Hey, everyone, this is Andrew from the Future. If you're listening to this now, you're probably introduced to the show at a more recent episode and then you decided to start back at the beginning. Well, if that's the case, then welcome now. Probably, like most podcasters, it took me a bit to figure out what I was doing with this, although I hope that I always feel that way as
I look at the road behind me. In any case, I hope that you stick around as you follow the movements of my interest from careke Guard to fairy tales to Talkien and beyond. Also be sure to check out the Mythic Mind Fellowship podcast as well, which is a separate show designed for patron contributions. And now I will finally let you get back to the first episode of
this show. Thank you again for joining me in godspeed, many greetings, and welcomes to the Mythic Mind Podcast, where we pursue wisdom on the path between story and reality. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I appreciate you walking these trails with me today. I just want to briefly introduce this podcast to explain what it is, why it is, and where we'll be going first, So, first to start with a name, it's called mythic mind. Well, what is
a myth? Well, obviously, a myth is a story, and for that reason, sometimes the word myth is used to disparagingly refer to something as not true. Right, This is often the case when we call something a myth, we're trying to say it's not true, it's not real. Now, I would say that this framework for understanding myth is really derived from our modern scientific arrogance that looks down on that which doesn't neatly fit within a modern scientific framework.
This mindset really fails to recognize that the mind of science and the mind of myth are really just operating with different methodologies and with different scopes. And so science deals with the world of matter, whereas myth deals with the world that matters. Myth is it's the realm of meaning. It might not describe our physical surroundings, but it describes our existential location. Right. The myth attempts to explain the
world of meaning in our place within it. And so it's not as simple as a good scientific account of a phenomenon is true, and a mythic approaches faults or necessarily superstitious. It's simply that they're dealing with different domains, one with matter, one with what matters. And so you can think about this as the difference between a photograph and a painting. A photograph attempts to provide, or rather
does provide, a precise representation of material reality. This would be akin to a scientific theory that at its best provides a clear cut representation of the physical world, whereas the myth is more like the painting. Right, it's an interpretation of reality through the lens of the true, the good, and the beautiful. And so just as a scientific theory can be true or it can be false, so too a myth can be true or it can be false,
or very often some blend of the two. But it's not so simple as saying a scientific framework is good and a mythic is bad. In fact, both are important
for understanding our world in a true, inaccurate way. Now, when I originally started to conceptualize this podcast and exactly what it would be, I thought that I would solely be focusing on myths, both ancient and modern, in order to to provide philosophical analysis and to demonstrate where the bridges are between the mythic and primary worlds, and this
is still going to be the heart of this podcast. However, lately I decided to kind of expand the scope a little bit, and so we're gonna be looking at both philosophy proper as well as stories, frequently intertwining the two while demonstrating the application that these things have for everyday life, for relationships, for vocation, for living a life of purpose
and meaning within the larger story of the cosmos. And so the first thing that we're going to do starting with the next episode is launch into a study of soaring carekeyguards, concept of anxiety, and the sickness unto death, in large part because these are the base text for my dissertation that I have just finished writing, and so these things are fresh in my mind and they are things that I'm eager to share with you. We finish that,
I'm gonna switch gears and jump into stories. If I ever become wildly successful in producing content and I'm able to do this kind of thing full time, maybe eventually I'll split off into two different podcasts, one just focusing on philosophy and theology and one just focusing on narratives. But for the time being, we're going to kind of
jump back and forth. As some concluding thoughts, I would like to say that while I already have an episode ready to go for next week, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to create and upload these podcast episodes at regular intervals. And that's because I have a full time day job, I have various academic commitments, and I have twins coming in a few months, and so a
lot of exciting things going on. But there's a lot of my plate right now, and I would love to be able to release these episodes on a weekly basis, ideally even more than that. And I would also like to have time to write regular blog posts as well as to get into some more video content creation about topics involving the intersections of myth and our more primary
lived experience. And so if you would like to support my efforts financially allowing me to pour more time and energy into these topics that I'm so passionate about that I believe might be of some utility to you as well as to the broader public, then you can head over to my Patreon just look me up at Andrew Snyder even supporting it the smallest heere would at least just let me know that you're interested in investing in building this community, and that in itself would go a
long way. But if you can't do that right now, or don't want to do that right now, then I appreciate it if you just go ahead and at least subscribe to this podcast, leave me positive reviews on the various podcast outlets, so that way people will be made aware that this is here. And if nothing else, I appreciate you listening today, and I hope that you'll continue to walk these trails with me as we pursue wisdom wherever it may be found.