I discuss ongoing work I’m doing around sacred masculinity, specifically around sacred sexuality and the experience of phallos as a sacred sexual source. I also explore the connection between Saturn, Eros and Phallos.
The healing of the sacred masculine
Over the last half year I’ve been engaged in a lot of work around exploring my relationship with my own sense of masculinity, and what it means to be a man, as well as what is sacred about masculinity. My own relationship with my father, my model for the masculine, was never a healthy one, and I found over the years that I’ve sometimes embodied the immature masculine, because I simply didn’t know what else was available. I think this is a problem most men, and boys face and it is becoming more and more complicated because we don’t have good models or the necessary rites of passage that are needed.
The rites of passage that are available in modern society is learning to drive (age 16), voting (age 18) and Drinking legally (age 21). Beyond that there really isn’t a structure in place that explores a coming of age for anyone regardless of what gender they identify with, but for the purposes of this writing I’m speaking in context to the journey of being a man, regardless of how a person comes to identify themselves as male.
Journey to Sacred Masculinity Part 1
I discuss my journey to sacred masculinity and share why I’ve started exploring it and how it is helping me with my overall spiritual path as well as healing the wounds I’ve experienced around being male. I also discuss the epic of Gilgamesh and my relationship with Inanna/Ishtar/Aphrodite and why that relationship is central to the sacred masculinity work I am doing…as well as a discussion of Saturn’s role in all of this work.
The relationship between sacred kingship and the land
One of the books I’m reading lately is King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Doug Gillette. It’s a fascinating book that explores the archetypes of the mature and sacred masculine. This is currently part of the spiritual work that I’m engaged in as I explore my own relationship with masculinity and heal the ancestoral and contemporary wounds that I’m becoming aware of as it relates to how masculinity is treated and perceived in modern times.
One of the aspects I’m exploring in particular is related to sacred kingship and the land. I am in the process of exploring the new city and surrounding areas that I live in. While I’ve lived here for a year, I didn’t have much opportunity until recently to really begin exploring the area and developing a relationship with the land. I find it fitting and useful that part of the process has also involved cultivating a relationship with the land, particularly on the basis of the relationship has with their home and how that relationship plays out in sacromagical work one does in connecting with the land.
The wild man and the sacred masculine
I’ve recently been reading a book called Iron John, which is a fascinating exploration of the Wild Man and the journey of a boy to discover sacred masculinity, through the wild man, as well as the sacred connection between the land and the spiritual king. I’m only halfway through the book at the time of this writing, but what strikes me about this book is a theme of journeys, and specifically the journey the boy is initiated through when he chooses to free the wild man (Iron John) from the cage he is in, and goes with him to the wilderness.
It reminds me of the Green Knight and the journey Gawain goes on to return the axe to the Green Knight as well as offer his head. All the experiences Gawain has along the way are part of an initiation into the mystery of the sacred masculine. When he first leaves on his quest, although Gawain is technically a man, he’s really a boy. He only begins to discover his own masculinity, in a sacred context, when he undergoes the various trials that reveal his weaknesses and failings as well as his strengths.