Stone and Stang is a Spiritual Gathering for Pagan Men-who-love-men

The Brothers of the Unnamed Path are hosting a spiritual gathering for men-who-love-men in sunny Southern California called Stone and Stang. This event, while hosted by Hyperion and the brothers of the Unnamed Path, is open to men-who-love-men of all pagan and alternative spiritual paths. We want this event to be about YOU, not us, and we encourage each of you to submit ideas for presentations, workshops, rituals and performances, that we might all grown and enrich our spiritual lives together.

Stone and Stang – A Spiritual Gathering for Pagan Men-who-love-men
Date: October 4th – 7th, 2013
Location: Simi Valley, CA
Price: $60 (early registration until July 31, 2013)

This community-centered event will take place in the beautiful hills above Simi Valley, California, at a private healing center just one (1) mile off of a major Southern California freeway. Easily accessible from any of our local highways and airports, the location is green and shady, complete with an indoor pool, two hot tubs, a sauna and room to camp outdoors or set up an air mattress and sleeping bag indoors too. We get to enjoy the beauty of the golden hills, but also have access to modern bathrooms!

Presentation submissions close on June 30th, 2013 so get your proposals in right away! Also, registration for the event is even more affordable if you register early, so book your lodging and pay for your entry all in advance for maximum savings.

To learn more about the event, visit the Stone and Stang website at http://stoneandstang.com!

Hyperion is the founder of the Unnamed Path – a shamanic path for men-who-love-men.

Hyperion, founder of the Unnamed Path, is one of the featured speakers at the 5th Wiccan and Goddess Spirituality Conference in Brazil (through the magic of video conferencing) this Saturday June 15th at 3:30pm Brasilia time!

He will presenting a discussion called “The Magician or the High Priestess – an identity crisis in modern Wicca” where he will explore the bifurcated ancestry of Wicca and how we ultimately need to find our own path that reconciles the need to harmonize with nature (the High Priestess) versus the desire to dominate it (the Magician).

You can learn more about the conference on their website.

This year, The Unnamed Path has many events lined up and we’ve decided to highlight them here with the hopes that you’ll join us and get to know our brothers a bit more.

For registration information, please visit Pantheacon.com (registration is required for most events).

Unnamed Path Hospitality Suite

Open Hours:
Friday: 9pm to Midnight
Saturday: 9pm to 1am
Sunday: 1pm to 6pm, 11pm to close

Room: 206
Location: The DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, CA.

The Unnamed Path is hosting a hospitality/party room in the DoubleTree Hotel this year with open hours for you to come by, meet our members, get to know our founder Hyperion, learn more about the Unnamed Path or perhaps get a reading. Hospitality Suite Open Hours will be posted on the door and are also here for your schedule planning.

Unnamed Path Meet & Greet Party

Date: Saturday February 16, 2013
Time: 8pm – 1am
Room: 206
Location: The DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, CA.
Facebook Event Page: click here

The brothers of the Unnamed Path invite you to join us for a Meet & Greet party in our Hospitality Suite at Pantheacon in San Jose, California. Join us for refreshments, snacks, laughs, deep conversations, a little magic and maybe even a psychic reading!

Our public events are always open to people of all gender identities and sexual natures. Bring some booze or drinks to share. We’ll have some snacks but feel free to bring more!

The Circle of Bones Ritual

Date: Sunday Feb. 17, 2013
Time: 9pm – 10:30pm
Room: Oak Room
Location: The DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, CA.
Facebook Event Page: click here

Join the Deathwalkers of the Unnamed Path in our holy ceremony to communicate with the Ancestors, to receive assistance and love from the spirits of the dead. Be prepared for an authentic spirit contact ritual including spirit possession of the presiding Deathwalkers. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions for the Ancestors to answer. The Unnamed Path is a shamanic path for Men-who-love-men. Our public rituals are ALWAYS open to all genders and orientations.

This ceremony is not recommended for children under 14 years old. Doors close once event starts.

Decompression Party

Date: Sunday Feb. 17, 2013
Time: 10:30pm – 1am
Room: Room 206
Location: The DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, CA.

After our Circle of Bones Ritual, we’ll congregate at the Unnamed Path Hospitality Suite and decompress from our ritual. If the spirits want to continue speaking we’ll give them the space to. If we just want to have a light snack and come down from the high of our ritual we can do that too. Think of it as a second but more low-key party for the weekend, to gather, share feelings, space and get to know us better.

You can always look around the Pantheacon Event for posters advertising our events and our location. Look for our four-square logo to easily find us wherever we may be.

The Deathwalkers of the Unnamed Path will be leading a Circle of Bones ceremony where we contact the spirits of the dead and receive their wisdom. The Circle of Bones Ceremony will take place at 9pm on Sunday February 17th.

Additionally, we’ll be hosting a hospitality room at the DoubleTree Hotel with open hours for anyone to drop by and learn more about our tradition, pay your respects at our altar and join us for refreshments. We’ll be holding a Meet and Greet Party on Saturday evening, as well as a “decompression party” after our ritual on Sunday. Look for information here on our website, as well as posters at Pantheacon with our hospitality room number on it.

We look forward to seeing you at Pantheacon in 2013! Learn more by visiting Pantheacon.com

The apprenticeship is a journey of self-discovery and relationship building. During the course of your year you’ll build relationships with our Gods and Goddesses, with the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men, with your personal guides and totems, but most importantly with your self. You’ll delve deeply into your own Shadow Self, and learn to connect all the parts of your self into a whole, self-aware individual. It’s about growing your personal power and aligning you with your true path in life.

The apprenticeship consists of 26 classes, held every other week. Classes are $30 to $50 per lesson on a sliding scale according to what you can afford. Lessons are taught on Skype. You’ll need a camera and a headset for your lessons but no membership to skype is necessary.

During the year of apprenticeship you’ll be learning proficiency in the Four Arts of the Unnamed Path: Magic & Prophecy, Deathwalking, Energy Healing and Shamanism. You’ll have regular homework requiring you to actively perform these skills and apply yourself. This is not a casual class – this is a serious apprenticeship. Additionally you’ll be required to attend two in-person workshop weekends during the class with your teacher to learn our techniques hands-on because some things just can’t be taught online.

We have five different class rounds starting up in the next few months. The schedule for class launches is as follows:

September 16th, 2012 – Brother Hyperion (Long Beach, CA)
September 16th, 2012 – Brother Sphinx (Beaumont, TX)
October, 2012 – Brother Chase (Houston, TX)
November, 2012 - Brother Rex (Long Beach, CA)
March, 2013 - Brother Ravenmoon (Sacramento, CA)

All classes will be taught online through Skype but we prefer if you contact the teacher closest to you as it will make travel easier for the in-person workshops when the time comes.

If you are interested in learning the Unnamed Path and working toward initiation, please contact the teacher above that you’d like to study with via email and they will arrange your class schedule with you. Class seating is limited so get in touch soon!

