At the time of writing this I’m in the afterglow of the London Pride weekend.
The highlight for me was a LoveSpirit* meeting at the Wheatsheaf Hall in Vauxhall.
The event was an opportunity to deepen a love for the Unity to be found in spiritual diversity.
In a great venue, in the context of drumming, singing, dancing, relaxing and meditating, some 15 or so souls each had a 3 minute slot to share with the assembled crowd the essence of their own spiritual practice and how this related to their sexual identity/ gender identification.
In my 3 minutes I danced! If I had spoken, this is what I would have said:
“After years of yo-yoing between exploring my sexuality whilst rejecting my spirituality, and then exploring my spirituality whilst rejecting my sexuality, I finally arrived at a realization; my spirituality and my sexuality are inextricably linked. In fact, for me, they are one and the same thing!
What I needed to reject was not spirituality but the guilt and shame of taking pleasure in feeding the natural appetites of my body and soul. For some inexplicable reason over time, the major spiritual traditions have become somewhat tarnished with a homophobic/ transphobic stance on accepting this truth.
So as I searched for a church which might welcome and nurture my spiritual growth I was constantly confronted by a sense that I could only be accepted on the condition that I inhibit the expression of my gender fluidity and sexual expression.
It finally dawned on me that the church I was pining for did not currently exist and if I wanted to be part of a community which was fully accepting of my body and soul, it would be my purpose to manifest it.
I read and was bowled over by Christian de Huerta’s ‘Coming out Spiritually: The Next Step’. I suppose that is when I fully ‘came out’ to my spirituality: I became a spiritual activist!
Starting as a solitary spiritual practitioner. Cutting out the middle(wo)man priest/ guru/ shaman, I began to meditate and read the Tao Te Ching. Living in the moment. Stringing together surges of Joy in the pleasures of life, pain and death. Nurturing my creative urges. Understanding and dismantling the restrictions I had unknowingly constructed around my capacity to feel and express love.
Starting as a solitary spiritual practitioner. Cutting out the middle(wo)man priest/ guru/ shaman, I began to meditate and read the Tao Te Ching. Living in the moment. Stringing together surges of Joy in the pleasures of life, pain and death. Nurturing my creative urges. Understanding and dismantling the restrictions I had unknowingly constructed around my capacity to feel and express love.
I found the unconditional acceptance of my dance in 5Rhythms.
The Albion Faeries found me and made a space where, in vulnerability, I could be fully accepted and heal the unacknowledged love-blocks arising from my repressed sissy self.
So this is me and this is my dance”
LoveSpirit is a great queer spiritual melting pot. Together we can talk, sing, dance, trance and drum up a wave of love.
Coming out to Spirituality is the start of a great adventure. Feel free to join us on the journey!
*Lovespirit is a grassroots emergence of lgbt+ spiritual discovery, bringing together queers of any or no spiritual tradition who feel the truth of love behind all religious and magical paths.
