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In this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade considers the familiar notion of paradigm shifts as inadequate for envisioning ways to deal with the worldwide crises we all face. Paradigm is an old Greek word that refers to a “pattern or model” and the common usage of paradigm shift involves replacing an old pattern or model with a newer and therefore better one.
What began as a theory of how scientific revolutions occur has for the past fifty years been applied to everything from social movements and business plans, to education, ecology and beyond. What has typically been overlooked is that the inspiration for the theory paradigm shifts came from psychological studies of growth spurts in children.
Meade turns the consideration of cultural change back to depth psychology and mythology where another old Greek word can bring a greater sense of imagination to modern crises. Archetype, like paradigm, refers to patterns and models. However, archetypes are the original patterns from which all subsequent models derive; as such they can have a powerful effect on human thinking, beliefs and behaviors.
Whereas the sense of a paradigm shift would simply have the old be replaced with the new, the deeper sense of archetype involves new patterns arising from the ancient and original sources of creation. When activated, archetypes connect the ancient and universal forces of life with the immediate issues of the world. When transformation is needed at all levels of nature and culture, it is time to tap back into the endless potential of the origins of life in order to truly change things going forward.
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