If we are to enjoy real, lasting change as a response to the dominant paradigm of perpetual consumption, with its attendant problems of resource depletion, pollution, carbon fuels and environmental destruction to name a few, we could surely do worse than head in this direction. Because when we know we belong
constantly being sold – then the new age of information is also exploding with alternatives, pointing out a million different ways we can become who we want to be. Many wisdom traditions point out that the ‘secret’ ingredient to such answers never actually changes: the most important things in life are already going on in our own humble lives – in our hearts and minds and bodies, in loving relationships with others, in the way we choose to work and play, eat and sleep, walk and talk. My own work has, amongst other
things, inspired me to update Campbell’s influential ideas to include a sense of ecological belonging.
– in our bodies, in our thoughts, in our place in the world – then we take care of ourselves properly, we take care of the earth, and we take care of the others we share it with. We experience happiness at a deeper level, enjoy a more stable sense of self, find it easier to be and stay centred, and radiate an inner glow that is naturally attractive. Of course these things can still fade
away if we don’t protect them, but that is why myth, in the form of powerful, meaningful stories, offers new ways of working with such experiences. The core quality offered by the emerging myth of the new quantum age is that sense of belonging that fills the void once we move away from the dominant story of the 20th century: the idea that we were advancing towards a technological utopia of permanent consumption, an eternal feast that was open to all. Now that we see this for
what it was – an advertising pitch for capitalist industries – we can settle back in to a more ecologically-informed sense of self and ask ourselves what it truly takes to belong. The great thing is that it doesn’t
take much at all – just a sense of real connection to the inner realm, where everything is inherently meaningful, and a love of life that includes the physical world of nature, other people and animals and plants and everything, in a holistic framework. A true sense of belonging is both personal and communal, inner and outer, and it thereby fulfils the ancient dictum of ‘as above, so below’, as well as the modern temper of the times. Welcome to the new myth! n
Dr Geoffrey Berry wrote his MA on the creative uses of myth, using Joseph Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey and
equally inspiring shamanic tales of underworld journeys. His PhD explored the symbol of light. He has also researched utopias in Europe and publishes widely on matters of belonging, meaning, contemporary myth and ecospirituality.
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