Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom on the past between primary secondary worlds. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, and I'm glad that you're here. Hey, there, and welcome back. Today was originally supposed to be another book Club episode as we worked through Augustin's Confessions, but we had to delay the most recent scheduled meeting for that because well,
I mean, it was scheduled on Memorial Day. That's just kind of how our regular rhythm was running, and it just didn't really work out scheduling wise, and so we decided to postpone that one, and so instead I thought that this would be a good opportunity to provide you with some updates regarding what's happening in Mythic Mind, because well, there's a lot happening in Mythic Mind, a lot of developments, a lot of things that are moving behind the scenes, and I wanted to let you know a little bit
about what is going on here. Obviously, we have so many interests, you know, I have so many personal interests. Everything is so interesting, which which makes things kind of difficult to stay on a singular path. But you know, I don't really call myself a scholar in any particular field. Now, I mean, there's certainly some things that I know more
about than others. There are certain fields that I definitely know more about than most people, just as I'm sure there are things that you know about that you know
more about than most people do. And so, you know, I have the things that I tend to focus on, but I'm very much a generalist in that I like to read and study well everything, especially within the realm of the humanities, history, philosophy, theology, political science, you know whatever, literature obviously, and so I really believe that all of these fields ultimately are they're connected to what it means to be human, and what it means to be human
is directly tied to how we're put together, why we're put together, and what we are for, or rather who we are for. And that's really what I mean when I talk about approaching things from a Christian humanities perspective that we have within this fellowship, we have within my own interest in kind of the areas that I'm working in, we have a vast array of pursuits that relate to the humanities in general, literature, philosophy, government, et cetera, et cetera,
storytelling in various forms. But these aren't really separate branches, and that they all find their unity. All knowledge, especially knowledge out what it means to be human. All these discordant elements are apparently discordant elements. They find their unity in the lagosts of God. And so even when we're moving in different directions, at least ideally, we're ultimately moving in one direction, right. I mean, you could think about
Saraman when he breaks the white light. Instead of being Solamon the white, he decides to become sour Amund of many colors, and he has that exchange with Gandalf, and Gandolf says that you know, he prefers white, and that's because white is the unity from which all the other colors of light spring. You can picture a white beam of light hitting a prism and then refracting out into the various elements, that as they move further away from
that point of unity, they move further and further apart. Well, that's the path of corruption, right, that's the path of degradation of meaning and even of our meaning. Whereas the path of sanctification, the path of putting things back into proper order means that we recognize all of these these different rays of light representing different aspects of the light spectrum.
And obviously, like red is not green, right, However, as you better understand what red is, better understand what green is, you're actually gonna move closer and closer and closer to that point of unity on the other side of the prism. And so that's what it means. That's what I mean when I talk about taking a Christian humanity to respective.
We've had all the different domains of knowledge regarding things like what it means to be human, and as we look at all these different areas of specialization, we're doing so in a way that actually moves closer and closer and closer to a point of unity. And in turn, we aspire to look from that point of unity in
seeing the unity behind all fields of knowledge. And so you may notice that even just within the podcast alone the larger fellowship, but just within the main Mythic Mind podcast, you know, we've been branching out a little bit more. We started off with philosophy back at the very beginning, as I went through some things on Soar and Kirkey Guard, especially looking at his the concept of anxiety and sick descent to death. Then we really moved into a Tolkien
Lewis focus for a while. We've done some bey Wolf, We've done some Norse mythology and legends. We're currently doing a book study on Augustin's Confession. But we're also doing some Star Wars stuff, like with movies and with video games. And even though all of these things are that are obviously somewhat different, it's a matter of different focus that our orientation is meant to point all of what we
do in the same direction. Whether we're engaging with literature, whether engaging with storytelling various forums and movies and video games and shows, whether we're dealing with philosophy, whether we're dealing with the life and theology of Saint Augustine. Our intention is to bring all these in a common direction, while also just experiencing the joy of good fellowship around
important ideas, good ideas, and just fun mediums. Not everything has to be super serious, and in fact, if you take the most serious things seriously, then everything actually gains a certain degree of levity. As GK. Chesterton said, angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. I think that there's actually something fairly profound about that. I mean, I don't know if I would take that as metaphysically accurate. I mean, I don't know, but I think that the
point that he's making is valid. I think it's significant. But at the same time, I recognize that not everybody who engages with Mythic Mind is going to enjoy or is going to naturally connect with everything that we're doing, and so that's why we're branching off into some separate podcast for now. The plan is this show right here is going to be our main hub and is going to take a maintain a mostly literary kind of focus.
