A great soul passed away 3:35 PM Saturday afternoon. It was my privilege to call Joanna Macy a friend and co-worker.
I owe her much. She first introduced me to Thich Nhat Hanh by inviting me to attend a talk he gave to a large gathering in Berkeley. Years later, she assisted in bringing him, along with 40 of his nuns and monks, to speak at our University of Creation Spirituality.
She helped introduce me to the gifts of Buddhism and we often taught together (sometimes on the Buddha Nature and the Cosmic Christ), or led retreats together whether at UCS in Oakland or in Munich, Germany or in Findhorn, Scotland. There we conducted a retreat during Easter Week that included a very poignant Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. We and the participants created the Stations on the sand dunes with wind howling around us. She also joined our faculty in a week-long creation spirituality conference in Australia. One of her talks is published in the book, Creation Spirituality & The Dreamtime.*
I came up with the term deep ecumenism from what she taught me about deep ecology. We shared the deepest of values regarding peace and justice, saving the earth, animal rights, women’s rights—in short, creation spirituality. I wrote about her the morning she died (in the DM we will publish Tuesday) about an intervention of hers at a conference on the Future of Mother Earth that was sponsored by the Sierra Club.
I remember the first time I visited her in her home near the rose garden in Berkeley. There were notes on her porch addressed to the wasps who had made themselves at home there. She was begging them to go away and how she did not want to destroy their nests. She was incarnating her Buddhist lessons to respect all beings. I do not recall if her pleas were answered or not.
I met Daniel Ellsberg at a dinner at Joanna’s home. She, like Wisdom, was a friend of prophets.
Joanna was a spiritual giant. The real thing. Her 90th birthday party was an event etched on my memory forever. So full of life and promise, so many caring people in attendance, and not at all directed to the past.
Her ritual, The Council of All Beings, that she and John Seed created in memory of the species going extinct was real, deeply moving and participatory.
Her family invited me to her bedside a week ago to give her a blessing along with folk singer Jennifer Berezan, a graduate of our ICCS master’s program, who was among her favorite artists. Jennifer sang her song, “Praises.” We extended our blessings when she was asleep and she woke up at the precise moment that I ended my prayer and her first words were, “Thank you.”
Her family urged us to give our blessings again after she was conscious. During Jennifer’s song, Joanna danced with her arms almost directing the music. With a big smile on her face, she repeated that it was her favorite song. She called me to herself for a big hug.
In my blessing I asked that the Buddha and Dalai Lamas of the past and Jesus and Hildegard, Francis of Assisi and Meister Eckhart, greet her in their light. When I mentioned Hildegard, she almost jumped up and shouted—in response, I was moved to add, “Hildegard, a lion.”
Both Joanna and Hildegard were lionesses for the truth and for Mother Earth. Both were warriors and prophets with lion hearts.
Joanna combined a fierce commitment to systems theory and science, plus Buddhist practices and teachings and gifted writings and ideas that touched thousands of people of all spiritual traditions. Who cannot be awakened by a book titled Thinking Like A Mountain?
She urged all to resist despair and I often cite her teaching that “when your heart breaks, the whole universe can pour through.” She urged us to put our energy into gratitude, face hurt head on, and remain creative and fight the good fight.
Thank you, Joanna. Thank you for your praises for the world and your hard work on behalf of Mother Earth. For the genuine support you lent your friends, family and co-workers from a deep and passionate heart that was both Buddha-like and Christ-like.
* See Catherine Hammond, ed., Creation Spirituality & The Dreamtime: Matthew Fox, Joanna Macy, Veronica Brady, Kevin Treston, Elizabeth Cain, Eddie Kneebone (Newtown NSW2024: Millennium Books), 1991.
See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 2f., 157, 160, 352.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Rev. Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.
And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faith Traditions.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: The dunes on the beach at Findhorn, Scotland. Photo by valenta. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How has Joanna Macy affected your life and spiritual journey directly or indirectly?
Recommended Reading
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity
How can we move away from “us vs. them” thinking as our surroundings feel more divided and polarized than ever? Co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo discuss how Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity answer this question from unique points of view, with many commonalities and practical tools to break down the barriers between us.
“The Lotus and the Rose is an extraordinary example of what can happen when spiritual leaders from different traditions open up and speak from the heart.” — Paul Chaffee, The Interfaith Observer.
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
