This episode is available to members of Living Myth Premium. Subscribe today and receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full Living Myth archives of over 600 episodes and a 30% discount on all online events, courses and audio/book titles.

This episode of Living Myth begins with the sense that “most stories about the future of the world have become fatalistic” and “some great confusion and mass forgetting has fallen like a shadow over the earth.” It then dives into the ancient waters of the soul in search of the source of deep memory and great imagination that was connected to Mnemosyne, once known as the Well of Rejuvenation and the Mother of the Muses.

As human beings, we live and we die in the context of the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it. At this critical time, both the future of the world and the sense of genuine humanity are in question. What we see and sense in the rise of authoritarianism and nihilism are symptoms of an underlying emptiness and a collective loss of soul.

As most stories about the future of the world become fatalistic, it as if some great confusion and mass forgetting has fallen like a shadow over the earth. This great forgetting happens exactly when we might hope for a recollection of what is most important about life. Yet, even as people feel lost and isolated in a world that increasingly makes no sense, the story we all find ourselves in is still being written.

We are living at the end of an era and experiencing the loss of a worldview, so that most common ways of viewing life on earth no longer hold. In that sense, the entire world seems to descend into darkness. This can be seen as a necessary descent, as something subtle and enduring about this world is trying to be remembered and it seems to take a lot of trouble and tragedy to awaken it.

The ancient Greek word for truth is Aletheia which turns out to mean “not to forget.” In other words, when truth and meaning have become hard to find something essential has been forgotten and it must be sought and found in the depths of our own souls. For, the human soul is ancient and immediate at the same time and it would have us remember how the world renews itself in the darkest times.

Surprisingly and ultimately, what stands against the threats of extremism, the delusions of conspiracy theories, and the emptiness of nihilism is the awakened individual soul. In the midst of all the confusion and the chaos, we must find a greater sense of self and soul, or else become more isolated, more divided and subject to increasing anxieties and feelings of helplessness.

The human soul is ancient and mythic by nature. It can hold views as opposite as chaos and creation, as contrary as hate and love, as exclusive as progress and collapse. And because of this deep knowing, the soul can survive all the lost dreams and tragic reversals that the times of chaos bring to the world.

Unlike the rational mind, the soul follows ancient patterns that include both loss and renewal, both catastrophic collapse and the redemptions that make life possible on earth. Even as things fall apart all around us, the soul imagines endless ways to hold body and spirit together. In the great drama of life on earth, the awakened human soul becomes the uniquely living quality needed to help tip the balance away from destruction and towards a re-creation and restoration of life.

In Greek myths, Mnemosyne was the goddess of the underworld river called the Stream of Remembrance. She was also known as the Well of Great Memory, the undying source of inspiration and rejuvenation. The English word remember comes from her name with ancient roots that mean to “piece it together again.” In mythic imagination there is the sense of a mysterious tide in the depths of our souls where we become reconnected to this inner source of great memory and inspiration through which life re-members and renews.

In critical times we are supposed to step past the limitations of the ego or “little self,” specifically so that we move closer to the stream of imagination and great memory that are the true inheritance of the human soul. For, our true life project involves recollecting and remembering parts of ourselves that have been repressed, rejected, or simply forgotten. In that sense, true remembrance and mindfulness involves awakening to the uniqueness of our own souls and recalling why we each came to life to begin with.

Mnemosyne was also the Mother of the Muses who bring endless inspiration to the human heart in the form of all the creative arts, but also in the kind of “musings” that bring us closer to the energies of rejuvenation and renewal. For, what we find when we reconnect to great memory are not simply elements of the past, but also the core elements of creativity, and the spontaneity that now seems so missing in life.

The old stories tell that when the muses sing, they tell of things that used to be, things that are now, and things that are about to be. In other words, they pull us into the mysterious river of time in which the past and the future become connected, and life can naturally begin to flow again.

When faced with a world that is falling apart, what we need is the deep memory of life’s origins combined with the kind of imagination needed to piece things back together again. When standing in the river of remembrance, things begin to spontaneously arise within us and come through us as genuine creative energies and core imaginations trying to bring renewal to our lives and therefore the world.

Seen from that viewpoint, every day is a moment of truth in which the ancient river of Mnemosyne tries to enter the world again, carrying ancient knowledge as well as the energy of creation and imagination. And we are called to respond, because the only way these things can enter the world is through those who are alive at a given time.

The poet Antonio Machado, speaking the truth of the Muses, wrote: "It is possible that while we were sleeping, the hand that sows the seeds of the stars, started the ancient music going again, like a note from a great harp, and the frail wave came to our lips, in the form of one or two honest words." When we allow that ancient flow to be present, we become agents of great memory and vessels through which the soul finds ways to rejuvenate us and renew this troubled world.

SUPPORT MOSAIC

Please consider a donation to Mosaic to support the podcast and help us continue our creative efforts to use myth, story and imagination to find ways to heal, renew and restore both culture and nature.

LIVING MYTH PREMIUM

LISTENER COMMENTS

“I cannot recommend this podcast more highly. It is true art/poetry/story medicine and an antidote for the divisive messages surrounding us.” 

"I'm so grateful to have found this podcast.  The way Michael Meade weaves myth and applies it to the current times we live in really helps me to navigate the challenges I've faced."

"The wisdom and deep perspective that flows through Michael Meade is medicine for me in these times of radical change and uncertainty."