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Matthew Fox
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Liberate the Spiritual Warrior within you to experience authentic relationships, be an effective catalyst for change, and fulfill your life’s purpose.
Embody qualities of both the Sacred Masculine and Divine Feminine so you can act with an open heart, embrace uncertainty, and speak your truth with courage and conviction.
— Matthew Fox
Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila...
These mystics are powerful expressions of the Divine Feminine — embodying an inner source of creation that is transformative and holy.
They are equally powerful expressions of the Sacred Masculine...
In fact, it’s impossible to fully express the Divine Feminine without also being grounded in the Sacred Masculine; these two energies coexist, as two parts of an interconnected whole, in perfect, inseparable union. Together, they’re expressions of God, Spirit, the Beloved, the One.
The Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine united are the mystic, prophet and lover — reverent protector acting on behalf of others and the planet.
Redefining the Masculine: Strength & Confidence for Enduring a Dark Night of the Soul
As a spiritual seeker, you may have been focusing on accessing or cultivating the Divine Feminine within you. Yet to act, to manifest and to truly create the change we so desperately need at this time, we are all (women and men) being called to embrace the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine within us — to become Spiritual Warriors in our communities and our world.
Many spiritual leaders and mystics are calling this time a “Dark Night of the Soul” for all humanity. You may be personally experiencing profound challenges in your own life and relationships, or in attempting to manifest your highest calling and transform old ways of thinking, doing and being.
In these uncertain times, and with all the creative energy that change stirs within us, it takes strong energy to stay focused and act with courage and confidence.
This kind of strength is often drawn from the Sacred Masculine, yet many of us have been exposed to an unhealthy, toxic masculinity that reinforces oppressive, damaging patriarchal systems.
During these times we do not need soldiers, we need warriors... Spiritual Warriors whose orders come from the soul, not an external commander. A soldier delivers or falls in pain, but a warrior does everything with love, facing pain head on.
Matthew Fox, an internationally acclaimed spiritual theologian, episcopal priest and activist, explains that the Sacred Masculine (and therefore the Spiritual Warrior) is largely unacknowledged and unexpressed “because Western culture is still dualistic and values thinking over feeling, material wealth over spiritual growth, scientific fact over intuitive knowledge, men over women, and heterosexul over homosexual.”
The answer to this separation is in the union of the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine — as expressed through the archetype of the Spiritual Warrior.
The qualities of the Spiritual Warrior are essential for navigating the complexities of modern life, standing confidently in your truth, and championing changes that are needed in your relationships, work life and society.
To embody these qualities is to act with an open heart, channel anger effectively, and to be willing to “go to the edge” spiritually to benefit your own and others’ growth.
The Spiritual Warrior is an expression of the inner Sacred Masculine and the Divine Feminine... truthful and present, peaceful and purposeful, courageous and bold.
And as you’ll see below, it’s important to open up not just to the Spiritual Warrior, but to all the Sacred Masculine archetypes.
Authentic Sacred Masculine Archetypes
Matthew has identified 10 archetypes for authentic, healthy expressions of the Sacred Masculine...
These archetypes are metaphors, showing us the way and guiding us into deeper relationship with ourselves, others and the world around us. They’re found among Indigenous and ancient cultures all over the world, and among many religions, from the people of the Bible to Jews to Christians to Muslims and more. They’re also closely aligned, and their power is harnessed within each of the chakras.
Father Sky, an ancient archetype for naming the Sacred or Divine Masculine, is a call to relate to the wonders of the universe. Father Sky is as intimate as it is vast — it’s the air we breathe and it’s the ongoing creative, evolutionary process (with new stars being born every 15 seconds!). Yet the modern era has shut down Father Sky, leaving men and women with no place to invest their sky-sized hearts and souls.
The archetype representing Oneness with the Earth is the Green Man. The Green Man symbolizes our relationship to the plant world and our connection to all living things. Similar to Father Sky, it is a symbol of generativity and creation of all things on Earth. At this time of great environmental peril, the Green Man and Green Woman are critical archetypes for us to rediscover and embody, as Warriors defending Mother Earth.
