(Re)Directing Our Energies to Queer Worldmaking
September 23 – 26, 2021
The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC
4 Day/3 Night Package (Thursday through Sunday)
Lodge (shared room) $436.26
Cabin (shared room) $404.24
Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $372.21
Register Now
Dearest GSV Brothers and Siblings,
The magic of the Fall Conference is coming together, breath by breath, seed by seed, story by story. I have had the honor of speaking with many of our brothers and siblings over the last several months, hearing their laughter and words of excitement for our return to The Mountain. Indeed, our love is buzzing and the hope for sharing hugs is electrifying.
“Everything vibrates. Everything moves. Even when matter appears to be standing still, its atoms are moving. More important, the energy animating it is moving. Similar vibrations gather together.”
—Christopher Penczak
As I promised in my first call, this year’s Fall Conference will be a gathering of both old and new, past and future bridged in the present to reconnect with ourselves and each other in a space we call home.
We will engage in familiar rituals with a sacred fire and our beloved talking stick, weaving our hearts together in circles, small and large. We will revisit workshops of yore, breathing life into memories long since passed and energies needing renewal.
I mean, really. Who doesn’t love a good hands-on enneagram workshop? Or a body-centered performance breakout session? A little art, anyone? Wanna run some energy, or meditate, or exchange a massage? Perhaps do a deeper dive into some tango or tarot? Maybe you’d like to honor our ancestors while directing our energies forward during a Lingam Puja?
Are you also looking for some downtime to talk with one another? Or to “talk” with one another? To listen to each other’s stories in space and time, to feel each other’s energy in breath, intertwined?
Maybe you need a moment at Meditation Rock, or a contemplative pass through the Labyrinth? How about a gaze at the waning gibbous moon from atop the Fire Tower, or perhaps a special rendezvous in the Love Nest?
A dance? A musical soirée? A parade of beauties? A variety show? Let’s not forget some Faery chants.
We are the flow and we are the ebb.
We are the weavers, we are the web.
—We Are The Flow, Shekinah Mountainwater
My questions above serve as winks to what you can expect from our Fall Conference.
What else can you expect? A slightly slower pace—built-in breath breaks and coffee space for us to come and go as we need and as we please, to reconnect and to recharge.
What you can also expect, different from years past, is a memorial ceremony of one of our earliest founders—Ron Lambe. We will take time to honor Ron and his contributions to our tribe. We will breathe in statements from Peter Kendrick and Running Water Farm. We will take in songs and gifts from Ron’s time here on Earth. And we will make space to reflect on our futures with Ron and his guidance from the spiritual realm.
And you can always expect the love and the light of GSV family, shining together and fire-bridging from afar.
I call to you, dearest GSV brothers and siblings, to write up your stories of Ron from over the years. We would like to compile the stories and share them with our Gay Spirit Visions Oral History Project at Georgia State University. And we would like you to share them with us during his memorial ceremony. If you cannot be with us in body, email them to me and I will invite our brothers and siblings to read your stories in your honor.
I also call to each of you who will be coming together on September 23rd to join a working circle. Whether this is your 1st GSV gathering or your 32nd, we welcome your gifts and your energy in transforming The Mountain as our brothers, siblings, and ancestors have done before us.
Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is September 9. 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 September 9.
Our time is coming, dearest brothers and siblings. Prepare your long wing feathers and make space to circle around the boundless universe of the queer worlds you wish to create.
Blessed be,
Bumblebee (Greg Hummel)
GSV 2021 Fall Conference Convener
[email protected]