Tender & lovely. Thank you. I think the absence of sex & eros as topics on the table to be discussed is very telling. My sense is that this is the dark zone where the most illuminating alchemical & transformational gems can be found for men - dangerous, scary and potent AF! Your courage is seen and deeply appreciated <3
Excellent reminder to be a co-creator and spending time with you was very appreciated and enlightening and grateful. Thank you for the sub stack and thank you for your time. Big hug thank you for you.
Thank you for this gift Ian! Well said, for sure. Where is this movement headed? That strikes me as a deep question, as it is so necessary to bring healing and wholeness to men in our culture. I offer a bow of gratitude for your work!
this is needed more than ever. im a mother, midwife of 6 boys, 1978 to 1991. My 86 son committed suicide. My 84 son is an alcoholic hell bent on disaster. Our young men do not have enuf life affirming role models, despite our best intentions. Thank u for the work u do and bringing awareness to embracing the masculine, our spiritual protectors. Blessed Be
Beautiful piece, Ian! Thank you for documenting the 40th anniversary of such a monumental gathering. The questions of "what next?" remains with me, as I am sure it does for you, regarding this work...
But judging from the dream of Bly you shared, I'd say the answer is becoming clear...
I attended Minnesota twenty years ago, with Robert, John Lee, Robert Moore, Malidoma Some, Miguel, other teachers...and 15 other gatherings with Robert. He was my grandpa.
As a leader of mens groups and retreats, I stand on the shoulders of these giants, and carry on their gifts (as best I can). I believe that the seeds they tossed out have taken root, and souls are more vibrant in those fortunate enough to join the path. I appreciate the way you are blowing on the flame and helping it to stay fresh---Eric Diamond/Gainesville Mens Center
Thanks for this vision into a profound space that holds a mythic and ancestral presence in my life as well. I had no idea that the gatherings were so small, even in the (maybe) golden years. Paradoxically (because I get caught in the “bigger is better” trap too), this inspires me in that small numbers of conscious and intentional people can gather in a way that ripples out for decades.
Ian- Sorry to be "that guy" (arguably a dick), but my attitude regarding the 'mythopoetic men's movement' before and after reading your essay remains what it has been for some while now... given the nature of the promise from Bly, Gillette, and Moore... overly self-congratulatory, completely underwhelming and white, White, WHITE.
A full analysis can be explored in two of my Substack posts....
From Predators to Protectors — Reclaiming Men’s Work from the McMindfulness Industrial Complex | The path from predator to protector runs through community, not commerce. The mature masculine emerges not from weekend workshops but from daily choices to serve life over profit, relationship over transaction, the future over the comfortable present. Brothers, the world is waiting for us to remember who we really are.
The Rewilding Paradox — When Going Wild Really Means Staying Colonized | White transformational circles embrace “becoming wild” while silencing conversations about decolonizing spirituality.
Most responses from the McMindfullness space, in which you've so artfully remained relevant, has been to ignore these critiques and hope I'll go away and stop bringing these points up. I expect that will be the case here, as well.
Take care... Immanuel
P.S. For those of you (including Ian) who think I'm just a marginal crackpot seeking 15 minutes of "gadfly fame" by taking potshots at an established "luminary" (lol) on his platform, you're welcome to review my most recent post following McKenna's admonition to "find the others" that details a couple key notable moments in my own journey through these waters, which have included supporting the largest voices and brands in this space over the last 25+ years; Joseph Campbell Foundation, Gaiam, Spiritual Cinema Circle, Sounds True, Michael Wiese Productions / Divine Arts Media, Sacred Commerce, Marianne Williamson, The Shift Network, and many other brands and individuals. I've been deeply tracking and witnessing this space take it's own fall into self-centeredness and institutional incompetence that is trademark of the "fourth turning" moment we're currently traversing. As the great trickster-god from modern comics The Joker would say: "This town needs an enema". Our so-called leaders are not doing their job very well.
I've been tracking this tension as well in various ways in my explorations. There is significant validity certainly in getting out of the "navel gazing" wellness framework that permeates much of the commodified spiritual scene. I will review your essays and get back to you.
I appreciate your openness to engaging with these critiques, and I appreciated your Miguel Rivera interview. You're right, his insights touch on many of the concerns I've been raising about the trajectory of men's work within capitalist frameworks.
