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In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. Don Miguel Ruiz dedicated his life to sharing the wisdom of the ancient Toltec. For more than two decades, he has guided others toward their personal freedom. Today, he continues to combine his unique blend of ancient wisdom and modern-day awareness through journeys to sacred sites around the world. SHOP>> The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom |
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In The Voice of Knowledge, don Miguel Ruiz reminds is of a profound and simple truth: The only way to end our emotional suffering and restore our joy in living is to stop believing in lies, mainly about ourselves. Before we learn to speak, our true nature is to love and be happy, to explore and enjoy life. As little children, we are completely authentic. Our actions are guided by instinct and emotions, we listen to the silent "voice of our integrity." Once we learn to speak, the people around us hook our attention and program us with knowledge. SHOP>> The Voice of Knowledge |
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In The Mastery of Love, don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships. Using insightful stories to bring this message to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom and joy that are our birthright, and restore the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships. In the Toltec tradition, three fundamental masteries guide us to our true nature, wich is happiness, freedom, and love. The first is the Mastery of Awareness. SHOP>> The Mastery of Love |
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In Animal Speak by Ted Andrews, learn how to speak the language of critters, large and small. Easy-to-read and understand, Ted Andrews's bestselling Animal Speak shows readers how to identify his or her animal totem and learn how to invoke its energy and use it for personal growth and inner discovery. Nature lovers will love this insightful compendium, chock-full of touching stories about animals, natural history, and animal folklore. Readers will also learn magical animal rites and how to read omens. Animal Speak includes a dictionary of bird, animal, reptile, and insect totems, which describe each creature's meaning. SHOP>> Animal Speak |
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Living the Spirit by Will Roscoe. Joining a reclaimed past to a vibrant present, this work provides a broad view of male and female homosexuality in Native American cultural history through anthropological reports, biography, mission records, photographs, oral literature, diaries, interviews, essays, autobiographical excerpts, poems, and selections from novels. In the past, individuals whose behavior varied from tribal norms could adopt a variety of honorable roles: healer, artist, mediator, shaman. But homophobia saturates the modern Indian world. Contemporary voices (notably Roscoe, Beth Brant, Paula Gunn Allen, Maurice Kenny, and Chrystos) explain and dramatize survival despite chronic and ritualized oppression. Includes contacts, resources, a list of tribes, and a detailed bibliography. SHOP>> Living the Spirit |
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Two Flutes Playing, by Andrew Ramer."We had many saints, many heroes, both female and male, but I want to speak here of the saints and heroes of the gay tribes. For this is a period of human history that has been lost through time, whose return is vitally needed. For you know the heroes of the other tribes. But of this small, sacred tribe, whose history has been obscured, you remember nothing." So tells acclaimed author Andrew Ramer in Two Flutes Playing. Within these pages can be found insight and wisdom. Ramer serves as a mythologist for gay men, providing evidence to the harmony of gender, love and sex. SHOP>> Two Flutes Playing |
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Gay Soul, by Mark Thompson. Gay spirituality and sensibility come to light in these pages of striking portraits and trenchant interviews. Thompson brings out the unique contributions of the esteemed gay men – including Clyde Hall, Will Roscoe, Joseph Kramer, Harry Hay, James Broughton, Andrew Harvey, Paul Monette, Malcolm Boyd, and Ram Dass – who lead the spiritual life. Thompson elicits vivid musings on such provocative issues as the third gender, S&M, ritual as ‘holy fire’, and spirituality in the age of Aids. His interviews call out the deepest emotions of each of these vibrant leaders who reveal, as never before, the spirit and the soul of the gay life. SHOP>> Gay Soul |
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Spirit and the Flesh, by Walter Williams. Walter L. Williams's excellent research has produced one of the most extensive studies of the berdache culture among Native Americans. Unlike the larger American society, Native Americans historically have respected, and in many tribal nations venerated, homosexuals. Williams explains the berdache as a custom, its social roles, and the berdache history, including its introduction to the European concept of sin and intolerance of sexual diversity. The word berdache applies almost exclusively to males, mainly because historical records only relate dealings with aboriginal males, but Williams also includes a chapter on female sexual diversity, using the word amazon to describe these often warriorlike women. SHOP>> Spirit and the Flesh |
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Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman, by Malidoma Patrice Somé. Somé, who was born about 1956 in Upper Volta, was close to his shaman grandfather. But this relationship and his tribal way of life was destroyed when, at age four, he was kidnapped by a French Jesuit missionary and raised in a seminary, from which he escaped at age 20. Returning home to his Dagara village, he was viewed by some as too tainted by white knowledge and ways to be able to join fully in tribal life; nevertheless, he underwent an intensive and dangerous six-week shamanic initiation that thoroughly established him as a member of the tribe. Later, he was dismayed to learn his destiny as revealed in divination and decreed by tribal elders: to return to the white world as a bridge to save his tribe from complete inculturation. This fascinating autobiography illustrates the profound culture clashes between Western civilization and indigenous cultures. SHOP>> Of Water and the Spirit |
