World politics and Canada's next Parliament

I find it interesting that the Unites States is engaged in a war in Iraq and that Washington has made a deal to sell smart bombs to Israel, upsetting Iran and other nations. I know it is a "business deal" and money, for many, is the most important possession in the world, especially if you have lots of it! But it will be worth nothing by the time the international business community indirectly annihilates the planet by nuclear war.


Doesn't it make you wonder, how your dollars get invested when you buy your Starbuck's Latte or your McDonald's homecooked meal?

Watch Canada's next Parliament and the issue of Missile Defence. Do you want our country to be part of the duplicity of American Foreign policy?

We, as shamans, carry the light. Let's hold the light together and celebrate the intimacy of connection with one another! I know our ancestors stand with us. I can feel the power of the previous generations in my family, who along with others engaged in a world war, a major economic depression and another World war condemn the lack of integrity in our leaders and the machinations of the military industrial complex.

As gay men, we are mostly peace lovers. "Gay men, in the Queer culture, hold on to the values of neighborliness, volunteerism, and mutual assistance. [ You could say], this is our form of tradtional values!" (Soul Beneath the Skin, 52-53)

Be Carriers of the Light! Find others who share your values and live in hope, in action, and free from fear!

Blessings.......the Faerieshaman

It has always troubled me when I would hear someone say, "everything is an illusion." I , now, can accept this statement with some reservation. Namely, I believe we create our own realities through our consciousness and (sub) unconsciousness. I believe this is a premise which is both liberating and allows for creative potential for our lives and for our society.


After all, if we create our own realities, then as a society or culture we can create another reality together. What does this mean in practical terms for the gay / lesbian / bi/ trans/ queer/ straight communities?

Andrew Harvey, one of our current gay mystics, asserts, " I don't think of this creation as an illusion. For me, it is a theophany.....from the Greek word 'theophania,' meaning a 'showing forth of G-d'." ( Gay Soul, 53)

I believe this statement, understanding G-d to be beyond our illusions and perceived realities.

G-d is in the sacredness of living in the celebration of our bodies through erotic touch and ecstatic union. G-d is greater than the creation, but the G-dself is the energy expressed through the creation!

I know when I am in union with beloved Archangel (my partner); when my beloved and I are joined every chakra in my body resonates.

What is a shaman?

What is a Shaman?

I believe it is a spirit person. It is an initiated person, who is aware of the deep spiritual side of life and is able to see it in the unfolding of personal events. A Shaman is, also attuned to the context of a particular culture, the political scene or the health of the planet. But a shaming first concern is the healing of individuals within these spheres. A Shaman, for me, is a type of medicine man; the shaman is someone who is constantly healing the self and offering his lessons humbly to others. A Shaman may also be a prophet, a person naming those things in the culture and society in need of reform in order to bring about healing. The process must be out of a source of compassion and a willingness to bring about healing.

By working at healing myself, others may be healed. For instance, the same sex marriage issue in our society is about healing. Healing for our gay community because it opens up our visibility in the society, healing for the straight community because it drains fear from the popular psyche and brings about a degree of reconciliation in our woundedness.

For me, it is related to my gay-self. I said in my first post, "letting go of fear" was the intent of my process. As an HIV positive man, this may be meaningful to others living with life threatening illnesses.

Andrew Ramer, in Gay Soul relates, "how gay men as nurturers" have become through the experience of the AIDS crisis, "midwives for the dying." He states that this capacity is "innate within us." I know so many gay HIV positive men, who feel that have been disenfranchised and that life for them no longer has a productive purpose other than mere survival.

This is because of value on work in our culture that is influenced by a rigid religious-economic complex that is male dominated. Ramer mentions, how these structures are threatened by "the round fluid energy of men who love who love men, just as women in their own power threaten the system." (Gay Soul, 71-72)

Gay men have a purpose and it is related to soul and our capacity to empathize with others. When we heal ourselves, we are able to be vulnerable and therein lies our power!

I know, I have much work to do although I intend to enjoy life and live it as fully!

The glory of G-d is every creature fully alive! ( Irenaeus as quoted in, Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril, by Sallie McFague 3)

Both, Soul Beneathe the Skin and Gay Soul, books, I mentioned in the first post, tell us that we have this work to do, so we can offer it to our communty and then to society in general. Ramer says: we have four attributes,

1. Because we live on the edge of gender and on the margins of society, we are consciousness scouts.
2. Our energy so often is expressed in the arts and so much of our artistic endeavours have added to the quality of life for society in general.
3. We are the midwives of death, whereas women are the midwives of birth......( He adds, some men became confused and started killing.) But men in general, and specifically gay men are nurterers.
4. We have an innate "hunter energy" as opposed to "warrior" where we like to go and bring back ideas or methods helpful to society; men like Dag Hammarskjold and Bayard Rustin. ( Gay Soul, 70-71)

I feel our Gay, Queer community has much to offer the world. I want to play creatively to make a better place and a healthier planet!

The Awakening of a Faerie Shaman

The Awakening of a Faerie Shaman

Tea Leaves

Last evening, I had my tea leaves read. I have "let go" of being a skeptic and the proof of it was in the accuracy of the reading. The message was I have had several months of an awakening. It has been revealed that I am a shaman and that I am just beginning to realize my power. I traveled, she said, and connected with a group and the place where part of the transition occurred was in "a natural setting." I knew she was talking about my first faerie gathering! I am a seeker of peace, she continued to say, and I realized... I have been awakening over my lifetime to the realization that the strongest power is the power of love."

I carry the cross "within me" with all of my chakras in perfect alignment. I love life, I love all of life! I know the truth of this and I always will know the truth of this love because it is in me and I am able to offer it to the others as though it were a bouquet of beautifully scented red roses! She told me, I learned this from my spirit guides, my teachers, my angels over the course of my lifetime!!!! I was astounded when she said, " you have a lot of power, but you are very gentle and kind in the way you use it."

She did not know, I had recently attained the status of "radical faerie" or that I am gay or HIV positive. I knew, however, the truth of her words and knew they were not her words, but.... the words of the Divine in her! I undersood it as a recognition of "my ordination," through the experience of living to a life of service.

It was a culmination, a recognition of all my experience during the preceding months of this year. I organized a discussion group around the book, Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons. Then a friend and I took the Group Facilitators training at Gayway in Vancouver and we are presently offering the same discussion to another group at Gayway! Each venture has been a journey in creating communnity and helping others to name/ envision the community they want to create!

I am now reading, Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature; Author and Editor, Mark Thompson. Both of these books are resonating with my entire being as I continue the process of "becoming." I, also, became aware this morning of the power of faerie energy at the reconstitution of faerie coffee in Vancouver. So....what will you find on this blog? This blog will follow the "birthing" of a faerie shaman from the womb of the Divine Mother. What does this mean?

You will have to stay posted to find out as I will have to keep writing to find out as well.

If you desire, you can be a companion with me on this journey, my hope and my destination is a "letting go of fear." I hope to live and speak more directly from heart. I will observe life, death, politics, and religion/spirituality all the while giving voice to the power of the sacred sexual..eros, which is "the centre" of my being grounded in my body. How are you grounded in your body? Do you celebrate sexuality as a spiritual practice?

This is a personal journey and yet it is a journey lived out in the context of my community, my country, my world, my planet and so inevitably it is connected to you. Welcome to the awakening of a faerie shaman!