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.

From Stonewall to Festival: Riots to Rites

At Stonewall Inn in June 1969 the Queers fought back against police harassment and society's judgments - a movement destined to redefine who we are was born. Trans People, Gay Men, Lesbians, Queers – ALL were involved and were standing together for our rights, and as at Pride events around the world, at Queer Spirit Festival our rainbow community gathers as one tribe:

Gay Priests in the Vatican – a response from Queer Spirit

Is anyone surprised that so many Christian priests are gay?

French journalist and author Frédéric Martel is publishing 'In the Closet of the Vatican', claiming that 80% of priests working at the centre of the Roman Catholic church are gay, although not necessarily sexually active. He says that some of the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic church who have vociferously attacked homosexuality are themselves gay.

OUT OF THE MISTS OF OUR LONG OPPRESSION...

At the Stonewall Riot in New York 1969 the Queers fought back. Enough of the persecution, enough of the shame and fear, enough of the denial of our Queer Spirit.  We stepped into Pride and began a journey of self-acceptance that kicked off a global process, which, 50 years later, is in full swing. As our Pride gatherings around the world we declare loud and clear – we are a rainbow people who celebrate freedom, love and self-expression. A people rising from the ashes of a conflagration against our kind that has lasted for far too long and now has to end...

Queer Spirit Festival Returns

Queer Spirit Festival - a celebration of the love, passion and creative spirit of the LGBTQ+ community The third Queer Spirit Festival offers 5 days of community, pleasure, play and enrichment for body, mind and soul in the countryside with camping space for 600. The festival features ceremonies, performance, workshops, dance parties, fire circles, drumming, sacred sexuality, activism, vegetarian/vegan cafes, sauna and more... There is an accessible camping area and there are activities for young people. LGBTIQ+ families are very welcome.

Sexual healing and the Queer Spirit festival - Gwydion Blackrose

This is a copy of the original blog which can be found at gwydionblackrose.com/sacred-sexuality-queer-spirit-festival

Last week I had the privilege to be part of the second Queer Spirit Festival in the UK. It took place in the same location as last year which is sort of close to Glastonbury and Stonehenge. It’s a beautiful location which already felt familiar to some degree because of me having already connected with it at the festival last year. Yet it was also new.

The Queer Spiritual Frontier - Shokti

Queer Spirituality is the movement of lgbt+ people taking matters of faith into our own hands, making way for the discovery of the innate, magical flow of the divine gifts of the Soul. It is queer people finding our own ways to commune with and celebrate the Mystery behind all Creation, however we perceive that.

Queer Spirit and the Earth - Al Head

Organising the Queer Spirit Festival involves a small percentage of visioning, magical workings, networking and getting together, a slightly larger percentage of meetings on skype, and a very large percentage of individual work, mostly on the computer. In the midst of emails, quotes, schedules, mailouts and event plans it is sometimes hard to remember why we are doing what we are doing – the vision and the ethos that are behind our actions, the meaning behind the creation, the reason for the name...