When we honor the Green Man archetype, we hold in common what we have with the plant world. When we honor our powers of lovemaking (Masculine Sexuality Archetype), we honor our creative and generative nature, vital to our existence. And when we honor our Cosmic and Animal Bodies, we honor our human bodies, the power of our wondrous minds and our connection to all of humanity.
It’s also important that we get in touch with our anger and moral indignation. When we feel “kicked” by injustice, our anger is triggered. We decry anger as a sin, but anger can also serve as the fire that keeps us going and fighting for what’s right.
We want to tap into our anger — our non-violent anger. We don’t want to sit on it, we want to “employ” and direct and harness it. We want to use the energy of our lower chakras to transform the challenges we face. We want to use this energy of the healthy Spiritual Warrior in us, to heal and deliver the social and environmental justice being called for at this time.
In this virtual course with Matthew, you’ll discover exactly how to access and embody each archetype of the Sacred Masculine, regardless of your gender. You’ll discover how to overcome any blocks so that you can fully embrace these archetypes in every area of your life.
Greater Connection Through Live Streaming Video
As a special addition to this course, Matthew will be live streaming video of his teaching sessions so you can enjoy an even more powerful connection and transmission. This live video connection will be easy to use and will greatly increase your learning and transformation.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
Course sessions are on Thursdays at Noon Pacific.
In this 7-week transformational intensive, Matthew will guide you through the fundamental principles and qualities of Spiritual Warriorship. Each weekly LIVE contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the preceding sessions. You’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles that will enable you to unite within you the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine and fully activate your gifts in service to the world.
Module 1: Defining the Spiritual Warrior (September 7)
The Sufi Mystic Hafiz celebrates the Spiritual Warrior who sticks around during the dark periods of our lives or in our culture known as the Dark Night of the Soul (and what we may also call the “Dark Night of Our Species”). A warrior does not run away, go into denial, or commit to addictions.
In this first session, you’ll explore Hafiz’s teachings and those of Meister Eckhart, Joanna Macy and others who speak to developing the mystic warrior or prophet who, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, is not afraid to “interfere.”
You’ll discover:
- What the mystical traditions teach about the Dark Night
- The value of the Dark Night when you can face it wisely
- The archetype of the Spiritual Warrior, and your capacity to develop this inner strength and courage
- How teachings from the mystic Meister Eckhart and the Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy can support cultivation of the Spiritual Warrior
Module 2: Sources of the Sacred Masculine (September 14)
Father Sky, the Green Man, Blue Man, Hunter Gatherer and other archetypes rarely addressed in a patriarchal society are actually “spiritual springs” that can nourish a healthy and sacred masculinity. Defining masculinity in terms of the reptilian brain (being number one and dominating others) rather than in terms of cooperation, serves empires but not the planet nor deepening human relationships, which is one of the gifts of the Sacred Masculine.
You’ll discover:
- The deepening of the Sacred Masculine archetype of Father Sky
- The deepening of the Sacred Masculine archetype of the Green Man
- The deepening of the Sacred Masculine archetype of the Blue Man
- The deepening of the Sacred Masculine archetype of the Hunter Gatherer
- Practices to develop these archetypes in yourself and with others
Module 3: The Inner Mystic
Your Foundation of the Sacred Masculine (September 21)
Hafiz teaches that one becomes a sacred warrior “only if you and God become sweet lovers.” This means a warrior must be a mystic, for the mystic in us is a lover. A lover of earth, life, animals, beauty, health, children, people not yet born, poems and music and all the rest of creation. How do the mystic poets lead us to this kind of love?
Here, we call on mystics such as Mary Oliver, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Berry and others who light the fire of mysticism within us all. This awakening of eros is at the heart of the return of the Sacred Masculine.
