August 17, 2022

Episode 140: SUMMER SERIES: Ian Mackenzie - Mythic Masculine

56 minutes

We've been taught to believe that myths are untrue, yet this indicates how atrophied our cultural mythic imagination is. As a result, myth has been relegated to consumer entertainment or dismissed as irrelevant to us vs. a potent way to more deeply understand ourselves in reciprocal relationships with others and the world.

Ours is a fact-based, linear, logical, and control-based culture that doesn't allow much room to follow the deep longing to know ourselves, and yet the longing persists and will continue to persist until we answer its call. Perhaps this time in our human evolution represents a heightened collective calling - can we answer it?

In this episode, Ian and I talk about where we are as a culture and Ian's hope for awakening men worldwide.

Ian became fascinated by the mythic masculine archetype when he initially learned more about the feminine through his film work.

Ian was estranged from his grandfather growing up, but he went with his uncle to clean out his grandfather's home and came across a stack of books after his death. On top was "Iron John" by Robert Bly, which piqued his curiosity.

When young men are not correctly initiated into adulthood and society, they become men at the mercy of their ego and are suspended as "boy-men" in our culture.

The Dominator Culture is a term coined by Riane Eisler, who wrote The Chalice and The Blade. Eisler positions the dominator model in contrast to the partnership model, a more egalitarian structure of society founded on mutual respect among its inhabitants. In dominator culture, men rule over women, whereas partnership culture values men and women equally.

An awakened archetypical mother is a mighty force in the world.

Women tend to enact violence against themselves and Men against others.

The narratives we often create are that the world is out to get us, that we need to conquer nature or anything threatening.

The medical establishment creates a narrative around "war" - such as terms like "frontline workers" or "losing the battle to cancer," and there is a consequence to thinking about nature in this way.

Our colonized view of the world keeps us from reciprocally engaging with life.

The solutions mind is a colonized mind.

Ian MacKenzie is a new paradigm artist who lives on the Salish Sea with his partner and young son. For over ten years, he's been tracking the global emergence of new cultures. From the desert of Burning Man to the heart of Occupy Wall St, he has sought and amplified the voices of visionaries, artists, and activists working toward planetary system change. He hosts The Mythic Masculine podcast and is the founder of A Gathering of Stories.