Naked With Non-Humans

Know when everything sort of coalesces into meaning?  Like synchronicity, but more so, every fucking thread of your existence weaves into some breathtaking tapestry (I need some new metaphors, but weaving always screams at me when talking about this stuff) and you feel like you’ve just taken in some strange wind from other worlds and other times?

Yesterday was like that.  I describe a bit of it in this week’s A Sense of Place post, the first in a five-part series on where I’ve met the gods:

Or you can be standing outside work on a break, thinking about how you’re gonna write something about Bran, and then a crow feather falls at your feet, and all the crows cackle and laugh and wheel around you as you bike home.  And laugh a bit when you get off your bike to look at this really strange and particularly beautiful spot along the creek and finally notice you’re in front of a very old Alder.

The next four will be about the other gods I worship–Arianrhod, Ceridwen, Brigid, and Dionysos.  I’ve met a handful of others, but these have been in passing (Maponus, The Morrighan, Hestia, Cernunnos) and so I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable writing about those experiences in a manner to help others meet them.

Also, one should note that this piece is probably the only post on Patheos ever to be tagged with “Outdoor Gay Sex,” and to recommend that people looking to meet land-spirits consider traipsing about the woods and parks where men fuck men.  I swear I heard Dionysos laughing at this inclusion, and it also needs to be said that, regardless of what thinks of the ethics of such thing (I’ve never done it, because I like knowing a guy’s name when we’re naked), it’s a very old thing.  There are a few historical judicial accounts of bridges and old oaks where men gathered to commit sodomy (being homosexual is a very new concept–it wasn’t until the 1900’s that people began to associate sexual behavior with innate traits).

So, yeah.  I’ll be writing four more.  I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on currently.  Another Wild Hunt piece in two weeks, the presentation for the Polytheist Leadership Conference, an impending move (I’m returning to Seattle after almost a year, likely by the beginning of July), the end-of-the-bardic-grade review stuff, work on the book, and a really, really, really fantastic man-love who is kinda the best thing ever and sometimes makes me lose my words in that happy sort of way.

I keep thinking I’ll have to pull back on my writing a bit.  In fact, that last long piece I wrote? That started with me sitting in my bed thinking, “you know? Maybe I should take a break from writing.”  That’s what my breaks look like.

Meantime, I’m thinking about compiling a couple of lists of other people who’s writing inspires me to pieces.  The Wild Hunt stopped doing the Pagan Voices spotlight, and though I’ve hardly the readership of said employer, there’s a lot of really awesome stuff being written that should be read, or I think so.

And an awesome final note.  I’m now more than half-way to my total fundraising goal for the conference.  I’ve a lot of thank-you notes to write today, and I’m all utter gratitude to all you who’ve donated and/or reposted my plea.  Thank you.