40th Anniversary Fall Minnesota Men’s Conference
In the fall of 1984, Robert Bly held the first Minnesota Men’s Conference. It was a gathering of men dedicated to deepening soul, connecting to the animate world, and working with story, images, poetry, song, ritual, and beauty. Once again, this October, we will re-dedicate ourselves to this work and will examine the role of tempered, developed, mature masculine energy in the world today.
Men of all backgrounds and traditions are invited to join us at the conference.
Dates: October 1, through 6, 2024 (Tuesday afternoon to Sunday afternoon)
Location:
YMCA Camp St. Croix
532 County Road F
Hudson, WI 54016
Map
Note that the camp is about 30 miles east of Minneapolis/St. Paul
Fee: $995 (includes five nights lodging, meals, all conference activities. Scholarships are available if needed. To request a scholarship, contact us via email at Contact@minnesotamensconference.com
MINNESOTA MEN’S CONFERENCE ARCHIVES FUND
Our friends at The Fifth Direction, (an Australia-based organization dedicated to soul work) have created a GoFundMe site for the Minnesota Men's Conference. The purpose is to fund the archiving and eventual publishing of selected recordings from conferences and events.
Almost 40 years of groundbreaking thinking, poetry, story, and song, from prominent, and not-so prominent, fellows have been recorded. We need to archive, index, and edit this material (so the personal and private material does not go into the public air). This is an important endeavor for our non-profit organization as we simultaneously protect privacy and share the wisdom of so many soulful men.
Please consider making a contribution. Thank you!
Poet, author, teacher, elder, and founder of the Minnesota Men’s Conference Robert Bly has passed to the ancestral. Robert’s insight, wisdom, and imagination have been and continue to inspire people. His work has helped to deepen the lives and awaken the soul of countless people. Those of us who knew and worked with Robert will recount that he provided an ongoing lesson in how to give blessings. He had a way of taking an interest in the people he encountered and saying just the right words to awaken their souls. The Minnesota Men’s Conference has been introduced, through Robert, to many brilliant teachers. Each of us who have attended the conference over the years carries with us a trove of stories, ideas, and poetry that Robert provided.
Robert, may your sweet soul abide in the ancestral lands. You will remain for us an inspiration, an ancestor of the soul, and a beloved teacher.
Here is a poem of Robert’s that reveals best how we remember him:
Gratitude to Old Teachers
When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight—
We were students then—holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.
—Robert Bly
Who We Are
The Minnesota Men’s Conferences are unique gatherings of men dedicated to embodying what it means to live a life of character, depth, and consequence amidst the noise and chaos of our times.
We believe that words matter. We witness how the old stories carry a source of nourishment that can give a man a depth and heft that is as rare now as it is invaluable. We set loose upon the fields of our imaginations wild poetic verses that buck and kick and upset conventional ways most men are taught to see and feel—and not feel.
“Reclaiming the sacred in our lives naturally brings us close once more to the wellsprings of poetry.”
2022
— Robert Bly
We sit together listening to the wild wisdom whispered in the old tales. We walk in the silence of prairie meadows punctuated by buzzing bees and swaying wildflowers. And we dance and sing together around the fire in the chill belly of ice and snow. We laugh together and are untroubled by our tears. At some point we may bow our heads in reverence to the grief or the joy or the wonder that has visited us.
Through gestures small and grand, we make a sacred space in the bone cave of our human heart. And when we are lucky, we return home just a bit more like the men we, our loved ones, our time, and our ancestors so desperately need us to become.