On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade turns to what many consider to be the oldest known story, the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. The ancient tale offers guidance for these critical times, not from the heroic battles or kingly powers of Gilgamesh, but from his later life search for spiritual renewal and the plant of immortality.
The primordial plant is described as “the thing that gives immortality” or as “the flower of life that renews vitality,” can only be found in the depths of the ocean. Thus, a great descent is required in order to find the roots of renewal and the touch of the eternal.
In critical times we all need a taste of that plant that might rejuvenate us and renew the spirit of our lives. Down, back and below us, the ocean of the unconscious holds the treasure of the deep self and soul, the source of our inner life and origin of our spiritual longings.
The soul knows that the full potential of life must be sought back at the beginning, down at the source, where the underlying unity of life waits to be found and be touched again. Our ancestors, going all the way back to before recorded time, found the sacred founts of renewal in forest pools, in the rivers and at the shores where the spirit of life waits to be found again and again. When we allow ourselves to be touched by the deep waters that came from the primordial beginning, time stops, life becomes holy again, and we become capable of wisdom that the old knowers knew.
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