As the great Toni Morrison says:
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
Today on Mother of the Sword podcast, we have a chat with my friend Greg who I met on a Southern Italian ritual drum and dance retreat where we studied in worship to the Black Madonna in Hawaii last April.
Our lineage is rooted in Earth based worship and eros. Eros not just as sexual energy (which is it that too thank Goddess + we’re here to support the relationship between you and Her/sexuality,) but also as…
life affirming and sustaining force of the universe. As the trans poet and myth-poetic embodiment teacher Zhenevere Sophia Dao calls it, “the desire of belonging.”
All the way back to the witch burnings in Europe (watch this doc Burning Times,) and even beyond before most magic and community care became colonized, the gays and the girls, the non gender conforming and trans* folks were always up to “no good,” in the eyes of the oppressors. We have been creating spells and magic, Earth, birth and death tending, community care and real life changing love together beyond the control and domination of this world for a long time.
“Those that would impose their will upon others will always forbid dancing, demonize sex, forbid personal expression. They want the fist raised in the air and the combined shouts of their allegiance to their leader because they no longer dare to feel what it is they really want.Let's cook food. Good food. Let's dance.” -Perdita Finn
We can call on our ancestors and one another to remember true belonging and liberation. To gather the love and protection we need as human beings. We have been meeting every Friday at 10a PST online in Body Temple Dance for the past four years, and it is revolutionary to feel what’s underneath through your body I can assure you.
On the retreat where I met Greg, I got to taste that life changing true eros flowing through me in dance, having practiced the ancient movements of my ancestors enough times to fully surrender into the more subtle energy of the practice. After the spinning grief trance dance, I let go and sank down onto the Earth, remembering Greg casting seriously potent prayers in Latin over the group moved me to tears.
In this episode Greg shares all kinds of much needed underworld wisdom and storytelling with us, including the myth of Inanna and practical magic. In hs Substack article ‘Gays and Gal Pals,’ Greg shares:
These types, back in the day, pre-Judeo-Christian-Islamic colonialism, were priestesses of various goddesses. They were the galli of Cybele, the semnotatoi of Hekate, the assinu of Inanna, the kelabim of Astarte, the kimbanda of the Kwanyama-Ambo people of southern Angola, the wintke of the Lakota people, the jogappa of southern Indian goddess Yellamma. These gender-variant, same-sex loving people often worked alongside women priestesses and spiritual healers, many times acting as hierodules, spiritual functionaries who used sex as a way to effect powerful transformation.
Enjoy our chat and may it be a refuge on sanity and connection, and some laughs too. Let us know what you learn and love! Greg is an award-winning journalist, poet, and author, Greg draws from ancient spiritual traditions studied for over 20 years to inspire and awaken readers. He is also a Vedic astrologer, yoga guide, dummer, spell cast6er, Italian witch delicious cook home tender and priestess (my label not is,) of the highest love. Follow him IG and Substack.
We have a free Body Temple womb healing, sex magic and embodied reclamation ritual next Wednesday sign up here
