Episode 466 - Bringing Back the Light

Living Myth

Michael Meade

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode of Living Myth begins with a review of how cosmology used to refer to all of the ways that humans could imagine the creation of the world and the subtle connections of the human soul to the living cosmos. "As above, so below" is the ancient mantra that places humankind in the middle of the cosmic story as an essential link in the chain of being. As individuals we may properly feel frail and small; yet we belong to more than one dimension of life. And the dark time of the year is the traditional time to recall the interconnection between each of our souls and the starry universe around us.

The word solstice means the "sun stands still" and ancient people imagined that the extremes of darkness harbored a timeless moment of stillness as the sun seems to stop just in time before the gloom becomes too great to recover from. Traditional cultures all over the world imagined that the midwinter sun needed conscious help from human beings in order to turn things around and bring back the light.

These are not simply the dark days of winter; but the dark times for everyone; especially for those who truly care for the souls of other people, and for the well-being of the sacred earth we all live upon. Even as we can feel more physically separated from each other, and just when we can feel even more frail and small in the face of all the worldwide troubles we face, there may be no better time to light a candle, make a prayer, find a song to sing in the midst of the darkness, in order to help bring the light back.

In facing the darkness together in a spiritual sense and in the ancient way, we can also find again and realign with the divine spark of life we each carry. For the soul has its own inner light and each soul is secretly connected to the song of the earth, to the Soul of the World, and to the indelible spark of life and light that can only be found in the darkest hours and the darkest times.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining his free online Solstice ritual "In This Darkness Singing" on Saturday, December 20.

You can further support this podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 725 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.

Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth

If you enjoy this podcast, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well and thank you for your support of our work.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Living Myth podcast with Michael Mead, where this shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective.
0:21.6	This episode begins with a review of how cosmology used to refer to all the ways
0:27.6	that humans could imagine the creation of the world and the subtle connections of the human
0:32.6	soul to the living cosmos. The dark time of the year is the traditional time to recall the
0:40.0	interconnection between each of our souls and the starry universe around us. The word
0:46.3	solstice means the sun stands still, and ancient people imagined that the extremes
0:52.5	of darkness harbored a timeless moment of stillness
0:56.0	as the sun seems to stop just in time before the gloom becomes too great to recover from.
1:02.0	Traditional cultures all over the world imagined that the midwinter sun needed conscious help from human beings
1:09.0	in order to turn things around and bring back the light.
1:13.6	Cosmology is one of those words like mythology
1:28.9	that has become misunderstood but also has become diminished.
1:37.0	Mythology, which in common usage now, tends to mean something false, used to mean something closer to emergent truth.
1:51.4	Myths used to be an essential way that people could connect to the archetypal energies underlying life
2:00.7	and to the universal truths that give life meaning.
2:06.1	In losing our connection to myth,
2:09.4	we've lost much of the meaning and coherence of life.
2:15.0	A similar disconnect has happened in terms of cosmology, which leads many people into feeling
2:23.9	lost in the midst of an accidental and pointless universe.
2:30.2	The felt sense of this became more clear to me a number of years ago when I happened to be
2:38.1	driving from one place to another and tuned in a national public radio station, which was
2:45.6	just announcing that that evening there would be a lecture, a recorded lecture, on the subject of cosmology.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Meade, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Meade and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.