Podcast · Society & Culture

Myth Matters

by Catherine Svehla · English · Society & Culture

Welcome to Myth Matters, a thought-provoking exploration of myth in contemporary life and the intersection of myth, creativity, and consciousness. Host Catherine Svehla PhD. shares her knowledge of mythology and depth psychology to find insight and explore possibilities. Member of the Joseph Campbel

New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 41 min
Latest: 7 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026 · 41 min

Underworld Journeys: The Realms Copper Silver Gold

Underworld Journeys: The Realms of Copper, Silver, and Gold Stories of the underworld and underworld experiences are an important piece of our mythic inheritance and yet our understanding of the variety and nuances may be limited. What distinguishes the "underworld" from the upper world, and from other realms and dimensions of experience that also deviate from the everyday? What takes place in the underworld, and why are so many of us (all of us?) compelled to go there at one time or another?...

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S8 · E10 · 11 Sep 2026 · 58 min
Abundance and the needs of the "kingdom": The Shepherd's Nosegay fairy tale
This episode revolves around a Czech fairy tale that you've probably never heard of but I suspect you'll recognize some of the motifs. The story raises some interesting questions about the nature of abundance and what's necessary to the life of our "kingdom," the kingdom of our inner world and the outer society. Fairy tales speak to us about common life experiences and psychological processes. They also convey cultural values, and the needs and concerns of particular times and particular plac...
21 Aug 2026 · 45 min
Who are we? Epics, identity, and Nolan's Odyssey
“Epic shows us again and again the pattern of moving from the old myth to a new, carrying everything of value with it as it goes.” -- Louise Cowan Christopher Nolan's film version of the ancient Greek myth The Odyssey has been big news. Written down by "Homer" some 3-400 years after the destruction of the city of Troy, The Odyssey is a mythic account of rise of Greek civilization after the collapse of the Bronze Age Mycenaean kingdoms. It's an old story about ancient times. A blast of t...
S8 · E9 · 25 Jul 2026 · 36 min
9MM Memory and the Muses
"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, that then when we no longer know which way to go, we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." ---- Wendell Berry The situation that Berry describes is a creative edge, the place where the known meets the unknown, where what is and has been realized and understood fades into the possibilities of what is yet to be. Two questions arise f...
S8 · E8 · 7 Jul 2026 · 41 min
Ancient ideas about Love: Eros, Ovid, and Sappho
“Energy, creation, movement and harmony, development, all happen under the aegis of love, in the domain of eros. Desire is the cause of all movement, and movement is the character of all being. The universe is a process, and its method is change.” — Germaine Greer The ideas expressed by Greer in this quote reflect the ancient Greek perception of a cosmic dynamic of love and attraction, imagined as the god Eros. The notion of Eros is thousands of years old and yet still central, compell...
S8 · E7 · 12 Jun 2026 · 39 min
Forms in Flux: Transformation in Ovid's Metamorphoses
"Some sisters said such things could never be, while others were convinced that anything was in the power of true deities---" -The Metamorphoses, Book 4, by Ovid translated by Allen Mandelbaum Ovid wove Greek myths of transformation to create his masterwork, The Metamorphoses. This poem describes a world of shapeshifting, ambiguity, and forms in flux. Of endless transformations instigated by passion: passionate feelings, fantasies, pleas, prayers, and convictions. This episode contains a coup...
S8 · E6 · 15 May 2026 · 44 min
Ovid's Metamorphoses: Love and Transformation
“All things change; nothing perishes.”-- Ovid Ovid was a Roman poet who wrote his master work, The Metamorphoses or "Transformations," in 8 C.E.. He weaves more than 250 Greek myths together in one long poem to tell a story of transformation, and explore the complexities of love as an agent of change. Ovid's voice has been influential over the centuries. The Metamorphoses was an important touchstone for Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and other artists and thinkers whose works are foundati...
S8 · E5 · 10 Apr 2026 · 31 min
The Wild Braid: Stanley Kunitz for National Poetry month
“The universe is a continuous web. Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers.” ― Stanley Kunitz I always dedicate the April episodes of Myth Matters to poetry as a way to celebrate National Poetry month here in the United States. This year, I'm turning to the work of Stanley Kunitz. Kunitz received nearly every honor bestowed upon a poet in this country. His work is a marvelous blend of deep feeling and philosophy, and clear observations of the natural world. He lived to be a 100 years ...
S8 · E4 · 21 Mar 2026 · 32 min
Change perspective and change the story: thought experiment with "Briar Rose"
"But people must be taught lessons. Without them, none of them will ever learn. People are dreams and awkwardness and gawk. They prick their fingers Bleed and snore and drool. Politeness is as quiet as a grave, Unmoving, roses without thorns. Or white lilies. People have to learn." -- excerpted from "Observing the Formalities" by Neil Gaiman Our myths and old stories play a complicated role in our personal and collective evolution. On the one hand, they are conservative carriers of soc...
S8 · E8 · 6 Mar 2026 · 47 min
Disruption, creative edges, and the fairy tale "Tatterhood"
