Week of 1/27-3/1/2025: Conscience, Community Support & Self Care

January 27, 2025: Deep Ecumenism, Spiritual Warriorhood & Humankind’s Future
If one wants to lead a spiritual life, courage is required. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman pipe, has this to tell us: Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind….Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this world. Did you think you were put here for something less? Aquinas also urges us to do great things and to “brave great dangers for great things.” Strength, Conscience and Confidence: These are hallmarks of the prophet so needed at this time.

January 28, 2025: Politicians Sans Conscience: An American Emergency
Speaking of strength and conscience, only three Republicans had the courage to vote down a candidate for Defense Secretary who was clearly unqualified for the job and a danger to the world. MLK Jr, a great spiritual warrior, was once asked how he could march when people wanted to kill him. He responded: “One must love something more than the fear of death if one is to live.” Shame, shame, shame on those lacking the courage to do something so vitally important for our country and the world.

January 29, 2025: More Thoughts on Conscience
Yesterday was the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. This ought to be inspiring us all to act and vote with conscience so that nothing so heinous as Auschwitz ever happens again. One reader yesterday cited Mahatma Gandhi: There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all; that is the voice of conscience …. And Thomas Aquinas: A correct conscience binds absolutely and perfectly against the command of a superior. When there is an abuse of power, not merely is one not bound to obey, one is also bound not to obey, following the martyrs, who suffered death rather than carry out the wicked decrees of tyrants….

January 30, 2025: Democracide on the Move, Rachel Maddow says, “Game On!”
Today we are all being subjected to an onslaught of rapid-fire decisions being made by a new White House occupant who is governing by executive decrees. Part of the strategy is clearly to overwhelm us. In addition, we are being battered with too many unqualified and dangerous nominees for cabinet positions. Rachel Maddow cited Curtis Yarvin, the political blogger behind J.D. Vance, who said explicitly that we need to replace democracy with “a CEO of the government” who is a “dictator.” But in spite of all this darkness, we can make a difference. Already the administration is backpedaling as governors, some politicians and citizens raise their objections. Game on! as Rachel Maddow says.

January 31, 2025: OSE: Community Support in Trying Times
The last Tuesday of the month is when the Order of the Sacred Earth meets. Everyone is invited. (See endnotes for details.) The participants had many inspiring things to share. One woman, recently retired, has been living on a wildlife refuge for 30 years and decided to open it up as a “human refuge” too. One woman told how Palestinians are returning to their wrecked homes but coming back singing.  We, too, can sing, dance, and use energy-cleansing practices. Another chose to volunteer at a soup kitchen and felt “one with everyone there” and found it a fine way to direct her personal power. A couple who visits inmates regularly in a state prison participated recently in a prayer session with prisoners which centered on praying for their children. Everyone wept together. Another invoked the Bhagavad Gita, “Do what you have to do. Let the work unfold.” Community is such a great blessing in these challenging times.

February 1, 2025: Sustaining Your Spiritual Warrior in Times of Darkness
Knowing what’s going on is important, obviously, but one has to protect oneself from excessive overload of bad news. We need to keep informed while guarding our deeper self, our true self. We need to deepen our mystical lives and make room for solitude even as we learn to fight back and resist. Find time to meditate, let go, be emptied. Get outdoors, hike, go walking and spend time in nature. Take in the Via Positiva even while trudging the path of the Via Negativa. As Rilke put it: “Walk your walk of lament on a path of praise.” The more the outer world needs fixing, the more our inner world needs deepening. 

* Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.  Zoom link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478  Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478

Banner image: Joining forces and standing up for what is right. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, on Flickr.

Recommended Reading

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.

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods

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.