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Send Catherine a text Message "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 part of the "warrior's approach." But I wonder what being a "warrior" might look like and if it's a useful image/role for me.  I brought these questions to a Buddhist teaching story called "The Tigress Jataka" and share the story and my reflections in this episode. Thanks for listening and keep the mystery in your life alive... Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 that reveal deeper truths. What does "The Goose Girl at the Well" hold for you? This is the final episode of 2025. Thank you for your attention and support of Myth Matters, and thank you for being you! Best wishes for a peaceful year end. See you in 2026. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 “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 traditions. It offers a lens for reflection. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 belief in an unseen world, peopled by unseen beings. In religions, mythologies, and the Fairy-Faith, too, we behold the attempts which have been made by different peoples in different ages to explain in terms of human experience this unseen world, its inhabitants, its laws, and man's relation to it."  --- W.Y. Evans-Wentz Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 moment to affect what direction things are going to go in, as bricoleurs." --- Rags Rosenberg A special interview episode with poet and performing songwriter Rags Rosenberg. Rags writes what he calls mythopoetic folk rock in the tradition of songwriter poets he admires: Leonard Cohen, Bob, Dylan, and Tom Waits.  His latest album Song of the Bricoleur speaks about myth and our ongoing myth-making. We talk about artistic identity and guiding images, the role of the artist in dark times, and "making it up as we go." In times of profound cultural change, we're all bricoleurs.  Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 "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... Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 leave home. Special thanks to Gary Diggins for granting me permission to include his story about leaving home in this episode. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 “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. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 it's worth the risk. It's worth the risk of dying in all of its forms. Because even when what is on the other side isn't what you thought it was going to be, it's so much better."-- Kelli Scarr Thanks for listening and keep the mystery in your life alive... Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 and psyche. Inanna's story is a story of transformation, transformation as an inevitable part of life. She can help us navigate the chaos and find the gifts.  Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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, and expresses the creativity  and eros of the cosmos. Her myth illuminates the sacredness of embodied experience and the transformative power of creative union, and challenges traditional dichotomies between spirit and matter.   Inanna invites us to reconsider the sacred through the lens of wholeness, integration, and reverence for life in all its forms. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 for listening! Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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 well as lift us up?  There are valuable clues to these questions in poems, the fruits of a poet's devoted attention. I have 13 poems for you, a baker's dozen of poems that speak about or gesture toward, joy. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] 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 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. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] Post a positive review on apple podcasts! Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com Buy me a coffee. Thank you!