Awaken Your Inner WildMan with Robert Blys “A Gathering of Men” and Iron John
March 16th, 2010 by Ryan"Wild thing….You make my heart sing….You make everything…groovy…..Wild thing…I think I love you…”
If you’ve heard the song from the 1960’s, you’ll recognize the reference here.
There is something mysterious, exciting, and even a little bit edgy about the “wild thing” within each of us.
For many people in our “civilized” society, we have all but tossed aside our wild nature in favor of ideals that emphasize intelligence, reason, and social refinement.
To express anger or aggression, to act unpredictably, or even at times to be direct and honest are often looked down as primal or uncivilized.
Instead we are taught to “be nice” and “smile”, or even to “put on a happy face even if you aren’t happy.” While there is some usefulness to this in growing up, when we start to step into the adult world, these old ingrained patterns can actually work against us and keep us stuck in childhood.
Fear of rejection, needing other’s approval, an inability to set healthy boundaries, and resistance to figure’s of authority, are just a few examples of what crops up when these patterns operate within us beyond their intended usefulness.
Young men often experience the most challenges with these lingering childhood patterns.
Looking to break free of these limiting beliefs and inappropriate emotional ties, young men often try to reconcile this by swinging to the opposite extreme by becoming rude, harsh, and domineering.
They become stuck between being the soft spoken “nice guy” and the cocky and arrogant “tough guy.”
Yet where is the mature man?… the one with authentic masculine power, courage and leadership?
When did we lose him?
More importantly, where can we find him?
Robert Bly, a well-known poet and one of the leader’s in the men’s movement of the 90’s, says that this dilemma that young men face is the result of the lack of male initiation in our culture.
Throughout all of history, in cultures all around the world, societies developed and carried out male initiation rituals to help boys transition into manhood.
Around the age of 12-15, a group of older men (from the tribe) take the young boys, for a year or more, away from their mothers and into the world of men.
During this time each boy learns the lessons of what is takes to develop the qualities and characteristics of a strong man.
Through trainings like rituals, vision quests, and story telling and myths, each boy learns what is means to be a strong male.
In his book, Iron John, Robert Bly discusses how the wild man within us guides us through this path into adulthood:
The job of the initiator, whether the initiator is a man or woman, is to prove to the boy or girl that he or she is more than mere flesh and blood. A man is not a machine only for protecting, hunting, and reproduction; a woman is not a machine for protecting, gathering, reproduction, but each carries desires far beyond what is needed for physical survival."
In the United States, for example, we have done away with most rituals and myths like these, and often even written them off as primitive, pagen, or purposeless.
In it’s place we have mentor-less boys who try to initiate themselves, often with disastrous results.
We see this in extreme forms in street gang initiations, but it can also take place in more benign forms like college fraternities, videogame clans, or sport team hazings.
The solution is not simply a matter of bringing back the old initiation traditions, but rather, it’s about learning how we can take that same process and make it work in our world today.
According to Caroline Myss, America was the nation that birthed the archetype of the self.
As a country, it honors freedom, independence, and self-empowerment; so it’s no wonder that tribal initiations are not a huge part of the culture (and this also goes for much of the modern western world as well).
The dilemma, then, becomes “how does a man become initiated if there is no tribe to initiate him?”
“How can a boy initiate himself into manhood if he only knows about boyish things?”
He still needs a group of men who are older, stronger, and wiser to guide him through the path.
Perhaps the trick here is for the young man to, not only choose when he will be initiated, but to also choose which men will initiate him.
In this way, he is conscious and empowered as he goes through each step of the initiation process, yet the process is still carried out by more experienced men who have his best interests at heart.
At the present time, there are some avenues that accomplish this initiation process to some extent.
Some men join the world of business and work under strong business leaders, other men study under a wise spiritual guru, while some learn through the no-nonsense approach provided by coaches in sports.
All of these avenues can assist the man into maturing into manhood, yet often these methods are still missing something….something deeper….within the recesses of the psyche, or perhaps, the soul.
