In this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade considers how there are always two stories going on in life. The ongoing drama of what we call the world and the story of the individual soul trying to awaken to a life of meaning and purpose. The two stories are secretly related and become more intensely connected and dramatic during times of upheaval and radical change. When the way we have been taught to view life no longer explains the world in which we live, we are being called to awaken to a greater imagination and deeper understanding of the world around us.

In mythological terms, while one world is collapsing another is secretly forming and waiting to become known. And because we are involved in both stories, we become witnesses to the collapse and potential contributors to the renewal. That kind of imagination does not align with most modern science, which believes that entropy will simply drag us all down in the end anyway; nor does it fit with religious ideas that declare that the end might be near.

In times of chaos what we need to recall and better understand is that the mystery behind it all is the story of collapse and renewal. Mythological stories offer a framework for the essential and necessary process of re-creation. Just as a forest renews when the great trees fall and decompose before the next version can grow. Knowing about this process of collapse and renewal does not make experiencing it less painful or even less confusing. It does give us a mythic and imaginative framework that can help us cope with a world gone wrong, while also developing practices for assisting in the process of a rejuvenation and renewal of life on Earth.