A Gathering of Men

We Meet Each Month on The Second Saturday.
Online and In Person

We are now meeting in hybrid form – with video from a laptop, and in person.
We’ll meet from 9 am to 12 noon – Pacific Time.
We meet in the American Legion Hall – the main hall
21920 State Route 9 S.E., Woodinville, WA 98072

Join the Gathering on Zoom

Monthly Gathering

Men have few places where they can meet in a friendly, inclusive and non-competitive setting. All men are welcome in our Monthly Gathering – and everything a man brings is welcome and safe.

Here a man can share in confidence that his story won’t travel about, or that other men won’t try to “help” him. We set a safe space here and guard it as sacred to the earth.

Singing and drumming fires our spirit. Our stories spark more stories in faint echoing of old myths and inherent truths as handed down through the ages. Each man experiences this in whatever way that guides him to reflect or share.

Sacred Circle

A Gathering of Men hosts two retreats each year, spring and fall, out in nature. Any man of any background may join this Sacred Circle where we focus on authenticity, connection, and personal growth.

These retreats are experiential, inviting men to explore their genuine masculine qualities—power, fierceness, and compassion—in a community free of shame, judgment, misogyny, and patriarchy.

Men share their stories, support one another, and deepen their self‑understanding within an inclusive, accountable masculine community.

Men create in the Sacred Circle a space of transformative experience for each other.

Fall Sacred Circle 2026

Of boys and men 

  • Why the modern male is struggling, 
  • What to do about it. 
  • Why it matters, and  

The retreat is an exploration of the dance of life, the process of looking for influences between the above three factors. We will explore how to strengthen our self-awareness, self-management, and self-motivation to increase our personal power. 

  • Power with – How many other relationships do I have? 
  • Personal power – starts with an “I” for responsibility! 
  • Where are my sources of stress? 
  • Where are my resources for stress management? 

Journey Men

Journey Men gather in groups on a regular basis for deep inner work and personal growth. We come together and set a container to explore, with honesty, courage, and respect, our own inner landscape, confronting issues that challenge us, to access our authentic power to better ourselves.

Any man who has attended our August retreat or who has been thoughtfully vetted by members of the Journey Men community – may join in this process. In this way every man coming into this group has a readiness and shared understanding of the depth we Journey Men take on.

We support men in their meaningful inner work – unpacking old patterns, engaging difficult issues, healing wounds – in time cultivating their own grounded and empowering personal presence.

In this safe and confidential space, we men acknowledge our shadow sides, speak with honesty, and grow in ways that strengthen our lives, relationships, and communities.

If you feel called to this work and want to learn more about Journey Men, please email: administrator@agatheringofmen.org.

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Folktales Prose Personal Stories and Poetry

At A Gathering of Men, we explore who we truly are through stories, prose, poetry, and shared reflection. When a man speaks a story—whether a folk tale carried through generations or a personal moment from his own life—we listen with the full weight of our own experience. Each of us hears the same words differently. The way a story lands in us reveals the part of our soul that is ready to be stirred, healed, or awakened.

It may seem unusual to use stories to uncover our best selves. Why not rely on something faster, more direct, more “efficient”? Because the ego—rooted in fear, judgment, and old conditioning—cannot interpret our inner truth clearly. Who we are lives beneath the ego, beneath the expectations of society, beneath the messages we absorbed from caregivers who were doing their best with what they knew.

Stories, folklore, fables, fairy tales, and parables bypass the ego and speak directly to the deeper self. Poetry and music help us resonate with something larger than our individual lives. These ancient pathways of imagination and meaning guide us gently back to the inner being that has been waiting for us all along.

At AGOM, we gather not to analyze ourselves, but to remember ourselves—through the timeless human practice of listening, sharing, and being present with one another.

Tales

  • Two Brothers

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    A retelling of an old story by Eugene Marckx These two grew up under a father who carried a promise. For he was the only son of a man who had been promised a great tribe as his progeny. These two knew the promise. They knew who would inherit the blessing. The older brother and…
  • Basket Woman

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    A tale by Eugene Marckx Long ago when the first people lived on the earth a young man left all his family, and his tribe, and went out on his own across the hills. Did his folks miss him? Did he ever think of going back? No one knows. He wandered through river valleys and…
  • A Thorn in the King’s Foot

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    Adapted from a tale by Duncan Williamson, Scotland’s greatest storyteller ‒ Penguin (1987) Many years ago lived a king in a large castle. All around his kingdom the farmers worked hard, and he told his queen, “These are my bees. Without bees we have no honey, but my people work. And half of all they…
  • Where One Is Fed A Hundred May Dine

