Queer Ancestor Spotlight: David Kato
David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBTQ+ rights activist, considered by many to be the father of the Ugandan gay rights movement. He was a founding member of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and was deeply involved with the underground LGBTQ+ rights movement in his home country.
New Moon Ritual: March 2024
This month’s New Moon Ritual resulted in another very visual, visceral experience similar to the first ritual that resulted in this monthly endeavor. I’m a few days late in posting this because it took a while to figure the words, and even now I’m not entirely sure I’m capturing everything and doing the experience justice. I’m going to provide a brief narrative of what I experienced, followed by a few closing thoughts on what meaning I am finding. That doesn’t mean you’ll walk away from this with the same understandings.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theater director. He is considered one of the most important Spanish poets of the 20th century. He was a member of the Generation of ‘27, which was a group of poets who brought modern European artistic movements into Spanish literature. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s he toured rural Spain and put on free theatrical shows of classical Spanish theatre before being arrested by Nationalist militias and assassinated.
New Moon Ritual: January 2024
Once I stopped getting in my own way, I was able to receive and process the power behind this message. For those of us in marginalized communities, especially those that don’t fit the worldview of the cis white supremacist Christian Nationalism that has roared to power, I think we sometimes forget how one of the most powerful tools of resistance we have in our arsenal is love.
Reclaiming The Pagan Cultural Narrative
The main thrust of my argument is that, as Christian Nationalism and it’s call for authoritarianism rise in the United States, the Pagan community will come under increasing attack and condemnation rooted in a lack of understanding about who and what we are. This lack of understanding is a result of us ceding the cultural narrative of what it means to be pagan, what we actually believe, and how our beliefs manifest in our community to capitalist media and assimilationist politics as a result of our inherently insular communities. To combat this we must each become more engaged and public in our communities by putting our faith into action.
New Moon Ritual: December 2023
Taproot (noun): 1) a primary root that grows vertically downward and gives off small lateral roots; 2) the central element or position in a line of growth or development.
This is the definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This is also the word and image that came through repeatedly during this month’s ritual.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Tryals of Thomas Vaughan and Thomas Davis
Glory holes. Arguably one of the most recognizable cultural artifacts of contemporary gay culture due to it's relationship to cruising and anonymous sex, something that marked the reality of the gay male experience in the Western world for centuries. When loving the person you want, either romantically or physically, is against the law and can land you in prison, an asylum, or worse, you find ways to satisfy your needs as safely and discreetly as possible.
New Moon Ritual: November 2023
It was a bit of a scattered experience. At one point I woke up because it felt like someone was playing with my hair, which has never happened before in this house. I’m still on the fence if that is related to this ritual or something else entirely.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood was an author, diarist, playwright, screenwriter, and autobiographer. He is best known for A Single Man, his semi-autobiographical novel Goodbye to Berlin which inspired the musical Cabaret, and his memoir Christopher and His Kind which connected him with the ongoing gay liberation movement.
New Moon Ritual: September 2023
The lesson I took from this ritual is that practicing a liberatory spirituality means we are seeking more than just liberation for ourselves. A true liberatory spirituality also seeks liberation for those we encounter. The liberation we seek for ourselves and others is the freedom to live authentically.