The Grandfatherly Heart

Grandfather Sky, the grandfatherly heart, isn’t that different in relationship to the father metaphors than the relationship between grandfathers and fathers ( and sons for that matter ). Grandfather Sky is the father metaphors at new stage of life. Where the father metaphors are still about providing for family and community through (great) work, Grandfather sky is about providing for family and community through wisdom.

Beyond just sharing its own wisdom, the Grandfatherly Heart is also about taking in the wisdom of youth – be that the sons or be that the fathers. The Grandfatherly Heart knows enough to know that there is much he doesn’t know. Thus, Grandfather Sky, learns from youth as much as they teach the youth.

My Own Experiences

In reading this chapter again I remember a conversation I had with my step-father in law regarding his relationship with my sons. I couldn’t ask for a better grandfather figure in my sons’ lives than him and I was telling him how much I appreciate him. He D’Artagnan and Draegan so much time and I know when I come home I often don’t have the focus or energy to give the same amount of myself to them as he does. He just smiled and told me it was the same for him with his kids. He reminded me, I have to drum up the energy every day and he only has to do it when we come to visit. His energy, his heart is not only a gift to my sons but it is a gift to me as well.

Then there are the projects. Both my step father in law and father in law spend time doing projects with my kids. Often woodworking projects, something they are both good at and I have no experience in. I so appreciate their passing down of wisdom to the boys. That is the Grandfatherly Heart giving freely, not so much wisdom, but love of a craft.

My Inner Grandfather

Rather than wait the many years until I, possibly, become a literal grandfather I decided to take a look at what this metaphor means for me right now. Often the modern versions of the father looks at their actual work as the way they define themselves. The grandfather, on the other hand, now looks at their family, their communities and their contributions as the way they define themselves. There is also the difference in relationship to death. The grandfatherly heart is much more aware of death, and accepting of it. It is, after all, a natural part of life and they know enough to see it for what it is. In this way Grandfather Sky is connected to the Hunter-Gatherer who just sees death as and extremely natural part of life. In a recent national geographic article on the Hazda, they have only begun to bury their dead in recent decades after pressure from governments. Instead they just let nature take its course. It takes a bit for my modern mind to even deal with that – even though it makes perfect sense.



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Earth Father – sacred masculine central

Fatherhood is central to the sacred masculine. From this book alone you can see how it is linked to each of the other 9 metaphors:

• Father Sky – Also a father metaphor, father sky is more distant than the Earth Father. One must not forget the importance of solitude and space in masculinity/fatherhood which Father Sky provides.
• The Green Man – This one is linked as another earth metaphor. Earth Father is grounded, much like the Green Man. Being a good steward of our planet is a great way to provide for our children and our children’s children.
• Icarus and Daedalus – Another father metaphor, or a rather a parable to learn from. Fathers must not only be willing to teach their children, but learn from them as well.
• Hunter-Gatherers – In modern society this is hard to see. Where are the rites of passage from boyhood to manhood ? How can we as men create the important psychological and spiritual aspects of these for our children?
• Spiritual Warriors – As a father, what do we fight for? What do we value? We reap what we sow in regards to the Spiritual Warrior’s connection to the Earth Father. We must lead by example.
• Masculine Sexuality, Numinous Sexuality – I do not want my sons to learn that sex = shame. I want them to be powerful individuals in all aspects of their lives.
• Our Cosmic and Animal Bodies – As fathers how do we take care of our bodies? Our children’s? Once again, leading by example has us teach our children respect for themselves.
• The Blue Man – In all the trials and tribulations of fathering, there must be compassion, there must be a loving heart.
• Grandfather Sky:The Grandfatherly Heart – The father begets the grandfather, ’nuff said

Earth Father – not just for fathers

While the earth father and fathering are central to the sacred masculine they do not refer only to literal fatherhood. Literal fatherhood is just the most obvious place to access it. In a post ( or two ) on my old blog I discussed Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. No one would say that there is not an earth father being portrayed in those films and yet he is not a literal father. A powerful force, the mentor. The mentor spreads earth father energy out into the community. Perhaps you have a memory of a teacher that became your mentor at one point. They are out there and you can be one too. It doesn’t take much but time and caring, but mostly caring.

