Visiting an Altar

A personal altar can be a meaningful way of connecting with the sacred.  Here’s a picture of an altar in the healing cabin at Easton Mountain.

Altar in the Healing Cabin

Last week I posted a description of building an altar near the south edge of Easton Mountain Retreat.  The following are the suggestions that I wroe for guests who wished to visit the altar..  They may be adapted and applied to other altars.

Suggestions for Visiting the South Altar

1. Wear something that connects you with the sacred, or enter the sacred circle in front of the altar naked (use bug repellant),
2. Bring an offering - perhaps some wild flowers or some water to pour on the rocks.
3. While in the circle, pray, meditate, dance, or do a few yoga postures.
4. Bring a candle and light it while you’re there, but then snuff it out and take it with you.  Don’t leave lighted candles burning in the woods.
5. As you leave the circle, turn your body around once clockwise, thus honoring all the directions.

The Altars at Zuni

Last summer, I visited Zuni Mountain Sanctuary, in the arid land of North Western New Mexico.

View from My Tent at Zuni

This Faerie sactuary has four altars, one for each of the directions.  As a way of tending these altars, I visted each of them in turn.  After removing my clothing and praying, I took one object from each altar, replacing it with something of my own.  Then, I placed these objects on the altar of a sweat lodge, which was held on the last day I was there.  Following the lodge, I again visited each altar, stripped naked, prayed, and replaced the item I had consecrated on the sweat lodge altar - reclaiming the object I had left there.

Now one told me, this is the way you tend an altar.  What I did came from my Higher Self.  When you’re connected with your Higher self, rituals like this aree second nature..

Metta and The Serenity Prayer

I’ve recently added metta to my list of spiritual practices. Metta is the Buddhist practice of silently repeating blessings for oneself, others, and all sentient beings - blessings such as:

• May I be at peace
• May I have joy

One starts metta focusing on oneself.  Next one substitutes “you” for “I” and moves to a person one cares for, then a neutral person, and then a person with whom one has difficulty.  Finally the statements are said for all sentient beings: 

• May all sentient beings be at peace.
• May all sentiaent being have joy.

Buddhists do not consider these statements to be prayers  They are said with the intention of opening one’s own heart to lovingkindness.

Many different statements are used for metta.  One that I have seen says, “May I accept things as they are.”  Taken literally, one might refuse to give food to a starving person because one is trying to accept things as they are.  This would be the opposite of the aim of metta.

I recall the prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr, commonly called the “Serenity Prayer.”:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

This prayer could become four statements for metta:

• May I have serenity
• May I accept what I cannot change
• May I have the strength to change what should be changed
• May I have wisdom guiding my actions.

When I practice metta, I allow five minutes for each area of focus: self, friend, neutral person, difficult person, and all sentient beings - for a total of twenty-five minutes of meditation.

Creating an Altar

I had told the programming director at Easton Mountain, where I live, that I would like to create an altar near the southern edge of the property during Gay Spirit Camp. He agreed to put it on the camp’s schedule.

A few days before the start of camp, I collected rocks.  This was sacred work, so I did it naked, except for socks, shoes and a cap.  I prepared myself by smudging with the smoke from bugning sage, and I smudged each rocks that I gathered.  The first rocks  had been used in a sweat lodge.  Many had cracked into interesting shapes.   It wasn’t until I had gathered about half the rocks that I realized how appropriate it was to use these rocks in a south altar - as fire is the element of the south.  I also gathered some larger rocks that had been part of a wall. Wherever I took rocks, I left tobacco.

 

The Rocks from the Fire Pit

Around noon of the day scheduled to create the altar, we had heavy rain, but by the scheduled time, it stopped and sunlight was breaking through.  One man beat a drum as we walked to the place selected the altar.  I offered a prayer that everything would be done in a good way.

At the site, I stripped, though others remained clothed.  We checked the direction with a compass, then placed large flat rocks at the southern part of the space.

 

The Flat Rocks Which Became the Altar

Next we used medium-size rocks to create a circle in front of the altar.

Finally we placed small rocks on the altar to form a rough medicine wheel.

That night, I invited those at the camp to visit the altar.  I prepared a sheet with directions for finding the altar and suggests for visiting it.  I’ll post these suggestions next week.

Enemas for Ritual Purification

I must admit that I’m a “clysterphile” (from clyster, meaning enema, with a suffix from philos,  love). Sometime in my adolescence I figured out that if my cock were hard, there was no cramping or discomfort associated with enemas. They became part of my sexual repertoire.

