Voices of Youth, Voices of Community
a short documentary that captures stories, poems, and songs from Mosaic's cutting edge Voices of Youth and Koures Symposium projects

Press the play button above to start the film.

Voices of Youth and the Koures Symposium are a series of projects that involve diverse youth in a variety of communities. Through the Voices process, youth become engaged in the creation of an artistic forum for their own expression while developing mentoring relationships within their communities. Themes of contemporary disorientation find unique expression through the writings and voices of local youth, offering insights into the root causes of youth violence, cynicism, and apathy. A narrative mix of old stories and youthful voices is then presented to the local community in an event that is part theater, part literature, and part celebration.

Hearing the acute perspectives of youth can significantly change the communitys perception of both local and national issues and inspire continuing conversations across the generation gap. Voices of Youth inspires and empowers local youth, fosters ongoing cross-generational dialogues and leads to the development of unique local forms of mentoring.
Read poems from recent Voices events
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Holding the Thread of Life
A Mentoring Retreat for Younger and Older Men
Michael Meade ~ Luis Rodriguez
Jack Kornfield ~ Orland Bishop
Mendocino, California ~ August 19-24, 2008
Mendocino Woodlands Camp, Mendocino, CA

Registration is now closed as the retreat is full. To be placed on the waiting list, please call the Mosaic office at 206-935-3665.
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Join storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade, social activist and poet Luis Rodriguez, meditation teacher Jack Kornfield, activist and community builder Orland Bishop and other teachers in an intensive retreat based in the living practices of many tribal, traditional, and contemporary perspectives.
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The essential relationship between youth, mentors, and elders can be seen as a "living institution;" one that becomes increasingly important as spiritual chaos and cultural confusions grow. Mentoring arises from mythic traditions; it traces roots back to nature's ways and draws upon animal intelligence. In a time when nature is threatened and culture seems about to unravel, "creative mentoring" provides both "natural" practices and knowing ways to survive and to contribute to a troubled world.

The "genius of mentoring" depends upon finding the thread of one's own story, on shedding old skins of the self and awakening to a deeper sense of meaning. Each person is mythic by nature, each a meaningful story trying to be lived in a world that often seems meaningless. A sense of story is needed to extract meaning from experience and reveal purposes hidden in the soul.
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Voices of Veterans
A Memorial Day
Ceremony for Veterans
May 26th, 2008 ~ Angus Bowmer Theatre, Ashland, OR

Read a recent article about the Memorial Day event from the Ashland Tidings newspaper:
"Veterans Share Experiences"

Mosaic wishes to announce a community centered welcome home program for veterans of foreign wars and their family members, in particular those from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Healing only happens where and when the burdens of war can be shared by the greater community. A public gathering allows citizens to become compassionate witnesses to the stories of war and the necessity of a conscious and genuine return.

A public Memorial Day Ceremony will bring together veterans and the community in an attempt to heal the distance between the warriors and those they protect and bridge the gaps between war and peace, trauma and renewal, pain and understanding. This conversation requires courage and is too-often avoided. It begins with tragedy and loss, the aftermath of any war, and requires the language of poetry, theater, and art as well as the dignity of ceremony.

A retreat prior to the ceremony will involve both men and women soldiers, and will focus on creating a "community of veterans," encouraging their expression and healing through storytelling, writing, and meditation. Families of soldiers are encouraged to attend. This preparatory part will be primarily facilitated by Michael Meade, a Vietnam era veteran, noted mythologist, author, and story-teller, along with veterans from other wars and experts in the field of trauma recovery.
Sponsored by The Welcome Home Project and Mosaic Multicultural Foundation
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Voices of Youth
Voices of Youth is a series of projects that involve diverse youth in a variety of communities. Through Voices, youth are engaged in the creation of an artistic forum for their own expression while developing mentoring relationships within their community.

Themes of contemporary disorientation find unique expression through the writings and voices of local youth, offering insights into the root causes of youth violence, cynicism and apathy. A narrative mix of old stories and youthful voices is then presented to the local community in an event that is part theater, part literature and part celebration.

