The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations
with Matthew Fox |
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Sustaining Your Spiritual Warrior
in Times of Darkness 2/01/2025 |
As the results of the inauguration 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. |
As I opened my email this morning, the following headlines greeted me: |
“This Will Only Get Worse: Trump’s First 10 Days Have Been Nothing Short of Catastrophic.” “Trump Shocks with Baseless, Outlandish Crash Claim” “Top F.B.I. Officials Are Told to Resign or be Fired” “Conspiracy Theorist Buffoonery” |
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“Sign the Petition to Stand Against the Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord.” “’Go Find Another Sucker Nation’: Trump Fires Off Fresh Threat to Ten More Countries” My theology tells me that we should “read the signs of the times.” But such reading can be very enervating these days. One has to protect oneself from excessive overload of bad news. |
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| As I recalled in a recent DM, a lesson I learned from a Native American teacher the morning of 9/11
deserves to be heeded. She said it was dangerous to the soul to see the video of the plane crashing into the tower |
over and over again as was happening on TV. |
The same is true today with the reportage on the newly installed administration. Yes, we need to know what is going on and what is behind the goings on. But we also need to guard our deeper self, our true self. We need to deepen our mystical lives and make room for solitude even as we learn to fight back and resist. This is why we have been meditating together for many weeks on the archetype of the spiritual warrior, which is important in all the spiritual traditions of the world. The spiritual warrior does not only fight back and resist. He/she also takes care of himself or herself. Find time to meditate, let go, be emptied. Get outdoors, hike, go walking and spend time in nature—the world far bigger than politics. To take in the Via Positiva even while on the path of the Via Negativa. “Walk your walk of lament on a path of praise” as Rilke put it. Art as
meditation is an important practice in hard times. It taps into our imaginations central to birthing a better world and it strengthens oneself to stand up to negativity. |
I received this morning an e-mail response to a recent DM: I hear the call to be a spiritual warrior, but I’m finding myself being overwhelmed with all the stuff that is happening so quickly. I’m finding it difficult to replenish my strength and hope through meditation. Please offer in your writings some guidance on how to go deep for the strength and |
Staying Informed Without Overwhelm: 3 Tips for Navigating Political News. Looped
Online |
courage to move forward and to regain again and again a sense of hope. |
Yesterday’s DM, “Community Support in Trying Times,” told the story of a gathering of the Order of the Sacred Earth wherein people shared their recent stories of carrying on
important and positive work, both inner and outer. The more the outer world needs fixing, the more our inner world needs deepening. Finding allies in community like OSE is a valuable and perhaps even necessary way of carrying on and “moving forward to regain again and again a sense of
hope.” So, too, is reading the mystic-prophets. To be continued. |
See Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time.. See Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Lustig, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action. And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. And Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Faith
Traditions, pp. 404-422. And Fox, “Community and Interdependence,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Faith Traditions, pp. 80-100. And Fox, “Spiritual Warriors” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104. See Matthew Fox, Trump and The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
Banner image: St. Joan of Arc remained a faithful warrior for God in spite of many challenges and dark times. Painting by George W. Joy, photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, OP, on Flickr. | For a list of organizations helping those affected by the devastating LA wildfires, please see this article from ABCNews HERE and the evolving AltadenaStrong hub page 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 |
Are you feeling overwhelmed at times with the headlines and “all the stuff that is happening so quickly”? How are you taking care of yourself for the long haul? |
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of
daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic
Reporter |
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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. |
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Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to
move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a
better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods |
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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 |
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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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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. |
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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. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice, in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, February 20, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth, in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, March 20, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register 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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