Skip to content
  • Name: Adam's Return
  • Author: Richard Rohr
  • Type: #literature/book
  • Source: #source/book
  • Link: Goodreads
  • Annotation:

Notes

Death and life are in an eternal dance

We cannot live until we first have died. Initiation leads into true-self, flow, great patterns, life of God, true life

We need initiation

Men are hurting. We are over mothered and under fathered. Men are lost.

Five messages learnt in initiation

1. Life is hard

Do not run from pain, transform the pain. Do not blame, take responsibility. Name it, own it, transform it.

2. You are not important

Be a beginner, be forever listening and learning. The master knows he knows nothing. The master knows growth in is in the wrestle.

3. Your life is not about you

Life lives through us. We are participants in the great whole. Aligning ourselves with the large mystery makes the small self unimportant.

4. You are not in control

living in true authority comes from the realisation that we are participants in a larger story. We have a gift of inner purpose.

5. You are going to die

Male initiation requires a specific male love

  • Male love needs to be earned - conditional
  • Males love is a tough love. Femail love is more unconditional. (interestingly we need this dynamic from bosses in the work place)
  • we yearn for an older, stronger, wiser man to guide us, believe in us, affirm us, teach us practical skills, challenge us and correct us.
  • men desire for their edges to be hot and clean/hard, women need warm and soft.
  • men crave the attention of men.

Shape of the male soul

The male soul is comprised of 4 parts. The last part is the proper integration of the first 3 parts.

Warrior

Aggression, direct, assertive, tough, brave, protector, fighter. Initiation - discipline, focus, respect, boundaries, self denial, enact aggression, push to the limit, find your good anger.

Wise man/magician

Preacher, teacher, spiritual director, mentor, speaker of truth, authority Initiation - develop spirituality (turning knowledge into wisdom), contemplation, obedience, poverty, prayer and devotion, balance between knowing and not knowing

Lover

Compassion, forgiving, accepting, erotic, feelings, passion, sensory Initiation - silliness, joy, enjoying the pleasure of life yet knowing that they will not fully satisfy. Passion. Falling in love with food drink and God.

King

Big picture, larger than life, grand, power, whole. Initiation - do not avoid power. Own it, integrate it, use if for common good. Kings integrate all three of the others. King energy = larger than life.

Include and name the negative

  • We shouldn't ignore the negative. The bible included MANY negatives.
  • we are weeds AND wheat within ourselves, not just amongst people
  • name, discuss and integrate the negative
  • place the wound inside the sacred space
  • denying/hating the negative doesn't make it go away, it makes fake happiness

Liminal space (threshold)

The in-between space. Finished one thing and about to start another (whether in a relationship, a job, or a stage of life/faith) - These are the times of anti-structure - we become awake - we exit 'business as usual', our comfortable sleepwalk or compulsive trance.

All major growth happens in liminal space.

Whimsy, holy uselessness, failure, holiday, fasting. These things create liminal space.