Episode 405 - The Symptoms We Suffer, The Symbols We Need

Living Myth

Michael Meade

Transformation, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Genius, Education, Myth, Soul, Culture

4.9 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is about the need for living symbols that can give us a sense of unity and wholeness in a divided world. Symptom is an old Greek word that refers to something that “falls upon us or strikes us” in a way that wounds us or divides us against ourself. At this critical time on Earth, almost anything can suddenly become symptomatic and leave us more personally wounded and more collectively divided.

The word symbol derives from Greek roots, meaning “to throw together or bring things together.” A genuine symbol unites unlike or opposite things in a way that reveals the underlying unity of life, but also reveals other levels of reality. When most levels of Nature and culture simultaneously manifest disruptive symptoms, we have a greater need for symbols that can remind us of the origins of life, which are always nearby and able to be tapped for the energies of healing and renewal.

The antidote for the isolation and dissociation that has become so characteristic of modern life lies in finding again the ancient wellsprings of human imagination and the personal thread to the underlying continuity of all of life. In this old way of imagining and thinking, an endless story unfolds from the core of creation, and a living thread of imagination is woven within the heart that connects each of us to that unfolding story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Living Myth Podcast with Michael Mead, where this shifting, changing world is looked at from a
0:16.7	mythic perspective.
0:19.4	This episode is about the need for living symbols that can give us a sense of unity and
0:23.9	wholeness in a divided world.
0:26.5	Symbol is an old Greek word that refers to something that falls upon us or strikes
0:31.6	us in a way that wounds us or divides us against ourself.
0:37.1	The word symbol derives from Greek roots meaning to throw together or bring things together.
0:43.0	A genuine symbol unites unlike or opposite things
0:47.0	in a way that reveals the underlying unity of life,
0:51.0	but also reveals other levels of reality.
0:55.0	When most levels of nature and culture simultaneously manifest disruptive symptoms, we have a greater
1:00.6	need for symbols that can remind us of the origins of life,
1:05.3	which are always nearby, and able to be tapped for the energies of healing and renewal. Symptum is an old Greek word that refers to something that falls upon us or strikes us in a way that wounds us or divides us against
1:38.0	ourselves.
1:40.0	To be alive at this critical time on Earth means to experience a great sense of vulnerability
1:47.5	as almost anything can suddenly become symptomatic and leave us more personally wounded and more collectively divided.
1:59.1	The word symbol derives from Greek roots, meaning to throw together or bring things together.
2:07.0	A living or functioning symbol makes a wholeness out of things that otherwise are considered to be disparate or opposed.
2:19.0	A genuine symbol does not simply point like a sign does to another aspect of reality.
2:28.0	Rather, a symbol unites unlike or even opposite things in a way that reveals the underlying unity of life,
2:38.0	but also reveals other levels of reality.
2:44.3	What we could call living symbols
	...

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