I am sharing a letter I wrote 17 years ago to my brother men as part of our reflection on finding the healthy masculine. The need for this hit me hard with the latest election results, where young men especially chose an election denier and global warming denier and instigator of attacking a democratic ritual of counting electors on January 6, 2020.
We left off with the following observation: I talk of the hidden spirituality of men because I think most of us have a kind of inferiority complex when it comes to spirituality.
We think some minister or preacher, some pope or monk, some professional pray-er knows all about spirituality and we are just novices kneeling to hear their wisdom and kiss their ring. While we can hope that our ‘professional pray-ers’ know something about spirituality, that is not the point.
The point is that spirituality (unlike much organized religion) is about the wisdom we all carry inside of us: The dreams, the aspirations, the yearning of soul, the ability to let go, to forgive, to move on, to struggle, to survive, to care, to be strong, to honor what is beautiful and what matters.
We all carry these things inside us. We have all tasted the Divine—maybe it was on a camping trip out at night with the stars; maybe while studying the history of our people; or nature; maybe it was in making music or dancing or making love; or in organizing for worker’s rights or civil rights. Wherever the best of us has been called forward, that is where Spirit dwells. And it dwells and works in each of us.
But we have to dig to access it. We have to go deeper than talk about the weather or the Mets or the A’s or the Super Bowl or the stock market to get down to where spirituality truly lives and breathes inside of us. For it is hidden. We are not rewarded for “going there.” For going down.
We have to change our ways. We have to want to find the hidden parts of ourselves. Otherwise, how will we change? How will our species change? How will our species survive if we don’t become hunter gatherers for the best in ourselves?
It is from this depth that our creativity will come alive and we will find ways to create alternative energies and more participatory politics and more fair economics and more ways to grow and distribute food and alternatives to war and more ways to celebrate life.
Our depths are often hidden even from ourselves. But they are there. We all carry depths within us. We need to remove the veils in order to uncover what is in us. How do we do that?
I propose ten metaphors that are very ancient, so ancient that they live in us as archetypes, that is as universal names of traits all of us carry within us. I have just named one of those archetypes—that of hunter-gatherer.
Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times.
And Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times.
And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: Men enjoying the mountains together. Photo by Anand Thakur on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
A Native American prison chaplain told me he was looking for 12 years for a book that would get men in prison to “look inside” and find the “nobility inside.” And that he found it in this book on ten archetypes of the sacred masculine. Do you “find the nobility inside” and assist others to do so?
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 Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.
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
4 thoughts on “Hidden Spirituality of Men: A Word to My Brothers, Part II”
Finding the ‘nobility inside’ is no more than to have respect for oneself. Without respect for oneself and the human – divine condition, one cannot respect another. Some leaders emotionally charge their followers not to respect others and they end up living in disrespect for themselves and live lives devoid of compassion. A cup devoid of compassion becomes for us a drink of poisonous hate. Does it serve ourselves to unknowingly poison ourselves? — BB.
Yes! I try on my spiritual journey to integrate and share consciously my unique human and Divine natures, as exemplified by the mystics and saints in human history, with the help and guidance of Our LOVING and Creative SOURCE~CREATOR within, through, among Us physically and nonphysically in All Our Spiritual Realms and in LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS in the Sacred LOVING Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Dear Matt and team,
You have been a mentor and spiritual guide for me for more than 40 years. I’m especially grateful for your writing the book the hidden spirituality of men.
I’m in the midst of overwhelming grief and outrage. For my sanity sake I’m doing my best to avoid any references to the Antichrist. I’m telling myself to trust God and that somehow his/her plan is for good. Do you believe that this is true?
The men I know or have known, have all been struggling very hard. They definitely need the book.
Matthew’s letter to his brothers was beautiful and radically clear, to the point. Thank you for sharing it.
I haven’t had internet for a few months now, where I live, so it’s trickier to keep in touch with this website/community. I hope to get online in the coming weeks. Namaste!