Week of 11/4-9/2024: Responses to the Election & Rituals for Our Grief

November 4, 2024: On Evil, the Sacred, and What is at Stake in this Election
We list what is at stake in this election: this sacred Earth, the animals and the habitat in which they dwell, women and their basic human rights, men and children, our democracy, justice. The following issues stand out: climate change, giant agribusiness destroying the planet, billionaires running our political system, and women’s right to make decisions about their own body. Please, vote wisely.

November 5, 2024: Trump, Evil and the 7 Capital Sins and 7 Distorted Chakras
In Matthew’s book, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society, he compares the 7 chakras of the East to the 7 capitol sins of the West to come to a deeper understanding of Evil.  Here is how the chakras, when distorted, pertain to Trump. The root chakra is about connection to the universe and the Earth. It’s opposite is arrogance and narcissism. Trump is a narcissist. The second chakra is about our sexuality, which is a beautiful and life-affirming thing except in the case of predators like Trump. The third chakra, when off-balance, is about violence. Trump has repeatedly threatened those who disagree with him, often using violent imagery, threatening to put them in prison and even to execute them. The fourth chakra is about the heart, about love, about compassion. Trump preaches hatred; he dehumanizes people. The fifth chakra is about the throat and about the truth we give voice to. Trump is known to be a compulsive liar and his biggest lie was his proclamation that the election of 2020 was stolen. The sixth chakra is about intuition. Trump’s skill is propaganda. The crown chakra is about Oneness. Trump is about division. The choice is clear this Election Day.

November 6, 2024: Election Day and My Father’s Birthday
Written on the morning of Election Day, Matthew reflects on his father, who was born November 5th. He voted Republican most of his life. Matthew remembers how disgusted he was by Nixon’s actions. He would be appalled by the lack of character exhibited in Trump. Matthew describes his fathers as “what they used to call a man’s man.” He escaped poverty and the Irish ghetto by way of a football scholarship to Villanova. Then he coached at the University of Wisconsin. He had a strong sense of moral conscience and took seriously his responsibility to mold young men. On the day of Matthew’s first Mass his father said to him, “This is the happiest day of my life.” He died shortly before Matthew was silenced by the Church. All agreed it was a blessing he hadn’t lived to see that.

November 7, 2024: Election 2024: The Day After
Today is a very dark day—to put it mildly—for America and democracy and the future of Mother Earth and her creatures and the world. Here is one of several despondent emails Matthew received: I’m pulverized. White privileged women voted for him. It’s the propaganda and uninformed and uncaring people. I shudder for my grandchildren and Ukraine and the planet and all I’ve fought for. Propaganda and fear and Anti-Christ indeed. The billionaires are running this country.  (70-year-old white grandmother) Fascism and violence have pervaded our country. One person who participates in the monthly meetings of Order of the Sacred Earth felt the despair, acknowledged the fear, and then wisely said: We are being driven to a deeper spirituality. One that sustains us at the edge of existence.

November 8, 2024: Grief Rituals for a Time of Rupture, Distress & Rising Fascism
Years ago, when Matthew was going through a profound grief experience, a shaman told him about a grief ritual he could do. Matthew teaches us that there are three layers to grief: 1) Anger and rage. 2) Sorrow. 3) Letting go. This ritual addresses all three aspects. First, get a drum and beat it daily for 15 minutes, as hard as you want, while releasing any sound that has been bottled up inside. Do not limit or restrict yourself in any way. Beat the drum as hard as you want, wail, cry, yell, keen….Eventually, after many days of this ritual, you will feel complete and ready to move on. Matthew also recommends art, dance, poetry, and other acts of creativity as a way to process our grief. Finally, Meister Eckhart tells us, “We sink eternally from letting go to letting go into the One.”

November 9, 2024: Reflections & Responses to Election 2024
One of the wisest responses to this election came, as expected, from Thom Hartmann, in an essay called “The Billionaires won: The 50-Year War on Democracy That Built Trump’s Oligarchy and Killed the American Dream.” Hartmann outlines this war on democracy, but ultimately insists that “this is not the end….Hitting bottom often begins the process of renewal.” He calls on America to “speak out and fight for a democracy uncorrupted by the morbidly rich.” * Here are some excerpts from the comments made to recent DMs: It’s such a sad day.…I fear that our local Italian fascists are mild compared to Trump, but they will reinforce each other for sure. The pull by fascists to divide Europe will be strong. Such a sad day. (Italian citizen, friend and theologian) This is the darkest day in my life as an American.…I thought of our founders, the writers of our precious Constitution.  I wonder if they are crying at what has become of our blessed America….Please tell us Matthew, how do we go forward when this man will try to overthrow the very foundation of our country? (Rosalie)

*Hartmann, Thom. “The 50-year war on democracy that built Trump’s oligarchy and killed the American dream.” Raw Story, November 6, 2024.

Banner image: Pro-America, Anti-Trump. Photo by Dan Keck on Flickr.

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

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.

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug

In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.”  ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.