Show Highlights:

• Hyperion discusses the events surrounding the protest by the trans community against Z. Budapest at Pantheacon 2012
• Conjure Doctor Corner on healing spells

Episode 70 – Interview with Devin Hunter of the Modern Witch Podcast

Show Highlights:

• Interview with Devin Hunter, host of the Modern Witch Podcast, available at http://www.devinhunter.net/Podcast.htm
  
• Conjure Doctor Corner segment: Hot Foot Spells

Episode 69 – Initiation

Show Highlights:

• Initiation in The Unnamed Path takes place at the end of your training but signals the beginning of your personal spiritual journey
• Hyperion discusses the requirements for initiation into The Unnamed Path
• How to deepen your relationships with the Gods and Goddesses prior to initiation through devotional rituals, contact work and shamanic journeys
• Conjure Doctor Corner segment: Lodestone Magic

• Class Frequency: classes are taught through Skype every other week, and usually last about 1.5 to 2 hours in length
• Class Fees: classes are $30-$50 per lesson, on a sliding scale according to your ability to pay
• Class Commitment: The apprenticeship consists of approximately 25 classes. Attendance is mandatory. You may only miss up to three classes and each missed class must be made up with the teacher at a later time. During the apprenticeship students are required to meet with Hyperion, in-person twice: once for workshops and hands-on training, and the second time for the initiation ceremony at the end of study.
• Class Size: Classes will be limited to 10 students, first come first served
• Initiation: The Unnamed Path Classes are a road toward initiation in the tradition. At the end of your study, having met all requirements, you will be eligible for initiation and adoption into the Tribe of the Unnamed Path

If you are interested in participating in the Unnamed Path apprenticeship classes, join our Unnamed Path yahoo discussion group. Class details will be announced there.

Show Highlights:

• Pathworking to meet the Dark Goddess in the Underworld
• Black mirror and black candle recommended for tools
• Wear black clothing
• Music for the pathworking by Alio Die “Internal Top” from the album “The Memory Pool”

Episode 67 – Seership

Show Highlights:

• Seership is a unique system of prophecy used in the Unnamed Path to fetch information from the guides, Gods or ancestors
• Learn how to use the “half-trance” to visit the Well of Eternity to fetch information
• Seership is used in the Circle of Sight holiday and can also be used as a skill to enhance your perceptions of the spirit world
• New podcast format: 1st part discussion, 2nd part exercise, 3rd part a “Conjure Doctor Corner” segment
• Conjure Doctor Corner segment: Cleansing Magical Bath

Show Highlights:

• Hyperion clearly defines Deathwalking and the various parts of this magical art
• The Ancestral Altar is the focal point of working with the spirits of the dead
• The Staff of the Dead is used to call the spirits up when working with them
• Hyperion discusses how to set up an Ancestral Altar and how to consecrate a Staff of the Dead
• How to heal the spirits of the dead to assist them in moving on with their spiritual evolution
• How to buy graveyard dirt and use it in magic

Show Highlights:

• Hyperion discusses several concepts around the Unnamed Path at a deeper level
• The Unnamed Path is its own unique spiritual path – it is not wicca or neopaganism
• A deeper discussion into the Light God/Dark God relationship as a sacred homoerotic evolutionary experience
• Hyperion explains the Great Crossroads at greater depth, dispelling the misconception that it is “calling the quarters” or “casting a circle”

Show Highlights:

• Hyperion helps define the Dark Night of the Soul
• The Dark Night of the Soul is associated with spiritual and physiological shifts that can lead you into a deeper, visceral spiritual experience
• The Dark Night is a good time to work on emotional issues, dispose of self-limiting beliefs, and cultivate the Shadow Self
• Use your magical relationships to help you cultivate new spiritual practices and delve deeper into spiritual principles
• Hyperion discusses his own Dark Night of the Soul that led to a deepening of his experience in the Unnamed Path

Show Highlights:
• Sacrifice comes from the latin words: sacer (holy) + facere (to make)
• Historically sacrifice took the form of animals, foods, rare herbs and spices as a way of pleasing the gods
• Modern sacrifice requires giving up our time, money, effort, and information toward our spirituality
• If we sacrifice just 10% of our lives toward our spiritual practice, we make our entire lives a sacred experience

Show Highlights:
• Pathworking to meet the Light Goddess in the Upperworld
• White candles or flowers recommended for tools
• Wear white or light-colored clothing
• Music for the pathworking by Steve Roach & Vidna Obmana “The Memory Pool 2″

Show Highlights:
• Resonance is a spiritual principle that is native to MWLM (no translations necessary)
• The Principle of Resonance: Like vibrates with and amplifies like
• Resonance is what makes magic work in all-MWLM circles
• Magic is fueled by the power of the Shadow Self
• Both Resonance and Polarity work – it just depends on how your Shadow Self is tuned

Show Highlights:
• Hyperion interviews Dr. Matthew, a clinical psychologist, to discuss the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on our spirituality and sexuality as men-who-love-men
• HIV/AIDS brings out all of our unresolved issues as individuals and as a community
• Death-accepting spiritual paths tend to draw HIV positive men, and can assist us in overcoming our fears around mortality
• HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, yet we still associate them with death
• The evolution of safer sex practices affected our ability to connect, trust one another and be intimate in relationships

This is not a medical discussion about the transmission risks of HIV nor is it a discussion about safer sex practices and HIV prevention, see your doctor or local gay and lesbian center for assistance in finding information on those topics.

I also pay for the hosting of The Unnamed Path directly out of my pocket and the costs of keeping it up are getting harder and harder to afford. If you can help it will also assist me in keeping the Unnamed Path online.

Our store can be found at http://unnamedpath.spreadshirt.com. I will be buying several to wear at Pantheacon this year! See you all there.

Show Highlights:
• Pathworking to meet the Dark God in the Underworld
• Stang, skull and/or black candle recommended for tools
• Wear black clothing
• Music for the pathworking by David Hykes

Show Highlights:
Hyperion gives a personal account of the battle for marriage rights in California, Proposition 8 and what we can do to help combat ignorance.

Show Highlights:
• Scrying is a form of prophecy that requires a visual focal object upon which the gaze is rested until ideas and images come to the mind
• Typical forms of scrying foci include: crystal ball, black mirror, bowl of water, fires, smoke
• Hyperion discusses how to prepare for and conduct a reading using scrying techniques
• Discussion of common mistakes when scrying and what to avoid as you develop this talent

Hello friends, brothers and spiritual kin,
I find myself in a very angry place at the moment. Here we stand on the precipice of a very important election, and not only is the future of our country in question, but the future of our rights as human beings are being threatened.

On the California ballot there is a proposition being put up for the vote that would explicitly take our rights away as granted to us by the California State Constitution. Proposition 8 is precisely worded to eliminate the right for gays and lesbians to marry and codify it into the State Constitution overriding our long-standing constitutional principle that everyone in our state is treated equally regardless of sex, national origin, religion or sexual orientation. This would be the first time in California history that discrimination is codified into the Constitution to explicitly take away one group’s rights.

There are currently many advertisements on television and the radio spreading lies about the implications of the recent California Supreme Court decision, namely that somehow churches would lose their tax-free status or that kids would be forced to learn about gay marriage in schools, etc. These are all false. We have protections in place in state law that would prevent these things from happening. Because many of you don’t have time or don’t know where to research these things for yourself, I provide the following link for your edification:

Proposition 8 Fact vs. Fiction

Don’t believe the lies. Don’t fall for the fear campaign. But more importantly, please don’t take away my rights as a citizen of this state and as a human being. Please vote NO on Proposition 8 this November. I know I’m not a second-class citizen and I certainly hope you feel the same way.

