Druid/Pagan Man/Divine Masculine Resources?

[=West=]

Greetings all - I'm collecting writings and research for a book I am writing on the Divine Masculine aspect of modern Druidry/Paganism. I'm wondering if I could start this post to request any and all information, links, or books you might have to offer to aid in my research?

Thank you and blessings!

[DJ Droood]

Gods in Every Man, by Jean Shinoda Bolen

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Everyman-Jea ... 0060972807

In her popular Goddesses in Every woman , Jungian analyst Bolen told females how to relate to the Aphrodite or Hera within them. Now she's back with more received wisdom from Mount Olympus, this time for men, as exemplified by such thunderbolts as: "An Apollo man isn't much of a lover"; "The Zeus man prides himself on seeing the bigger picture"; "A Hermes man finds settling down difficult." Her attempt to systematically map a masculine psychology based on archetypes personified by Greek gods is at least as simplistic as sun-sign astrology but often sounds more vapid. She does instant readings on celebs too: John Belushi and Jim Morrison, "public Dionysus figures," burned out and didn't survive their midlife crises; Robert Kennedy "had an Ares streak," which did not endear him to the Mafia, and so forth

Fun book...I read it around the same time that Oliver Stone movie on Jim Morrison came out.

And there is always the wildly popular: Iron John: A Book About Men, Robert Bly

n "a fascinating examination of myth, literature, psychology, and anthropology" (Newsday), National Book Award-winning poet and translator Robert Bly offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man. "Important and timely."--New York Times Book Review.

[Kat Lady]

The thread was edited per the request of its initiator and agreement of those that posted since the responses were off topic.

Kat

[DJ Droood]

You may have cut a bit close to the bone.... before the thread took a silly turn, Nico did have a good point about the absurdity of a female author mapping the divine masculine, (in reference to my mention of Jean Shinoda Bolen's book). I think you have to live "in country" to write a guide book...otherwise it is just a tourist's sightseeing book.

[Kat Lady]

You may have cut a bit close to the bone.... before the thread took a silly turn, Nico did have a good point about the absurdity of a female author mapping the divine masculine, (in reference to my mention of Jean Shinoda Bolen's book). I think you have to live "in country" to write a guide book...otherwise it is just a tourist's sightseeing book.

Nico stated that his initial post could be removed so I did as I was asked. You are all of course welcome to re-post anything you feel is relevent.

[=West=]

From a psycological or spiritual perspective, I don't think it is absurd to have a female write about the masculine or a male write about the feminine. From my perspective, masculine and feminine are energies and archetypes - and I think the majority of humans represent a scale or percentage of each energy, which may or may not have any direct relationship to their gender. Richard Simmons: more masculine or more feminine? Janet Reno - more masculine or more feminine?

In any case, at this point I'm just in research mode, so really any resources are welcome - though I'm particularly looking for those that might have relationship to Paganism specifically. Archetypal/psychological work is welcome, though perhaps may be somewhat less relevant to the exact work I'm looking for (i.e. Robert Bly may not be quite as useful as Dagonet Dewr - though both are on my list).

[Explorer]

Nico stated that his initial post could be removed so I did as I was asked. You are all of course welcome to re-post anything you feel is relevent.

Yep, that is true, I asked to remove it because it was off-topic. But now that the West goes into it also..

What I said was that a woman claiming to systematically map masculine psychology indeed sounds stupid, and even a bit insulting.
There is a lot more to masculine psychology than a woman can ever know, you need to be a man to really understand that (which doesn't say that every man does either).

[Explorer]

I've been giving this some thought today...

The most direct answer would be to point you to the Irish and Welsh mythology, because that is source material for the 'Divine Masculine', or gods, as used in the obod course.
But I don't think that that would be the answer to the underlying question. I think that the underlying question is about mysticism, about how we (neo)druids get in touch with the Divine Masculine.

The answer to that question is different. It is not reading books that will provide that answer, but engaging in the experience that does. Which is also the core of obod druidry, this is not a theoretical study that you can look up on wikipedia, but a practical one that you need to experience.

In our rituals we can call upon that Divine Masculine' and project that into the ritual.
This can range from playing the part of a god as a character in a play-like ritual (which is nice, and slightly boring) to entering into a trance and seemingly become that god (which is more interesting). If you manage to relate this (spiritual) experience to the unfolding of your life and to the passing of the seasons, then you contact the 'bigger thing', nature, the universe, divinity. And then you are engaging in mysticism.

[DJ Droood]

In our rituals we can call upon that Divine Masculine' and project that into the ritual.
This can range from playing the part of a god as a character in a play-like ritual (which is nice, and slightly boring) to entering into a trance and seemingly become that god (which is more interesting). If you manage to relate this (spiritual) experience to the unfolding of your life and to the passing of the seasons, then you contact the 'bigger thing', nature, the universe, divinity. And then you are engaging in mysticism.

The "problem" with calling upon or enacting a mythical god is that you are really just accessing an ideal of "manhood" from another culture and time. (and probably a poorly translated/interpreted one at that) Without insulting anyone's particular "patron diety", many of the gods in the myths seem sort of like a**holes, imo, and not my ideal of the masculine, at least not how it has evolved in the present day and our present culture. The "divine masculine", is , of course, nothing more (or less) than a reflection of what is in ourselves, not some magical visitor that comes from without, so I can see using anachronistic god-types as being a possible hindrance to discovering your "inner man".

Perhaps rather than using some celibate monk's ancient literary misinterpretations as a resource, a better idea is to look to our fellow male creatures in the animal kingdom, and see how their wild and unfiltered "masculine" energy is expressed, and use that in meditation and ritual....the stag, the spawning salmon, our cousins the great apes, etc.

[DaRC]

I would suggest that perhaps the modern english speaking world is heavily influenced by the Medieval Arthurian legends, which were born out of the Chivalric ideals which in turn were probably influenced by earlier Northern Tribal concepts around good Kingship (see the Audacht Morainn and the Colloquy of Two Sages for early Irish examples).

In this respect many of our ideal man traits come from Chivalric concepts - although with more nappy changing & childcare in the modern world

[Explorer]

In our rituals we can call upon that Divine Masculine' and project that into the ritual.
This can range from playing the part of a god as a character in a play-like ritual (which is nice, and slightly boring) to entering into a trance and seemingly become that god (which is more interesting). If you manage to relate this (spiritual) experience to the unfolding of your life and to the passing of the seasons, then you contact the 'bigger thing', nature, the universe, divinity. And then you are engaging in mysticism.

The "problem" with calling upon or enacting a mythical god is that you are really just accessing an ideal of "manhood" from another culture and time. (and probably a poorly translated/interpreted one at that) Without insulting anyone's particular "patron diety", many of the gods in the myths seem sort of like a**holes, imo, and not my ideal of the masculine, at least not how it has evolved in the present day and our present culture. The "divine masculine", is , of course, nothing more (or less) than a reflection of what is in ourselves, not some magical visitor that comes from without, so I can see using anachronistic god-types as being a possible hindrance to discovering your "inner man".

What I perhaps forgot to say is that the interpretation of that 'god' can be totally up to the (modern) man who enacts it, also depending on the sort of group.
The clearest example in this case is perhaps our fertility rite with beltane. The 'Divine Masculine' combines with the 'Divine Feminine' with the hope of fertile lands, lives, times, etc.
I have seen this enacted in different ways. As a gentle symbolic dance, as a wild hunt where the may queen was hunted down and speared, as actual sacred sex, and even sometimes obod style ;-).
This does not need to be an idea from another culture and time at all.