Gay Spirituality

For this week’s “Other Voices”, I interviewed grovemate and friend, Jeremy–also known as “Daystar”.  Jeremy is a gay male and identifies as an eclectic Wiccan but claims that he hasn’t owned the word “witch” quite yet.  He’s a member of the Green Faerie Grove of Columbus, Ohio (of which yours truly is also a member).  He’s also the High Priest of Jaguar Moon, one of the oldest cyber covens on the Internet.  He’s been the workshift coordinator at Between the Worlds for several years.  We talked a bit about how being gay has affected his spiritual outlook (and vice versa) and about being in a cyber coven.

Julian: How long have you been involved in your path?  What leadership positions do you hold?
Jeremy: I’ve been practicing for almost 16 years, and am currently the High Priest of JaguarMoon CyberCoven. I’m also a member of Green Faerie Grove out of Columbus, Ohio.

Julian: So this isn’t the path you were raised in?  Why did you change and how did your sexuality affect your choice?
Jeremy: Oh, Lord and Lady, no.  I was raised Lutheran and then borderline Fundamentalist/Evangelical.  When I was in college, I also looked into converting to Mormonism.  I started practicing Wicca before I came out;the two were somewhat related, but not strongly.  Wicca helped me discover more of who I am and how my sexuality works as part of me and part of the world around me.

Julian: You belong to a rather unique group– a cyber coven.  Can you describe a bit how that works?  How do you do ritual with a group that isn’t geographically close?
Jeremy: Jaguarmoon is one of the oldest cybercovens on the Internet.  We’re basically a teaching coven; we have a class that runs from July 1 to June 30 every year.  We hold classes and hold rituals (six Full Moon rituals, six Dark Moon rituals, all 8 Sabbats and a ‘farewell to the class’ ritual) in a channel on IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

It’s a very interesting way to run ritual, honestly.  Everything’s basically a guided meditation with each person running his or her own altar and adding physical components at his or her own computer.  It’s a great way for solitary practitioners to get a group ritual into his or her own personal practice.  The energy is a lot slower to get moving, but once it does get moving, it goes a lot further faster, if only because our members and students are so far-flung.  Coven members range from Washington state to Ohio, and current class members are from the east coast all the way to Australia.  It’s a pretty fascinating group.

Julian: How does your working group view your sexuality? Does it affect your relationship with other practitioners of your chosen path?
Jeremy: Most of the people with whom I work online don’t have much of a problem
with it.  And, really, they shouldn’t.  Almost four years ago, our former High Priest went through gender reassignment surgery and is now the High Priestess of her own coven, a daughter coven to ours.  If my sexuality has affected anyone’s practice, they either keep it to themselves or they leave.  We’re a pretty tolerant bunch, thankfully.

Julian: How does your sexuality affect your spirituality? Do you do anything differently than straight practitioners?
For the most part, it doesn’t.  I mean, with our group, there’s not a lot of discussion about sacred sexuality.  Maybe there should be.  Maybe it’s something I need to bring up with my High Priestess.  One of the biggest differences that I can think of is that we don’t have a version of the Great Rite, and I think that if we did, I’d be very reluctant to
participate, but that’s my issue, not the Coven’s.  I don’t know that I’d be comfortable performing, if you will, in public ritual like that.

Julian: How has your spiritual life changed over the years?
Jeremy: I’ve gone from a position of “MUST AGREE WITH EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS KIND AND GOOD AND PRETTY AND SHINY AND NOT DARK AT ALL!” to a more pragmatic, balanced view of the Craft.  Where there is Light, there has to be Shadow.  So many people forget that there is a down to the up.  I pride myself on being able to at least see that balance, and sometimes I even achieve it.  It’s a struggle.  Some people strive for perfection; I strive for balance.  That is, I think, my biggest goal for my own spirituality.

Julian: What do you feel are the challenges facing GLBT people in finding a spiritual home? What unique gifts do GLBT people bring to their spiritual communities?
Jeremy: Finding places and groups who agree with our personal ideologies, but that’s going to be the biggest challenge to all of our personal facets. Members of the GLBT community tend to be awfully insular and somewhat xenophobic when it comes to groups outside of the community.  It’s difficult to gauge, at first glance, how a particular group in a certain town will react to us.  It’s not always, or even usually, fun (unless, of course, you’re a masochist) to join group after group, only to find that it’s not the right group for you.  GLBT people have a different view of the world.  After being marginalized and put down for so long, today’s society is just beginning to see what kinds of things we have to offer: a sense of style, a flair for the dramatic, fantastic taste.  Yeah, they’re stereotypical things, but in each stereotype is a fundamental truth as well.

Julian: Do you think spirituality has become more or less important to the GLBT community over say the last 10 years?  In what way?
Jeremy: So much more important.  The GLBT community is growing up and growing
older.  Most people are starting to see mortality, and they want to believe that there’s more out there than just bars, drinking, drugs and sex.  They want to connect with other people on different levels but a lot of them aren’t sure how to go about finding that “something else.”  It’s becoming equally important for those of us who are leaders in the gay spiritual communities to which we belong to be more open and willing to
discuss things, to reach out to the community at large and get those conversations started.  That’s also why I’m starting to work with a local GLBT organization to get more involved with their faith-based component, so that I can at least get the outside world to see that it’s not all the Book Religions out there and that we other spiritual facets have validity and good ideas as well.

Julian: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Jeremy: Aside from pimping Between the Worlds ?  That in and of itself is such a positive force in gay male spirituality.  It needs to be experienced by more gay men to really get them to understand that it really, truly is possible to have a group of gay men in one place without there being such extreme drama as we normally see in the gay community.  That there really is a true spirit of brotherhood that organically happens and isn’t forced.  That there really, truly is no One True Way and that we can all work together in different frameworks and have something beautiful and glorious happen.

Julian: How can people reach you or learn more about your group?  Is there an email address or web site you’d like to share?
Jeremy: Information on JaguarMoon is available at our web site and Green Faerie Grove can be seen at their web site .  I can be reached at daystar@jaguarmoon.org or on my blog, Give Mama Some Sugar .

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