Winter Meditation

A Serene Weekend of Kindness

January 13-15, 2023

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands NC

3 Day/2 Night Package (Friday through Sunday)

Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $180.00

Lodge or Duplex Cabin (double occupancy) $200.00

Single Occupancy (private room) $320.00

For All Rooms add Mandatory GSV program fee $35.00

Register Now!

Dear Siblings,

Winter at The Mountain is a magical experience. The air is crisp, the atmosphere is serene, and all of nature is in repose. Long dark hours in retreat from life’s commitments create space for reflection. The Mountain beckons you to come, let go, and be in the moment.

You are invited to join us for a weekend focused on serenity and kindness. We will spend one evening by the fire, in our jammies, sharing inspirational short stories. We are also planning a workshop creating elder beads and time with meditation stones.

As you consider our Winter Meditation theme, is there a workshop or experience your heart leads you to offer to our group? If so, please let us know by contacting Doug Emerson at [email protected] or Bill Harris at [email protected]. Thank you!

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is December 30. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the
Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is December 30.

Please note that GSV currently plans to follow the CDC Covid policy in effect at the time of the gathering.

Registration is now open via the GSV website, so please join us. Register early so that The Mountain will know how many cabins to heat up! Private rooms are available on a limited basis.

Doug Emerson and Bill Harris,
GSV 2023 Winter Meditation Co-Conveners

Register Now!

Working with your Locus of Control

January 14 -16, 2022

Virtual

Registration Closes Tuesday, January 11

Dear GSV Siblings and Brothers,

There is still time to register for the Gay Spirit Visions 2022 Winter Meditation. Registration closes Tuesday, January 11. Click here to register.

Even though we all ache to be together in person again, we are excited to share through Zoom a powerful, sacred, and heart-connected experience with people all over the world — many of whom could not attend were it an in-person gathering.

In 2021 we focused on resilience and hope. This winter’s gathering will focus on working with our locus of control, connecting more deeply in relationship with self, our perception of self, and sacred cosmos. A locus of control orientation delves into our beliefs about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation). Note that on Saturday there will be a homework assignment, so you may want to have a lunch pre-prepared at home so you will have more time for both.

We will also have the opportunity to explore our community’s relationship to each of us as individuals and as part of a collective organism. Breathwork, poetry, and dialogue will help us embody and live into these relationships. We have some wonderful speakers and facilitators with us this year, sharing their journeys of hope and reconnection. To go a little deeper into the practice of mindfulness and what our keynote presenter, Darren Main, will offer, you may wish to examine this link:
darrenmain.thinkific.com/courses/mindfulness-for-busy-minds

If you decide to attend, we encourage you to participate as much as possible to create the most powerful experience for you and all others. Remember, every person who comes to the gathering brings just as much as they receive from it! There will also be a designated Zoom room for informal socializing, including during mealtimes, throughout the gathering.

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,
The Council of Trusted Elders of Gay Spirit Visions
Conveners of the GSV 2022 Winter Meditation

Register Now

Working with your Locus of Control

January 14 -16, 2022

Virtual

Registration Is Now Open!

Dear GSV Siblings and Brothers,

The 2021 Gay Spirit Visions Fall Conference is now but an exquisite memory, and we are excited to be making excellent progress planning the GSV Winter Meditation, January 14-16, 2022. First, we want you to know that this event will be virtual (online) and not in person. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the Winter Meditation will be shortly after many of us have gathered in great numbers for the holidays were the primary factors that led us to this decision. While the GSV Fall Conference in September was blessed with good weather allowing for many gatherings outdoors, along with delicious hugs and joyful camaraderie, this is not likely to be the case in January. There will still be scheduled break-out groups — similar to, yet different from traditional small groups — and opportunities for deeper connection outside of the larger group.

Now for the great news. For the 2021 GSV Fall Conference we did not have a keynote speaker, allowing more time for reacquainting with old friends. For GSV’s 2022 Winter Meditation, the GSV Council has engaged Darren Main as keynote speaker. Some of you may remember Darren from the 2011 GSV Fall Conference. Since that initial contact with our organization, Darren expressed the importance of GSV and how critical our work is. Darren is very experienced teaching meditation and yoga (check out his website at DarrenMain.com) and has led many virtual meditation workshops since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We feel that Darren’s unique illuminating gifts will provide a high-quality transformative program for our 2022 Winter Meditation. In addition to the keynote presentation, we invite GSV members to submit ideas for workshops, as we have done in the past. Please submit your workshop ideas to [email protected].

The theme of the Winter Meditation is: Working with your Locus of Control. “A locus of control orientation is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation),” explains psychologist Philip Zimbardo in his book Psychology and Life. Additionally, your locus of control can have a major impact on your life, from how you cope with stress to your motivation to take charge of your life. Your locus of control can influence not only how you respond to the events that happen in your life, but also your motivation to take action.

