The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers
Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
|
Father Sky in Judaism and among Aboriginals of Australia
It is part of Deep Ecumenism to recognize the role Father Sky plays in humanity’s encounter with the Divine. An encounter that might return with our deeper exploration of the cosmos today—and our need to recover
the healthy and sacred masculine.
|
The Jewish people tell about Moses encountering God at the top of a mountain, Mount Sinai, and encountering such glory there that he had to cover his face with a veil for the “skin of his face was shining” so. In Psalm 99 we hear that God “is high above all peoples,” a “mighty King, lover of justice and establisher of
equity” who spoke to Moses, Aaron and Samuel “out of the pillar of cloud.”
| |
The psalmist recommends that we “look up” to the mountain and to the heavens to see God especially when things are not going so well on earth. As Rabbi Zalman Schactner points out, this is the opposite of the missionary position in sex when one looks down. Instead of looking down, men are to look up. To the vastness of God’s sky.
Aboriginals in the Dieri country of Australia call upon their supernatural relatives in the sky to make rain happen to save the peoples on earth. Southeastern tribes of Australia believe in supernatural beings called “All-Fathers” or “Sky Beings.” The Father of them all is Nurrundere who made all things on the earth, bestowed weapons of war and hunting onto humans and
also instituted all rites and ceremonies. The sky is his homeland.
|
Short clip on the history of the native people of Australia. Originally posted to YouTube by NowThis
World.
| One connects with the sky god through ceremony, for example when the tribe kills a wallaby and cooks it, the
hunters chant as the fire, kindled by women, raises smoke to the sky. As the smoke ascends the hunters rush in and lift their weapons and branches towards heaven.
|
A Wiimbaio tribe believe the Nurelli made the trees, animals and land and after giving laws to the humans, went up to the sky and is now one of the constellations. Other tribes believe the Supreme Being once lived on earth as a Great Man but eventually ascended to the sky and they call him “Our Father” or “Father of All of Us.” The son
of God is Binbeal, the rainbow, who teaches the Kulin people the arts of life and social institutions. He ascended to the sky land from where he oversees the tribe.
Among the Aboriginals, there is a special encounter with the “Father” during puberty rites of boys becoming men. The Father’s voice resembles that of the distant thunder.
|
| To view today's video, please click the image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily
Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM.
If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE.
|
Queries for Contemplation
Do you recognize how a living sky and cosmos can invigorate a new and deeper understanding of the sacred masculine for boys and men today? And for women as well?
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 4f.
Banner Image: Group of native Australian men. Originally posted Flickr by alexwon16.
|
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
–“A gutsy, courageous book, one that confronts the terrible isolation in which men live with archetypal images that once nurtured, guided, and connected our ancestors and that still course within the depths of each of us.” –Dr James Hollis, author of What Matters Most
| |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox and special guest Caroline Myss for a 6-part Reflections Parallel course, “Beyond Patriarchy: Recovering the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine and
Why it Matters Today,” hosted by the Caroline Myss Educational Institute. July 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27 (Mondays & Wednesdays) 4:00pm-5:30pm PT (GMT/UTC-7) Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie virtual retreat, discussing One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths. Thursday, August
18, 4:00-6:00pm PT. Learn more HERE.
|
Creation Spirituality in Conversation.
|
|
Victor Fuhrman of Destination Unlimited on OMTimes interviews Matthew Fox on Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Navigate to the podcast page by clicking the image on the left.
|
Announcing Matthew Fox's Newest Book!
|
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an introduction by Charles Burack
“This collection of Fox’s most life-giving insights blesses the connection between caring for our Mother-the-Earth and lifting up marginalized voices, between waking up from the dream of separation and stepping up to mend the net of creation.”
—Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love and Wild Mercy
| |
Please share this post! Just click the buttons below.
OR share your insights on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox
|
|
|
|