But we recently launched our first Splinter show, which is called Mythic Mind Games, which deals with, you know, how do we take a Christian humanity's perspective to the medium of video games, especially with storytelling and various other ways that video games might engage with us. And you can, I mean, as far as my defense of what we're doing there, you can go over to the Mythic Mind Games podcast listen the first episode. I get into a
little bit of that. I mean, obviously, I'm not saying that everyone has to play video games, or even that video games are good for everybody. Right, if you're honest with yourself, you know what's going to be upbuilding to you and what's not. But I'm convinced that there actually is a lot of potential there for video games to engage with people with significant topics when the writing is good in a way that appeals to a popular audience and taking important ideas to a popular audience. And I
don't mean that in a disparaging term at all. I simply mean, you know, people who haven't necessarily actively studied philosophy, that I think that that is actually very significant. I mean, looking back at my own life as a kid, as a teenager, I didn't read nearly as much as I wish that I did looking back, but games provided a
kind of popular level storytelling vehicle for me. And that is actually significant, more significant than I even realized at the time, in the way that certain stories, certain worlds, certain aesthetics influenced my imagination, influence the way that I view the world generally for the better. And I think that if that's done intentionally, it can actually be something really powerful and so and so that's why we splintered
off into this Mythic Mind Games podcast. Now there is already in the very near future going to be a third Mythic Mind podcast coming up, and that's gonna come out of our Star Wars series. And so in what I believe is gonna be our next episode, we're going to have our discussion of a New Hope as we work through all the Star Wars movies, and maybe we
do some other things along the way. And we've already done Nights to the Old Republic partially here, partially over on the Games podcast, but maybe we'll do some shows, maybe we'll do some other things. I'm not really sure what's gonna lead, but what at the very least going to go through all the movies, beginning with the original trilogy,
beginning with a New Hope. Now, after the episode on a New Hope, we're gonna splinter off to a Mythic Mind Movies and Shows podcast where we're going to continue with our Star Wars and then after that we'll just we'll go on to other movies and other shows dealing with kind of like the Game's podcast, dealing with storytelling
in more of a popular level than books. I mean, I wish books were more popular, but to be fair, I mean movies and games actually do I believe have their own value that I wouldn't say surpasses books by any means, but it is different than books and it can have certain benefits of its own. And so that'll be our third podcast that's coming up soon. So obviously there's a lot going on with Mythic Mind Fellowship, not to mention even some other things that are happening behind
the scene. We have our ongoing discord conversations for patrons. We have three courses that are running right now. I'm running a philosophy course, history of Ideas course. We've got Josh Trailer's course on Paradise Lost and Hannah Gilmour's course on Introductory Latin. And so we have so much happening here. And as far as the podcast goes, all of these different podcast avenues right now are are really becoming increasingly community events. But obviously I'm taking a leading role in
making all of them happen. Eventually I might hand off the reins on that, but for now I'm obviously doing a lot. And the reason for that is because I believe in what we're doing. As somebody who has experiences teaching with Christian universities as well as state universities. I have a strong heart for the humanities, and specifically the Christian humanities, despite the fact that institutional humanities are largely off the rails, theirs shelves of what they once were.