Now for the really great news! Because GSV members have so generously supported GSV through donations and silent auction proceeds for the past 32 years, the GSV Council has decided to waive the program fee for all attendees of the 2022 GSV Winter Meditation. Registration is now open, and it is required. Attendance will be limited to the capacity of our Zoom account (approx. 70). It is with a grateful heart that we bring you this message.

We have worked very hard to sustain our hallowed and delightful traditions during these challenging times. We hope you will register and join us for the GSV Winter Meditation on January 14-16, 2022.

Sincerely,
The Council of Trusted Elders of Gay Spirit Visions, Inc.

Register Now

Working with your Locus of Control

January 14 -16, 2022

Virtual

Dear GSV Siblings and Brothers,

The 2021 Gay Spirit Visions Fall Conference is now but an exquisite memory, and we are excited to be making excellent progress planning the GSV Winter Meditation, January 14-16, 2022. First, we want you to know that this event will be virtual (online) and not in person. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the Winter Meditation will be shortly after many of us have gathered in great numbers for the holidays were the primary factors that led us to this decision. While the GSV Fall Conference in September was blessed with good weather allowing for many gatherings outdoors, along with delicious hugs and joyful camaraderie, this is not likely to be the case in January. There will still be scheduled break-out groups — similar to, yet different from traditional small groups — and opportunities for deeper connection outside of the larger group.

Now for the great news. For the 2021 GSV Fall Conference we did not have a keynote speaker, allowing more time for reacquainting with old friends. For GSV’s 2022 Winter Meditation, the GSV Council has engaged Darren Main as keynote speaker. Some of you may remember Darren from the 2011 GSV Fall Conference. Since that initial contact with our organization, Darren expressed the importance of GSV and how critical our work is. Darren is very experienced teaching meditation and yoga (check out his website at darrenmain.com) and has led many virtual meditation workshops since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We feel that Darren’s unique illuminating gifts will provide a high-quality transformative program for our 2022 Winter Meditation. In addition to the keynote presentation, we invite GSV members to submit ideas for workshops, as we have done in the past. Please submit your workshop ideas to [email protected].

The theme of the Winter Meditation is: Working with your Locus of Control. “A locus of control orientation is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation),” explains psychologist Philip Zimbardo in his book Psychology and Life. Additionally, your locus of control can have a major impact on your life, from how you cope with stress to your motivation to take charge of your life. Your locus of control can influence not only how you respond to the events that happen in your life, but also your motivation to take action.

Now for the really great news! Because GSV members have so generously supported GSV through donations and silent auction proceeds for the past 32 years, the GSV Council has decided to waive the program fee for all attendees of the 2022 GSV Winter Meditation. Registration will open later this month, and it will be required. Attendance will be limited to the capacity of our Zoom account (approx. 70). It is with a grateful heart that we bring you this message.

We have worked very hard to sustain our hallowed and delightful traditions during these challenging times. Watch for our announcement that registration is open. We hope you will register and join us for the GSV Winter Meditation on January 14-16, 2022.

Sincerely,

The Council of Trusted Elders of Gay Spirit Visions, Inc.

IF YOU HAVE REGISTERED FOR THE WINTER MEDITATION by January 6 then the attendee letter has been emailed to you today. If you do not receive this, it probably means The Mountain doesn’t have a current email address for you. Please call or text 404 565-4080 or send an email to [email protected] with the best address to use and we will forward it to you – and work with The Mountain to correct their information.

Note: Registration closes Tuesday Evening, January 12, 2021

Reflecting on Resilience

January 15 – 17, 2021

A virtual Zoom-based experience

$35 registration fee

Additional donations for the GSV Scholarship Fund and/or The Mountain can also be made in the registration portal.

Register now!

Sacred Brothers,

I invite you to join our January 2021 Winter Meditation where we will explore how we access and sustain our personal resilience.

Two “keynote” meditation sessions will help us gain insight into how we have navigated adversity in 2020 and how we can use that to sustain us into 2021. With the knowledge that a grateful mind and heart helps us to be more resilient and enhances our self-compassion and our compassion for others, Tom Comstock will guide us in a contemplative exercise that can help us develop a practice of gratitude that is deeper, more genuine and spontaneous, and more heartfelt. Andrew Elias Ramer will help us explore what we learned from last year’s rippling challenges to every part of our lives, beginning with a short body-focused practice that will help to anchor us as we share, in small groups and together, what we’ve learned and how we can use it in the coming year.

A heart weaving on Friday evening will engender more intimate connection with some of our siblings before we move into our opening heart circle. On Saturday, in addition to our two “keynote” sessions, Karma (John Schendel) will lead us in gentle guided breathwork. Franklin Abbot will host a time to share short statements, personal work, or favorite poems in a deeper dive into the idea of gratitude. Gabriel Nelson Sears will envelop us in a sound bath meditation as he facilitates a journey on the harmonious waves of Himalayan singing bowls, native flutes, gong, and other sacred sound instruments.

