Gay Spirituality

So far, I’ve been having a pleasant Saturday morning.  I slept in, which is something I always appreciate because I tend to be working on so many projects, I never get enough sleep.  After checking email and puttering for a bit, my partner and I took the dog for a walk at Easton Town Center and bought Starbucks.  I’m sitting here now starting to work on projects and noticed the quote on my Starbucks cup:

The way we get to live forever is through memories stored in the hearts and souls of those whose lives we touch.  That’s our soul print.  It’s our comfort, our emotional nourishment at the end of the day and the end of a life.  How wonderful that they are called up at will and savored randomly.  It seems to me we should spend our lives in a conscious state of creating these meaningful moments that live on.  Memories matter.  –Leeza Gibbons Television and radio personality

I found this to be a beautiful thought and an inspirational goal.  I’ve talked before on this blog about my concept of the Queer Spirit and remembering those that have passed on.  I think this quote really catches a lot of the essence of what I’ve been saying.  It also strikes me that some people do naturally live their lives in a way that they are consciously creating meaningful moments that will outlive them.  Several years ago, the Between the Worlds community lost a member, Crystal Bear.  I presided over one of several remembrances for him in our spiritual community.  It also struck me how deeply his loss was felt because of the beautiful memories of him that people held in their hearts.  He’s still remembered today and its not unusual for people to mention him at Between the Worlds.

The last two sentences of this quote really captured me.  It’s important to live in a conscious state of creating meaningful memories.  That’s how we live on.  It’s the energy we give to the Queer Spirit and its what prompts others to remember us.  It struck me that each person that has been a positive force in our community has on some level consciously created these meaningful memories.  It’s a goal I will strive for and I hope that you’ll make it part of your spiritual practice.  Start today, set time aside to be with a friend, a loved one or members of your community and spend time making a beautiful memory.  Someday it will be your memorial.

The other day I wrote on my personal blog about an article from Science Daily regarding a study that associated high caffeine intake with hallucinations.  The study authors found that people that consume the caffeine equivalent of 7 cups of instant coffee or more per day are three times more prone to hallucinations.  I made a tongue-in-cheek joke about that explaining a bit why IT people seem so odd at times.  This post received a lot of comments on my journal but I want to quote a particular one here because I think the comment author raised a good point.  Robb comments:

What’s to say that the IT people are not just prone to thes “hallucinations” are not actually experiening these things for real? I mean, come on, most religious experiences can be called “hallucinations” by those that don’t believe in that religion, or the potential for their expriences.

I think Robb captures an essential debate of our times.  As science begins to understand more about how our minds work, discoveries are being made about how the brain functions during religious experiences.  But does it really matter?  I think most of us that belong to a spiritual path would say that science is only beginning to understand what most spiritual traditions have none for centuries.  So if a scientist says that during meditation a certain area of the brain is active, does that make meditation no longer “spiritual”?  I certainly don’t think so.  Spiritual practices and experiences manifesting certain physical states doesn’t make spirituality any less “true”.  In fact, those of us that have a belief in such experiences would argue that we exist on multiple dimenions–some dimensions that science has not yet been able to discover.  Could it just be that the parts of the brain that become active are the parts capable of perceiving this other dimension or reality?

I think some day science’s understanding will help support spiritual practices and expereiences rather than bebunk them.  I look forward to that day.  But I don’t believe that knowing an experience is due to some physical change negates the truth or value of that experience.

Thanks to my good friend, Gary for pointing this one out on his blog.  Quincy Jones has begun an online petition asking incoming US President Barack Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts.  Many other countries have ministers for the arts but the US has never created such a position.  Tough economic times have made it very hard for artists and I believe its important to support the arts–visual, performing and other arts.

I’ve always believed that the arts and spirituality are inextricably linked.  There’s something intensely  spiritual about creating a work of art or writing a play or song.   Also, the arts have traditionally been a field that employed a large number of the glbt population.  Queer people seem to be wired to be creative and I believe that we’re also wired to have a deep connection to the spiritual world.  A Secretary of Arts would certainly go a long way to encourage the arts and patronage of the arts in our country.

Please, sign the petition today if the arts matter to you.  Even if you’re not personally involved in the arts, consider signing it to encourage others to pursue their art.  For many, their art is also their spirituality.

A friend recently posted on his Live Journal about how Christian groups do social service charitable work but that really what do Pagans do? He talked about getting involved by picking up trash in parks and volunteering with charitable organizations. I think it all boils down to walking your talk and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about how we do that. I’ve seen several examples lately of people either walking their talk or not walking their talk and each one really showed me a valuable lesson. I’d like to share them.

I had a meeting last week with an older woman that helps run a community organization. This organization in particular works with artists but they talk a lot about how they’re part of the bigger community and they want to make changes in it. We went to a Wendy’s in the neighborhood to have a coke and talk (I’m going to do some web development for them). There was a young man that came into the Wendy’s and was looking for a job. He came back to our table asking if we knew were the applications were. We said we didn’t and that we didn’t work for Wendy’s (maybe we looking like managers?). It was obvious that something wasn’t quite right with this young man. We were joined by another person from the community organization and while he and I were talking the lady went to the restroom. On her way back in, she was stopped by this young man again who had been directed to a computer application and was having problems with it. She sat down with him and helped him complete his job application. It impressed me greatly how much she was walking her talk about trying to make a difference in the bigger community. Turns out that he was homeless but living in one of the Faith Mission shelters in the area and was trying to find a job and get on his feet.