What struck me most powerfully was Miguel's emphasis on "retroactive ancestral work" — the recognition that what we're attempting now should have happened 500 years ago during the initial colonial encounter. This isn't just therapeutic processing; it's civilizational repair work. His teacher's distinction between those who choose power versus those who choose service cuts straight to the heart of what I'm addressing in "From Predators to Protectors."
Miguel's revelation that at-risk youth had "never had a reasonable conversation with a man over 25" exposes the fundamental breakdown we're dealing with. This isn't a market opportunity — it's a community emergency that requires sustained, uncommercial engagement. Yet the current men's work landscape has largely turned this crisis into content.
His work in ceremony, with elders who said "whatever's coming after you has to go through me first," represents the kind of unconditional protection and belonging that can't be purchased. It emerges from relationship, from genuine community commitment, from what he beautifully calls "making relations" across all the colors and beings that must be present for wholeness.
This connects directly to a response I received from someone in your readership who took me up on my invitation to read my articles. Their feedback was couched beautifully in men's work coach-speak: "But in the meantime, here we are in capitalism, paying each other for goods and services. If I'm spending most of my time away from my family helping men work through their stuff, should I not be compensated with money? Is it morally superior to trade or barter? And where is the line between individual practitioners and the Connor Beatons and Adam Jacksons of the world, whose brands reach tens of thousands?"
It's a thoughtful question that deserves a real answer. I'm sure these high-profile coaches provide some value to their audiences. But what I observe is primarily the "halo effect" at work through their platforms. They are not tens-of-thousands of times more effective than individual practitioners — they are good looking, popular, and tick all the checkboxes that would make them rise to the top of most capitalistic endeavors. Their vibes are simply more scalable in a society that values celebrity culture over depth.
Your reader's response about compensation within capitalism perfectly illustrates the cognitive capture I'm tracking. We're in what Strauss and Howe call a "Fourth Turning" — a roughly 20-year period of institutional breakdown and rebuilding that occurs cyclically in societies. During these crisis periods, the very systems we've relied upon reveal their fundamental inadequacy.
The question isn't whether individual or celebrity practitioners deserve compensation — it's whether the entire framework of commodified transformation can possibly address the depth of crisis we're facing. When Miguel talks about not "adding to the confusion on the planet," he's pointing to something the monetized men's work space consistently fails to grasp: the system itself is the problem.
Your reader's response reveals how completely we've normalized the commodification of sacred work. It's the classic "boiling frog" scenario: the temperature has risen so gradually that we don't notice we're being cooked alive by the very system we think is serving us.
The evidence is everywhere: expensive weekend retreats where most men (mostly White) process their father wounds while remaining silent about Palestine, Indigenous genocide, and climate collapse. Coaches leveraging the "halo effect" to charge premium rates for manufactured initiations while real initiations — standing up to oppression, protecting the vulnerable, choosing service over exploitation — remain unexplored.
What the commodified men's work space consistently misses is that we're not dealing with individual psychological issues that can be resolved through better coaching or more intensive experiences. We're dealing with what Miguel calls the "agreements that the soul made with the body to keep the individual alive" under systems of domination.
This is decolonization work. This is what Miguel means when he talks about tuning ourselves to the land we live on, understanding our "ritual obligations to the earth and other human beings." You can't purchase your way into this relationship. You can't workshop your way past 500 years of colonial wounding.
As Ronald Purser documented in "McMindfulness," what we're witnessing is the systematic co-optation of transformative practices by corporate interests. The same dynamics that turned mindfulness into a self-pacification tool for corporate productivity have captured men's work completely.
You discovered Iron John 10 years ago in 2015, which means you're encountering this landscape without the decades of witnessing its devolution that some of us carry. That fresh perspective could actually be valuable — if you're willing to honestly assess whether the current trajectory serves the transformation our world desperately needs.
You're articulate, well-meaning, well-spoken. The "halo effect" is working for you. Your audience appreciates what you're offering. It would be natural to believe you're helping men and society.
But here's what I mean when I say the outcome reveals the intention: Are the men emerging from this work leading the fight against the systems that are destroying life on Earth? Are they showing up for Palestinian children under bombardment? Are they defending watersheds from corporate extraction? Are they creating economic alternatives that serve life rather than profit?
I believe some are doing this vital work — of course they are. But it's not what jumps out at me through the content I see from that sector. And in the activism spaces, I don't often hear "I'm here because I've done men's work." For the most part, where this deeper decolonization conversation isn't being centered, men seem focused on feeling better about themselves while keeping their heads down as the world burns.
