thing be an actual "thing" or an idea. The meaning of something is central to its appearance, identity, and significance. When you change the meaning of something, you change the truth of it.  You change the context. You may ch...

Send Catherine a text Message "I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, pass the wit of man to say what dream it was."  --Shakespeare, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" A few Celtic stories about encounters with fairies, to celebrate the solstice and midsummer, and to consider the need for healthy skepticism and making room for magic. "The Celt in all ages of...

Send Catherine a text Message The help that we need often comes from unexpected sources, if we have the wisdom to recognize them.  We're surrounded by helpers, teachers, and truth-tellers in the visible and invisible worlds, and yet it's easy to miss the advice and magical tools and get stuck.  We think that we know what's important. We place faith in illusions of power and control....

Send Catherine a text Message When the king is fatally ill and radical change is required, you need to make a journey down unfamiliar paths into the symbolic world of story, and find the water of life.   "The Water of Life," a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, provides some guidance about how this quest can be undertaken. What message does it hold for you right now? Support the...