November 25, 2024: The Hidden Spirituality of Men: A Word to my Brothers
Seventeen years ago, Matthew wrote The Hidden Spirituality of Men. He shares a letter he wrote then that feels as timely now as it did then. (He amended it a bit to reflect the different timeline.) He said, “Our species is in trouble, and we men are a big part (not the only part) of that trouble.” Matthew said that many men spend so much time and money working and buying stuff that it becomes difficult to be “our real selves, our best selves, our most beautiful selves.” One gentleman, after hearing Matthew lecture on this topic, came up to him and said: You are right. I am far too addicted to television and sports on television. I am wasting my life away on the couch. I really want to get going and contribute. Matthew speaks of the hidden spirituality of men because he thinks most men have a kind of inferiority complex when it comes to spirituality.
November 26, 2024: Hidden Spirituality of Men: A Word to My Brothers, Part II
The need for this letter to men is greater than ever because young men, especially, chose to vote for an election denier, a climate change denier, and a man who tried to overthrow our own government. Most men probably think that ministers, priests, and monks know how to do “this spirituality thing,” but that the rest of us are just novices. But actually, spirituality is about the wisdom we carry inside of ourselves: 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. But we have to go deeper than talking about the weather or Super Bowl or stock market. Spirituality lives inside of us, and unfortunately, society does not reward us for “going there.”
November 27, 2024: The Hidden Spirituality of Men: A Word to My Brothers, Part III
In Matthew’s book The Hidden Spirituality of Men, he speaks of ten archetypes, the first of which is the hunter/gatherer. Says Matthew: Our species was full-time hunter-gatherer for 90% of its existence. So we have it in our DNA. But what are we hunting and gathering for today? A better job, mate, parking space? What if we took that energy and used it for more noble purposes? Another archetype is Father Sky. For a long time we were taught that the sky was inert, full of parts that are cold and dead. But now we know the sky is ALIVE, a new star is being born every 15 seconds! Another archetype is the Green Man, which represents our intimate relationship with nature and our generativity and creativity. These are just a few of the metaphors of the healthy masculine that can nourish us at this critical time in human and planetary history.
November 28, 2024: A Prayer on Thanksgiving Day, 2024, a la Julian of Norwich
Matthew begins this DM: “This is surely the most difficult Thanksgiving of my 83 years of spinning around the sun.” One shudders and grieves and rages and fears about what is in store for America and the Earth…when an elected antichrist and serial liar…takes over the reins of government. To find the reasons for our thanks, we have to “seek the deepness,” as Julian of Norwich puts it. Let us give thanks for our existence, for Creation, the universe, the cosmos, the beauty of Mother Earth. For all the creatures, which Thomas Merton calls “saints.” For our ancestors. May we be an “original blessing,” bringing goodness into the holy circle of existence.
November 29, 2024: The Hidden Spirituality of Men: A Word to My Sisters
Matthew is following up on his letter to men with “a word to my sisters.” Women can play a very important role in helping men to reclaim their hidden spirituality. More than ever we need to criticize the models and metaphors in which we train our boys to be men. What serves a healthy earth, for example? And healthy relationships? And effective rites of passage? Toxic views of masculinity have prevailed in so many cultures since Patriarchy and Domination replaced Partnership as a cultural norm (language from Riane Eisler). Both women and men have suffered from patriarchy.
November 30, 2024: A Word To My Sisters, continued
If women truly love the men in their lives, they will want to assist them in their own liberation. Similarly, healthy men who love women are not threatened by their gains. Because all women have a masculine side, and all men a feminine, both genders may be unconsciously carrying around a toxic masculinity as a result of the matrix we’ve been living in for thousands of years. The archetypes of Father Sky and the Green Man and the spiritual warrior (not a soldier) can help us reclaim the values that matter as we revision our society. We are in this together—all genders, all races, all ages. Let’s create a healthier world.
Banner image: “Under the Rainbow – Optimism. The rainbow… is a magical symbol all over the world. It represents hope, luck, blessings, wealth and health and many more good things. The rainbow represents the contract between heaven (God) and earth (man) and the final union of the two. Psychologically the unification of Self and Ego.” Image by Hartwig HKD on Flickr.
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
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
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond
Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.
“What an utterly magnificent book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the heart of the eco-spiritual truth that all life breathes together.” –Caroline Myss
Now also available as an audiobook HERE.
1 thought on “Week of 11/25-30/2024: A Letter to Men & A Letter to Women”
GOD’S DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM Blesses All of Our Sisters and Brothers and All Spiritual Beings in Our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth and in all Our multidimensional/multiverse creative evolving Cosmos in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….