From Soularize to AWAKEN, From Tamaya to Shrine Mont
Each year, Illuman hosts a gathering of men, typically in New Mexico and historically called Soularize. This year’s gathering marks a new beginning, with a new name, AWAKEN, and...
The MROP as a Spiritual Pilgrimage
For men going through a crisis or change and looking for something to give them perspective, I have often recommended going through a Men’s Rites of Passage. If they are interested,...
Remembering Bishop David O’Connell
Bishop David O’Connell, a native of Ireland with a heart for marginalized people and humanity’s needs, was murdered on February 18, 2023 in his home in a Los Angeles suburb....
Introducing the Illuman Content Sharing Library
The Illuman Content Sharing Library is a new online tool that will facilitate a process of content sharing, especially for articles that men discover and want to share with other Illuman...
One Man’s Rites of Passage
Note: To help you engage new men in conversation about considering an MROP, we will...
Young Men Wanted
by Joel Blunk, Illuman Weaver As the story goes, in 1914, farmed explorer Sir Ernest...
How to Speak With A Man About the Rites of Passage
If you haven't yet experienced the Men's Rites of Passage (MROP). please consider one of...
Adam Bucko — On How to Approach Other People
Fr. Adam Bucko spoke at the Illuman Watering Hole in December. He shared how a....
How to Talk About Illuman
by Jim Burns, Illuman Board Member Many men have told me some version of. "Illuman...
Soccer as a Metaphor for Secular Religion
In 2014, Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff wrote a piece with the title “Soccer as a Metaphor for Secular Religion. It was a reflection on the 2014 World Cup that...
Sadness by Dean Robertson
Sadness Sadness settles in like a ground fog. It penetrates all the little cracks and...
Attendees of the Wild and Precious Life Writing Retreat (Jan 2023)
The in-person Wild and Precious Life writing retreat was held in Beavercreek, Ohio, January 6-9....
A Blessing for the New Year
Beannacht A Blessing for the New Year On the day when the weight deadens on...
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
This past year, 2022, marked ten years since Illuman was first incorporated, birthed out of...
Images of Soularize: Awaken
Over 260 men from across the US, Canada, Mexico, and as far away as Australia, gathered on the Tamaya Pueblo in New Mexico, November 3-6, 2022, for Soularize: Awaken, Illuman’s...
Awakened at Soularize
by Jim Burns, Co-Convener, IllumanDC As with the Men's Rites of Passage, words are often...
Soularize Experience
Soularize Experience by John Hamlett They came by car, bus, train and plane from near...
Poetry from Soularize
We were blessed with poetry this year at Soularize. Each session began with an offering...
Illuman Founder Richard Rohr Steps Back from Public Ministry
Fr. Rohr speaks at Soularize This past Thursday, the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC)...
Illuman in Brazil?
by Bob Juarez & Giovanni Perez, Illuman Wisdom Elders It's happening! Illuman en Español is...
Report on Retiro Nuestras Heridas
by Bob Juarez & Giovanni Perez, Illuman Wisdom Elders At the end of an extended...
The First Latvian MROP: Brothers Without Borders
by Terry Symens-Bucher, former Illuman Board Chair On August 24, 2022, fifty-one initiates and an...
The Spiritual Practice of Council
by Jim Burns, Illuman Communications Council Chair We help create men through the listening we...
Passion Circles - Current and New
Illuman recently launched a new kind of Virtual Council that we are calling Passion Circles ...
What Is Healthy Masculinity?
by Steve Hicken, Illuman Board Chair We've all heard about, spoken about, and pretty much...
Mental Health and White Privilege
This article is offered by Glenn Siegel, MD, an emeritus Illuman Wisdom Elder and current...
Following the Wild Goose toward Healthy Masculinity
by Mike Clawson, Illuman Administrator What do men need in order to be more whole...
If this is what the center is like, what’s it like on the edges
At the end of 2005 my spiritual director said to me, ”I want you to consider going to see Fr. Richard Rohr when he speaks at Holy Family in Inverness.” Now I had heard of...
MROP Homework
For some the quest to find themselves and what they are called to do, or at least find what honestly feels right, can take most of their life. A least that’s how it has felt for...
Befriending the Darkness and the Light
Written by Bill McElroy
Befriending the Darkness and the Light
Salvation
As the arch of the sun’s daily trek across the sky
slips lower and lower to the South
following...
Notes on the Journey…
When I was first introduced to Richard Rohr’s writings several years ago, it was like a whole new world opened up to me. As I read more and more of his books and the daily meditations,...
My Journey of Illumination So Far
It is aptly titled a journey as I certainly find myself in the middle of a quest that would make even Frodo and Bilbo nod approvingly in quiet, Hobbit admiration. But although I have...
IN-MI Elder Profile: Nick Simons
In most of the bars around Elkhart and Mishawaka my grandfather was notorious for his drinking and fighting. On his way out of one of the many bars that he was being permanently banned...
Keeping the Edges Hot
I am grateful to Richard Rohr for his counsel to men to “Keep the edges hot.” Those words are present in many of his writings. They are now an important shared reminder...
To be…or not to be…
This question, asked by Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play of the same name, seems to be the question men often ask when they discover their inner world of spirituality. In other words,...
Getting Away, Seeing Life Larger
One of the things I appreciate about Richard Rohr’s writings is that they help me see things from a different perspective. It’s so easy to get stuck inside the same day-to-day...