The Divine Mother represents a revolution in values. We need a revolution in values.
We have been running on patriarchal “values” for long enough, values that appeal to the reptilian brain of power-over and domination, of “I win, you lose.” Or “my country wins, yours loses”. Or “our empire wins, you lose.” Or “our species wins, you lose.” Or “power and might wins, others lose”. Or “the rich and powerful win, others lose”. Etc., etc.
One of the gifts of sports—this week culminates in the super bowl after all—is that humans have found ways to play with our reptilian brains—which is so much smarter than to make war with our reptilian brains and spend obscene amounts of money on making war with one another.
The fear of the feminine rages even though much progress in women’s rights has occurred in our lifetimes. The rise of fascism is very much related to the repression of the feminine and the exaltation of the ideology of power for power’s sake.
Yearning for a “strongman” is one sign of the patriarchal sickness called fascism.
Fascism represents a patriarchal backlash to advances of justice and fairness toward women brought about by the women’s movement of our time; and to the gay movement; and to trans people, a minority of a minority; and to Black Lives Matter movements; and to the suffering of Mother Earth, Gaia and the movement to preserve her.
Fascism is “institutional violence” as Susan Sontag has made clear. It is the majority wanting to overpower minorities whether they be racial minorities or sexual minorities. It is sick; it is dangerous; it is deadly, mortal sin on steroids embedded into institutions.
Pope Francis, whose people fled Italy in the 1930’s because of rising fascism, ought to write an encyclical on how Fascism, an ideology of hate and power-over, is incompatible with everything Jesus taught and lived and died for.
He who died at the hands of the Roman Empire for preaching love, compassion and justice–disturbed the Empire’s version of peace. No wonder his story and teachings capture the moral imaginations of people the world over.
See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. xxxviii-xliv, 297-299.
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
And Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
Banner Image: Urban Black Madonna, Kensington Market, Toronto. Photo by Eric Parker on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree we need a revolution in values? And that the Divine Mother who puts compassion first is a symbol of such a revolution in our time?
Recommended Reading
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
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
8 thoughts on “The Revolution in Values the Cosmic Mother Represents”
Today’s Daily Meditation contrasts the evil of fascism with the ‘good’ of the Holy Mother’s values. The simple answers to the simple and leading questions in the ‘Queries for Contemplation’, would be Yes and Yes.
Do we understand that patriarchy is supported by large numbers of women? If the Holy Mother and Divine Feminine has endowed them with freedom of thought and action, why then have they not taken up on that? You will see large numbers of women attending the rallies and events in support of right and very far right ideologies. Their values, as we speak today, are being passed down to the next generation that are under their ‘wings’. Please don’t tell me that they are ‘hostages’ to the males in their families.
The revolution comes from exhibiting the values that ‘unbind us from hate and exclusion’ and include us, include others, and show us how we belong in love’s embrace and protection. — BB.
Thank you Bill.
Women Blacks Jews LGBTQ+ have been marginalized and persecuted for centuries. All of these ‘humans’, when liberated, can display the same dark/evil behaviors as alpha males, some of whom actually exhibit wisdom and compassion…….
Apparently every fetus is female for the first six weeks. A burst of testosterone creates the male. I heard once that the evolutionary purpose of creating ‘males’ was to create diversity. I don’t know if it is that simple. It does seem clear that diversity is humanity’s biggest challenge, the ultimate stumbling block, one that leads to extreme violence against every perceived ‘other.’ Jesus’ last words were ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do…’ But what does it mean to forgive Hitler Putin Trump and current female wannabe authoritarian leaders striving to march humanity lock step down the road to annihilation, like ‘lemmings running over a cliff’ ?
Yes! Yes! All of us on our daily spiritual journeys need to be more open in our hearts/Souls to the PRESENCE and FLOW of the SPIRIT of the Divine Feminine~Cosmic Mother — DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM~TRUTH~PEACE~JUSTICE~HEALING~TRANSFORMATION~CREATIVITY~BEAUTY~JOY~COMPASSION~DIVERSE ONENESS… — in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT
MOMENT….
I agree
I wholeheartedly agree we need a revolution in values, and that the Divine Mother is a perfect symbol of that. The Holy Mother is a protector; this would mean she has great strength and power, to protect all who turn to Her. Intuition, emotions are also part of her domain. Taylor Swift’s music is the epitomy of those qualities. In the You Tube videos, even the female panelist ignored her music, instead saying the crux of the matter was that the young aggressive boys may have “been jealous and wanted Taylor for themselves”. That is doubly sexist by nullifying Taylor’s amazing art, and adroitly reducing her to a sex-object stereotype! Many women are chauvenists. They are deeply afraid of losing the little that they have, since they long ago accepted that they are less than; and their accomplishments should just be ignored because they are irrelevant anyway. Thanks for the amazing essay, Matthew, and also access to the 2 great You Tube videos.
We are witnessing the rampant utilization of violent attacks in a mob mentality that gleefully destroys norms and breaks laws. And this violence is praised and showcased in the mainstream press (it makes money for them!), while every moral commandment and Constitutional law is gleefully violated, and any outrage over their actions is mocked as “woke/weak” and “Dem/lib'” as if morals and laws were merely signs or badges of party affiliation, to be opposed along party lines in solidarity with “their side.”
This is a MOB mentality, the permission violators give themselves to do horrible things “because he/she/they” are “also doing it.” FACT: violent attackers (of the Italian mob) who were with others (co-attackers) during their 1st-time attacks were 3 times more likely to re-offend violently than those who did so alone. It’s easier to “justify” viciousness when someone else does it. too — a mutually infectious disease of cruelty.
If people aren’t taught to internalize and deeply commit to the morals and ideals of goodness, honesty, equality, mutual obligations, and honor, in whatever form they take (Jesus as exemplar; Mary/Mother Goddess; the Constitution, etc.), they’ll make excuses to break all the laws and norms they can get away with.
And if we (continue to) allow elites and corporations to get away with massive corruption, we let thieves and thugs be our most powerful and prominent exemplars.
Female emancipation, like racial freedom, was a pretty little bauble to crusade with, but neither ever was taken seriously. Racism never left the country and female autonomy has always been blocked.
The feminist movement may claim that it secured equal pay (it did not) and equal opportunities for education (sometimes), but it was an overall failure because it sought not to elevate **women** but to make women into minime men—anyone else remember those hideous brooks brothers suits for women that looked like a sadistic designer’s idea of a nun’s habit. These atrocious garments were designed to try to make women look like very unattractive men because if they were going to work in a “man’s job” they needed to look the part.
Obviously we need today, and have for 5000 years, a revolution.
The Cosmic order and chaos is the global systemic injustice we all participate in . Knowing what we are doing, is not the same as Knowing what we do. Forgiveness is for the Cosmic injustice of the world not knowing what it does. One blue planet ???? is unjust. The signs are self importance as Hydrogen is conscious it is the most important chemical in the universe. This then gives Hydrogen the power over the Cosmic order. The chaos that has evolved in the complexity of the human form creates great wealth in property, articles of great value and money. The only way forward is foe us to participate less and less. In doing so we know what we do. The Spirit of consciousness will guide us towards the truth that the Tree of Life in its fullness will Renew the Face of the Earth.