Men Who Stand Twenty Hearts High–The 2025 Winter Minnesota Men's Conference

This is a time that calls for courage, in the old sense of that word, “coeur” that is “heart.” Our world is shifting under our feet and the people need men with the courage to stand in the storm and hold fast to the roots of ancestral wisdom.

Winter is a traditional time for story, for reflection, for men to gather close round the fire, shoulder-to-shoulder and enter again into the old songs, the old rhythms of men’s work and of soul making. The winter gathering of men is also a time to rebuild the heart of community, the courage of connectedness.

Join us for a winter weekend Men’s Conference, Friday, January 31, through Sunday February 2, 2025 (Friday Afternoon through Sunday Morning).

Men of all backgrounds and traditions are invited to join us at the conference.

 Dates: Friday, January 31 through Sunday, February 2, 2025


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.

 

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

 
 

“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.