This episode begins with the idea that all the troubles in the world at this time bring a great weight and pressure down upon, not just humanity as a whole, but also each individual soul. Since our souls are secretly tuned to the world, the widening divisions outside us tend to activate inner splits within us, specifically in the form of early life feelings of being abandoned, rejected and overwhelmed.

Fears of abandonment and overwhelm return each time we face great obstacles or the need to truly change, not because we are inherently bad or simply ill-fated. Rather, a genuine crisis will activate our early life experiences of rejection and loss in order that we find ways to heal our inner wounds and at the same time reveal our deepest gifts. Part of what seeks to become reclaimed as part of our natural inheritance used to be known as the child of joy, the source of natural buoyancy as well as inner resiliency.

Our innate connection to joy can be a meaningful antidote to the weight of the world and the increasing anxieties that entrap us. However, finding again this kind of soul connection requires that we work through the exact wounds that keep us from feeling fully alive to begin with. The problem turns out to be not simply that there was an original betrayal that leaves us wounded, but also that we keep betraying ourselves in the same way. Eventually, the issue is not simply who did what to us and why, but rather how we manage to stop abandoning ourselves each time we feel fearful, on the edge of overwhelm or stuck in life again.

Genuine change and renewal, on both individual and collective levels, require that we touch the original splits again and heal the wounds that separate us from the inner source of existence and the innate sense of joy that naturally attends the gift of life. For it is this soul connection and inner resilience that seeks to be found, that waits to be felt again and that wishes to be nourished, despite and because of the troubles that now plague the world.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for three online events: "Living with Awe, Joy and Gratitude", a free event on November 20 and "Your Genius is Calling", an in-depth workshop on December 6 and "In This Darkness Singing" a free Solstice ritual on December 20.

Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.

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.

As the world around us becomes increasingly divided into opposing forces, the tensions and conflicts within us also intensify. In psychological terms, the division most in need of being healed is the split between the ego or "little self" and the deeper, knowing self within us.

In fairy tales a golden ball often appears as a symbol of the inner unity and wholeness we felt, at least for a moment, as children. The old rule is that everyone has at least one experience of the presence of the deep self, typically felt as something golden within us.

This deeper self within knows why we are here on earth and what we are intended to do. Yet, the ego, with its fixed attitudes and pretensions of being at the center of life, stands in the way. At each turning point in life this golden self within tries to become more conscious as a source of grounding and centering, but also as a resource of genuine visions, big dreams and vital energies.

In a world filled with conflicts and great uncertainty, the guidance and centering power of the deeper self can save us from feeling anxious and overwhelmed. In order for both individual and collective awakening and meaningful change to occur, a deeper sense of self and soul must become more conscious and available to us.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for two online events: "Living with Awe, Joy and Gratitude", a free event on November 20 and "Your Genius is Calling", an in-depth workshop on December 6.

Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.

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 and find it meaningful, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen and sharing it with your community. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well and thank you for your support of our work.

This episode of Living Myth is about blindness, both individual and collective, and about the need for genuine visions and visionaries. Western culture, enthralled with the heroic and trapped in the limits of egotism, continues to turn a blind eye to the deeper sense of self and soul that alone can give a renewed sense of vision that can see beyond modern ideas that have come to threaten the future of the Earth.

As long as we see through the lens of the heroic ego, we are likely to remain stuck in the territory of the same old willfulness and predictable blindness that cannot see ways to arrive at a deeper ground of understanding or a greater way to envision the living world. As the philosopher and humanist Erasmus said: "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." As the naturalist and poet Thoreau once stated: "I would give all the wealth of the world and all the deeds of all the heroes for one genuine vision."

Genuine change requires that we open our inner eyes and see from a deeper place. For, the new shape of the world only comes into view and becomes conscious to us when a vision arises from the darkness around us and from the unseen depths of our own unconscious. It is this kind of transformative vision that breaks through the blindness that both binds and polarizes us.

Something ancient and knowing is trying to catch up to us. And if our souls can stand deeply enough in the river of time, we can receive lost truths and wisdom from the deep well of memory as well as visions of the mostly unseen future. This combination of imaginative vision and deep memory has been the ongoing source of vitality and renewal that visionaries, seers and wounded healers throughout time have drawn upon to give us our true bearings even when the world itself seems to have lost its way.

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for two online events: "Living with Awe, Joy and Gratitude", a free event on November 20 and "Awakening Genius, Living with Purpose", an in-depth workshop on December 6.

Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events.

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.