The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Otto Rank’s Spiritual
Vision, continued By Matthew Fox 1/5/2025 |
Why did I end my last DM calling Otto Rank a “spiritual giant” of the 20th century? One reason is this. During my training as a Dominican, around 1965, I told my Dominican superiors that “my generation will be more interested in spirituality than in religion.” When it came time to
choose a topic for my master’s dissertation, I chose to write on “The Prayer of Jesus in the New Testament.” This, because the thrust of Vatican II then going on, was a return to the Scriptures and I knew that any renewal of spirituality had to begin with a return to biblical spirituality. |
I had the privilege then of there being a new professor of Biblical studies in our Aquinas Institute, who had just returned with a doctoral degree from the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a renowned school of contemporary biblical scholarship begun by Père Lagrange and the French Dominicans in 1890. He directed my thesis. The number one thing I learned from writing the thesis was this: How Jewish Jesus was. How there could be no renewal of Christian spirituality without returning to the Jewish roots and mindset of Jesus. |
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Otto Rank appeared in my life 13 years later, and Otto Rank was Jewish. Reading him helped to enlarge my appreciation of the mindset of the historical Jesus. Instead of “original sin,” Rank talked about an “original wound.” Instead of a theology of “God and me,” he wrote about why Karl Marx was so important in
history (because he appealed to the “irrational” factor of hope for the hopeless); and why a “masculine ideology” that ruled Freud must be set aside by women creating their own psychology; and how creativity (the image of God in all of us?) was the key to our neuroses as well as to our salvation. |
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| Instead of considering mysticism a
“neurosis” à la Freud, Rank celebrates the unio mystica, the mystical union as a path of healing and a taste of “the beyond” to which all humans aspire. We undergo the unio mystica through “love and art.” And how a reunion of soul, psyche and cosmos was essential to reawaken humanity. And how we must find room in
our |
souls and social institutions for the “irrational”—play, music, dance, laughter, art, creativity etc.—to balance a dangerous and excessive rationality in culture and education if we are to live and thrive. In a brilliant epilogue to his book, Kramer cites poet e.e. cummings of how our “difference,” such as
Rank emphasizes, emerges: Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself. To be nobody-but yourself-in a world which is doing
its best, night and day, to make you everybody else--means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. |
Art and
life remind us that biology and sexuality do not dictate our destiny. Rank asks: Will people ever learn that there is no other equality possible than the equal right of every individual to become and to be himself or herself, which actually means to accept his own difference and have it accepted by others? |
“The Artist’s Fight Against Art:” Otto Rank’s theories regarding the artistic personality. Video by Arius. |
Kramer reminds us that “difference” for Rank is how women and men experience the exhilaration of being present, fully alive and conscious, awestruck at the mystery and wonder of existence, never ceasing to create something new out of Nothingness—bringing new life, new ideas, new energy, new knowledge, and previously unimagined ways to transcend anxiety, alienation, and existential loneliness, and overcome death. He cites George Santayana, “there is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval.” For Rank, “birth is not only a trauma but also a triumph.” We can reconnect to others and the macrocosm. By surrendering to the majesty of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, we rediscover our likeness to all humanity, and feel again, viscerally, our godlike place in the
ALL.* |
Queries for Contemplation Have you experienced and rediscovered at times your “godlike place in the
ALL”? What were the circumstances that brought that about? What role has that experience played in the rest of your life? |
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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. Related Reading by Matthew Fox “Otto Rank on the Artistic Journey as a Spiritual Journey, the Spiritual Journey
As an Artistic Journey,” in Wrestling with the Prophets, pp.
199-214. “Otto Rank as Mystic and Prophet in the Creation Spirituality Tradition” on MatthewFox.org “Psychotherapy and the ‘Unio Mystica’: Meister Eckhart Meets Otto Rank” in Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, pp. 139-156. Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart. Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. Sins of the Sprit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul &
Society, pp. xxxviii-xli, 113, 173f., 254, 271, 295, 339f., 344. 357. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! |
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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