I interviewed Sparrow for the Earth Savers Blog over a year ago and never posted the interview. I consider him a true Earth Saver because he has taken a good long look at what makes a man a man, and brought to them a program for accessing their hopes, dreams, and vision for their future. I wanted to help him by spreading the news of the upcoming program:
In his own words:
and then his email:"Nearly all men have the experience of being under-fathered, and consequently, over-mothered. We have grown up in our mother's castle, and although we may have physically left, very few of us have really separated. Mother comes with us, standing between us and other men, projected onto women in our lives. Without love, guidance and teaching from fathers and elders, we struggle with how to become, and what it means to be a man.
Without fathers, elders to initiate us into a sacred sense of masculinity, to ground us in the spiritual and emotional life of men, we are confused about power. Having no positive, male mode of personal power, we react to the omnipresent feminine: we push it away, degrading and trying to dominate it in ourselves and in women; we submit, trying to become nice men, good boys. Overly passive or overly aggressive, men are often, at their core, lost. We vacillate, dependent, somehow needing to separate, unable to commit, unable to leave."
I never know how to address a letter that I'm sending to a list, but here it is. This announcement is about a men's program, and I'm sending it to those who've expressed interest in either the vision quests or workshops I lead.
In a little over a month I'll start this year's Mythic Warrior program. Many men, perhaps most, are isolated and don't have a vibrant male community in which to explore the deeper yearnings of their souls. The Mythic Warrior is such a place. It follows the myth of the hero's journey as applied to men's lives in a circle of men committed to self-discovery and healing. It's a wild and tender rise, and I don't think there's anything like this program anywhere.
My email lists aren't divided by gender. So if this announcement reaches you, and you're a man who is interested in coming, I'd love to hear from you. Or if you are a woman (or a man who won't be coming yourself) and know any men who would be drawn to come, I'd like to ask your help in getting the word out by passing this announcement along to a man you think might be interested. Or, if you're willing to leave some flyers in a food coop, conference center, alternative bookstore, or gathering place in your area you think people conducive to this program might frequent, I'll be happy send you some.
Thanks so much, and I hope to hear from you.
Blessings,
Sparrow Hart
www.questforvision.com
