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).

Morning Light

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Ballet Men

Thanks to my friend Brian I've been made aware of a recently released "mini-documentary" from Australia called Ballet Men. Produced by The Australian Ballet, the film features four of the company's dancers – Adam Bull, Christopher Rodgers-Wilson, Cameron Hunter and Cristiano Martino – talking about their ballet journeys and demonstrating their grace, power and athleticism. It's definitely worth taking a look at!




For more, click here.

Tan Lines XXXIX

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

An Ancient Motif

Writes Simon Carnell in Hare (2010) . . .

In many bosses on the ceilings of parish churches in Devon and Cornwall, as well as in a stained glass window in Paderborn Cathedral in Germany, there is a motif of three hares running in a ring, linked by their ears. This has been interpreted as an allusion to the indissoluble unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Though as recent researchers have discovered, it's an ancient motif which also occurs in Buddhist China and in Iran. In contexts, that is, separated by thousands of miles and 500 years.


See also the previous post: Ancient and Enigmatic.

"Hail to the Seasonal Prince"

Image: Mikel Marton.

"I Have Become Your Brother . . . One of Your Kin"

.

Jubilation is my name

and rejoicing is my countenance.

I am like a young meadow wreathed in dawn,

like a shepherd’s pipe among the hills.

Hear me, you swelling valleys.

Hear me, you waving meadows.

Hear me, you happy songful forests.

For I am no longer lonely among your splendors,

I have become your brother and one of your kin.

Greet me, fair likeness of myself,

Glad earth that Love has fulfilled.

Nearness is still far,

Grace is yet but a forward step.

You are in me as eternally mine.

You have come over me

as buds come upon a spray.

You have sprung forth in me

like roses in the hedgerows.

I bloom in the red-thorn of this love.

I bloom on all my branches

in the purple of these gifts.

I bloom with fiery tongues,

I bloom with flaming fulfillment,

I bloom out of the Holy Spirit of God.

– Gertrud von Le Fort

“Hymns to the Church”

Image: "Spring Hares" by Andrew Haslen