Wednesday, 26 July 2023

GENDER and THE SACRED

If something occurs that is unusual, then for indigenous people it is sacred, because it takes us out of the ordinary and the everyday. So lightning is sacred, dangerous animals and poisonous plants are sacred. And so are the Two Spirits, those unusual people who feel themselves to be both genders, though being of one biological sex. For Native Americans, it has always been accepted that some men want to live as women, and vice-versa. These people are looked to as leaders and healers, because they have both gender perspectives, each to a high degree.


We have reduced this sacred phenomenon to a biological mistake, that needs correction by surgery, which is why we have the term 'transgender'. And attempts to question this approach are frequently condemned as hate speech, as 'transphobia'.
 
It seems to me like such a mess. We have taken a gift from Spirit and turned it into a curse, and an epidemic amongst teenagers who do not yet know who they are. And we have also reduced it to sexual orientation, when it is about something much broader: 'gay' is a wholly inadequate term for what I am talking about.
 
There is maybe a lesson here in what happens if you try to make the sacred ordinary. There is a difference between a man living as a woman, and a man claiming he has become a woman. The former has an element of the sacred, the latter is a violation of nature, of what is possible, and people are not necessarily prejudiced to feel repelled by it.
 
The quest for the other gender is natural in both men and women in the second half of life, if not earlier. I deal with it regularly in the astrology readings I do. Men are seeking Venus: learning to listen, to themselves and to others. And women are seeking Mars: no more people-pleasing. It is a cliche because it is so commonly the case. And it is not just about adding on new pieces to the personality. It is a soul journey to the divine feminine or masculine. Mars in a woman does not look the same as in a man, it is not about becoming like a man, it is about something different and bigger: there is an archetypal, sacred dimension to it. And the same for Venus in a man. It is a compelling journey of the Spirit. We find these opposites on the East-West of the Medicine Wheel, the Blue Road, the road of Spirit, that is not under our control. It is about gifts of Spirit that become our inner path.
 
People for the most part need simple categories with which to understand the world. The sacred moves us out of this black-and-whiteness, but it needs to be approached with caution, or you'll frighten the horses. With our transgenderism, we are trying to make the sacred normal, and it has resulted in dogmatism on one side, and revulsion on the other.
 
I am thinking out loud here, because I don't think there are any easy answers. But I think there is a case for doing away with surgical transitioning, which I think is the literalising of a spirit gift. And for people who want to live as the opposite gender to be seen as part of a sacred calling, as monks and nuns are. We have, by and large, done away with the sacred, and that is perhaps a big part of the problem.

Thursday, 20 July 2023

MEDICINE WHEEL

I finally put my Medicine Wheel out today at my new house. The garden had needed a load of work first. Where the Wheel is, had been a metal climbing frame for kids, which I had to hacksaw through. But the Wheel starts with the East, the Magical Child, so it is fitting.

 

I have had this Wheel for about 8 years. It sat outside the caravan I was in 2 homes ago and carried my dream, carried me out of a long term relationship that was slowly killing me. Then it was at my old house for 6 years - it had its own room. 
 
I wasn't quite sure what to do with it here until Watkins publishing asked me to run a video course on the Medicine Wheel, based on my book. How could I say no? What a delight. And now this sacred object is coming back properly into my life, and it is making me happy. And holding me up to the mark, because how can I teach it if I am not living it?
 

In the book I managed to put in just about everything I think about everything. The Wheel is that big, it has that many dimensions. It uses the 4 Elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water in ways that we recognise from our own ancient culture, which means that it translates well as a complete guide to existence. If you buy my book and leave a genuine rating on Amazon, I will give you a free astrology reading 🙂

Saturday, 1 July 2023

The Shapeshifters Trilogy

Been writing some blurb for the back of The Shapeshifters Trilogy - a shamanic fantasy that has take me the best part of 2 years to write. Here it is. Does it sound appealing?

In a world where dogmatic science has replaced tyrannical religion, the Shapeshifters – those with the ability to take animal form – are ruthlessly hunted down by the ruling Logos. Janwar is a teenager with a nascent gift for Shapeshifting, and an ambitious father who is appalled by his son’s proclivity; Alicia is a rebel daughter of the aristocracy, unashamed of her affinity with the animal world. Together with their Shapeshifting friends – Diana the intuitive Dwarf, William the magical adept, Rowena the Rhino and Francis, a mole in the Logos - they must find and rescue Queen Elfina, who has been spirited away for her Otherworldly sympathies. 

 


Elfina in her turn has a larger destiny to fulfil: reconciling the forces of science, led by the diabolical Roger Bacon, and resurgent religion, led by the charismatic Zeus Messiah. In their struggle for supremacy, they are tearing the world apart. Elfina has the ancient elemental powers of the earth at her disposal, along with the help of the Shapeshifters, but will that be enough to pacify these old enemies?

A page-turning drama that addresses a central mythology of our times, Shapeshifters is also a real-world exploration of the larger humanity that emerges from embodying animal spirits.