The skills you and other coaches have developed in facilitating transformation are invaluable — but not when they're monetized within extractive frameworks. I actually know these skills myself; they are key to my own sense of clarity and forward momentum. But they are intensely sacred intimacy cultivation gifts. I would just as soon charge a man for showing up as his guide and mentor as I would charge a lover for intimacy.
Our understanding of masculine psychology is crucial — but not when it's packaged for profit. The invitation is to bring our gifts to the circle without the transaction, to guide without the grift, to serve without the sale.
Now, I understand your reader's concern about compensation is valid and practical. The reality is that facilitators need to sustain themselves and their families. But rather than getting lost in endless debates about what should or shouldn't be monetized — "what about this? And what about this?" — let's focus on the larger question: How do we respond to the breakdown of our social order?
This isn't about abandoning livelihoods out of naive idealism. It's about recognizing that we're in a Fourth Turning crisis that demands we choose between maintaining comfortable business models and doing the work that might actually matter. Are coaches so singularly gifted that the only work they can do for money is helping other men? Hardly.
What might the new configuration look like in practice? Men showing up for each other without financial transaction. Community-funded initiatives that serve genuine transformation rather than individual comfort. Mentorship that emerges from relationship rather than marketing. Real initiation into responsibility for the world's healing, not just personal improvement.
As Miguel puts it: "Our job is to restore that hoop from how we are connected to spirit, to essence, in a whole new different configuration and be willing to let go of the old configurations because they are obviously not working."
The old configuration includes men's work as a profit center. The new configuration looks like understanding that our healing is inseparable from the healing of the world.
I hope this lands not as an attack on your integrity, but as an invitation to consider whether what we're calling "men's work" is actually working for anyone beyond those profiting from it.
Ian - Having followed your work over the years I have often thought of you (and others like you) as carrying on the torch of the men’s work as it changes and morphs into what is needed in our society. I have been in a men’s group for 15+ years. The gatherings started with overly enthusiastic diving in to our individual and collective psyches, deep dives into social justice and racism (as several of the members are people of color) and shadow work guided by the written mentorship of Bly, Deita, Moore, Meade, Some, Prechtel and Jung (among many others). It has now become a more insular container of community and comradeship. The regular group allows us to navigate a world where we raise kids and deepen our spiritual connections while adjusting to a life filled with familial deaths, cancer diagnosis, divorce and other pain points inevitable on the human journey.
I feel this support in my immediate family and community, yet in the depths of my being I know more work in larger community / society is needed. Not all men have this sort of support. I would argue that many social ailments and present day issues derive from men who are isolated and lack the resilience of deep community such as what a men’s group can provide. I believe large scale curation of containers where men’s groups can happen is a possible remedy for our times.
The comments below and your essay detailing the work at men’s conferences such as the one held in Minnesota speak to 2 sides of a similar coin- the internal work must be done in relatively safe containers for the outer work to be undertaken. I see these efforts Ian in your retreats and intensive offerings. I witness this occasionally in plant medicine communities as well as via sustained men’s group work.
We are collectively being called to embody the 4 archetypes outlined in the seminal work by Gillette and Moore: We need to learn to Love ourselves and those around us (including embracing our sacred twin and erotic energies); we must empower the Warrior to speak out from a place of inner truth against injustice to do the hard work in our families and communities; we must learn to become Magicians who can work with deeper animist energies and transmute negativity into healing; and we must embrace an inner King to be just and fair in a world that unceasingly teeters towards tyrannical.
Simply put: We must heal our selves and the world.
Many other energies / archetypes are needed. The Loving Father archetype comes to mind when thinking of the children of Palestine and the black and brown bodied youth targeted by criminal injustice and racial profiling on Turtle Island. Echoing some of the comments above, my curiosity and hope is that the men’s movement continues to move through the (needed and sometimes self congratulatory) phases of self awareness and healing and steps into the larger roles that our current time is asking for.
I look to the new torch bearers to continue to have these conversations and lead the way.
“He confesses its his first experience at a “men’s gathering” How can this be? How do you get to speak into such a space but have not walked the path of intentional gathering with men?
An enjoyable read. I'm really curious about "in society, we have confused wounding with tempering"? Could you expand on this?
Tender & lovely. Thank you. I think the absence of sex & eros as topics on the table to be discussed is very telling. My sense is that this is the dark zone where the most illuminating alchemical & transformational gems can be found for men - dangerous, scary and potent AF! Your courage is seen and deeply appreciated <3
Excellent reminder to be a co-creator and spending time with you was very appreciated and enlightening and grateful. Thank you for the sub stack and thank you for your time. Big hug thank you for you.
