Last Sunday, I was joined by renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology, Michael Meade, for “The World is in Trouble and Needs Your Genius.”
Michael is one of the founding figures of the men’s movement along with Robert Bly, Sam Keen, and Bill Kauth (The Mankind Project). He co-edited a best-selling anthology of the poetry of passage, “The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart,” with Bly and the great Jungian psychotherapist and writer, James Hillman. He is the author of “Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul,” “Why the World Doesn’t End,” and his latest book, “The Genius Myth.” He founded Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artists, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples. He also works with at-risk youth and during our conversation, he shared stories of these encounters, often placing them in the context of myth and rites of passage.
Michael has a grounded, masculine ability to communicate with soul-level authority. I am often deeply affected by his capacity to speak the truth and tell stories in ways that awaken insight, touch my soul, and move my heart. His stories humble the pride of the thinking mind, transmitting the broken-open disposition in which wisdom becomes possible.
I invited him to have this public conversation because for years he’s been engaging the big questions I ask on “Beyond Awakening.” Some of these questions are reflected in the below excerpts from “The Genius Myth”:
-The answers to the overwhelming problems and daunting global issues we all face cannot simply come from the limited consciousness of abstract reasoning and scientific attitudes that currently dominate the world. The problems run deeper than the simple facts of the matter; the answers must be found in deeper places as well.
-The loss of a felt connection to the divine spark hidden within each person may be the greatest curse of modern mass societies.
-When the dark times come round and great changes are afoot, it becomes more important that awake people remain awake and that more individuals awaken to the nature of the spark of life they carry within. In the great drama of life, the human soul becomes the extra quantity and distinct living quality needed to tip the balance of the world towards creation.
In his work with at-risk youth, Michael discovered that whether rich or poor, they are all “pushed to the margins” because they are born into a world on fire with conflict. In fact, we are all living in the margins during this time of “apocalypsis” — in which both collapse and renewal are unveiling all that has been hidden. This collapse is unmistakable, as evinced by the recent series of tragedies and disasters: Orlando, Istanbul, Dhaka, Iraq, Dallas, Nice, Turkey, Falcon Heights, Baton Rouge, and others. Institutions are not holding and nature is rattled.
But renewal is less obvious. It is born of adversity in the margins, at the edge. This adversity triggers each person’s unique genius and gifts. In our unprecedented times, this fomenting of unique genius takes on added importance since there is no one “right” solution for the complex global problems we face. Instead, there are many solutions waiting to be awakened in each person.
Listening to Michael, I felt sobered. It occurred to me that, collectively, we are being given a kind of intervention, a wake-up call to the out-of-control, “addicted,” unsustainable way that we have been living. The wounded among us are going crazy, lashing out in ways so horrific that we’re forced to pay attention. The ecological disruptions in nature and with the animals are demanding our attention as well.
On all sides, we’re being called to a process of reckoning and “sobering up.” Only by letting this intervention bring us to our knees will we become vulnerable enough to participate in the kind of turnaround, and the outpouring of genius, that is needed.
Michael’s ideas about genius and uniqueness developed out of working with people in their darkest moments. He shared a heartbreaking and deeply inspiring story of a Vietnam veteran who, as a 17-year-old soldier, experienced such gruesome combat trauma that he lost his sense of smell and suffered decades of PTSD.
At one of Michael’s events, where older veterans mentored younger ones, this Vietnam vet shared a war story he’d keep hidden for forty years. With Michael’s guidance and a cleansing ceremony, he was able to reconnect with the desire he’d had to sing as an adolescent, before he was shattered by his war experience. At first, his voice was timid and he struggled to find it. But today, he travels the country singing songs he’s written, “soldiers’ blues.” He discovered his genius and is giving his gift. And as he continues his own healing, so too is the world healed.