While we will not conduct formal, facilitated small groups, there will be two scheduled sessions, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, when participants can be randomly placed in breakout spaces to share more about what we have experienced and what we are taking away. As an addition to our primary Zoom room for all program activities, a second Zoom space will be open throughout the weekend, acting as our virtual rocking chair porch and dining hall for informal visiting and sharing.

Join us for an opportunity to contemplate the last year and move forward into 2021 sustained and nurtured for your continuing journey.

Your eager and excited Winter Meditation 2021 convener,

David Cable
[email protected]

NOTE: REGISTRATION CLOSES TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 2021.

Register Now!

Note: Registration closes Tuesday Evening, January 12, 2021

Reflecting on Resilience

January 15 – 17, 2021

A virtual Zoom-based experience

$35 registration fee

Additional donations for the GSV Scholarship Fund and/or The Mountain can also be made in the registration portal.

Register now!

GSV 2021 Winter Meditation

Sacred Brothers,

I invite you to join our January 2021 Winter Meditation where we will explore how we access and sustain our personal resilience.

Two “keynote” meditation sessions will help us gain insight into how we have navigated adversity in 2020 and how we can use that to sustain us into 2021. With the knowledge that a grateful mind and heart helps us to be more resilient and enhances our self-compassion and our compassion for others, Tom Comstock will guide us in a contemplative exercise that can help us develop a practice of gratitude that is deeper, more genuine and spontaneous, and more heartfelt. Andrew Elias Ramer will help us explore what we learned from last year’s rippling challenges to every part of our lives, beginning with a short body-focused practice that will help to anchor us as we share, in small groups and together, what we’ve learned and how we can use it in the coming year.

A heart weaving on Friday evening will engender more intimate connection with some of our siblings before we move into our opening heart circle. On Saturday, in addition to our two “keynote” sessions, Karma (John Schendel) will lead us in gentle guided breathwork. Franklin Abbot will host a time to share short statements, personal work, or favorite poems in a deeper dive into the idea of gratitude. Gabriel Nelson Sears will envelop us in a sound bath meditation as he facilitates a journey on the harmonious waves of Himalayan singing bowls, native flutes, gong, and other sacred sound instruments.

While we will not conduct formal, facilitated small groups, there will be two scheduled sessions, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, when participants can be randomly placed in breakout spaces to share more about what we have experienced and what we are taking away. As an addition to our primary Zoom room for all program activities, a second Zoom space will be open throughout the weekend, acting as our virtual rocking chair porch and dining hall for informal visiting and sharing.

Join us for an opportunity to contemplate the last year and move forward into 2021 sustained and nurtured for your continuing journey.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN THE FORM OF SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE.
THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE APPLICATION SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 1, 2021.

Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund.

Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV Financial Assistance Application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is January 1, 2021.

Your eager and excited Winter Meditation 2021 convener,

David Cable
[email protected]

NOTE: REGISTRATION CLOSES TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 2021.

Register Now!

Reflecting on Resilience

January 15 – 17, 2021

A virtual Zoom-based experience

$35 registration fee

Additional donations for the GSV Scholarship Fund and/or The Mountain can also be made in the registration portal.

Register now!

Sacred Brothers,

Plans are coming together for our January 2021 Winter Meditation, when we will explore how we access and sustain personal resilience.

Two meditation sessions will help us gain insight into how we have navigated adversity in 2020 and how we can use that to sustain us into 2021. We will contemplate how we come to a place of gratitude in the face of fear and sorrow and then glean what we have learned about ourselves and our relationships to the world around us during this momentous and fraught year. We will use other modes of meditation and contemplation in activities to ground us and expand our consciousness. A heart weaving on Friday evening will engender more intimate connection with some of our siblings before we move into our opening heart circle. Two scheduled sessions, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, will randomly place us in small groups to share more about what we have experienced and what we are taking away. And the primary Zoom room will be open between all scheduled activities for drop-in visits, acting as our virtual rocking chair deck and dining hall.

Join us for this opportunity to contemplate the last year and move forward into 2021 sustained and nurtured for your continuing journey. The final detailed program will be shared as we get closer to the end of the year.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN THE FORM OF SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE. THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE APPLICATION SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 1ST, 2021.

Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund.

Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV Financial Assistance Application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is January 1st, 2021.

Your eager and excited Winter Meditation 2021 convener,

David Cable
[email protected]

Register Now!

Reflecting on Resilience

January 15 – 17, 2021

A virtual Zoom-based experience

$35 registration fee

Additional donations for the GSV Scholarship Fund and/or The Mountain can also be made in the registration portal.

Register now!

Sacred Brothers,

I invite you to join our January 2021 Winter Meditation where we will explore how we access and sustain our personal resilience.

With our GSV siblings, we will experience two meditation/journey visioning activities, one focused on practicing gratitude and a second one on gleaning the things we have learned as we have all navigated pandemic, social unrest/awakening, and a charged, divisive political landscape over the past months. To enhance our sacred space, we will weave our hearts together on Friday evening before our Opening Ritual. We will also create small breakout sessions for further processing and sharing of what we bring forth through these meditations and other activities.

