Please note, last week’s daily meditations were written by Gianluigi Gugliermetto. GG, as he is often called, is a colleague and friend of Matthew Fox’s, and will be writing the DMs while Matthew is finishing the writing of his next book. Please also note that any italicized quotations, unless otherwise noted, are attributed to Matthew.
May 19, 2025: Greed vs. Compassion
The fourth chakra is typically associated with the heart. In its negative aspect, Matthew Fox pairs it with the sin of greed/avarice. Greed is blatantly obvious today. Currently in the U.S., the richest 1% own 40% of America’s total wealth. In his book Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, Matthew connects the sin of greed to many other sins. But ultimately, greed is rooted in fear, which can result in scapegoating, blaming and hate. In other words, greed is not so solely about money; it’s about the closure of the heart. It means being greedy with one’s love. Conversely, compassion means identification with another, and the identification that suffering and tears bring can be grasped only if one has faced one’s own pain too. When this breaking-open happens …it is “the love of a vast and oceanic heart” says Clarissa Pinkola-Estes.
May 20, 2025: Gluttony and Consumerism vs. Speaking Truth
The fifth chakra, located at the level of the throat, can be naturally paired with the capital sin of gluttony. In Matthew’s revision, gluttony becomes taking in too much of anything, in an attempt to anesthetize oneself. This can mean food, sex, phones or other gadgets, TV, etc. In all such cases, when we consume, we devour, finish, delete, exhaust, expend, dissipate, burn up, ingest, squander, and spend. And spend. And spend. The throat is a very important physical and symbolic place in the human body, because it is through the throat that food is ingested, but also that voice is emitted. Also, the throat is mid-way between heart and brain, thus in between compassion and thinking. The throat is like a birth canal through which pass our deepest thoughts and hopes and dreams and poems. The throat, if clean and empty, is meant to trumpet our truth, to announce good news, to bestow our wisdom.
May 21, 2025: Rationalism and Reductionism vs. Intuition and Creativity
The sixth chakra concerns our “third eye,” intuition, and the bringing together of our left and right hemisphere of the brain in creativity. The chakra is in dysfunction when the rational part of the mind dominates the intuitive part, disregarding and berating the latter. The traditional capital sin associated with the sixth chakra is “excessive pride” or “boasting” or “arrogance.” According to Matthew, rationalism refers to the arrogance of the rational mind when it refuses to give much credence to imagination, intuition, creativity. This doesn’t mean, of course, that we should throw out logic or reason. Logic has its place. The problem is that we are out of balance.
May 22, 2025: Envy vs. Community
The seventh chakra is referred to as the crown chakra. It connects us to all beings and is also an outreach to the angels, our light encountering their light, light meeting light, doxa (“glory and radiance”) meeting doxa. The shadow side of the seventh chakra, however, is envy. Matthew tells us that envy can truly take over the soul. Envy is in some ways more powerful than hatred, for it feeds hatred. In contrast, the opposite of envy is the feeling of belonging and contributing to the community.
May 23, 2025: Personal and Political
Exploring the seven capital sins and the seven chakras brought the realization that spirituality is simultaneously intensely personal as well as political. Our personal habits affect both our individual lives and the political bodies of which we are members. The western mindset is that religion is a personal matter, and that religious leaders should not get involved in politics. This “separation of church and state” has indeed brought about much good, helping to bring tolerance for other religions and belief systems—at least theoretically. On the other hand, it has helped push spirituality to the side. This can make our democracy feel empty. Is there a way to bring spirituality into the political without alienating anyone?
May 24, 2025: Fighting the Dragon at the Time of the Black Jaguar
Ten years ago, in a revised edition of Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, Matthew made reference to an ancient Andean teaching called “the time of Black Jaguar,” which he interprets as the dark night of our species. Quoting Arkan Lushwala, he describes such a time as a purifying chaos in which lies are seen for what they are, and there is a collective craving for returning to the simplest truth. Of course, seeing the lies and the cruelty for what they are automatically places one in a position of responsibility. It seems we are taking this responsibility seriously, judging by the massive demonstrations against Trump all over the world. GG believes that Trump’s lies and deceit are not an anomaly; they are instead the extreme product of a desperate system. The evil social dragon, made of extreme inequality and greed and garlanded with consumerism, envy, repression, and violence, is fighting for its survival. But we know that this dragon is made of paper and will not last.
Banner image; Scott Leslie, on Flickr, says that he made this image as a reminder to himself. He says: “May it help others striving for an end to suffering.”
Recommended Reading
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
