Episode 4 - Iron John - 1990's and the Mythopoets

If you take a specific gander into people doing “masculinity work” you will find a lot of a specific type of man and organizations. They are big organizations like EVRYMEN, or Sacred Sons, or Mankind Project They make claims of reclaiming masculine power through rites of passages, usually going to the woods or nature, and hanging out with a bunch of other guys that have spent sometimes hundreds to thousands of dollars to go to these retreats. They claim to take guidance from some spiritual practice that dates back to ancient times. Or they talk a lot about alchemy or archetypes. Along the way they have been reported to do some questionable therapeutic practices which are used to bring some sort of wildness back to men. These groups are everywhere, and they all stem from a specific practice. From people called the mythopoets. The mythopoets, a compound word of the myths and poetry that they shared, had their start in the 80’s and 90’s. Their biggest inspiration came from a poet named Robert Bly who wrote the best selling book titled “Iron John.” However there are many other books in this category, like The Way of the Superior Man, and King Warrior Magician Lover. From these books, and from the works of people like Carl Jung, created their own “solution” for male malaise. A return to the wilderness. From them we get another branch of the men’s movements you see today, the spiritual warrior.

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