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The Sacred Pipe, Joseph Epes Brown. The author was fortunate in meeting men who possessed great human and spiritual qualities, especially Black Elk who had a unique quality of power, kindliness and sense of mission. Born in 1862, Black Elk grew up when his people had the freedom of the plains, hunted bison; he fought at Little Bighorn and at Wounded Knee Creek and knew Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and American Horse. He traveled with Buffalo Bill to Italy, France and England. During his youth Black Elk was instructed in the sacred love of his people by Whirlwind Chaser, Black Road and Elk Head from whom he learned the history and deep meanings of his people's spiritual heritage. Through prayer, fasting and deep understanding of his heritage, Black Elk became a wise man, receiving visions and acquiring special powers to be used for the good of his nation. Because of his sense of mission Black Elk wanted this book to be written so that the reader could gain a better understanding of the truths of the Indian traditions. SHOP>> The Sacred Pipe |
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Let others search for "the boyfriend within" -- John Stowe's book, Gay Spirit Warrior, offers ways we can discover our true inner Gay Spirit Warrior. This is exactly the journey that therapist/bodyworker John Stowe takes us on in this intensive-workshop-in-a-book, the shining result of decades of the author's teaching, counseling, and leading in the gay spirit arena. Stowe, who clearly has done his internal homework, seems to embody the very principles he lays out so logically. Stowe is an expert tourguide leading us on an authentic journey of self-inquiry. He doesn't insult our intelligence by endlessly parroting trendy New-Age affirmations like so much self-help pablum. Instead he lovingly insists we roll up our sleeves and submerge our arms up to the elbows in our own socially given beliefs and dearly held concepts, then hold up what we discover to the light for scrutiny. After examining ideas about our image, bodies, sex, relationships, and soul, we continue on a tour of sacred gay archetypes. SHOP>> Gay Spirit Warrior |
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Rofes look in the book Dry Bones Breathe, Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Cultures at gay life and culture--including his own--is the most refreshing take on gay male sexuality that we have read in ten years. Yes, he takes on other gay writers, but he takes on their ideas, he doesn't attack them. His insights into the AIDS crisis, and how gay men are adjusting to a post-crisis era, are profoundly moving. We would recommend this book to anyone who's had it with scoldings from gay white puritans and reactive posturing of gay radicals. Rofes occupies the sensible center of the new sex wars, and does so with grace, tact, and style. A very important book. SHOP>> Dry Bones Breathe |
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Eric Rofes takes a sociological perspective on the affects the HIV epidemic has had on the gay community in his book Reviving the Tribe: Regenerating Gay Men's Sexuality and Culture in the Ongoing Epidemic. He argues that the gay community has moved through 3 phases. At first there was an initial panic phase and fear. That phase was followed by a militant optimism and a struggle to make the issue a national priority. The second phase was based on two assumptions: that a cure was near and that the gay community knew of the danger of HIV and was practicing safe sex. Continually rising infection levels and still limited treatment options slowly shattered the optimism of the early 90's. This led into the third phase that Rofes considers ongoing in 1996. The third phase is another phase of fear, but as opposed to the panic of the first fear phase, Rofes argues that modern queer communities are paralyzed. He cites sociological studies of disaster survivors and examines the legacy of the holocaust for historical parallels to the numbing that exists amongst gay communities. He says that the gay community is no longer dealing with the issue of HIV and the community is dying as the psychological affects of the HIV crisis continue unabated. Rofes focuses his analysis on the affects on mental health, sexuality, and community. In each section, Rofes suggests what he sees as the route to reviving the gay community. SHOP>> Reviving the Tribe |
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Reviewed by Bruce P. Grether in White Crane Journal #50: "As an activist for the erotic liberation of my fellow men I found William Schindler's new book Gay Tantra particularly fascinating. One thing I've long been aware of is that in the Western World we misuse the term Tantra to mean any kind of enhancement of sexual pleasure through prolonged or nonejaculatory practices. So it's refreshing to read this book that explores the authentic meaning of the term. It actually indicates a wide range of techniques both ascetic and ecstatic for training the senses toward heightened spiritual awareness. Clearly Schindler, a long-term practitioner of Tantra and student of Sanskrit, knows what he's talking about. Early on he makes it clear that this is not a sex manual or sex how-to, but an examination of these concepts related to Hindu religious practices, yet potentially relevant to anyone. In particular I appreciate how the author relates the subject to gay men, with our special awareness of gender fluidity and the outsider's perspective." SHOP>> Tantra for Gay Men |
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Cosmic Tribe Tarot is based on designs by Alister Crowley it is a refreshing departure from the Rider Waite design that has saturated the market. The pip cards are expressed not is storyboard scenes, which limit their possible interpretations, but in abstract designs that provide feeling of the mood of the card without forcing an explanation. The Wands are rowdy and energetic; they done in are deep reds and oranges, fire and a feeling of expansion dominate. The Swords run the gambit from light to disturbingly dark, they are done in cool blues and green; the swords are all sharp and their wielders fly among the clouds. The Cups have a dream like quality are depicted in deep blues; they are fluid, magical, and merfolk abound lending a fantasy feeling. The Disks are both somber and lighthearted and decorated with flowers, trees, gemstones and even mud. The court cards all express individual and unique personalities. SHOP>> Cosmic Tribe Tarot Deck |
queer spirit: reading list