August 2026 brings the tenth anniversary of Queer Spirit Festival, of which I am one of the founders: 10 years of LGBTQ+ people collectively connecting through the heart to community, nature and spirit; breaking the chains of religious bigotry and reclaiming queer nature as part of the cosmic order is a ground-breaking step in LGBTQ+Continue reading “Here! Queer! Cosmic!”
Category Archives: Queer Spirit
Pan
I came across this beautiful description of the divine masculine, in the form of the Horned God Pan, written by Zsuzsanna Budapest, it’s from her 1981 book The Aquarian Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries. WHO IS THE GENTLE GOD PAN? Why is he endowed with hoofs? Why does he wear horns? Why is he naked?Continue reading “Pan”
Whitman’s Comrades
In 19th century America, Walt Whitman dreamed of unlocking the potential in every man’s heart to love other men. He did not envision male same-sex attraction as a minority phenomenon. “Whitman knew that capacity for same-sex love lies in every man’s heart. He had seen it and experienced it firsthand in the war hospitals. ItContinue reading “Whitman’s Comrades”
When America Was Queer
When Europeans arrived in the Americas they found communities that accepted and respected gender diversity and same sex relationships. As with every other continent that the Europeans invaded, they imported their Christian homophobia and eradicated the memory of what once was – especially of the sacred roles that genderfluid people had long played in tribalContinue reading “When America Was Queer”
Heterosexuality is a Myth.
“Contrary to today’s bio-belief, the heterosexual/homosexual binary is not in nature, but is socially constructed, therefore deconstructable.” Jonathan Ned Katz “The myths, fantasies, and narratives of heterosexual love are among the most powerful Western society has ever produced. Anyone who grew up watching Disney fairy tales or reading the novels of Jane Austen can beContinue reading “Heterosexuality is a Myth.”
there’s more to being queer than our gender or sexuality
Our ancestors have been trying to tell us… there’s more to being queer than our gender or sexuality the reason why the LGBTQ belong together is because of our spiritual nature which is what monotheism was really trying to suppress… “And if the vulgar and malignant crowdMisunderstand the love with which we’re blessed,Its worth isContinue reading “there’s more to being queer than our gender or sexuality”
Gay Liberation is A Sacred Cause
Gay Liberation is a sacred cause all forms of love must be honoured for humanity to be whole – love of the body as well as the soul: It’s time for the Queer Ones to remember our sacred roles. Feminine men once served with the women in the temples of the Goddess; masculine men whoContinue reading “Gay Liberation is A Sacred Cause”
Trans Pride: 1000 years of British of Gender-Bending
On the occasion of the 7th London Trans Pride march I would like to present a guide to a millennium of gender-bending in the British Isles. Trans roots are deep! They go way back into ancient times – as demonstrated by the gender fluidity of certain deities and the existence of genderqueer priesthoods who hadContinue reading “Trans Pride: 1000 years of British of Gender-Bending”
The Uranian Shift
Uranus is sitting at the 29th degree of Taurus, taking a deep breath before he moves from the conservative, fixed earth sign into the buzzing, mutable air spirit of Gemini on July 7th 2025. The 29th degree of a sign is the ‘anaretic’ degree in astrology, derived from the Greek word for ‘destroyer’. It signifiesContinue reading “The Uranian Shift”
Budapest Pride: We March for Freedom
I visited Budapest in 1990 very soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain, when the first glimmers of open gay life were just starting to show – nervous glimmers indeed compared to the astounding turnout of an estimated 200,000 people at the LGBTQ+ Pride march in the Hungarian capital on the 28th June 2025,Continue reading “Budapest Pride: We March for Freedom”
Pride in A Time of Crisis
I have been going to Gay Pride events since the mid 1980s, seen Pride grow in size, seen the emphasis shift from protest to party to diverse and inclusive community parade; seen the spread of Pride events to cites and towns around the UK. I’ve often been on the London march and went for yearsContinue reading “Pride in A Time of Crisis”
Uranus is the Queerest Planet
Uranus is the queerest planet in the Solar System. I am not the first astrologically-inclined person to spot this, and I have written previously about both its unusual astronomical features and its transits through the signs, relating those to the liberation journey of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans movement. What is missing it seemsContinue reading “Uranus is the Queerest Planet”
On Homosexuality
In the 1970s Michel Foucault wrote these lines that have influenced the discussion of same-sex love and culture ever since, with many accepting today the notion that same-sex lovers and gender-variant people did not begin to self-identify as a sub-group of the wider culture until the late 19th century: “Homosexuality appeared as one of theContinue reading “On Homosexuality”
