Myth Matters
Welcome to Myth Matters, a thought-provoking exploration of myth in contemporary life and the intersection of myth, creativity, and consciousness. Host Catherine Svehla PhD. shares her knowledge of mythology and depth psychology to find insight and explore possibilities. Member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation MythMaker℠ Podcast Network.Learn more at www.mythicmojo.com and keep the mystery in your life alive.
Disruption, creative edges, and the fairy tale "Tatterhood"
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The Norwegian fairy tale of "Tatterhood" begins as many stories do, with a kingdom that lacks something essential. Each of us lives in a fairy tale kingdom or two, in an orderly system of protocols and social rules that structure both outer and inner worlds.
The stability of the kingdom is important. And yet, the structure eventually outlives its usefulness. The old order stagnates, degrades, and loses meaning. The boundaries are too tight and the space feels too small. Because life = change.
Something new, something radical, is needed t...
2MM8 The King and the Corpse
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"We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars. "-- Jack Gilbert from "Tear it Down"
This episode revolves around a Hindu story, "The King and the Corpse," about a king who spends a long night with a talking corpse and realizes a profound truth.
This is one of my favorite stories, rich in metaphor, humor, riddles, and insight. I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll simply say that I've worked with this story several times and always find something useful, and I was compelled t...
Joy, courage, and the Tigress Jataka
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"Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. The warrior's approach is to say 'yes' to life: 'yea' to it all."-- Joseph Campbell
How do you stay engaged with the creative potential of this time? How can you participate to bring something positive, necessary, unprecedented, into our constantly evolving world?
These questions are in the forefront of my mind. I'm intrigued by Campbell's emphasis on joy, and the suggestion that joy is...
The Goose Girl and what matters most
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The end of a year and our seasonal holidays invite evaluation, reflection on what the future holds, and longing for some type of renewal. A fresh start. A clean slate. Restoration. A new green world.
The Grimm fairy tale "The Goose Girl at the Well" is not a holiday story and yet, the symbolic language of transformation and value, of what truly matters in a good life, speak to the concerns and longings of December. Like many fairy tales, characters in this story undergo transformation through encounters with enigmatic forces t...
Inner Emptiness: The Japanese story "The Golden Axe"
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“He who runs after two hares will catch neither.” Japanese proverb
Feelings of emptiness, lack, greed, dishonesty--- are any of us immune from this experience? The number of stories that revolve around this problem suggest a near universal need to meet this challenge.
We commonly associate greed with an insatiable need for more and more money, but one can be greedy for all types of things: food, love, power, attention, sex, status, books, time, even spiritual knowledge. This Japanese story is one that appears in similar forms in other...
Gifts from the Otherworld: The Adventure of Bran
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The existence and importance of other worlds populated by other beings, non-human beings, is consistent across mythological traditions. Today, the dominant culture has a difficult time accepting these stories and yet we continue to tell them.
We continue to need them.
In this episode, I share the Celtic story "The Adventure of Bran" and reflect on what stories like this might offer.
“And there seems never to have been an uncivilized tribe, a race, or nation of civilized men who have not had some form of beli...
Song of the Bricoleur: Rags Rosenberg
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"We are all taking everything that we've learned from the past, and we're reformulating what we want to do with that and how we want to live. And so, one of the ideas that's embedded in that, for me, is that when you're in this period of history, like we are now, with AI and with the digitization of everything and with the resurgence of a fascist movement, everything is up for grabs.
You know, anything can happen, and that's the whole point really, that we have agency in this m...
Not Knowing the Way: Rich Peter the Peddler and leaving home
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"Leaving home" is an interesting metaphor for the call to significant change. This episode is a reflection on intention, uncertainty, and how myths can help us listen to the soul and find clarity around the risks and purpose of the journey.
Thanks for listening and keep the mystery in your life alive...
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Leaving Home: Adventures of a trickster tailor
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In this episode, we take a look at the fairy tale "The Valiant Tailor" or the "The Brave Tailor," collected by the Brothers Grimm. Honestly, I almost dismissed this story as a bit too silly and I didn't like the tailor much at the outset.
But what you don't like about a story can be a good prod to look more closely...
The tailor's adventures opened reflections on trickster strategies, courage, and the power of imagination. All useful bits to put in your pocket when you're ready to l...