Thanks Damian!
Thank you for this gift Ian! Well said, for sure. Where is this movement headed? That strikes me as a deep question, as it is so necessary to bring healing and wholeness to men in our culture. I offer a bow of gratitude for your work!
Thank you. Your essay reminded me of what I'd forgotten. Go well 🙏
this is needed more than ever. im a mother, midwife of 6 boys, 1978 to 1991. My 86 son committed suicide. My 84 son is an alcoholic hell bent on disaster. Our young men do not have enuf life affirming role models, despite our best intentions. Thank u for the work u do and bringing awareness to embracing the masculine, our spiritual protectors. Blessed Be
Beautiful piece, Ian! Thank you for documenting the 40th anniversary of such a monumental gathering. The questions of "what next?" remains with me, as I am sure it does for you, regarding this work...
But judging from the dream of Bly you shared, I'd say the answer is becoming clear...
Onwards!
Thank you, Ian. Well done.
I attended Minnesota twenty years ago, with Robert, John Lee, Robert Moore, Malidoma Some, Miguel, other teachers...and 15 other gatherings with Robert. He was my grandpa.
As a leader of mens groups and retreats, I stand on the shoulders of these giants, and carry on their gifts (as best I can). I believe that the seeds they tossed out have taken root, and souls are more vibrant in those fortunate enough to join the path. I appreciate the way you are blowing on the flame and helping it to stay fresh---Eric Diamond/Gainesville Mens Center
Thanks Eric!
Thanks for this vision into a profound space that holds a mythic and ancestral presence in my life as well. I had no idea that the gatherings were so small, even in the (maybe) golden years. Paradoxically (because I get caught in the “bigger is better” trap too), this inspires me in that small numbers of conscious and intentional people can gather in a way that ripples out for decades.
Yes, I was also moved by the intimate scale of the gathering and the impact on the wider culture.
Ian- Sorry to be "that guy" (arguably a dick), but my attitude regarding the 'mythopoetic men's movement' before and after reading your essay remains what it has been for some while now... given the nature of the promise from Bly, Gillette, and Moore... overly self-congratulatory, completely underwhelming and white, White, WHITE.
A full analysis can be explored in two of my Substack posts....
From Predators to Protectors — Reclaiming Men’s Work from the McMindfulness Industrial Complex | The path from predator to protector runs through community, not commerce. The mature masculine emerges not from weekend workshops but from daily choices to serve life over profit, relationship over transaction, the future over the comfortable present. Brothers, the world is waiting for us to remember who we really are.
https://creatingshifts.substack.com/p/from-predators-to-protectors
The Rewilding Paradox — When Going Wild Really Means Staying Colonized | White transformational circles embrace “becoming wild” while silencing conversations about decolonizing spirituality.
https://creatingshifts.substack.com/p/the-rewilding-paradox-when-going
Most responses from the McMindfullness space, in which you've so artfully remained relevant, has been to ignore these critiques and hope I'll go away and stop bringing these points up. I expect that will be the case here, as well.
Take care... Immanuel
P.S. For those of you (including Ian) who think I'm just a marginal crackpot seeking 15 minutes of "gadfly fame" by taking potshots at an established "luminary" (lol) on his platform, you're welcome to review my most recent post following McKenna's admonition to "find the others" that details a couple key notable moments in my own journey through these waters, which have included supporting the largest voices and brands in this space over the last 25+ years; Joseph Campbell Foundation, Gaiam, Spiritual Cinema Circle, Sounds True, Michael Wiese Productions / Divine Arts Media, Sacred Commerce, Marianne Williamson, The Shift Network, and many other brands and individuals. I've been deeply tracking and witnessing this space take it's own fall into self-centeredness and institutional incompetence that is trademark of the "fourth turning" moment we're currently traversing. As the great trickster-god from modern comics The Joker would say: "This town needs an enema". Our so-called leaders are not doing their job very well.
https://creatingshifts.substack.com/p/finding-the-others-an-invitation
I've been tracking this tension as well in various ways in my explorations. There is significant validity certainly in getting out of the "navel gazing" wellness framework that permeates much of the commodified spiritual scene. I will review your essays and get back to you.
I would also invited you to listen to my interview with Miguel Rivera (of mixed heritage) and his perspective https://open.substack.com/pub/themythicmasculine/p/80-rhythm-and-ritual-in-mens-work?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3zlc7
Hi Ian,
I appreciate your openness to engaging with these critiques, and I appreciated your Miguel Rivera interview. You're right, his insights touch on many of the concerns I've been raising about the trajectory of men's work within capitalist frameworks.
