Michael Meade - How To "Man Down": The Importance Of Myth And Descent For Men
ManTalks Podcast
Connor Beaton
4.8 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2024
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Talking points: masculinity, psychology, myth, Jung
Hot on the heels of the legendary John Lee, I interviewed another founding elder of men's work: Michael Meade. This is a powerful discussion focused on how essential "descent" is for men, and how it's almost completely disappeared from society in favor of endless, destructive growth and commodified "mastery". Powerful words from one of the wisest teachers out there, in my opinion.
(00:00:00) - The importance of descent in a man’s life
(00:11:51) - The signs of descent, and the role of technology
(00:22:28) - How the old worldview has collapsed, and the result is collective despair and grief
(00:29:39) - How do you deal with the feeling that things are ending?
(00:35:20) - The intersection of myth and AI; will they come together?
(00:41:29) - Where does the descent actually lead, and the symbolism of water and sword
(00:55:13) - How to “get the water”
Michael Meade, born and raised in New York City, is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic and fiery storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. His ability to tap into ancestral sources of wisdom to help people of today heal their communities has inspired thousands of people throughout the world. His unique translations of age-old myths and symbols into culturally relevant, everyday language earned him an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Michael is also the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation and author of The Genius Myth, The Water of Life, The World Behind the World, Fate and Destiny, and Why the World Doesn't End. He is co-editor of The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, and editor of the cross-cultural anthology on rites of passage: Crossroads: A Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage.
Connect with Michael:
-Podcast: Living Myth: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/podcast
-Website: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/
***
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Mentioned in this episode:
Self Worth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, Mr. Mead, welcome to the Man Talk Show. How are you doing today? |
| 0:10.9 | I'm good. It's good to be with you, Connor. Likewise. Thank you so much for joining me. I've been very much looking forward to this conversation. And so much so that I have been, I got a sauna recently and I've been listening to |
| 0:23.9 | re-listening to some of your work in the sauna, which has felt wonderful, just sort of like in |
| 0:29.1 | this sweat lodge environment, the drumming is going, the story is being told. Yeah, I'm like |
| 0:36.4 | holding, holding circle just with you on audio. But yeah, so let's, |
| 0:43.0 | let's start by talking about, I would love for you to sort of lay out what the role of dissent is |
| 0:49.0 | within a man's life, within a man's psychological and spiritual development. |
| 0:54.8 | Let's just sort of start there. |
| 0:56.2 | Are you saying dissent? |
| 0:57.8 | Yes, like descent going down. |
| 1:00.0 | All right. |
| 1:01.0 | So, well, it's a key thing. |
| 1:04.0 | And I think it goes back to rites of passage, |
| 1:08.5 | is really where you begin to see a cultural focus on the process of dissent. |
| 1:15.3 | And in rites of passage, there's three classic stages, the first of which is separation. |
| 1:21.3 | So we're talking about men, so an adolescent or post-adolescent boy would be separated from his family, his parents, from |
| 1:31.0 | everyone he knows, except possibly others of the same age that are going through it because |
| 1:37.2 | male initiations were group initiatives typically. And so the first move is separation, |
| 1:43.5 | but the next part of separation is descent. |
| 1:47.3 | And my understanding is the descent is necessary, appropriate, primary, because the soul is found |
| 1:57.9 | through descent. So one of the old distinctions between spirit and soul |
| 2:03.6 | is spirit rises like the air, |
... |
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