In the dark woods: what myths say about leaving home
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“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.”-- Joseph Campbell
In this episode we explore the mythic theme of leaving home as a central part of answering the call to transformation. Drawing from myths such as Inanna’s Descent, Valemon the White Bear King, Psyche and Eros, and The Odyssey, we reflect on the symbolic and literal meanings of “home,” and how leaving it often initiates deep personal change.
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Transformation and awakening: Dumuzi's Dream
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This is the last episode in a 4-part series on the Sumerian myth of Inanna: Dumuzi’s Dream and The Return. After Inanna ascends from the underworld, she chooses her lover-king Dumuzi as her replacement in the Great Below.
What happens to him? What meanings can we find in this action? Did the goddess betray her husband? Is this cruelty or compassion?
I hope you find value in Dumuzi's story and welcome your thoughts and comments-- feel free to share them with me.
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<...Greater Mysteries: Transformation, music, and the myth of Inanna with singer-composer Kelli Scarr
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Special episode with guest singer-composer Kelli Scarr!
Scarr released her new album Greater Mysteries, a musical journey through the spiraling cycle of transformation, last month. The Sumerian myth of Inanna is one of the touchstones in this beautiful work, and I'm grateful to Kelli for taking the time to talk with me about the making of the album, her engagement with Inanna, and our collective transformation.
"What I hope that this album does is brings solace and inspiration, and holds people's hands through their ears to say...
Inanna's descent to the Underworld, part 3 of 4
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She goes down
As we go down
We follow her underground
Hail to Inanna
Who died
To become born.
— Chant from the writer Starhawk and the Reclaiming Collective
This is episode #3 in a four-part series on the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna and the part of the story that contains her descent to the underworld. It's a fascinating story and a very old one, which tells us something important about this journey and the surrounding mysteries, and how they live in our imagination an...
Inanna and Dumuzi: The eros of the cosmos (part 2 of 4)
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“The Church says: the body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta.”
― Eduardo Galeano, from Walking Words
In this episode I tell the second part of Inanna's story, the courtship and marriage between Inanna and her honey man, the shepherd Dumuzi.
Ripe in every sense, Inanna engages in a passionate and symbolic union that celebrates physical desire, renews the life cycles of nature, an...
The Sumerian myth of Inanna: In the first days 1 of 4
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In the first days, in the very first days, everything needed was brought into being and the goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, took her place in the center of the Sumerian pantheon. This myth was recorded at the beginning of history and describes a pivotal time in human civilization.
We're reckoning with the developments of this time, today. Inanna's myth can help us find a place-- as individuals, communities, and countries-- in the transformation that's currently underway. This is the first in a four-part series.
Thanks f...
Joy and Poetry for National Poetry month
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"We need joy as we need air." Maya Angelou
Joy. Joy is my motivation, my desire and object in sharing some poetry with you in this episode. Joy---gladness, pleasure, delight, and rejoicing. Joy, a very precious freedom.
How can you, how can we, build our capacity for joy? The belief that suffering alone lends you depth and nobility seems pretty common, and I wonder about this. Is familiarity with hardship sufficient to grow in compassion and resilience? Or does joy expand our humanity and understanding of life as...
Finist the Bright Falcon: Baba Yaga, soul quests, and shamanic journeys
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The final episode in a three-part exploration of the mysterious Baba Yaga, a scary crone in Russian and Slavic fairy tales. Who or what is she?
The fairy tale "Finist the Bright Falcon" opens up some interesting possibilities.
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Initiation and Meeting the Baba Yaga
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The Baba Yaga is a complex and scary crone in East Slavic and Russian fairy tales. She's a face of the earth goddesses and the fierce wildness of nature.
Are some of us meeting the Baba Yaga right now?
There's a lot of chaos right now as institutions, laws, and norms of behavior that order our societies are attacked. Chaos that has a parallel in escalating natural disasters and other earth events.
Is this a collective initiation? What might we see if we understood this time as...
Fierce wildness and the Baba Yaga
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Welcome to episode one of the new (7th) season of Myth Matters!
A new year and a time of change. Is this, as some say, the time of the wise, elder woman, the time of the crone? The Baba Yaga is one face of this archetypal energy.
This episode is the first of two about the Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is a complex and multifaceted figure in Russian and East Slavic fairy tales. She's a scary crone with roots in the pre-Christian pagan goddesses that we now call "m...
Flying Together: The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud Din Attar
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“These lofty words are an antidote for anyone sickened by extremism’s poison.” Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Sholeh Wolpé
The Conference of the Birds is an epic poem from the 12th century written by Sufi poet Farid ud Din Attar. The poem tells the story of a group of birds and an arduous journey to find a mysterious king. Renowned for its depth and beauty, the Conference of the Birds is an allegorical teaching about the spiritual path to self-realization that offers insight into the communal nature of a solit...
