Last night’s fulsome finale to the DNC Convention culminating in Kamala Harris’s powerful speech was a moving event. I felt the message that Pete Buttigieg delivered about a “new politics” happening before our eyes. The energy that a politics of Joy and Justice brings was palpable.
I received a note this morning from a friend who said she went to bed last night crying with hope and possibilities dancing in her head.
Michelle Obama urged us three nights ago to “Do something” to make this election end successfully. I feel my contribution is my new book born of a 1503 fresco painting in Orvieto, Italy, of “The Antichrist.” Birthing a new book and rushing it into print all within two months has been a challenge for sure, but it is my effort to do something useful. Thus its title and subtitle, Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
After Kamala Harris was chosen in the virtual nominating process and after she invited Tim Walz to join her as her running mate, I added an Appendix to the book which I previously thought was finished. The Appendix is called “MAGA’s Precarious Manhood vs. Authentic Masculinity” and it came out of the Republican National Convention which seemed to me to be especially beholden to a patriarchal and yesteryear version of masculinity.
Following are the final paragraphs of the Appendix, and the book therefore:
To move beyond Patriarchy is to move to a world where caring is more a value than scaring; love than fear; joy than hatred; peace than war. This move begins in the human heart but does not stay there: it moves into society and reaches into politics.
Perhaps it is becoming incarnated at this moment in the person of a potentially first woman president in Kamala Harris who carries the energy of a strong and accomplished woman and in her running mate, Tim Waltz. The former can represent the strong feminine. And the latter can represent the healthy masculine, for his track record in politics is not one of shaming and grievance and anger, but of working with others out of a caring for others. Good teachers and coaches and congress people and governors develop the habits and virtues that bring about such transformation. Joy follows from a commitment to such values. And joy is contagious as well as energizing.
Chapter 8 in the book is a reflection on Hildegard of Bingen’s amazing (and almost x-rated) painting and commentary of the Antichrist and I call it “Hildegard of Bingen: The Antichrist as Patriarchy.”
In contrast to a “precarious manhood” so evident in the Republican party of our day, I heard in Kamala Harris’ speech last night the deep presence of the Black Madonna who brings forward elements of love and joy, battling and peace, grief and celebration and support of the poor. As well as a fierceness that accompanies it all and gets the job done.
To be continued.
See Matthew Fox, “The Sacred Marriage of Masculine and Feminine: The Green Man and the Black Madonna,” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 221-248.
And Fox, Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, pp. 99-104, 81-84.
Banner image: Kamala Harris with anonymous young woman at “Linking Together: March to Save Our Care” Rally at the U.S. Capitol on June 28, 2017. Democratic leaders speak to defend “Obamacare” and replace efforts to replace it with a Trump alternative. By Mobilus in Mobili on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you sense a connection between Kamala Harris and the fierce energy and justice agenda of the Black Madonna?
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
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
5 thoughts on “Kamala Harris, the Black Madonna, & Trump’s Yesteryear’s Masculinity”
Thank you, Matthew, for leading us to see what is truly valuable in this election. You bring forth the input of others who have important things to say and blend them into this perspective on our times ~ Bless the work.
The Madonna is not of colour. The Madonna’s most prominent qualities are humility and obedience before the living God. That becomes Her source of love, mercy and power within the Dominion. The Madonna in the light of her covenance, does not want or need our accolades, only desires our love to the ‘All in All’. To compare any nation’s Presidential candidate to the Madonna does not do justice to either the candidate or the Madonna. — BB.
Yes! We hopefully are witnessing and experiencing a time of personal, social, and planetary spiritual transformation of the death of the unbalanced, destructive patriarchal age we have been in a long time, and the Renewal/Rebirth of the Divine Feminine wedded to the Sacred Masculine in our inner and outer lives with one another, and with Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth and the Cosmos. Our Souls and Humanity continue Our ongoing evolution within the Cosmos with the Grace of the LOVING Diverse ONENESS~COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS of Our SOURCE~CREATOR….
Hello from Canada where we watch and pray for our neighbour and friend. I am reminded of “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…goodness…” When I see someone embodying these spirits it is cause for rejoicing and it is INFECTIOUS! In the Genesis story, the first act of creation was the Spirit moving on the waters of chaos (what spirits am I spreading in my world). The first creative command was “to LET”, no struggling or forcing, but allowing the space for the Light to shine. There is no need to put anyone on a pedestal, but instead the need is to joyously give thanks for the Light they are shining, and to let a corresponding light in me shine forth in my world and keep spreading the love and joy wherever I am.
I would hope that Kamala will carry through the fierce energy and justice agenda, as much as is humanly possible for any politician, who must deal with constant pressure from various special interest groups. It is sad that no Palestinian Americans were on the dais or who got to speak, but there was acknowledgement of the protests by at least one speaker, that they had a point. I hope that she continues to inspire, especially young people and women, that there can be a different way. There needs to be a constant emphasis that the former president is weak, but dangerous, and that real masculinity is manifested in the qualities of Walz. It is not a good idea, in my opinion, to idealize her. The vision of America as the most powerful nation in the world and the leader of the world was clearly enunciated. If Kamala is elected, she will be the Commander in Chief of all the armed forces and no doubt will continue the policies of colonial occupation, with our troops in way too many parts of the world. It is nice to think some of this will change, but she would have to deal with all the hawks on both sides of the aisle. Still, I pray that we have a chance of electing someone with integrity.