Show Highlights:
• Poverty and financial hardship affect out ability to apply ourselves toward spiritual growth
• We have inherited cultural values that money is dirty and its involvement in any spiritual activities somehow corrupts those activities
• This has resulted in rampant poverty in the pagan/spiritual communities
• Changing attitudes about money and prosperity will help you improve your financial situation
• How to improve your finances by looking at active and passive expenses and income

Show Highlights:
• Review of previous two podcasts and the things you need to have in place before doing A Perfect Mate spell
• You have to be in a mental place where you don’t “WANT” a relationship
• Shell spell for a perfect mate
• Candle spell for a perfect mate

Come joins us at The Unnamed Path Discussion Group today! And all are welcome – Men-who-love-men and our supporters.

Blessings,
Hyperion

If you live in the greater Los Angeles area of Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, etc.) and are interested in taking classes directly from me on all of the information presented (and not covered) in the Unnamed Path podcasts, please contact me via email and we will arrange an in-person meeting to discuss specifics.

This will be an apprenticeship in the truest sense. I teach a hands-on approach to magical studies, and you will only get as much out of this class as you put into it. We will cover the basics: shamanism, magic, prophecy, energy healing and deathwalking as well as ceremony creation, personal alchemy, addressing gay issues and building leadership. This apprenticeship will take in the form of 2-3 hour long classes twice a month, with an additional ceremony added in here and there.

Cost: $20 per class
Requirements: Must be a Man-who-loves-men, of sound mind and free to decide for yourself in good faith (legal adulthood age)
Length: This apprenticeship will last at least a year with a Rite of Passage at some point in the education

If you are interested, please contact me and tell me a few details about yourself, what drew you to this path and what your magical experience is like, and if you have tried any of the Unnamed Path yet.

Blessings,
Hyperion

Show Highlights:
• Loving yourself first having your own needs met
• Preparation and materials needed for a spell to fall in love with yourself
• Detailed discussion on how to create a candle spell to fall in love with yourself
• How to observe candle burning behaviors as indicators for your spell’s success

Show Highlights:
• Discussion of the reasons most love spells don’t create lasting results
• Things to do in preparation for love magic
• Self-introspection is required prior to any love spell
• A Love-Uncrossing Magical bath is described as a technique for working through your own issues around love

I also welcome any suggestions for topics that you might want to hear about. Feel free to post suggestions under this entry and let me know what you’d like to hear about!

I send you all my blessings and thanks! Happy Spring!

Show Highlights:
• Hyperion answers a question submitted by Peter Paddon of The Crooked Path Podcast on Gender and Polarity in Magic
• Polarity is experienced differently for MWLM as we embody both masculine and feminine characteristics within us
• When MWLM work together in a magical setting, we experience a “Mirroring” effect where our energies are amplified between us like two mirrors facing one another
• Polar compliments are experienced between mirroring pairs of men
• Polarity can be used to raise energy for healing, magical work, sacred sexuality and more

Show Highlights:
• Hyperion discusses his perspective on experience over book knowledge
• Hyperion explains his past training in Wicca, The Druidic Craft of the Wise, Palo, Santeria, The Minoan Brotherhood, Shamanism and Reiki
• Learn about how the Unnamed Path came together

Show Highlights:
• The Medicine Pouch is a spiritual talisman that represents the collection of your spiritual alliances
• It is filled with durable objects that represent totem animals, energies and spirits that are given to you through your shamanic work, each of which has significance in your spiritual path
• Learn how to add and remove items from the pouch
• No one should handle your medicine pouch, and it should be kept hidden and private
• Spirit Tribes are smaller divisions of the greater tribe of Men-who-love-men, each has a totem animal spirit that guides it
• Your Spirit Tribe Totem Animal will help you in your spiritual role that you play in the greater fate of humanity
• Learn how to find your Spiritual Tribe Totem Animal

Show Highlights:
• Each magical goal can be linked with one or more of the elements in terms of their nature
• Fire goals: Protection, courage, action, energy, fiery cleansing and purification
• Water goals: Emotional issues, love, peace, tranquility, dream work, calming cleansing and purification
• Earth goals: Money, work and career issues, property, possessions, health and healing, animals, ancestral work
• Air goals: Mental clarity, study, learning, communication, travel, planning
• Colors meanings are discussed in detail, and sample spells are cited incorporating color symbolism

Show Highlights:
• Troubleshooting meditation: how to avoid falling asleep, and how to quiet the chattering mind
• Other Gods and Goddesses: how do we view other gods outside of the Unnamed path
• Clarifying the relationship of the Gods in the Unnamed Path with one another
• Prosperity and Spirituality – discussing how giving and receiving applies to spiritual work
• Suggestions for Shamanic Music tracks and whether its appropriate to use headphones

Show Highlights:
• These are messages received from the Dark God during a Spirit Circle in October of 2007
• We are living in an era ruled by fear and consequently have disconnected ourselves from one another and from the earth. We need to heal this in our society by refusing to succumb to fear and living fearlessly
• The time for religions and “traditions” is dead, now is the era for individual spiritual exploration and personal truths
• We get too wrapped up in the complexity of rituals thinking that they are more powerful or effective. Instead of sparsely performed complex rituals, we should focus on consistently repeated small spiritual actions (like lighting a candle or walking outdoors) to keep us constantly in the spiritual current
• God is not all white, and love – God is non-judgmental blackness

Show Highlights:

• This pathworking will take you on a ritualized semi-guided meditation to formally meet the Light God
• Tools needed include: the stang, or alternatively the wand, and a white candle – placed in the east
• Your Great Crossroads should focus toward the east and you should sit facing the east or lay in the east when performing the meditation

Show Highlights:
• Holidays in the Unnamed Path are closely tied to what’s going on in the environment around you and the changes in nature
• Our holidays are gatherings where we offer our spiritual gifts to the greater community; there are anywhere from 3 to 5 different ones
• The Circle of Blessing (occurs when the crops in the area are being planted) – magical goals are brought to the Shamans to be manifested
• The Circle of Light (occurs when diseases start arising) – Shamans gather in a large circle offering energy healing to the members of the community
• The Circle of Bones (occurs when the leaves start falling from the trees – or what ever time best correlates to death in your environment) – Deathwalkers gather together and act as channelers allowing others to contact their dead loved ones
• The Circle of Sight (occurs at the peak of the year) – A single shaman acts as a “seer” or prophet and enters into a trance allowing others to have their questions and answers divined
• The Circle of Mysteries (occurs when the local wildflowers start blooming) – The sacred sexual union of the Dark and Light Gods is enacted through two MWLM, experiencing the mysteries of our sexuality

Show Highlights:
• Our society teaches us to think with a “lack mentality” – that there isn’t enough in this world and that we have to compete for everything
• In order to receive you must give, and in order to give you must receive
• To gain more of anything, you need to work against “lack mentality” and give that very thing away
• To assure your magic happens, establish what you need to give in order to receive your magical goal ahead of time, and give that very thing away prior to doing the magical work

Show Highlights:
• Secrecy has been maligned in our society mainly due to its abuses by authority figures or ruling organizations like the government or church
• Secrecy is actually a magical tool that helps build intensity and energy behind what is kept secret
• Secrecy should be used to help manifest your magical goals as well as any positive things in your life
• Openly discussing things drains energy out of them and can be used effectively to release or unravel negative past experiences such as emotional pains or abuses – these things should never be kept secret as they will gain in power and strength

Show Highlights:
• An attitude is merely an emotion held for a long enough period of time such that it becomes a state of mind
• Attitudes are self-perpetuating
• Your attitude colors the conditions of your life, not vice versa
• Gratitude can help you shift your attitude toward positivity and solutions-oriented thinking instead of defeatist or victim thinking

