Happy Thanksgiving from The Grove!!

It's a holiday weekend here in the grove, so I've decided to leave the pixies in charge and have a little fun!! I just hope glitter isn't everywhere when I get back. Last time they were in charge of the grove, there was so much glitter around that I was farting sparkles for days!! Hehe...

Anyway, as you probably can tell by now, I don't have much use for labels but every now and then I think it's good to have a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor to keep us humble. So, even though I am bi-sexual and not gay, I still enjoyed the light-hearted roast of the gay subgenres by Gawker editor, Brian Moylan. The article is titled, "A Handy Guide to All Gay Men" by Brian Moylan.

The gay world is often represented as some sort of monolithic whole that has the same culture. That is a lie. It is actually broken down into a handful of substrata to which each gay belongs. Here they are.

Just like the world at large may stereotype gays as mincing wrist flippers with great taste bent on giving everyone they meet a make over. A queer will tell you that we are all individuals and that those stereotypes are false and horrible.

That said, when the gays see a fellow homosexual in the public sphere, we try to plug them into the convenient taxonomy the community has made for itself. That's right, we have our own stereotypes for each other.

Green Man: As for where I would place myself in these genres? Well, I gotta admit that I'd mostly be the, "Art Fag" (I even have the glasses and artsy facial hair). But, with the following exceptions: I don't feel I am cooler than anyone else. I'm not emaciated and I shave my head. Also, Lady Gaga is my favorite Diva, not Peaches. And, finally, It isn't cheap coke I'm into, but organic cannabis!! Otherwise, I'm more or less an "Art Fag." I know he's not gay or bi-sexual, but Johnny Depp's fashion and persona represent the eccentric artist that I am:The Art Fag:
Body Type: Emaciated, tattooed, usually with some sort of ironic facial hair and an enormous coif. Description: The art fag is cooler than you. He's also cooler than all your friends, and he is not afraid to show it. He is usually an artist (duh), photographer, fashion designer, band member, or something that requires a degree from RISD, FIT, or some other art school that is an acronym. He dresses either in the most current prissy fashions or like a homo version of Terry Richardson, in big glasses, flannels, and jeans that looks so thrown together that it took him hours to put together. You're more likely to find them at a gallery opening or model party, but every so often they'll be at a gay bar to rub elbows, and other parts, with the other homos.

Subcategories: Alternaqueers, gipsters

New York City Hang Out: The Cock

Diva of Choice: Peaches Lady Gaga

Preoccuptions: The hottest club, looking down on things, cheap coke, being bohemian, the outer boroughs

Top or Bottom: Both, but prefer top.

Celebrity Example: Marc Jacobs

Throw in a small bit of sport jock and account for my preoccupation being art instead of "the hottest clubs" and you've got me!! Though, in my 20's I truly was all about the clubs. It's just now, I'm settling down and doing the domestic diva thing. Anyway, I hope that all my American readers have a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday!! And, to everyone else reading, I love you too!!

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Lawrence O'Donnell: Marijuana is Safer Than Alcohol.

A clear and well-reasoned argument on the hypocrisy of alcohol users condemning marijuana users when alcohol is much more dangerous and addictive. Those who call marijuana the "gateway drug" conveniently forget that most marijuana users drank alcohol well before trying the less harmful marijuana. And what about caffeine? There are a lot of people who have caffeine withdrawals.

The Shaman Will See You Now.

PHOTO CREDIT: "Lush Rain Forest" by porbital

Being a novice Shaman, tonight, I am enjoying a show about Amazonian healing methods. I was called to serve by the spirit energy that comes with surviving a severe medical condition. It is said that shamans are called by one of two ways: by your grandparent or parent, or from surviving a severe illness, which gave you access to the vision-realm. I have been both blessed and cursed to carry, "the fire" within myself. Modern medicine would call it "schizoaffective disorder," but in most earth traditions, being able to straddle that mental netherworld is an asset to the Shaman.