Each presentation is followed by a discussion that includes families, teachers, community members and youth. Hearing the acute perspectives of youth can significantly change the community's perception of both local and national issues and inspire continuing conversations across the generation gap.

Voices of Youth inspires and empowers local youth, fosters ongoing cross-generational dialogues and leads to the development of unique local forms of mentoring.

Creative Mentoring
Rites of Passage
"Initiation introduces a 'second mother' in the form of Nature itself, with its great powers and inherent beauty, and reveals hidden aspects of one's inner nature as well. Where mother was once the 'natural' source of comfort, Nature becomes the source of all medicines, the natural pharmacopoeia that secretly holds an antidote for each poison in the world. Initiatory exposure to the forces of nature helps to draw out innate qualities formerly hidden in the individual soul."
from The Water of Life by Michael Meade

Whereas rites of passage used to provide occasions for generations to connect, modern cultures generate gaps instead. Generation gaps, gender gaps, even leadership gaps become more pronounced because events intended to open the hearts and minds of people go unexamined and unmarked.
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"Mythic imagination is a primordial resource of the human heart that combines heart-felt intelligence with a reverence for life in its myriad forms. When times become tragic and dark with uncertainty, what is missing is the touch of eternity and a mythic sense of being woven within the ongoing story of the world."
from The Water of Life
by Michael Meade

Dear Friends,

During the past year, Mosaic staff and community mentors have engaged more than 1,250 young people in 14 different communities. The heart-felt expressions of the young speakers and writers in each unique Voices of Youth presentation reached over 2,300 community members who came out to support and bless their youthful efforts and aspirations.

While working with young people caught up in street violence and bloody battles that control many inner city streets, the comparison with the "block by block" war in Iraq sometimes came up. Clearly, there are many differences. Yet there are also moments when it seems to be all one battlefield and the casualties are simply young souls and devastated families.

We have seen, in the same room, the living anguish of recent veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the numbing despair of youth made unwilling veterans of street wars at home by the age of fifteen. A young soldier back from Iraq stands with one foot still anchored in a distant village and shakes with anguish, his eyes staring at a bullet-ridden house. He is unable to clear the rubble inside himself or settle the questions that tear the soul after such battles.

Suddenly, he is joined by a youth from the "ghetto" who feels compelled to unburden himself of the effects of violence and the litany of friends lost to the mindless wars of the street. The list is too long for one so young and too relentless for any sympathy to relieve it. The two "veterans" stand, together and apart, each with one foot reaching for a ground of welcoming, both with knees seeming to bend towards some earth of forgiveness.

To me, they also stand for a greater and greater number of youth who suffer some "homelessness" whether it be a struggle to return from distant battlefields or the daily, felt-sense that the "homeland" has no real place for them.

During another event, as local girls and boys bravely expressed the pains and confusions of their young lives, someone rushed to the stage with the news that a local youth had just been shot in the street, right nearby. Before the presentation could conclude, the wounded boy had died and the intended celebration turned into another funeral. Once again, a child of the community would receive more attention in the arms of death than he ever gathered from the bosom of life. Once again, the celebration of young lives had to accommodate the solemnity of a death come too soon. The poems were all read, the statements all made, but the audience did not depart. A sudden "wake" was underway. There was nothing to do but make a funeral on the spot and honor the dead before turning back to the struggles of life.

In these difficult times, we wish safety to you and yours and ask you to support Mosaic's ongoing work of weaving mythic imagination with vital outreach projects such as: Voices of Youth, The Koures Symposium, Poetics of Peace, and The Welcome Home Project which seeks to aid veterans in ending the battles within and finding ways to reach home again.

Your contributions are greatly appreciated and used with care. In addition, all purchases from the Mosaic Bookstore for personal use or for gifts also support these projects of cultural healing.

Thank you for your interest in cultural change and the work you do in your community.