Show Highlights:
• This pathworking will take you on a ritualized semi-guided meditation to formally meet the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men
• Tools needed include: the skull with a black candle on top, or alternatively the Cauldron (failing both, a simple black candle will do) – placed in the north
• Your Great Crossroads should focus toward the north and you should sit facing the north or lay in the north when performing the meditation

Show Highlights:
• Ceremonies to honor the dead reflect the values of their originating cultures, and so, too, should the ceremonies in the Unnamed Path
• Ceremonies to honor the recently departed should focus on giving the living the solace they need, an opportunity for communication with the dead to calm their worries, and assist the recently deceased in traveling into the Underworld
• Ceremonies to commemorate anniversaries of deaths should focus on remembering the deceased and offering communication with them
• Two sample ceremonies are given for honoring the dead

Show Highlights:
• The Spirits of the Land are the intelligences associated with he geography of a place, the plants, animals and natural phenomena
• We seek to form relationships with these spirits in order to empower our magic and help us bring balance back into nature
• Types of Spirits of the Land include: Guardians of the Land, Plant Spirits, Land Spirits, Genius Loci, Shamanic Forces of Nature and more
• Learn how to introduce yourself to the Guardians of the Land and begin to form alliances and relationships to deepen your magic

Show Highlights:
• Pathworking is a ritualized semi-guided meditative exercise
• Pathworking varies from guided meditation in that not everything is described for the participant, allowing him to have his own unique experiences and spiritual encounters
• Pathworking is an effective way to meet Gods, Goddesses, guides and other spiritual entities and establish/build relationships with them
• The Great Crossroads is used in conjunction with Pathworking and tools to set the proper magical environment to begin contacting the desired spirit
• Future podcasts will contain specific Pathworkings to meet the Light God, Dark God, Light Goddess, Dark Goddess, Ancestors of Men-who-love-men, Spirits of the Land and more

Show Highlights:
• Prophecy is the magical art of seeing patterns in fate and predicting outcomes
• There are many forms of prophecy including divination, scrying and prophetic vision
• Prophecy is a most-likely forecast for how things will turn out if you don’t change anything
• Prophecies should be used as guidelines to decide whether to change behavior and affect the future or not
• Be careful when reporting death, disease, divorce or disaster – planting such a strong prediction in a person’s mind can actually lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Doubting yourself will only disconnect you from your divine current of inspiration and information – never doubt yourself when engaging in prophecy

Show Highlights:
• There are three parts to the self: the Higher Self, the Conscious Self and the Shadow Self
• In the Unnamed Path we strive to heal the Shadow Self and integrate it into our total being
• The Shadow Self needs to be healed in order to become an effective magician and powerful spiritual person
• Starting a Shadow Journal is an effective way to summon forth the Shadow Self so that it can be healed
• Healing techniques include Energy Healing, Shamanic Journeys, calling upon your guides and animal totems to assist you (especially your fear totems), and Sexual Energy Healing
• Learn how to meet your Shadow Self in a shamanic journey

Show Highlights:
• Learn how to create your own personal spiritual practice in order to live The Unnamed Path
• Personal experience and application of a spiritual path with always outweigh book learning or academic knowledge
• A good place to start practicing the path is with 20 minutes of meditation 5 days a week
• One day a week, you can do some work in one of the four parts of the Unnamed Path: Shamanism, Magic/Prophecy, Energy Healing, Deathwalking
• On special occasions, or as you feel motivated to, you can perform special ceremonies
• Honor the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men as you feel motivated to
• Setting up either an altar or a special space where you can do spiritual work will help you apply yourself toward spiritual practice

Show Highlights:
• The Unnamed Path is not for everyone – it is a lonely path that requires lots of dedication and deep inner-plane work
• Self-Determination empowers the individual to create his place in society instead of allowing society to determine his value
• Coming out of the Shaman’s closet allows you to live your life freely, honestly and to fully serve as a spiritual leader for your community
• Divination techniques for how to determine your area of specialization within the Unnamed Path as a Shaman, Energy Worker, Deathwalker or Magician

Show Highlights:
• Contacting spirits is done through a ritual facilitated by Deathwalkers in order to retrieve lost lore and information, receive guidance, assist spirits in their spiritual process after dying and to help other people with their spiritual path
• Our capacity to love as Men-who-love-men is the key to communicating with spirits – love is the very fabric of the universe and we can reach through it with our natural talent, to speak with spirits and bring them into our space
• Spirit contact work seems to work best after dark, and during the Fall or Winter when many things on the earth are dying away
• The skull is used as a magical tool to create a portal through which we summon forth the dead
• Your spirit guardians and patron and matron deities should be invoked prior to starting so that they can protect you and manage the spiritual traffic that will approach you during this ritual – nothing can get past them
• Make sure to magically cleanse at the beginning and end of the ceremony with blessed water and/or blessing potions – this can also be done throughout whenever you feel negative vibrations on you or need to smooth out your energy
• Spirit possession can occur during spirit contact circles at varying degrees – be prepared by assigning a spotter to each medium that is possessed, and ask the spirit questions about it to get to know it, as well as to gain any advice or clarity you might need.
• Hyperion answers questions from listeners

Show Highlights:
• The outcome of sex between Men-who-love-men is an explosion of healing energy, where as the outcome of sex between a man and a woman is life/procreation
• The healing energy that comes out of sex results from a collision of the spiritual and physical worlds in the moment of orgasm between men
• This energy can be directed toward healing emotional, spiritual, mental, or physical imbalances
• Some men are naturally called toward healing others in a sexual contact: They are sexual energy healers
• Sexual Energy Healers used to play a critical role in ancient societies as priests for the gods, in modern times where sex has been maligned, they have been ostracized, labeled as whores, sluts or worthy of death or disease in order to steal their natural power away from them
• Sexual Energy Healers are sacred and play an important role in our society’s balance and should be honored as such
• Learn how to use sexual energy healing in your own intimate encounters

Show Highlights:
• Religious wounds are the self-limiting, judgmental ideologies that pervade our thinking even though we no longer participate in organized religion
• Religious wounds manifest in our lives as we try to fit into a heterosexual model of living with no success, when our drives, desires and tuning is completely different from heterosexual men
• These wounds not only cause us to have dysfunctional lives, but also create divisions amongst us in our own community of men-who-love-men
• Religious wounds need to be healed in order to progress in your spiritual development: questioning all “should” statements in your ideology is a good place to start
• Create your own world-view as a representation of the truth you’ve experienced in life, not out of others’ beliefs you’ve been spoon-fed

Show Highlights:
• Spirit Possession is a temporary altering of the consciousness, a displacing of the spirit and identity in the medium to allow an entity to enter into his body and communicate directly with others
• In ancient cultures Spirit Possession was considered one of the most crucial methods of connecting to the divine and was expected to happen in religious or spiritual contexts
• Possession occurs on a spectrum of intensity from as light as a simple trance to as deep as a complete displacement of the medium’s identity by the spirits
• Spirits of the dead, Spirit Guides or Gods can all possess an individual
• Spirit Possession requires that the medium be skilled in psychic “listening” techniques and that he have an established relationship with a spirit

Show Highlights:
• Magical Cleansing it the process of breaking apart and removing negativity or chaotic energy and replacing it with peaceful, divine, protective energy
• Magical Cleansing is used in Spirit Contact work throughout the ceremony to facilitate communication, clear off negative energy or heal other people
• You can energetically cleanse things using several techniques including smoke, fluids, or energy
• Good cleansing herbs that can be used include: sage, hyssop, frankincense and myrrh, rosemary and others.
• Call upon your spiritual relationships to your patron deities, guides, the ancestors or the spirits of the plants you are using in order to have the most effective Magical Cleansing possible.

