Some Practices for Developing the Sacred Masculine

When talking about the “sacred masculine,” we are not just talking about men.  If the masculine is toxic in our culture, then both women and men are suffering from this toxicity.  We all need to consciously embrace a healthier masculine in ourselves, our professions and institutions.

Following are some practices to nurture our healthy masculine and rid ourselves of toxic masculinity.  The reader is encouraged to add to them by developing one’s own.

1.    Exercises to Deepen Our Sense of Father Sky:

Take a camping trip or otherwise get out on a starry night in a place (usually out of the city) where you can see the sky.  Lie down.  Drink it in.  Have a friend or child with you.  What are you learning, seeing, feeling, connecting with?

Visit a planetarium.  Check out some corner of the sky.  Who, what are you seeing? How does it make you feel?

Invest in a telescope.  Look in it regularly.  Invite others.  What are you feeling, seeing, learning?

Go on line to Google Sky.  Check out the universe.  How big is it?  How big are you?

Read View from the Center of the Universe and look at the DVD of the same title.  How does it move you, change you, give you a new sense of belonging?

Mentor young people on the new cosmology.  Create rituals together celebrating it and feel its truths pass through your body in dancing its wonders.

Take the new cosmology to work.  To your church or synagogue or mosque.  To your neighbors.  Show the DVD above and discuss it.

Take my book, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, and read and discuss chapters 1 and 2, “Redeeming the word “flesh” and “Universe Flesh.”  Practice awe daily. 

Explore ancient cosmology and creation stories from various cultures.  How do they relate to today’s cosmology story from science? How alike?  How different?

Keep your eye out for stories in the media about Father Sky.  (for example, THIS ONE ).

Exercises for deepening your connection with the Green Man:

At home, do you garden and teach your kids to garden? 

Do you install solar energy or wind energy and encourage your elected representatives to stand for that?

Regarding transportation, what are you doing to use less or no fossil fuels?  Do you have a hybrid car?  Do you bicycle as much as possible?  Walk regularly?  Car pool?  Use public transportation?  Do you cajole your elected representatives to make all of this easier? And automobile manufacturers?

In your churches, do you recognize Christ as a Green Man?  Recognize the green imperative in Judaism if you are Jewish; or in Islam if you are Muslim.  If a preacher, do you preach about the Green Man? 

Study creation spirituality and its rich history of green mystics from Jesus to Hildegard of Bingen, from the Celts to Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Nicolas of Cusa and more.

To be continued.

Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 297-299.

Banner Image: Urban Stargazers, Hoboken, NY. Photo by Oliver Rich on Flickr.

Which practices speak most loudly to you?  What other practices can you add, especially around relating to Father Sky?

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

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.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God