The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Loneliness, Part
II:
Ways Spirituality Combats Loneliness By Matthew Fox 12/22/2025 |
For combatting loneliness, it helps to learn the difference between aloneness and loneliness. Meditation and contemplation can teach us deep lessons of aloneness and solitude, being one with oneself and alone with oneself. |
Another way to deal with loneliness is to realize that creation itself is our companion. People in relationships with animals–dogs, cats, birds, etc. know this. Not all our friends need to be two-legged ones. Trees can be our companions and especially at dark times in our lives. French artist Claude Baudelaire reminds us that “we walk through forests of physical |
“Contemplation.” Photographer Marco Hamersma was wild-camping on Rugen and saw this man sitting reflectively, gazing out at the water. Flickr, Creative Commons. |
things that are also spiritual things that look on us with affectionate looks.” Notice: forests, not just a single forest. Such abundance! |
One of my favorite teachings about loneliness is this. Several years ago, an Australian theologian was giving a talk in Africa, that was being translated into Swahili. He paused after each sentence or two for the translator to speak. Ending his talk, he said, “the number one spiritual problem in Sydney today is loneliness.” The translator asked him to repeat the sentence, which he did. The translator huddled with several other Africans, came to the
microphone, and said, “I am sorry, sir, but in our language there is no word for loneliness.” Imagine that. No word for “loneliness.” What’s wrong with them? Or is something wrong with us and our modern culture that has been so pitifully anthropocentric for years? Has western culture actually ushered cosmic loneliness into
human history? |
“Group photo finished sweat lodge…. Mostly Yokuts and Miwoks.” Photo by Darin
Barry on Flickr. Creative Commons. | What spiritual price have we paid for an anthropocentric society the past 500 years? Our ancestors did not feel loneliness because
they did feel a connection to all beings. “All our relations,” the Lakota people pray in every ritual context. No species narcissism there. |
Howard Thurman spoke of the price we pay when we are cut ourselves off from the rest of nature. Man cannot long separate himself from nature without withering as a cut rose in a vase….It is but a single leap thus to regard nature as being so completely other than himself that he may exploit it, plunder it and rape it with impunity. Another insight about loneliness comes from African spiritual teacher Malidoma Somé who reminds us that “there is no community without ritual.” That UK students and growing numbers of young Americans find little drawing them to the rituals Western religion offers up today is a statement on the failure of religion in our time. Rabbi Heschel talks about the “insipid” character of so much contemporary religion.
Today’s version of religious ritual is so eye-oriented, so much about finding a page in a book, that it bores and fails to arouse the heart. That is why, for the last 30 years, I have been involved in celebrating Cosmic Masses which attract worshippers of all ages and all traditions and none. It does so by
drawing on post-modern art forms like DJ, VJ, rap and rave dancing. Community happens when ritual is alive. This is not a theory: It is a fact I have seen play out in every one of the 125 cosmic masses we have celebrated in cities around North America. |
Thinking of the current loneliness of college students in the UK, I recall a Cosmic Mass we celebrated on campus at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where 1400 persons danced and prayed together in the large university ballroom. Following a Cosmic Mass at
an |
Dancing at a Cosmic Mass. |
“Earth and Spirit Conference” that drew 1400 people to a large ballroom in a San Francisco hotel, three young men ages 18 to 20 approached me. They told me they had been attending rave dances every week for five years, but what we were looking for in rave, we found here tonight–deep prayer, community, joy, and something rave does not have—multiple generations dancing together. Because the first chakra is about vibration, it is about connecting with all the atoms of the universe, since they are all vibrating. Dance does that—engaging the first chakra, it connects us to the sacred universe, the Cosmic Christ. We have in the Cosmic Mass a ritual that engages all our chakras. To be continued. |
Queries for Contemplation Have you learned the difference between aloneness/solitude and loneliness? Do you recognize that
anthropocentrism that kills our relationship to a world larger than the human sets us up for loneliness? Do you recognize dull ritual as a cause of loneliness and its opposite, a celebration of community, a medicine for loneliness? |
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Related Reading by Matthew Fox Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, p. 38. “The Cosmic Mass: Reinventing Worship and Religion,” in
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, pp. 363-383. “Acedia Invites a Cosmic Loneliness,” Sins of the Spirit,
Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 197f. One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 240-243. Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, pp. 216ff. “The Cosmic Christ—Redeemer of Worship,” in Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, pp. 211-228. “Ritual: Where the Great Work of the Universe and the Work of the People Come Together”, in The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time, pp. 249-295. |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
authentic spirituality? This is your
chance to add it to your library of classics to be watched, re-watched, and contemplated. Fox explores the archetype of Christ and Antichrist as it plays out in our world today but also in artists of old. He draws from the teachings of Jesus and Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and other mystics and visionaries, illuminating the stark contrast between life-giving and life-destroying spiritual energies. Purchase HERE. |
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a free 4-session Online Lecture/Discussion/Q&A event, “Creation Spirituality and the Celebrating & Healing of Mother Earth & Ourselves,” co-presented by the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin and Matthew Fox Legacy Project. Wednesdays, January 14, 21,28, February 4, 2026, 4:00pm-5:30pm
PT January 14 - Creation as an Original Blessing and the Springboard of Awe and Wonder January 21 - Sacred Mother Earth: The Holiness of Creation and Recovering the Cosmic Christ January 28 - The Cosmic Mass, and the Stations of the Cosmic Christ: Reinvigorating Liturgy and Rituals February 4 - Jesus as a Teacher of Democracy and the Renewal of Education and Values through the “10 Cs” 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 |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May 25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred
island of Sardinia for a deeply immersive 6-day retreat rooted in the teachings of Matthew Fox, C.G. Jung, and the ancient wisdom of the land. Set along the turquoise shores and among the Neolithic sites of this timeless Mediterranean island, this retreat invites you into a transformative journey of reconnection—with Earth, Self, Gender, and the Divine. Learn more HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
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and Meister Eckhart. Course includes six modules of pre-recorded lessons. Sign up HERE. |
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