The Amazons of West Africa
When Western explorers visited the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century they discovered that the King’s military was made up of female as well as male troops – in the 1860s British explorer Richard Burton wrote an entire chapter about the ‘so-called Amazon’ troops of King Gelele. Alfred Ellis, a British armyContinue reading “The Amazons of West Africa”
Men Love Mutual Masturbation
When I came to London aged 21 in 1986 I discovered that men cruised for sex in public toilets across the city. From Wood Green, Highbury, Finsbury Park to Clapham, Brixton and Balham, via Hyde Park Corner, Green Park, Oxford Circus and Soho I discovered men were lining up against the porcelain and masturbating together.Continue reading “Men Love Mutual Masturbation”
THE QUEER SHAMANIC CALLING part 1: Know Our History
Judith Grahn,Another Mother Tongue, 1982: The tribal attitude said, and continues to say, that Gay people are especially empowered because we are able to identify with both sexes and can see into more than one world at once, having the capacity to see from more than one point of view at a time. David Greenberg,Continue reading “THE QUEER SHAMANIC CALLING part 1: Know Our History”
IN-BETWEEN PEOPLE
“The words gay and lesbian do not exist in the village, but there is the word gatekeeper. Gatekeepers are people who live a life at the edge between the worlds – the world of the village and the world of spirit.” In-Between People are born to live at the threshold between the polarities of gender,Continue reading “IN-BETWEEN PEOPLE”
Lamentations 5 13
There are many books out there discussing the various references to homosexuality in the Bible – Sodom & Gomorrah gay rapists, prohibitions in Leviticus, queer temple priests in Kings, love between David & Jonathon and Ruth & Naomi, Jesus on eunuchs, Jesus and the Centurion’s Boy, the Beloved Disciple, Paul wailing about pagan sex ritesContinue reading “Lamentations 5 13”
LGBTQ+ Activism
I attended Over the Rainbow, an LGBTQ+ History Month conversation between Simon Fanshawe and Mark Simpson hosted at Verdurin, a cultural project space in east London, by art curator and critic Pierre d’Alancaisez. Simon and Mark are veterans of the Gay Liberation movement – Mark was part of the grassroots Lesbians and Gays Support theContinue reading “LGBTQ+ Activism”
RIDING THE WOOD DRAGON
I was born on the last day of the year of the Wood Dragon in January 1965 and I am writing this on the final day of the Wood Dragon year 2024-5. With Sun in Aquarius and my Moon in Capricorn, my lunar return is happening as I write and my 60th solar return justContinue reading “RIDING THE WOOD DRAGON”
Jesus Had A Boyfriend
“Certainly, the most controversial same-sex couple in the Christian tradition comprised Jesus and… the beloved disciple. The relationship between them was often depicted in subsequent art and literature as intimate, if not erotic.” John Boswell, historian “For centuries, the beloved disciple has remained a powerful metaphor for homoerotic friendship and love, and even today gay menContinue reading “Jesus Had A Boyfriend”
Carpenter on God as Male & Female
Quoted from Intermediate Types Among Primitive Peoples (published 1914), Edward Carpenter points out that ancient traditions around the world viewed the creator God, and the first humans created, as uniting both male and femaleness in one being: “…the reason or reasons for this tendency must be accounted quite deep-rooted and anything but fanciful. One reason,Continue reading “Carpenter on God as Male & Female”
The Gay Spirituality Library
A reading list of inspired and informative, liberating and enlightening texts about the spirituality of love between men. C19 and more ancient roots: Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass (especially the sections Song of Myself and Calamus) 19th century poetic visions of love between men Edward Carpenter Iolaus (1902) “…draws on and quotes from a panoplyContinue reading “The Gay Spirituality Library”
The Long War on Trans and Gay People
As Spring approaches and a UK General Election looms, the debased and immoral Tories continue their cultural war against so-called ‘gender ideology’, with the vitriol directed mainly at born males who embody a strong feminine energy – transgender, effeminate, epicene, androgyne, mollie, intermediate type, woman-ish man: there have always been terms, in societies across theContinue reading “The Long War on Trans and Gay People”
The Witch of Gay Liberation
“Many mystics and psychics predict that the coming Age of Aquarius, the water bearer, spells an end to organized religion, especially Christianity, and that it will combine the best elements of a pagan past and modern thought culminating in the rise of various independent religious groups the world over.” Leo Martello, Gay Liberation Front Member,Continue reading “The Witch of Gay Liberation”
FAERIE! Know Thyself! Be Thyself!
