The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
More Artists on the
Christmas Archetype By Matthew Fox 12/29/2025
Did you miss Matthew Fox on "What is the Real Meaning of Christmas?" Holistic Edge Radio host and producer Enoe Aracely Brown interviewed Matthew Fox yesterday. Listen to the recording here. |
In remembering the many dimensions of the Christmas stories as we have been doing in our recent DMs, I have praised the artist M.C. Richards and other artists. |
On Christmas morning, I attended Mass in my local Episcopal church and was blessed to hear a very solid sermon on the reading of John 1 which was the gospel for the day. The same gospel that featured in my Christmas morning DM. The priest was Arthur Holden, a former dean at the Episcopal |
demonstration of scripture-inspired choreography. Video by Dancing By Faith. |
Divinity School at
GTU in Berkeley, and he told a story of being invited when he was 15 years old into a special dancing class (he did not consider himself a good dancer) that was about John 1. The words were read and a musician put them to music, to which the teenagers danced. The part that hit me the most was that he told how the process of
dancing to John 1 struck him very deeply, and has stayed with him to this day—with special attention to how “the Word was rejected,” where he was allowed to improvise on the floor and thrash around in anguish. I congratulated him on the sermon and said it was a masterful argument for art as meditation. Here, as a mature retired and re-fired
man, he still remembers, vividly so, that telling of the gospel story of John 1 by way of music and dance. Art is the organic way to learn and share important stories. Act them out. Embody them. Paint them. Put them to writing—yes, to speaking and sermons too. This is what art does, as M. C. Richards says, “all art is bodily.” Incarnational.
Fleshy. And that makes it easier to remember than say, dogmas and doctrines. |
"Nativity" sculpture by Ullrrich Javier Lemus, illustration from Matthew Fox's Stations of the Cosmic Christ. Used with permission. | Another artist with whom I have worked is Salvadoran artist Ullrrich Javier Lemus, now a US citizen. I teamed him up with M.C. Richards and her seven “I Am” plaques that she created years ago in our book, Stations of the Cosmic Christ. Seven of these stations are
M.C.’s, and nine are from Javier, of which one is the “Nativity.” We reproduce it in this DM. This is what Javier says about his sculpture piece (which he “fired” in an oven ,since he did not have access to a kiln as such when he |
made it): In the Nativity, I put the mother with the child, presenting her with a blessed face—she is happy, and she is tender, pleased with the fetus that starts forming in her womb. The shape of the head is like the umbilical cord, which is connected of course with the fetus. In the back are the lines, which represent explosion of life coming to be in the universe. Blood flows and life is passed on. On the left side is a curve to present the curve of life itself. Life never goes in one way; it always goes in different directions. The colors are pastel stone, brownish, and this mother—any mother—is happy at giving birth. The fetus might be seen as infinity, in which case the mother is a Cosmic Mother, a Cosmic Mary, mother of the
universe. |
There is an emphasis on the umbilical cord, which is a marvelous metaphor for interdependence. The whole universe is interdependent. Also, the face is a very indigenous face, a very ancient woman there from an ancient tribe. It’s an indigenous profile—she looks like she could be American Indian, or an Indian from South or Central America or Mexico. Putting the heart inside the head also tells an important story. To me, that means Wisdom as opposed to raw knowledge. With Wisdom, heart and head unite. And Wisdom is part of what the |
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divine Feminine gives birth to. This woman is very down to earth. We are all mothers of God, birthers of the Cosmic Christ in ourselves and hopefully in our work and citizenship. Christmas is our birthday also, a “second coming” of the Christ. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you celebrate Christmas as your own rebirth as well as that of Jesus’
birth? Do you recognize your adult vocations as a “second coming” of the Christ?
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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.
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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
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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
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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 |
Join Matthew Fox in a 6-Class Course: The Great Christian Mystics, exploring some of the richest and most inspiring mystic-prophets in the Christian lineage, including Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Thomas Aquinas,
and Meister Eckhart. Course includes six modules of pre-recorded lessons. Sign up HERE. |
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