You’ll discover:
- How we are all mystics and how YOU can deepen your mysticism
- Teachings of contemporary mystics that can ignite your inner mystic
- Teachings of pre-modern mystics that can affirm and deepen your own mysticism
- The return of the Sacred Masculine as the prerequisite of a mystical awakening
Module 4: The Sacred Marriage of the Divine Feminine & Sacred Masculine (September 28)
Theologians Dorothy Soelle and Father Bede Griffiths identify mysticism with the Divine Feminine. Exploring the Divine Feminine provides a bridge to the Sacred Masculine.
In this session, Matthew will guide you to consider Meister Eckhart and Adrienne Rich; Julian of Norwich and M.C. Richards; the Wild Woman as practiced by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Hildegard of Bingen; the marriage of the Green Man and the Black Madonna; and other mystics and myths.
You’ll discover:
- Why wise people teach that the return of the Divine Feminine spells also the return of mysticism
- How women poets and philosophers such as Adrienne Rich and M.C. Richards awaken within us the meaning of a deep feminism
- Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton’s teachings of the Divine Feminine
- How to engage in the Sacred Marriage of the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine
Module 5: Taking on Powers of Evil (October 5)
Religion in the West has oversold sin, requiring a new language for understanding and debating in greater depth the presence of evil in our lives and society. Psychologist M. Scott Peck said that our language about evil is at a mere “primitive” stage.
In Matthew Fox’s book on evil, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, he proposes a new language born of marrying Eastern teachings about the seven chakras with Western teachings about the seven capital sins. In the foreward to this book, Deepak Chopra calls evil, “the number one spiritual issue for the 21st century.”
Developing your powers of the Sacred Masculine along with the energy of the Divine Feminine can prepare you to face evil and do something constructive about it.
You’ll discover:
- A new language taken from East and West to discuss and debate evil
- How the 7 chakras of the East correspond to power places in your body and psyche
- How the 7 capital sins of the West correspond to the chakras when they are off-center
- How sin is different from evil but opens the door to it
- How you can stand strong against powers of evil in society and in self
Module 6: Creativity
Where the Divine & the Human Meet (October 12) (Pre-recorded)
Pre-modern thinkers and mystics like Thomas Aquinas, Hildegard of Bingen and Meister Eckhart instruct us that we co-create with the spirit of creation. Today’s anthropology operates on the assumption that the very definition of a human being is a “bi-ped who makes things.”
Is society putting creativity first in our educational and religious communities? Why not? What’s holding us back? How can human creativity heal and deal with the great problems facing our species today? Where does our creativity come from? How do we reconnect to it? How do we release that creativity? How do we move from disempowerment to empowerment?
You’ll discover:
- Sources of your creativity
- How your creativity (developing the Blue Man within you) is, as the mystics teach, a de facto an experience of Spirit
- How your creativity can be utilized for good or for evil
- Ways to unleash your creativity and move from disempowerment to empowerment
Module 7: The Recovery of the Sacred & Return of Hope
(October 19)
Hope is not optimism; it’s hard work, both inner and outer — work that confronts injustice and evil in and around us.
This work demands the recovery of the sacred in which you exist and move. It requires that you fully enliven the mystic within, nourishing your inner warrior or prophet... and it requires the Sacred Marriage of the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine within a cosmology that arouses awe and wonder.
In this final session, you’ll explore modern prophets Naomi Klein, Scott Sanders, Howard Thurman, Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy and others who bring hope alive, and who have themselves developed the Spiritual Warrior in deep and useful ways.