As you consider this theme of resilience, is there a workshop/experience your heart leads you to offer to our group?

Join us for an opportunity to contemplate the last year and move forward into 2021 sustained and nurtured for your continuing journey. More details on the weekend program will be shared as we get closer to the end of the year.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN THE FORM OF SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE

THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE APPLICATION FORM SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 1ST, 2021

Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund.

Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV Financial Assistance Application form.

Remember, the financial assistance application form submission deadline is January 1st, 2021.

GSV Financial Assistance page

Your eager and excited Winter Meditation 2021 convener,

David Cable
[email protected]

Register Now!

Seeing the Unseen: Bringing our Gifts into the Light

January 17 – 19, 2020

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC

Register Now!

Dear Siblings,

Our Ancestors are with us, supporting, gifting, and enfolding us. These are the loved ones we have known and not known; from our family of origin, our chosen queer family, and from the Queer Breath of the Universe that flows around us. They have given us gifts which we may not even know. Let’s bring them into the light.

Friday night, we will gather, meet, greet, and eat. The opening Heart Circle weaves us together in mutual purpose and transforms us into a sacred compassionate container in which we do our deep work together as a community. Together we will invite and welcome those who love us, the Sacredness, the Spirits, and our Ancestors. We will ask them to come and help us to know ourselves more fully, especially our hidden gifts and strengths.

On Saturday, we will connect with our deepest, truest self, and invite the luminous being of light within each of us to ignite, shine, and make itself known. Through Systemic Family Constellations, Systemic Ritual, and other techniques, we strengthen our ancestral connections more fully so that the unique universe of mystery which lies within us may come forward in beauty and safety. We will welcome all of ourselves into the circle.

Sunday morning, we break our fast together and share our experiences. We will speak our spiritual experiences out of the dream and into reality, thus solidifying their potency. We will thank the Ancestors and the Loving Spirits for holding us so beautifully and we will invite them to depart in beauty. As we take our leave of each other, we will carry into the wide world the bright seeds of our sacred container and all the beauty they contain. May they find fertile ground in which to sprout for all people.

What will we be doing?

The Mountain has been GSV’s spiritual home for three decades. You’ll have opportunities to enjoy breathtaking views, friendly folks, hugs, fireside chats, delicious food, and heart-centered community sharing. The focus of the weekend will be experiential and heart-opening workshops, meditations, and activities.

Inviting and Opening Sacred Space and Weaving our Community Container (all y’all): In ceremony together we invoke Sacredness and weave our spiritual container with our hearts, words, and actions.
Silent Morning Meditation (T.S. Pennington): Beyond description.
Meeting the True Self (Jeffrey Rich): A Guided Meditation to meet our uniqueness in this incarnation. Before getting to know the Ancestors, we need to know who we are.
Systemic Ceremonial Constellations (Jeffrey Rich and Michael Murphy): Systemic Constellations (also known as Family Constellations) lets us look at the hidden dynamics operating behind the scenes in our family and ancestral systems. Using the “Knowing Field” of energy and information, this amazing methodology will help us unpack the seeds of queerness in our families to better see and receive the hidden gifts that come with them.
Exploring our Auric Fields and their Information (Jason Buchanan): A short meditation to center ourselves followed by beginning techniques to sense our auric fields. We will then have an opportunity to partner up or form small groups to look at each other’s auric fields. We may then probe past color and texture to sense the emotion and gnosis held there.
Dancing Through Your Chakras (Mahan-Kalpa Khalsa): In this exploratory session, we will identify our energy centers — called chakras in Ayurvedic medicine — and stimulate them with body movement, breath, and sound. Knowing our chakras allows us to open our eyes to the depth of our intuition, our desire, and our unrealized abilities. We will partner in a series of simple experiments that will be playful and adventurous.
Five Rhythms Dance (John Brock): A Moving Meditation –- we’ll move to an eclectic mix of music designed to help cast off inhibitions and cultivate transformational joy.
Finding Your Fierceness (Scott Dillard): In this workshop we will use guided meditation, movement, and storytelling to connect with our fiercest self in order to bring that being forward into the new year. We will be accessing story and body memory in order to reach into our past and then project into the future. Participants will work individually and in small groups. As we will be moving about, comfortable clothing is advised.
Conversations and Camaraderie: Casual conversations with friends, old and new.
Free Time to reflect, relax, journal, explore, nap, and soak in the beauty of The Mountain.
Closing Heart Circle and preparation for re-entry into the world with your gifts

Our Convener

Vic Mansfield: I’ve lived in the mountains for over 30 years. Coming out late in life, I came to GSV about seven years ago. It saved my life and loved me into being. I’m a bit of spiritual BuddhaPalian after years (and years) as a parish priest in the Episcopal Church. Now retired, I live in Burnsville, NC. I am passionate about Spirit, our belovedness, our gifts.

