The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul

by Michael Meade

In response to demand for a new edition of The Water of Life, Michael Meade has revised and refined the classic text and added a new preface that addresses the important issue of men and violence in modern culture. As a recent reader remarked, This book is even more prescient and important at this critical point in the world than when it was first published. At once a mythic journey, a study in depth psychology and a treatise on initiation, Meade mines ancient stories, finding wisdom and guidance for the turbulent times in which we live. Throughout the text, the water of life functions as a core symbol for both personal and cultural renewal, and for the redemption of nature from a wasteland condition. Using ideas gleaned from many years of cutting-edge work with at-risk youth and oppressed communities, Meade's writing has the ring of lived truth.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Mythology

396 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Largercircle]

This book also took me a long time to read (like the last book I blogged about). But this time it was because this book is incredibly rich, like the dense gingerbread cake I made this week, with nuggets of intensity in it, like the dried cranberries I stirred into the cake. I could only read a little at a time, just like there's still a lot of cake left because I can only eat a small piece at a time.

There are lots of bits of this book I love and want to come back to in different ways in different contexts. (Some to note: "The Spell", pp. 88 - 91; )I think as a mother of sons, it will inform my view of their needs as boys and becoming men. The direct application to working with fathers and fathers to be as a childbirth and parenting mentor is not so obvious to me, but I'm sure it is there and will come out.

One thing I noticed was how drawn I was to the stories in the book that came straight from the author's experience. Much of the time he talks in general about how various men react to the stories (folk-tales) that form the skeleton of the book, and that's valuable and useful. But what really caught my attention were the few direct stories where he spoke in the first person about his own life. That gives me pause as I think about how I use stories with parents (and others in my other roles in life). We are told not to share our own experiences, or if we do, to camouflage them as someone else's. I understand why; it can be hard for someone to hear truth if it's about me, especially if they have any issues with authority figures or women or whatever. But on the other hand, I think sometimes it is a betrayal of the role of mentor or elder not to claim my own experience, share it for what it is, and then allow those who are listening to make of it what they will. The old stories, the archetypal stories, are extremely powerful in part because they let people see themselves in whatever part of the story they need to at that moment when they are listening. Personal stories, elders' stories, are also powerful and sometimes perhaps we should share them. The middle ground, the framing, is not so powerful (albeit useful and important to do, with light brushstrokes.)

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Too much analysis of stories with too little content.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

borrowed from library, 1 Feb. 2014 and kept till Mar 30 read to p302

see also
http://www.mosaicvoices.org/


fascinating

referenced in LoE
The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You


p302 men in prison with high testost are excessivly aggressive and violent lower their test levels by "deep convulsive weeping"--also men with low T levels raise their levels by weeping

Why Only Humans Weep: Unravelling the Mysteries of Tears

Title: Tears vs testosterone
Source: India Today. (Jan. 31, 2011): From General OneFile. Document Type: Brief article
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)
"Tears vs testosterone." India Today 31 Jan. 2011. General OneFile. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GA...

Gale Document Number: GALE|A248077274

-----------------

Results for Basic Search Keyword (testosterone And crying)

Title: Crying mellows some, masculinizes others
Author(s): Jeffrey L. Fox Source: Psychology Today. 19 (Feb. 1985): p14. From General OneFile. Document Type: Article
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)
Fox, Jeffrey L. "Crying mellows some, masculinizes others." Psychology Today Feb. 1985: 14. General OneFile. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GA...

Gale Document Number: GALE|A3622484

IN a lot of places this book is identical to WofL Men but with ref to brothers and sisters--simply the addition of the female

definitely he indicates that men have the two ego brothers and the youngest brother in each of them and that women have the similiar sisters in them but does this mean a gender neutral understanding of sisters and brothers or do we all have the brothers and the sisters in each of us--all six of the archtypes in each of us???? mar 30 14

I'm going back to reading WoL men because it's more available. next time I am going to make a list of pages where the men or the men/women dynamic might be clarified

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What makes this such a valuable book is the way Meade connects his folktales and mythologies into symbolic language with direct application for living. Several times he notes that our contemporary society has become detached from earlier allegories and we have lost the sense of mythic connection to narrative because of an overemphasis on science and technology. In this misplaced attention, he strives to restore balance.

He uses tales from Africa, Russia, Germany, and elsewhere to illustrate the recurring patterns in our lives. The tales must be divorced from reality in order to make sense. But that divorce is what gives them their universal appeal. They exist as shorthand to communicate the themes we need to learn by and have forgotten.

All of the tales involve tests. These tests of courage, intelligence, and timing instruct us to live out our own struggles. They are initiations. Sometimes we can use the help of others (the dwarf in "The Water of Life," or the six companions in "The Strange Companions"), but ultimately, they work to help (like a midwife would) us draw our breath of life.

Meade has done us a great service. This book needs to be on the same shelf as Joseph Campbell and Bill Bly.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is brilliant and introspective. The author guides you and teaches you to become a better reader and develop better understanding of self. The stories themselves are worth reading. A great diagnoses for our cultural sickness.

This is one of the best quotes:

"if the fires that innately burn inside youth are not intentionally and lovingly added to the heart of the community, then they will burn down the structures of culture just to feel the warmth"

This is a good follow up to Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book uses ancient myths as vessels to share perspectives on initiations for men in our modern-day culture and weaves in stories from the author's own life and from the retreats he has held. The story analysis can be long and cumbersome at times, but it is worth reading through to the end. Meade writes from a passion for and understanding of the needs of the masculine soul in American culture, and the wisdom of long experience seeps through in every page.

[Baxter Clare Trautman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takes old folk tales (African and Celtic) and uses them to illustrate the rites of passage adolescents (especially boys) must go through. "We find our true self by becoming lost."