We are continuing our meditations on renewing God talk by focusing on the divine feminine and its relationship with the sacred masculine.
This is important work, for Meister Eckhart teaches us that “all the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.”
If we can move from God as “punitive Father” (which is the basis of religious fundamentalism and its political expression in fascism) to a celebration of the Divine Feminine in both women and men, it means our inner selves are getting healthier and more balanced.
As I pointed out in my book on the return of the sacred masculine, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, one of the signs of a healthy masculinity is to welcomes the return of the goddess or the divine feminine in oneself as well as in the women in one’s life. This is part of exploring the deeper meanings of masculinity than our culture currently offers us. A toxic masculinity can readily poison culture including education, religion, politics, economics and the media if we are not aware and awake.
Many women have told me over the years that it is meaningful to them to hear men speak out on behalf of the divine feminine and speak out we should. After all, all humans are called to be prophets–see Jesus’ Beatitudes that end with three invitations to be prophetic and with warnings of the price you may be called to pay for being true to your prophetic vocation and therefore strength or spiritual warriorhood it will take to be prophetic.
Women and men are both called to be 1) mystics (lovers of self, creation and others) and 2) prophets (the spiritual warrior interferes with injustice whether eco, racial, gender, social, economic.)
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: The University of Central Arkansas Interfraternity Council (IFC), UCA Police Department, UCA Athletics, and Division of University and Government Relations organized an “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” march to bring awareness to rape, sexual assault, and gender violence.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that healthy masculinity welcomes the divine feminine in oneself and in others, especially the daughters and partners close to one and that men should be speaking out about and celebrating the return of the divine feminine?
Recommended Reading
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
Upcoming Events
Join Matthew Fox as he offers a free Hildegard lecture hosted by The Shift Network: Discover St. Hildegard of Bingen’s Alchemies to Heal & Evolve Your Soul: The 12th-Century Mystic’s Insights on the Healthy Masculine & Divine Feminine, Botanical Remedies, Celtic Mysticism & Angels. Saturday, 9/25, 11:00 am PT (GMT/UTC-7). Learn more HERE.
9 thoughts on “Healthy Masculinity Welcoming the Return of the Divine Feminine”
Within my own personal spiritual journey, I had to search deeply for the truth regarding the Divine Feminine, within the Christian faith. It wasn’t until I came across the mystics, and the beguines that I truly began to discover this truth, that was oppressed and suppressed by the different denominations that I had encountered. Most Christians I know, are not aware of what I have discovered in this persistent searching.
Recently in a conversation with a fellow Christian, at the mention of the word mystic, began to caution me that mysticism was dabbling in the occult. Most Christians I know, are completely ignorant of the rich spiritual traditions of mysticism within Christianity, and the wisdom ways of the Divine Feminine to be rediscovered and reclaimed.
I am grateful to Mathew Fox, Mirabia Starr and many others whom have shared with others like myself, that which has been hidden for far too long, not only within the Christian faith, but also that which has been hidden that is in need of being resurrected from within ourselves… that being the Divine Feminine, the Mother heart, mind, soul and Holy Spirit of God, as Goddess… the Fatherhood and Motherhood of Divine Love, and all that this is, was and ever shall be, and the mystery of this sacred union, which we are all apart of… Oned With.
Jeanette, You are right on both points. First of all, not very many denominations at all recognize the Divine Feminine, most will not even ordain women, in some, women are not even suppose to speak in front of the church–my sister even left a church because they had a woman as the associate minister! Secondly, I too hear “mysticism and the occult” often said in the same breath, as if they are two different words for the same thing. The occult is most often associated with what are called “the Dark Arts,” whereas “mysticism” comes from “mystics”–and Matthew has introduced us to a number of them such as: Hildegard and Julian, and Eckhart and Aquinas. More than this he has other mystics up his sleeve such as Rumi, Hafiz and Mary Oliver. Thank God for his lone voice in this confused world!
Ponder your true self in the image of Divine LOVE. }:- a.m.
I was struck by the woman mentioned by Matthew this morning. The woman’s stated that “Mary didn’t do very much” in comparison with Hildegard. Of course there is little comparison between Hildegard and the historical mother of the historical Jesus. Hildegard had the opportunity to exercise her many talents, which she did in fulsome service to the essential message of the Gospel. She did not bear any children under the circumstances that the historical ‘Miriam’ endured. It is indeed unfortunate that there have been a large host of scholars who have searched laboriously for the historical Jesus, but very few that have engaged in a serious historical/biblical/critical search for his historical mother. Patriarchy ultimately repurposed Miriam as a Virgin Goddess, of which there were many in the ‘pagan’ mythologies.
Gwen, you have some good points, and I would like to add a couple of other points. It was a special kind of Patriarchy that made the historical Mary into a goddess. It was an ASCETIC form of Patriarchy that saw women as the cause of of the Fall in the Garden of Eden, and who felt they were too much tools in the hands of Satan to be ordained as men were–and they continue not to ordain them. Eckhart said that “Asceticism is of no great importance,” but it was asceticism’s sublimation of sexuality–embodied in women–that made a Mary, who we see in the Bible, as a Jewish woman who loved and cared for her son, and suffered at his death–they changed her into a woman who was conceived immaculately as her Son was, was a perpetual virgin, was the Mother of God who was miraculously assumed up into heaven, where she is Co-redemtrix with her Son. Say what you will of all of this, but in the end we need a Mary that embodies the Divine Feminine just to balance out the Patriarchal warrior God that is still with us.
I do understand and appreciate your points. Unfortunately they are of little consolation to millions of girls and women who have suffered and continue to suffer mutilation, rejection and humiliation because of the nature and the state of their hymens. It is even more tragic that very often the mutilation inflicted on young girls is ‘administered’ by the women of their natal communities. What we see in the Gospels is a two Jewish women, Miriam and Elizabeth, who bravely face off with the cultural powers against them as articulated in the Magnificat. The historical Jesus and John the Baptist did likewise. As did Hildegard centuries later.
Gwen, the mutilation of young girls that you speak of, is not only tragic, it is a complete desecration of God’s handiwork. Once again, it is men who fear women’s sexuality who are in favor of such horrible desecrations of the very epitome of the Sacred Feminine in women. Thank you Gwen for your comment, but I look forward to the day when we won’t have to comment on such things, because they will no longer exist!
I agree full heartedly with Matthew’s and Jeanette’s meditations on the Divine Feminine!
God bless all of God-Dess’s children, all creatures, Mother Earth, and All Our Diverse/Oneness Living Creation in the Cosmos….
And thank you Damian !!!