Fatherhood: A Multi-Imaged Reality

This workshop begins with the premise that there is no one archetypal image of fatherhood. Rather, there are many images of the father which have been mediated by many cultures. Some cultures image the best way of fathering as “Our Father who art in heaven” seen in images like Zeus and Yaweh. Other cultures see the best way of fathering as earth-fathering expressed through images like Hades in ancient Greece and Geb in ancient Egypt.

We will learn that all fathers are not called to initiate their sons and daughters through making them suffer and that contemporary Abrahams may not be asked to sacrifice their Isaacs. We will examine what role, if any, the father plays. Some of us have been called to be both mother and father/earth and sky to our children and to ourselves. We all need to widen and deepen our images of what an inner and outer father we can become. Feminine-gendered persons are welcome.