Myths are not literal truths. Myths are not lies. Mythology is poetry: it is metaphorical. The great mythographer Joseph Campbell said that mythology is the penultimate truth - penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words; it is beyond words, beyond images, beyond music. Mythology stretches the mind beyond that point, to what can be known but not told.

THE EVOLUTION OF MYTH

Myths evolve. They are never one dogmatic ‘truth’. They adapt and borrow to stay relevant. The worship of one god takes over from another, and that becomes part of the myth. A new god is incorporated to take account of new circumstances and so on. When Christianity arrived, many Pagan beliefs were woven into the new religious framework; elements of the story of Isis and Horus and of Mithraism were incorporated, Pagan festivals became Christian feasts, Pagan gods became Christian saints and so on. A well sacred to the goddess Anu might be rededicated to St Anne – the myth adapts but the thread remains. A fundamentalist might view this as a corruption of doctrine, an academic might see it as a pollution of literal accuracy, but myths are not about fact or fiction, they are always allegorical, and they always interpreted according to the needs of the time. This is why myths continue to speak to us.

But a prevailing myth can change a culture entirely. The emergence of monotheism is perhaps one of the biggest mythical shifts in history. In Pagan and indigenous cultures, all landscape, all nature, is spiritually charged: a vast manifestation of the sacred. Under Christianity (and other monotheistic faiths) a division was created between the sacred and the profane. Sacredness was only to be found in buildings - churches, cathedrals and monasteries, synagogues, mosques etc - but the environment that surrounded them was deemed not holy, but profane. Mystery and holiness were taken out of the landscape. Sacredness was not an emanation from the earth but rested in the ritual that consecrated a building. In monotheist mythology, Man (literally the male), not the Earth, bears the image of God.

As an unintended consequence, by destroying animistic beliefs, Christianity in particular made it possible to abuse nature in a way never before dreamed of. It meant that the landscape and all within it could be exploited, and what was once sacred to our ancestors could be destroyed with impunity. Landscape was transformed from being a partner imbued with sacredness, connection and memory into an economic resource to be used for the sake of ‘progress’. Landscape is now in the hands of The Market, and this is a direct outcome of the prevailing myth of the last two thousand years.

MODERN MYTHS

Terry Pratchett said that people think that stories are shaped by people, when in fact, it’s the other way round.

In this modern, secular society we live in, our myths increasingly come to us through screens, newspapers and books. We need to understand the prevailing myths that are fed to us, and who profits by them. What are they teaching us about what our values should be, and how we should relate to the world? What are they teaching children about how the world works?

We can kid ourselves that we don’t live by myths anymore, but in this fractured age, where we don’t share a common cultural myth, other collective myths have arisen to fill the gap.

There are the myths of the advertising agencies which tell you that buying something confers meaning on us - you are what you buy. Show people that you are wealthier, have more taste, or even that you are more environmentally aware than they are with this bamboo toothbrush.

And who are the role models the media hold up? Not philosophers, doctors or teachers, not scientists, not philanthropists, peacemakers or environmental activists. All of those people are unvalued, often torn down and ridiculed. We are encouraged to admire the airbrushed, spray tanned and botoxed ‘celebrities’ like the contestants who flirt their way to fame on Love Island, the influencers who make big money by opening boxes on YouTube channels, and gushing about some free goods a company has sent them. The message here is that you should aim for money and fame above all things. You don’t actually have to have any talent or contribute to the betterment of the world in any way.

What about the modern heroes we see on our screens? According to Hollywood, the modern hero is the lone wolf, the avenger, the gunslinger, the rogue CIA agent, the maverick cop. His message is that collective effort does not work, that a solo individual has to solve problems by himself, with a gun. He teaches us that we are alone, that there is no such thing as community, and that violence is always the answer.

A variation on this is the superhero with powers beyond those of a human. Everything is terrible, but what can you do? Well obviously, you can’t do anything. You’re just one powerless human. That’s where the superhero comes in. You wait for Superman, the billionaire Batman, or billionaire Iron Man to do it for you. Mere humans are powerless to act, so don’t even bother – that’s what the superhero myth is telling us.

