The ReMembering and ReEnchanting Podcast
Mythcasting
Ancient myths retold for a climate changing world…
Unless otherwise stated, these re-tellings are inspired by the magnificent work of Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, Women who Run with the Wolves. These are cross-cultural myths, known in many different places.
In this Mythcasting episode of The ReMembering and ReEnchanting podcast, Sara Jolena retells a classic myth of La Loba, inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her best selling book, Women Who Run With the Wolves.
Sealskin, Soulskin is a retelling of the ancient Selkie myth, about a seal who turns into a woman, and whose skin is stolen by a man who promises to give it back if the woman returns to him. It is a myth about belonging, the call of ocean, living in between multiple worlds, and being careful about transitional moments.
In this episode of The ReMembering and ReEnchanting hostess, Sara Jolena shared a story about a young fisherman who found a skeleton of a woman.
In this episode of The ReMembering and ReEnchanting hostess, Sara Jolena Wolcott tells the journey of the Olympian goddess Demeter searching for her daughter Persephone, who had been seized by darkness.
“I believe that legends and myths are largely made of “truth,” and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Why Mythcasting?
Joseph Cambell, one of the great Western thinkers on myth, writes that there are four main ways in which myth functions society: it evokes a sense of awe, it supports a religious cosmology, it supports the social order and it introduces individuals to the spiritual path of enlightenment.
Another student of culture and mythology, Claude Lévi-Strauss, argued that it is less the case that “men think in myths, but (that) myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact.”
It is hard to overestimate the importance of myth in the creation and re-creation of human consciousness, the fabric from which our world arises. Even with ample evidence from neuro-science and social science and indigenous cultures and everyday wisdom keepers around the world, we still think we can “solve” the problems of our world through technology and policy and behavioral science. Yet technology both arises from and is used in accordance with our mythos and our ethos.
We need both.
