By Maria Popova (themarginalian.org)

There are things in life that come over you sudden as a flash flood, total as an eclipse — the great loves, the great creative passions, the great urges to conquer a mountain or a theorem. They can feel like an alien invasion, like the immense hand of some imperative has seized your soul from the outside. But when you look back on them once they have had their way with you, if you are awake enough to your own life and conscious enough of your unconscious, you come to realize that they were not a possession by some external force but dispossessed parts of you yearning for integration. This is why our states of possession are some of the most profound experiences we can have as human beings — they are both revelations and transformations of the self, those eruptions of the psyche that raise new summits of possibility for our creativity and our vitality.

The Jewish German analytical psychologist Erich Neumann (January 23, 1905–November 5, 1960) devoted his life to investigating these invisible processes, finally formulating his ideas in four essays published under the title Art and the Creative Unconscious (public library) just before his death.

Erich Neumann

Almost entirely forgotten today, Neumann influenced some of the great modern shamans of the psyche — particularly Carl Jung, who was once his teacher and in whose own writings on creativity I first came upon the passing mention that led me to Neumann’s work. He was especially interested in the relationship between creativity and the archetypal undercurrents of the psyche, the complexes pulsating beneath our conscious experience, the psychic transformations possible when we fully own our creative energy — transformations that often begin with an experience of possession. He writes:

Every transformative or creative process comprises stages of possession. To be moved, captivated, spellbound, signify to be possessed by something; and without such a fascination and the emotional tension connected with it no concentration, no lasting interest, no creative process, are possible. Every possession can justifiably be interpreted either as a one-sided narrowing or as an intensification and deepening. The exclusivity and radicality of such “possession” represent both an opportunity and a danger. But no great achievement is possible if one does not accept this risk.

Remember: “You are here to risk your heart.” And if love and work are the twin strands of meaning in our lives, the two great creative endeavors of being alive, it is there that we are most prone to possession, there that we risk the most. What we risk, of course, is ourselves — the transformation of the self by the force of what the possession reveals in us: the abandoned and alienated parts of us longing for inclusion in our conscious experience.

Art from An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days, also available as a stand-alone print and as stationery cards.

Neumann writes:

[States of possession] presuppose a disunity of the psyche, whose integration is an endless process. The world and the collective unconscious in which the individual lives are fundamentally beyond his mastery; the most he can do is to experience and integrate more and more parts of them. But the unintegrated factors are not only a cause for alarm; they are also the source of transformation.

Transformation, however, is one of the great human paradoxes and one of the starkest illustrations of the limits of our imagination — we can never fully imagine who we are and what life is like on the other side of a total transformation, and so we either dread it or dismiss it. (See the excellent Vampire Problem thought experiment.) This, Neumann observes, is because our only reference points are partial transformations:

The word transformation… embraces every change, every strengthening and slackening, every broadening and narrowing, every development, every change of attitude, and every conversion. Every sickness and every recovery are related to the term transformation; the reorientation of consciousness and the mystical loss of consciousness in ecstasy are a transformation.

[…]

Most striking are those transformations which violently assail an ego-centered and seemingly airtight consciousness, i.e., transformations characterized by more or less sudden “irruptions” of the unconscious into consciousness. The irruptive character is experienced with particular force in a culture based on ego stability and a systematized consciousness; for in a primitive culture, open to the unconscious, or in a culture whose rituals provide a bond with the archetypal powers, men are prepared for the irruption. And the irruption is less violent because the tension between consciousness and the unconscious is not so great.

We have all experienced such “irruptions” that feel like alien invasions whenever the physiological foundation of the psyche is dysregulated — in illness and pain, in extreme hunger and thirst, in states of exhaustion or intoxication. In such moments, the unconscious begins to bubble up through the cracks and produces moments of epiphany, conversion, sudden illumination. (Virginia Woolf experienced it in the context of illness and physicist Freeman Dyson contacted it by “going into a sort of semistupor after forty-eight hours of bus riding.”) And yet these personal transformations, as sudden and strange and all-consuming as they may feel, can only ever be partial because, Neumann observes, they “apply only to the affected ego and consciousness, not to the total personality,” that fractal of the universal. Drawing on Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, he writes:

What we encounter most often are partial changes, partial transformations of the personality… Unless changes in consciousness go hand in hand with a change in the unconscious components of the personality, they do not amount to much… Possession by a personal complex, an emotional content, leads only to a partial transformation that overpowers consciousness and its center, the ego… Whereas partial changes in the personal unconscious, in the “complexes,” always influence consciousness at the same time, and changes effected through the archetypes of the collective unconscious almost always seize upon the whole personality.

