Illuman Needs the Red

By David Murphree

We were in the forest. It was pitch black except for the fire in the middle of the circle, where twenty-two men had gathered for a weekend called The Masculine and the Muse: Rediscovering Eros.

A storyteller had just shared the traditional Russian folk tale, The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa. In the story, a young hunter was riding a powerful white horse through the forest when they came upon a giant feather lying across the path. The hunter jumped down to pick it up, but the horse warned him: he may take the feather, but if he did, he would know fear as he had never known it before.

You can imagine what happens.

Around our own fire, the storyteller had scattered dozens of feathers on the ground. As the story ended, he invited any man present to pick up his own feather, offering us the same warning: if we did, it would be like being struck by a thousand bolts of lightning.

He had hardly finished the sentence when a twenty-three-year-old in our group jumped out of his seat, picked up a feather, and sat back down.

We men in the second half of life were surprised by what this man in the first half of life had done. Some of us were still discerning. Some of us were weighing the consequences. Some of us were wondering what it might mean to pick up a feather.

And this younger man had simply moved.

Something in the circle changed when he did. The fire was no longer only in the center of us; it had leaped into a body. Before we had finished weighing consequences, a younger man had answered the myth with his feet. Not recklessly, but with the kind of holy immediacy that older men can lose when discernment slowly becomes hesitation.

This is why Illuman needs men from the first half of life in our circles: because the circle isn’t whole without them.

We have elder stories, scars, steadiness, silence, and blessings to offer younger men. We have maps of the terrain that many younger men are only beginning to enter. But perhaps we have spoken too often as if they are the ones in need and older men are the ones who provide.

The deeper truth is that we need them, too.

In Liturgies of the Wild, Martin Shaw speaks of passion and first-half-of-life energy as the color red. “It’s the Red that urges you on, gives you courage to take a position, draw a line in the sand. It’s the Red that lets you dream big, pack a suitcase, and head out on an adventure. Red is a spirit road, a ‘yes we can’ moment, an ‘I am Spartacus’ rousing of the self.”

Illuman needs the Red. We need the young energy that still believes something can be done. We need men who have not yet learned to disguise longing as practicality. We need the ones who are willing to pick up the feather before the circle has fully explained why it matters.

And younger men need the circle, too. Shaw paints a picture of red and white marble. Without the white marble—without mentoring—the red can become warlike, impulsive, uncontained. Fire without form can burn down the village.

But white without red has its own danger. It can become passive. Careful. Overly managed. Full of half-completed projects and well-discerned dreams that never quite become flesh.

Illuman needs both.

We need the white marble of eldering and the red marble of daring. We need the wisdom of men who have walked through grief, failure, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, work, illness, recovery, and loss. And we need the fierce immediacy of men who still leap toward the feather.

Without younger men, our circles may become wise but bloodless. Careful but unfinished. Reverent but too safe.

Without older men, younger fire may lack containment, blessing, and direction.

But together, something ancient becomes possible again: not older men helping younger men from above, but men of different seasons standing together around the same fire.

The young hunter needs the horse.

The horse needs the young hunter.

And the forest needs them both.

With this in mind, a small working group will soon be forming to explore how Illuman can more effectively reach, welcome, and serve men in the first half of life—especially through our local groups, regions, and national offerings.

Drawing on Richard Rohr's understanding of the first half of life in Falling Upward, this initiative will focus on the unique questions, challenges, and longings many younger men carry as they seek purpose, belonging, identity, and meaningful initiation. The group's purpose is not only to help younger men discover the gifts of Illuman, but also to help Illuman remain enriched, challenged, and renewed by their presence. We believe the circle is stronger when men of different generations learn from one another.

If this work speaks to you, we would love to hear from you. Please reach out to David Murphree, First Half of Life Working Group Convener, at dfmurphree@yahoo.com.

May we have the wisdom of the horse and the courage of the hunter.