You’ll discover:
- How to recover a sense of the sacred
- Why despair and denial don’t have the last word even in times of darkness
- How mystic-warriors and prophets of our day such as Naomi Klein and Scott Sanders, Howard Thurman and Joanna Macy and others are urging us on
- Teachings of these prophets that interfere with despair, denial and addictions
- How David Orr’s “sleeves-rolled-up” definition of hope can awaken the Sacred Masculine, connected anew to the Divine Feminine in life and practice
The Way of the Spiritual Warrior Bonus Collection
In addition to Matthew’s transformational 7-week virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions with leading visionaries and teachers. These bonus sessions complement the course — and promise to take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Creativity: Where the Divine & the Human Meet
Video Sermon From Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox explores how intrinsic creativity is to our human nature and how the highest communion with the Divine can be found right at our fingertips in the simplest expressions of human creativity. It is a message to put into action in everyday life. Fox asks why our culture so undervalues creativity in, for example, our educational programs and schools. He also explores the place from which creativity arises in us and how to bring creativity alive in all peoples.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
Video Presentation From Matthew Fox
You’re invited to undergo this new contemplative practice created by spiritual theologian Matthew Fox. In this mini-walking pilgrimage, one meditates on the seven "I am’s" and the nine events in the life of Jesus that are cosmically based, including the Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration and Pentecost. The Cosmic Christ archetype is among the earliest teachings in Christianity (Paul and the Gospel of Thomas, for starters), yet a psychologized religious consciousness of the modern era practically lost that awareness.
The 16 Stations were created in clay by potters M.C. Richards and Ullrich Javier Lemus. The practice is fully laid out with pictures in the recent book, Stations of the Cosmic Christ by Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
The Struggle for a Return of the Sacred in the Time of a Neo-fascist Resurgence
Video Presentation From Matthew Fox
An eagerness for Sacred Community and Social Transformation and Creativity motivates spirit in our times. In this presentation we explore some of the archetypes of the sacred, including that of the Cosmic Christ or Buddha Nature or Image of God. But we do so in the context of the dominant sign of our times: the evil of fascism on the rise in Europe and America. Once again we are learning the need to dance between the mystical (our Yes to Life) and the prophetic (our No to Injustice that always stifles life). Bishop Spong urged Christians to change or die; Deepak Chopra, in his forward to Matthew Fox’s recent book on evil, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, states that evil is the number one spiritual issue for the 21st century.
How can our mysticism empower us and give us the courage to take on forces of evil in ourselves and our society? How do we talk about evil in the 21st century? What language serves us effectively? We explore these and other signs of our times.
What People Are Saying About Matthew Fox...
Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America.
— Thomas Berry, Author of The Great Work
Matthew Fox, a one-of-a-kind voice, a wild man of religiosity, turns his loving heart toward emancipating modern men from an overculture that if left to itself would only use up men’s blood and bones. Fox holds a different vision of the masculine as creative, voluptuous and filled with spirit.
— Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD, Author of Women Who Run With the Wolves
Matthew Fox is a beacon of creative wisdom for our time!... He inspires us to divinize male sexuality and exorcise the self-imposed and culturally held demons that bring violence and environmental desecration to our world.
— Alex Grey, Artist and author of Sacred Mirrors, Transfigurations and The Mission of Art
The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — [Fox’s autobiography is] “must” reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity and the future of religion... [Fox’s book on the sacred masculine] is a wake-up call to shake us free from old stereotypes of masculinity. This book is good news.
— Joanna Macy, Author of World as Lover, World as Self and Active Hope
Among current spiritual theologians, no one has a more comprehensive vision of the necessary changes that must take place than Matthew Fox...
— Brian Thomas Swimme, Professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies
History will name Fox one of the great Christian spirits of our age.
— John Shelby Spong, Author of A New Christianity for a New World
Once again, Matthew Fox brings his spiritual and earthly wisdom to the critical issues of our age. Fox shows how the challenges of humanity — environment, conflict and social justice — are linked to the spiritual crisis faced by Western men. He demonstrates that we can start repairing our relationship with the Earth and its citizens by repairing our own relationship with the sacred.
— Rex Weyler, Co-founder of Greenpeace International, author of The Jesus Sayings and co-author of Chop Wood, Carry Water
The prolific Fox, best known for his treatments of a variety of themes within spirituality as well as works on the great mystics... urges men to connect "with a spiritual side they do not know exists within them." ...Fox deserves to find his true audience — thinking men (and women as well) who desire a rich exploration of "male spirituality" by a thinker who can draw as easily on Thomas Aquinas as he does on Greek mythology and the work of the Indian saint Swami Muktananda.