Paternal energy doesn’t stop with men either. The earth father’s paternal energy can be tapped into by women ( and is ) in the same way that men can tap into the earth mother’s maternal energy. A literal father and literal mother both tap into paternal and maternal energies, it takes both to raise a child.

Being a stand for the community

The Earth Father takes a look at the world he is leaving for his children, and his children’s children, and strives to make it the best he can make it for them. To do this he must stand for his community and in his community. Helping others and helping the environment are the keys. For a while I’ve been wondering if I could find a mens group in my area. Recently I’ve actually thought about the possibility of actually being the one to create a mens group in my area for this very reason. By being a stand for those around us to be great, we get to live in greatness.

These are of course my take on earth father energies. I’d love to hear others. Perhaps you aren’t a literal father and have a take on it. Maybe you are a grandfather who has reach the next level of fatherhood. Maybe you are a woman reading this and care to share with us your perspective. Whatever your view I’d love to hear it in the comments. Of course, keep in mind that I barely touch the topic and this is a great book to read yourself as you will most likely get something else out of it than I.

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The first time I read this chapter I noticed how the metaphor itself comes from meditation induced visions of a blue man that represented strong spiritual imagery. Inspired I did a limited, but purposeful, meditation on the Blue Man as I drifted off to dream land. It was then that I had a powerful dream which I covered in an earlier blog post. I was looking forward to rereading this chapter and seeing if, once again, I would have a dream of significance.

What is the Blue Man?

The Blue Man, as I said before comes from two different stories. One of Swami Muktananda and the other of Hildegard of Bingen. Both tell of being in some meditative or prayer state and seeing a vision of a man in blue or a man bathed in sapphire light. To them the man represented God and all things it was pure love and compassion. Not only was it God in all things but it was God in them while at the same time being themselves in God.

When I originally read this metaphor and pondered what it was saying, my Western mind that has been surrounded by Christianity went to the concept of Jesus as Christ. As a devout agnostic who has often bordered on atheistic beliefs I made a jump that many Christians might find uncomfortable. Could it be that Jesus, instead of being the son of God and God itself was really just a normal person who took on embodying the blue man. From that thought I jumped to prophets from other religions as well, they all could be blue men and the rest of us are so deaf to our own divinity they look like Gods to us. When I reread the chapter I saw that the author said as much in his own writing .

Expanding our Consciousness

If the Blue Man is God in all things, God inside of us and in turn ourselves in God, every thing in God then a whole new world opens up to us. We can look at all the crisis in the world without being overwhelmed. We can instead look and see opportunities to make a difference in the world and for others. What may start as anger can be honed by our compassion and turned into positive action.

The Blue Man and The Spiritual Warrior

In my post about The Spiritual Warrior I brought up the topic of a great work several times. What I never really touched on, probably because I needed to reread this chapter to understand, is where does the warrior come up with his great work? The Blue Man is the answer. The Blue Man is a creative energy that can take a man’s anger and mix it with compassion to come up with a path for the warrior to walk. In the book, the author used the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. to show how they took their anger, wrapped it in compassion and made social art.

The Blue Man as an artist

The Blue Man is an artist. In the examples of Gandhi and King he is an artist that creates divine works which positively impact society. All art can do that, and for some who think they are not artists the first step is finding their artistic voice. Through the practice of speaking through art a man can find and strengthen his voice. As he gets stronger that voice can make a difference in somebody’s life. Perhaps this is where the Blue Man Group got the inspiration for the name of their troop. A voice without words, only art.

Just Add Compassion

I can’t stress enough the value of compassion in my own spiritual journey through this book thus far. It has improved the quality of my personal relationships – with my wife, my two boys, my family, my friends and my coworkers. When I have seen a problem, usually in my own communication with others, I’ve been reminded to add compassion and things have become easy. Compassion has me give up my need to be right or sometimes, when I have a little compassion for myself, it has me be more joyful.

