Mythic Living: Thoughts on Everyday Life in Mythological Light

By Jack Preston King

Are you pursuing your destiny, or surrendering to your fate (and how can you know the difference)? What stories do you tell yourself about yourself, and how do those stories impact your life? How does your past shape your future, and can you change it? Why is love so difficult, and what can you do about it? What if life really is a game, and the rules are hidden deep within you? Join Jack Preston King as he shines a mythological light on everyday life questions like these, drawing inspiration from myths Greek and Sumerian, Christian and Gnostic, as ancient as the Big Bang, and as modern as Star Wars.

Includes a free, full-length preview of “Mythology is a Language. It’s How Our Souls Speak to Us,” from King’s book Could All Religions Be True? The Short Answer is YES. Essays from Outside the Spiritual Box.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Paradigm Press
• Release date: Jun 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463826751

Jack Preston King

Jack Preston King is the author of "In Defense of Magical Thinking: Essays in Defiance of Conformity to Reason" and other books for rebels against the spiritual, creative, and cultural status quo. He writes unruly poems, short stories and novels, too. Visit him on the web at jackprestonking.com. He's also on Twitter, Medium and Facebook.

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Mythic Living

Thoughts on Everyday Life in Mythological Light

Copyright © 2019 by Jack Preston King

Published by New Paradigm Press

All Rights Reserved

License Notes:

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Brief quotes from books and websites used throughout this book are reproduced under Fair Use guidelines of US Copyright law. Questions or concerns? Email the author at [e-mail].

Cover Art via Pixabay.com/CC0 License.

Cover design by Jack Preston King

Contents

Are You Pursuing Your Destiny or Surrendering to Your Fate?

There is one thing in this world which you must never forget to do

Choose the One that Thrills Your Heart

To discover your destiny, take this advice from a Greek god

The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves

Reverse-Engineering the Story of Our Lives – A Real-Life Jedi Mind Trick

Choosing Our Past with the Future in Mind

We’re Not Telling the Same Story. Let’s Get On the Same Page.

Bad Myth/ Good Myth

Why Love Is So Difficult and What We Can Do About It

For a Happy Life, Take This Advice from an Ancient Sumerian Goddess

Joy is your birthright. Don’t waste it worrying.

Scrooge’s Brain – How Hating Christmas Harms Your Humanity

So trade your high horses for reindeer, Christmas nay-sayers

What If Life Really Is a Game? And God is as Anxious About it as You Are?

Human Anxiety, Cosmic Anxiety, and Our Cosmic Conspiracy

Five Thoughts Concerning a Rock Thrown in Four-Dimensional Spacetime

A spiritual frolic, not some boring science essay

FREE PREVIEW!

Mythology is a Language. It’s How Our Souls Speak to Us.

Learn to speak the soul’s language

An excerpt from Could All Religions Be True? The Short Answer is Yes. Essays from Outside the Spiritual Box

Bibliography

Connect with Jack Preston King

Are You Pursuing Your Destiny or Surrendering to Your Fate?

There is one thing in this world which you must never forget to do

When I was eleven years old, I had a life-threatening illness that required surgery. I don’t know how the doctor explained the situation to my mother, but her understanding, which she didn’t hesitate to share with me (rather inappropriately, seen in hindsight), was that I had basically a 50-50 shot. I’d either come out of the surgery cured, or I wouldn’t come out at all. I’d die on the table.

Of course, I had no idea what it meant to die. I knew theoretically what death was, but I’d never experienced a death in the family, or even attended a funeral. As we waited for the pre-anesthesia relaxants to kick in, my tearful mother made me recite the 23rd Psalm -- Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death… I said the words, but I simply could not join Mom in her sorrowful mood. Maybe it was the drugs. But I felt 100% confident that I was going to be okay. I experienced what spiritual people I met later in life would call a knowing.

Here’s how I explained it to my mother:

Don’t worry, Mom. I can’t die now because I haven’t done the thing I came here to do. There’s something in life that only I can do, that needs to be done. I haven’t done it yet, so I know I’ll be fine.

Imagine an eleven year old speaking those heartbreakingly naïve words, tubes sticking out of him every which way, and a big, beaming smile on his cherubic little face. I think anyone would rationally assume that I was comforting myself, grasping at a myth to sustain me in my reasonable fear.

Except I felt ZERO fear. I had no sense at all that I needed comforting. I wasn’t even really trying to comfort my mother. I was simply reporting the truth of my knowing. It was that strong.

I came out of the surgery cured. I’ve been