from Kirk Prine
Successful Queer Business: What is working and what is not working in your work,vocation or calling to create success?
Successful Queer Business: What is working and what is not working in your work,vocation or calling to create success?
How Do YOU Keep the Ancestors Alive?
How Do YOU Keep the Ancestors Alive?
How comfortable are you with letting ALL parts of you being known?
On the backs of our ancestors who were willing to be visible,we enjoy the level freedom we have today....
Art Heals: What is the art in your body waiting to be expressed.
What is the art in your body waiting to be expressed.
The latin word for educate "educari" means to draw out.
Art is in our very bodies. Our passions, desires, stories are waiting to be expressed through some form of art unique to each of us.
In the ancient Nag Hammadi text called The Gospel of Thomas, the writer says,
...What has made you a Survivor & Thriver?
What has made you a Survivor & Thriver?
Brothers,
Here's the general video setting the stage for our theme for August about "How Are You A Survivor & Thriver".
...Is Bridge Building in our Queer DNA?: How are you a bridge builder?
Is Bridge Building in Our Queer DNA? How are you a bridge builder?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYu4K_bHW4 Even if you don’t have time now to read this article …Share in this theme of Bridge Building with your brothers in community by taking 3 minutes to watch this video)
Is it in our DNA? Science has researched for years if there might be a queer gene, or a place in the brain that is unique to same sex love. Findings seen to intrigue researchers enough to keep them investigating the idea.
One could entertain many scientific, spiritual or philosophical ideas about Queer identity and origins. I assert that being Queer is a gift and a sacred part of the whole. Biologist Thomas Huxley said, “No negative trait (one that does not reproduce) ever continues to appear in a given species millennia after millennia after millennia unless it in some way serves the survival of the species.”
In line with that assertion of Huxley’s, consider the possibility that our consciousness chose to come to the earth as Queer. No matter whether this is true or not, the very nature of the Queer person is both prophetic and thus Bridge Building. We are in every tribe, religion, race, nation, gender, and economic status. Just by being in every culture we have the potential to build bridges across divides.
...Reframing and Reclaiming: How are you already a conscious queer activist?
Watch short video
Reframing and Reclaiming: How Are You Already A Conscious Activist?
The word Activism is loaded with meanings that may inspire some of you and frighten others. Take a moment to say to yourself. "I am an activist" and notice what you feel in your body. Did you expand, contract or even resist?
Our community is built on the backs of those who have been activists. Bayard Rustin who taught much of Ghandi wisdom of non-violence to Martin Luther King Jr has inspired many in the ways of justice for all. Don Clark who was challenging issues of sexual orientation before the Stonewall Riots even took place. Of courseHarry Hay pioneered ideas about gay liberation that still weave into the discourse of who we are as queer people. So, there have always been GBT men who have put their bodies, their witness and theirs lives out front on behalf of justice, freedom, peace, AIDS awareness, equality and a better world for all. We want to celebrate our queer activists and play with how each of us is already an activist at our potluck June 16th 5-8 in SF, if you are in the Bay Area. http://www.fleshandspirit.org/potluck.html
...What is Your Queer Story?
What is Your Queer Story?
Story-Tellers have always been apart of the queer tribes. Writers,poets,orators sharing and shining light in often darkened spaces. What is your queer story that needs to be told?
Imagine if every queer person would come out and bring their light out from "under the bushel basket", truly what "good news" that would be for healing the world.
Every tribe has gifts to bring to heal our planet. What are ours/yours as a queer tribe or person?
...What Spiritual Journey Would Feed Me?
Where do I belong? Choosing a Queer Men's Community for you.
I starting using the phrase “queer/gay wound” and “queer/gay gift” when I wrote my book years ago, Erotic Body Prayer. The most significant wound is obvious when conscious but most often this wound is buried deep in our bodies….I Don’t Belong.
The obvious is this wound is mirrored to us constantly by people in our world who fear us,hate us,want to ignore us and in some places even want to kill us for being queer.
Living in San Francisco is often like a insulated bubble for such outer rejection of "you don’t belong". Yet even in environment that are predominantly safe to be who we are there are ways this old internalized story of “I don’t belong” shows up.
One place this theme of both, I Belong and I don’t Belong shows up is in community. The opportunity to become more whole and even get a feel for the “queer gift of who you are” is accelerated in community. In safer conditions we get the opportunity to see, witness, support each other to come out at a NEW LEVEL. A level that knows as a queer person you have a unique contribution, gift and service to for the world.
Wholeness: How do you choose a Sex Worker/Erotic Practitioner?
Wholeness: How do you choose a Sex Worker/Erotic Practitioner?
Most openly (or even closeted) queer/gay men will use the services of some kind of sex worker as a part of his wholeness process sometime during his life.
Sex Worker includes Sex Researchers, Tantric Educators, Sex Therapists/Counselors, Sexual Shamans, Erotic Bodyworkers, Sexological Bodyworkers, Kundalini and Taoist Erotic Practitioners, Sexual Surrogates, Sacred Intimates, Sexual Healers, Intentional Touch Workers, Intentional Sex Workers to name a few roles an erotic practitioner might label himself. Some of these roles never touch the physical body, some forms are clothed, most are unclothed and include variety levels of intimacy to support wholeness. Choosing a form/approach and a practitioner that supports your goals safely is central to having an experience of healing, transformation, support or pleasure that directs you to freedom.
