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 considers how, as the world rattles around us and the soul

trembles, balancing symbols and archetypal energies stir deep within us. If we can hold

the tension of the immediate limitations, we can connect to the soul's power of redemption and

life's natural energies of renewal.

Architects like instincts are part of our inner inheritance.

They hold all the potentials of life and can initiate creative responses to the challenges and dilemmas we face.

The archetype of creativity connects us with the deepest roots of humanity

and the ancient roots of renewal.

The emergence of imagination and inspiration from within

is a revelation of our undaunted soul

and a little redemption as each act of creativity brings something new and meaningful

into the world. The longing for redemption is innate. It's natural to everyone, and it's irresistible,

and it's part of almost everything that happens. So people look for redemption and religion, of course,

but also in politics, in the arts, in the sciences, and of course in myth and stories.

But redemption has come to mean something different because of how it's been used by the great

religions, the monotheistic religions.

And so in a sense, we have to redeem redemption in order to benefit from it.

And so the old idea, or the idea that's in the monotheistic religions, is that you follow all

the rules and all the doctrines, and at the end, after you die,

you're redeemed in the other world. But there was an old idea that people also had that said

it's important to read the small print, and in a small print it says, you only find in the other world

...