Catastrophe: What myths show us about the way of the world
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Endings, loss, and uncertainty. Fears of a catastrophic future. Many of us are living with this right now or wondering how to. How to act. How to participate.
Perspective and guidance can be gleaned from myths and old stories. They are a poetic record of life in a world where catastrophe happens. A world in which people have at various times, felt that everything was falling apart or that the world might even end.
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Effort, Uncertainty, and Cerridwen's potion
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"It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope." –Ursula K. LeGuin
This episode revolves around the Welsh myth of Cerridwen and the Birth of Taliesin. I've worked with this story a number of times. It comes to mind this time of year because Cerridwen is both a goddess and a witch, and this story includes potions, cauldrons, shapeshifting, and poetry.
A different theme emerged for me this time in response to our collective uncertainty and questions about action, control, and faith.
Allegiance to the Inner Life: The. Nixie in the Millpond part 2 of 2
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“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”― Joseph Campbell
We began an exploration of some important questions in the last episode. Questions about our allegiance to the inner world and the concerns of our outer life in the material world, as the demands of these realms often seem to be in conflict with each other. How well do we understand the relative weight and power of these worlds? How they inform and enrich...
Allegiance to the Inner Life: The Nixie in the Mill Pond part 1 of 2
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To what do we owe greater allegiance, our outer life in the material world of human conventions, or our inner life and the requirements of soul? I explore this question through the lens of a fairy tale called "The Nixie in the Mill Pond," collected by the Brothers Grimm.
This is a big topic and a fascinating story with many twists and turns so I'm devoting to episodes to it. This is part 1.
" Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking.."
The Bricoleur
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How we imagine our lives is how we live our lives, and mythologies provide the images and ideas in this process. But images of the human in the dominant myths-- as sinner, dominator, or world destroyer-- aren't guiding us toward a bright future. What are the alternatives?
How about an ingenious, improvising jack-of-all-trades, the "bricoleur"?
There is no "Myth of the Bricoleur" as far as I know and yet, the bricoleur and the act of bricolage can be found in myths and stories around the world. And once...
Shifting Images of Human Being with Dr. Craig Chalquist
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How we imagine ourselves is how we'll be.
And where do we receive these images of the human? They're in our myths.
In this episode, I take a look at three images in the myths of the dominant culture that determine how many of us see ourselves and how we live: the sinner, the king of the animal kingdom, and the world destroyer/ parasite.
Are these images useful today? How do we find and live into alternatives?
I'm joined by the insightful Dr. Craig Ch...
Making creative choices in art and life: 3 fairy tale variations
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Sifting through options to make a decision is something that each of us has to do at some point. When our choice is part of a creative process in work or life, in the arts or our psychic terrain, it can be very difficult. Something new will come into the world. Some type of transformation will take place. We're deeply invested in the outcome and there may be consequences.
The dilemma posed by the need to make a choice is a common feature in the tests and tasks faced by...
Creativity: An Inner Alchemy of feathers and toads
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“We would do well… to think of the creative process as a living thing implanted in the human psyche.” --- C.G. Jung (1922) Collected Works 15
We often say that every person is inherently creative and yet doubts and fears of inadequacy are common. Many of us hesitate to make any claims to creativity and feel it is lacking in our lives, or question the value of our creative processes and the outcomes.
In this episode I offer a perspective on this dilemma with the aid of a fairy tale ca...
Myth and Images of Creativity (Beginning with the new Apple ad)
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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 i...
National Poetry Month: Humor and the unexpected turn
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"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 D...
Fate, free will, and 3 Swords
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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?
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The Bhagavad-Gita and yoga of awareness with Gabriella Nagy
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“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 emb...
Fee-fi-fo-fum: Outwitting the Ogres in Life
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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...
The Problem of the Return and the End of the Hero's Adventure
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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...
Answering the Call of 2024
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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...
Endings and Beginnings: Odin's Quest for Wisdom
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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.
...
Living your heart's desire: The Tale of the Doomed Prince
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"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?
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Beowulf and why we need Monsters
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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 t...
Mythic Sensibility: The Enchanted Cave of Cesh Corran
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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 s...
"Those Who Live Beneath Us": Sedna the Inuit Woman of the Sea
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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!<...