It is through my visions or "hallucinations" that I am able to transcend the confines of the mind and intuit deeper understanding. I walk through this world with one foot in "Earth-realm" and another foot in the "Greater Consciousness." When I am most in-tune between those dimensions, I literally see what's happening in my earthy present moment from one eye, and a world of pure transcendence from the other. The vision realm sends me family relatives who have died and now reside in another dimension of consciousness to guide me through lucid dream travels.

The other night, I spoke with my recently deceased uncle in a dream following a week of mental strain. This often happens before a vision, I'll get bad headaches and successive nights before the vision, a purge of bad dreams. It's as though the Shaman is cleansing themselves of all the heavy energy before making contact, so that the connection is strong to allow the best transfer of information. In that dream, my uncle told me that my great-great-grandfather also had the "fire" (schizoaffective) and his energy wanted to tell me that he understands the hardship of the bad effects that come with the "fire" but that it is so worth having. And, to keep courage not to fully cross over into the vision realm before it's time (death).

My grandmother who died has visited me twice in lucid dream travels. Once, directly following her passing. She was (and always will be) my hero in many ways and we were very alike in our energies. So, I was not the least bit shocked when I awoke early one morning around 6a.m. and knew that someone in the family had died. Then, as if on cue, the phone rang. "Hello?" It was my mom, "Grandma just died." I replied, "I know, I just was woken up by her energy as it fluttered off." After about a week following the funeral, I had a lucid dream vision where I spoke with her. It was in a classy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, roaring '20s style hotel, which was a great selection on her part since she was a flapper. I remember being aware I was "dreaming" while floating in the elevator heading up to her apartment.

I realized that I could go up or down with the elevator simply by thinking the direction!! So, "whoosh" I sped up to her floor, high atop this building. I knew it was very high in altitude because I could see clouds passing by the window at the end of the hallway. I continued to float down the hallway toward her room and instinctively knew which door opened to her apartment. I motioned my hand at the door and it glided open, and naturally, I floated smoothly into this suite that looked as though it was forever floating in the dimension of '20s America. I first saw the back of her head in the bob style of her younger pictures, and a cloud of cigarette smoke billowing forth. She smoked for 60 years but died of old age at 94!! As I rounded the couch and gazed upon her face, she looked happier than I'd ever seen her. She was glowing and told me not to worry about her dying but that she'd always be in my visions. I have relied upon her spirit many times to endure the side effects of "mental illness."

I had another dream of her later at the shore of a lake where she was wearing a red cloak and we discussed the importance of love and we shared the beauty of the water around us. How do I know that these dreams are different than any other? Firstly, when I normally dream I don't know that I am dreaming. I'm buried in the context of the dream, which usually is a big murky and sometimes random. But when I have my "visions" I am aware that I am "dreaming." And the lighting is always different in them. It's brighter but not painfully so, and there is always this rainbow sparkling aura or crown of light around nearly every little pixel. The essence of them are crisper and clearer in intensity. In those dreams, I always remark to myself, how different the feeling is from my other dreams.

I know and acknowledge a completely different sensation and understanding when I'm having a "hallucination" versus a "vision." I have them both and they are very distinguishable. When I hallucinate, there isn't a purpose behind them except to flash random sounds or visuals in my vision. However, with a vision, there is always a specific message to be heard. Usually the visions erupt out of a dream in progress. I have a regular dream and then it's from that regular dream where I feel like I open a door out of the dream, while asleep, and enter a whole other dimension where time is occurring just as equally as it is in earth time!!

Anyway, I'll wrap this one up. While watching this shamanic show, the Amazonian priest told of how the plants teach them what powers they have to heal. He uses a machete to make a small cut to a certain tree, and tastes the milk inside it's roots. He says that is how the plants give them insight into their healing properties for the Shaman must try all these medicines before giving them out to others. That is why a Shaman will not leave you alone during a hallucinogenic experience. They walk through the vision with you, every step of the way. That is when their experience with the vision realm comes into value -- to guide you in a realm that can often be disorienting if one isn't use to navigating in a non-earth realm.

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