Convener’s Little Helper

Jeffrey Rich was born in Asheville and now lives in Burnsville, NC. He has worked as a software developer and trainer during his first career, and as a massage therapist, massage instructor, shamanic healer, and systemic family constellations group facilitator in his second half of life.

Vic Mansfield, Convener
[email protected]

Register Now!

Copyright © 2020 Gay Spirit Visions, All rights reserved.

Seeing the Unseen: Bringing our Gifts into the Light

January 17 – 19, 2020

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC

Register Now!

Dear Brothers,

Our Ancestors are with us, supporting, gifting, and enfolding us. These are loved ones we have known and not known; from our family of origin, our chosen queer family, and from the Queer Breath of the Universe that flows around us. They have given us gifts which we may not even know. Let’s bring these gifts into the light.

Friday night, we will gather, meet, greet, and eat. The opening Heart Circle will weave us together in mutual purpose and transform us into a sacred compassionate container in which we do our deep work together as a community. Together we will invite and welcome those who love us, the Sacredness, the Spirits, and our Ancestors. We will ask them to come and help us to know ourselves more fully, especially our hidden gifts and strengths.

On Saturday, we will connect with our deepest, truest self, and invite the luminous being of light within each of us to ignite, shine, and make itself known. Through Systemic Family Constellations, Systemic Ritual, and other techniques, we strengthen our ancestral connections more fully so that the unique universe of mystery which lies within us may come forward in beauty and safety. We will welcome all of ourselves into the circle.

Sunday morning, we break our fast together and share our experiences. We will speak our spiritual experiences out of the dream and into reality thus solidifying their potency. We will thank the Ancestors and the Loving Spirits for holding us so beautifully and we will invite them to depart in beauty. As we take our leave of each other, we will carry into the wide world the bright seeds of our sacred container and all the beauty they contain. May they find fertile ground in which to sprout for all people.

We envision time for reflection and recreation in our schedule, as well as workshops. We invite you to suggest workshops you may wish to offer as well as suggestions for workshops you’d like to see.

Vic Mansfield
Convener, 2020 Winter Meditation
[email protected]

Register Now!

GSV 2019 Winter Meditation

Tranquil Reflection & Mindful Intention

January 18-20, 2019

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC

Dear Siblings,

Winter at The Mountain is a magical experience. Long dark hours in retreat from life’s commitments create space for tranquil reflection and mindful intention. The Mountain beckons you to come, let go, and be in the moment.

This year’s Winter Meditation will provide you the opportunity to experience activities with the purpose of creating space to be present and open to clarity. Silent, Guided, and Mindful meditation will be offered. Additionally, Sacred Sound Journey, Chakra Dhyana, and Sacred Healing Touch will be offered. Active methods of creating present awareness will include T‘ai Chi Ch‘üan, Iyengar Yoga, Theravada Walking Meditation, and Contemplative Drumming. Finally, intention setting activities will include Soulful Breathwork, Mindful Scripting, and Sacred Elder Bead stringing. The weekend will start with a pilgrimage of light and be complete with the calm of thoughtful intention.

Pack a “steamer trunk” if you wish and include warm comfortable clothing for times of stillness, loose attire for movement activities, ritual attire (robe, cape, cassock, etc.) for a pilgrimage, a mat, pillow and/or blanket for other activities, a drum, pen and paper, and flannel jammies!

I hope you will join your brothers at The Mountain and be in the midst of love, reflection, consciousness, stillness, presentness, and…. to just be!

We want anyone who resonates with our mission to be able to attend our gatherings. The Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund was created to help offset the cost of a GSV gathering so that attending does not impose undue financial hardship. For more information and to apply for assistance,
click here.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Bill Harris,
2019 Winter Meditation Convener

Register for the 2019 Winter Meditation

GSV 2019 Winter Meditation

Tranquil Reflection & Mindful Intention

January 18-20, 2019

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC

Dear Siblings, When there are no ripples on the water of a lake its surface becomes almost invisible as it reflects the beauty of the landscape around it; the trees and the sky. In the same way, the still mind reflects the beauty of creation and melts into a state of peaceful awareness. In this state of thoughtless awareness we think neither of the past nor of the future. We are entirely in the present moment as we start to enjoy our Self, our spirit, our own inner beauty and the beauty of creation. We simply embrace being and become less distracted by the simple joys of our existence. Meditation is a state of profound and deep peace that occurs when the mind is calm and silent, yet completely alert. This is just the beginning of an inner transformation that takes us to a higher level of awareness. Whatever method of meditation is used, the purpose is not to fight off the mind chatter of thoughts, but to stay focused on the present moment and use our breathing, a mantra, a repetitive activity or other technique to keep us grounded in the moment. When we have silenced the chatter and become focused on the present moment, we open ourselves to clarity, direction, and inspiration. This year’s Winter Meditation will provide you the opportunity to experience activities with the purpose of creating space to be present and open to clarity. Silent, Guided, and Mindful meditation will be offered. Additionally, Sacred Sound Journey, Chakra Dhyana, and Sacred Healing Touch will be offered. Active methods of creating present awareness will include T‘ai Chi Ch‘üan, Iyengar Yoga, Theravada Walking Meditation, and Contemplative Drumming. Finally, intention setting activities will include Soulful Breathwork, Mindful Scripting, and Sacred Elder Bead stringing. The weekend will start with a pilgrimage of light and be complete with the calm of thoughtful intention. Pack a “steamer trunk” if you wish and be sure to include warm comfortable clothing for times of stillness, loose attire for movement activities, ritual attire (robe, cape, cassock, etc.) for a pilgrimage, a mat, pillow and/or blanket for other activities, a drum, pen and paper, and flannel jammies! I hope you will join your brothers at The Mountain in January to be in the midst of love, reflection, consciousness, stillness, presentness, and…. to just be! I look forward to seeing you in January. Bill Harris 2019 Winter Meditation Convener Register for the 2019 Winter Meditation

