The World Behind the World

By Michael Meade

Michael Meade is one of the few people who provides a mythological view of critical issues affecting the world at this time. In The World Behind the World, Meade weaves a tapestry of mythic tales and cogent commentary that truly inspires and offers a "mythic inoculation" in times of great uncertainty. As nature rattles and culture unravels, mythic imagination tries to return to the world, for endings and beginnings are particularly mythic. When "the End" seems near, how people imagine the world becomes more important; how people imagine humanity becomes of the utmost importance. Meade shows how "myth makes meaning" and helps a person find the meaningful path through life. He mines a series of "re-creation" stories in which the earth renews itself just when all seems lost. When it appears that there's no time left, it isn't time that people need, but the touch of the eternal.

While explaining how culture renews itself from the dreams of youth and the visions of elders, Meade introduces the concept of becoming ancient again by connecting to the eternal youth and the old soul within. At one level, The World Behind the World is a guide for living at the ends of time. At another level, it's an introduction to "living myth" and it involves a re-imagination of culture at all levels.

"Michael Meade is a master-storyteller and story-teacher of the soul's unfolding. He addresses the mess we're in and helps us each discover the unique threads, the poetic DNA we must live out. As interpreter and mythic guide, he is the best there is."
~ Coleman Barks ~ Rumi: Bridge to the Soul

"As a teacher and mythologist, Michael Meade is genius let out of the bottle. The World Behind the World is his strong medicine for hard times, an elixir of amazing stories, rich ideas, heart-breaking truth, and brilliant seeds of wisdom for remaking the world."
~ Jack Kornfield ~ The Wise Heart

"A master-storyteller reminds us that the world is an endless tapestry of wonder and woe that is constantly being 're-storied' on the loom of imagination, and replanted in the seeds of memory. Michael Meade re-enchants us back into the The World Behind the World where all the mysteries co-exist. Undeniably, a relevant, brilliant and original book!"
~ Angeles Arrien ~ The Second Half of Life

Themes include: Initiation of the Deep Self; The Heart is an Ancient Territory; The Scheherazade Effect; Love of Wisdom, the Wisdom of Love; The Right Trouble Manu and the Fish of God; Holding the Thread of Life

Trade Paper