The work of Robert Bly just may provide that missing piece.
In the documentary, A Gathering of Men, Bill Moyers dives into the Men’s Movement of the 1990’s, and specifically focuses in on the work of Robert Bly.
Bly, a well-known poet, has spent years learning and researching the myths and fairy stories from cultures throughout time.
He says that these stories provide hidden messages that communicate with us on a very deep level; a level that has been neglected in our current culture.
Bly says that although most fairy tales are centered on women’s issues, there are some that are focused on men and the initiation process itself.
One fair story in particular, Iron John, provides many valuable lessons on the path into manhood.
Bly also talks about one of the main emotions that men have been stuck at, unconsciously, for years – grief.
He says that many men mistakenly buy into the notion that a man shouldn’t feel grief at all, and that this idea actually cuts off a man’s ability to feel anything at all.
Soon these men walk around emotionless and cut off from life.
In the documentary “A Gathering of Men”, you will hear Bly discuss these topics with Bill Moyers, and you will even hear the beginning of the Iron John fairy story.
A Gathering of Men Documentary:
Bly is an incredibly story teller and has a knack for communicating to men on a deep and profound level.
He goes into depth about these ideas in his book, Iron John.
In it, Bly goes through the full fairy story and provides insights and interpretations that we can relate to in our modern life, especially when it comes to getting in touch with our inner warrior and our inner wild man. From Robert Bly’s Iron John:
“Michael Meade reminds us of the old Celtic motto: ‘Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.’…The initiator offers the sword only after the young man’s heart has been touched by the lover’s privacy and the lover’s dance.
…The warriors inside American men have become weak in recent years, and their weakness contributes to a lack of boundaries, a condition which earlier in this book we spoke of as naivete. A grown man six feet tall will allow another person to cross his boundaries, enter his psychic house, verbally abuse him, carry away his treasures, and slam the door behind; the invaded man will stand there with an ingratiating, confused smile on his face.
When a boy grows up in a “dysfunctional” family (perhaps there is no other kind of family), his interior warriors will be killed off early. Warriors, mythologically, lift their swords to defend the king. The King in a child stands for and stands up for the child’s mood. But when we are children, our mood gets easily overrun and swept over in the messed-up family by the more powerful, more dominant, more terrifying mood of the parent. We can say that when the warriors inside cannot protect our mood from being disintegrated, or defend our body from invasion, the warriors collapse, go into a trance, or die.
The Inner warriors I speak of do not cross the boundary aggressively; they exist to defend the boundary.
…Robert Moore, the psychologist and theologian, has thought goently and intensely about the warrior, and we’ll sum up a few of his ideas. He emphasizes that for men the warrior is “hard-wired.” It is not software. He may say to men: “You have plenty of warrior in you-don’t worry about it-more than you’ll need. The question is whether you will honor it: whether you will have it consciously or unconsciouly.”
Moore emphasizes that the quality of a true warrior is that he is in service to a purpose greater than himself; that is, to a transcendent cause. Mythologically, he is in service to a True King. If the King he serves is corrupt…or if there is no King at all, and he is serving greed, or power, then he is not longer a warrior, but a soldier.
…Contemporary war, with its mechanical and heartless destruction, has made the heat of aggression seem disgraceful….‘Women hate war,’ it has often been said, ‘but love the warrior.’ That is no longer true. Most women in the West see no reason to distinguish the warrior from the soldier or the soldier from the murderer.
..The fading of the warrior contributes to the collapse of civilized society. A man who cannot defend his own space cannot defend women and children.”
Bly does a great job of opening our eyes to the honorable warrior that upholds truth and the integrity of the tribe.
Caroline Myss touches on this in her program, The Language of Archetypes (a must for understanding archetypes), saying that the warrior is successful when he prevents war because his duty lies in the well-being of his people.