Oscar Wilde: ‘Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written. Harry Hay: Faeries everywhere must begin to stand tall and beautiful in the sun. Faeries must begin to throw off the filthy green frog-skin of Hetero-imitation and discover the lovelyContinue reading “FAERIE! Know Thyself! Be Thyself!”
Lesbians Foresee the Glorious Age
In their book Lesbian peoples : material for a dictionary, joint authors Monique Wittig, and Sande Zeig, (the English translation of Brouillon Pour Un Dictionnaire Des Amantes, first published in 1976 – literal meaning Draft for a Dictionary of Lovers), look at historical and modern times from the perspective of a future ‘Glorious Age’ onContinue reading “Lesbians Foresee the Glorious Age”
The Rise of the Sacred Androgyne
The sacred androgyne is the archetype of the Divine Self within us, sitting there both as the eternal Magical Child of the Gods and as the Adult who has achieved maturity, peace, wisdom and lightness, through experience of both joy and pain, and through the inner union of their ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ components. The sacredContinue reading “The Rise of the Sacred Androgyne”
Harding on Goddess Priests
Mary Esther Harding (1888-1971) was a Jungian psychoanalyst, born in Shropshire, England, who lived for many years in New York with her long-time companion Kirstine Mann, and wrote books which Jung said, “sketched a picture of the feminine psyche which, in scope and thoroughness, far surpasses previous works in this field.” In her book Women’sContinue reading “Harding on Goddess Priests”
subject:SUBJECT
“When we begin to love and respect Great Mother Nature’s gift to us of gayness, we’ll discover that the bondage of our childhood and adolescence in the trials and tribulations of neitherness was actually an apprenticeship for teaching her children new cutting edges of consciousness and social change. In stunning paradox, our neitherness is ourContinue reading “subject:SUBJECT”
Shaman Psalm
A poem by James Broughton (1913-1999), included in his collection Ecstasies, published 1983.
The Androgyne Journal
The Androgyne Journal is James Broughton’s record of a few weeks in his life in 1960 when he experienced a soul awakening in nature, his inner female and male merging to take him through the gates of cosmic consciousness. The Journal was published in the late 70s and reprinted early 90s. Here’s a few excerptsContinue reading “The Androgyne Journal”
The Gay Lovers of Apollo
“In order to free homosexuality from being viewed through the lens of pathology and perversity, we may need to return it to the gods.” Christine Downing, Myths and Mysteries of Same Sex Love. Greek historian Plutarch (lived 46-c119 CE), who was himself a priest of Apollo, wrote in his work Parallel Lives: ‘And there isContinue reading “The Gay Lovers of Apollo”
The Uranian Vision
INTRODUCTION In the late 19th century, as the new science of psychology grappled with the notion of same sex love, the new term ‘homosexual’ did not sit well with some gay men, who believed that nature created queer people for much more than sex. Uranian was a term for same-sex lovers and genderfluid people favouredContinue reading “The Uranian Vision”
Laws that Punish Love: A History
It was in the 4th century CE that the first laws were enacted to punish gender-variant and same-sex attracted men, by Roman Emperors who had adopted Christianity as their, and the Empire’s, religion. In the Greek civilisation, which heavily influenced the Roman, gay male relationships had played a significant role in civilian life and inContinue reading “Laws that Punish Love: A History”
rainbow messenger 