Registration and pricing information will soon be available for the 2018 GSV Spring Retreat. Mark your calendars and plan to join us at The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands North Carolina from April 13th to April 15th.
“What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.”
— Rumi
Dear Siblings,
As the days become shorter, and the nights enshroud us with darkness earlier, the GSV Winter Meditation approaches! Be a part of a beloved community of intentional queer men for a weekend of contemplation and celebration.
Together, we will share stories of our own dark nights, follow ancient heroes on their epic quests, and join mystics as they search the darkness for their Beloved. What will we find in the darkness? We may experience fear, but we will also encounter our deepest dreams and desires. We will boldly claim our darkness!
There will be time to get pampered and time to get crafty. Design your own devotional candle to bring light to your life after the retreat. Our GSV brother Rocky Beeland will offer gentle yoga on Saturday afternoon. His style of yoga is suitable for all levels of ability and experience. Saturday evening will include a ceremony of light and darkness, based on the ancient ritual of Tenebrae (with a queer twist!).
Those wishing to stay until Monday may register to do so, but meals will not be provided by The Mountain after lunch on Sunday.
In darkness and light,
Andy Foskey, Convener
Andy is an Atlanta native who now resides in the scenic city of Chattanooga, TN, nestled between the Cumberland Plateau and the Blue Ridge Mountains. He is a librarian by day. His essay “All About My Job Hunt” appears in Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians, an anthology of personal accounts by librarians and library workers relating experiences of being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer at work. He enjoys hunting for rocks and crystals at flea markets and creek beds, and creating tiny altars whenever and wherever he can. This is his third time contributing to a GSV gathering.
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
* Prices include taxes and program fee. *
The Conference begins at 5:00pm on Thursday and ends at 2:30pm on Sunday.
Registration starts at 3:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday.
(This is Part III of a series, for Parts I and II click here)
Sweet Men of the Tribe,
This year’s Fall Conference, Pariah Magic: Gifts of the Outsider, is shaping up to be truly memorable on many levels! We are premeditating joy and building delight! Sacred mischief is being planned and magic is afoot! The outsiders are coming together to create a spectacular, magical space beyond default reality, and we would love for you to join us!
As you have likely noticed by now, our keynote speaker is the brilliant Hindu drag nun (and YouTube sensation!) Sister Unity. In addition to our usual dance and “Talent” Show, we will be having a drum circle, a musical revue led by David Berger, a gorgeous Mabon ritual by Peregrine (Michael Chavez), and no fewer than three Sacred Touch events led by Mahan-Kalpa. We have an embarrassing wealth of workshops for the mind, the body, and the spirit led by Bob Strain, Nightshade, Tim Flood, Todd Humphrey, Bumblebee, and several others. Pariah status has never been so enviable!
If attending the Fall Conference would cause you undue financial hardship, the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund is available to help. To apply for financial assistance, click here.
Registration has been brisk, and we are rapidly pushing up against our attendance cap, so registering now will be doing yourself a kindness.
I hope to see you up amidst the magic of The Mountain!
Sincerely (and with epic levels of enthusiasm),
Your humble Convener,
Nightshade
* Prices include taxes and program fee. *
(This is Part II of a series, for Part I click here)
Dear Brothers,
Pariah Magic: Gifts of the Outsider will celebrate the blessings we receive from being outsiders to the mainstream culture. We will consider the gifts we gain personally, those we share with our fellow exiles, and those we are able to share with our communities thanks to our outsider perspective. We will also contemplate forms of activism that improve the lives of other outsiders.
It is easy enough to dwell on the challenges and pain of not fitting in. Early on, especially, we may long to be “normal.” We may overlook the blessings we receive that the “normal” folks never experience. As wise, witchy Aunt Frances asks in the movie Practical Magic, “When are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!”
To some, outsider status — life in the brambles — becomes a spiritual calling. With time and experience, we may come to find that it is our unique blessings and perspectives that provide us with our reason for existing; we realize that those same qualities that make us outsiders also give our lives meaning. We are necessary in that way that shamans have always been necessary; we are the conduits of grace from the Outside. As Frank Zappa said, “Without deviation, progress is not possible.” We are that necessary deviation, and if, in the name of normality, conformity, or comfort, we abandon our strange angels, our mischievous devils, and our inner weirdos, then we have silenced precisely the portions of ourselves that we are here to express, share, and live most fully.
On the yonder side of normal, we have woven a community amidst the brambles’ thorny canes and built a culture. We have grown resilient through challenge. We have grown wise in banishment. We have learned, through necessity, a queer form of alchemy that transforms exile into artistry, isolation into solitude, and pain into wisdom. Upon receiving these insights, we transmit them to others in our tribe and bestow them, eventually, to the world at large. By so doing, our small tribe’s visionaries have contributed to culture in ways that far exceed our numbers.
Please come join us for this discovery and celebration of our hard-won gifts! We will be waiting for you amidst the trees of that magical place, The Mountain, where hugs are abundant, where compassion flows like an ocean, and where all of you is welcome.
Bring garb for the “Talent” Show.
Bring garb (and drums) for the Drum Circle.
Bring garb to dazzle and seduce!
Register for the 2017 Fall Conference
Nightshade (Kraig Blackwelder)
2017 Fall Conference Convener
The Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund is available to help facilitate the presence of those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to join us due to lack of funds. If you require financial assistance to attend the conference, click here.
If you previously applied for assistance (or thought you did) and haven’t received a response, please complete the application again. We apologize for any inconvenience. Applications must be submitted by Sunday, September 10th.
As you prepare to come to The Mountain, keep in mind that a Silent Auction Fundraiser will be held during the conference to benefit the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. To participate simply select items of value that you no longer need, register them here by Wednesday, September 20th, bring them with you, and come prepared to bid on the treasures brought by others.
To make a tax-deductible gift by credit or debit card, visit gayspiritvisions.org and follow the DONATE TODAY instructions on the right side of the page.
On behalf of the GSV Council and the men who benefit from your donations, thank you!
