“A person doesn’t become whole by simply growing up. We grow whole by falling apart and coming back together again.”
– Michael Meade
Seventy-five years ago, Joseph Campbell gave us a mythic map of the human journey. He reminded us that beneath our modern lives lies a timeless story — the hero’s journey — and he had this uncanny ability to synthesize ancient myths, psychology, and modern longing into something that felt soulfully urgent. For many, Campbell was the gateway into a deeper understanding of our personal narrative as part of a larger mythic tapestry.
And now, in our more fractured, chaotic era, I believe Michael Meade is picking up the golden thread.
Like Campbell, Michael Meade is a mythologist, storyteller, and scholar, but he also brings something extra — a shamanic vitality, a grounded poeticism, and an embodied wisdom earned not just through academia, but through community, ritual, and lived experience. Meade doesn’t just teach myth — he invokes it. He doesn’t just map the hero’s journey — he sings it into the room, often with drum in hand.
What Campbell did with Greek mythology and comparative religion, Meade does with cross-cultural myth, depth psychology, and the alchemy of initiation. Both men ask the same central question: What story are you living? And both challenge us to consider that perhaps the deeper question is: What story is living through you?
Michael holds space in circles where young people on the edge and elders in search of meaning sit together around mythic fire. I’ve seen him take the chaos of our time — the unraveling of systems, the breakdown of midlife roles — and help us see it not as failure, but as sacred disorder. A call to descend, not to despair.
And that’s exactly what he’ll be doing (with me as his co-leader) at MEA this September 1–6 in Santa Fe: holding a soulful, story-rich, musically-infused “Decode Your Mythology: Shape Your Future” workshop for those navigating their own initiatory threshold (we do have financial aid available for this workshop). Whether you’re in your 50s, 60s, or beyond, this workshop isn’t about retirement or reinvention — it’s about remembrance. Of your true name. Your deeper story. Your mythic self.
Just like Campbell saw myths as “public dreams,” Meade reminds us that we’re not here to consume life — we’re here to contribute to it. Especially in the second half of life. This is where our wisdom ripens, our wounds become teachers, and our soul finally gets a seat at the table.
As I often say, the first half of life is about building your resume. The second half? It’s about writing your eulogy — and living a life worthy of it.
If you’ve been yearning for something more poetic, more ancient, more real — a story that makes sense of your life’s winding path — this week with Michael might just be the soul nourishment you didn’t know you needed.
Because in a time of crisis, the most radical act is to remember the eternal.
-Chip