Michael Meade: A Hidden Hope

A powerful and wise piece from one of my longtime teachers. Deep bow of gratitude to Michael Meade. — 🙏 Molly

https://www.mosaicvoices.org/ 

"In the old mythic way of viewing the world, the center of things was also the beginning place, so that finding the center could allow everything to begin again. Each time it seems like the whole world is coming to an end, we might be closer to it all beginning again, if we can only find the center that has been lost. For, the center can go missing but cannot become lost altogether. When in touch with the mythical center, everything becomes possible again and the wonder and beauty of the world begins to return.  A renewed sense of the potential of life can arise and new solutions to age-old problems can emerge. When the problems of life become huge and overwhelming, when the tasks seem impossible and the conflicts become intractable, when the whole thing seems hopeless and people feel helpless, then the time has come to seek for the missing center again. The surprise of it is that when the center no longer holds, it must be sought where most are reluctant to go: in the margins of life and at the very edges of creation. People must be willing to admit that the problems have become overwhelming, that the usual policies fail, that the usual beliefs and common practices no longer work. If we then become willing to go to the edge and seek in the margins of our lives, we each might find there a clue—a thread of meaning or beauty that otherwise would remain unknown. If those willing to enter the darkness and face the unknown within themselves would simply gather whatever thread of meaning they might find and begin to follow it, new ideas and relevant symbols would be found and old oppressions could be relieved. If those holding the threads of imagination and meaning would carry them from the edge and draw them toward the center, then things could begin all over again. The center could be made anew if all the threads of individual genius were woven together. No one would have to heroically save everyone, or even pretend to do so. There would be no single idea or system, no theory or doctrine that needs to be believed or followed. Rather, each would follow their own thread of life and learn how and where to weave it to the living community of souls. Then the world could become again what it has always been and is meant to be: a place of awe, beauty, and wonder; a living ground of renewal and revelation, the manifest place of creation ever ongoing.

"As above, so below, goes the old saying intended to remind everyone that we are threaded to the unseen center and held in life by invisible cords of genius, feeling, and imagination."

There is a seam along which the two worlds are secretly stitched and sewn together so that the eternal realm remains threaded and tied to the limited world of space and time. As the conscious agents of both worlds, we suffer the burdens of time, the limits of place, and the weight of tragedies; yet, we also remain connected to the timeless threads and renewing energies of the eternal. We each may be tiny, frail, and insignificant in the great scheme of things, yet we are each woven to the center of the whole thing. As with the image of the labyrinth, the thread of life goes to the middle and back, each person having a lifeline directly to the source of life. The infinite thread within can also be imaged as the continuous breath of life that gives us a pulse and a rhythm, secretly connecting each living soul to the center of the living, breathing cosmos. The unique inner thread that ties us to the pulse of life is the clew of genius that gives us a meaning and a purpose and endows us with gifts intended to be given. When enough people awaken to their natural sense of purpose, the threads of life can be rewoven and the center of life can become known again. This cannot be proven by simple analysis or grasped by reason alone. Yet, we know it intuitively when we feel like we are hanging by a thread and wishing and praying that something or someone might pull us to a better place. The center that we seek is also the otherworld, the source of inspiration and the vertical imagination that the horizontal world lacks but sorely needs. For, the world becomes flat again whenever the horizontal view and literal perspective obscures or excludes our spiritual inheritance of a diverse and unending capacity for mythic imagination. Myth connects us to a greater dimension of existence by virtue of vertical imagination, which includes the heights as well as the depths of life.

"By virtue of the power of imagination, the human soul can reach the heights of awareness and inspiration, and by virtue of its capacity to truly feel, the soul can plumb the depths of compassion and understanding."

The inner gradient tries to pull us through all the obstacles and puzzling events of life while keeping us threaded to the hidden center underlying the whole thing. At times we can “get it together,” while at other times we simply “fall apart.” Typically, we only become conscious of the inner gradient and metaphysical ground of our being when we become altered either by the wonder of life or by the palpable trauma of living on this earth. Lacking a sense of mythic imagination, a person is left without a clue as to what their inner life is all about. Without realizing that there is a gradient thread that connects each of us to the center, we must become lost in the maze of existence. The further we drift from the inner gradient of the soul, the more things seem to fall apart, the less life seems to make sense. When we lose the genius thread of our own soul, we must enter the dark again and seek the hidden light. The spark we discover in our own depths is intended to be given back to life as a manifestation of both the individual soul and the Soul of the World. This act of giving back is the test of the return and an act of creation, it is the instinctive and intuitive way we can each help renew the fabric of life and contribute our threads of genius to the healing of the world. Threads of genius and purpose are present in everyone, but may only become visible when we attempt something truly creative. That which is genius in each person remains secretly connected to the origins of existence, as an aspect of creation it can only find fulfillment when it has been given back to life." - Michael Meade, "The Genius Myth"