What struck me most powerfully was Miguel's emphasis on "retroactive ancestral work" — the recognition that what we're attempting now should have happened 500 years ago during the initial colonial encounter. This isn't just therapeutic processing; it's civilizational repair work. His teacher's distinction between those who choose power versus those who choose service cuts straight to the heart of what I'm addressing in "From Predators to Protectors."
Miguel's revelation that at-risk youth had "never had a reasonable conversation with a man over 25" exposes the fundamental breakdown we're dealing with. This isn't a market opportunity — it's a community emergency that requires sustained, uncommercial engagement. Yet the current men's work landscape has largely turned this crisis into content.
His work in ceremony, with elders who said "whatever's coming after you has to go through me first," represents the kind of unconditional protection and belonging that can't be purchased. It emerges from relationship, from genuine community commitment, from what he beautifully calls "making relations" across all the colors and beings that must be present for wholeness.
This connects directly to a response I received from someone in your readership who took me up on my invitation to read my articles. Their feedback was couched beautifully in men's work coach-speak: "But in the meantime, here we are in capitalism, paying each other for goods and services. If I'm spending most of my time away from my family helping men work through their stuff, should I not be compensated with money? Is it morally superior to trade or barter? And where is the line between individual practitioners and the Connor Beatons and Adam Jacksons of the world, whose brands reach tens of thousands?"
It's a thoughtful question that deserves a real answer. I'm sure these high-profile coaches provide some value to their audiences. But what I observe is primarily the "halo effect" at work through their platforms. They are not tens-of-thousands of times more effective than individual practitioners — they are good looking, popular, and tick all the checkboxes that would make them rise to the top of most capitalistic endeavors. Their vibes are simply more scalable in a society that values celebrity culture over depth.
Your reader's response about compensation within capitalism perfectly illustrates the cognitive capture I'm tracking. We're in what Strauss and Howe call a "Fourth Turning" — a roughly 20-year period of institutional breakdown and rebuilding that occurs cyclically in societies. During these crisis periods, the very systems we've relied upon reveal their fundamental inadequacy.
The question isn't whether individual or celebrity practitioners deserve compensation — it's whether the entire framework of commodified transformation can possibly address the depth of crisis we're facing. When Miguel talks about not "adding to the confusion on the planet," he's pointing to something the monetized men's work space consistently fails to grasp: the system itself is the problem.
Your reader's response reveals how completely we've normalized the commodification of sacred work. It's the classic "boiling frog" scenario: the temperature has risen so gradually that we don't notice we're being cooked alive by the very system we think is serving us.
The evidence is everywhere: expensive weekend retreats where most men (mostly White) process their father wounds while remaining silent about Palestine, Indigenous genocide, and climate collapse. Coaches leveraging the "halo effect" to charge premium rates for manufactured initiations while real initiations — standing up to oppression, protecting the vulnerable, choosing service over exploitation — remain unexplored.
What the commodified men's work space consistently misses is that we're not dealing with individual psychological issues that can be resolved through better coaching or more intensive experiences. We're dealing with what Miguel calls the "agreements that the soul made with the body to keep the individual alive" under systems of domination.
This is decolonization work. This is what Miguel means when he talks about tuning ourselves to the land we live on, understanding our "ritual obligations to the earth and other human beings." You can't purchase your way into this relationship. You can't workshop your way past 500 years of colonial wounding.
As Ronald Purser documented in "McMindfulness," what we're witnessing is the systematic co-optation of transformative practices by corporate interests. The same dynamics that turned mindfulness into a self-pacification tool for corporate productivity have captured men's work completely.
You discovered Iron John 10 years ago in 2015, which means you're encountering this landscape without the decades of witnessing its devolution that some of us carry. That fresh perspective could actually be valuable — if you're willing to honestly assess whether the current trajectory serves the transformation our world desperately needs.
You're articulate, well-meaning, well-spoken. The "halo effect" is working for you. Your audience appreciates what you're offering. It would be natural to believe you're helping men and society.
But here's what I mean when I say the outcome reveals the intention: Are the men emerging from this work leading the fight against the systems that are destroying life on Earth? Are they showing up for Palestinian children under bombardment? Are they defending watersheds from corporate extraction? Are they creating economic alternatives that serve life rather than profit?
