Plato’s allegory of the cave: how to journey from shadows to truth (transcript)
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Episode Transcript:
Lian (00:00)
How might we find the courage to turn from the familiar shadows of our lives and face the light of truth? Hello, my beautiful souls, a huge warm welcome back. In this episode, I tell the ancient allegory of Plato's cave. It's a story of awakening and the painful beauty of learning to see. Each month, I've shared a mythical tale as a doorway into your own soul.
And this one feels especially poignant because it will be the last story I tell here in this way.
Our community is evolving into its next form. Unio, the community for wild sovereign souls. Unio now becomes the living home for the wild sovereign soul path, where together we reclaim our wildness, actualise our sovereignty and awaken our souls. Rather than gathering for story and ceremony, we'll now meet twice each month in our community guidance circle so Jonathan and I can meet you exactly where you are and with whatever challenges you're experiencing, from relationships and health to money and parenting, to guide you to meet the material for liberation your soul is calling you to.
So that you may become truly free, living the life your heart longs for. You can find out more and walk with us at BeMythical.com/unio or click the link in the description. So Plato's allegory tells of prisoners bound in a dark cavern of shadows mistaken for truth and of one who dares to turn towards the fire and climb into the blinding light of the sun.
I tell the story of what happens when old beliefs begin to crack, when freedom cools but belonging pulls us back, and when the warmth of truth burns before it heals. Together we follow the soul's climb from illusion to insight, from comfort to clarity. So listen if you ever felt caught between the safety of what you know and the wild unknown of what could be. But first, it's time for your weekly omen from the algorithmic oracles.
Plato's voice echoes from the cavern, skip, subscribe, and your feed repeats the same dull shadows. Subscribe and new light spills in every week. So step towards the sun and subscribe.
And now, are you ready to journey into Plato's cave? Then let's step inside.
Lian (02:42)
This is a story that has delighted me and enchanted me and called me into contemplation for a very long time, as is probably true for anyone who has even a drop of philosopher blood in their being.
So when when this felt like the story that was aligned with this quest kind of made itself known i was like yes and i'm so excited to dive into this one so as ever i will tell it in my own way it won't be the original version it will be my version that's being created in this moment with all of you
And before we enter it, my invitation is that you allow yourself to drop into that space of story that you've heard me talk about now many times before. There is a way of entering and being entered by story that we may have forgotten in this modern world, but parts of us remember, still in our bones.
This is the way that we've come together as a community gathered around a story for eons. So ask yourself, what's that for me? What does that feel like to allow myself to open, to commune with story?
and allow yourself to gently drop into that space.
Once upon a time.
There was a great cavern, deep and vast.
Miles underground.
The rock is cold and damp.
There is that faint echo, that sound that you hear in caves everywhere of dripping water. Drip, drip, drip.
The air is thick, with the smell of wood smoke.
And the only light is a dim flicker of a fire far behind.
Here, since childhood.
A line of prisoners have lived.
They don't know why they're there. They don't recall any life before this cave.
Their legs and necks are bound in iron so they cannot turn. Their eyes face only the wall before them.
They cannot see each other and they can't see the fire that burns behind them. They can't even see the chains that hold them, although they feel their weight.
Between the fire and the prisoners runs a narrow walkway.
And along it, passing all through every day, are figures carrying statues, carvings of animals, vessels, all kinds of objects. And as they pass, the light of the fire throws their shapes onto the wall in front of the prisoners. And so the prisoners spend their days their whole lives looking at this wall of shadows.
They give names to the shapes they see. They argue. This shadow is tallest. No, this shadow is smaller. This one comes first. Do you notice it's followed by this one? No, sometimes it's followed by that one. Do you notice that sometimes it's colder when we see this one? They weave patterns of meaning as humans always do, of what flickers before them.
For them, shadows are reality itself. They know no other world.
And then one day.
One of the prisoners is freed. At first he resists. He's only known this line, these chains, that wall, those shadows.
