The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Watch for Matthew Fox's video meditation — now appearing every Monday! Are you missing half the DM?
Some email programs hide
part of the message when it’s long. At the end of the email, look for a link such as "View entire message" or an ellipsis (…). Click that to see everything, including Queries for Contemplation, Recommended Reading, and Upcoming Events. |
By Gianluigi Gugliermetto 8/13/2025 |
After writing yesterday’s DM, a question arose in me: Awareness of what? Awareness of the tragedy that is playing out under our eyes? How is that going to help? Having meditated upon this question, I can now say that the awareness of tragedy is indeed an important part of the answer that
the world needs. |
“Tragedy” does not simply mean “something very bad” but a situation that feels doomed when lived from the inside. Whatever route is attempted or imagined, the characters of a tragedy feel forced to go back to the same knot that will be unraveled eventually only by someone’s demise. An important element of tragedy
is that each of the characters involved has good reasons to hold the position they do, from which they cannot even imagine moving. It is part and |
|
parcel of their identity to be in that position. Seen from the outside, the situation may look serious, but not desperate. If only this character could make such and such a concession, and the other characters could allow for this and that to happen… But tragedy is a strong collective archetype that — when it takes hold of a group of people — is very hard
to budge. Surely, there is also evil involved. Evil likes tragic situations and taking advantage of them. Evil people who are keen on taking advantage of others will exploit any weakness and lead their group toward destruction. But that is only the last act. In a tragedy, before the final catastrophe, there are mostly frightened people who try to think really hard about how to get out of the trap, while fear blocks their thinking and makes them blind to reality and to possibility. That’s why the help from compassionate people who are outsiders can be very valuable. |
“Jews will go to Gaza”: Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss in new BBC documentary. Middle East Eye | The amount of blindness that has been historically involved
in the conflict between Israel and Palestine is staggering. Many Zionists earnestly believed in the early 1900s that they were going to create a new society free from |
persecutions and oppression and, in the process, they would also bring technological advancements to Palestine. Most of them had not a clue about the colonial and racist nature of the project. Many Palestinians in the 1930s approved the alliance between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler, in the stated hope to get clear of the Jewish European settlers. They did not see at all that ignoring the humanity of the Jews was a serious moral failure. Things went on with more and more blindness, until some enlightened (not perfect) individuals became aware of the tragic nature of the situation and the possibility of escaping it. The Oslo agreements of the 1990s were not ideal, but they represented a real path forward. The forces of blindness, however, prevailed and, to this day, they
keep building up the tragedy. |
Recognizing when the archetype of the tragedy is at work is the first step to dissolving the hold that the archetype itself has on people’s minds. Obviously a psychological view of the issue of Israel/Palestine will not substitute for political analysis or for active relief of the victims, but the |
A more hopeful time: U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands. Photo by Vince Musi / The White House. Wikimedia Commons. |
ability to embrace all the decent people involved in a tragedy, and all their motivations, is the true mark of the kind of spirituality that we want to bring into the world. Today, as always, our job as moral and spiritual people is that of taking sides against injustice, but that should not mean
taking sides within a tragedy, i.e. being absorbed by it. On the contrary, we need to employ a good portion of our mental energy to stay away from the archetype of the tragedy — this is true for our individual lives, but it applies as well to social groups and nations. |
See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
See also Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
And Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
And Fox, A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Banner Image: Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal area in Gaza City on October 9, 2023: the beginning of a continuous Israeli bombardment that has leveled most of the city, killing more than 63,000 men, women, and children, while blocked food shipments create
engineered famine. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages, Wikimedia Commons. |
Mystic-Warriors at the Roof of the World In Monday's DM, we shared the story of Marianne Grosspietsch and the Shanti Leprosy Aid organization of Nepal: faced with the loss of food from USAID, her community is planting thousands of fruit trees to nourish the hungry in the region while mitigating the effects of climate change.
We invite you to consider supporting this work HERE (US$) or HERE (€ and other currencies). |
|
Queries for Contemplation Are you able to embrace the
opposite poles of a tragic situation? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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 |
|
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.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil
are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
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. |
|
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a
sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit |
|
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to
today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between
Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven
Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward |
|
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his
essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism |
|
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in
Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may
have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new 6-month program of mystical wisdom for a new world.
In this 6-month immersion program with Matthew, you’ll explore what it means to be a modern mystic and prophet, integrating this sacred knowledge into your life through the authentic teachings of Jesus and other wisdom keepers. This journey births what Matthew calls Christianity 2.0 — based not on dogma, but on a spirituality that recovers the sacred sense of original goodness. By Application only - apply HERERegister for a free information session HERE |
|
|
|
|
|
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book, Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, August 21, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox 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 HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox and Fr. Bede Griffiths each lecture for approximately 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of dialogue. 91 minutes. 1990. You will receive a secure link to the file to download. |
|
Inspired by this post? Share your insights on BlueSky, Instagram, Universeodon, or Facebook using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox FOLLOW MATTHEW FOX: |
|
|
|
