Beloved GSV Tribe of Beautiful Men:
It’s countdown! Can you feel the buzz? Registration is high. Everybody’s talking about the conference, planning, preparing, and all psyched up…
Never before has a GSV event been more relevant than this conference given the dark times we are now living in. This is a spiritually challenging moment in American history and we as spiritually awakened men are called to rise in inspired ways, so let’s talk about how we are going to shine a bright light on these darker times.
There will be dynamic spiritual empowerment in our workshops and rituals. Raymond Rigoglioso, Toby Johnson, Hunter Flournoy, Mahan Kalpa Khalsa, Peregrine, Jim Stratton, Peter Cossaboom, Tim Flood, and Rocky Beeland are just some of those offering uplifting and inspiring workshops.
There will also be revelry and plenty of it. How can you have spiritually sourced activism if you don’t charge your heart-center battery with celebration? Wait until you experience the high voltage energy of this year’s rituals, dance, cabaret sing-a-long, walk of beauties, variety show, sacred touch, and yoga amidst the loveliness the Altared Spaces Work Group has sprinkled throughout The Mountain.
So, click on the link below to register for this year’s fall conference and remember to also…
* Pack splashy and creative wardrobe, rain gear, a flashlight, and hiking shoes.
* Bring items to donate to the silent auction as well as cash, personal checks or credit card to make purchases.
* Bring a very special gift for the small group gift giving ritual.
* Bring your drums and percussion instruments for the drumming circle.
* Sign up for the talent show in advance by contacting Dev at [email protected].
* Send favorite song suggestions for the Friday evening dance to Kevin at [email protected].
Vibrational hugs now, fleshy hugs in two weeks,
Cami Delgado
Convener – GSV 30th Anniversary Fall Conference
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Meade, American anthropologist.
Come join us for a magical celebration of GSV’s 30th anniversary conference! For thirty years Gay Spirit Visions has created safe, sacred space where gay men can open their hearts, heal within, grow spiritually, and form heart-centered bonds that nurture and uplift their spirits.
Never before has GSV been more relevant given the times we are living in now. This is a challenging moment in American history. How are we going to shine a bright light on these darker times? Are we going to respond to tomorrow’s headlines with self-defeating pessimism, or with vigorous spiritual empowerment and activism? What’s really at the core of America’s spiritual malaise, and how do we become a powerful healing presence in the midst of it?
This conference will be a conversation on this current challenge. We’ll explore the underlying spiritual misalignment that creates the daily events we see, hear and read about in the media. We’ll have conversations about inspired activism, sacred activism, and activism by other names — all activism emanating from a spiritual source as a response to today’s events. This conference WILL NOT be a conversation on bipartisan politics, individual politicians, or the outer crust and everyday discourse we see, hear, and read about in the media.
This conference will also be an anniversary celebration — a way to thank GSV for offering us three decades of spiritual magic. Thus, we invite you to join us in ritual, ceremony, dance, singing, parading, and performing. Spiritually sourced activism replenishes itself with joy, humor, music, dance, creativity, and childlike merriment … and there will be plenty of that!
Raymond L. Rigoglioso is the founder and executive director of Gay Men of Wisdom and author of the book Gay Men and The New Way Forward. Former GSV keynote speakers Toby Johnson, Will Roscoe, Jon Stasio, and Mark Thompson have offered positive reviews of Gay Men and The New Way Forward. Raymond’s work and vision are more relevant and urgent now than ever before.
I hope you’ll be there!
Cami Delgado
Convener – GSV 2019 Fall Conference
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Meade, American anthropologist.
Watch your email inbox, the GSV Facebook group, and gayspiritvisions.org for more information about the 2019 Fall Conference. If you’re ready to register, click here.
This year we are celebrating Gay Spirit Visions’ 30th anniversary … time for a great celebration! Never before has the organization been as relevant as it is today.
We are living in unusually challenging times. Our society is experiencing an unprecedented spiritual malaise. It manifests in the outer crust of everyday political discourse but has its roots at a much deeper level. GSV’s 2019 Fall Conference will be a series of conversations on our society’s deeper spiritual misalignment and how we, as spiritually awakened gay men, can respond in a spiritually sourced way downloading guidance from higher realms.
For centuries humans have faced challenging social and political scenarios. Some of them chose to tune in to a higher frequency, a higher intelligence, and responded to those scenarios from a spiritual perspective. They have left us a rich legacy. Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, the Vietnamese monk Thích Nh?t H?nh, and our own Martin Luther King Jr. faced deplorable circumstances and had every reason to become hateful and vindictive. They didn’t. They opened up, tuned in, and downloaded inspiration for guidance as to how to move forward and respond to the darkness with light.
Our conference will NOT be a conversation on bipartisan politics. It will not be a conversation about individual politicians. Nor will it be a discussion of the outer crust and everyday discourse we read about in the media.
The conference will explore ways of invoking and tuning in to spiritual inspiration, guidance, and solutions that empower us to create a world that is fair, inclusive, caring, and respectful of the earth and all sentient beings. We will explore how present social and political conditions can be seen as a call, a very loud call, for deeper healing, personal healing, and collective healing. Call it inspired activism, sacred activism, or any other name, it is activism emanating from a spiritual source.