Most of us here in the west have forgotten that. The naivete that Bly refers to in Iron John is the fear-based distortion that we should do away with the warrior (which many well-intentioned but ungrounded people buy into, I know I have).
It’s basically the equivalent of trying to stop war by killing all your tribe’s warriors, then naively thinking that there will be no more war.
Bly has also recorded a number of workshops which cover other male-centered fairy stories, and touches on the challenges that men face.
You can get access to many of these programs online through sites like MenWeb, or through Audacity. Audacity has 6 of the these talks (about an hour each) for a couple bucks each, these includes:
- Into the Deep: Male Mysteries
- Male Naivete and Giving the Gold Away
- The Power of Shame
- The Masculine Road: The Red, White, and Black
- A Society of Siblings
- William Blake and Beyond
I’ve listened to many of these already and can tell you that it feels like something with me is re-awakening, as if these stories have activated a part of me that has been sleeping and long forgotten.
Woven into all of Robert Bly’s work is a subtle lovingness towards being male and an appreciation for what it means to be a man; something that is quite rare in this day in age.
For males looking to become empowered, self-actualized, and authentic men, then Robert Bly’s work is a must. A good place to start is with Robert Bly's recorded workshop where he goes into the Male Mode of Feeling and Iron John in detail.
Also, be sure to check out similar work from Michael Meade, James Hillman, Robert Moore, and Sam Keen, some of whom have worked alongside Bly at his workshops with men.
Here is more interesting video of Bly that will give you a good idea of his approach and personality:
Stumble it!
March 16th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
I Love men. I simply Adore them. They are the only creatures on earth that can create the seeds of life, and on a continual basis at that…, out of nothing.
You must be God(s).
March 16th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
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March 17th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Bly speaks wisely about this. I think the schools need to bring back some of the old traditions too
March 17th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
My inner have no wildman, just a deadman….:(
March 23rd, 2010 at 11:30 am
It is about time someone is proud of being male in this country these days. It seems that most men are becoming more like females. I call it the Oprahifcation of America.
March 24th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Very interesting article.
I agree with David that I think many men stifle their masculine energy in todays world… I just don’t think that can possibly be healthy.
.-= Dave Hart´s last blog ..How to Talk to Women Effectively Using 3 Tips =-.
March 27th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Thanks so much. I had read “No More Mr. Nice Guy” a while back, but eventually pushed it to the back of my mind. Now I’ve borrowed “Iron John” from the library and am rekindling the flame of masculinity.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:44 am
Man should really read this article and take the advice, there is nothing more sexy than a man that acts like a real man. And not a child or a metrosexual. I don’t need a man that needs more time to get ready than I do.
April 11th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Okay that’s an incredible amount of information for men to digest. Haha! Thanks for sharing. Some men really need to find their “energy”.
April 21st, 2010 at 12:53 am
Great post mate. Thanks for that.
May 7th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Great post,
And it’s not only in America, but most “modern places” in the world, I was raised In modern parts of Kenya, and I wasn’t really initiated into Manhood.
The more rural parts of Kenya where some tradition is still maintained is where I see boys being initiated by tribes and what not, and in some tribes its a very big thing.
Thanks for sharing.
.-= Chris ´s last blog ..Sublingual B12 Better Than Tablet B12? =-.
May 12th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Hi Sue Ann, Right on! Yes, us men are pretty kickass, women are too, of course.
Alex, yeah I agree, if we could weave in more stories and myth into the schools, it would be a lot easier for student to not fall asleep during class.
Zhanjun, I know what you mean. I think just becoming aware of how we lost our inner warriors and listening to stuff like Bly’s work, we can start to bring them back.
David, yeah I can relate on that one. Men in our culture definitely have some work to do in bringing back their masculine (in a healthy way)…though I still think Oprah is pretty cool for what she brings to women and the spiritual stuff she is into.
Dave, yes, without good solid masculine energy, us men can become weak and wussy, which is definitely not fun for us (or for women).
Shaun, right on man! Rekindle that shit!
