SOULCRAFT FOR MEN
This month’s reflection is coming to me while reading
stories about the Australian “Bloke” that is in danger of being extinct. Some young
men recall their grandfathers (and some fathers) and feel great admiration for
the strong male roles they represented some 50 years ago.
In an article entitled “The Old Aussie bloke is a dying
breed, but what sort of man is taking his place?” By 37 years old Dylan, a
construction worker in Queensland, states: “They were dependable men, stone
solid. They stood up against the storms that life would throw at them and
powered on. Their hands were calloused, their faces weathered but, they were so
strong. They broke complex problems into simple solutions and they did not
complicate their lives with trivia. Those guys had life figured out because
they had to figure out how to survive.”
Later in the article he reflects on what has changed: “we have
gone from that really strong, solid identity where we fitted in to where we are
living in these cities and urban spaces and wandering: where do I fit in now?
Am I meant to be a hipster?
Am I meant to be the strong guy?
Am I meant to be a sporty guy?
Am I meant to be a tradie?
We had the metrosexual movement and now we are into
political correctness movement where others tell you how to talk and how to
think. So, who are we? What is a man meant to represent in this socio-cultural
environment? Young men now just retreat into their little shells inside
themselves and feel safe.
Men’s lives have changed quickly and dramatically in the
past 40-50 years. So, now men ask: where is our place in the culture? Where are
the places where we can relax and not feel like we are saying or doing
something wrong or stupid? Or being policed about how politically incorrect we
are.
Men just want to go to some place and exhale and say stuff
and not have people yell at them and wanting to change them.
SO, WHAT TO DO?
I am thinking about the idea developed by the Greenpeace
organisation. They fight for a better environment but also offer to their “enemies”
alternative solutions to correct the damage they are doing to the planet. They
offer better and more sustainable solutions to sea pollution and earth pollution.
We do not need ‘Beta’ men to replace ‘Alpha’ males but we
need to distil from both parts the best, so men can develop a new image of
themselves. We want to help men to develop their soul.
MEN SOULCRAFT
One way to begin to develop Soulcraft is to connect with
reason and understanding (awareness). That is, develop inner understanding. Reason varies from person to person
and changes over time with study and life experiences. The mature reason of a
wise man is an ally of the deep inner understanding and it is situated in the
heart. The heart is the symbol of Soul. The Soul is the lamp that allows men to
see, really see. Here are some exercises to open the heart centre that the Sufi
masters developed over hundreds of years.
1 - Remember God the Creator of all.
2 - Use blessings to open the heart. Visualise a
door and it is opened to reveal the heart.
3 - The heart is a sunflower. Make a drawing of a
sunflower and imagine it following the sunlight.
4 - Imagine your heart as a sacred temple – meditate
on this image.
Here are two more suggestions for
men to practice in a sacred space, a mountainside, a bush or a desert extracted from the book by Bill Plotkin:
PERSONAL
SELF-DESIGNED RITUAL
Personal, self-designed ritual enables us to speak, again,
the same language as animals, trees, rivers, and mountains, the same dialect as
soul and spirit, the same magical words as the sacred Other. A two-way
exchange, conversation requires us to both hear and speak. We hear the Other
through the numinous declarations of dreams, deep imagery, inner voices, sudden
insights or revelations, synchronicities, powerful emotions, love, death, the
voice of God, and epiphanies of nature. These communications from within (soul)
and without (nature) and both/neither (spirit) constitute the Other’s way of
speaking to us. We make it a conversation by way of ceremony.
An essential soulcraft skill, the art of self-designed ritual
deepens the conversation between the conscious self and the Other. Being
self-designed, some elements of these rituals originate with the individual
and are not merely the enactment of a tradition.
Personal rituals need not be elaborate or complex. Most
often the core component is something as plain and spare as a hand releasing a
slip of paper into fire. Although simple, the action is profound, perhaps
capturing the central mystery of a life — or opening the way to that mystery.
PERSONAL MYTH WORK
There are a thousand ways to tell the story of a life. How
you tell your story determines, in part, what story you are in fact living and
what it might become: a story, for example, about blind ambition and revenge,
or about redemption and love. A soulcraft approach to your own story asks you
to see your life in the light of the universal dynamics and archetypes of
humanity. Consider crafting your life story as a personal myth, framing the
events of your life in a symbolic perspective. Compose an autobiography told in
the third person, a story symbolically authentic to the central themes of your
life. Have it take place anywhere and anytime that fits best with your myth.
Add or subtract or modify characters from your life if this aids in portraying
the thematic truths of your life. Have yourself represented by one character, two,
or several. Give yourself a symbolically significant name such as Golden Warrior
or Night Horse. You might want to begin your myth with “Once upon a time. . .”
If you wish, have your myth include the full story of your life (past your
present age), all in the past tense, including the way it would likely end as
the predominant themes play themselves out. The historical facts don’t matter!
Think and feel — and write — mythically. As you write, remember that good myth honours
the whole story as essential. Your early wounding and later losses are as
necessary to your story as the victories and loves. The story transforms itself
through the gift you recover at the centre of your sacred wound, and you will
find the inner understanding.
Plotkin, Bill. Soulcraft: Crossing
into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (p. 205). New World Library. Kindle
Edition.