The Blue Man is all about compassion. It is almost as if he is there asking, “How can you be more compassionate?” Christian’s might ask, “What would Jesus Do?” After all, Jesus was a Blue Man or at least I think so. Making a difference with compassion has you let go of being right and making others wrong so that you can actually connect with people and not only make a difference but and impact. Perhaps the people you touch will take some of that compassion with them.

Conclusion

So far, I haven’t had another significant dream or vision as I’ve reread this chapter. However, I have only re-finished it tonight so if an epiphany comes I will be sure to share it with you in the morning. But I would like to hear about you. Have you had any visions that you might relate to The Blue Man? If so, what was it like? Was the color blue prominent and/or powerful in the vision? I would love to hear about other’s visions as they seek out The Blue Man. After all, it is the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one – what a great time to have a vision to live into.

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The Amazing Human Body

Scientifically speaking ( and sounding rather spiritual ) our bodies are made of star stuff! ( See the video at the end for a tribute to this statement ). Throughout our lives we probably hear all sorts of amazing facts about our bodies, from how many times our heart beats, to the strength of our bones, to the amazing control our brain can have over our body. Even with this information we still, most likely, go throughout our day without giving its fascinating abilities and nature a second thought. The fact that we don’t have to think about it is really just more proof as to how amazing it is. If we start with a sense of awe and thankfulness for our bodies we can move through this metaphor quite easily.

Body as Shadow

In our modern culture we often lose this sense of wonder about our bodies. Early on in life we are taught to dismiss the joy of using our bodies. We are taught to settle down, to sit still. And while the brain is a part of the body, our relatively new focus on using just that is hindering our body whole ( including the brain ). What synapses aren’t getting connected as we sit still? ( Says the guy who is sitting still typing this blog post ). We are animals and we need to move. My 6 year old practically vibrates he needs to move so much. It helps him think and focus if he moves while he is using his brain. Thank goodness my wife is homeschooling him, the school system we currently have has no clue what to do with our animal requirement of movement ( except P.E. ). Perhaps this lack of respect is a part of some of the health problems in our culture. Surely we can see the link between motionlessness and obesity. The more we train ourselves to sit still when we are young, the more difficult it is to move when we are older. How would our culture look, how would we look physically if we once again started to honor our bodies?

Our Sacred Bodies

Some people seem to already honor their bodies and often proclaim that,”My body is a temple.” What does that mean really? For them it might mean that they exercise regularly and maybe they have a good diet. If we take it further, and look at the spiritual context of this statement we can see more. According to dictionary.com a temple can be anything from a building devoted to some public use to any place or object in which God dwells. Though the last one comes from Christianity and I am not much of a Christian I believe that definition holds the most power. If your body is an object in which God dwells how would you treat it? Maybe for you, you might start to dance. Not a bad idea, dancing is awesome exercise and has a very ancient spiritual history. For myself, this chapter and questions like this finally had me run. I had tried to run in the past for sure, but I never took it seriously. I have never seen myself as a runner and in this space of my body temple I recreated myself as one. I found the Couch to 5K program ( C25K ) and I have been following it strictly, running 3 times per week. Running in the rain, the wind and the freezing cold. Some days have taken me as many as 5 attempts to complete, but I did keep trying until I completed them.  I am now on week 8 and this past Monday completed day 1. If you haven’t checked the schedule, that’s 28 minutes straight of running. Not only did I gain running ability, but I also gained many positive side effects. Running has been the thread for me that has connected, I believe, all the metaphors from this book in some way. In fact, at some point I will discuss how running has affected me in greater detail including its relationship to the 10 metaphors. After I complete the C25K program what’s next? I don’t know, but running has always been the beginnings of properly training parkour so next I’ll probably create myself as a traceur.

The Many Languages of the Body

If you want to communicate with someone how do you do it? You might think it is with words, but studies have shown that a majority of communication is body language. In this book Matthew Fox let’s John Conger speak about 7 different languages we have, only one of which is actual verbal communication:

• Instinct
• Sensorimotor
• Vocabulary
• Innate patterns recognized by psychology
• The artistry of senses
• Signs and symbols

All these different methods of communication require our bodies for some of the communication.