The Norwegian fairy tale of "Tatterhood" begins as many stories do, with a kingdom that lacks something essential. Each of us lives in a fairy tale kingdom or two, in an orderly system of protocols and social rules that structure both outer and inner worlds. The stability of the kingdom is important. And yet, the structure eventually outlives its usefulness. The old order stagnates, degrades, and loses meaning. The boundaries are too tight and the space feels too small. Because life = c...
S8 · E2 · 13 Feb 2026 · 43 min
2MM8 The King and the Corpse
"We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars. "-- Jack Gilbert from "Tear it Down" This episode revolves around a Hindu story, "The King and the Corpse," about a king who spends a long night with a talking corpse and realizes a profound truth. This is one of my favorite stories, rich in metaphor, humor, riddles, and insight. I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll simply say that I've worked with this story several times and always find something useful, and I was compelled to ...
S8 · E1 · 16 Jan 2026 · 28 min
Joy, courage, and the Tigress Jataka
"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 suggesti...
S7 · E16 · 12 Dec 2025 · 52 min
The Goose Girl and what matters most
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 t...
S7 · E15 · 14 Nov 2025 · 33 min
Inner Emptiness: The Japanese story "The Golden Axe"
“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 st...
S7 · E14 · 10 Oct 2025 · 30 min
Gifts from the Otherworld: The Adventure of Bran
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 ha...
S7 · E13 · 19 Sep 2025 · 43 min
Song of the Bricoleur: Rags Rosenberg
"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 ...
S7 · E12 · 6 Sep 2025 · 46 min
Not Knowing the Way: Rich Peter the Peddler and leaving home
"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. T...
S7 · E11 · 22 Aug 2025 · 47 min
Leaving Home: Adventures of a trickster tailor
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...
S7 · E10 · 1 Aug 2025 · 29 min
In the dark woods: what myths say about leaving home
“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 cat...
18 Jul 2025 · 39 min
Transformation and awakening: Dumuzi's Dream
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 Ca...
3 Jul 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
Greater Mysteries: Transformation, music, and the myth of Inanna with singer-composer Kelli Scarr
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 peop...
S7 · E7 · 13 Jun 2025 · 39 min
Inanna's descent to the Underworld, part 3 of 4
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...
S7 · E6 · 29 May 2025 · 33 min
Inanna and Dumuzi: The eros of the cosmos (part 2 of 4)
“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...
S7 · E5 · 8 May 2025 · 44 min
The Sumerian myth of Inanna: In the first days 1 of 4
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...
S7 · E4 · 11 Apr 2025 · 35 min
Joy and Poetry for National Poetry month
"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 und...
S7 · E3 · 22 Mar 2025 · 50 min
Finist the Bright Falcon: Baba Yaga, soul quests, and shamanic journeys
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!
S7 · E2 · 7 Mar 2025 · 37 min
Initiation and Meeting the Baba Yaga
The Baba Yaga is a complex and scary crone in East Slavic and Russian fairy tales. She's a face of the earth goddesses and the fierce wildness of nature. Are some of us meeting the Baba Yaga right now? There's a lot of chaos right now as institutions, laws, and norms of behavior that order our societies are attacked. Chaos that has a parallel in escalating natural disasters and other earth events. Is this a collective initiation? What might we see if we understood this time as an...
S7 · E1 · 14 Feb 2025 · 37 min
Fierce wildness and the Baba Yaga
Welcome to episode one of the new (7th) season of Myth Matters! A new year and a time of change. Is this, as some say, the time of the wise, elder woman, the time of the crone? The Baba Yaga is one face of this archetypal energy. This episode is the first of two about the Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is a complex and multifaceted figure in Russian and East Slavic fairy tales. She's a scary crone with roots in the pre-Christian pagan goddesses that we now call "mother earth," and expresses the w...
S6 · E16 · 6 Dec 2024 · 41 min
Flying Together: The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud Din Attar
“These lofty words are an antidote for anyone sickened by extremism’s poison.” Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Sholeh Wolpé The Conference of the Birds is an epic poem from the 12th century written by Sufi poet Farid ud Din Attar. The poem tells the story of a group of birds and an arduous journey to find a mysterious king. Renowned for its depth and beauty, the Conference of the Birds is an allegorical teaching about the spiritual path to self-realization that offers insight into the comm...
S6 · E15 · 15 Nov 2024 · 36 min
Catastrophe: What myths show us about the way of the world
Endings, loss, and uncertainty. Fears of a catastrophic future. Many of us are living with this right now or wondering how to. How to act. How to participate. Perspective and guidance can be gleaned from myths and old stories. They are a poetic record of life in a world where catastrophe happens. A world in which people have at various times, felt that everything was falling apart or that the world might even end. Support the show Email Catherine at [email protected] Post a positive re...

About Myth Matters

Myth Matters is a English society & culture podcast from Catherine Svehla. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Catherine Svehla
Language: English
Category: Society & Culture
New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 41 min
Latest episode: 7 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1467454828

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