Exploring Inner Marriage

Our Spring Retreat

at The Mountain Retreat & Learning Center
Highlands, NC

April 22-24, 2016

two Nights Lodging & Meals: $237.15

Spring in the Mountains
Spring in the Mountains

 Please Register Soon

It’s less than two weeks until we gather at The Mountain. We will likely not sell out for this gathering so you may be able to register up until the last minute, but the sooner you register the better we can plan. Please join us. It won’t be the same without you! Financial assistance is available if you need it.


The Silent Auction

If you are planning to attend, please bring something of value to you that would like to find a new home. Place it on the auction tables so that others may bid on it. Likewise, bid on a treasure that wants to go home with you. The proceeds go to our Scholarship Program. Last year your generosity provided twenty-three spirits with the funds they needed to come to a GSV Gathering.

Submitting bidding sheets for your auction items digitally is
quick and easy if you use this form.


You’ll Have Lots of Free Time

While there is never an event at a GSV gathering that has required attendance, we hope you will join us for the programing specifically focused on the theme of Exploring Inner Marriage which will end around 3pm on Saturday.

Official “free time” begins at 3pm on Saturday and continues until closing after lunch on Sunday.

During that free time, a group of generous community members will offer a variety of experiences created to give us a deeper knowledge of who we are and how we go in the world. And have fun.

On Saturday Afternoon

• An Exploration of Dreams and Synchronicities offered by Sted Mays who invites you to bring a recent dream or synchronicity to share if you so wish.
• An Astrological Exploration of Mars; The Prince, Warrior and Porn Star in You offered by Jeff Graham. Jeff asks that you send your birth information to him before the Retreat ([email protected]) so that he can prepare your chart. Or feel free to just show up.
• Gentle Yoga lead by David Jones and accompanied by Teddy Jones on harp.

On Sunday Morning

• A Guided Soul Journey to Connect with Our Inner Lovers offered by David Chitara.
• Play Time offered by Dev Deveraux. Cooperative games and activities (a little like last fall, but also different).
• Creative Letter Writing offered by Zach (Sugar) Matteson. The Focus will be on writing a dialog between our Feminine and Masculine selves, but feel free to write whatever letters need to be written.

At Other Times

Saturday and Sunday mornings: Sunrise Meditation. John Schendel will hold the space both days. Teddy Jones will play the harp on Saturday.
 Friday Night: “Getting Go” an award winning film that takes a worn out topic (unrequited gay longing), sets it in the now, and fills it with new life and meaning. Todd Humphrey will be you host.
• Saturday Night: GSV’s first ever Symposium. Think Plato not grad school! An exploration of beauty, love and virtue woven together by music, food, touch, and breath. Zach (Sugar) Matteson is your host and encourages togas and head wreathes. No toga? Ms. Google and a bed sheet will have you up to speed in no time. Sarongs and skirts can be fun too if that strikes your fancy.
Saturday Night: After the Symposium, we’ll show “Were The World Mine” a Disneyesque, queer romantic comedy-fantasy based on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with a long list of awards and accolades. Sweet dreams are made of this.
Anytime: Explore the amazing sub-tropical rain forest that surrounds us. Late night snacks and beverages in the dining hall. Visit Meditation Rock and do just that. Hold hands, share hugs, laugh, cry and be gay.


Still Not Sure?big-joy-the-adventures-of-james-broughton-la-locandina-del-film-267573

Perhaps these words from the poet James (Big Joy) Broughton, the Keynoter at our second Fall Conference in 1991, will encourage you to register soon.

 Autobiography

I took a sharp look
I took a long prowl
I questioned the serpent
I questioned the owl
I called up the mayor
I called on the sage
I tried reading Proust
I tried life on the stage
I went into therapy
I went out for sports
I suffered every ailment
from sniffles to warts
I went to the dogs
I went to the Pope
I climbed Annapurna
I fasted on dope
I dug up the desert
I delved in the sea
But nowhere I looked
could I recognize me

So eventually I
had to give up my plan
of escape to Siam
and accept myself here
just as I am

But it wasn’t easy