Men's Work

Men’s work? What is it? I’m a construction type dude; I can build a house from the ground up. I make stuff, I fix stuff and as an artist, I’m no painter or flute player, I got that machismo thing going on, I’m a sculptor, working in reality, gravity, with dangerous tools, heavy objects, pretty manly stuff, the kind of work of a real man.

Well that’s not really what men’s work is in this new paradigm. Men’s work is still heavy and dirty, yucky and hard. Men’s work is digging around in our psyche, looking deep into what motivates us, what’s our goal, our mission in life. We as men have been, tweaked and manipulated, coerced into being a certain way of being. Often a cog in the machine of society and shamed into a reality that’s not natural for us. We have been domesticated and trained, we are held in the shackles of not knowing our true essence. We have tried so hard to be good boys and men and when we rebel we usually take it out on ourselves, our loved ones and on the earth. We are wounded, we are deeply hurt and injured, and we carry this pain in the fear, the anger, the sadness, the antidepressants, alcohol, food, sex, overwork, dangerous activities, self-loathing and suicide.

So what is men’s work? It’s getting in there, rooting around in our lives, getting a true view of what it is we are doing with our life. Excavating the dark shadows we carry and bringing them up to the surface, showing it to men we’ve formed bonds of trust with and exposing it to the light. It means spending time in solitude without all the distractions our culture inundates us with, It means learning what it is to be a mature man living in the body of pure and sacred masculinity, it’s forgiving our selves, our fathers our mothers our partners and taking responsibility for our entire life. It means learning how to love ourselves and to take care of our bodies our minds and our souls. To be a man and do men’s work is to relearn what the sacred masculine is and that it is here to protect the divine feminine and that means to protect and nurture the earth, the children and all that’s regenerative. It means to stand in our true power, to love deeply, to share the knowledge, to hold the vision of love, understanding, compassion and wisdom.

How is this work done? Every Man is his own teacher, every man has the answers inside, and every man leads his own life in the direction he chooses. How do I choose to do men’s work? I have formed a band of brothers and I sit in a sacred circle every week with them. This is a place it is safe for me to expose the truth of what I am discovering about myself. This is where I hear the truth of other men; this is where I no longer feel alone in my own psyche. I expose my shadow to the light with men doing the same, these men are my brothers not my friends nor my family, these men truly have my back covered, they will fiercely call me when I am out of integrity, they will let me cry and not fix me nor shame me, they will care for me and they know that I am my own best guide. These men will be there for me until I die, they will be the ones lowering my casket or spreading my ashes they will speak at my eulogy, they will comfort my family and those that are pained by my passing. This circle of men has seen me in my darkest hour and they have seen my rise and they are witnessing the enlightenment of my life.

The Joy of being a man is a wonderful state of being, I will not take it for granted, I have a mission to evolve as a man to care for my planet and all that inhabit this glorious place in our little corner of the universe. I invite any man that is longing for deep connection to his divine soul and open to doing men’s work to join me in this circle of men and to explore together as men what it is to live in true sacred masculinity. Together doing men’s work we will change this world for the better, one man at a time.

The Image is "The King" 34"x34" from my Archetype Series