Myth Matters

Send Catherine a text Message Apple's ad for the new iPad has evoked some very strong reactions, reactions that illuminate old links between image, metaphor, myth, and our collective notions about creativity and the creative process. The current cultural conversation is a good starting point for reflection on some commonly held images of creativity and the way these images shape our creative process and the value we place upon it. This is the first in a series of episodes that will explore the central importance of image and imagination in all of life. How we imagine our lives is how we live them. Thanks for listening and keep the mystery in your life alive... Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "Well, that's the trick: the sudden unexpectedness inside the over-known." --- Heather McHugh What type of mood does the word "poetry" evoke for you? Do you associate poetry with the profound and weighty? The concerns of the soul and the seriously sacred? I rarely look to poetry for a laugh and I wonder why, when there are many brilliant moments of humor to be found there. In celebration of National Poetry month, here are ten or so humorous poems from Roald Dahl, Billy Collins, Carol Ann Duffy, and others. I'm joined by poet and songwriter Rags Rosenberg, a longtime friend of Myth Matters who adds a few of his thoughts and poems to the mix. Thank you Rags! I hope you enjoy the episode and please share your favorite poems of the moment with me! Thanks for listening. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message Fate and free will, and the longing for purpose and prospect of destiny that hangs somewhere in-between. How do these forces shape our lives? Do we play assigned roles in a cosmic plan or make it all up as we go? These questions weave through many myths and stories. What answers do we find and how can we live with the questions? Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message “A yogi sees Me in all things and all things within Me.” Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad-Gita is an important Hindu teaching story embedded in the Mahabharata, an astonishing epic poem. Astonishing for its length- 100,000 verses-- and for its beauty. Astonishing for the complexity of the social and spiritual world constructed in the poem and the exploration of the moral dilemmas we face while attempting to live our lives correctly. In this episode, I take a look at the Bhagavad-Gita with the help of Gabriella Nagy, an embodied yoga instructor and yogic life skill guide. Gabriella has a deep love for this story and far more understanding of the text. I'm grateful for her guidance through some of the puzzles the Gita presents and hope our conversation aids your reflections. GABRIELLA NAGY is an embodied yoga instructor and yogic life skill guide who has practiced yoga and mindfulness since high school. She believes that yoga ultimately is the science of inner transformation and the first step is to purify our hearts so that we can see clearly. Her unique teaching approach which she calls “yoga of awareness” is named to honor the main yoga that Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita.Her classes support spiritual seekers longing to embrace yoga as a life skill and cultivate balance and strength on the mundane level as well as on the subtler realms. Gabriella lives on the sandy beach of Baja California, Mexico with her multimedia artist husband and their four-legged chihuahua children Merlin and Maya. You can find Gabriella at: www.yogaofawareness.com Instagram: @yoga.of.awareness Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message Last Monday, February 26th was Tell a Fairy Tale Day. I began preparation for this episode with the intention of telling you a fairy tale, perhaps one that was connected to the holiday. This process opened up reflection on the necessity of a well-developed imagination to meet life challenges in a creative and satisfying way, and the role fairy tales play in cultivating this capacity. In fairy tale language, some of these life challenges could be called "ogres," the people and forces that hoard the gold and will eat you up, take your life, if they can. Ogre is a pretty good metaphor for some of the challenges that we meet. And, of course, an ogre appears in the story in this episode. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message We have an ever- increasing wealth of myths and stories, fueled by new discoveries and ongoing mythmaking. There are also dominant myths and stories, and dominant ideas about myths and stories, that limit the usefulness of this inheritance and the possibilities we entertain. In the last episode, I turned to the Hero's Adventure, a mythic pattern articulated by Joseph Campbell, to reflect on some of the many ways that we can hear a call to a new life. A bigger life, a life of purpose. In this episode, I pick up the hero's adventure once again to consider the final phase of the process, what Campbell called "The Return." This final phase is essential to the image of a hero as a person who serves the community, and yet it rarely receives much attention. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message It's only January and 2024 already feels like a year of consequence. Crazy weather and climate change, war, elections, ideological, religious, and cultural conflicts, and Pluto's move into Aquarius, heralding a long underworld journey of transformation in our communities, social contracts, technology, idea of service, and visions of freedom. What role might mythology and myth-making play in the cultural and personal changes underway? Are our inherited narratives an obstacle to overcome or an aid in imagining the future? These are questions I take up in this episode as an opening meditation on endings and beginnings in 2024. Thanks for joining me in this reflection. I'd love to hear from you if this opening foray sparks thoughts in response. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The solstice will soon be upon us, followed by the arrival of a new year. A time of endings and beginnings. Reckoning. This passage through winter darkness here the in northern hemisphere leads me to Norse mythology and my fascination with the god Odin. Odin is a god who lives with the prophecy that his world will end and he will die. This is an unusual combination of themes, one that imbues Odin with an approachable humanness and sparks my curiosity about the quest for wisdom that defines him. Odin's efforts didn't prevent the end of his world. And yet I suspect the god felt his quest was worth the cost. Is there a parallel in my life? In yours? This could be a fruitful reflection as 2023 and Season 5 of Myth Matters come to a close. I hope you find something of value in the stories and many thanks for making Myth Matters part of your mythic journey. Warm wishes for a glorious holiday season and keep the mystery in your life alive. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "I am destined to die either by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog; it is the will of the gods. Then let me go forth and follow my heart's desire while I live.". 2023 is drawing to a close. "The Tale of the Doomed Prince," a fairy tale found in ancient Egyptian papyri from 1550 BCE or so, is an interesting companion to year end (year round?) reflections on what you're doing with your life. Are you following your heart's desire? Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The existence of monsters, alongside gods and goddesses, is a distinguishing feature of myths, fairy tales, and legends. Defeating a monster is often the test of the hero, the act that makes that individual a hero. And yet, life is full of challenges and dangers. There are plenty of opportunities for various forms of heroism in this everyday world and ordinary reality, right? Do we need monsters? Or, are monsters relics of an archaic world view, evidence of a time when people often misunderstood the world around them and feared the boogie man? Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The season around Halloween and Samhain is a liminal time when shadows grow and lengthen in the world and psyche. The old Celtic stories of poet warriors and fairies feel especially potent to me right now, so I'm dipping back into the collection Irish Fairy Tales by James Stephens for this story offering. "The Enchanted Cave of Cesh Corran" is rich in metaphor, humor, and insight, and also provides a launching point for reflection on the different types of interpretation we bring to myths and the nature of a mythic sensibility in these times. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message Sedna is the goddess mother of the sea, marine animals, and the underworld in the myths of the Inuit people, an indigenous Arctic culture. This episode is an exploration of variations on her origin story, and some of the questions and possibilities Sedna raises in this time of climate change and fundamentalism. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread.." ---from "The Song of Wandering Aengus" by W.B. Yeats The Salmon of Knowledge is a mythical creature in Irish folklore associated with poetry and knowledge of deep truths. Any person who ate a bit of the fish would become wise and know the essence of all things. Which leads one to wonder: what is the nature of this wisdom? The Story of Tuan Mac Cairill suggests an answer to this question. I love this story and hope you enjoy it too. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message “Dogs are our link to paradise.” -- Milan Kundera Sometimes a "little" detail in my day triggers thoughts about my mythic orientation and brings stories to mind. This episode began with a short news story about a dog. Which led me to a Jicarilla Apache creation myth and an Irish legend about Fionn MacCool. These stories remind us of the enduring bond between humans and dogs, and what they teach us about loyalty, empathy, and joy. How they help us be better humans. And love. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "I don’t think the meaning of life is what we’re seeking. I think it’s an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have residences within our own innermost being in reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive." -- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth The meaning of life isn't what we're seeking? Isn't meaning what makes life worthwhile, at least, or especially, from the perspective of a depth-psychological-mythologist? In this episode, I take up these questions and Campbell's claim with the aid some stories found in his book Myths To Live By. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message "Rationality and logic can be spiritual." -- Alan Lightman, Mr. g The antagonism between Western science and myth/religion has shaped human history and continues to obstruct the quest for a holistic understanding of existence. In Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell outlines the conflict and offers solutions to the modern dilemma. Science will provide new metaphors, he explains. I wonder about the reconciliation of science and religion and what forms this might this take. This led me to Mr. g, a novel by Alan Lightman. Lightman is a theoretical physicist who has served on the faculty at Harvard and MIT. In his novel he combines science, theology, and moral philosophy to tell a creation story that is mythic, if not technically a myth. Through the eyes of the cosmic creator Mr. g, we witness the birth of the universe and the wonders of scientific evolution, from galaxies and stars to the emergence of life on a small planet. I hope you enjoy this gloss of the book and are inspired to read it too. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The Babylonian Enuma Elish, also known as The Seven Tablets of Creation, is one of the oldest surviving creation myths. The story narrates the epic battle between the god Marduk and the primordial goddess Tiamat, which resulted in the creation of mankind and the establishment of an enduring order in heaven and on earth. No one alive today "believes" in this myth. The cuneiform tablets containing the poem were lost for centuries. Nevertheless, Marduk exerts considerable influence over the world-dominating cultures today. In this episode, I tell you the myth, provide some historical context, and consider the role it has--and might yet-- play in the ongoing creation of culture Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message How did all of this-- what we call reality, the universe, the earth, life, begin? What do you think? This question is a primary motivation for our ongoing myth-making. Despite all the tools and technologies, the origins of the cosmos, life, and human beings are still a mystery. In offering us an explanation of our creation, these myths offer a perspective on human nature, purpose, and social organization as well. Your inherited myths influence how you live and what you value, even if you spend little time consciously thinking about them. So, let's spend some time thinking about them. This episode is a brief survey of some creation myths from around the world that illuminate the variety and implications in the answers that humans have developed to answer the question of beginnings. Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message The proper way to be a father or mother, questions about who can father or mother, and what these parental roles mean are contentious topics, ripe for creative reflection and renewal. Myths about fathers and fatherhood contain images and meanings that shape society and family life. They're a key part of this cultural conversation. The fathers in myths and fairy tales exert influence over us whether or not we believe in them or know the specifics of the stories. In this episode, we take a look at the Christian God the Father, Zeus of the ancient Greek pantheon, Odin from Norse mythology, and a couple of fairy tales dads. Happy Father's Day! Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!

Send Catherine a text Message Our appreciation of mythology as a symbolic language is central to the contemporary relationship to myth. As people bound to a psychological view of the inner life, myth as metaphor is the key to understanding the old stories. And yet, myth is more than metaphor. The elements in a story, the specific animals, plants, and features of the land that are named in a given story, are more than artistic details. Investigation into the scientific as well as the mythic biography of these elements can result in discoveries that enhance your appreciation of the story and expand your original insights. In this episode, our exploration of the stinging nettles in "The Wild Swan" takes us further into the world of the story and a psychology of craft for today. "Working so slowly by hand is transformative, bringing up different conceptions of time and questions of what constitutes value." -- Dylan Howitt , filmmaker, "The Nettle Dress" Support the Show. Email Catherine at drcsvehla@mythicmojo.com Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!