Show Highlights:
• There is a marked absence of effective spiritual leadership in our community
• Men-who-love-men need to learn leadership skills in order to move into our place in society as spiritual leaders and assist our brothers in coming together and bettering our communities
• The qualities of leadership are: Love, Integrity, Compassion, Transparency, Humility, and Patience
• Learn ways of cultivating leadership within yourself by asking what Love would do, or asking yourself how you’re helping any given situation
• As Spiritual Leaders we are servants to our people – we are accountable to them – we have no authority over their free will, nor do we lord over them
• Respect is commanded, not demanded – Spiritual leadership is something you cultivate within yourself, and in response, others will request that you move into that position.

Show Highlights:
• Forming a Spiritual Alliance with an Ancestor of Men-who-love-men is a mutually beneficial arrangement
• The Ancestor becomes your Spirit Guide for the year and assists you with personal issues or a major change in life, in turn they move into the Upperworld and jump ahead in their spiritual evolution
• The Red Meal (Housle) and Treading the Mill are used to contact the spirit and forge the alliance with them
• A Spirit Ally can act as a guardian during Spirit Contact (Tapping the Bone), as a guide for Energy Healing suggestions, as an assistant in accomplishing magical goals or as a guide during Shamanic Journeys
• The Alliance lasts one year and requires maintenance from both you and the Spirit

Show Highlights:
• The Red Meal is a ritualized sharing of bread and wine with Ancestors, Gods or Spirits of the land
• Breaking of bread symbolizes the rending of flesh, and moistening the bread with wine represents the blood issuing forth from the flesh, consumption of the the results in an exchange of spiritual essences with the God or Ancestors with whom the meal is shared
• The Red Meal can be performed after Treading the Mill, after Tapping the Bone, or simply as an act of gratitude, or as a spiritual contract with another entity

Show Highlights:
• Treading the Mill is a group magical process that builds energy, creates vortexes or portals to travel through the worlds
• Mills are traditionally tread in a counter-clockwise (widdershins) direction in concert with the energy of the earth, or the Underworld
• You can Tread the Mill clockwise (deosil) jeh-sul in order to work with solar/Upperworld energy as well
• Mills that are tread in places of power are more intense energetic experiences, but they can be centered anywhere
• Treading the Mill using a tool as the central axis of movement brings focus to the working and evokes the power of that tool in the magic
• You can Tread the Mill to travel to the Underworld or Upperworld if shamanic journey work or meditation are not as productive for you

Show Highlights:
• Spirit Guides choose us, and their success is intimately tied to our own
• Spirit Guides are ascended master – formerly Mighty Dead – who have elected to take a position to assist humans in achieving our fate
• Spirit Guides are best contacted through shamanic journeys or meditation – practices that quiet the mind
• Spirit Guides choose you because they faced similar issues in their human existences
• Totem Animals are spiritual forces that help you integrate qualities into your life to deal with issues
• Dancing your Totem Animal is a great way to cement a relationship with them and show them gratitude for their help
• Some Totem Animals are life-long companions, others are transitional for specific periods of your life
• In addition to Totem Animals there are Plant Totems, and even Rock or Mineral Totems – all seeking to assist you in raising your vibrations and perceptions so that you can eventually work with Spirit Guides

The above symbol (the blue lines) was given to me by the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men as a means of opening a portal to communicate with the dead. It is drawn energetically with your hand or the wand, over the skull. The circle is drawn first, and then the pairs of lines. I like to draw the two pairs of vertical lines first – they are drawn inward toward the center of the circle. Then I draw the two horizontal pairs of lines – they are drawn outward away from the circle. I then use my hands to dilate or open up the circle as a portal and reach through it with my capacity to love in order to summon the Ancestors to be present for the Tapping of the Bone ritual.

Show Highlights:
• Magical tools assist you in directing energy, have symbolic meaning in ritual and are used to establish relationships with other forces
• Ultimately, magical tools can be of any type as long as it feels powerful for you, and spiritually calls to you
• The Staff (or wand) is used to push or direct energy and as a tool of authority
• The Cauldron is a symbol for the Dark Goddess’ Cauldron and is used in rituals based on the life/death/rebirth mysteries
• The Skull is used as a portal to communicate with the Ancestors and is a symbol of the Dark God
• The Hearthstone is used in magical groups (only) as a symbol of the heart of their magical tribe
• The Working Space is not an altar, per se, but is a desk or surface upon which you can craft magic and store your tools
• Consecration essentially involves: cleaning something, dressing something, energetically charging it, and marking it as your own

Show Highlights:
• The Sacred Sexual union with the priesthood is called the Hieros Gamos (sacred marriage), and can be enacted with any two polar opposite spiritual forces, not just male/female
• We have a heritage as men-who-love-men, of being sacred sexual priests in ancient temples, providing this service as a spiritual communion with the divine for the participants
• Sacred Sexuality requires an open heart, understanding of how to move energy, seeing the God within you and your partner, emotional connectedness with your partner, and self-love
• When two men make love, their sexual union unleashes healing energy for themselves and for their society
• Learn the step-by-step process to have sacred sex

Show Highlights:
• The healing system of the Unnamed Path is fueled by Universal Life Force, channeled through our unique capacity to love and directed by the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men
• The recipient’s body knows how to use the energy to reestablish balance and harmony on physical, spiritual, mental and emotional levels
• The healing energy is channeled through the practitioner, not from the practitioner, and requires an open heart in order to flow
• Learn a few basic techniques for tuning into someone before beginning a session, as well as working in groups of three
• Learn some of the history of how this technique was revealed

Show Highlights:
• As gay men we often develop a fragmented sense of what it means to be a man due to societal rejection, parental upbringing or behavior ideals that we are raised with
• A fragmented sense of masculinity can either be expressed through an adoption of feminine traits, behaviors and ideals as a surrogate to the masculine ideals we can’t meet, or a hypermasculinity expressed through obession about physique, highly competitive tendencies, vanity, aggression, etc.
• An in-depth inventory of the values you were raised with and a consequential acceptance or rejection of those values can help you begin the healing of a fragmented sense of masculinity
• Learn a few more techniques for healing fragmented masculinity
• Ultimately healing lies in an acceptance of your own divinity, your personal masculine beauty, a love for your body, modes of expression, interests, values and traits, and a healing of your self-image issues

Step 1 – Write down a magical goal as if you already have it. What do you intend to have as the final outcome?

Step 2 – What is your feeling about the situation. Why do you want this magical goal? What is the desire that’s fueling this goal?

Step 3 – Evaluate whether this desire is rooted in a relaxed feeling (love) or a tense feeling (fear)

Step 4 – Ethical check: “Is this in alignment with your true nature?”

Step 5 – What concrete images will you visualize as your final goal?