GSV 2019 Winter Meditation

Tranquil Reflection & Mindful Intention

January 18-20, 2019

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center ~ Highlands, NC

Dear Siblings,

Winter at The Mountain is a magical experience. The air is crisp, the atmosphere is tranquil, and all of nature is in repose. Long dark hours in retreat from life’s commitments create space for passionate reflection and powerful intention. The Mountain beckons you to come, let go, and be in the moment.

This year’s Winter Meditation will be a time of “Tranquil Reflection & Mindful Intention.” We will be offering several forms of meditation from silent to sound, stillness to motion, and contemplation to mindfulness.

The Friday evening ceremony will include a pilgrimage of light to the Sacred Space to call in the directions, a release of the weights of your journey, and a sowing of seeds of intention. Prepare now for the pilgrimage by gathering your cassock, cheongsam, chasuble, cape, monks robe, or similar ritual attire. Saturday will provide numerous opportunities to reflect and go within through ancient and modern forms of meditation. Plan to bring warm comfortable garments for the times of stillness and loose attire for activities with movement. Also consider mats, pillows, and blankets for function and enhanced comfort during some activities. Saturday will also allow freedom to escape into unstructured activities designed for calm intent. Sunday will be the culmination of the weekend’s reflective activity into the calm of thoughtful intention.

I hope you will join your brothers at The Mountain in January to be in the midst of love, to be reflective, be conscious, be still, be present, and…. just be!

I look forward to seeing you in January.

Bill Harris
2019 Winter Meditation Convener

Register for the 2019 Winter Meditation

Bringing Darkness to the Light

January 12 – 14, 2018

at The Mountain, Highlands, NC

Cost: $235.02 – Double Occupancy | $309.74 – Single Occupancy

Life’s waters flows from darkness.
Search the darkness, don’t run from it.
-Rumi

Dear Siblings,

Come gather during the darkest time of the year with a loving community of men who love men for a weekend of supportive exploration of the dark corners of our collective consciousness. Surrounded by loving siblings, we will create a safe vessel to share, listen, and celebrate the delicious darkness that both terrifies and inspires us.

We will explore mystical texts, such as Dark Night of the Soul by Juan de la Cruz, tales from world mythologies, and contemporary personal stories to enrich our understanding of the wisdom that is found in darkness.

We will experience different styles of meditation, including silent and guided meditation, walking meditation, and lectio divina, or divine reading. There will be plenty of time for reflection, writing, healing arts, and labyrinth walks, weather permitting.

You are invited to share your gifts during this retreat by proposing a workshop, offering massage, playing music, or whatever you feel called to bring! Contact the Winter Convener with your ideas, dreams, and questions. More information will be available in the coming weeks.

In gratitude,

Andy Foskey, Convener

Register for the 2018 Winter Meditation

GSV 2017 Winter Meditation

Cocooning and Transformation

January 13 – 15, 2017
at The Mountain, Highlands NC

Cost is $ 226.47 – Double Occupancy
$301.20 Single Occupancy

[standout-css3-button href=”http://cwngui.campwise.com/Customer/Mountain/browser-check-reg.html” opennewwindow=”false”]Register for the 2017 Winter Meditation[/standout-css3-button]

Dear Brothers,

Come join with a loving community of your GSV brothers for a time of mindful
presence and gentle celebration. The long nights of January will offer us space
for quiet and inspiration–think of ancient farmers who honored the dark and
silence of a season long past harvest. We seek the wisdom of all creatures who
wrap themselves in a mantle of repose, awaiting a transformation into new life.
We’ll bundle our individual memories together and lay them on the altar. Guided
meditations will help us take stock of our present lives, and especially of patterns
that no longer serve us well. We’ll envision new directions for the coming year:
our intentions and our hopes, both as individuals and in community.
Come create strings of meditation flags to surround us in our gathering. Help
decorate a communal shawl to wrap ourselves in our visions for the days and
months ahead. In the season of cold and darkness, we’ll honor fire, warmth, and
light. Share in creating an evening of poems, songs, performance, costume, and
dance.

