What is the Sacred Masculine and Why is it Essential to Know?
by David Ellzey
Under New York City
One New York day, beneath the streets and honking cars, in the bowels of the subways, amidst the crush of rush hour souls on their way home from work, a flash of fear flashed across the face of a young father struggling to navigate his child in his stroller through the many moving legs and bodies. Although I am not sure why, in addition to my compassion for his difficulty, I felt a strong sense of brotherhood as though he were literally my brother. I helped him up the stairs with the weight of the stroller and his child and out into the sunlight. We had a brief exchange of thanks, an earnest connection, and went on our separate ways.
In that everyday moment of two men’s paths crossing, our lives were unmistakably altered - perhaps in part by achieving a common goal in difficult circumstances with the sense of camaraderie found only through collaboration. Indeed, we had never met before and likely would never meet again. Yet a kinship was unmistakably felt. How does this happen so instinctively and why did I feel a great sense of purpose even after we parted?
The words that follow will explore what I call, “The Sacred Masculine”, a powerful and positive aspect of all men that is expressed mostly in situations of crisis or life-threatening conditions, but rarely as a part of our everyday lives. And are we entering a period when our everyday lives are in a larger context of a planet at risk? What is the sacred masculine and why is it essential to know the answer in this current unprecedented era of human history?
How this question relates to women will be briefly addressed here, but for now I will focus on how this question affects men, from my personal experience, and from that view, how it applies to the planet as a whole.
Let’s begin by defining the word “sacred”. Webster’s Dictionary uses “holy”, or spiritually pure, deserving respect and awe. Additionally, I’d like to propose sacred as anything that brings us closer to knowing the absolute truth of the underlying unity of all life, a unity often felt through spirituality and now even acknowledged through science and quantum physics. So in the context of our exploration here, the sacred masculine would look like – we, as men, living in ways that lead the world toward harmonious relations and that honor this underlying nature of unity.
Let’s look at the word “masculine”. It can be defined differently depending on the era, nation, culture, subculture, or family in which you were raised. So how do we proceed? I propose, again, that we explore its meaning based on what serves the world in the highest way during this volatile and yet potentially paradigm-shifting period of human history. In a certain way I am asking, “How can we men call forth the greatest and most noble soul in each of us, in our daily lives – at work, at play, in our relationships as father, husband, CEO, friend, leader, and more – to support this planet’s evolution from fear and violence into a new era of harmony and collaborative relations?”
Lately, I’ve been deeply moved by this angle of questioning. I have faced some inner male demons and dragons in my own life, such as jealousy, competition, and comparing myself to other men, I have discovered that if I can shift my perspective to the reality that these men are also on their own journey, fellow souls on a parallel quest for strength and inner peace, then I suddenly see them differently. I even see their importance and contribution in this context of planetary evolution. In a certain way, for the first time, I see myself belonging to an immense and global brotherhood.
What is important here is what happens inside of me when this shift of perception occurs. Suddenly, competition and comparison dissolve into collaboration. I find inner strength in finding lost brothers and inspiration in suddenly having millions of brethren in this vast landscape of life in which I have sometimes felt lost and alone. My energy shifts, my communication becomes strong - confidence-based and from the heart - no longer based in the primitive brain where kill or be killed rules all perception.
The feeling I’m describing here sometimes has a quality similar to playing with a childhood buddy on the playground during recess– timelessly at play with the innocent joy of companionship. I believe it would serve the male soul well to reawaken this sense of bonding of kindred souls on the playground of adult life as well, finding kinship in both play and purpose.
New Knights of the Round Table
I am reminded of the Knights of the Round Table during the Middle Ages. A bonded brotherhood, each knight with unique and important skills, essential for manifesting the radical new idea of Camelot, a place or way of living in harmony. In Europe in the Middle Ages this was a radical departure of thinking. Throughout time, however, cultures and ancient sages on all continents have prophesied ways of living in harmony with each other and nature. So the idea is not new on the human historical landscape.
But today, I see Camelot symbolically as a place in each of us where we feel a sense of connection and unity with all existence. I believe all of us - men and women – are on a quest to know this unity and to live deeply from this sense of connection. We may pursue this quest either consciously or unconsciously. The world is in dire need of all souls, both genders, to step up and be devoted to living from this place, where separation does not exist and fear does not enter.
This proposal of union and harmony is, in some ways, as strongly opposed today as it was in the days of Camelot. In our current times, numerous wars around the globe symbolize defending to the death the idea of separation. Metaphorically, I see this time in world history as calling forth a similar round table of knights, souls devoted to this vision of living in harmony, a New Knights of the Round Table, as it were. In this case, it is a global round table, devoted to this idea of a world of harmony and peace.
However, unlike in the Middle Ages, I see these knights as both men and women: working equally side by side, training ourselves in self-knowledge, devoted in our hearts to living in unity, learning to die to our own limitations and fears, devoted to living as beacons to the awakening world, living with humility and embracing our human frailties.
What does this look like in everyday life? It means living this way in the battlefields of our everyday relationships, where we are faced with our own emotional habits of perception and reactivity. As knights, we can do our best to recognize these places of limitation and dissolve them. Then we learn how to show up without this heavy armor which guards against intimacy and discover what it is like to be victorious not over someone but with them.
In the context of knighthood, when I am unsure of myself, I am learning to remove the armor of protection and be present and engaged. It is only in this manner that I find the inner strength of who I truly am. It sometimes feels dangerous and takes courage to show up and be seen in our relationships, but the victory of self-knowing is sweet and perhaps the ultimate victory.
What does it take for men to live this way? It takes us growing beyond the roles we have learned to play which weaken our ability to show up honestly and authentically. It means growing past the little boy inside that still needs mommy’s love, and who searches for it from women in most of our relationships. It takes moving past our relationship with our fathers who we often continue to imitate or rebel against into our adult lives. It takes letting go of trying to be a savior to all in need – this is similar to a soldier who suppresses all emotions to take care of others – as if our sole role as men is to be responsibile for the happiness of others or for saving them from life’s suffering.
Indeed, who are we without these roles? We discover that we are AWESOME men, AWESOME souls, awakening to our own powerful and effective way of being in the world. We discover how we are meant to express our unique gifts of heart and soul, freed of past limitations.
THIS becomes the sacred masculine; living fully engaged in life and standing undaunted in our devotion to our own inner freedom and to a world of hope and beauty. We stand as a living invitation for all to know their greatest selves, specifically because we ourselves are doing our best to do so.
Yes, we battle our own dragons of fear and self-doubt. However, ultimately, instead of slaying the dragons, as the myth goes, we have the option (like Merlin) to befriend them and harness their power and energy. We become empowered by what was once feared inside us, but is now embraced and unleashed for our greater living.
So what is the sacred masculine? I believe it is that part in all men that is being called forth personally and globally to heal and to empower our own lives and this planet. But most importantly, this part, when embraced, creates an unmatchable synergy of connection and collaboration, multiplying the power of one to the power of many. Or perhaps more true, it multiplies the power of many, to the ultimate power of One.
In closing, it must be said that Camelot may not be so far away. Indeed, that place of inner peace, without fear, might be here right now. It may be what is looking out of your eyes at this very page. It can be known as peace or pure awareness, a quietness, unfettered by thoughts of limitation. This is the goal of the sacred masculine – to live from this place inwardly and outwardly, and from the simple yet profound Truth, that perhaps that which has been searched for throughout centuries, has always been, and will always be, right here.
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