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On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade draws upon a story about the fall of the earth into darkness that is thousands of years old, yet strangely parallels and can help illuminate the worldwide crises that currently trouble all of our lives. Churning the Milk Ocean is a vast myth depicting how beauty, meaning and wisdom become drained from the world as all levels of life become more divided and chaotic.
The story focuses upon two important things that become lost and cause the earth to diminish and the world to grow dark. On one hand Lakshmi, the goddess of wisdom, beauty and abundance has disappeared from the earth. On the other hand, “amrit,” the eternal elixir and source of all healing has fallen to the bottom of the ocean of existence.
Churning the ocean is a surprising tale of lost and found on a cosmological scale, intended to remind us how the most important things can disappear, yet not be completely lost. It is an eternal drama in which only a strange cooperation between the opposing forces of dark and light can bring back the lost powers of creation and the medicine needed to sustain both nature and culture.
It's a grand tale about the struggle between the forces of dark and light at a cosmic level. It involves a pantheon of ancient gods and a horde of demons, as all levels of life become caught in a struggle to find again, and sustain, the balance of creation.
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