Review of Matthew Fox's retreat
at the
New Millennium Institute
Held Winter Solstice
December 15-20,1996
By Jade Young
We circle around, we circle around, the boundaries of the Earth
We circle around, we circle around, the boundaries of the Earth
Wearing our long tail feathers as we fly
Wearing our long tail feathers as we fly
Each morning we chanted this Native American song to honor and celebrate Mother
Earth and our connection to her. Thus began our sacred week-long journey with
Matthew Fox. Fox is a post modern theologian, writer and internationally-sought
after lecturer. He is a consummate teacher in that he not only educated and
challenged our minds, but fed our souls. Passionate, eloquent, funny,
irreverent, he breathed new meaning into the words prophet, mystic, cosmology,
Cosmic Christ. Who would have guessed that medieval mystics like St. Thomas
Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, and Hildegard of Bingen could have offer our jaded
twentieth century souls such needed spiritual refreshment, such welcoming
insights into reinventing ourselves and our work.
Matthew inspired us, challenged us and urged us to ask the difficult questions
-- where is the real pain today and what is the Earth asking of me now? We
delved into discovering how we could bring enchantment, delight, creativity, and
meaning into our work, our everyday lives.
Meister Eckhart wrote "unless you can live, love and work without a why, you
haven't learned to live and love, or work and why." He further added, "If a
person's work is to live, it must come from the depths of him or her -- not from
alien sources outside oneself -- but from within."
On one afternoon, the group ventured off to visit two ancient sites of Hawaiian
worship and healing, Pu'ukohola Heiau and Lapakahi State Park. On another
evening, after a hike to Pololu Valley, we gathered at Bamboo Restaurant and
after dinner met with the owner Jim Channon, a social architect who led us
through a process of "Imagineering." We collectively imagineered our idea of a
sacred retreat, complete with waterfalls, sweat lodges, labyrinths, healing
gardens, hot tubs, inter-generational learning centers, spaces for meditation,
birthing, dying, rites of passage centers and more.
The final evening of our journey we dined under a brilliant Hawaiian sky lit
with the campfires of our ancestors, the stars. We celebrated Matthew's winter
solstice birthday and were treated to the singing and strumming of ukulele
player Zelie Duvauchelle and guitarist Steve Bess. After dinner we moved
indoors into a sacred temple that was designed in hanging silk art by Jenwah
Panther. As we stepped into the sanctuary, each of us was anointed with
fragrant oils and water and ti leaves in the Hawaiian tradition.
Our evening solstice celebration was marked with gifts of poetry, dance, song
and the free spirit of the via creativa. It may have begun as the darkest,
longest night day of the year, but it ended with great joy, warmth and a deep
sense of gratitude in our hearts.
We had all walked in simple human beings with different agendas and different
professions, but we returned home prophets, mystics, poets and artists, renewed
and refreshed by honoring the forth paths: via positiva, via negativa, via
creative and the via transformativa. For me it was the most spiritually
invigorating week of my life. My heart overflowed. Metanoia!
If you are up to wrestling with a prophet, check out Matthew at his new
Oakland-based
school of Creation Spirituality.