And his body aches, even moving a little hurts. But he is pulled to his feet and his body's aching
his neck strains as he moves the first time
The wall he knew so well becomes a blur as he's focused on all of these new sensations, things he's never felt before. He turns and he sees the fire and he sees the people carrying those objects that have created the shadows that were his reality.
Someone tells him that those shadows that were his life were only an illusion. His mind is still trying to return to what he always knew, what was familiar, what felt safe. He feels confusion, even anger.
As the truth dawns that his whole life has been spent mistaking shadows for reality.
The truth is almost too much to bear. His world is collapsing. He is shaking as he realises that what he thought was real were shadows created by people that chained him to that life.
And yet his journey does not end here. He is compelled further, drawn to the mouth of the cave.
The path upwards is steep and rugged. He stumbles, clawing at the walls as he goes to steady him. He's still weak on his legs. His eyes are streaming, adjusting to the light that's growing ahead of him. Each step feels unbearable.
He cries out to return. He wants to go back, but he is drawn onwards, upwards. And at last he emerges into the world above. The brilliance of the daylight pierces him like knives. He shields his eyes, trembling, longing for that cool, dark, safe place in the cave.
But little by little, his eyes adjust.
First, he sees their shadows here, but this time they're cast by trees and rocks.
Then he sees reflections in pools of water.
Then he looks higher and he sees the trees themselves.
He looks further and he sees rocks and rivers and he sees all of the creatures of this living earth.
As day turns to night, he sees the moon and the stars.
The next morning, as his eyes have grown stronger, he lifts his gaze to the sun,
Not to his reflection, but to that glowing orb. He knows this is the source of warmth and life and the hidden cause of all things. Ore fills him.
He knows this is the truth. His life before was only illusion. And yet, in his wonder, he remembers his companions in the cave.
His heart filled with compassion. He turns and descends back into the cave again. After the brilliance of the sun, his eyes are filled with darkness. He's stumbling blind, unable to make out the shadows that once seemed so clear. As he returns to the line of prisoners, the others notice him faltering.
They murmur to each other, his sight is ruined. His journey has left him, broken. He can no longer see like they do. He tries to tell them of what he has seen of rivers and trees and stars and the sun itself. But his words sound so strange to them. Impossible, dangerous.
So of course they refuse to believe him. And he knows that if he were to reach for their change to lead them towards the light, they might turn on him in fury. They might even kill him rather than let their certainty in the life of shadows dissolve.
So this is the story of the cave.
The way souls are chained to illusion, that pain of awakening.
The struggle that it is to move towards the light and the choice that each of us must face. We can be bound by that comfort, the safety, the familiarity of the shadows, or we can endure that journey into the light, into the truth, into freedom.
And so I love to end stories with they all lived happily ever after. But that's something that each of us are going to need to live into ourselves.
Lian (14:35)
So that's the end of this month's myth. I hope you enjoyed this mythical tale and it's shown you something of your own soul. Here's what spoke to me. The prisoner's world of shadows shows us how easily belief can bind us and how truth begins the moment we dare to question what we see. The climb from the cave reminds us that awakening is rarely gentle.
It asks for courage, endurance and the willingness to let old certainties fall away. Plato's allegory endures because it still speaks to our souls today, carrying ancestral wisdom about seeing clearly, walking together towards the truth and remembering the light that was always waiting. As I shared at the beginning, this story marks the closing of a beautiful chapter.
Our community is now evolving into its next form. It's become Unio, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls. So if this story has stirred your soul and you would like to walk this path with us to live the wild sovereign soul way and join our twice monthly guidance circles where Jonathan and I guide you to meet whatever material your soul is calling you to for liberation. You can find out more at BeMythical.com/unio
If you'd like to hop on over to the show notes for the links, they're at BeMythical.com/podcast/522 And if you don't want to miss out on next week's episode, head on over to your podcasting app or platform of choice, including YouTube and hit that subscribe or follow button. That way you'll get each episode delivered straight to your device, automagically as soon as it's released. Thank you so much for listening. You've been wonderful.
I'm sending you all my love. I'll catch you again next week and until then, go be mythical.
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