An absorbing creative process — one characterized by what later psychologists have termed “flow,” or what Octavia Butler called “a sweet and powerful positive obsession” — can begin as such an “irruption.” (That is what I experienced with my bird divinations, which arrived as a kind of possession that took hold of me daily for months.) And yet, Neumann observes, while all creative work requires some element of possession, what distinguishes great art is that the possession is not the end point of the creative process but a stepping stone to a higher-order motive force serving not self-realization but universal revelation. With an eye to philosopher Martin Buber’s concept of the I-Thou relation, he writes:

The individual who stops in his possession and whose productivity is based on a monomania, an idée fixe, occupies only a low rank in the hierarchy of creative men, though his achievement may still be significant for the collectivity.

Creative transformation, on the other hand, represents a total process in which the creative principle is manifested, not as an irruptive possession, but as a power related to the self, the center of the whole personality. For partial possession by a single content can be overcome only where the centroversion that makes for wholeness of the personality remains the guiding factor. In this event the law of psychic compensation leads to an unremitting dialectical exchange between the assimilating consciousness and the contents that are continuously being newly constellated. Then begins the continuous process characteristic of creative transformation — new constellations of the unconscious and of consciousness interact with new productions and new transformative phases of the personality. The creative principle thus seizes upon and transforms consciousness as well as the unconscious, the ego-self relation as well as the ego-thou relation. For in a creative transformation of the total personality, a modified relation to the thou and the world indicates a new relation to the unconscious and the self, and the clearest, though not the only, indication of psychic transformation is a change in the relation to extrapsychic reality.

Although the creative process, in all its gripping possession, feels so profoundly personal, in its highest form it is inseparable from the universal, from the immensity of the one reality we share, the one experience we share — the fundamental unity which sparked quantum pioneer Erwin Schrödinger’s koan-like pronouncement that “the over-all number of minds is just one.” We habitually lose sight of that oneness as the mind splits into consciousness and the unconscious. Creativity is what we call the process of integrating the two so that we may feel more fully and see more deeply into the nature of reality. Neumann observes:

When we consider the totality of the human psyche, in which consciousness and the unconscious are interdependent both in their development and in their functions, we see that consciousness can develop only where it preserves a living bond with the creative powers of the unconscious… It must not be forgotten that the outside world that we apprehend with our differentiated consciousness is only a segment of reality, and that our consciousness has developed and differentiated itself as a specialized organ for apprehending this particular segment of reality… We pay a heavy price for the sharpness of our conscious knowledge, which is based on the separation of the psychic systems and which breaks down the one world into the polarity of psyche and world. This price is a drastic curtailment of the reality that we experience.

The triumphs of creative work invite a return to that unified reality:

In [great works of art] a fragment of the unitary reality is apprehended — a deeper, more primordial, and at the same time more complete reality that we are fundamentally unable to grasp with our differentiated conscious functions, because their development is oriented toward a sharper perception of sections of polarized reality. In the differentiation of consciousness we seem to be doing the same thing as when we close our eyes in order to enhance our hearing, in order that we may be “all ears.” Unquestionably this exclusion sharpens and intensifies our hearing. But in thus excluding the other senses we perceive only a segment of the total sensory reality, which we experience more adequately and fully if we not only hear it but also see, smell, taste, and touch it.

[…]

In the rapture and beauty of the creative moment… consciousness and the unconscious momentarily become a creative unity and a third term, a part of the one reality.

And so Neumann locates creativity at the crossing point of possession and openness — the place where the intrapsychic forces impelling us in a certain direction meet the willingness to look outward in all directions, to open the self to the universe and the oneness of reality, the world in its completeness and its infinity. With an eye to what he calls the essential “receptive component” of creative work, he observes:

Always and everywhere [the creative person] is driven to rediscover, to reawaken, to give form to this world. But he does not find this world as though seeking something outside him; rather, he knows that this encounter with full reality, the one world, in which everything is still “whole,” is bound up with his own transformation toward wholeness. For this reason he must, in every situation, in every constellation, refresh the openness into which alone the open world can enter.

Emily Dickinson at work. Detail from art by Ofra Amit for The Universe in Verse.

All four essays in Art and the Creative Unconscious are a revelation. Couple these fragments with Carl Jung on creativity, then step inside the processes and possessions of some of the most creative people alive.

 April 28, 2025 (menalive.com)

By  Jed Diamond

                Frederick Marx is an Academy and Emmy nominated filmmaker and author. He most well-known for his film Hoop Dreams. In a recent article by Shahnaz Mahmud published by the Sundance Institute Mahmud says,

“Once in a while a rare film comes along that demonstrates cinematic storytelling at its absolute finest, shaking us to our core and encouraging us to think differently about the world we live in.”

