A succinct but wise video from Tara Sullivan came my way recently. She is a graduate of our Creation Spirituality program, and I am proud of her as I am of so many of our graduates.
It concerns the current news around the Epstein tapes that, for some untold reason, the Trump administration is taking immense efforts to cover up, obfuscate, and shut down—with, of course, the sycophant support of congressional majority leader Mr. Johnson, who loves to wear his (peculiar version of) Christianity on his sleeve.
I give credit to Tara Sullivan for her straightforward and timely advice for those hearing the news of the Epstein assaults from some of his victims. While praising their bravery in coming forward at the recent press conference on the Capitol steps, she also cautions that many victims of sexual assault may very likely have strong responses due to their own deep wounds.
As she points out, the body is a protector, but is also a reminder of past abuse. And to hear parallel stories that are now in the news may well awaken deep and painful memories and even spark moments of disassociation when one wants to leave the body to escape memories of past trauma.
She advises people listening to this difficult news to take care of themselves. Self-care is paramount in times like these, when hearing how Epstein assaulted over 1,000 girls, and with the complicity of Ghislaine Maxwell. How she, who has been transferred from a prison to a softer confinement following nine hours of conversations with the president’s personal lawyer, Todd Blanche. And how he, now a top member of the DOJ, gave her a green light to continue lying about her part in the crimes that got her a 20-year prison sentence in the first place.
As Sullivan makes clear, such stories are sure to trigger pain in one-third of the female population, one-fourth of the male population, and 50% of the trans population that were at one time victims of sexual assault.
Tara counsels body therapy to remain in one’s body, walking barefoot on Mother Earth, getting a massage, or eating. Taking care of one’s body.
I am reminded of a male student in our master’s program a number of years ago who came to me following an art as meditation course in massage. In the class, something amazing happened to him. He remembered something he had kept hidden from himself for over 35 years: That as a six-year-old child, an aunt who babysat for him sexually abused him every Friday. Doing and receiving massage in the art as meditation class brought the truth back.
When he graduated from our program a few months later, he was 20 years younger than the day he entered—he almost skipped away, he was so liberated.
Let us thank our bodies for their love for us and their willingness to protect us in our most vulnerable times. Also, let us thank them for sticking with us through thick and thin.
Just as we thank these brave women who stood up to tell all of us what they have been through and to demand that our congressional representatives let the truth come out: That the true story of people like Epstein and his many accomplices come out. This way, the victims can find some peace.
And potential victims may be protected from his many accomplices in high places.
As Tara assures us, healing is possible. And justice too. And compassion to self and others. As Meister Eckhart says, “compassion begins at home with one’s own body and one’s own soul.”
See Matthew Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book, pp. 105-116.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
Banner Image: Supporters hold banners at the Epstein survivors’ press conference, U.S. Capitol, 9/3/25. Photo by Victoria Pickering on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you heed Eckhart’s advice that compassion begins at home with one’s own body and one’s own soul? Are you a survivor of sexual abuse or know others who are? Is the teaching in this DM helpful and applicable to you and/or them?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after he died.
“These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
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
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.
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
4 thoughts on “Thanks & Lessons for Epstein Victims & Other Assault Survivors”
Thank you for this, Matthew and team. It is exactly what I needed to read this morning, and your photography selection, perfect.
Thank you for this compassionate post, Matthew.
Yes, to all of your questions. I appreciate the quote, and the reminder of all that my body has endured.
I begin my day in appreciation that healing is possible.
“Compassion begins at home with one’s own body and one’s own soul” Yes 🧡
Thank you, Matt, and Tara for highlighting the triggering aspect of this contemporary awful news. It is such a healing reminder. My own work in raising public awareness began shortly after I graduated from ICCS when, in 1991, Marilyn Van Derbur, Miss America,, disclosed that her father had been molesting her for years. It became acceptable to bring molestation to the public arena. I was an active advocate during my years in Wisconsin, to my own detriment because self-care was yet to become figural. I took me years to recover from those early years. Special thanks to Tara for this reminder and you, Matt, for highlighting it.
YES! Compassion for our bodies and our Souls are essential! Our Eternal Souls Present within our hearts Is the Spark/Sacred Part of Our Source~Co-Creator’s Divine Healing LOVE~WISDOM SPIRIT within and among Us each in Our own unique way in OUR LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS in the Divine Flow of the SACRED PRESENT MOMENT….
As a retired therapist and spiritual guide, besides daily Centering/Contemplative Prayer (contemplativeoutreach.org), I wanted to recommend a good wholistic healing book I recently started reading by Dr. Sue Morter — “The Energy Codes: The 7-Step System to Awaken Your Spirit, Heal Your Body, and Live Your Best Life” (2019).