Peace and blessings,

Michael J Meade
Founder / Director Mosaic Multicultural Foundation
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AVAILABLE NOW. ORDER A COPY TODAY.

The World Behind the World
Living at the Ends of Time
THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW BOOK FROM
MICHAEL MEADE

Michael Meade is one of the few people who provides a mythological view of critical issues affecting the world at this time. In The World Behind the World, Meade weaves a tapestry of mythic tales and cogent commentary that truly inspires and offers a "mythic inoculation" in times of great uncertainty. As nature rattles and culture unravels, mythic imagination tries to return to the world, for endings and beginnings are particularly mythic. When "the End" seems near, how people imagine the world becomes more important; how people imagine humanity becomes of the utmost importance. Meade shows how "myth makes meaning" and helps a person find the meaningful path through life. He mines a series of "re-creation" stories in which the earth renews itself just when all seems lost. When it appears that there's no time left, it isn't time that people need, but the touch of the eternal.

While explaining how culture renews itself from the dreams of youth and the visions of elders, Meade introduces the concept of becoming ancient again by connecting to the eternal youth and the old soul within. At one level, The World Behind the World is a guide for living at the ends of time. At another level, it's an introduction to "living myth" and it involves a re-imagination of culture at all levels.

"Michael Meade is a master-storyteller and story-teacher of the soul's unfolding. He addresses the mess we're in and helps us each discover the unique threads, the poetic DNA we must live out. As interpreter and mythic guide, he is the best there is."
     ~ Coleman Barks ~ Rumi: Bridge to the Soul

"As a teacher and mythologist, Michael Meade is genius let out of the bottle. The World Behind the World is his strong medicine for hard times, an elixir of amazing stories, rich ideas, heart-breaking truth, and brilliant seeds of wisdom for remaking the world."
      ~ Jack Kornfield ~ The Wise Heart

"A master-storyteller reminds us that the world is an endless tapestry of wonder and woe that is constantly being 're-storied' on the loom of imagination, and replanted in the seeds of memory. Michael Meade re-enchants us back into the The World Behind the World where all the mysteries co-exist. Undeniably, a relevant, brilliant and original book!"
      ~ Angeles Arrien ~ The Second Half of Life



OrderThe World Behind the World
Read an excerpt

*NEW FROM MOSAIC AUDIO*
The Ends of Time, the Roots
of Eternity
Tales of Myth,
Nature, & Culture
with author, mythologist and storyteller
Michael Meade

The modern world suffers from "double exposure" as culture and nature, the "two great garments of life," seem to unravel at the same time. Culture no longer protects against growing threats of global terror and societal greed, while Nature becomes increasingly endangered through holes in the ozone and the effects of global warming.

Science and religion seem to arrive at similar conclusions as statistics and scriptures each predict the "end of the world." Is it the end of all time or a time of many endings seeking the vital ground of renewal?

In this dynamic recording mythologist Michael Meade shows that when all sense is lost and all seems headed for destruction, it is "mythic sense" that is missing and mythic imagination that is needed. Not a particular myth, but stories and "earthly wisdom" that reunite culture with great Nature where the pattern of birth, death, and renewal prevails. Rather than the literal call for people to "save the planet," Meade suggests the issue is finding the lost connections to the living Soul of the World and the Tree of Life at the center of all spiritual paths.

Mosaic Audio
Three Compact Discs

Listen to an excerpt about the "Double Exposure" of nature and culture from The Ends of Time, the Roots of Eternity:

Listen to Michael Meade tell the story of Icanchu's Drum, a re-creation story in which the world suffers dissolution and renews from the ashes of the tree of life, also called The Medicine Tree. Following an old idea we find that each person carries medicine in their heart and can contribute to the renewal of nature and re-imagination of culture.

Purchase from Mosaic's Online Store

Listen to a related interview with Michael Meade from New Dimensions Radio:

The Water of Life
Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul
NEW AND REVISED EDITION

with author, mythologist and storyteller
Michael Meade

Mosaic is delighted to announce a new edition of The Water of Life, a re-visioning and refining of an already classic text.

