This public lecture, recorded by TVO, describes the way the world is portrayed in deep stories, such as myths and religious representations. The world in such stories is a place of action, not a place of things, and it has its archetypal characters, positive and negative. Culture is typically represented as paternal, nature as maternal, and the individual as hero and adversary. Culture offers people security, but threatens them with tyranny. Nature offers renewal, but also brings death. The religious path of meaning allows people to negotiate this archetypal landscape.

This lecture describes the world as a place of action and value (as opposed to a place of objective things), and lays out the manner in which religious thinking is descriptive of that world. It provides a good introduction to Dr. Peterson’s other lectures.