Step 6 – Do the magic

Show Highlights:
• Motivation is one of three things needed in order to be a powerful magical person (Energy, relationship, motivation)
• Motivation is a combination of intent and desire
• Motivation is what fuels your magic into being
• Exercise 1: Preparing for magical work
• Exercise 2: Making magic happen

Show Highlights:
• Negative emotions separate us from our true nature – which is love
• Healing and working through negative emotions is necessary for better emotional health, and for our well being
• “Reviewing” is a technique whereby you review the incident that caused you to have an emotional reaction in a relaxed physical state, over and over until you can picture it without encountering physical tension in your body
• “Peeling” is a technique wereby you discover the origins of your emotional patterns and can then directly heal them and prevent future reacitons
• Both techniques are aided through the use of gratitude for the opportunity for growth, as well as self-introspection by asking yourself “why did I manifest this in my life?”

Show Highlights:
• Creating sacred space acknowledges the sanctity of the area within which you will be doing magical work
• Sacred space is created by raising “The Great Crossroads” – a magical practice that calls forth our understanding of the spirit world into the physical world
• The Great Crossroads is a three-dimensional diagram that explains the relationships of the elements (fire, water, air and earth) to one another, to the gods, and ourselves
• Raising the Great Crossroads prior to shamanic journeys, magical workings, spirit contact circles and energy healing is a great way to call up the energetic relationships you have to assist you in your work
• A step-by-step account of how to Raise the Great Crossroads is discussed, and also captured on the website

This diagram captures the cosmology of the Unnamed Path, and reflects the relationships of the elements to our self, and the deities to our self. This diagram is meant to accompany podcast Episode 16 – Sacred Space / The Great Crossroads.

North
Earth
Color: Black
Qualities: Solidity, Physicality, Manifestation
Force of Creation: Death
Art: Deathwalking

South
Air
Color: White/Clear
Qualities: Thought, Intellect, Ideas
Force of Creation: Life
Art: Energy Healing

East
Fire
Color: Red
Qualities: Will, force, action, creation
Force of Creation: Activity, Light
Art: Magic and Prophecy

West
Water
Color: Blue
Qualities: Feelings, desires, reactions
Force of Creation: Receptivity, Dark
Art: Shamanism

Up
Light God
Qualities: Divine perception, Selflessness, Angelic
Force of Creation: Angelic self

Down
Dark God
Qualities: Desire satiating, Self-focused, Animalic
Force of Creation: Bestial self

Inside
Dark Goddess
Qualities: The field of potentiality before time and space ever exist
Force of Creation: Void

Outside
Light Goddess
Qualities: All manifestation in every possibility
Force of Creation: All Creation

1) Either lay down on a comfortable surface or sit in a high-backed chair with arms that will fully support you as you completely relax.

2) Start by relaxing the body from your feet all the way to your head. Make sure to focus on tensing the muscles as much as you can, then releasing them and letting them flop down under their own gravity. This will assist your body in fully feeling the difference between tension and relaxation.

3)  Now that the body is fully relaxed, start relaxing the mind using deep breaths. Take anywhere from 5-10 deep breaths. Make sure you’re breathing diaphramatically (feel your belly rise and fall with each breath.) With each inhale, relax, and with each exhale release the tensions and troubles of the day. Exhale them out like blowing out the smoke of negativity.

4) Remain in mental quietude thoroughout the exercise. If you start to experience “mental chatter” like stray concerns or worries, simply acknowledge them and tell yourself “now is not the time, I’ll deal with that later.” Focus on the heaviness and relaxation in your entire body. If you ever start to tense up again, just focus on deep breathing and regaining that deep heaviness in your body.

5) If you choose to “pray” or communicate with a specific deity or entity, you can do so by picturing what you would like to discuss with them in your mind. Couple your mind pictures with the motivation and intent to communicate with that deity and the desire to know the answers to your questions. Then return to your meditative mental quietude and become receptive to any answers or inspirations.

6) Answers and inspirations will come either in the form of ideas in your mind, pictures in your mind, or feelings in your body like a warm fuzzy feeling (for a positive answer) or an empty nothingness (for a negative answer).  Continue this back and forth dialogue as long as you feel in necessary.

7) When you are done with your meditation, express some gratitude to the spirit or guide you were communicating with and then start the process of “coming out” of the meditation. Take ten deep breaths, and with each breath feel your awareness returning to the physical room around you. Become aware of your body, wiggle your toes and fingers, stretch and when you are ready open your eyes.

Show Highlights:
• Magical Relationships are one of the three important things to have in order to be a powerful magical person: energy, relationships, motivation
• Relationships, once cultivated, allow you to call upon the spirit allies you have to immediately effect magical change in the world with little to no ritual
• Magical Relationships are built like conventional relationships: formality and regular communication at the beginning evolve into a more casual communication style over time
• Formal methods of communication include: meditation, shamanic journeywork, tapping the bone, etc.
• Informal methods of communication are as simple as daydreaming, zoning out and listening for information or just having a common dialogue with the god or spirit you are seeking to contact – these can be done once a magical relationship is built over time
• Learn the art of Meditation, step by step.

Show Highlights:
• Spirit Contact is the act of communicating with spirits of the departed
• Reasons for contacting spirits include: retrieving lost lore, deepening your psychic skills, gaining perspective and understanding for your own issues, forging alliances with spirits for magical work, communicating messages from the departed to their loved ones after, gaining better abilities to eradicate mischievous spirits and more.
• The Unnamed Path uses special techniques to safeguard against mischievous or misleading spirits including working with tutelary deities, engaging spirit guardians, and using the unique capacity to love that we as Men-who-love-men have as a filter to be absolutely sure that the information we are receiving is valid and rooted in love.
• The Skull and Candle are a tool we use in the contacting of spirits. It acts as a portal through which we can summon the dead as well as through which we can assist the dead to cross over to the Underworld. It is a symbol of the Dark God and the enlightenment that’s found in spiritual balance between the Right and Left-hand paths in spirituality.
• More details on spirit contact will be discussed in future podcasts.

Show Highlights:
• Ethics versus Morals – defining each and their benefits versus the consequences
• In the Unnamed Path we follow an ethical guideline “What is in alignment with my true nature?”
• Ethics allow the individual to decide from himself and determine what to do through deep personal introspection and spiritual work.
• You cannot fail at life
• If you act in accordance with your true nature you will also act in accordance with your Fate and life will become much easier to handle.

Show Highlights:
• Exploring unhealthy or dysfunctional attitudes toward death within our society
• Why talking about Death is important
• Step-by-step process that happens at death
• Birth, sex and death are the three most powerful magical experiences for humans
• Humanity’s fate and destiny is to return to the Cauldron of the Dark Mother upon death
• The Mighty Dead are able to “cheat fate” and escape the Cauldron of the Dark Mother to remain as guides in the underworld
• The services that a Deathwalker performs for his community

When visiting Palm Springs this weekend, my partner and I decided to take a day hike to an ancient sacred native site – Indian Canyons. Here, the geology of the desert is such that springs burst forth from the tilted rock mountains creating valleys bursting with life in an ordinarily rocky, dead location.

The canopy of palm trees overhead shaded the land and dropped the temperature by about 15° F. As we hiked deeper into the canyon, all traces of humanity disappeared, and the pristine land came forth. This area is virtually untouched by humanity – the only evidence is a worn footpath of dirt paralleling the small stream. Many of the trees were blackened from a fire that must have happened recently, and yet all of the trees were green and lush. I stopped for a moment and listened deep into the heart of the earth. My eyes vision went slightly out of focus as I “zoned out.” I reached out with my soul, using the capacity to love that we as Men-who-love-men inherenty have, and spoke with the spirits of nature.

