Columnist
The Mythopoetic Men’s Movement,1 as I understand it, came from an awareness that what men and societies had once understood and expressed regarding their relationship to masculinity,had disappeared.
Mature men had long had a clear connection with themselves; with other men; with their families, communities, and the natural and spiritual worlds
they inhabited.
But that mature and authentic masculinity may have begun breaking down with industrialization in the 20th century, as more and more men left home: they left their communities and families for jobs and, of course, for wars.
Boys and young men lost the ancient ‘rites of passage’ tradition. Fathers, uncles, elders, and mentors no longer conscientiously prepared the new generation to protect and sustain the community.
The topic of the modern Men’s Movement is vast, and many volumes have attempted to fully describe how this modern paradigm within families has affected our society. Authors like Robert Bly, along with Hillman, Meade, Sterling, Moore, Gillette, Tosi, and many more, have stewarded and chronicled the Men’s Movement from the sixties on into the twenty-first century.
My column in the March Legacy Magazine,2 described a Fathers, Sons, and Brothers men’s weekend in 2007, a gathering that was just one grain in the large and varied bushel that is the current Men’s Movement in the Bay Area. There are scores of men’s teams, circles, tribes, and groups represented here. Some are stand-alone communities while others have global networks; one might be a single team of men, yet another may be affiliated with a much larger community.
The Bay Bridge. Photo by Jim Harris
Just within my personal purview was Mentor, Discover, Inspire (MDI); East Bay Circle of Men (EBCOM); MoMENtum; WETSU, the ManKind Project (MKP), the DOJO, the Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend (YMUW), Boys To Men, and half a dozen more.
Leading is a foundational aspect of my personal life goal: to attain self awareness and put that awareness into productive, positive action. And a key result of all my activity in the men’s movement has been the training in leadership many of these organizations provide.
That training peaked when I truly experienced ownership of the leader’s role within MDI’s Reachout program.
Reachout was started by Randall Cunningham, of MDI’s southern California community, to encourage the return of men who, for whatever reason, had left the organization. Cunningham chose Randy Listman to manage the northern California program and Randy formed a Reachout team with representatives of all the men’s organizations in the Bay Area that agreed to this level of cooperation among men’s circles.
This collaborative approach was a paradigm shift; a change from operating as separate, isolated, even rival communities to intentional collaboration, and cooperation.
This Global Village context was refreshing, and its purpose was cross-pollination of methods, techniques, and ways to serve communities.
At the time, I was on the core leadership council of the East Bay Nation of Men. EBNOM was formed in 1991 when hundreds of men split off from the Sterling Institute of Relationship men’s community and EBNOM has since become the East Bay Circle of Men, or EBCOM. At the same time, South Bay Nation of Men, now MoMENtum, SF Tribe, and Santa Cruz Tribe were also formed. MDI came along later after breaking away from the Sterling Institute.
It was a high point in my life when MDI’s Western region had me step up from a member of Reachout to be the manager of the entire regional Reachout program.
This put me on MDI’s Western Region leadership team despite the fact that I wasn’t even a dues-paying member. Imagine! My respect for MDI rose dramatically.
The results of the Reachout program will be chronicled in the May Burnsie in the House, as I continue to describe and honor the legacy of the men of the Bay Area, and their unique collaborative approach.
- The mythopoetic men’s movement was “a group largely made up of psychologists, poets, musicians, storytellers and authors from the early 1980s through the 1990s…(it) was coined by psychology professor Shepherd Bliss, one of the early founders of the work.” – Asher Packman, Lecture to The Jung Society of Melbourne (10/15/21). The mythopoetic men’s movement gave rise to the broader men’s movement of today
↩︎ - Burns, Michael,“Gods of the Redwoods: Men, Legacy, and an Epic Game of Capture the Flag,” Legacy Magazine, March 2026
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About the Author
Michael Burns
Michael “Burnsie” Burns has been active in men’s circles since 1986 when he graduated from Sterling’s Men, Sex, and Power. He is 78, retired, has been married for 27 years, and is a member of both EBCOM and MDI.
He has no children and is committed to supporting men, teams, families, and communities. His focus and attention are centered on his wife, Pat; on personal fitness; and on mentoring, and awareness.
