In keeping with yesterday’s topic, I would like to share a few ideas that Matthew Fox expounds in his book The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine. The theme of gender has exploded since 2008, when the book was released. Yet, as with all true wisdom, one finds in it intuitions that have not aged at all.
The book itself is organized around ten metaphors or archetypes of healthy masculinity. Ideally, the recovery of such healthier points of reference will help the toxic notions of masculinity that are ruling the day to get quieter and quieter. By the way, this is Hildegard of Bingen’s strategy as well: not fighting bad habits straight on, but introducing and fostering good habits on a daily basis.
Matthew finds the archetype of Father Sky in many cultures. It need not be seen as a Christian idea, and even less as a modern idea. In fact, the modern West has reduced for a while the notion of God the Father to a cold deity who oiled the machine of the universe every once in a while (Deism), and then abandoned the notion of a cosmic God altogether.
Father Sky needs not to be seen either as a distant and cold figure, nor as an oppressive one. I would argue that these two images are projections of our experience of fathers in patriarchal cultures.
Matthew instead offers several interesting examples of how, for most of human history and in nearly every culture, the sky has been considered an abode for the Divine. We can recover such an image in a healthy way, by opening up again to the depth and vastness of the cosmos. What we call “Father Sky” is both the blue horizon and the very air we breathe — the lifeblood of our lungs. What is outside, the sky, through our breath we bring inside in the most intimate way.
Recently I preached this revolutionary yet archaic notion of God at a wedding, resulting in many people being astonished and interested and moved to tears. It takes time to wrap one’s head around this notion, but the emotional effects are immediate.
Moreover, nothing about this prevents one from calling God “Mother” as well. It is not by any means a return of the patriarchal God under a new name. Rather, the whole of divinity is represented by the sacred marriage (hieros gamos) of Father Sky and Mother Earth.
The second archetype of healthy masculinity is that of the Green Man. This is essentially a man who has shed the patriarchal modern consciousness. He relates to nature, finding the essence of nature within our own nature. For some reason, the 12th century in Europe was a time in which this archetype found several outlets.
In the image from the 12th century church of St. Faith found in the banner of this DM, you can see the theme of Christ as the vine played out in the lower register, while in the upper register Christ plays out as Cosmic Man surrounded by two archangels. It is a variation on the conjunction between Green Man and Father Sky.
The Green Man acknowledges the power of his own sexuality, but not to serve his own ego or that of his tribe or his nation. His rich sexuality does not draw attention to itself but embodies the ongoing sexual and creative energy of the universe. I have met several men in the last thirty years who try to embody this archetype, not always successfully in my opinion, but this is just an indication of how hard it is to change patriarchal culture from within.
Just as Father Sky and Mother Earth should be seen as symbolically married, Matthew says that also the Green Man has a symbolic mate in the Black Madonna. When the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine nurture and sustain one another, a new era might truly emerge. In no way, however, should this be seen as a glorification of heterosexuality over homosexuality. Literalism is not our game here. As I insist in the presentation of the 2027 pilgrimage, these two gendered poles are archetypal forces present in each person, independently of their sexual orientation.
Re-reading this book for me is very helpful as I begin to prepare spiritually for such a 2027 pilgrimage, which is structured even physically around the femininity-masculinity polarity. The first part will happen within the sacred precincts of the sanctuary of the Black Madonna of Oropa — the dark womb of the Mother — and the second part will be focused on the Abbey of St. Michel — aiming at the highest heavens (see DM Sept.16).
Banner Image: Upper section of the 12th c. portal of the church of St. Faith (Cavagnolo, Italy) representing vines, grapes, and Christ in heaven. Photo by Gianluigi Gugliermetto, used with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
What moves, excites, perplexes, or bothers you in the first two archetypes of healthy masculinity, Father Sky and Green Man, as presented by Fox?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
Alessandra Belloni, foreword by Matthew Fox, Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
