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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

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1/16/2025

As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below. 

How would history be different if Trump had treated the wounds he received from his father? Or if Hitler had a way to deal with the wounds from his father who beat him daily?

Knowledge of self and compassion toward self is presumed in the warrior—

Frederick Christ Trump and son Donald Trump at Wollman Rink in Central Park. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd on Wikimedia Commons

consider Jesus’ teaching: “Love others as you love yourself.”  

A taming of the beasts inside is often necessary in order to recover the jewel within. 

The warriors tame the beasts in their past
          so that the night’s hoofs
can no longer break the jeweled vision
          in the heart.

We carry a jeweled vision in our hearts that needs protection—including from ourselves and the wounds of our past. The warrior pays attention to past hurts that can turn us into haters instead of lovers. Trauma and the sins of our fathers can poison the heart and the warrior does his/her inner work to heal that. The most important jihad, as Mohammad taught, is first with ourselves.

Mary Trump speaks of her family’s culture of cruelty and her own journey to heal and emerge as a spiritual warrior. | Amanpour and Company

But the warrior faces the future also with bravery and honesty.

     The intelligent and the brave
open every closet in the future and evict
all the mind’s ghosts who have the bad habit
     of barfing everywhere.

It takes courage and holiness to wrestle with such strong and evil spirits as these from the past and the future.

But only a Pir [saint] has the talent,
the courage to slay
the past-giant, the future-anxieties.

Where does the warrior learn wisdom? According to Hafiz, he or she learns self-knowledge and humility and unmasking in a circle with others. And then one also learns generosity or giving. (This is not regularly taught in a culture of rabid capitalism.) Says Hafiz:

          The warrior
wisely sits in a circle
with other men
gathering the strength to unmask himself,
          Then 
    Sits, giving,
like a great illumined planet on
          the 

      Earth.

Sitting in a circle signifies sitting eye to eye, sitting as equals, learning to receive as well as give. Generosity is learned in circles where one can sees one another’s pain as well as beauty. It takes honesty and vulnerability to sit in a circle to see and be seen. All this nurtures the warrior.

Interestingly, Saint Paul invokes warrior language when speaking of Christ. “Let your armor be the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Rom 13:14)

ERRATA: There was an inadvertent typo in yesterday's DM: in paragraph 4, "marched alongside my bothers" should read "marched alongside my brothers." We regret the error.

Adapted from Fox, Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 415-417.

See also Fox, “Spiritual Warriors,” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.

See also, Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 400-402.

And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

Banner Image: Men’s therapy group. Scene from the 2011 motion picture eMANcipation with Peer Alexander Hauk, Michael Schwager, Roland Avenard, Jan Marc Kochmann, Hans Ulrich Laux & Urs Stämpfli. By Philipp Müller-Dorn, PMD Films. Wikimedia Commons.

For updated lists of organizations helping those affected by the devastating LA wildfires, please see these article from the L.A. Times HERE, and from the New York Times HERE.

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Queries for Contemplation

Have you ever confused “soldier” with “warrior”? How did you learn the difference? What difference does that make? How do you develop the courage and holiness to slay the past giant and future anxieties?

Recommended Reading

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

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

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

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.

For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 

To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 

To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.

Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT. 
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478  
Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478

Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org

Creation Spirituality Conversations

Hear a conversation between Matthew and Ana Otero of The Desert Rose Mystery School in "Mystical Pathways. A Sacred Talk with Matthew Fox, founder of the Creation Spirituality Movement."

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