Why Love Between Women was named Unnatural

This study has demonstrated that ancient commentators on sexual love between women were eminently concerned with maintaining a gender-stratified social order.

Let's celebrate

At Queer Spirit Festival:
Let's celebrate
women loving women
men loving men
genderfluidity
non-binariness
queerness in all its fabulous forms...

Is Nature, the Universe and Everything Queer?  By Mackerel Sky

It has been proposed that one of the main driving forces of evolution, far outstripping that of Competition is the process of Symbiogenesis. Symbiogenesis happens when two or more organisms have been living in a symbiotic state long enough for them to join together and create a new separate species. This process has been proven to have happened many times. Our own mitochondria and gut systems (and therefore us) owe their existence to this process, as do the chloroplasts in green leaves.

What has this got to do with queerness?

2023 Tickets now on sale   17-21 August 2023, Bridwell Park, Devon

Queer Spirit Festival aims

• to promote well-being, spiritual awareness and heart-centred community among LGBTQ+ people. The festival brings all sections of the community together to celebrate spirituality, creativity and build personal connections.
• to highlight the unique and long hidden spirituality of same-sex loving and gender-fluid people, reclaim the magical roles we once played across the planet in nature loving religions, and explore what they teach us about our lives today.
• to bring together 6-700 LGBTQ+ people, in a safe celebration of life, love, nature and the spiritual gifts and creative talents that queer people bring to the world.

Call for contributions

Come help co-create an inspirational journey into love at Bridwell Park next summer!

Reclaiming Queer Nature

QUEER SPIRIT FESTIVAL  17-21 August 2023  Bridwell Park, Devon, UK

Queer Spirituality is the movement of LGBTQ+ people DISCOVERING, CELEBRATING and REDEFINING WHO WE ARE, shaking ourselves free from limiting beliefs and imposed labels as we RECLAIM QUEER NATURE as innate and part of the sacred Wholeness of Life. It is Queer people taking matters of faith into our own hands, making way for the magical flow of the divine gifts of the Soul, free of religious dogma. It is Queer people finding our own ways to commune with and celebrate the Mystery behind all Creation, however we perceive that, and reclaiming our own nature-based, body-positive, celebratory spirituality after centuries of suppression.

Queer Spirit Rising

The division of gender and sexuality into neatly defined and labelled boxes by the new scientific kids on the block, psychology and sociology, from the late 19th century onwards has never sat well with some gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. There have always been queer voices in the west who objected to the limitations of an identity based on sexual attraction, and saw the commonality of gay men, lesbians and transgender people as stemming from our spiritual nature and history.

My name is Joseph and I am a Pagan Priest

I am also a Queer person.

What is a Pagan Priest you might ask? Well, in essence, it’s a choice to dedicate a life, at least in part, to be of service to my community by bringing an opportunity to connect with self, the natural world and the Divine to those who are so inclined. “Priest” is just another word. Many people who do what I do, do not choose that particular label. I did spend a couple of years training as a Priest within a Pagan community, but this is not the only route to this path. More about that later.

News from Queer Spirit Festival - February 2022

We know you have been waiting patiently for news of plans for the next Queer Spirit Festival – finally, here it is:
The next Queer Spirit is planned for SUMMER 2023.  Since last August a team of two dozen organisers have been meeting, talking and seeking to find the perfect spot for the fourth manifestation of the festival. From Wales to Kent we have followed leads but, due to various complications, the stars have simply not aligned for us this year.

The Origins of Homophobia

by Shokti

In the latter days of the Roman Empire, after the adoption of Christianity as the official state religion, a long, dark period of anti-sexual, homophobic, pleasure-denying control of the human spirit began.  The roots of this prejudice are so deep they have been forgotten in the modern world.

Lammas Blessings

by Lindsay River 

Lammas in England, Lughnasa in Ireland, Calan Awst in Wales, the Gule of August in Scotland (1st August) marks the celebration of the grain harvest – a glorious time of dancing and feasting when the precious corn has been reaped and carried in safely. It may be celebrated later than 1^st August, when the grain has been brought home. The time before grain harvest was often a hungry one when the flour from the year before had run out – I experienced this in Crete in 1980 when there was nothing but hard dried bread in the shops.