Lol, Laura, “a man that needs more time to get ready than I do” that is funny stuff. Nowadays when I go to clubs, its like the guys are super dolled up with all the latest fashion and style…I guess its all part of the process but yeah, its great if these guys can come full circle and rediscover their own inner manhood.
Kristina, haha, yeah its a lot. I think of this info like a mental program that goes in and and then transforms the guy from the inside out. Hopefully they get as much benefit from it as I did.
Thomas, my pleasure man.
Chris, woa that is great to hear the perspective coming from Kenya. It’s very interesting to see how things are evolving (or seemingly de-volving) in different places in the world. I guess it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, we are all facing pretty much the same stuff. Thanks for your input.
Ryan
May 13th, 2010 at 2:00 am
Great article, some stuff that need to be said. I think men have become worms in modern society, demasculination is never discussed in todays Politically Correct society. I think Ryan should form a political party and run for government, he’d get my vote!
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Reviewed – The Best Shed Plans on the Web =-.
June 4th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Reading this made me think of that Brad Paisley song called “I’m still a guy.” I’ve only read a handful of posts but I’m with Steve, Ryan would get my vote too!
.-= Cheilitis´s last blog ..Home Remedies For Angular Cheilitis =-.
June 5th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I think it’s time we take our kid gloves off. At least for me it is. There’s been nothing mentioned about mothers emotionally castrating their sons, so they will grow up to be suitably emotionally castrated men.
Remember one of the labors of Hercules, the one where he is sent to acquire the “girdle” from the queen of the amazons. He killed her and rightly so. For her offer of the “girdle” was not genuine. It was motivated by something other then genuine love and adoration.
Hercules desired a lover not a whore. And it’s only a whore that gives affection on condition.
I am completely repulsed by “nice”. Totally and completely. It is FAKE, and might as well be announcing to me “I’m an animated stack of dust”. It takes great restraint for me to not energetically react to such a declaration of repulsiveness and worthlessness. “Hello, I’m a tick and demand the right to suck your life energy.”
The rest of the ‘nice’ BS, is due to problems in coping skills and these problems are effects of being emotionally under-developed.
If “Adam” wants to claim his Creator-ship status, then he needs to get rid of “Eve” and beg “Lilith” to come back to him. “Eve” as a role model, simply results in being emotionally insecure or sexually inhibited, either a Princess Diana or a Mother Teresa.
Who both EXITED the planet at the same time, signally the paradigm shift had already started. I don’t give any “goodsie two shoes” much of a chance of survival. “Good” is the cause of all the “bad” effects, for “bad” is mirroring to “good” what “good” has been repressing and living in denial of.
The end of maintaining our illusions of character, is what the shift is all about. How about the economy? How about the gulf oil spill? There are LOTS of people upset about illusions not being maintained.
Boohoo.
For it is only when we can’t ignore our issues any longer, that we have any hope of resolving these issues.
June 5th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
If the only emotions we know how to embrace and understand fall between “fairy dust” and “fluffy bunny” on our emotion meter, then we’re nothing more then a Joke.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I feel the emotions here,well great blog.nice.
July 5th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Women Issues these days are mostly about women empowerment and equal rights among men..~;
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:35 am
women issues these days are more on equal rights with men and woman power`”.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:33 am
The song is a very old song that is why majority of the readers will not be able to relate immediately. However, they will still be able to understand what the song is trying to say.
October 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I feel my inner wild man is already awake! No kiddin, this was a very good read with solid research it is clear. However i do not agree with Sue Ann here ..
.-= Ed from Cosmetic Dental Surgery´s last blog ..Cosmetic Dental Surgery – 5 Common Questions Answered On Teeth Whitening =-.
May 6th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
thanks for all the work on this article, you obviously did a lot of research
May 6th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
this is such a great site.. always interesting and insightful.. even for women
May 8th, 2014 at 6:48 pm
I wonder why you discontinued posting.