The superhero archetype plays into the mythology of the populist politician – the strong man who will rescue us. He knows that people are poorer, their services are crumbling, that the world can seem chaotic and dangerous, but he also knows very well that people don’t respond to facts and figures, causes and effects, though they do respond to myths. He’ll play up the dangers, wildly exaggerate issues and position himself as the only person who has the cure. He won’t point out that the world’s problems are complex, that many of the geopolitical problems in the world are caused by climate change, colonialism and corruption. No, he knows that people want one simple answer. So he is the strong man who can make (whichever) country great again and take it back to its mythical golden age (which never existed), usually by isolating the country and getting rid of Johnny Foreigner. That’s a myth people will readily subscribe to, because it’s such a simple answer and works on their innate insecurities. If there are problems in the world, just blame foreigners, immigrants, woke people, women, gay people, Muslims, Jews, black or brown people, witches. He stirs people up with fear to distract them from the real issues and gives them overt permission to take out their frustrations on other, even poorer people. History shows us that one always works. It worked for Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and for Trump in America, and it is working for Farage in the UK. All men supported by the corporate elite for their own purposes.

Once the world was ruled by kings. Then it was supposed to be ruled by elected governments. Now the world is ruled by the stranglehold of the stock market. Nothing is done for the benefit of people and planet, but everything is done for the benefit of the stock market. We mustn’t scare the stock market! Over the last 50 years, money and power has been funnelled upwards into the grip of a handful of corporations. Global corporations make massive donations to political parties and employ lobbyists to persuade governments to act in their interests, be it fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals, food manufacturers and so on. If a government decides it actually wants to do something about pollution, environmental destruction and climate change, they will threaten the withdrawal of funds, send in their lobbyists, and put their pundits on TV to convince the public that changing anything at all is a very bad idea. They will support political candidates who want to abolish environmental measures.

They might even try to persuade you that it is your fault. Heard of the personal carbon footprint index? The one where you count everything you use and consume to reduce your carbon emissions - transport, energy use and diet. It was invented by advertising agents for British Petroleum, to distract us from what the fossil fuel giants are doing. It puts the onus on the individual to worry about the climate crisis while the fossil fuel industry is still producing 100 million barrels of oil per day.

Global corporations and the stock market tell us that we need continual progress, expansion and consumption so their profits can keep rolling in. The economy has to grow, that’s a well-known economic fact, they tell us. But if we have 3% global growth a year, it doubles in 24 years; in other words, by 2049. Then it doubles again by 2073. Then again by 2098. All the environmental crises we are facing today will double, and double, and double. In ecological terms the way we’re living is nothing but a giant pyramid scheme. It will eventually collapse.

But global corporations hold all the cards, all the money, and practically all the media, so they can tell us what to believe, and most people won’t think ‘who benefits from telling me this story to make me angry about this thing? What is it distracting me from?’ They can cut down our forests to line their pockets, pollute our rivers, despoil our land, build on our meadows, exterminate wildlife, poison our food and medicine, and tell us that we can’t do a damn thing about it. They are too big to fight, so there’s no point bothering. There’s a modern myth.

But toe the line, and maybe you’ll get rich one day too! And what would happen if we all became billionaires – we’d cook the planet by Tuesday. The investments of just 125 billionaires emit 393 million tonnes of CO2 each year – the equivalent of France – at an individual annual average that is a million times higher than someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.

A PARADIGM SHIFT IN MYTHOLOGY

The materialistic, fragmented and divisive stories our society lives by are failing us big time. They are leading us on a path that will destroy the planet.

We have been exploiting nature, either as an “inexhaustible” supply of resources to produce commodities, or as a waste dump for the last two hundred years. And in that short time, the earth has reached its limit. The need for constant economic growth has led to the interruption of a complex natural cycle that took millions of years to develop. The entire planet has been transformed into a giant garbage dump for the household, industrial and agricultural waste generated by production, distribution and consumption patterns. This way of life is not sustainable.

Global corporations want us to think of ourselves merely as individual consumers. If we ever realised that we had collective power, we’d be dangerous. As citizens, joining together to demand change, we might have the power to force change, but as individual consumers, we are powerless.

The modern myths of greed and individualism have filled the opening left by the disappearance of societies where the sacred and the mundane were connected. We’ve lost touch with the primal, mythic narratives that once guided human understanding of the world and our place within it. We lack the powerful, unifying myths found in indigenous cultures.

When mythographer Joseph Campell saw the first pictures of Earth from space, it struck him that we are one planet, and the entire world needs a "new mythology" centred on Mother Earth and the interconnectedness of all things, a shift from patriarchal, market driven structures to a more holistic, Earth-centred worldview. A mythology that recognizes our place within the Earth as a living organism, and the importance of developing a myth that fosters reverence for the Earth, all life and our interdependence with the natural world.

We are experiencing rapidly accelerating climate change and are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. In just the last fifty-odd years, since 1970, human activities have caused the world's wildlife populations to plummet by more than two-thirds. For the tropical subregions of the Americas, it is 94%. Since 1989, the insect population has fallen by 60%. Wildlife in freshwater habitats have fallen by 84%. As we stand, one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction over the next few decades. Our natural world is transforming more rapidly than ever before. Instead of taking thousands or millions of years, it is taking decades.