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    a version of a tale by Ruth Sawyer ©1970 Once there was and was not a Spanish peasant. He usually had a little to eat — today yes, tomorrow no — but on this day it was no. And a storm came in the night, with rain pelting down at winter’s end, turning all the…
  • Goat Boy

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    by Eugene Marckx They tell of a crossroads called Damned-if-you-Do & Damned-if-you-Don’t. But they don’t tell about a boy born there. He was raised by an old man, since the woman who bore the son couldn’t stand it with the man there in Damned-if-you-Do & Damned-if-you-Don’t. She left them both in the dust. The old…
  • The Accidental King

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    By: Tom Wilk Sept 2019 NOTE: This fable is written in 2nd person form, attempting to place YOU directly into the story. Please interpret each action of the main character from your own personal point-of-view. Consider each decision, action or question as your own “I Statement”.  Let’s just say it’s a beautiful Fall day and…
  • Nestor

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    By Eugene Marckx A featherbrained idler – what your grandfather said of him, and farmers hereabouts who should’ve known better, long after Nestor took to the road. Then he was forgotten, but the forgetting couldn’t quite fill in the pigeon-hole, which hid quite a lot, it turned out. Nobody brought up how Nestor made music…
  • A Hole in the Sky

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    (from the Colville Native American tradition) Long before humans were born most all the animals felt pretty gray. Was it because the sky was always gray and always about to rain? Was it because there was never enough to go around? Never enough to eat? Never enough comfort? All day long the animals scratched out…
  • The Hunchback

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    a tale by Eugene Marckx The valley king died. After his many years of quiet prosperous rule, the people gathered, along with kings from neighboring lands, to remember and express in doleful song their grief and deep respect. When his coffin was lowered into the grave, each of them in passing dropped a flower and…
  • The Hole in the Sky

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    (from the Colville Native American tradition) Long before humans were born on the earth all the animals felt pretty gray. The sky was always gray, and half the time about to rain. Food and shelter and comfort were scarce. There was never quite enough to go around. All day long the animals got grouchier and…
  • The Giant with No Heart in His Body

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    a folktale from Norway Once upon a time there was a King who had seven sons, and he loved them all so much that he couldn’t bear to have them all gone at once. He must have at least one nearby at all times. When they were grown into young men, the six older brothers…
  • Moira’s Mountain

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    a tale by Eugene Marckx As a boy Wade did not know any dancing or singing.  His people on the slopes of Black Mountain did not dance or sing.  They lived without these foolish excesses.  If they were trading goods with a strange tribe, and those people began to dance or sing, his people always…
  • Death and the Dwarf

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    by Eugene Marckx From an ancient tale Roghnall was the most daring warrior chief of his time. With his cohorts he had won so many battles that he began to feel invincible—so much so that he sent out a challenge to anyone anywhere to meet him in battle. No one answered. But the last, if…
  • Sideways Boy

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    by Eugene Marckx In a time that circles with the changing faces of the moon this story is always happening.  A boy.  Why is it a boy?  Could it be a girl for once?  But this was a boy¾born to trouble.  Oh, yes, plenty of people tried to wish it all away, yet there was…
  • The Blue Stone

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      Wi’ yer drums ’n guns ’n drums ’n guns, hurroo, hurroo, Wi’ yer drums ’n guns ’n drums ’n guns, hurroo, hurroo, Wi’ yer drums ’n guns ’n drums ’n guns The enemy nearly slew ye. Oh, my darlin’ dear, ye look so queer, Why, Johnny, we hardly knew ye.                                                                                                 traditional   It…
  • The Miser

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    From RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES, collected by Aleksandr Afanas’ev Translated by Norbert Guterman (1973) Random House There was once a wealthy merchant named Marka, and never was anyone so stingy as he!  One day he went for a walk, and on his way he saw an old beggar asking for alms. “For Christ’s sake, pious men,…
  • The White Bird

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    by Eugene Marckx Once there was a boy who made friends with a white bird.  They went freely together everywhere.  But one day the boy locked the bird in a cage because he said that other boys were always trying to catch it.  When he came back from play the cage was empty.  The white…
  • Water

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    by – Eugene Marckx There is a dock on a lake where a few men gather to fish.  Every Saturday they come at sunrise and stay as long as the fish are biting.  All the people they have to please and all the things they have to do don’t keep them from this.  Whatever the…
  • Bearskin

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    —adapted from the Brothers Grimm   Once upon a time there was a young man who joined the army and went to war.  He learned about courage when bullets are flying.  He learned to kill the enemy and to trust his brother soldiers.  He found some skill in warfare and enough pure luck to stay…

Personal Stories

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poetry

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