Gay pagans?

tao


"Is there a place for Gay men or Lesbians in the Craft?"

"Can I be a witch if I'm Gay? Most of the books I've read/Covens I've spoken to say I can't."

"Does Gender or Sexuality really matter to the Gods?"


For Decades we thought about these questions - we drew from our joint background in Qabalah and Eastern philosophies; we read, we discussed, we did ritual, and we meditated. 

We have always come back to the same answer: everything within us, everything that drove us, told us:

"Keep pure your highest Ideal
Strive ever towards it,
let naught stop you, or turn you aside"

In the old days we came across those in the Tradition who said we could never thrive - but we found a way for us to take what we had learned, and make it grow. We have been working as a couple for over 30 years: learning and growing, following the Spiral of the Sabbats, exploring the Shining Paths together, Striving for Truth. And we haven't been alone: through those years we've run a successful Coven, and helped many people in their own Quest.

Within days of us starting this site back in the 90's we had e-mails asking those same questions again - and so the following pages are a small attempt to express the thoughts and ideas we have had - particularly around gender, polarity and Wiccan Spirituality. 

Historical addendum:

Wicca and the World have happily moved on since much of what we share here was written: everyone now knows that Alex himself was bi (as too was Alexander the Great: the Deified Son of a God whom Alex named his Tradition after), and serious scholarly and historical research has shown that not only have gay and trans people ALWAYS been here (since at least the Stone Age!) but human understanding of gender and sexuality has always been far richer and more *personal* than our colonialist, Victorian, and heteronormative histories have led us to believe. 

The Divine is not, nor ever has been exclusively ‘White, heteronormtive, and middle class’. NO-ONE now seriously questions if LGBTQ folk have a place in witchcraft - but it’s still useful to know some of the history of the struggle we’ve had to be here at all.

  • The first essay here is a poetic discussion on archetype and Myth. In it we try to express a little of the confusion one can at first feel as a Gay person dealing with the concepts of God and Goddess as they are traditionally represented - and one way to overcome these feelings of exclusion.
  • There is then a more formal piece on being gay and working the Craft: "Gay Pagans, gay witches...Gay witchcraft?" (which also won a Pinklinks"Best of the Web" award).
  • The second part to this then looks at the thorny question of sex within ritual.
  • On the back of these two essays we were contacted in 2003 by Bryony Weaver - a Journalist who wanted to do a Samhein interview with us for the Oct/Nov issue of the Gay Times. It was an excellent interview and a wonderful article - and we are proud to present an electronic version of it here (Copyright kindly provided by both Bryony and James, and the GayTimes).
  • We were then asked to give a talk on Traditional Wicca from a Gay perspective at the GLBT Moot at the Fountain Inn, Birmingham.  (N.B. - This is a long document! - but we have split it into 3 sections, to make it easier to read on-line).
  • Linked to both of these, we were then asked to give a formal talk at the 2005 Pagan Association Conference - a PDF version of the text of which is now available here
  • Lastly, in July 2021 we where interviewed by author and champion of Inclussive Wicca Yvonne Aburrow, talking about ‘Queer magic’ and our experience of being gay within Traditional Wicca 


The final two essays are reproduced by permission from other authors:

  • first, there is a very good article (reaped with permission from the Cauldrons and Broomsticks Beltain 1997 edition). Although we don't agree with everything Aurelon says, it's still a very thought provoking piece... We would also recommend that you read some of the articles by Lynna in the Temple Library of her home site "Wild ideas.."
  • Then there's a letter first published in the Vermont "Monitor" from the mother of a gay son - it's not on paganism, but it is included here because it is an excellent and heartfelt protest against the hypocrisy and prejudice that all gay people face at so e time in their lives.



All content and graphics © The Wellhead. org. uk

Page Loads:

tumblr visitor