They've been plagued by the forces of deconstructionism and radical postmodernism to the point where nothing really means anything anymore, which is why I find it is so refreshing to deal with the pre moderns. Like, for example, in our brief History of by Ideas course, we just wrapped up a unit on Aristotle and specifically looking at his Nikomaki
and Ethics in book two. Near the beginning of book two of the Nicomaky and Ethics, Aristotle makes the point that in our study of ethics, our goal is not to know more about ethics, to like establish a well articulated ethical theory. I mean, hopefully we can do that, but that's not the point. He says that the point of pursuing ethics is to be good, and that right there is a strong contrast to what you find today where if you in order to tell somebody any kind
of academic setting, like my goal is to be good. Then, assuming they took you seriously at all, people would immediately start to kind of get on edge, like what you actually believe? There's something like goodness, and if it's evident that's what you mean by goodness, not just like your subjective goodness, but like what is actually good? Well, that's going to well, it's gonna get some pushback, to say
the least. Whereas you read the pre moderns, you read Play, or you read Aristotle, and it's very clear that you know when they talk about engaging in philosophy, they actually mean the love of wisdom. To be a good philosopher isn't just to think well, although you should think well along the way, and if you're being good philosopheric you will think well. But the main purpose of philosophy is to better love wisdom, and love is something that shapes
your soul. It's not just something you do in your speculation, in your abstraction. It's something that you are concretely. So what Lewis talks about when he says that you know, these people who deny truth, who step outside of natural law, that they're men without chess because they have nothing to be. Their heart has been removed voluntarily. And so I think that it's very important that we regain a substantial, in a substantially Christian way of understanding what does it mean
to be human? What does it mean to engage with stories, to engage with reason as we relate to the divine reason by which we reason, as a psalm say, in
his light, do we see light? And I think that it's important that we recover that, not just in the institutionally academic world, but even in just the popular understanding, like people today need to be minded of what it means to be human, especially as we are lost in this in this postmodern hyper subjectivist philosophy coupled with the rise of AI, as people are writing books produced by AI, and they're reading AI summaries of the books, like you know,
working in UH with college students like AI is just it's a major problem that. Don't get me wrong. I get that there can be you know, certain targeted benefits of using AI, but as far as outsourcing our entire thought process to artificial intelligence, like this is a major existential human crisis regarding what it means to be human.
And this is exactly why I very much enjoy doing this sort of work outside of formal academia, because when or when I or another member of our fellowship is teaching a course, when people enroll in that course, it's because they're doing so voluntarily, because they recognize the value
of wisdom, and they recognize the value of education. They recognize the value of reading good books and engaging with significant ideas so that they in turn can be the more grounded people, that they can be more substantial people equipped to engage with the phantoms of our time. I knew that. That's why I like to read good books. That's why I like to engage in important and significant storytelling.
It's why I like to fellowship with the people in this mythic mind community, because it makes me more grounded that as I look to significant things, I in turn start to live more significantly. I don't just want to know what ethics is. I want to be good as my thought patterns and as my life patterns conform to
the logofs of God. So, with all of that being said, and with all the different directions that I'm moving and that we're moving as a fellowship, it really is my to eventually get to the point where I can do this sort of thing full time that I can, as a real person, can engage with real people regarding real and significant ideas and stories and enchantment right that the right kind of enchantment that helps us to recognize the wonder of this life, this reality that we live in,
upheld by the being and the will of God. And again, as Chesterton says, that we aren't for lack of wonders, we're only for lack of wonder, or as Thomas Aquinas says, with all the efforts, that the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly. When you recognize how deep and magnificent the smallest grain of this reality is, the more that you are going to be enchanted with wonder and you're going to have reverence toward the glory
that is beneath all things. And so if you would like to help me continue to develop what we're doing here to offer more of it, you know, I would love to for all these podcasts who are doing to happen once a week, which is just not tenable right now with all my other work obligations. But I would love for all these podcasts, but once a week. I have more that I want to spin off. I would love to spin off one that's just devoted to fiction,
one that's just devoted to philosophy. There are a lot of different things that I want to spin off here. There are a lot of courses that I want to be able to offer, a lot, a lot of ways that I would like for us to just continue to go further up and further into these great things that we are moving toward. But here's the thing. Right now,
I have to teach a lot. I have the sole income for our family of five, and that's not always easy, and so I have to teach a lot in order to pay all the bills and kind of get us where we need to be financially. And so if I'm going to continue at the pace I'm currently going, let alone continue to go further, I'm really going to need
your support. And so if you believe in what we're doing, if you want to see a vibrant, strong Christian Humanity's fellowship flourish and leave it a lasting impact on this world around us, this world is desperate for the hope of a capital r reality, then the number one way you can help me is go over to patreon dot com,
slash mythic Mind and become a patron. Whether you can only throw five dollars a month our way, or you're able to do substantially more than that, every financial contribution helps to bring me closer to a point where I can start to pare down some of my other works from my institutional work and do more of this. And if you sign on as a Tier three annual patron, then you'll get just about everything we have to offer here.
