Big Heart, Big Sky, & Origins of Life in Father Sky

A big heart is generous and has learned how to forgive.  The word “generous” bears within it the word genesis and beginnings.  Beginnings are sacred. 

Psalms 121 | I Will Lift Up My Eyes | Linda Bradley. HopeB4us

A big heart “looks up to the sky” when troubles arise, as the psalmist sings about.  Prayer can be a turning to the mountains and to the vast sky with all the wonders and history it carries within it. 

A big heart calls on the vastness of Father Sky, the first of the archetypes or metaphors that I celebrate in my book on the Return of the Sacred Masculine.

Father Sky is in the news a lot these days.  And for good reason.  The new cosmology and the new science and the awesome and beautiful stories we are learning from the Webb Telescope—and the questions they are posing—should fill us all with humility.  The humility that awe brings.  The humility that our new and common story of creation brings as we begin to ingest the story of cosmogenesis and of the 13.8 billion years of birthing that has brought our earth and sun and moon and life into existence. 

2023 Perseid Meteor Shower and Milky Way Time Lapse, under skies protected from light pollution in Comanche, Texas. Astro Photo Edits

Consider this MSN headline, for example, “The key ingredients for life on Earth came from space, new evidence suggests.”  In other words, they came from Father Sky.  Researcher Rayssa Martins, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, put it this way:  One of the most fundamental questions on the origin of life is where the materials we need for life to evolve came from.”  And “if we can understand how these materials came to be on Earth, it might give us clues to how life originated here and how it might emerge elsewhere.*

New evidence suggests that “the building blocks of life were delivered to the primordial Earth from space by meteorites.”  These meteorites constitute the “fractured remains of early ‘unmelted asteroids,’ and small rocky bodies called planetesimals “that served as the main building blocks of the solar system’s rocky planets,” including Earth.

Urban Stargazers, Hoboken, NY. Photo by Oliver Rich on Flickr.

They were originally formed about 4.6 billion years ago amidst the dust and gas around the infant sun.  By tracking the chemical element zinc in meteorites, scientists found elements or compounds that change into vapor at relatively low temperatures.  Among them are six common chemicals vital for living things, water included.  We have learned that building blocks of life can form rapidly around young stars.*

Let us enter into a regular spiritual practice of looking up to the sky and take in the wondrous gifts of Webb telescope and more in order to contemplate our sacred origins.  Let us learn to be grateful and humble and awe-filled.


* Robert Lea, “The key ingredients for life on Earth came from space, new evidence suggests.” MSN.com.

See Matthew Fox, “Father Sky” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp3-18.

See Fox, The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages.

Banner Image: The Oort Cloud comet, called C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, observed over Southeast Louisiana near New Orleans. It is passing Earth for the first time in documented human history; it was last seen in the night sky 80,000 years ago. Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon


Queries for Contemplation

Does this new information about the origins of life happening in Father Sky open your heart up to greater wonder and awe and gratitude for the existence of so many kinds of life on our Earth?  Does it announce a new link between Mother Earth and Father Sky for you?  Does it invite us to look beyond our human agendas in a great act of remembering our origins and growing our souls?


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

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.


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4 thoughts on “Big Heart, Big Sky, & Origins of Life in Father Sky”

  1. The Webb telescope is verifying this new cosmological origin story which scientifically and spiritually connects “us” all in our solar system and the Universe..human and non human. We all can trace our ancestry now to that original stardust… There is interstellar interconnectedness of all creation. . we are all interconnected living on this awesome planet traveling together with our Sun and other planets in our solar system. As humans we must work together locally and worldwide as a unified family. Survivability is possible when communities work together, cooperate, imagine what is best for all. and work together to get there. Knowing the cosmic creation story and where we are now in that story allows us to imagine our future and where we can do better now and for all of our “family” decades to come. Will you be known as a great ancestor? The decisions we make now will determine whether we socially adapt and flourish on a healthy planet
    or continue to have cultural clashes with no solutions. We must, work together, talk with each other, imagine together and decide together what is best for all and then work together to get there. We could be “great ancestors” in the continuing cosmic creation story known as Age of the Anthropocene. Let’s come together and get to work!

  2. Love, love love it — a daily practice — look up at the sky!
    Thank you Matt.
    And for your vision from 1980’s – a new civilization is emerging.
    You are quoted in Brian Swimme’s book – Cosmogenesis – it’s an exciting story of just how you’ve influenced the new story age and how you’ve fathered so many of us who have taken up the work of telling and teaching the new story.
    Gratefully,
    Carol

  3. There was an article in our local paper just this morning that a gigantic meteor hit the earth long before the one that killed the dinosaurs. Life here was mostly microscopic at the time, but the meteor contained iron, phosphorus and other minerals that formed a veritable “soup” that nourished and formed the building blocks of Life.

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