Autumn Hare

Image: Artist unknown.

See also the previous posts:
• Autumn Beauty
• Autumn Hare (2008)

Bel Homme XXIX

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

A Unique Position

Writes Simon Carnell in Hare (2010) . . .

Most of the salient characteristics of hares can be usefully presented in the way they differ from rabbits. Hares are generally much larger: longer and leggier, giving an impression of stature enhanced by their generally much longer ears. They reach weights of five kilograms in the far north, averaging three in temperate zones (with some exceptions) and two at the equator, frequently occupying a unique position as the only animals of their weight in a given environment. The brown hare is about the size of a domestic cat. Rabbits are gregarious with relatively complex family groups; hares mostly solitary with minimal pair bonding among promiscuous adults and relatively little parental care of their young. The relatively complex coat colour of hares, including seasonal changes, is linked to their reliance upon camouflage as well as speed. Their speed, camouflage, lack of family life and even size are linked as adaptations to their principal behavioural difference from the rabbit, namely, the fact that they do not burrow.


See also the previous posts:
• Life Above Ground
• Almost Invisible
• An Extraordinary Capacity
• Antipathy
• The Difference

Mindful Lovemaking

Writes Terry Sanderson in The Gay Man's Kama Sutra:

Our goal is happiness, and if we live life nobly, with the good of others always in our hearts, happiness will surely follow. And if we do this, as well as always striving to appreciate the best things in life, we will attain happiness not only for ourselves but for others, too. It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, a wonderful wheel of life.

We must place the act of sexual congress in this context, too, for love is a sure and essential route to happiness. The fusion of our body with that of another is a perfect ecstasy that takes happiness to another sphere and transforms it, like magic, into bliss. Lovemaking that is mindful of the needs of your lover, as well as your own desires, is lovemaking that feeds the soul and nourishes the spirit.

See also the previous posts:
• A Source of Joy for the Beauty of Life Itself
• The Body: A Holy Place of Romp and Renewal
• Body and Soul
• Animal Energies

Art: Roger Payne.

Bel Homme XXVIII

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Running Hare XV

Image 3: "Moon Run" by Anna Pugh.

Morning Light

Image: The Leveret.

Emanation

em·a·nate (verb): to flow out or issue forth; originate.

Image: The Leveret (July 2013).

A Source of Joy for the Beauty of Life Itself

Writes Toby Johnson in Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness . . .


Sex has psychological aspects. Entering the altered state of consciousness with another person opens us to him and him to us. Sharing orgasms with another person stirs feelings of connection and intimacy. It opens us to his "karmic patterns" (which is why we should exercise caution about whom we get involved with). It deepens true love when that is present. It boosts our self-image and raises our energy level. Being in love and full of sexual vibrancy makes us feel good. Even without the emotions of "true love," having a satisfying sexual connection with another man makes us feel alive.

Having sex that feels good and makes us self-assured and confident in our worth as a person and as an attractive human body changes our behavior. We can be kind and loving, happy and generous, sharing our joy with other people. "Everybody loves a lover" says the old song lyric.

When we seek spiritual answers as gay people, we are necessarily looking for sex-positive and gay-positive answers. This puts us in a special place in the evolution of religion.

The experience of attraction to another man (or, for a lesbian, to another woman) is a source of joy for the beauty of life itself.

– Excerpted from Gay Spirituality
by Toby Johnson
p. 29

Recommended Off-site Link:
• Toby Johnson's Official Website

See also the previous Leveret posts:
• Gay Consciousness, Sex, and the Evolution of Religion
• Affirming Our Essential Goodness
• Wrestling with the Angel
• Hallowtide Transformations
• The Body: A Holy Place of Romp and Renewal
• Body and Soul
• Gay Identity
• Animal Energies

Image: Kat Harding (from The Gay Man's Kama Sutra by Terry Sanderson).

Golden One

Image: Mary Claire Smith (card design for Roger la Borde).

Bel Homme XXVII

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Usurper

In the following excerpt from Hare, Simon Carnell explores the hare's role in the persecution of witchcraft in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Naturalistic explanations include the fact that [the hare] is nocturnal, solitary, somewhat mysterious, popularly (and learnedly) believed to be lascivious; sometimes seen in 'parliaments' or sitting in coven-like circles with other hares. It has been suggested that, like the cat, the hare is singled out as a 'human-in-disguise' because it 'usurps the right to state.' By assuming its form, witches were probably also thought to be usurping some of the positive associations the animal had acquired as a symbol in Christianity, stolen away and inverted. . . . Or rather, stolen back, since in northern Europe, at any rate, Christianity tapped into the power the hare derived from Celtic and British paganism. According to Dio the ancient Britons not only tabooed hare flesh (a sure sign of a sacred function) but used hares for the purpose of divination. Boudicca is said by him to have released a live hare on the field of battle for some such purpose.


See also the previous posts:
The Hare-Witch
Creature of Mystery, Creature of Magic
Hallowtide Transformations
Eyes of the Hare

Image: "Tryst" (artist unknown).