The crisis in masculinity that we face today can be remedied in part by awakening to cosmology, to something awesome and greater than ourselves. Awakening to Cosmology is awakening to Father Sky.
Consider, for example, this testimony from a male undergraduate in an English University whose major was chemistry and management when he came across two books by Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth and The Great Work:
The deep ecology of Tom Berry was difficult to comprehend at first because it took me out of my ‘scientific’ comfort zone. It required me to connect with my spiritual side and this was not something I have ever had to do before. In all honesty, I greeted Berry’s perspectives with initial skepticism for it was not until I began to ponder his ideas in my mind more deeply that I began to connect with the spiritual side I did not know existed within me.
This in turn led me to questioning whether or not I truly appreciated the spirituality and the beauty of our planet…. I began to remember those precious occasions when I have marveled at, or simply been in awe of the wonder nature of our planet—times when I have just sat silently and gazed in amazement at the beauty of a snow covered Bath landscape, or the beauty of a star-filled night sky. At the time I did not realize the importance or significance in feeling these emotions, now I understood that these are valuable moments we risk losing forever.
This confession from a young man is most revealing—and also quite scary. How many other young men have never connected with a “spiritual side I did not know existed within me”? And how many, unlike this one, will never be exposed to Thomas Berry or other writers who will challenge them to get connected?
How deeply have our schools and our religions truly failed us? Psychologist Marion Woodman observes that “most young men in our culture have no spiritual heritage into which their elders are going to welcome them.”
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. xf.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “Contemplation.” Photo by Raghu Nath on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
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
11 thoughts on “Father Sky & the Return of the Sacred Masculine”
I found the meditations of late very reflective of our society and especially in relation to its interpretation of masculinity. As a rule Modernity offers so few healthy models it seems.
I was particularly struck by my 21 year old sons comment that his generation “are waiting for people your age Dad to die or retire so we can sort it all out.”
What a damning indictment on people my age…
Have we lost touch so much with young men and given them so few healthy masculine models they are waiting for us to go?
This for me is why Father Sky and this tradition is so important to men.
The work of Thomas Berry ,Matthew Fox, Thomas Merton ( who invites us to join in the sacred dance,the sacred feast and look to the silence of the spheres ie the universe is critical).
If not when we look up to Father Sky instead of seeing our universal affirmation, our cosmology , our story all we will see is the anti collision lights of Boeing 737’s or Elon Musk satellites.
Steve, Thank you for your comment. l believe that what is missing are rites of passage that mark and celebrate the major changes in our lives. That might not be all we need, but it certainly is a start…
Absolutely!!!
It is true, inparticular in the western world, that most young men in our culture have no spiritual heritage into which their elders welcome them… into the initiation, rituals, and ceremonies that can help guide them into the powerful transformations that take place through this deep inner introspection and the intuitive wisdom that arises from the Divine Feminine Archetype, whom desires to awaken all to the untold stories hidden within… through Her language of myth, metaphors, symbols and signs.
However, this gap I am now beginning to see, is being filled through psychologists, much like Marion Woodman, whom are combining the work of psychology and incorporating spirituality and creativity into what I like to call Sacred Storytelling. One such psychologist, Kim Scheiderman, has written a book titled “Step Out Of Your Story.” Her writing exercises help one to find the redemptive narrative, by understanding the transformational power of storytelling, that helps one wrestle with the scripts running one’s life, and she teaches how one can step out of one’s story through the third person voice… so that one can actively mine one’s life experiences for positive meaning and purpose; therefore gaining much needed wisdom in the process of learning to become coauthors and co-creators of our own hidden stories within, desiring to be made manifest.
Thank you Matt for helping us to awaken to the fact that we need to be conscious of possessing a healthy balance between the feminine and masculine. The young man in this DM who realized his connection with nature and the planet reminds me of rudimentary mystical experiences described in the psychological classic by William James, (1902), The Varieties of Religious experience. This DM states: I began to remember those precious occasions when I have marveled at, or simply been in awe of the wonder nature of our planet—times when I have just sat silently and gazed in amazement at the beauty of a snow covered Bath landscape, or the beauty of a star-filled night sky.
Thank you Matt for helping us to awaken to the fact that we need to be conscious of possessing a healthy balance between the feminine and masculine. The young man in this DM who realized his connection with nature and the planet reminds me of rudimentary mystical experiences described in the psychological classic by William James, (1902), The Varieties of Religious experience.
Gary, Thank you for your comment and as you mentioned William James’ VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE in your relating to your own experience, l think of Rudloph Otto’s THE IDEA OF THE HOLY…
Cosmology as a discipline of astrophysics requires both scientific and spiritual approaches. The combination of two is a beautiful collision (fusion). }:- a.m.
Dr. Kyle Watters, PhD in cosmology Stanford University
Dr. PatrIck Watters (Dad), D.Min. in spiritual formation Ashland Seminary
SUNRISE
We are artist co-creatorrs
within all of Life
Each beginning day
we take up our tools
brushes, chisels, pens
With Spirit guiding our human hands
for words, images, and thoughts
to share as water and food
for thirsty hungry worlds
We hope for eternity
amidst fleeting, vanishing
temporariness of our world
knowing such hope is hopeless
as life’s shadows lengthen
disappearing into night
Yet joyfully like sun we arise
with each turn of life’s earth
Celebrating in co-creation
sharpening the chisels
washing the brushes
inking the pens
Gratefully
hopefully-joyfully
wholy-holy celebrating
Earth’s sunrise
in our minds and hearts
ron bell
1-4-22
—————
Ron, Thank you for the beautiful and insightful poem!
One of the essential features of the Celestial Masculine archetype is faithfulness to principle and the resulting objectivity of outlook. This quality is clearly shown in the film “A Man for All Seasons” about Saint Thomas More. The highest manifestation of this archetype is the pure, impassive, detached, contemplative Witness.