                He goes on to say,

“Hoop Dreams accomplished that — and so much more. The sports documentary, which chronicles the lives of two inner city youths in Chicago as they pursue dreams of playing professional basketball — and escaping their dangerous environment — is still perceived as seminal work.”

                Hoop Dreams left Marx wondering who exactly is doing what’s necessary to mentor adolescent boys across the threshold into maturity.  He made the TV mini-series Boys to Men? to find out, wanting to hear directly from teen boys themselves how they approach the challenges of adult masculinity.

                Marx has created many more films, books, and articles through his company Warrior Films.

                In his book, Rites to a Good Life, Marx says,

“I think the greatest crime of the last two centuries has been the countless millions of children who have been brought into the world but never taught to discover their unique purpose in life.”

                He goes on to quote Michael Meade who reminds us of what’s at stake:

“When a culture doesn’t provide formal Rites of Passage or initiations, people find their own. Or they don’t find them and never really find the traction of their life. And when a society or culture doesn’t attempt to create circumstances in which that can be worked on creatively, then you get usually destructive versions of them.”

                We recognize the effect of these missing Rites of Passage in the behavior of many of our boys as well as many adult males at all levels of society — from our bedrooms and boardrooms to our federal government. 

“All these men have something in common,” say psychologist Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette. “They are all boys pretending to be men. Their kind of ‘manhood’ is a pretense to manhood.”

                The historian, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, describes political leaders throughout the world who are “boys pretending to be men.” In her book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, she says,

“For ours is the age of authoritarian rulers: self-proclaimed saviors of the nation who evade accountability while robing their people of truth, treasure, and the protections of democracy. They use masculinity as a symbol of strength and a political weapon. Taking what you want, and getting away with it, becomes proof of male authority. They use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power.”

Dr. Mark Schillinger and The Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend (YMUW)

                All young people, males and females, need Rites of Passage. However, when they are missing for our boys and young men, the results are disastrous for everyone. There is an African proverb:

“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

                We are all aware of the violent behavior of uninitiated boys and men.

                The Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend was founded by Dr. Mark Schillinger, DC. Mark was inspired by Brad Leslie who started a weekend mentoring program for young men in Vancouver, Canada in 1990. Mark took his son to this program and when he returned he knew he needed help raising his son as a single parent.

                He put out a call for help in the Bay Area and with the commitment and cooperation of dozens of caring mothers, fathers, and mentors the Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend was born. I had the opportunity to interview Mark for one of my recent podcasts. We had a lively discussion which you can watch here.

                In 2012 YMUW was one of 25 organizations selected to participate in the first International Rite of Passage Council, founded by Frederick Marx. YMUW has now produced more than 50 initiation events, graduating more than 3500 young men. I asked Mark to tell us a bit more about the weekend.

“The purpose of the weekend is to provide young men with a weekend filled with incredible fun and challenges, while building a foundation for a confident and successful adulthood, through learning the importance of teamwork, developing a sense of accomplishment and acquiring leadership skills.”

                I recently received an email from Mark about an upcoming weekend.

“We’re excited to announce that registration is now open for the 2025, Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend. a modern, wilderness-based rite of passage adventure camp for young men ages 13  to 20.”

                This life-changing weekend, featured on CNN’s, “This Is Life with Lisa Ling,” gives our sons the opportunity to:

• Step away from digital distractions.
• Be mentored by experienced, trained, men of our community.
• Face meaningful challenges designed to build his character and confidence.
• Discover who he truly is and how he wants to show up in the world.
• Channel his energy constructively.

                The next weekend will take place on June 19-22, 2025. You can get more information on this weekend as well as other events for young men and their families by visiting the Young Men’s Ultimate Weekend Website: https://www.ymuw.org/.

                You can also get more information about this event and other supportive programs for young men and their families by contacting Mark directly:

Phone: (415) 479–4100
Email: help@ymuw.org

Our Office:
119 A Paul Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903
(Note this is not the location of the weekend).

                You can also learn more about Frederick Marx and his work by visiting his website: https://warriorfilms.org/.

                If you would like to read more articles like these, please feel free to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter here: https://menalive.com/email-newsletter/

Previous Article

Best Wishes,

Jed Diamond

---

Founder and VHS (Visionary Healer Scholar) of MenAlive

by Kittredge Cherry | (qspirit.net)

Last Updated on May 4, 2025 by Kittredge Cherry

Julian of Norwich is a medieval English mystic who celebrated “Mother Jesus” and had important relationships with women. Her feast day, May 8, always falls near Mother’s Day in the United States.