In 1990, I signed up for the first six-day intensive with Joseph Kramer. Prior to the intensive I received a written set of instructions, which said to bring an enema bag.

While there, we discussed taking enemas. I explained that to avoid cramping the bag should be only a foot or so above the anus, and added that it helped to have a hard cock. I went down to the bath house where I saw one man hang his bag from a bar several feet above his head, saying, “I like to feel the water rushing in.” To each his own.

After that intensive, I added the ritual enema to my erotic practices. I prepare by having a bag with about one quart of distilled water in it hanging from a doorknob. I place towels on the floor to stretch out on. I begin with the motions for awakening the chakras. Then I kneel, insert the tube and start the flow of water. I anoint each chakra point and massage it with clockwise circles. I anoint my cock and when it is hard I lie down on my left side—which lowers my anus, thus increasing the water pressure.

I don’t regard this as an endurance test. When the pressure becomes too high, I go to the toilet.

It is my opinion—something coming from my intuition—that we store discordant energies in our root chakra, and that ritual enemas can help eliminate these energies.

Sacred Spaces

 

The thought of sacred spaces as been in my mind recently.  In June, I spent a week in Boulder, Colorado.  While there, I spent two days at nearby Dream Canyon.  On the first day, I was walking near the rim of the canyon, looking in the distance for suitable vistas to photograph.  Suddenly I realized that the most interesting photo was not in the distance, but right in front of me - a striking dead tree.

 

Tree at Dream Canyon

As I was walking around the tree, looking for the best angle for a picture, I barely noticed a pile of rocks about four feet from the tree.  It wasn’t until I had walked to the other side of the tree that I realized that someone had placed a second pile of rocks exactly on the opposite side of the tree.

It was then that I realized that someone had placed these rocks there to mark or consecrate this tree as sacred space.

I asked forgiveness for having entered this space without asking.  To further honor the sacred space I removed my clothes. When I had prayed and meditated, I walked barefoot until I was out of sight of the tree before dressing.

All Earth is sacred.  Some spots have been set aside and consecrated to remind us of this.  At Easton Mountain, where I live, four medicine wheels have been placed in the ground: one in the east, two in the north, and one on the mountain which is in the west.  Recently, a group of us created an altar and sacred space to the south.  I’ll describe how we did this in next week’s posting.

Journaling: Your Log as a Spiritual Explorer

Journaling has long been recognized as a sacred praxis. It provides a record of  spiritual practice; it helps us reconnect with past experiences, and it is a tool for self-discovery and for exploring the Great Mystery.

Its drawback is that it is intellectual. In my early spiritual explorations, I thought more than I felt. I reached a point where, for a time, I put the tools of intellect aside so that I could know my feelings.

My current journal has three sections:

1. Praxis log.
2. Evening journal
3. Dream log.

This posting discusses the praxis log (“praxis” being practice as opposed to theory).

The praxis log contains the date and the practice used. Some practices call for writing down thoughts, and these thoughts are written in the log following the name of the practice

Here are examples.  These practices have been described in this blog - or will be in future postings. 

• 1/22/03: Work meditation while cleaning the meditation room.
• 1/23/03: Rock purification.
• 1/24/03: Enema for ritual cleansing.
• 1/25/03: Raising up erotic energy for the purpose of receiving whatever the Universe gives.
• 2/8/03:  Higher Self Meditation. Pope wrote, :Know thyself. Presume not God to scan.” The fallacy of this is that it assumes that we can know ourselves without knowing our relationship to that which is beyond ourselves. Only in knowing our connection with all that is, to the Great Mystery, can we sense the wonder of what we are.  Our task in life is to live from our connection to that great mystery.”

When I wrote the above passage, I wasn’t trying to make it something for publication. My aim was to get my thoughts down as quickly and accurately as possible. Self-censorship is deadly when journaling.

Spiritual Autobiography - Ages 59-64 (Part Ten)

[Continuing with extracts from my journal, written while backpacking through the Wyoming High Desert]

8/24/98

As I walk, this thought comes to me: scientists tell us that our planet - after it had cooled from it’s original, primordial fire - was a planet of water and rock enveloped in a blanket of air; and it is the vulnerability of the rock to the forces of wind and water through countless millions of storms that has created sand, which plant life has turned into soil. All that we are and all terrestrial life on this planet depends on the vulnerability of rock.

