Episode 438 - Heart Within the Heart

Living Myth

Michael Meade

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

4.9 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

As nature and culture rattle and old forms crumble, a crisis of imagination occurs and we are called to see the world with different eyes. Finding and following a genuine vision requires an open heart as well as an open mind. Thus, transforming our lives involves a genuine “change of heart.”

While the heart fosters feelings and love, the heart within the heart is also the seat of imagination and the place of wisdom. What was known as the “eye of the heart” sees with a kind of vision that opens to revelations about ourselves and the world. Yet, for the heart to open and the spirit of change to enter us, we must let go of our received ideas and restrictive attitudes.

Love is the divine spark in each heart, intended to illuminate the true path of our life. Such a path with heart reveals who we are in essence and how we are aimed. We are each intended to serve something greater than ourselves; when we serve in that way, we become truly whole-hearted. To be fully alive, growing the soul and incarnating spirit is the only thing that satisfies the longings seeded in the garden of the heart.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Living Myth podcast with Michael Mead,
0:15.0	where the shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective. As nature and culture rattle and old forms crumble,
0:24.6	a crisis of imagination occurs and we are called to see the world with different eyes.
0:30.6	On this episode, Mead looks at how finding and following a genuine vision
0:36.6	requires an open heart as well as an open mind.
0:41.3	Thus, transforming our lives involves a genuine change of heart. While the heart fosters feelings and love,
0:49.3	the heart within the heart is also the seat of imagination and the place of wisdom. What was known as the eye of the heart is also the seat of imagination and the place of wisdom.
0:55.0	What was known as the eye of the heart sees with a kind of vision that opens to revelations about ourselves and the world. These are the hard times, and they're not going to end soon.
1:21.8	And I guess it was that sense of the presence of tragedy, the increase of chaos, and the increase of fear and uncertainty
1:32.8	that made me think of the heart within the heart, which is an old imagination, that there's
1:40.2	a heart within the heart, that the physical organ of the heart has within it an
1:45.2	imaginal organ, a spiritual organ, a mythical heart inside us. And this is an idea known to cultures
1:53.8	around the world. And I'll describe some of that. In a sense, it's like a survey of the heart
1:59.7	within the heart and a tapping into the ideas
2:02.8	and images that people had about what's in the very depth of ourselves, and the very depth was
2:09.2	considered to be in the heart, and the heart was considered to be in the center, and in many
2:14.0	the ancient images of deities and so on, including mother goddesses, the heart would be center.
2:20.3	And in the ancient traditions of India, the heart is actually slightly to the right of center,
2:26.3	as if to imply that this is not simply the physical organ of the heart, this is the metaphysical organ of the heart,
2:32.8	that is centering and not to be confused simply with the biological organ.
2:38.0	And so I was raised in Catholic Church.
2:43.0	My mother was a devout Catholic and to her church was the mother.
	...

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