The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
How Needy We Are for a New
Masculinity |
This afternoon (it is Thursday morning), I speak in the afternoon to a group based in Iowa where I speak once a month about one of my books. So when you read this it will be Friday morning and the talk will be behind
me. |
The book I am sharing today is on the sacred masculine and called The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine. As I woke up this morning, I realized anew how important that topic is, how distorted
masculinity |
Henry Tennenbaum interviews Matthew Fox on The Hidden Spirituality of Men on on the Bay Area’s KRON-TV. New World
Library |
has become at this time in history, how the reptilian brain is on full display and unleashed and how unhinged our species is becoming. The headlines tell the story every
day. Wars. Invasions of sovereign countries. Putin and Kim Jong Un getting together to discuss more efficient ways to deliver nuclear weapons and to invade Father Sky and carry on a perverse war in Ukraine. |
Fascism’s shock troops, American-style: masked Proud Boys stand at a protest in Raleigh, North Carolina in November 2020. Photo by Anthony Crider in Wikimedia Commons. | The war on Mother Earth. Matricide. Ecocide. Misogyny everywhere evident. The killing of the mother, the killing of compassion therefore. Wisdom and compassion and the divine feminine sidelined. |
So much
evidence of what Adrienne Rich calls the “fatalistic self-hatred” that accompanies Patriarchy everywhere. Psychologist Erich Fromm, taking the lesson from Naziism and the Holocaust, said that the origin of fascism is self-hatred. Fascism on display
everywhere including in the bowels of the American political system. Fascism as power and control and violence and the reptilian brain unleashed. A perverse and distorted masculinity unleashed. |
Power-over
vs. power-with which is what community and justice and love are all about. And compassion. Meister Eckhart: “There is no love where there is no equality.” Yet there is progress too. Women coming into their own more and more and with men as allies at their
side. A growing consensus and |
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awareness of
what I am talking about. How needy we are for a new understanding of masculinity. To be
continued. |
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine. And Fox, Confessions:
The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 417-420. Banner Image: President Barack Obama hugs Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., after his introduction during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches, at the Edmund Pettus
Bridge in Selma, Ala., March 7, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza). Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you agree we are needy for a new understanding of
masculinity? What evidence do you invoke for that opinion? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our
website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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. “Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God |
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Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from
altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity,
and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self |
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew
Fox and a speaker’s panel for brief Creation Spirituality presentations, music, songs, prayer, and refreshments in a free online and on-site Celebration of Matthew Fox's donation of papers to the University of Colorado, Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder Libraries – Center for British & Irish Studies – 5th Floor Thursday, September 21, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT RSVP HERE
for on-site attendance only. Virtual attendance link will be forthcoming. Join Matthew Fox online as he lectures and responds to questions on his book on Meister Eckhart, A Spirituality Named Compassion. The event is hosted by the Weber Retreat and Conference Center. Thursday, October 12, 2023 , 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Learn more HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, October 19, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. To register, click HERE. Join Matthew Fox for two days of learning and practice as he speaks at the online Stanford Medicine Contemplation by Design Summit, Wednesday and Thursday, November 1-2, 2023. Wed 4:00pm-5:30pm PT – Lecture, Q&A – Grounding & Expanding, Psyche & Cosmos, Friendship with Self, Others, the Universe: Toward a “Cosmic Religion” (Einstein) and Human/Planetary Survival Thu 7:30am-8:15am – Guided Practice – Finding the Divine (the “I am”, the Christ, the Buddha Nature, the Tselem or
Image of God) Within Thu 12:00pm-1:30pm – Workshop – Recovering the Sacred Masculine and the Divine Feminine Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Aaron Perry hosts Matthew Fox on the Y On Earth podcast, on “Hildegard von Bingen & Her “Viriditas,” sharing profound wisdom and deep insights about the essential
importance of our relationship with Mother Earth, our celebration of the Divine Feminine, and our connection with Creation Spirituality, drawing upon centuries of knowledge and wisdom from indigenous and mystical traditions world-wide… particularly from the Rhineland Mystic Movement of the medieval European Renaissance, and a most extraordinary woman at its helm: Hildegard von Bingen. |
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