Does the rock spirit know that one day its home will be reduced to sand? Does the great earth spirit know that one day the earth will be swallowed up by the sun? Do we truly know our own death?

In  the face of this, how can we turn to the words that begin A Course in Miracles: “Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Therein lies the peace of God”?—only by looking to the spiritual that is behind the physical. If we are eternal beings with a core, eternal, invulnerable essence, then we trust that Source provides a home for Its creations and draws them back to Itself. In the end, the vulnerability may be the drawing back that brings us to higher and higher spiritual levels.

8/25/98

You may think you’ve been given a goal, when in fact you’ve been given a direction. Never ask for goals.  Ask for directions.

A Spiritual Energy Shower

In November 1999, I was part of a five-day class in energy healing offered by the Inner Focus School - one of the classes that lead to my certification in energy healing. Each day usually started at seven with Osho’s Dynamic Meditation. Our instructor often gave additional suggestions for incorporating elements not found in the basic meditation.

One morning she suggested that we ask a master to be present with us and help us in our meditation. I had earlier felt the presence of a spirit guide I call Master Thant, a being wise in the use of physical motion for spiritual development.

The last part of Dynamic Meditation is fifteen minutes of free dancing. During this period, I was guided through a series of movements that brought down energy from the higher chakras. The following are instructions for this practice.

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Bring your hands into prayer position but with your hands about one inch apart. Holding this position, take ten slow, deep breaths, feeling the energy between your hands. 

Slowly bend backward and raise your hands until your arms are straight. Take three slow, deep breaths. Let the space between your palms be charged with energy from above. 

Open your arms to the sides, palms up while bending your knees slightly. Feel the energy shower over and through you. When your arms reach horizontal jump into the air and quickly turn the palms down, as you land. Feel the energy go all the way down to the root chakra. Continue slowly bringing your arms down and in front of you and up to prayer position, but with hands not touching. Repeat this two more times. After the third time, bring your hands together and bow.

Spiritual Autobiography - Ages 59-64 (Part Nine)

[Continuing with extracts from my journal of 8/24/98- written while back-packing through the Wyoming High Desert]

If I were to write my own personal scripture, it would begin with these words: “This is the first commandment; that you walk naked on the earth and know that you are of the earth, not physical as the earth is physical but spiritual as the earth is spiritual.” I have come to understand that “naked” does not necessarily mean without clothes, but rather knowing your own vulnerability.

Sometimes being naked—just having naked feet when walking over rough stones—can show me my vulnerability.

I’ve written a lot about contact with nature as part of a spiritual path. Real contact with nature shows us our vulnerability. A walk in a park won’t do—even those that have ostensibly natural, wooded areas. Parks are created to give us the illusion of contacting nature without showing us our vulnerability.

When I risk falling down a rock-slide while climbing to a plateau in the High Desert—when I then come upon a rock, an immense, solid rock, and see how the wind has worn away the face of the rock—when I let a few little chips fall off in my hand and know the rocks vulnerability: then I think of the vulnerability of my own body, my own mind, my own soul.

Sex Magick

Sex magick is the use of sex to bypass the part of the mind that inhibits manifestation. It begins with an intention. I might set an intention for the success of a workshop—or even for something greater, like world peace. I create this intention with a statement: “Today I am raising and sending out erotic energy for the purpose of ….” I write down this statement. Then I draw a  symbol that embodies it. I tape this to a wall where I can see it. Then I prepare for and begin erotic massage.

Sending out energy could be done through a big draw, but many practitioners of sex magick do it through ejaculation. After raising energy for at least a half hour, I allow myself to ejaculate. My goal at this moment is to focus completely on the symbol and the intention. I allow the ejaculant to fall into a bowl of water. Then I sit in meditation. Later, I will pour the water on the earth, letting the energy that embodies my intention go into the earth.

Does sex magick work? My conviction is that it does, but not always in the way that I expect. The energy is sent out. What the Universe does with it is not under my control.

Early in my practice of sex magic I envisioned a spiritual center I called “The Ocean Ashram.” a place, possibly on Fire Island, where erotic spirituality could be taught.  The Ocean Ashram never came to pass, but I now live at Easton Mountain, a center where gay erotic spirituality is taught.  I don’t believe that my sex magick alone brought Easton Mountain into being - but I do believe that my energy became part of the force and spirit that created it.