Starting with a new preface that describes the dual nightmare of global terror and global warming, Meade addresses the connection between meaning and purpose in personal life and returning culture to its mythic context.

At once a mythic journey, a study in depth psychology, and a treatise on initiation The Water of Life addresses the roots of conflict, the recurring hunger for war and the issues of "reducing the warrior." Throughout the text the water of life functions as the core symbol for both personal and cultural renewal, and redemption of the spiritual wasteland.

Using ideas gleaned from many years working with youth and communities at-risk Meade's writing rings with the echoes of truth and "sings with an incantational voice that takes you right to the edge of elemental knowledge."

"Meade writes quite brilliantly about initiation, ordeal and the importance of scars and wounds. He is a master of the mode" - New York Times Book Review

"Meade insists on grounding the high-flying abstractions of myth in the 'bones-laid-bare' realities of the street." - San Francisco Chronicle

Major Themes Include: Initiation and the nobility of the soul "The awakening of youth and the making of elders "The Firebird and the impassioned heart "The sword between fathers and sons "Mother and Great Mother "Mentors and mythical helpers "Breaking the family spells "Gifts and wounds
Purchase from Mosaic's Online Store

Holding the
Thread of Life
A Human Response to the Unraveling of the World

with author, mythologist and storyteller
Michael Meade

Coining the term "Slow Apocalypse," Meade describes contemporary life as a complex of radical endings and potential renewals. At root, apocalypse means "to reveal" or "to lift the veil," and Meade boldly looks behind the scenes, through the smoke screens, and lifts the veils of modern culture to reveal that elements of purpose and meaning are also trying to break into awareness. Drawing a relationship between fear and beauty, Meade shows how the world-wide loss of meaning and authenticity underlies the growth of fear and terror. Even as greater global dangers become "uncovered," ancient and forgotten knowledge waits to be re-discovered.

From the Native American myth The Old Woman Who Weaves the World comes the idea that the "right trouble" is an antidote to perfectionism, and a "necessary chaos" that precedes the renewal of the world. In the story of Eisik's Dream the notion of the Three Kinds of People explains the increasing importance of following one's dream and awakening to the purpose of one's own life.

Themes include: The Return of Meaning " Radical Effects of Economic Disparity " U.N. Report on: All the Troubles in the World " The Black Dog of Chaos " The Golden Thread of Life " The True Jerusalem " What Makes an Elder

Listeners exclaim: "A gift beyond measure, valuable not only to me personally, but to the world."
"A work of generosity and fierce dancing engagement."
"Challenging and full of surprises that connect breaking news with mythic insights."
Purchase from Mosaic's Online Store

Branches of Mentoring
with author, mythologist and storyteller
Michael Meade

Mentoring involves stories longing to be heard and waiting to be told. For, mentoring offers an essential way in which the story of culture is fashioned, learned, and recreated. The word "mentor" refers to guidance and lived knowledge. Mentor first appears in an old myth guiding youth through inspired ideas and offering skills of survival. Mentoring evokes the genius in a person, develops gifts, and helps heal both personal and cultural wounds.

Using the surprising "Story of the Half-Boy," Meade shows how easily a culture disintegrates into a "Half-Village" that rejects its youth and forgets its elders. The pathway back to making a whole village requires the recovery of dreams deferred, the sharing of "lived wisdom," and a return to the "dance of life."

While mentoring naturally involves the youth of a community, it also becomes the basis for re-imagining meaningful roles for elders. Through Branches of Mentoring people can discover and clarify what they have to offer in the way of teaching, guiding, and mentoring others. This lively presentation directly benefits mentors, teachers, parents, artists, social activists, and all those who work with youth and value community.

Themes Include: Origins of Mentoring; Planting Seeds; Embodied Knowledge; Mentoring as Natural and Instinctive; Dreams Deferred; Genius to Genius Mentoring; Red Fog, White Fog; Authentic Moments

Mosaic Audio
Two Compact Discs
Purchase from Mosaic's Online Store