You'll get access to any of my courses that begin within that year's term, and so right now that would be Plato Stoicism until we have Faces the Elder Scrolls in Philosophy, and then at the beginning of twenty twenty six we have the Summarillion. There may be another course after that within this term, I'm not sure, but at the very least you'll have those three courses. Level of patronage will give you early and ad free episodes of all of our podcasts, all delivered into a singular patron feed,
as well as full discord access. So again, Patreon is going to be a great way to be able to support me on a regular basis. Also, you can find in the show notes addition to that Patreon link, you can find a buy me a coffee link. If you don't want to become a recurring patron, but you do want to support me with a one time donation kind of like a tip, then you can use that that buy me a coffee link, and you know, leave a tip for whatever it is that you are interested and
able to provide. Any bit of support is appreciated and things. I really don't have a problem asking for money on a fairly regular basis, and that's only because I believe in what we're doing and I want us to be able to do more of it. And not only is it something that I enjoy, even though I very much
enjoy it, and as do I believe our patrons. You know, right now we've got over fifty patrons, and several of which are deeply invested, and you've heard them on a number of different podcast episodes, and there are a number of others that are involved attleit more behind the scenes. But this is a rich community, and I very much enjoy our work. But I enjoy it precisely because it's significant and there's nothing quite like growing as a fellowship
around significant things. And so again, Patreon dot com, slash Mythic mind or that buy me a copy link in the show notes is going to be really helpful in helping us move closer toward our goals. That will allow us to have more frequent podcasts, more podcasts, more events, more videos, all sorts of things that we would love to do again if I had the if I could afford the time to do it, and so hopefully you can help me afford some of that time. All right, Well,
that's where we will end for now. Next time of this podcast, we'll be discussing a new hope and over on the Games podcast. Next time we'll be finishing up our Star Wars Old Republic series. But that's it for now until next time, godspeed. I have always, at least ever since I can remember, had a kind of longing for death. It was when I was happiest that I
longed most. It was on happy days when we were up in the hills, the three of us, with the wind and the sunshine, where you couldn't see Gloam or the palace. Do you remember the color and the smell, and looking across at the gray mountain in the distance, And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing, always longing somewhere else. There must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche, come, but I couldn't come, and I didn't know where I was to come to.
It almost hurt me. I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home. And now I will make answer to you, oh my judges, and show that he who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world. For I deem that the true disciple of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by other men. They do not perceive that he is ever pursuing death and dying.
And if this is true, why, having had the desire of death all his life long, should he regret the arrival of that which he has always been pursuing and desiring. The longing of Plato and the control of the Stoics pervades Lewis's retelling of the Cupid and Psyche Myth until we have faces with this incredible novel, which he believed
to be his best. Lewis demonstrates the tensions and ancient thought, and even more significantly, the limits of rational philosophy, which can only go as deep as the foxes can dig. Beyond that, under that and providing the life of that thought, we find the dark and holy places that blind our faculties of reason. What, then, shall we do? This is a topic that we will explore after first surveying some important philosophical contributions in the ancient world that have had
some significant bearing on Lewis's great novel. To this end, we will begin with Plato's Phato, which discusses the immortality of the soul and what those who love wisdom might expect in the life to come. And then we'll spend four weeks with some of the great stoics, including Epictetus, Emperor, Marcus, Aurelius,
and Seneca. Finally, we will turn our attention to till we have faces for the final two weeks with original content, and so this will not be the same as what you may have seen in the fiction and philosophy of CS. Lewis course. Each week of this eight week study will include readings from primary sources that will be provided as PDFs. Although these are all texts that belong in your personal library.
You'll be provided with recommendations for secondary readings. You'll have recorded presentations for you to watch at your leisure, ongoing discord chats, and weekly life meetings to discuss the readings enrolled today by going to patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind and checking out the job or, you can gain access to all courses, past, present and future this year by purchasing a Tier three annual subscription. I hope to see you there.