(dailymeditationwithmatthewfox.com)
During a conversation a few days ago, Matthew Fox and I realized how much we have been talking about mentorship and mentors in recent times. He is being featured as one of four mentors in an autobiography that will soon appear; I have suggested that his forthcoming book on Marie-Dominique Chenu bear the subtitle “A Story of Mentorship”; and, speaking candidly, I often reflect on his mentor role toward me.
Joanna Macy with mentee, coach/trainer/organizer Jess Serrante. From The Work That Reconnects website; published with permission.
The recent passing of Joanna Macy, an unsurpassed mentor to a very dear friend of mine, as well to many others, is also part of the atmosphere of this week.
Matthew and I have ventured to observe that perhaps these “coincidences” point to the strong presence of the “Mentor archetype” in the collective unconscious.
We know that the Christ archetype is waging a fierce battle right now in the collective unconscious of humanity against the Antichrist archetype, which seems to have taken hold of many minds, at least in the United States. But besides the Christ archetype, which is alive and well, we also have an ally in the Mentor archetype. Perhaps the second is a subset of the first, because Christ can definitely be seen as a mentor; yet there are specificities to the mentor role that I would like to underline.
To those of us who are the black sheep or the ugly duckling in their family, mentors are extremely important. Often they are the first ones who see us and appreciate us for who we really are.
“Christ and John the Baptist” by Marinos Tzane Bounialēs and Emmanuel Tzanes, ~1670. Wikimedia Commons.
The relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus was one of mentorship. John saw with his intuitive mind all that Jesus could become, and no doubt encouraged him to follow his path. So perhaps the Christ archetype can even make use of the Mentor archetype to become fully displayed.
Today, the Mentor archetype is coming to the fore because it has become increasingly hard to trust in the institutions (religious, political, educational) which have been charged with raising the next generations of humans according to the best values of their societies. Precisely because the confusion is increasing, truth is being bought and sold, cruelty is disguised as justice, and so on and so forth, the Mentor archetype emerges as a safe haven.
Yes, the Mentor archetype can be perverted into its opposite (see, for example, Catholic priest Marcial Maciel) just as the Christ archetype can be turned into the Antichrist. But this is no reason to doubt the benefits of the archetype in its true, unperverted form.
Although people can meet their mentors through an institution, soon enough their relationship leaves the institutional confines, otherwise it can’t breathe. I venture to say that behind the most succesful reformations of institutions there are stories of mentorship, because it is at the margins, outside the halls of power, where two souls lay bare to each other their desire for God or absolute values, that the passion for transformation is ignited.
Matthew Fox and mentees Skylar Wilson and Jennifer Listug describe the Order of the Sacred Earth Community, which they co-founded.
The best values of humanity can be taught and experienced through mentorship, because the incandescent, alive matter that is being molded is the lived experience of the two. This includes rejocing together (via positiva), crying together (via negativa), imagining together creative solutions (via creativa) and changing institutions (via transformativa).
I had several mentors in my life, perhaps because for a long time I could never trust myself enough to fly solo. I have become in time a mentor myself. It’s a wonderful and awe-filled responsibility.
The human adventure will not be truly finished until there are mentors around, no matter how trying the circumstances and how fast the changes. True mentorship relations defy distance, and even death. They are the best testimony to the value of humanity and are — in and of themselves — a stronghold of resistance against the barbarism of these days.
Gianluigi Gugliermetto
Read Gianluigi’s bio here.
(Contributed by John Tangney)