Sex as Prayer is a ritual I have conducted all over North America and Hawaii, which was born during the time of my Grandmother's passing in 2013. She was having trouble getting through the portal into the spirit world, and as she lay struggling in her bed, my lovers and I gathered 150 miles away, at my new home in Asheville, to raise energy together and send her blessings. I went to be by her side the very next day, and while I was holding her hand, her struggles came to an end, and she took flight.
I thought I was going with her...I could see and hear her brothers and sisters singing. I felt like I was sinking into a deep pool, and I could see light at the top, with shapes of light circling like dolphins. I was singing...singing with my ancestors, and we were all rejoicing...Mamaw, her brothers and sisters, all of our ancestors, and me. Soon, I came to realize that I had to come back. I had to come back to Earth to make my way here, through this world, but my journey to the world of Spirit with Mamaw would always serve as my most vivid reminder that I'M HERE ON EARTH TO BRING HEAVEN DOWN HERE. When we bring heaven here, we are always with the people we love, even the ones who have gone on.
The next year after Mamaw passed on, I journeyed to Easton Mountain Retreat in upstate New York to offer a "Sex as Prayer" healing ceremony to a group of male sexual healers with the co-facilitative support of my beloved friend Mahan Kalpa Khalsa. Since that time, I've offered the ceremony to mixed-gender groups from Hawaii to San Diego to Portland to Asheville, but I've been longing to return to the time when I could bring this ceremony specifically to a group of men. Only two men's ceremonies have happened in the past 5 years: Once in San Francisco in January, 2017 (immediatly following the US Elections), and a second time in Hamilton, Ontario in April 2018. I'm excited to see a group of men coming together to celebrate this ecstatic rite of passage for the first time in my home and temple since my friend Norm and I initiated this ceremony at the time of my grandmother's passing in November 2013.
The ceremony we'll be sharing on July 14 is one which integrates North American earth-honoring traditions with Tantra and sacred sexuality. All in attendance are welcome to participate at exactly the level which feels right to them. Participants will be given the option of self-pleasuring, meditating, singing, dancing, drumming, or--if they wish--engaging in mutually fulfilling forms of whole-body erotic pleasure and fun with each other. The key lies not so much in what we do, but how we do it. Virtually anything is possible here, within the context of consciously loving, blessing, and honoring all beings through everything that we share here together, today.
See you there!