The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
A Solstice Photo and Story Shared
from the Camino, Part I 06/28/2023 |
Today I choose to share with you this beautiful banner photo and the story behind it. I find the photo inspiring for many reasons. And the story behind it
too.
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The picture above was taken a few days ago by a 42-year-old friend of mine who is currently walking the pilgrimage trail called the Camino. This is not the first time he has walked the Camino but the fourth or fifth time and this time he started in Portugal, not France or Spain. | Nadine Walks narrates a prose poem on her experience of the Camino. |
My friend is a Buddhist and indigenous—he is a member of the Mien people from Laos whose parents escaped the ravages of the
Vietnam war fleeing Laos on foot. All the while on the rugged journey, his mother was pregnant with him, her first child. Pregnancy, war, hardiness, determination, desire to survive, hard journeying, emigration, immigration, ecumenism–lots of universal happenings in this one story. My friend was raised in a camp for refugees in Thailand and eventually his family immigrated to the United States. He now lives in Northern California where he teaches math in high school. His mother now lives as a nun in a modest Buddhist Temple in Oakland, California and it was my privilege to join that community in their Temple on the occasion of the
death of my friend’s partner a few months ago. |
| Several
years before that I got a call one morning asking if I would officiate at his wedding in their living room. For the hastily arranged wedding, only one other person in attendance, and I brought sacred feathers to pray with the couple with |
whom I danced my latest Sun Dance
among the Lakota community in Goldendale, Washington. That Sun Dance community was originally created by my friend and co-worker Buck Ghosthorse. I was given those sacred feathers to pray with at the Sun Dance and afterwards they were mailed to me as a gift by the wife of one of the leaders (a son of Buck who is now passed). She is from
Egypt. |
I carry that Sun Dance (and others) with me always and I pray with them regularly especially when I pray to the four directions. When my Thai/ Mien/ Buddhist/ Indigenous friend’s partner was dying a few months | "Eagle Feather." Photo by Umnak on Flickr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. |
ago, I
blessed his partner with the same sacred feathers with which I had married them. He passed on a few hours later. To be continued. |
See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a New Renaissance. And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and
the Human Meet. Also see Fox, Wilson, and Lustig, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action. Banner Image: “El Camino Pilgrimage.” Photo by Kyle, gifted to Matthew Fox. Published with
permission. |
Queries for Contemplation Be with the banner photo for a while. What is it telling you? And the story behind
it? |
| 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 today's post on the website directly, click HERE.
If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE.
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Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be
considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe. | |
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional
Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic. “Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin | |
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and
Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and
global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.” Co-authored by Matthew
Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world. “The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home
to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and 35 speakers for “The 2023 Mystics Summit: Draw Inspiration From Ancient & Contemporary Mystics to Illuminate Your Unique Path of Love” where Matthew discusses "The Unio Mystica according to Otto Rank, Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, Mary Oliver &
Others" Monday - Friday, June 26-30 Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme in a free online event hosted by The Shift Network: “Hope for Humanity’s Future: Science, Spirituality & the Noosphere: Find Deeper Meaning in Our Spiritual Traditions With Illuminating Insights in Science & Technology.”
Saturday, July 22, 10:00am PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August 14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16,
7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic Mass Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Brentwood Inspired Living Center, APRIL 16, 2023. REV. MATTHEW FOX, PhD shares the message with "Otto Rank and Père Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides calling us to Deep Freedom." See the full worship service HERE. Matthew's talk begins at timestamp 34:25. |
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