Ritual: Queer Ancestor Dance Party
For Pride Month 2021 I decided to write down and share something that I frequently do on my own as a way to recharge and connect with my Queer Ancestors. I am talking about hosting a Queer Ancestor Dance Party!
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was a central figure in the civil rights movement in United States the 1950s and 1960s. He was well versed in non-violent protest and helped to shape the movement as an advisor and collaborator. Due to his homosexuality, however, he remained in the background sometimes by choice and sometimes by necessity.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Pedro Zamora
Pedro Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality who was a pioneer in humanizing the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s. He was a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco and was one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media.
Ritual: Cleansing Salt/Herb Shower Scrub
Those who follow me on Twitter may recall a thread I posted a few weeks ago about messages that were channeling me to work through my impostor syndrome. Writing and sharing ritual is a first tentative step in that direction and it challenges two things that I get very anxious talking about - providing rituals or spellwork ideas for folks, and my disabled identity. Whenever I think about writing up a ritual to share I always doubt whether it is good enough, if it is “too basic”, and I tell myself there are probably hundreds like it already posted online or in books so what value is this adding? And when it comes to disability for years I’ve grappled with the internal ableism of not feeling “really disabled” and like claiming that term is somehow wrong, even though I do have physical limitations due to my arm and mobility issues when I’m experiencing a flare up (not to mention the mental health aspect when my depression/anxiety are severe.)
Personal: Fragmented Identities
For a few years now a core part of my personal practice has been working with Queer Ancestors. This takes many forms: queer history research and lectures, maintaining a private shrine, and personal rituals throughout the year. The synthesis of my queerness with my magical practice, however, is a relatively recent development and is just part of a larger pattern of coming into the “wholeness” of who I am.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: William Stringfellow and Anthony Towne
William Stringfellow and Anthony Towne were charged by the U.S. government in December 1970 for harboring a fugitive - a Jesuit priest named Daniel Berrigan. Father Berrigan was part of a group known as the ‘Catonsville Nine’ who had been charged with destroying federal property for burning hundreds of draft cards during a protest against the Vietnam War. After evading federal authorities for months he was eventually found at Stringfellow and Towne’s home on Block Island, Rhode Island.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Siwa Oasis
This post is a bit different because it doesn’t center a particular figure and instead focuses on a location: the Siwa Oasis. This oasis is located in Egypt, near the Libyan border. It is one of the most isolated settlements in Egypt with a distinct culture and language. Settlement at the oasis dates back to ancient Egypt, and it was home to an oracle of Ammon.
Ritual: Cane Blessing
I realized over the holiday break that a lot of my craft centers and celebrates my marginalized identity as a queer person but this was yet another space where I was distancing or ignoring another identity that is increasingly central to my world experiences: being a disabled person.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Piers Gaveston
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall, was born around 1284 and died on June 19, 1312. He is famous for the impact he had on the royal court of Edward II and the role he played in the kings eventual downfall. Contemporaries of the two, and many scholars since, have had a hard time framing the relationship between these men as anything other than a queer sexual relationship. The “were they/weren’t they” of these men is just one example of how our contemporary understanding of queer identity is hard to apply historically, as well as the frequent straight-washing of history.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Frank Kameny
Frank Kameny (May 21, 1925 - October 11, 2011) was an American astronomer and early gay rights activist who was one of the most influential figures in the American gay rights movement. While many early queer liberation movements focused on cultural and social change, Frank Kameny is notable for his early work brining gay rights issues into the US court system.