Anchorhold

Welcome to a space for the spirituality of gay and bisexual men. We have within ourselves the resources for our healing, liberation, and growth. Connecting with each other, we encounter the grace to lay hold of a richer, juicier life. Losing ourselves in deep play, we rediscover the bigger, freer, more joyous selves we're capable of becoming. Here I share my interest in personal and communal ritual, making art that expresses my inner life, and an intentional practice of erotic spirituality.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Decameron

Painting by John William Waterhouse

Ten young Florentines fleeing the plague. Ten days spent telling stories to pass their time in seclusion. A hundred stories. Tales of love that end well. Tales of love that end tragically. Tales about something lost and then recovered. Tales of wives playing tricks on their husbands.

Maybe you've read Boccaccio's Decameron. Maybe you've seen Pasolini's movie in all its queer, raunchy genius.

While you wait out the virus--to say nothing of the incompetent, idiotic bluster of Donald Trump--maybe you can follow the inspired suggestion of my dear friend Hoppergrass and hold your own Decameron.

Recruit nine friends who are each willing to write an erotic tale to share within the group. Set a reasonable word limit to keep it from turning into a big task that scares them off. Just one story from each man, not ten. This is the twenty-first century, after all. Our attention spans are shot.

A fantasy you haven't shared before. A real-life experience you can't stop rehearsing. A piece of fan fiction: Kirk and Spock getting it on in the airlock, or Harry Potter learning to cast a new spell with his wand. A sci fi tale of what happens when men have sex in zero gravity. Historical fiction. Trump in hell, blowing Bill Clinton for all eternity.

Collect the submissions. Arrange them in a good order for variety, and then send them out by e-mail one a day for ten days. Or gather every day on a conference platform to read them aloud to one another.

Maintain confidentiality. You and your friends are courageously revealing yourselves to each other. Don't share the stories beyond your circle. Choose pseudonyms if you need them.

Make an agreement not to respond judgmentally to each other if you find something unsettling in someone else's story. Take responsbilitiy for your own reaction as being just that. Make your circle a space of acceptance and safety. They're just stories.

On Day Eleven, hold an online meeting. Talk about what it was like writing, what it was like sharing, what it was like reading, what surprised you.

And then decide if you'd like to do it all over again.

2 comments:

TimMay 2, 2020 at 7:21 AM
Your hatred of our President Donald Trump has ruined your blog for me. You have shattered all confidence. Delete me from your site permanently. You don't want to be around guys like me.
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Andrew SharpAugust 7, 2020 at 11:54 PM
The trouble with Trump is his fraudulence. However it’s also possible that this is something some people like. They like his version of events. Maybe it is not possible for human beings ever to know the truth about anything, because we crave certainties, and there are none. In such circumstances we will adopt any narrative which comforts us. I feel a short story about Unca Donald arising.
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Sacred Intimacy: Companionship in Spiritual and Erotic Healing

Different practitioners use the term "Sacred Intimacy" to mean different things. It's important to remember that Sacred Intimacy work is different from therapy, and can't replace therapy. I'm not a therapist. I don't claim to offer services in any officially regulated modality. (Some Sacred Intimates are also practicing therapists, but they're clear with themselves and with clients which modality they're working in.) Put simply, I offer heart-centered companionship and deep listening.

For me, first and foremost, Sacred Intimacy means that what passes between us is holy. It's filled and enlivened with the presence of the Divine. I will do my best to be as present to you, as available to you for your good, as I'm capable of being. My intention is to be open to working in whatever modality we agree will be helpful to you. A session begins with a short conversation in which you explain to me where you're at, and what you hope to take away from our time together.

The emphasis is on healing, growth, and the expansion of your life. You may, for example, have issues of erotic shame that you want to work on, or grief, or body image, or intimacy. I may ask for clarifications and make suggestions. Together we agree on the starting point for the experiential work that will follow.

A session might unfold through breathwork, guided meditation, bodywork, intentionally focused erotic interaction, creative movement, the shared creation of ritual, artistic practice, psychodynamic role playing, or some combination.

I can't hope to be of service to you unless I feel competent in the role I assume, and unless I have the sense that what we do has potential to help you move forward with your declared intention. So our initial conversation may involve some give and take around what's possible and what's useful.

It's essential for your integrity and mine that we maintain full confidentiality and respect one another's boundaries. We enter into sacred space together at the beginning of a session. We leave sacred space at the end, and what's happened within the safe container of the session remains distinct from any interactions we might have before or after the session. What happens in the session stays in the session.

Every Sacred Intimate has his own understanding of the nature of his work. Just below you'll find a series of links to the web pages of a number of Sacred Intimates working in various cities and areas.

Finding Yourself, Claiming Yourself

I invite you to celebrate who you are, and who you want to become.

Think of the times your life as a gay or bisexual man has flowed without effort.

Think of the times you’ve struggled to lay hold of your life more fully.

Maybe those times feel like opposites. But they’re parts of a single cycle: sowing and harvest, labor and rest, preparation and enjoyment. We can’t work toward a fuller life unless we already feel some trust that life will rise up to meet us. We can’t sink deeper into our present joy and satisfaction in life without being reminded that it took a long journey to get here.

Please join me in considering a place where the two halves of this cycle come together: in the safe, empowering container of ritual space and ritual time.

What's an Anchorhold?

For centuries in Europe, a handful of men and women took a vow to devote themselves to the cultivation of their inner lives and to make themselves radically available to their communities for spiritual counsel. Committing themselves to remaining in a single dwelling for the rest of their lives, they were known as anchorites; the houses in which they lived were their anchorholds. Those who needed what the official channels of the religious establishment couldn’t provide came to the anchorhold for conversation and support.

Neither priests nor monks, the spiritual practice of anchorites and their interaction with those who came to them fell outside formal control of the Church. As a result, religious authorities often viewed them with suspicion. One of the best known of these dropouts from ordinary social and religious norms was Julian of Norwich, a woman who had a near-death experience in 1373 and spent the rest of her life thinking about what it meant, for herself and for the world at large. The book she wrote about her revelation, the first in English that we know for sure was written in by a woman, is an astonishingly daring and original rethinking of Christian theology: a vision of a God in whom there is no wrath, who is both Father and Mother of Creation, and who will somehow, by a miracle beyond our ability to grasp, eventually effect the salvation of every living being.

Men and women of spirit who fell between the cracks, anchorites practiced what in its own way was a profoundly queer inner life, following the instincts of their own experience, flying under the radar of the powers that claimed to control access to the Divine.