Episode 286 - The Womb of Life

This episode of Living Myth begins with the recent Supreme Court decision to take away the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices. The current insistence on extreme abortion bans and restriction of human rights, not only favors one religious viewpoint over many others, it also misrepresents the origins and history of abortion and reproductive rights.   Michael Meade traces the issues of abortion, “personhood” and women’s right to choose back to ancient ideas of “ensoulment in the womb” and the surprising roots of religious thought and practices in early Judaism and Christianity.   Since ancient times the core mystery of life has been symbolized as the womb of the cosmos or of mother Earth, that is also embodied by each woman. We have all been born into the mystery known throughout time as “birth, death and rebirth” or as “life, death and renewal.” Despite the narrowing of minds, the hardening of hearts and the harrowing of wombs that some insist upon, life remains a mystery that does not seek to be simply defined or controlled or be reduced to fixed dogmas or intrusive laws.   As the poet Goethe once wrote, "so long as you have not experienced this, to die and so to grow, you are just a guest on this dark earth." This is not the time to allow those who would take away the rights of others and presume to judge for everyone to make decisions about life and death for the rest of us.   Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his new online series “Finding Stories to Live With” that begins on July 21.   Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.     You can save 30% on this series 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 425 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.   Learn more and join this growing 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 this challenging and uncertain times and thank you for your support of our work.