Father Sky is an ancient archetype for naming the Sacred Masculine or the Divine Masculine. First Nations recognize this archetype, such as the indigenous people of Central America, who have a saying: “To be human one must make room in one’s heart for the wonders of the universe.”
This call to relate to the wonders of the universe is found among many religions, including the people of the Bible including Jews, Christians and Muslims. And certainly this call is found in today’s science which has discovered that our universe is two trillion galaxies big, each with hundreds of billions of stars! And that a star is being born every fifteen seconds. The Sky is not dead or inert but full of creativity and birthing.
of the Orion Nebula complex
The modern era (from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries) shut down Father Sky, teaching that the cosmos is an insensate machine. This left the male heart bereft and potentially more violent, for men had no place to invest their sky-sized hearts and souls.
D. H. Lawrence sensed this when he wrote: “What a catastrophe, what a maiming of life when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox! This is what is the matter with us, we are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars….”
What happens when cosmology is replaced by psychology? When cosmic connections are displaced by shopping malls? The heart shrivels. Men’s souls shrink. The Sacred Masculine dissipates. And untold violence goes through their heads.
It was not always this way. Nor does it always have to be this way. Today’s postmodern cosmology opens the sky up again to amazing goings-on, and in the process invites men and women to rediscover Father Sky and the Sacred Masculine.
For most of human history and in nearly every culture, the sky has been considered an abode for the Divine. Christians sing, “Glory to God in the highest” and tell the story of Jesus “ascending into heaven” after his death and resurrection. Jesus taught his disciples to pray like this: “Our Father who art in heaven.” And for Paul, the first Christian theologian and cosmic mystic, the Christ is the one who unites “everything on earth, under the earth and in the heavens.”
From Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 3-4.
D.H. Lawrence’s poem “Escape.” found in Joseph Jastrab, Sacred Manhood Sacred Earth, p. 32; also cited in The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 3 and 312.
Queries for Contemplation
In prayerful meditation, sit with the following questions: what are the insights that they open within you?
For men: Meditate on how you can incorporate the metaphor of Father Sky into your life.
For women: In what way do you see the metaphor of Father Sky reflected in the various men in your life as well as in yourself?
Recommended Reading
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.
7 thoughts on “Father Sky”
From where is the D. H. Lawrence quote? Please provide source notes for these quotations. Thanks
Hello, Ronald,
Thank you for reaching out!
D.H. Lawrence’s poem “Escape” is found in Joseph Jastrab, “Sacred Manhood Sacred Earth“, p. 32; also cited in The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 3 and 312. A note about this has also been added to the post.
With appreciation,
Phila Hoopes
for the Team
Lawrence must have written more than one poem entitled “Escape”. The Lawrence quote above is different from Lawrence’s “Escape” below.
Escape
When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us
so that we don’t know ourselves.
Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power,
we shall stamp our feet with new power
and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper.
-D.H. Lawrence
I am thrilled to be able to receive these daily reflections. I do have a question; however, as to why I am not able to print them. The heading “Receive our daily meditations. Subscribe” always appears over some of the printing. I have already subscribed, so I’m not sure why it keeps asking me to subscribe, or am I no allowed to print these meditations??
I will be making a donation shortly.
Hello Doris,
Thank you for your question, and for your generosity! Your question regarding printing and the popup has been referred to our webmaster, and he is working on a resolution. Your donation to support the work is deeply appreciated.
With gratitude,
Phila Hoopes
for the Daily Meditations team
What a great thing to give to the world, Matt… these daily meditations. I feel like I am back at UCS. A daily refresher! Also, thank you for writing such a beautiful blurb for my book, Power for Life! Let me know where I can send you a copy…….. Dr. David Preston Sharp (thanks to you and your incredible school in Oakland that I was fortunate to experience, graduate from and teach in.)
Forever grateful,
ds
Dear David,
We are so glad that you are joining us on this CS spiritual journey in its latest form. Like so many who attended the University of Creation Spirituality, your creativity is leading you into grounding and transformative work. Thanks for commenting. Its good to be in community again.
May your book reach those who need to read it!
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Team