Continue Reading this article…

The topics of today’s journey through numinous, masculine sexuality are sperm, male infertility, sexual diversity learning from the gifts of homosexuality and wrapping it all up in sexuality as sacred.

Sperm

In the book, the author had asked a group of mostly men to write down an answer to the question, “What is Sperm?” He shared many of the responses he got and many of them were at or nearing poetic. As someone who had always been uncomfortable with anything sexual in nature it had been very easy for me to never even think about it. Well, in the honor of sharing my journey I am going to attempt to answer that question right here in this blog from my perspective. I only hope I can do it justice.

Why is it so hard to honor sperm? Is it because it has so many names that make us giggle or turn red? Is it because we are afraid of the awesome power that lies within? Sperm is a metaphor for possibility. Each sperm is the possibility of life, and not just any life. The possibility of a new life that we love more than we have ever loved before. I have 2 sons because of sperm. 1 came from planning and one came from a moment of passionate love but they are both a part of my life because of sperm. Of all the fluids that are worshipped in this world – blood, wine, holy water – this seems left out of the sacred mix. So even if it is only a moment before my shame rises again, I take this moment to honor distilled masculine sexuality in sperm.

That was tough to write because I felt myself pulled separately by both my reverence and shame that I felt. This chapter, and specifically this section on sperm bring to mind one individual who seems to exude sacred masculine sexual energy more than anyone I can think of – Prince. He has many songs that are clearly about sexuality, including one called Cream. At the end of the movie Purple Rain he has a concert and the finale is him doing an obvious ejaculation from his guitar. Finally, at one point he changed his name to around a legal dispute with Warner Brothers and this is what he had to say about it:

I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was the Love Symbol, a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.

To many the symbol seemed random, but to Prince it was the Love Symbol. Love is central to sacred sexuality and he has embodied it in his art.

Male Infertility

With all this admiration for sperm and its reproductive power the author was confronted by a member of the group that wrote about sperm. For this man the question brought pain because he was infertile. While I have been blessed with two beautiful boys he was unable to have any by his sperm due to that fact. But if you read his story you find out more. You find out about the way he was initially dismissed when having trouble getting his wife pregnant. You find out the research the two of them did to find out about their options. Their journey led them to choosing to have children by using a sperm donor. The mental and emotional power of sperm is strong in this story. Though this man’s sperm were incapable of fulfilling their reproductive duty the spiritual aspect of them still led him to having children to whom he is a father. In fact the story goes deeper and it is worth the read.

It was interesting to notice how male infertility is so casually dismissed as if it takes no psychological or spiritual toll. When you compare this to our current (in)ability to honor sperm as we do the ovum it isn’t hard to see why this is. Men want to be parents as well and any inability in this area forces a very rocky mental and spiritual path to be walked.

Continue reading…

Here it is, the metaphor on sexuality. This metaphor was the most confronting to start reading. I put it off both subconsciously and consciously for about 2 weeks. At the same time, masculine sexual energy is a major reason I started looking into the men’s studies movement. As a father of two boys, I kept questioning whether or not I would know how to speak powerfully to them about sex when the time comes.

Being raised in an all (powerful) female household I really never had a male figure I trusted to discuss these things with and I was already ashamed about how other men treated women. Initially, the question of masculine sexuality pulled me on this journey through the sacred masculine and I was afraid of this metaphor the most ( my ego was definitely shaking in its boots ).

When I finally read the chapter, I breezed through it and got a lot of information. I felt much more comfortable and saw the bigger picture of the sacredness of sexuality. When I reread it before writing this article I noticed how much I missed. Realizing that my subconscious probably zoned out on the first pass, I made an effort to take in the information inside this book.

I feel I must say one thing before moving on. This article is about sexuality as it concerns the sacred masculine. It is meant as a serious spiritual discussion. Watch where you find yourself giggling as that is where you are probably missing out sacrament of sex. Read on if you are ready.

The Spiritual Warrior

What is a spiritual warrior and why is it important?

Warrior, soldier – what’s the difference?