— Reed Business Information
Join the Global Community
The Way of the Spiritual Warrior not only offers some of the most advanced online teachings currently available, it also offers a thriving global community of support.
Join your fellow students and practitioners from across the world in the live interactive conference calls or in our online community to support and learn from each other while you learn to open your mind and expand your paradigm of reality.
This international community is at the leading edge of a global movement of people who are committed to manifesting a better world for all beings. This emerging planetary movement is rooted in an open heart and stands for the principles of mutual support, cooperation, harmony and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-minute Class Sessions With Matthew Fox
Experience a rare opportunity to be mentored and learn with pioneering contemporary spiritual teacher Matthew Fox — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a live streaming video option and guides you to learn the specific skills and abilities to awaken your spiritual potential. Course sessions are on Thursdays at Noon Pacific.
Seven Video Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the video will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format. This way, you’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime you desire — on your phone or on your computer.
Seven Audio Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to download in high-quality MP3 format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.
Seven PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. You can then review, print and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Seven 30-minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions
With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class. You’ll be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share and do additional practices to help further integrate the weekly lessons. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Online Community group allows you to connect with each other to find alternative times to interact.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
After each lesson, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about deepening practices, interact with your fellow students, and get access to additional resources to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
The Way of the Spiritual Warrior Bonus Collection
- Creativity: Where the Divine & the Human Meet
Video Sermon From Matthew Fox
- Stations of the Cosmic Christ
Video Presentation From Matthew Fox
- The Struggle for a Return of the Sacred in the Time of a Neo-fascist Resurgence
Video Presentation From Matthew Fox
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join The Way of the Spiritual Warrior Virtual Training
We feel honored Matthew Fox has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a rare opportunity to interact directly with a contemporary spiritual teacher whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
Through this powerful online format, you’ll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals — which would cost thousands of dollars), you’ll be able to benefit from Matthew’s incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home — at your own pace!
If you’re serious about catalyzing change and fulfilling your life’s purpose through liberating the Spiritual Warrior within you, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
About Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox is a prolific author of books that are renewing the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality. This tradition is feminist, welcoming of the arts and artists, wisdom-centered, prophetic, and caring about eco-justice, social justice, and gender justice. Fox’s effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition has included revivifying awareness of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas, as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics. He believes that "by reinventing work, education and worship, we can bring about a nonviolent revolution on our planet," and has committed himself to this vision for many years, most recently by setting out 95 theses for a new reformation of Christianity.
Fox holds a doctorate (received summa cum laude) in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He established an Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and 12 years at Holy Names College in Oakland.
Fox founded the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California in 1996, and was President and professor until 2005. Now he serves as mentor, spokesperson and professor for Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality in Boulder, Colorado which was founded by former students. He speaks regularly at professional and community gatherings around the world, and has led a renewal of liturgical forms with "The Cosmic Mass," which mixes dance, techno and live music, DJ, VJ, rap and contemporary art forms with the Western liturgical tradition. He is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award; other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks. In addition to his duties at Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality, he is also a visiting scholar at the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a virtual course?
A: It’s a great way to engage live teachings and each other from the comfort of your home! All you need is a computer, mobile device or telephone. If there is more than one person in your household taking the course, you will each need your own connection. We use Zoom videoconferencing to make it just like an in-person event, where you can ask questions and deepen your exploration of the course themes.
There is no additional charge for connecting to Zoom with your computer or mobile device. Please note that dialing Zoom from your telephone is a toll call; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. International access numbers are available.
I have never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon to participate. I haven’t seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
– Claudia F., Medford, MA
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can download the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private community website.
Q: Can you tell me about the Private Course Group?
A: We will have a private community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, completing homework assignments and exchanging information about events and other activities that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects and growth throughout the Course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this Training?
A: Yes, we always make a certain percentage of spaces available for partial scholarships, giving preference to those in developing countries or doing important but underpaid work to which they can apply the training material immediately. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is September 21, 2017. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we’ll send you an email confirming your refund. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there is something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com and we’ll be happy to help! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to a problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
