Welcome to the Living Myth Podcast with Michael Mead, where this shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective.

On this episode, Mead tells an old story from India about the creation of the world.

In it, an ancient sage named Marcandea is caught in the tension between creation and

wonder, despair and loss.

His existential crisis speaks to the world we live in now, with its increasing levels of fear and despair.

Addressing the two great fears, fear of abandonment, and the fear of being overwhelmed,

Meade talks about how easily we can get lost in despair if we don't know there is something essential

in the ground of our being. I'm going to tell like a myth and the problem with a myth typically speaking is that they

don't seem terribly personal at first.

They're like the big schematic archetypal narrations

in which everything can fit,

and it can be hard to find yourself in it.

So we'll just see how it goes.

The other thing that's different between a myth and a fairy tale or a folk tale

is that a myth usually names the divine.

And you'll see that in this story.

This is a story from India. the So people say once upon a time and yet it can't exactly be upon a time.

But people also say time had to begin at some point.

And some people say that it began way back when Vishnu, the God Vishnu, was sleeping on the back of the eternal serpent Ananta, and Ananta was coiled on the surface of the eternal sea and while

sleeping they say Vishnu began to dream up the world. That is to say, the earth began to form

and forests and trees and rivers began to run and the mountains began to take their stance in the sun and

everything began to grow and show its beauty and its promise.

...