Myths Among Us: When Timeless Tales Return to Life

The world is indeed enchanted–but you wouldn’t know that from the unimaginative ways we learn to think about it!

The magic becomes visible in myth: myth not as outworn science or cold ideology, but as the language of past and present humanity. Myth reveals through story and ritual the perennial presences that haunt us until we learn how to listen for them and respond creatively to their summons.

Offering an applied practical course on world mythology, Myths Among Us retells more than 100 traditional tales to examine how the plots, images, and motifs of myth dwell among us today: in our dreams, conflicts, families, relationships; in film, politics, industry, and finance; and in current events whose innermost workings the lens of myth allows us to discover.

What I thoroughly enjoyed about the savvy Myths Among Us is that the first two chapters offer enough material for reflection on myth and mythic consciousness to comprise an entire course. The second treat is how Chalquist stirs in stories from around the globe to illustrate the pleasure of myth; now readers have a rich nourishing series of meals for the soul to snack on for years. - Dennis Patrick Slattery, author of Riting Myth, Mythic Writing