So let us have conversations on reaching out to spirit, opening to spirit, and receiving from spirit, so that we may move forward as empowered creators of a better world. Let’s share ideas, let’s cross-pollinate thought, and enrich each other’s understanding of the loving community we are.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Meade, American anthropologist.
Raymond L. Rigoglioso is the founder and executive director of Gay Men of Wisdom. He is the author of the book Gay Men and The New Way Forward. In his book, Ray assists the reader in realizing how he serves and heals humanity and frees and enriches the human spirit. Former GSV keynote speakers Toby Johnson, Will Roscoe, Jon Stasio, and Mark Thompson have offered positive reviews of Gay Men and The New Way Forward.
Ray is a certified Life Coach through the International Coach Federation. His professional background includes more than two decades as a writer and editor for non-profit organizations in New York City and Boston. He co-founded the Danbury Area Gay and Lesbian Youth Group where he facilitated groups. After graduating from the New School in 1991, Ray went on to work at New York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Ray’s work and vision are more relevant and urgent now than ever before.
Cami Delgado
Convener – GSV 2019 Fall Conference
Watch for future e-mails and posts about the 2019 Fall Conference. In the meantime, register now!
The time is nigh to awaken with the opening of the green world all around us. We humans often think we live by our own rules, but it is usually nature which holds final sway. Every spring is a time to shoot out of the insulating casings we’ve built around ourselves to survive harsh times with our delicate petals of infinite colors to attract the next step of our life’s journey.
The natural die-back of the winter is coming to a close. We have made our necessary sacrifices, and into that void, we thrust our being with the beating hearts of all our ancestors, our brothers and sisters of the natural world, and all our future realities, spun from our favorite dreams and woven into a growing community with our intentions, desires, experiences, and joys. I offer this spring retreat to you as an opportunity to build yourself a gossamer web of connections between past and future, self and other, heaven and earth, and space and form, built upon acceptance, understanding, and appreciation.
The world is such that we are interdependent beings, reliant on one another, whether we want to be or not. What kind of world can we create when we consciously come together? What limitations are left in life when we open our hearts to loving all beings? What do we want our lives, our words, and our worlds to become? Is it possible to separate the you from the understanding I have of myself? What part of nature exists independent of everything else? What can possibly live in a vacuum?
Coming together is not just a fun and fanciful idea. It is actually impossible NOT to do. You choose not to come together with one being, and that forces you to come together with something else. When we consciously come together and share our thoughts, hopes, fears, and desires, we can reach much farther than we could ever go by ourselves. Alternately, when we view ourselves as independent, suddenly all our resources are scarce, everyone is an Other, and if I cannot do it myself, it cannot be done. These are all lies. You know this to be true.
So set the old beliefs aside. Come and explore with us what life could be like, if only a taste, a sweet possibility, a temptation of another way to live. Or come and dive deep into our swiftly spiritual waters, if wading is not enough to quench your thirst. We all carry a bucket of beliefs with us wherever we go and if we pool these waters together, we begin to see that anything is possible.
There is always more room in this mountain lagoon for your beliefs. Let’s dissolve the destructive and limiting beliefs, take their component parts and rebuild our inner world with grace and kindness. Let’s share our truths, our theories, our experiences, and our techniques, and knit our worlds together tighter and stronger. There is love in this labor that yearns for release. Why not share it with those who are sure to cherish it?
You are welcome here. You will always be welcome here. You are felt in your absence, even if you have not yet walked these paths. Come as you are. Come with all of yourself. There is no need to be anything more or anything less that exactly who you are, in all your shame, glory, courage, or lack thereof. Generations of wisdom run through your veins, whether you know it or not. Like buds in spring, open yourself to the truth that you are already everything you need to be. For yourself, for us, for the world.
This is a liminal event. Yes, it exists in a specific place and time, but really, it’s where and when it’s not taking place that’s important: your daily life. Yes, it’s both real and very temporary. We cannot live in this space. It’s an infinite space, where anything can become anything else, so long as you believe that it can. This is something for you to use to break out of the winter cocoon of your spirit (regardless of how long you’ve been sleeping) and reenter your everyday reenergized.
Yes, change can be scary, but it can also be fun. And yes, change can be hard, but it can be so rewarding. Come and explore the possibility of what your magicks bring to community. We’ll be here for you, and you’ll be here for us, and isn’t this give and receive in the same act really something sublime?
If you are interested in helping out with the retreat in any way during, before, or after the retreat, which is a great opportunity to really inject your magicky goodness into this and meet other people, consider reaching out to me directly at [email protected] or at [email protected] for more information in ways to be of assistance. Fire us an email too, if you have any other questions, comments, or concerns.
Remember, we do offer financial assistance, if finances are an obstacle. And most of us are happy to carpool. Please do not hesitate to lean on us. Why else are we here but to rely on one another?
With love, light, and the indomitable spirit of play,
Jason Lloyd Buchanan, Convener
GSV Spring Retreat, 2019