“I come with an open heart, a desire to know your ways and a deep respect for your kind. I ask for your permission to proceed.” I said. The guardians of the land made their presence known and they beamed with happiness for the shaman that was about to enter their paradise. “This is the land of fire, rock and wind. We have shaped this land and it is our domain. Humans have been coming into our territory and unnaturally introducing foreign plants, invading water and shifting the balance of life here. We don’t need your help, as our kind have ever dwelt here and can handle the situation, but we ask that you bring the awareness of the invasion to others.” the guardians said in chorus. “I shall do as you ask. Can I give you some energy to assist in you in your work in recovering from the fire that happened here?” I asked. “No… fire is a normal part of our life, and we can handle it.” the nature spirits responded.

We continued on our trek snaking along the small stream. I could hear ancestral laughter and see figures out of the corners of my eyes. The people who originally lived here led happy lives. They were in harmony with the earth and the forces of nature. They depended on the stream and the palms for their livelihood. Children used to float palm frond boats in the stream. Women wove baskets out of the leaves. men carved the trunks into containers. It was true harmony.

As a shaman and deathwalker, I have learned to quiet my inner mind chatter and turn my spiritual ear toward the land and toward the ancestors. I’ve learned to listen to their voices from the past, share their stories and take away whatever wisdom they are willing to impart. This time around they merely wanted me to share their story with others, and remember that the important thing in life is the time we spend with others, the relationships we have, and remembering to always approach everything with the joyful innoncence of a child.

Show Highlights:
• Energy is the intangible part that makes up everything in the spiritual world as well as the backroads of the Middle World
• Source for energy include: the earth, the universe, the ancestors, the self and more
• Energy is used in every one of the four parts of the Unnamed Path
• Energy is directed either through Motivation (desire and intent), Body (breathing, sex, dancing, etc.), or Visualization
• Excess energy should be grounded and not held onto
• World Tree Breathing Exercise
• Recapitulation of Creating Sacred Space for Shamanic workings with an understanding of how to move energy

This diagram goes along with the podcast “Love and Fear” to assist you in understanding and comparing Love’s qualities and associated desires versus Fear’s qualities and associated desires.

I took a trip to Toronto, Canada this weekend to visit one of my dear friends, meet his partner and get to see the sights. One of the things I definitely wanted to experience was the energy of the Great Lakes. Having never been to this area before, I couldn’t really imagine what it would be like to stand on the shores of the giant, ancient masses of water.

My friends and I headed out on a cold, snowy day to the shores of Lake Ontario – my goal was to acquaint myself with the Guardians of this land. The temperature was sub-freezing, and the wind howled from the land out across the water. I stood at the edge of the slumbering still lake. It’s slate gray waters mirrored the soft gray sky. Bravely removing my hands from my jacket into the biting cold air, I took a few deep breaths and reached out to the Guardians of this ancient land with my heart.

As my heart opened, I let the land spirits know that I came with respect in my heart and a sincere desire to know more about them. The Guardians came forth and showed me their forms. Four giant spirits towered around me. Before me in the center of the lake stood an elusive Giant Watery Guardian of the Lake. To my left stood a crystaline Rock Guardian. To my right stood a massive Tree Guardian, and behind me stood the cold Ice Guardian. Their massive forms reached high above me, and welcomed me as a sincere seeker of wisdom.

I then took some deep breaths and began the process of merging with the land spirits. As I reached down energetically with my now freezing hands, I began to pull the energy of the land up into my feet and legs, up into my hips and torso, and all the way up to the top of my head. As I did so, I raised my hands as if I was pulling the fabric of the land itself up over my head and in the process felt as if my body had descended deep into the heart of the earth. I then reversed the action and as I brought my frigid hands back down I pushed some of my own energy down through my feet into the earth until I felt I had returned as much energy as I had received.

The land there is ancient – some of the oldest rocks on the surface of the planet. It was explained to me that the four Guardians of the Land protect and maintain balance in this area, and that they created the topography of this land: ice, rock, tree and water. They also explained that it was currently the reign of the Ice Guardian which is why the reign of the next Guardian had not yet begun (the Tree Guardian.) They were explaining the late snow fall and why I perceived as if Spring had not yet arrived to this land. (Keep in mind I live in Southern California, and everything is in full bloom right now.)

The spirits of the land thanked me and let me know that I was welcome to return at any time and that they would help me out if I ever needed it. These Guardians felt very different than the ones back home – which also feel giant, but not as distinct or old. Then again, California is very geologically young by comparison, so I’m not surprised. This led me to understand that while indeed, the land is all one, it does have distinct parts that are presided over by different energies and currents that maintain its unique ecosystem.

I bid the Guardians farewell with thanks in my heart and as I turned to leave the shores of Lake Ontario, the wind picked up and bit through my skin to my bone. I pulled my jacket’s hood up over my head, jammed my freezing hands back into their pockets and ran back to the car for shelter. All hail the Ice Guardian and his phenomenal power!

Show Highlights:
• Every thought has an emotion associated with it – they occur in tandem.
• Every emotion has an associated desire – a need to put energy in motion toward some end effect
• Desire is the motivation that propels our magic into manifestation
• There are two main categories that all emotions fall into: love and fear
• Fear is tense, separating, harmful and physical while love is relaxed, healing, cooperative and spiritual
• The kind of emotional reaction you are having can best be figured out by doing a body check for tension

Show Highlights:
• This is the first lesson of many to come on the topic of Magic
• The mind thinks in pictures
• The physical world is a direct manifestation of your thought patterns, whatever you “see” with your mind you create around you
• There is no such thing as a random thought. All thoughts come from originating thoughts or attitude you hold in your mind
• No one “does” anything to you, you only create every experience in your life. As such, you have a responsibility for your thoughts
• Use the fact that Thought is Creative to your advantage. Actively choose thoughts to manifest good things in your life. This is the cornerstone of magic

Show Highlights:
• The World Tree is a visual metaphor for the structure of the spiritual world that is found in many cultures around the world.
• The World Tree has three parts – The Upper world (branches), the Middle world (the trunk) and the Underworld (the roots)
• The Upper world is the land of the Gods and guides, the Middle world is the physical world of relativity we live in along with its energetic backroads, and the Underworld is the land of the Ancestors and the Mighty Dead
• Fire and Water have unique meanings and purposes in the World Tree and act as portals to transport you to different areas of the Spirit World
• The World Tree is not linear – the branches grow up under the roots and support the Underworld from below.
• Many cultures have captured the experience of the mystic gaining wisdom and enlightenment in the story of him hanging from a tree (The World Tree).

Show Highlights:
• A Shamanic Journey is a spiritual pathworking undertaken with the assistance of music or entheogenic plants to alter the consciouness into a shamanic consciousness (trance)
• Shamanic Journeys are often surreal, experiences defy the laws of physics and are non-linear and illogical
• Shamanic practices come naturally to us as Men-who-love-men because of our unique ability to reach through the fabric of the universe
• We can benefit from Journeywork by accelerating our spiritual growth, helping us gain a greater understanding of situations, gaining wisdom from our guides and the Gods or ancestors, and it can assist us in working through our spiritual pains from the past or through future worries
• How to conduct a Shamanic Journey

This weekend I facilitated a shamanic journey for some friends. While they all made themselves comfortable on the ground, I lit my sage wand until I had sufficient wafts of its cleansing smoke coming off of the end. I stood in the center of our space and connected myself to the Underworld, pulling the dark shimmering energy up into my body. I reached out for the Upperworld and pulled the brilliant white energy down into my crown and into my body, mingling the two energies of the faces of the God. I called to the spirits of the land, asking for their assistance and their support to our process, and finally I called in the spirit guides, ancestors and teachers to be present for this journey.