The role of sex workers has helped to break taboos involving sex, eroticism, bodies, gender and spiritualities that have been used to oppress rather than free. Sex worker who work consciously to create safe and sacred space come from a long lineage of queer folk who have been sacred prostitutes (as healers in the temple), berdache (keepers of sacred rituals) and gatekeepers (giving guidance to the tribe). Sex workers are in these roles providers of wholeness.
...As a queer man how do choose a Yoga Practitioner?
There are so many styles of yoga. Choosing a style and a practitioner for you as a queer man may present it's challenge. If you are in the Bay Area join join January 28th for a Potluck to explore some these questions. Yoga Practitioner from a variety of traditions will share in a lively conversation that we as queer men want to know. Here are just some of the main styles out there.(List comes from the online Yoga Site) Which style feeds your needs of body, spiritual awareness,community or individual practice? What do you want to accomplish or discover through yoga?
"Ananda
Ananda Yoga is a classical style of hatha yoga that uses asana and pranayama to awaken, experience, and begin to control the subtle energies within oneself, especially the energies of the chakras. Its object is to use those energies to harmonize body, mind, and emotions, and above all to attune oneself with higher levels of awareness. One unique feature of this system is the use of silent affirmations while in the asanas as a means of working more directly and consciously with the subtle energies to achieve this attunement. Ananda Yoga is a relatively gentle, inward experience, not an athletic or aerobic practice. It was developed by Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi.Anusara
Anusara (a-nu-SAR-a) means, "to step into the current of Divine Will", "following your heart", "flowing with Grace", "to move with the current of divine will." A new style developed by John Friend, Anusara yoga is described as heart-oriented, spiritually inspiring, yet grounded in a deep knowledge of outer and inner body alignment. Each student’s various abilities and limitations are deeply respected and honored.Ashtanga
For those who want a serious workout, Ashtanga may be the perfect yoga. Developed by K. Pattabhi Jois, Ashtanga is physically demanding. Participants move through a series of flows, jumping from one posture to another to build strength, flexibility and stamina. It's not for beginners or anyone who's been taking a leisurely approach to fitness. The so-called Power Yoga is based on Ashtanga.Bikram
Bikram Choudhury's yoga is hot, hot, hot, so be prepared to sweat, sweat, sweat. In class, they crank the thermostat up high, then perform a series of 26 asanas designed to "scientifically" warm and stretch muscles, ligaments and tendons. Founder Bikram Choudhury studied yoga with Bishnu Ghosh, brother of Paramahansa YoganandaIntegral
Developed by Swami Satchidananda, the man who taught the crowds at the original Woodstock to chant "Om," Integral classes put almost as much emphasis on pranayama and meditation as they do on postures. Integral yoga is used by Dr. Dean Ornish in his groundbreaking work on reversing heart disease.
What is Energy Medicine? How might Energywork change your life?
Last month our community had a juicy, lively and informative conversation about choosing a massage practitioner as queer men. This month the conversation is choosing an energyworker that supports your needs as a whole queer man.
This may sound rather "California" and a bit unclear,which is the perfect place to start. So,just what is an energyworker? What is Energy Medicine and what kind of energy medicine practitioner might get me the kind of results I want? are questions worth investigating. Although energywork is most thought of terms of healing the body, the reality is energywork can help anyone shift into new levels of health,well-being and purpose.
Sorting through all the names and modalities of Energy Medicine use as practitioners or energyworkers can be confusing as well. Practitioners of certain type of massage and body manipulation,reflexology, Body Story Experts, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, chiropractics, acupuncture, shamanic practices, Breema, Rosen, Rolfing, neuro-muscular therapy, exercise physiology, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, midwifing the dying, prauna practices, NLP and the list goes on and on.
Energywork (or commonly called Energy Medicine) is intimate, subtle, healing, transformative and renewing. It may involve engaging the mind, thought, emotional release, imagery, movement, breathwork, sound, ritual, prayer/meditation, erotic energetic work,ceremony and touch (both with physical or non physical contact). Each modality comes with it's own philosophy, yet all of them somehow draw on ancient wisdom that is being revived in our contemporary times.
Although often subtle the results or impact of energywork can be "miraculous"
In Flesh & Spirit we use many or all of the modalities throughout our ongoing community building. If you live in the Bay Area join us for our Potluck "Meet the Energyworkers" and learn about queer brothers who do Energy Medicine in their therapeutic practice.
Choosing A Massage Practitioner
Massage is an intimate process and who you choose may make all the difference in the experience you have.
How do you choose?
What are the important factors for you?
Price, location (setting) and availability are given external considerations, yet so much more goes into having the experience of care that supports you. What do you look for?
...Not Being A Victim-Peaceful Warrior/Aikido
In our work of the Peaceful Warrior we borrow a couple exercises that originate in Aikido. Here is video that depicts the energetics of what we teach in our work. The principle of "NOT being a Victim" by taking the energy directed at you and using it to disarm and HARMONIZE. Take a few breaths as you watch this master teacher do just that.
Then imagine the things challenging you in your life and being able to shift the energy that you graphicly see happening in these demonstrations. http://youtu.be/98yRuBkUBGQ