Registration for the GSV 2017 Winter Meditation is now open to all men who love men. Early registration will assure your place. Programming for the Winter Meditation will conclude on Sunday afternoon, but some of us will stay on to savor the winter beauty and spend more time with our brothers. For an additional charge, you can register to stay on at The Mountain until Monday afternoon.

As a spiritual director, Kurt Schreiber helps others heal discordant conditions, clarify goals, and respond to (or initiate) change. He approaches this and the rest of his life on a basis of fundamental spiritual principles and a related practice that draws mainly on Christian and Buddhist traditions. Often, he works with individuals, groups, and organizations on problems resulting from what he sees as broadly held misconceptions of cultural, religious, gender, or sexual identity. For about thirty years, Kurt worked more than full-time in the corporate world, where he was a senior officer and general counsel of large companies. While he no longer practices law or works in companies, his business background is sometimes useful, especially when he is asked to help inter-religious, charitable, and business organizations. Kurt’s home is in Nashville, where he’s now lived longer than anywhere else. There are many there whom he holds dear, including his two grown children.

David Townsend first made friends with the GSV community at the Fall Conference in 2004. He’s spent over thirty years as a teacher. Now he’s making more space for his calling as a spiritual companion, ritualist, and sacred intimate. Last August, he co-led a retreat in Maryland, under the auspices of the DC-based group Jonathan’s Circle. The program helped nineteen men create personal and shared-ritual to support the integration of their spiritual and erotic lives. David believes we’re all happiest when we live our lives with gratitude, and with a desire to give back. A slut who will pray with anybody, he’s fascinated by how ritual works across cultures and religious traditions. He keeps his blog on queer men’s spirituality at www.anchorholder.blogspot.com. David lives in Toronto and on the East End of Long Island with his partner Jonathan and their cat Bracket.

Kurt Schreiber, Co-Convener
David Townsend, Co-Convener

[standout-css3-button href=”http://cwngui.campwise.com/Customer/Mountain/browser-check-reg.html” opennewwindow=”false”]Register for the 2017 Winter Meditation[/standout-css3-button]

GSV 2017 Winter Meditation

Cocooning and Transformation

January 13 – 15, 2017
at The Mountain, Highlands NC

Cost is $ 226.47 – Double Occupancy
$301.20 Single Occupancy

Dear Brothers,

We invite you to join with a loving community of your GSV brothers for two days of stillness, peace, mindfulness, and gentle celebration. Our models include ancient farmers who honored the dark and quiet of winter long past the season of harvest. The wisdom we seek is that of all creatures who wrap themselves in a mantle of repose to await a transformation into new life.

We’ll seek through guided meditations to understand more clearly our 2016 lives, and especially the patterns that no longer serve us well. We’ll envision new directions for the coming year. We’ll explore our intentions and our hopes, both as individuals and in community. We’ll bundle our individual memories together and lay them on the altar.

We’ll create strings of meditation flags to surround us in our gathering. We’ll decorate a communal shawl to wrap ourselves in our aspirations for the days and months ahead. In the season of cold and darkness we’ll honor fire, warmth, and light. We’ll celebrate together with poems, songs, performance, costume, and dance.

An option to stay on an extra day after the Sunday close of the gathering is pending. We’ll have more information in a subsequent e-mail.

Kurt Schreiber, Co-Convener
David Townsend, Co-Convener

[standout-css3-button href=”http://cwngui.campwise.com/Customer/Mountain/browser-check-reg.html” opennewwindow=”false”]Register for the 2017 Winter Meditation[/standout-css3-button](external link)

For online registration help or to register by phone, call:
The Mountain Retreat & Learning Center
828-526-5838

Dear Brothers,

If you are not already registered, please consider joining us for a heart-centered, energizing, and enlivening community experience. Renew, replenish, and restore yourself at the 2016 GSV Winter retreat.

Positive emotions play a key role in invigorating all human endeavors, and cultivating positive emotion is one strategy that generates benefits in every area of a person’s life.

Every single one of us is capable of a lot more happiness than we have experienced so far.

There is scientific evidence that happier people are kinder and more generous. They are healthier, live longer lives and they’re smarter and more creative. They have happier relationships and marriages, and have a wide range of friends. They are also more resilient, more productive at work, and enjoy greater financial comfort.

Happiness does not happen by chance, it happens by choice. It is a practice, like exercising, the more you practice, the better you get at it. That simple.

So come join us for fun, camaraderie, solidarity, and some interesting conversations of happiness, true happiness.

 

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
–Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

“Be happy, for your only function here is happiness.”
–Course in Miracles, Lesson 102.

“Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is…This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist.”
–Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator

Register for the 2016 Winter Meditation/Planning Retreat >>

---

 

Dear Brothers,

Everything you have ever done is because you thought it would make you feel better. Every purchase you made, every interaction you have had with another person, and every life decision you took is because you, at that moment, hoped it would make you feel better. That’s how important positive emotion is.

