This episode considers the darkness and division which permeates so much of contemporary life through the lens of the liminal or betwixt and between stage of a traditional rite of passage.

 

We live betwixt and between a past world that is fast disappearing and a future that looks increasingly dark. When the outside world becomes full of darkness and uncertainty, the soul expects us to turn inward as we would in the soul-searching way of a vision quest.

 

When a society won't stop and face the darkness it has created; when a culture won't face up to its internal wounds and patterns of divisiveness, not only does it go blind to healing ways, but a distortion and diminishing of life itself occurs. We are in the dark phase of a collective rite of passage in which the meaning and the nobility of human life must be found and become known again.

 

In the dark times it is not the simple sense of civility that our souls long for; rather it is the older sense of “communitas” in which we see the deeper self in each other that we desperately need. Just as the spirit of hope must repeatedly be found in the depths of our souls, the lost sense of shared humanity must be retrieved from the darkness around us in order for age old wounds to be healed and meaningful visions of the future to arise.

 

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online workshop “Myth and Emergent Truth” on Saturday, June 11. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.  

 

You can save 30% on this workshop and further support the podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 415 episodes and 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.

 

Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth.

 

As always, we appreciate you leaving a review on wherever you listen to this podcast and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well during these challenging and uncertain times and we thank you for your support of our work.