I was moved by Gianluigi’s fine meditations on Trees this past week, and by the wise Comments that followed on them from the readers of these daily meditations. I am moved to return to the chapter on “The Green Man” archetype in my book on ten metaphors for recovering a healthy masculinity.
Given the obscene direction that Secretary of War (his naming) Pete Hegseth and MAGA and the president who calls climate change a “hoax,” want to take our country in, responding and incorporating the Green Man archetype seems especially pressing today. And given the “precarious manhood” so evident in MAGA.
A classic work on the Green Man is that by poet William Anderson and photographer Clive Hicks called The Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth. “Our oneness with the Earth.”* Do we have oneness with the Earth these days? How is our oneness with the Earth going? Those who pretend that fossil fuels are king while busily dismantling alternative forms of energy such as wind and solar—and sad to say this includes the MAGA president and the entire MAGA congress—are rupturing our oneness with the Earth.
Why? To buddy up with fossil fuel billionaires to assure a steady flow of cash for their elections and their wallets, I guess. I do wonder how such people can look their children and grandchildren in the face. Or even look in a mirror for that matter.
The Green Man, like trees themselves, links Earth to Sky, thus both Mother Earth and Father Sky unite in trees and in the Green Man archetype.
Writer Fred Hageneder, in his powerful book, The Spirit of Trees, comes to the conclusion that “trees are the most successful life forms on Earth”** and the most dominant ones ever since they appeared over 30 million years ago. Tropical rainforests form “the richest ecosystems in existence, providing habitat for the widest variety of species,” except for the oceans themselves, which of course birthed plants and by extension trees.
He underscores how trees “are fundamental to weather and climate, for a beneficial water cycle; for the development of minerals; for balancing the electrical chargers between the ionosphere and the Earth’s surface and for the maintenance of the Earth’s magnetic field as a whole.”
What are trees made of? Mostly sunlight. “Light courses through its structure, navigating vital processes and maintaining the balance and health of the whole organism….The tree produces a continuous light show from its very cells.”
Trees are like “cosmic antennae” and radiation from supernovas have been shown to influence tree growth. Scientists who studied a 807-year-old juniper tree in Tajikstan found that the tree’s annual rings slowed down with each known date of three supernovas. So we can say that trees perceive “every star that dies in our galaxy.”
Our ancestors began life living in trees like today’s apes and on exiting the forest for the savannas, they discovered fire which “became the driving force in the development of the human species….and it was always trees which supported the human need for fuel.” When we built shelters, we relied on trees and wood. Even human writing began on bark and wood tablets.
Sacred groves are a universal phenomenon. “Almost everywhere in the world the beginnings of social and religious life took place under trees.” Each Greek deity was linked to a particular tree spirit and worshipped under it. The laurel was consecrated to Apollo, the myrtle tree to Aphrodite, the olive to Athena, and the pine tree to Pan. “What we today label as gods were originally the spirits of trees to whom goodwill and gratitude was bestowed.”
To be continued.
- William Anderson and Clive Hicks, The Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth.
** Fred Hageneder, The Spirit of Trees.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Animals in the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Mark Kuiper on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
Amid all the gifts that trees bestow on us, which ones are you most grateful for?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 19-21.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations.
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.
Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug: Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action.
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
5 thoughts on “The Green Man Archetype: A Celebration of Sacred Masculinity”
Trees are a powerful referent in the works of French author Marcel Jouhandeau who compared his writing to the blooming and fruit bearing of a tree. A few quotes from his works seem a worthwhile complement to this wonderful series of daily meditations on trees.
“Trees are slivers of paradise.”
“God becomes human among humans, animal among animals, tree among trees, without relinquishing his absolute heterogeneity.”
“Only trees breathe Light. They have with it a more intimate relationship than other beings. They alone are equipped to act upon it, to break it down and drink it. They distill it to assimilate it deeply and allow it to penetrate the very fabric of their hearts. I thank You, Lord, for the trees You have placed around me in this ‘Garden.’ It seems to me that each one is an angel with its wings folded, and that they all take me with them into their paradise of silence and stillness, into their own special peace: the peace of the trees.”
“Mr. Godeau awoke at night among his trees; they were an imposing assembly of sages that he had always seen standing on that mountain. His soul could not bring itself to accept that he would no longer be able to rely on the lessons they would have taught him over the years, right up to his extreme old age. Amid their forms, his own body assumed a proud and serene posture. Living, contemplative colossi, they represented the solemn ancestors of his thoughts.”
Trees are home to our feathered friends, a safe haven for a bushy tailed squirrel. They provide welcome shade, and also gorgeous flowers.
It’s infuriating that this administration has no consideration for God’s creation. They consider themselves God loving people.
What an insult!
Thank you Matthew for today’s DM about the Green Man Archetype. Your book, “The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine,” is also very valuable and inspiring to remind us that healthy masculine energies and spirits, along with the Divine Feminine and Gaia energies and spirits, work together within and among Us to spiritually nourish and guide Us and Sacred Mother Earth. Incarnational Spirituality (lorian.org) and Creation Spirituality are intimately related in acknowledging and honoring nature spirits, angels, and spiritual guides from the subtle spiritual realms within and among Us in Our Loving Living Diverse Oneness of Our Ongoing Co-Creation Evolution of Sacred Cosmos, in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment…
David Spangler’s book, “Partnering with Spirit” (2024), clearly with diagrams explains our deeper spiritual interconnectedness, wholeness, and collaborations with the subtle spiritual realms within and among Us on Our spiritual journeys…
For me it’s a blessing to hear the sound of wind blowing through leaves of trees.
A connection to existence, creation from the source of all things.
Sometimes a whisper, sometimes a great force but it all speaks…
It seems to say I’m here , so are you and somehow will be always.
The Green Man
The green man has a green heart,
a wild forest
or lush garden
where the moss-draped oak
is entwined with vines & ivy,
the ground covered
with calamus, sweet grass, sage.
There, even the stones are green.
Friendships flourish there,
& the winds fierce or gentle
& the waters sweet.
Rafael Jesús González