MYTHOS: The Once & Future Art of Listening to Wild Soul

Many Americans today might be said to be suffering from "soul sickness" - a condition which may include heightened anxiety or depression, loneliness, lack of meaning, disconnection from the rhythms of the natural world, disconnection from the body, lack of imagination and creativity, lack of hope, a feeling of emptiness. Religious scholar Karen Armstrong attributes our current state of affairs to our loss of Mythos. She notes, "We may be more sophisticated in material ways, but we have not advanced spiritually beyond the Axial Age; because of our suppression of mythos we may even have regressed. We no longer know how to manage our mythical lives in a way that is spiritually challenging and transformative." 

Mythos is an inner way of knowing rooted in metaphor, symbol, emotion, and imagery. According to Armstrong, the word is derived from a Greek verb meaning "to close the eyes" or "to close the mouth."…