Alcibiades The Schoolboy is a book from the 1630s praising homosexuality and providing us with evidence that a self-aware gay identity existed long before the 19th century, when such a self-conscious identity is generally supposed to have been formed. Originally in Italian, the novel was finally translated and published into English in the year 2000.Continue reading “Alcibiades: A 17th Century Gay Novel”
Category Archives: HerStory-History
Gender
Modern society seems to have got itself into a place of utter confusion about gender identity – and this will likely not clear until the fundamental flaw in the culturally dominant scientific material paradigm is corrected. This flaw, from which so many failures of understanding stem, is that we live in a physical universe, inContinue reading “Gender”
Gay Love is Ancient & Innate
The generally accepted belief that any kind of self-aware homosexual identity did not exist until the late 19th century was invented by heterosexuals who sought to ensure their dominance over society. This belief stands on shaky ground and deserves to be blown away and replaced by awareness of the many centuries in which gay loveContinue reading “Gay Love is Ancient & Innate”
Beltane Rites: A History
BELTANE is an ancient fire festival marking the point in Spring when Winter is finally defeated and the journey into Summer truly underway. The last vestiges of the dark half of the year were burned away in the Beltane fires, and Maypole dances whisked up a spirit of revelry and celebration. Of all the paganContinue reading “Beltane Rites: A History”
Christ and Cybele
In the ancient pagan world the arrival of Spring was time for ceremonies celebrating rebirth and renewal. Christianity followed this pattern with its Easter festival. Will Roscoe writes in Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same Sex Love (published 2004): In late antiquity, the worship of Cybele and Attis was one of Christianity’s chief sourcesContinue reading “Christ and Cybele”
Holy Suffolk: An Angle on the English
The Land holds the memories that people forgot, but when we rediscover how to speak to the earth, trees and sky, we’ll see that nothing is ever really lost. Returning to spend time in the town of my childhood, Stowmarket in mid-Suffolk, after 3 decades away, I am discovering an ancient connection in the landContinue reading “Holy Suffolk: An Angle on the English”
The Eternal Love of Diana
Diana was the name given to the people’s beloved Goddess, worshipped in Europe for over two millennia and still honoured by pagans today. The devotional love that she once inspired in the wider population reappeared in a very modern form as the almost cult-like reverence of Diana, Princess of Wales, who is back in theContinue reading “The Eternal Love of Diana”
Humanity’s Missing Mother
Since way back in prehistorical times humans have left behind evidence of a deep emotional, psychological and spiritual relationship with a feminine mother spirit which is noticeably lacking in the mainstream cultures and among the mass of the population around the planet today. For the majority of people in the confused and conflicted, frightened world,Continue reading “Humanity’s Missing Mother”
The Goddess and Christianity
The Great Goddess, worshipped by all of the many nations across the ancient European/Mediterranean/Asiatic world for thousands of years, gave birth to Christianity, in full awareness that her power would be eclipsed for the duration of an astrological age as the male gods took over the heavens. Her avatar, Jesus, knew this too, and spokeContinue reading “The Goddess and Christianity”
We Are the Old Ones
Human beings how lucky we are to be on this earth around this star in a solar system divinely designed to keep us blind to the rest of the cosmos and life on other worlds – until we are ready to accept what’s there to find; designed to keep us blind, as we evolve theContinue reading “We Are the Old Ones”
THE GENDER SPECTRUM
The idea that male and female are two distinct and separate genders, into one or other of which everybody is supposed to fit, is a very modern, patriarchal model that, although now widely spread through the world, has no basis or grounding in history, or in biological nor spiritual fact. It is high time weContinue reading “THE GENDER SPECTRUM”
The Great Maypole of London
“Depriv’d of Root, and Branch, and Rind, Yet Flow’rs I bear of ev’ry Kind: My Head, with Giddiness, goes round; And yet I firmly stand my Ground: All over naked I am seen, and Painted like and Indian Queen.” (Jonathon Swift, ‘The Maypole‘) The British quite naturally come in for plenty of criticism for theContinue reading “The Great Maypole of London”
THE LOST QUEER STORY OF EASTER
It’s well known that Christian holy days were placed in the calendar to replace long established pagan festivals. Spring was a time when the pagan cultures of Europe and the Middle East celebrated the rising energy of nature with ceremonies relating to suffering and rebirth. In southern Europe the Goddess Persephone/Proserpina was said to returnContinue reading “THE LOST QUEER STORY OF EASTER”
The Rites of Queer Spirit
in the temples of the gods and goddesses of the ancient world, all around the Meditteranean, the women, queer men and the in-between/non-binary folk, practiced our sex rituals the rites of Dionysis , when women went to forest orgeia with their transsexual god, were built into the Greek calendar…. when men started to join inContinue reading “The Rites of Queer Spirit”
Faerie Freedom Fuckers
We fight the good fight with lipstick and kisses made for pleasure not for punishment we know that’s what a fist is; faeries fucking for freedom and fighting for the light we’re frolicking and fornicating to bring an end to the longest… darkest night. . Once, faerie menwomen opened the gates to the cosmos butContinue reading “Faerie Freedom Fuckers”
Cybele, Attis and the Gallae
Magna Mater to the Romans, crazy Goddess to Greeks, beloved Mother Cybele to the common folk, the queers, outcasts and rebels. Worshipped from 600BC in Greece, 200 BC in Rome and then across northern Africa, southern Europe and up as far north as Britain for 700 years, her priest/esses were known as the Gallae. TheContinue reading “Cybele, Attis and the Gallae”
EUROPE IS AN ANCIENT FAERIELAND
We tend to think of the ancient Greek and Roman civilisations as being relatively accepting of homosexual acts and relationships in comparison to the Christian culture that superceded them in Europe. But we have been misled. The Greeks and Romans tolerated same sex activities only in certain circumstances, most famously that between adult and youngerContinue reading “EUROPE IS AN ANCIENT FAERIELAND”
30 YEARS GAY
reposted from shokti: Tales of Queer Mystical Emergence As 2016 draws to its end I reflect on the changes in gay life since I came out of the closet in 1986 aged 21. The coming year, 2017, will see a lot of soul-searching and analysis of the journey the lgbtq community has been on sinceContinue reading “30 YEARS GAY”
The secrets of Kings 14:24
Everybody knows about Leviticus 18:22, yawn yawn, the ridiculous arguments continue to rattle on in some quarters. But there is a much more interesting passage in the Book of Kings that we rarely hear about, and it tells us rather more about homosexuality in the ancient world. Kings Chapter 14: 22Judah did evil in theContinue reading “The secrets of Kings 14:24”
Female Mystics of Albion
The British Isles have given birth to female mystical voices for at least 1400 years… here are some i have come to love and respect so far… starting with THREE from the seventh century AD through to Doreen Valiente and Kate Bush in the 20th. Their stories and voices deserve to be heard, their messagesContinue reading “Female Mystics of Albion”
rainbow messenger 