Men & The Water of Life

This live storytelling event led by Kedar Brown features drumming and lots of audience interaction. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Men & The Water of Life

There once was a king who was very sick and was unlikely to survive such an illness. He had three sons who were very sad. They went down to the palace garden and wept. An old man came by and asked them why they were weeping. They told him their father was sick and sure to die, for nothing seemed to cure him. The old man said, “I know of one more remedy: the Water of Life. If he drinks of that, he will get well, but I cannot tell you where to find it.”

The Water of Life is an old Germany fairy tale that was collected by the Brothers Grimm. This is a story that has circulated for decades among men’s initiation circles. How often in these challenging times conscious men find themselves standing on a crumbling foundation of masculine identity defined very narrowly by modernity as either the non-emotional hero male or the ineffective & passive male. Both reside as shadow-forms of the masculine psyche under the limiting scope of the word “patriarchy” where there appears to be nothing desirable or redeemable for these times that men find themselves in. This word offers no clear navigational pathway of identity and belonging; the mentoring of our boys and sustainability of healthy adult relationships.

This story opens a conversation dialogue toward a fuller understanding of healthy masculinity. We share it with you here as a broader invitation to join us later this year for one of two men’s ceremonial gatherings - The Soil and Soul of the Initiated Masculine.