Week of 10/7-12/2024: Father Sky, Hurricane Milton, Opus Dei

October 7, 2024: Surprise! A Second New Book—This One for Kids
Matthew was surprised at the timing of the publication of his other new book, The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages. It arrived right on the heels of Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ. The energies of the books are so different—the first about sacred masculinity and the second about evil; the first for children and the second for adults. But then Matthew remembered that the appendix for the MAGA book was called “MAGA’s Precarious Manhood vs. Authentic Masculinity.” Aha! There’s the correlation. The Return of Father Sky, written at the urging of a woman who wanted more positive examples of masculinity for children, is part of the antidote for toxic masculinity in our world.  To say nothing of the return of the Sacred that comes with the new cosmology.

The two new books as a yin/yang mirror image of each other. Composite image designed by team member Rosanna Tufts in Canva Pro.

October 8, 2024: Voting Adults, Evil, Cosmology for Kids, Rituals & the Sacred
Matthew says: If it is true that the opposite of Evil is the Sacred, then we want to probe—for children and for adults who read to them—how to spread the word about holiness. In his book Escape from Evil, Ernest Becker Becker praises indigenous cultures whose rituals and ceremonies connect human beings to the powers of the cosmos, thus to Father Sky. Cosmic rituals of the past humanized the heavens and spiritualized the earth and so melted sky and earth together in an inextricable unity. Ritual or ceremony is meant to bring the Sacred alive. As African ritual teacher Malidoma Some observed, “there is no community without ritual.”

October 9, 2024: The Return of Father Sky, a New Cosmology & the Sacred 
Here are some comments by those who have read Matthew’s beautiful new book, The Return of Father Sky. Mystic writer Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism, calls the book “another luminous cosmological tale by master storyteller and theologian, Matthew Fox.” Cosmologist Brian Swimme responded this way: Drawing upon cosmological science and creation spirituality, Matthew Fox tells the story of the birth and development of the universe in a style that delights and astounds. As a true elder, he is handing over our culture’s deepest wisdom to our youngest humans. Skylar Wilson, co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth says that The Return of Father Sky “is no ordinary children’s book, it’s a portal that awakens the creative powers moving through the child within each of us.”

As above, so below: galaxy or fossil? NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope captures spiral galaxy NGC 628, 32 million light years away.

October 10, 2024: Awaiting Milton, A Paradise Lost? A Letter From the Ground in Florida
The name “Milton” reminded Matthew of John Milton, author of the epic poem, Paradise Lost.  Global warming and the denial of it threatens the near paradise that Earth has been. As the U.S. awaits the arrival of a hurricane reported to be of epic proportions, we reflect on the thoughts of DM team member, Cynthia Greb, who is visiting her sister in Florida. She reports that she is sitting outside in the pre-dawn hours praying: Praying for the animals, the people, the trees…. Praying for those who are homeless. Praying for those who don’t have a car in which to evacuate, or money for gas. Praying for those who have no friends or family to stay with and who cannot afford a motel…. Praying for those still trying to recover from the devastation of the last hurricane…. Praying for this dear beleaguered planet and all the people doing their best to ride through the challenges of their lives….

October 11, 2024: Before/After Milton from the Ground in Florida
We share a few more thoughts from DM team member, Cynthia Greb, reporting from Florida. Before the hurricane’s arrival she said she believes sometimes we may unconsciously get excited about “biggest, baddest, worst” which may energetically add to the frenzy of the storm. Perhaps, instead, we can: Allow for the possibility of it getting weaker. Allow for the possibility of it changing course. Allow for the possibility of it being “not too bad.” She encourages us to “imagine a better case scenario.” The next day, Cynthia reported: I know Florida is not unscathed, and there were some fatalities due to tornadoes, sadly, but by and large I think we witnessed a miracle. To go from a Category 5 to a 3 and then a 2 is just incredible. I truly believe it was due to so many people praying. Helene woke us up to the catastrophe that was possible, and because we didn’t want it to happen again, we rallied with big time prayers.

NBC News‘ Ellison Barber talks to Bill Nye about how climate change has affected Hurricane Milton, future hurricane seasons and voting for the environment. 

October 12, 2024: Opus Dei, MAGA, the Dark Money Cult & 2024 Election
Matthew teaches us that the rise of Christian nationalism is not solely due to evangelicals but to the pervasive influence of Opus Dei. It began with the papacy of JP II that linked up with the far-right CIA of the day to bury liberation theology operating in South America. Matthew wrote about this in The Pope’s War. Now Gareth Core, a British financial journalist, has released the best book ever written on Opus Dei. It’s called Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.  It is 450 pages of solid research and clear storytelling of the takeover of American politics. The best way to change this narrative? VOTE for the alternative!


Banner image: “Whatipu Rainbow” by Chris Gin on Flickr. Creative Commons.


Recommended Reading

The Return of Father Sky

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet.

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.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved

The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The final section in the book focuses on birthing a truly catholic Christianity.
“This book should be read by everybody, not only for its ferocious courage, but also for its vision for what needs to be saved from the destructive forces that threaten authentic Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope.
“In the gripping The Pope’s War, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering look at the layers of corruption in the Catholic Church, holding moral truth against power.”   — Jason Berry, author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II

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

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

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1 thought on “Week of 10/7-12/2024: Father Sky, Hurricane Milton, Opus Dei”

  1. May God’s Spirit of LOVE~LIGHT~LIFE — Peace, Truth, Wisdom, Justice, Healing, Transformation, Freedom, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS continue growing in the hearts and lives of all our sisters, brothers, and living creatures in our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….

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