And at times, it didn’t quite work out as well as you expected…right?

At our upcoming winter retreat, we will have conversations on how to mindfully and intentionally create a more sustainable positive energy flow. Meditation, mindfulness, and owning joyful and creative response-ability for your life experience are just some of the many core practices that elicit and cultivate that energy flow.

And then we’ll talk about how that energy flow enhances our lives, how it makes us more generous and loving people, and how it empowers us to make significant contributions to dear friends, the LGBT community, the world, and maybe even GSV.

Please join us for what will be an uplifting, enlivening, energizing, and upbeat conversation on the most important topic in life.

“To be (happy) … or not to be (happy) … THAT is the question.” — Shakespeare/Delgado

Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator

Dear Brothers,

Come join us for friendship, brotherhood, and a heart-centered community experience. Renew, replenish, and restore yourself at the 2016 GSV Winter Meditation.
 
It could be one of the most significant retreats you will ever attend. Why?  The energy you flow immediately affects your physical health, your emotional health, your human interactions, your value in the world, and your connection to Spirit. The energy you flow, the emotion that beams from your heart, changes EVERYTHING in your life.
 
AND you have total creative control over it…through spiritual practice. In this retreat we are going to have some real significant conversations about it. 
 
Please join us.

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”  —The XIV Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
 
“Be happy, for your only function here is happiness.”  —A Course in Miracles (Lesson 102)
 
“Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is … This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist … Events don’t determine whether or not you’re going to be happy. They’re just events. You determine whether or not you’re going to be happy.” — Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

“To be (happy) … or not to be (happy) … THAT is the question.” — Shakespeare/Delgado

Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator

 

GSV 2016 Winter Meditation

Happiness: Positive Emotion and Creating a More Vibrant GSV, LGBT Community, and World

January 15 – 17, 2016
at The Mountain, Highlands NC

Two Nights: $226.48

[standout-css3-button href=”http://www.themountainrlc.org” opennewwindow=”false”]Register Today[/standout-css3-button]

 

Dear Brothers,

Come join us for a conversation on happiness, true happiness. Come to this heart-centered, upbeat, uplifting, inspiring, experiential, interactive, energizing, and enlivening retreat.

Why?

People who live mostly in positive emotion are healthier and live longer lives. They make better friends and have a wider circle of friends. They make better spouses and have better relationships and marriages. They are smarter and more creative. They are more resilient—they bounce back faster after adversity. And they are also kinder, more loving, more generous, and more giving.

Happiness does not happen by chance—it happens by choice. It is a practice, and the more you practice, the better you get at it. Anyone can be happier, and happier, and happier, if they choose.

This workshop provides the vessel for you to examine and begin to dissolve obstacles to happier living and gives you insights as to how you can be a more valuable presence in GSV, the LGBT community, and the world.

“To be (happy)… or not to be (happy)…THAT is the question.”
— Shakespeare/Delgado

 

Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator

“The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy … Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!” —Allan Ginsberg

We are beings of living energy in an ocean of infinite bliss.
We are beings of blood and bone, breathing spirit.

 

 

Join us for a playful and profound bodymind meditation retreat, devoted to gently and safely nurturing our experience of spirit in the body. With awareness, compassion, and curiosity, we will explore the spirit in the body through bodymind meditations, including:

 

Touching The Spirit in Our Own Body

Standing in Spirit, Sitting in Spirit
Ecstatic Breathing Meditation

 

 

 

Touching Each Other’s Spirits

Discovering the I Am through Touch and the Surrendered Breath
Touching Each Other: Intimate Sacred Touch with Partners
Touching Each Other: Sexual Sacred Touch with Partners

 

 

 

Touching The Spirit in the World

Touching the World with Our Whole Being

 

 

 

Cultivating Sacred Self-Touch

Cultivating a Sacred Self-Touch Practice

 

 

 

 

This weekend is designed to cultivate a mindful atmosphere of awareness, compassion, respect, and curiosity. Meditations will be offered at all levels of intimacy. Participation is always optional, and we will support every person’s participation at a level that feels safe and sacred for them. We’ve also included unscheduled time for self-reflection, and for brothers to offer their own safe and sacred workshops and ceremonies.

Read about the Winter Meditation >>
Read about the Planning Retreat >>

at The Mountain, Highlands NC

with Hunter Flournoy, Convener

The 2015 GSV Winter Meditation will convene January 16-18, 2015 at The Mountain in Highlands, NC. The overnight Planning Retreat traditionally follows our Winter Meditation and ends on Monday at noon.

Touching the Body, Touching the Spirit:
A Bodymind Meditation Retreat

The Winter Meditation will convene January 16-18, 2015 at The Mountain, Highlands NC with convener Hunter Flournoy.

Registration for the GSV 2015 Winter Meditation is now open.

 

 

Read about the Winter Meditation >>
Read about the Planning Retreat >>
Register for the 2015 Winter Meditation >>