New Podcast: The Cave and the Fire

We are excited to launch the first episode of a new Illuman podcast, The Cave and the Fire. In this, we’ll be talking to various men about masculinity, spirituality, and their experience in Illuman.  Our first episode features Matthew Lyda, a poet, soul companion, and guide. To learn more about him, check out his website, where he offers a free ten day self-directed course.

In this episode, we talk about the penis in both its erect and flaccid states as a sacred symbol of the divine masculine. Matthew talks about competition and uses the term “non-violent aggression” as a descriptor for something that is essential for him about masculinity. This touches on a thread that is running right through our culture right now, Illuman included, and I wanted to touch on it here, especially as we attend to how we might have suppressed Warrior energy out of fear.

Progressives especially seem to have been burnt enough by unhealthy competition in a patriarchal or domination paradigm, that in some circles, competition has become anathema.  There is a moral elevation of cooperation over competition, with the assumption that the former is superior to the latter. Cooperation is wonderful, and lots of competition includes cooperation within a team. In a patriarchal dominance structure, competition clearly can be problematic. In a structure in which winning is entirely an egoic identity project, there are limits to really how helpful winning can be. However, there is much still to be learned from losing, which requires competition to continue! Ultimately, throwing out the baby with the bathwater and shifting to “participation awards” in order to tamp down competitiveness has been the consternation of many young men and boys, whose natural aggression is being pathologized, rather than trained, honored, directed, and honed.

There are other ways to think about competition besides domination and win/lose. In some cultures, competing is not primarily about winning, domination, and cultivating a gladiator mentality. Instead, all the competitors are seen as bringing their efforts as a sacred offering to God or the Gods. What brings honor isn’t the winning or losing, but expending all of one’s heart and effort in the ring. Jacob wrestles God all night long with intense vigor, and God matches his intensity. “Winning does not tempt that man,” as Rilke put it, “this is how he grows, by being defeated decisively, by constantly greater beings.” This is iron sharpening iron.  In US professional sports, one will hear men who have competed for years against an arch rival speak with respect at how their nemesis has brought out the best in them, something that perhaps only could have emerged in the context of fierce competition.

There is a paradox in the spiritual journey around the energy competition. St. Paul writes of training himself as an athlete would train, bringing hard energy towards the soft, undisciplined parts of himself in order to be awake and ready. This dynamic sets up for far too many games of worthiness, which is a dead end. Folks seek and seek and seek for God’s favor or presence with a litany of rigid spiritual practices. Of course, it is not necessary, as the spiritual life is ultimately about discovering what we already had, who we always have been, and waking up to an inheritance that will always be true. In seeking, we are always looking elsewhere, in some other time or space, which prevents us from finding God within, or what is already in the present moment. In the end, seeking can be the final thing we must abandon in order to find. However, we would never find it at all if we didn’t at least begin with seeking.  

There are a number of other themes Matthew brings to the table as well. I hope you enjoy this first podcast in our new series, and come back to listen for more.