From: erik@cs.uq.oz.au (Erik van Keulen)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Polarity in ritual
Date: 30 Sep 92 04:30:31 GMT
Reply-To: erik@cs.uq.oz.au

In <1992Sep29.193756.24879@u.washington.edu>
mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner) writes:

>Does anyone have practical suggestions for creating public ritual that
>doesn't alienate les/bi/gay people with heterosexist or overly
>polarity-based imagery, while at the same time not alienating or
>excluding heterosexuals?  It's possible to come up with completely
>inoffensive stuff, but it tends to be pablum.  We need better than that.

Thank you for being so aware of the problem! I'm sorry now that i'm _such_
a beginner that i know nothing about rituals... But maybe i could comment
on how _i_ feel about any examples you could give.

All i can try to describe now, is the problem i've generally had in
exploring my spirituality: that biology so often seems the most potent
spiritual "cycle", and that my inclinations shut me out of that. But i
guess straight men don't want to limit their spiritual role, and therefore
the imagery in ritual, to "quickener of the seed" either do they?
(Sorry for my clumsy phrasing by the way: i must make me a new language for
saying these things... i almost wrote "fertilizer" up there as man's
spiritual role! :-) )
I think just the magick of circles in biological reproduction have made it
difficult for me to recognize the potency of other roles. I mean, any man
who's satisfied with a spiritual role of just fertilizing is going to miss
out on a lot. What's become as important to me, for example, is achieving a
practical daily realization of being made of the same stuff as all else. In
other words, exploring my spirituality through Loving all else... a bright
flower, the rain, a shell at the beach: actively feeling that i'm made of
the same stuff, material and spiritual, as all of that. (I called my goal
"smearing myself out like peanut butter on a slice of bread..." :-) ) This
sort of spiritual growth doesn't get cut off by my sexuality. And i find it
at least as important as the concept of joining life's cycle of
parent-child-parent or any cycle of crops and their fertility. I don't know
if you can base public rituals on any of this?
I'm sorry that i'm so ignorant of _ritual_! I must admit that i have very
little idea of what you do. But do you see what i mean? Other _cycles_,
since that image is such a strong one (for me in any case!), are possible
without needing to be biological. guru-diciple-guru is one, or more
generally reincarnation through all of creation. I can feel a part of that,
even as a "queer" spirit!
I think if i get stuck on biological reproduction as the only or the
most real cycle, then i'm bound to be disappointed as a gay male. And maybe
you shouldn't hope to include me in your public rituals if that's what
they're based on. I suspect though that's there's a lot more to
spirituality than finding a place within that cycle though.

>I've sometimes felt that because my working partner in the Craft is
>male, some participants are going to see anything we do together as
>polarity-based heterosexual ritual.  I have no idea what to do about
>that.

You ae a rare and perceptive spirit! Thank you sincerely for thinking so
seriously about it... I wish i knew more about ritual, so that i could make
more suggestions. I think, for you, i should have changed my .sig slogan
but i can't think of a new one in a hurry!

Blessed be...
______________________________________erik@cs.uq.oz.au______
Erik van Keulen                 I'm queer... so what?!  \  /
_________________________________________________________\/
Newsgroups: alt.pagan