On Eros & Justice – part 1

To some it may appear that we interrupted our themes of Natural and Tactical Ecstasies this week when we dove into issues that emerged from my trip ‘down under,’ beginning with the “Prophetic Thunder from Down Under” essay and the sharing of the “Common Dreams” conference with its emphasis on Aboriginal Justice and getting white Australians to take heed.

While my trip was the catalyst for the past three Daily Meditations, in many ways it was no detour at all given our full DM vision, which is this:

Given that according to science and the United Nations we have only 11 years left to change our ways as a species, how do we do that? 

My conviction is that we need not only an outbreak of creativity in the fields of technology and science but also education, politics, religion, media and economics, but especially a spiritual awakening–What Joanna Macy and David Korten call the “Great Turning” and Thomas Berry calls the “Great Work” and I call a metanoia or change of consciousness from an anthropocentric (Pope Francis calls it “narcissistic”) world view to an Original Blessing and Creation Spirituality worldview. 

We need an awakening to our calling – all of us, as human beings – to be mystics (lovers) and prophets/warriors (defenders of what we cherish).  This spiritual substratum is essential lest our efforts at cultural change devolve into mere political warfare and more reptilian brain exchanges.

To speak of “Original Blessing” is to speak of times past when healthy air, water, soil, forests, animals, birds, insects and the rest could be taken for granted.  When the goodness of our existence, even amidst struggle, nevertheless was always there. 

Today we cannot take Original Blessing for granted. We have to work to return nature and human nature back to a healthy state.  That is the naked struggle today: Can we rediscover the sacredness of creation?  If so, can the mystic in us come alive again, fall in love again, enough to carry on the struggle for the salvation of our Earth biosphere as we know it?

Do we have the energy, passion and willingness to see this struggle through in the next eleven years, and the generosity needed to change our ways, let go, reinvent our footprints on this planet?

Thomas Merton proposed that the genocide toward indigenous peoples was a “war against Eros.”  Might the recovery of Eros be a big part of our reconciliation?  Stay tuned.

See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing pp. 9-121.
Banner Image: “Wild Oranges.” Painting gifted to Matthew Fox by Aboriginal artist Clarabelle Swift Nabangarde of Aranda Tribe in Alice Springs. On the back of the painting it is written: “People who pick these oranges celebrate by donning ceremonial belts decorated with cockatoo feathers and dance and sing before having their evening meal. ”

Queries for Contemplation

What movements of Spiritual Awakening do you recognize at this perilous time in human and planetary history? 

Which speak most deeply to you personally and to the communities you belong to?

Recommended Reading

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

In this book 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). Here Fox lays out the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.

Learn More