In addressing the pitifully unmasculine and therefore dangerous religion that promotes either bullying or anal-retentive legalism, we encouraged canon lawyers and those who commit such idolatries to get a life. A spiritual life. A mystical life.
To recover the mystic in oneself, that deep self that unites to the whole, to the wonder and awe and amazement of being alive. Of being part of a 13.8 billion year journey that awakens the soul to wonder and reverence and gratitude.
Thus, to practice the experience of Father Sky.
We also called for practicing the experience and/or archetype of the Blue Man who, for both Swami Muktananda in the East and Hildegard of Bingen in the West, awakes our inner powers of art and creativity, healing and compassion. Such a consciousness grows and extends to all of the universe.
Hildegard’s painting of the Blue Man, who is the healing Christ in all of us, clearly offers an archetype of compassion, the heart energy of love extending to the outstretched arms and hands that put compassion to work. (Notice that the figure’s left knee is bent as if getting read to run into the action of compassion.)
It follows that nurturing the Blue Man in us and practicing art and creativity that serves compassion by serving others, is a practice of the Sacred Masculine.
Both Swami Muktananda and Hildegard of Bingen experienced the Blue Man (and the Blue Pearl) while meditating. Meditating is another way to feed the healthy masculine. After all, it calms the reptilian brain.
Connect your experience of Father Sky (after all, the sky is blue) and your expansion of consciousness to a fuller awareness of the Blue Man that is within you. What communities are you connected to that challenge or support your expansion of consciousness?
Do you see yourself as an artist? Do you agree with Navajo painter, healer and shaman David Paladin that “if you can talk, you are an artist”? In what ways are you developing the artist in you?
Is creativity a priority in your life and work and relationships, your parenting and citizenship? If not, why not? What can you do to make it so? To be continued
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors for Awakening the Sacred Masculine, pp. 304f.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “The Time of His Life” by Michael Paredes, on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
What additional practices can you foster to develop the Blue Man Archetype, rendering it alive and well in yourself and others?
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
6 thoughts on “More Practices to Regain the Healthy, Sacred Masculine”
Matthew, Besides your “Query for Contemplation (which I will respond to last),” you have raised a couple of other questions in your meditation which I would like to respond to. (1) You ask: “What communities are you connected to that challenge or support your expansion of consciousness?” For over 20 years I have been nurtured by “Spiritwind,” the Creation Spirituality Community I formed after graduating from the University of Creation Spirituality with my Doctor of Ministry degree. Spiritwind is a place where we meet every Tuesday evening for an hour, to study a topic touching on World Religions, various mystical traditions, and philosophies , and virtually all and any spiritual path–all in an effort to nurture a spirit of Deep Ecumenism. (2) You ask: “Do you see yourself as an artist?” I would have to answer that I do see myself as an artist. I am an abstract painter, an author, and a singer songwriter. And it all makes my life very rich! And finally, now for your “Query for Contemplation”: You ask: “What additional practices can you foster to develop the Blue Man Archetype, rendering it alive and well in yourself and others?” Because you say that the Blue Man is the healing Christ and the compassionate one, I do healing with Reiki, and in doing counseling, and I do compassionate work in visiting the sick and the dying, and walking with them to the point where they make their transition.
I dance within several different communities, that challenge and support my expansion of consciousness. One is this Mathew Fox website, others are Richard Rohr’s, and Henri Nouwen’s, as well as The Shift Network. I also drum with a core circle of friends that I’ve been apart of for many years, praying and singing native chants, to celebrate not only the Equinoxes and Solstices, but also helping each other through life’s challenges and changes. I also engage with sisterhood circles, creating and facilitating rituals and ceremonies. Once a year, I also go on spiritual retreat or on a pilgrimage.
I am definetely an artist! I write, paint, sculpt, carve lino cuts and make prints, photograph, play several different musical instruments, write songs and sing. Artistic creativity feeds my soul!
How I honor and express the Archetype of the Blue Man within me is through my ministry work of tending to and caring for the elders within a Retirement Home Community, whom are living out the last season’s of their life and then beyond. I’m big into energy balancing and healing, through sound, light, scent and touch, working with crystal bowls, tuning forks as well as crystals, aromatherapy, reiki and hot rock massage. I choreographed and produced in collaboration with my local cable tv channel, a 12 part series bridging complementary health practices into main stream medicine, to help educate people about energy balancing and healing options available. I’m also a loyal and compassionate friend, whom offers deep relationships to those who desire to engage in this kind of honest, open vulnerability.
Thank you for all your service and the wisdom that you share.
To truly “talk story” as opposed to being storyteller alone requires deep listening. Not just words, but the spaces that hold and convey the inner depths of those we sit in intimacy with. It is indeed an art, a craft honed in humility, vulnerability and availability. It holds the key to true healing, others and our own as well. }:- a.m.
I believe Spirit’s gifts are given that we may share them, each in her own way. I always taught my two kids this. My gift is writing—especially making complex ideas easier to understand. It’s been my life’s work. Earlier, my career was writing and editing language arts textbooks for children—for publishers like Scholastic and National Geographic, focusing on critical thinking skills, environmental education, and multi-culturalism. Now, I am able to focus exclusively on playwriting; and most of my plays incorporate spiritual themes—largely on concepts I’ve learned from you, Matthew. I have the honor of being an artistic member of Theatre Artists Studio in Scottsdale where several of my plays have been produced. And for nine years, in Prescott, AZ, I co-produced readings of works-in-progress, followed by talkbacks during which audiences responded to and discussed ideas in the plays they heard. Prior to that, I helped lead a poetry, music, and discussion forum called The M.A.D. Linguist; and now, for another nine years, I’ve helped guide a different discussion group where we tackle arts, local, and international topics. Engagement. Critical thinking. Relationships with people who think differently than us. (My partner is a Bön Buddhist.) It’s not easy to engage in deep thinking, and often conservative thinkers don’t even want to engage with deep ecumenism, but several of my friends and I keep trying to engage them. This too is creative work. For me, theatre is a key way to do that because you catch people off guard when you present creative work. Before they know it, people are thinking more deeply and perhaps with more unitive consciousness about things they never thought they would consider.
I’m loving hearing of all the things that you are all doing from a artistic perspective, with creativity being part of the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality–the Via Creativa is not just the path of creativity it is also the spiritual path of the artist within us all…