Beltane 2021

By Matt

The roaring fires of Beltane are off in the distance and the magic of Beltane is close at hand. Flowers are blooming, the Earth is turning green, and the temperatures are getting ready to soar.

Beltane is a time of rising passions, regeneration, love, kicking off a period of rapid growth, both in nature and in us. We can set the stage for this Beltane by getting in touch with what ignites our own inner fires, and dedicating that creative energy towards our intentions for the year ahead.

Respect is  all it takes
By Pippa Dee

As a transgender woman who completed my surgeries in 1995, I think it’s time I said something about the way some people in the LGBT+ COMMUNITY view us.

The Queer Spirit of Uranus
By Shokti

In the ancient wisdom tradition astrology, Saturn was long considered to be the ruling planet of Aquarius, but the discovery of Uranus in 1781 led to this unusual planet being assigned the role. 
Uranus is unique as the only planet in our solar system that rotates on its horizontal axis. 

LEO LEO LEO LEO: GO LIONS!!!

Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars are all in the playful, generous, fire sign of the Lion as we gather on the 14^th August for our Queer Spirit celebration . After a tough year energetically, the cosmos is saying get out of the cage! It's time to have some fun, feel the love and spread the joy: the Leo in us all is the child of the universe wanting to perform, play, make love, and he is shining through ALL of our personal archetypes right now! SHINE ON!

Queer Spirit of Africa

At Queer Spirit Festival we celebrate the loving, spiritual nature and gifts of LGBTQ+ people across the world – but rather than encourage lots of people to fly around the planet to the UK we hope to influence the global understanding of queerness by inviting our asylum seeker and refugee sisters and brothers who are already in Britain from Africa, the Caribbean and other places where we suffer persecution.

Community
by Al Head

Community is a word we use a lot at Queer Spirit. Queer community, lgbtq community or, more properly perhaps, the lgbtq communities. Community is something we hope for, that we long for, that we seek, that we strive to create? But what do we mean by community? And is community what we are trying to create at Queer Spirit Festival?

The Land is Waiting

Whittlebury Park in the green fields of central England is our home this year for the third Queer Spirit Festival from August 14 to 18.  The land is waiting for us.

500+ Queers are expected for a 5 day celebration of the sacredness of life and the spirit of creativity, passion, joy and activism of the global queer community.

Queer Mystics Gather
by Shokti

The gathering together of a few hundred pioneers from the lgbtq+ community to celebrate the sacredness of life through sharing love, creativity, spiritual and magical/ceremonial practices - in a world where we are still condemned and persecuted by so-called 'holy' religions - is a HUGELY RADICAL STEP.

Self-Discovery at Queer Spirit Festival

5 days in the Northamptonshire countryside August 14-18, 2019: Queer Spirit Festival is a great place to meet people, chill in the summer sun and check out some of the many incredible activities on offer: we have a packed programme of workshops, playshops, performance and ceremonies - for all tastes and all ages.

THE CALL OF QUEER SPIRIT
by Shokti Lovestar

Until the spiritual nature of queer people is understood, religious persecution of us will not end.

The world will not do this work for us, we find this understanding inside ourselves.

Only we can define our own queer spirit.

MAYDAY! Or.... How to celebrate unity when you're really feeling scarcity! by Sameesi

Today is Beltane, cue the images of the Goddess and her Consort entwined, talk of fertility rituals and just the general feel that everyone and every living thing is getting it on!

Beltane, or Mayday as it is sometimes called falls bang in the middle of the spring equinox and the summer solstice.

Gender and Sexuality by Tonya Moralez (Divinity in Love)

People won’t understand things they’ve never experienced or seen. A lot of our queer awareness and understanding of deeper subjects than the average person's relationship with the world, comes from the reality that we, ourselves, have personally experienced things which transport us to places in our mind, or in relation to society, so that we automatically navigate towards to attempt understanding OUR own experiences.

Embracing the Changes by Al Head

We are living in a time of change and uncertainty. The Extinction Rebellion movement shows that many people are waking up and demanding a halt, although some would say it is far too late, to the destruction that human beings are wreaking upon the planet, a destruction that has already seen the loss of tens of thousands of species and huge areas of our beautiful earth.