I faced north, and drew the symbol I was given for earth with the smoking sage wand. I pushed the wand through the symbol offering smoke to the spirits of the land in the north. I turned to the right and drew the symbol for fire and offered smoke to those spirits. I then turned to the right and drew the symbol for air and repeated the same process with water for the west. I honored the Light God above, the Dark God below and the Dark Mother that is at the center of all things. With the space properly cleansed and prepared, I sat on a cushion with my drum in my lap and began to lead the travelers on their journey.

With a very slow steady rhythm I guided them through a relaxation, counting from 13 down to 1 – each number getting them into a deeper state of relaxation. When they reached 1, I had them visualize the World Tree before them. They took a moment to feel, experience and make a relationship with the World Tree, then when they were ready – they sought out a hole near the base of the tree. The rhythm picked up to a fast dronal pace, and they entered the hole and began their journey.

Travelling on the beat of the drum, they journeyed the landscape of the spiritual world, meeting guides, ancestors, having spiritual truths explained to them in visual language, metaphor and surreal experiences. As they journeyed, I stayed present in the physical world, but my consciousness had also shifted into the shamanic state. While I wasn’t travelling I was watching over their bodies, drumming and monitoring the energy. A veil of mist formed over their faces letting me know that they were deep in the midst of their journeys. My hand ached from the continued drumming, but I let the discomfort take me deeper into my own shamanic consciousness. I struggled to stay in the present as my spirit wanted to fly on the rhythm. After about twenty minutes of drumming, I began the call-back rhythm: one loud strike with several quick lighter strikes, repeated over and over again, letting the travelers know that their journey was coming to its end. They found their ways back to their bodies, and at the last strike of the call-back rhythm, I began to speak again.

“Return, return… find your way back to your body by the same route you left it. Step out of the hole at the base of the World Tree and give your thanks to the Tree. Touch its bark, feel the texture, smell the aroma, and know that you can return to this place any time you’d like.” I then began a very slow steady rhythm like the one I originally began with and guided the travelers through a count up (1 to 13) in order to bring them out of their trance and into a normal waking consciousness. “Thirteen, you are fully awake and present in the physical world. When you are ready, open your eyes.” The travelers stretched their legs, tightened their fists, wiggled their toes and opened their eyes, returning to the physical world.

“How did it go?” I asked. One by one they each told their stories of their experiences. Some saw more than others, some had a harder time getting into the trance than others, but each received and experienced exactly what they needed to in their own visual language. The pervading message between all three journeys was that we had our own power to create our own experience and that we needed to put it to use. I was honored to facilitate the journey and be able to help my MWLM brothers travel the spirit world.

Last night I made a visit to my favorite little cemetery. It’s the oldest cemetery in the city and it’s open all night long – no gates, no guards – just dead folk. I paid my 9¢ at the entry to the cemetery to honor the Dark Lady and went in. I had two objectives in mind: to connect with the spirits of the land, and to visit the ancestors of Men-Who-Love-Men.

First, I picked a nice grassy area in the middle of the cemetery and then did an exercise to merge with the land. This cemetery is special because it lies along a ley line (energy line). The ley lines, for the most part in Southern California, follow the lines of the major faults in the area. It is as if the cracks in the earth allow the energy of the underworld to seep up and radiate out across the land allowing fertility and creation to manifest there.

In order to merge with the land, I placed my feet firmly on the ground and called out to the spirits of the land. I asked them respectfully to show me their wisdom and to help me form a relationship with them. I then reached out with my heart and gut down into the earth below me and pulled the energy of the land up through my body. As I pulled it up into my body, I raised my hands on either side to help it move into me. By the time the energy was at about shoulder height, I actually felt not so much as if the land energy was moving into me, as I was sinking into the land. When I pulled the energy all the way to the top of my being and had my hands held high over my head, I reversed the process. I brought my hands down and as I did so, I pushed my energy down into the earth in a sacred marriage between myself and the land. In that merging, I made a relationship with the guardians of the cemetery and the spirits that move through the land in that spot. The cemetery suddenly felt VERY comfortable and welcoming.

I then began my process of entering the trance and traveling into the underworld. I started to turn the mill counter-clockwise to open a portal down into the underworld. I walked forward around the circle with my left hand extended toward the center of the circle and my gaze fixed upon the center of all things. As my pace quickened and my breathing intensified, I felt myself starting to tread down into the land. I went faster and faster until at one point I looked up and saw the middle world above me and then collapsed into the center of my portal and let the journey happen.

I went to the bonfire in the underworld and visited the Ancestors of Men-Who-Love-Men and they were very happy to see me. I asked them what they thought of the podcasts that I had been doing and they liked them. They told me I’ve given enough spiritual foundation that now the time has come for me to speak about the issues we as gay men face in society and how these spritiual practices can help heal them or overcome them. My podcasts are going to reflect that change a bit more – to show how this is truly a gay men’s spiritual path. When I was ready to return to the middle world I turned to leave but I felt a presence next to my physical body. I heard breathing. I asked who he was and what he wanted. He was the one gay spirit buried in that cemetery who wanted to go up to the Upper World. He was done roaming there. He literally said, “Can I go with you?” and I said yes.

I asked my guides to assist me with the process and they hooked him onto my back. I then stood up in my trance and began turning the mill in the opposite direction – clockwise – in order to work my way to the upperworld. I moved faster and faster, around and around until I looked up and saw pure brilliance then I stopped. As the spirit disembarked from my back, I began to spin and get dizzy and stumble about and finally ended up on all fours shuddering as he detached from my energy field. He was glad to go – and my spirit guide took him to his destination.

It took me a moment before I came back to physical reality. Mission accomplished. The work of the deathwalker was done.

Discussed Links:
Between the Worlds

Show Highlights:
• Gay men have a unique relationship with the feminine divine force in nature
• The Goddess is the mistress of Fate, the owner of action and consequence, the Queen of witches and magicians and is akin to the field of all possibilities in the universe
• There is a Light Goddess and a Dark Goddess who represent the different currents of energy beneath all of existence
• The Goddess can teach us about the mechanics of the universe and can help us work through our fears and issues
• How to form a relationship with the Goddess

Show Highlights:
• Explaining how a heterocentric perspective on God alienates gay men
• God within the Unnamed Path is gay and reflects the uniqueness of our own capacity to love
• There is a Light God and a Dark God – which are each other at different phases of their experience
• The Light God and Dark God are lovers that unite to create transformation and personal evolution within us
• The Third Face of God – in the middle world – is found in us and everything around us
• How to form a relationship with the Gods and yourself

Show Highlights:
• Who the Ancestors are, and where can they be found
• The unique Men-who-love-men Ancestral lineage that gay men can call upon
• The benefits of communicating with the ancestors
• A brief explanation of a few techniques for contacting the ancestors

Show Highlights:
• A definition of what The Unnamed Path is
• The four parts of the spiritual tradition: Magic and Prophecy, Shamanism, Energy Healing and Deathwalking
• The Unnamed Path is being revealed to us through contact with the Ancestors of Men-who-love-men
• A mention of Andrew Raymer’s Two Flutes Playing as an inspirational book that affected my personal spiritual path
• Upcoming podcasts will include spiritual beliefs and practices of The Unnamed Path as well as politics and social issues that we face as men-who-love-men