I believe some are doing this vital work — of course they are. But it's not what jumps out at me through the content I see from that sector. And in the activism spaces, I don't often hear "I'm here because I've done men's work." For the most part, where this deeper decolonization conversation isn't being centered, men seem focused on feeling better about themselves while keeping their heads down as the world burns.
The skills you and other coaches have developed in facilitating transformation are invaluable — but not when they're monetized within extractive frameworks. I actually know these skills myself; they are key to my own sense of clarity and forward momentum. But they are intensely sacred intimacy cultivation gifts. I would just as soon charge a man for showing up as his guide and mentor as I would charge a lover for intimacy.
Our understanding of masculine psychology is crucial — but not when it's packaged for profit. The invitation is to bring our gifts to the circle without the transaction, to guide without the grift, to serve without the sale.
Now, I understand your reader's concern about compensation is valid and practical. The reality is that facilitators need to sustain themselves and their families. But rather than getting lost in endless debates about what should or shouldn't be monetized — "what about this? And what about this?" — let's focus on the larger question: How do we respond to the breakdown of our social order?
This isn't about abandoning livelihoods out of naive idealism. It's about recognizing that we're in a Fourth Turning crisis that demands we choose between maintaining comfortable business models and doing the work that might actually matter. Are coaches so singularly gifted that the only work they can do for money is helping other men? Hardly.
What might the new configuration look like in practice? Men showing up for each other without financial transaction. Community-funded initiatives that serve genuine transformation rather than individual comfort. Mentorship that emerges from relationship rather than marketing. Real initiation into responsibility for the world's healing, not just personal improvement.
As Miguel puts it: "Our job is to restore that hoop from how we are connected to spirit, to essence, in a whole new different configuration and be willing to let go of the old configurations because they are obviously not working."
The old configuration includes men's work as a profit center. The new configuration looks like understanding that our healing is inseparable from the healing of the world.
I hope this lands not as an attack on your integrity, but as an invitation to consider whether what we're calling "men's work" is actually working for anyone beyond those profiting from it.
Looking forward to your thoughts on the articles.
In service,
Immanuel
Great essay.
Ian - Having followed your work over the years I have often thought of you (and others like you) as carrying on the torch of the men’s work as it changes and morphs into what is needed in our society. I have been in a men’s group for 15+ years. The gatherings started with overly enthusiastic diving in to our individual and collective psyches, deep dives into social justice and racism (as several of the members are people of color) and shadow work guided by the written mentorship of Bly, Deita, Moore, Meade, Some, Prechtel and Jung (among many others). It has now become a more insular container of community and comradeship. The regular group allows us to navigate a world where we raise kids and deepen our spiritual connections while adjusting to a life filled with familial deaths, cancer diagnosis, divorce and other pain points inevitable on the human journey.
I feel this support in my immediate family and community, yet in the depths of my being I know more work in larger community / society is needed. Not all men have this sort of support. I would argue that many social ailments and present day issues derive from men who are isolated and lack the resilience of deep community such as what a men’s group can provide. I believe large scale curation of containers where men’s groups can happen is a possible remedy for our times.
The comments below and your essay detailing the work at men’s conferences such as the one held in Minnesota speak to 2 sides of a similar coin- the internal work must be done in relatively safe containers for the outer work to be undertaken. I see these efforts Ian in your retreats and intensive offerings. I witness this occasionally in plant medicine communities as well as via sustained men’s group work.
We are collectively being called to embody the 4 archetypes outlined in the seminal work by Gillette and Moore: We need to learn to Love ourselves and those around us (including embracing our sacred twin and erotic energies); we must empower the Warrior to speak out from a place of inner truth against injustice to do the hard work in our families and communities; we must learn to become Magicians who can work with deeper animist energies and transmute negativity into healing; and we must embrace an inner King to be just and fair in a world that unceasingly teeters towards tyrannical.
Simply put: We must heal our selves and the world.
Many other energies / archetypes are needed. The Loving Father archetype comes to mind when thinking of the children of Palestine and the black and brown bodied youth targeted by criminal injustice and racial profiling on Turtle Island. Echoing some of the comments above, my curiosity and hope is that the men’s movement continues to move through the (needed and sometimes self congratulatory) phases of self awareness and healing and steps into the larger roles that our current time is asking for.
I look to the new torch bearers to continue to have these conversations and lead the way.
“He confesses its his first experience at a “men’s gathering” How can this be? How do you get to speak into such a space but have not walked the path of intentional gathering with men?