Episode 254 - Trust and Betrayal
On this episode, Michael Meade brings a focus to issues of trust and betrayal in a time when truth and meaning can be hard to find. “We live in a time of great challenges and frequent betrayals. When the weather becomes extreme, the political climate is too poisonous to be trusted, and many don't even trust that the world will continue, it is hard not to feel betrayed by life. Because betrayals arise from so many levels and layers of life, more and more people are left, either in the bitter camps of the cynics, in isolating places of denial, or in the fear that there is nowhere left to turn. Yet, the levels of betrayal are not intended to be the end of the story. Rather, they are the part of the story where we have to turn another way, go deeper into life. Because only through a descent into the depths of our own souls can the sense of betrayal turn back into trust. When trust and truth go missing in the surface of life, they must be sought at the level of our individual souls. Psychologically, we're being pulled down to the depths of our own souls. Not so that we feel an even deeper sense of loss, but in order that we might let go of false expectations and find the essential truths and the innate aims hidden in our own lives. Part of the hard truth of the harsh times in which we live involves the realization that many hard attitudes, fixed beliefs and false expectations must be dissolved. Betrayal may be a bitter pill to swallow, but in the alchemy of the soul, it is a medicine that can dissolve infantile expectations, fixated attitudes of the ego, and false expectations about the world and other people. We experience betrayal in order to find a deeper sense of truth; that is the only way we can turn betrayal back into genuine trust. That is the secret of betrayal, that the treacheries we experience in our lives are secretly intended to bring us to a place of deeper, greater trust in our own selves. And it is by being willing to descend through the tests and trials of betrayal that we arrive at the place where we can trust ourselves and genuinely say we have become part of the truth.” You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for upcoming online events. Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events. You can save 30% on all online events and further support this podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth. We’d love to hear your feedback on the podcast. You can leave a review wherever you listen or send a question or comment to info@mosaicvoices.org. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you continued well-being and deep community connection during this period of great uncertainty and transformation.