Michael works with people who are fighting life and death battles of the soul. Often they are despairing and may even contemplate violence. He says the soul is at the heart of the being. When we lose touch with it, we become engulfed in a kind of fog. The red fog of war or among street gangs smells of anger and violence and keeps people hyper-inflamed. The white fog of “distancing” in suburban, white, middle-class culture substitutes comfort for being alive and is compounded by electronic devices which “disappear” us. The black fog descends when the red or white fog pushes people into despair and even suicide. Young people in a black fog say they are empty inside. They are devastated, utterly unaware of the unique genius with which they came into the world.
I asked Michael if it’s possible for us to break out of the debilitating fog of confusion and self-hatred triggered by the belief that we’re failing to address the world’s ills. He recounted an Irish folk myth which says that when the center cannot hold, it doesn’t disappear. Instead, it fragments and goes into the margins. Our time calls each of us to go to the margin that both attracts us and makes us most afraid. We need only grasp a single thread and weave it back to the center. In this incremental way, vitality is restored to the soul of the culture.
To be educated is for one’s genius “to be led out” (educare) into the world and to become engaged in ongoing creation. This process involves a shattering of ego, not just Trump-style megalomania, but the ego trap of staying small and safe. Cultures used to help people to shatter the ego with rites of passage. Now our rites of passage are fashioned from the troubles of our own lives.
Reflecting on the tension between the “inner” and “outer” work, Michael says we are living in a time where it’s no longer appropriate to seek only individual enlightenment or salvation. We are called to bring whatever shards of consciousness we’ve connected with back to our suffering world. We have long ago passed a point where withholding one’s genius can be justified.
Fortunately, we don’t have to be experts or have all the answers before we act upon our genius urge. If we show up, “things unknown” will appear through us just as Athena spoke through Mentor to Telemachus, empowering him to deal with the suitors. The divine will always meet us halfway.
Toward the end of our broadcast, in response to a listener’s question, Michael voiced his resolute stand against cynicism. He believes that life intends to continue and humans are essential to it. Inside the soul of each of us, there exists something divine that is inextricably linked to the cosmos. If well-intentioned people don’t feel part of that ongoing creation, then by default they’re contributing to the collapse everyone’s afraid of. We can’t risk colluding with such nihilism.
It was a stunning broadcast, one that I will be contemplating for some time. I invite you to listen to the audio here.
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Announcement
On Sunday, July 17th, I’ll be joined by renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology, Michael Meade, for a dialogue entitled: The World is in Trouble and it Needs Your Genius.
Michael combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.
He says that when the world is churning — from our outer atmosphere and institutions to our inner tempests — wildness is unleashed. What scares us also calls to our depths, where our genius resides. Deep sea creatures of the psyche — hatreds and fears and huge forces, threaten to engulf us.
On Sunday, we’ll be exploring Michael’s idea that though the news is troubling, it may be that our troubles are of the “right kind.” They may be calling to the souls of each of us in ways we can learn to listen to and hear.
Another root meaning of apocalypse (the Greek word “apocalypsis”) is “to lift the veil.” What happens when the web of life loosens, when the veils lift? Old structures and systems may collapse or fall apart, but new energies and patterns may be given a chance to come forward.
What does that mean for each of us personally?
Michael suggests that in a rapidly changing world faced with seemingly impossible problems, it becomes important to understand that each person has something to contribute to the solutions. Each of us carries a unique way of seeing the world, a unique way of being and moving and communicating ourselves.
We don’t come into the world empty. Each of us brings a unique genius, a gift to the world. There is something seeded in each of us, waiting to be awoken, ready to lead us on the path to our true identity and our true purpose in life. Each person has meaning and value already inside them, ready to aid in healing this chaotic world.
There is no one “right” solution for the great number of problems in the world. Instead, there are many solutions waiting to be awakened in each person. Each person born participates in the genius of life.
I hope you’ll join us on Sunday. Our world is now in great need of an awakening of the genius qualities hidden in each of us, including you.
About Michael Meade
Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He is the author of Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn’t End, and The Genius Myth. He is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artist, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
*Sunday, July 17th 10:00am Pacific; 11:00am Mountain; 12:00pm Central; 1:00pm Eastern
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We look forward to your attendance!
Sincerely,
The Beyond Awakening Team