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On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade turns to ancient stories of the Titans in order to understand all the tragic events and extreme behaviors that keep making the world a darker and more dangerous place.

There are times when myth and fact coincide, when events in the common world become mythical in shape and scope. In such radical times, myths can offer ways of understanding what otherwise appears as completely unprecedented events and impossible dilemmas. In mythological terms, we are facing the end of an era during which everything can seem to collapse back into chaos and darkness before a regeneration of the dream of life can occur.

In some Greek myths, the Titans appear as primordial, pre-cultural giants who act out the extremes of insolence and arrogance, vengeance and wanton violence. They were called “the strainers” as they were full of hubris and strained to be like the gods. Before civilization could develop, the Titans had to be pushed down and be held in Tartarus, the deepest darkest part of the underworld.

However, it turns out that while the archaic energies and raw emotions can be suppressed, they cannot be completely eradicated. When the dark times come around again and people feel under great pressure, the deeply repressed energies, emotions, and forces can erupt back into life. As the web of life loosens and meaning and trust drain from cultural institutions, unconscious energies from deep in the human psyche can become loosed upon the world. Extreme beliefs and raw emotions can infect and inflate both individuals and groups as unconscious forces lead to extreme and inhumane behaviors.

All around the world, we can see these kinds of energies manifesting in the form of extreme political parties that act with the fervor of religious zealots. And in the rise of authoritarian figures who, in their hubris, insist that everyone must follow and be loyal to them while they, like the ancient Titans, break all the rules and follow no natural order. Having no genuine conscience and no inherent meaning of their own, they can only destroy whatever carries meaning for other people.

The rapid spread of all kinds of conspiracy theories, the increase in acts of hatred and violence can also be seen to involve an uncovering and release of the deep shadows that grow beneath the shiny surface of mass cultures.

The counterbalance to collective forms of extremism and tragic acts of inhumanity must be found, first of all, in the awakening of the individual soul to a greater sense of the underlying wholeness and inherent meaning of life on Earth.

Just as the earth continually renews itself from its own deep resources, each person harbors hidden resources that try to awaken in the darkest times. In awakening to the presence of the deep unifying self and the ancient wisdom of the soul we become more able to shift the darkness and assist the return of the original dream of life on earth.

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