Until 1970, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was smaller than the Earth’s rate of regeneration. But to feed and fuel our 21st century lifestyles, we are overusing the Earth’s biocapacity by nearly 60%. The way we produce and consume food and energy, and the blatant disregard for the environment entrenched in our current economic model, has pushed the natural world beyond its limits. We’re in the Sixth Mass Extinction on this planet, and it is caused by human activity. Within 200 years, life could be extinct.

The time when we can think of a better world as a landscape of boundless ecosystems, unaffected by people, has long gone. Humans can no longer choose whether or not we impact ecosystems. Our only choice is, what do we want that impact to be?

At this pivotal moment, we will be destroyed by myths that divide us. Only the billionaires will win, when they pocket enough money to disappear to a fortified, private island, or take a rocket to Mars. The survival of the entire planet depends on us having myths that unite us. How do we begin to shape a world that encourages compassion, community, and collectively caring for our planet? Where we are not bystanders, but courageous and dedicated contributors, instilled with responsibility?

We do it with stories. We do it with myths.

If you’ve ever tried to argue with someone on the internet like a creationist, a flat earther or a climate change denier, you soon realise that facts and logic make no impact whatsoever. You are trying to argue against a visceral, emotional, irrational belief, where objective truth is completely irrelevant, fake news. Their beliefs make them feel safe, give them tribe and identity. All myths show us our place in the cosmos, in our tribes, for good or ill, and some of them are for very ill indeed.

When millions of teenage boys worldwide are influenced by Andrew Tate, and told that their goal should be the subjugation and exploitation of women, how do we counter it? At Lughnasa, one of the coven read out a piece by Caroline Hillier, and it really struck me that castigating and deriding their myth is pointless, we need better archetypes, better stories to counter it. The piece was called Warrior Bones, and it really resonated with me as a call to genuinely strong men. We need better myths and stories to live by.

We need to find a way back into the sacred relationship with the world that we have lost. We need powerful stories that tell of connection and a deep, fully embodied sense of belonging to this beautiful, living Earth.

The environmentalist David Suzuki wrote that the way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. “If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber, if other creatures are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity, then we will treat each other with greater respect.”

In other words, when we stop thinking of ourselves as separate from nature, when we see the land as a community to which we belong, we begin to treat it with love and respect

We humans are only one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the earth. The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.

We are nature, an integral part of the natural world, the sacred order of life. Throughout a million years of human existence, we never questioned this. It is only recent mythic developments that have separated us from the rest of creation. We are uprooted, unrooted.

To heal the wound of separation, we need a shared mythology that weaves us back into the land and the whole web of being. We do it by telling its stories. By listening to it. By protecting it. By using ritual and ceremony to connect us.

OUR MYTHIC QUEST

In the Golden Age of King Arthur, the myth tells us, the knights defended the sacred land, protected the weak and sheltered the poor, taking nothing for themselves. All sat equal at the Round Table.

They quested to find the Grail, the divine cup overflowing with love and compassion. Many sought in vain, and many died in the quest.

The Grail was always present, but hidden in the keeping of the Fisher King, whose land had become a wasteland. The King was impotent, injured by the Dolorous Stroke of the spear in punishment for his sins, compromised by wealth and greed, unable to protect families and the land from the violence of robber knights. His land suffered with him. The king and the land can only be healed by the power of the Holy Grail, but only if the right question is asked and answered: whom does the Grail serve? It serves all.

The Dolorous Stoke has been struck, our leaders are impotent, the robber knights are pillaging the environment, and the whole Earth is becoming a wasteland. Where are the knights seeking the Grail that will heal the land?

History tells us that such times can be a catalyst for radical change and powerful renewal. In such times we find our purpose, perhaps the very thing we were incarnated at this point in history to do: our quest.

The Nobel Prize winning chemist Ilya Prigogine said that when a complex system is far from equilibrium, islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the ability to shift the entire system to a higher order.

I like to think that we, as Pagans who believe in the sacredness of the Earth, all the environmental activists, all the conservation projects, all the people working for a united world, are islands of coherence in the sea of chaos. Let us sit around one sacred fire. Let us rise as one. Let our bards, our writers and poets, our artists and performers, our shamans and wise ones go out into the world with myths we can live by - love for Mother Earth, the community of all beings, strength in diversity, and honour for the protectors, the healers and the peacemakers.

The battle to save Mother Earth will not be won with swords, but with stories.

© Anna Franklin, August 2025

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1988

Alex Evans, The Myth Gap, Transworld Digital, 2017

Aldo Leopold, aldoleopold.org