I work as a web architect for a real estate development company. They primarily work with government sponsored urban redevelopment, faith based community development and non-profit urban redevelopment. The owner of the company is a devout black Christian man. Our company has both sexual orientation and gender identity in our equal employment opportunity statement. And many of my co-workers are people that would never have been given a chance in an office environment. Our receptionist is the most delightful, friendly and professional woman. She had been working at a factory job and struggling and the owner of our company offered her a job. With a little help, she has risen to be an outstanding professional. I believe that he walks his talk.

On the flip side, there is currently some controversy surrounding a pagan tradition. They talk about serving the old Gods and the Gods being preserved by their order and the order being preserved by their Gods. But this same group has been involved in cultish behaviour, petty jockeying for position, slander and all many of ugliness against their own brothers. And for what? Perceived importance or position? These people do not walk their talk.

I also know many pagans that will tell me that what you put out is what you get back. They will tell you magick is real and that our thoughts can affect what happens in our lives. But then these same people will be constantly negative, tearing down any idea that challenges their comfort zone, refusing to try anything different and taking delight in the misfortune of others. For a long time, I was one of them. But I realized that it was not walking my talk and I have decided to have a positive outlook on life and about other people. Even when they prove me wrong. That’s not to say that I’ve become a doormat either. But sometimes, the best course of action is to withdraw your energy from a situation or person rather than sending negative energy at it (or them) just to have it come back to you.

And we’ve all had the experience of friends that claim to be there for you but that you never hear from unless you make all the effort. Everyone has experienced one sided friendships.

And lest it seem like I’m picking on pagans. I can give another example of someone not walking their talk from the leather community. In my state there is a former titleholder that talks about the importance of service, humility, honour and integrity. Yet when this person did not wing the Great Lakes region title, they lied about living in Florida to compete there and while this person holds office in several Ohio organizations, lives in Cincinnati and received an Ohio community service award–they hold a Florida title. Where’s walking the talk about integrity and honor.

I’ve always believed that the only thing we really have control over in our world is ourselves. Ceremonial magick is a path of self-mastery. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but simply sharing where my own head is these days. For me and mine, I want to walk my talk. It’s not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of hard work. And I’ll fail at times. I know this. But its important that when I do, I realize the failure and take steps to make it right.

Samhain for me, is a time of deep reflection. Some traditions see it as the New Year. It’s a time when we honour what came before but I see it also as a time to look to the future.

See, sometimes, death is hard for us. We want to hold on. We want to keep things with us that we remember as being good or beautiful. You’d think that a priest of the Queen of Death would recognize when something’s dead. You’d be wrong. Sometimes I hold onto the past and to things that no longer serve me because I just don’t see that they’ve died.

For me, this Samhain is a lot about looking around and recognizing what’s died, honouring it for what it was, grieving the loss of it and moving on with living life. It’s not an easy thing but I do believe its a necessary thing. I think some big changes will be coming in the new year. I think some people will be surprised by them. But I know that where I’ve strayed from my path, I will make a course correction and once my feet are firmly on the road, I won’t look back.

Blessings to all this Samhain and may you honour what has been, grieve what is lost and rejoice at what is to come.

Lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoefer once told a joke about breaking the 700 Club by calling their 800 number.  She said “Call them.  Call them on your lunch break, before work.  Call them and ask them to pray that it doesn’t rain on gay pride.”   This made me think of some recent controversy on our Between the Worlds mailing list.  Pagan events usually involve weather working to try to ensure decent weather for a successful event.

We have a wonderful member of our community that offers to do some gentle weather working during our event.  Last year, this created a bit of a stir on our email list as some members called weather magick unethical and believed that we shouldn’t tamper with nature in this way.  This lead to quite a debate on the correct way to do weather work or if we should even do it at all.

The way I see it, weather magick is applying the magician’s Will.  As a Thelemite, this is perfectly ethical.  I do believe that weather magick can be worked to provide the greatest benefit to all involved and I’ve only ever seen people perform it this way.  The most common method I’ve seen is the idea of a weather “wedge” that gently pushes storms and bad weather to either side of the area being protected.  It hardly creates droughts or hardships or other side effects. It was for this reason that I found myself quite surprised when some denounced it as unethical magickally. 

Science Daily reported on a new study that suggests incense smoke may increase the risk of some upper respiratory cancers.  From the article:

Researchers have shown that burning incense—which is made of plant materials mixed with oils—produces a mixture of possible carcinogens, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, carbonyls and benzene. Because incense smoke is inhaled, a number of studies have looked at the possible link between incense burning and lung cancer, but results have been inconsistent.

This study, recognizing the common use of incense in Asian culture, followed over 61,000 Singapore Chinese for about 5 years.  The researchers interviewed study participants about diet, lifestyle and other factors.  They discovered that those who were frequently exposed to incense smoke were at an increase risk of a certain type of upper respiratory cancer. 

The study authors concluded that this study suggests that more research is needed to see what levels of exposure lead to increased risk and which types of incense carry the lowest risk.  The study authors also noted that incense use is common outside of Asia including India and parts of the West. 

As a pagan, I use incense regularly in my rites and rituals.  This study certainly raises some concerns about how much incense I use and how frequently. I find it interesting that this correlation hasn’t been made before say among Catholics, another religion where incense is heavily used.   

While I doubt that a single study will prevent me from using incense in my rituals, as a priest I think it will make me more aware of objections to incense that others may have when I facilitate public rituals.