She had some queer ideas about God, shared her hermit’s cell with a woman, and spent many days communing with another powerful woman mystic, Margery Kempe. Julian is also listed with LGBTQ saints because of her genderbending visions of Jesus and God. She wrote, “As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother.”

Her discussions of Jesus as a mother sound radical even now, more than 600 years later.  Her omnigendered vision of the Trinity fits with contemporary feminist and queer theology.

Mother’s Day is also a great time to honor mothers whose love for their LGBTQ children helped launch organizations such as Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), founded by Jeanne Manford and Adele Starr.

Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1416) is the first woman to write a book in English. The book, “Revelations of Divine Love,” recounts a series of 16 visions or “showings” that she experienced from May 8-13, 1373, during a severe illness when she was 30 years old. Just having mystical experiences is rather queer because it goes beyond standard ways of knowing. The book includes Julian’s most famous saying, “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well” — words spoken to her by God in one of Julian’s visions.

After her recovery Julian went on to become an anchoress, a type of recluse who lives in a cell attached to a church and does contemplative prayer. Becoming an anchoress involved an impressive ceremony with a requiem mass before the doorway was literally sealed with bricks.  Her hermit’s cell was at the Church of St. Julian in Norwich. The cell had three windows, a church window for viewing worship and taking communion, a window for daily life, and a window to the street for communicating with the world. She became known throughout England for the spiritual counseling that she gave there.

Little is known about Julian, but she was probably born in 1342 in Norwich and lived there for her whole life. She probably came from a wealthy family that provided financial support for her life at the anchorage.

Julian of Norwich and her cat by Tobias Haller.

Julian was famously allowed to share her room was a cat — officially for the practical purpose of keeping it free from rats and mice. Many believe she developed a friendship with her cat companion. She has been depicted with her cat by many artists including frequent Q Spirit at least two whose work appears frequently at Q Spirit: Tobias Haller and Doug Blanchard.

Julian had important relationships with women

Julian lived as a recluse in a hermit’s cell, but she was not as isolated as is often supposed.  A cat was not her only companion.  A room for a servant was often attached to the cell, and in this space the anchoress and her servant form formed a long-term bond. Julian shared her cell at different times with women named Alice and Sarah. These companions are described as her “servant” or “maid.”  But history suggests that sometimes a same-sex partner was called a servant to hide from social disapproval of homosexuality. Others whose same-sex “servants” were dearly beloved include the centurion and his “boy”, Boris and his servant George, and Good King Wenceslas and his “page” Podiven. Julian’s live-in companions Alice and Sarah are known because devout patrons gave bequests to them and Julian in their wills, documenting the significance of their relationships.

Julian also had an important relationship with another trailblazing woman writer and mystic, Margery Kempe. They appear together in the image at the top of this post. This queer side of Julian is explored in the chapter “Queer Touch Between Holy Women: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Birgitta of Sweden, and the Visitation” by scholar Laura Saetveit Miles of the University of Bergen, Norway, in the 2019 scholarly book “Touching, Devotional Practices, and Visionary Experience in the Late Middle Ages.” It “takes a new approach to the well-known meeting between two late-medieval English visionary women, Margery Kempe and the anchoress Julian of Norwich,” thereby revealing “the full transgressive effect of queer touch between women—or even its unspoken possibility,” according to the chapter summary.

When Margery Kempe wrote the first autobiography in English, she described her long and intimate visit in 1413 with Julian, the first woman to write a book in English. Their literary landmarks sound impressive now, but at the time English was the low-ranking local dialect of the common people. Scholars used Latin, and English was in the early stages of replacing French as prestige language of England’s government.

Kempe was in her 40s when she visited the elderly Julian. Kempe was seeking approval for the visions that she received from God. During their many days together, Julian assured Kempe that her visions were genuine and counseled her about spiritual life. They shared their visions and became chosen family, calling each other “sister.”

Here’s how Kempe described their connection in “The Book of Margery Kempe”: “Much was the dalliance that the anchoress [Julian] and this creature [Kempe] had by communing in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ the many days that they were together.” This text is updated from Middle English to modern English, but Miles points out that both “dalliance” and “communing” had a wide spectrum of meanings, from conversation to sexual union. Anchoresses were allowed to have overnight female guests, so it’s possible that Kempe stayed overnight in the cell with Julian.

Some say that Julian entrusted her handwritten book manuscript to Kempe, who preserved it and lent it to close friends to copy and circulate. The printing press was not yet invented. The unpublished manuscripts were carefully preserved by a long and mysterious chain of guardians that included an English convent of Benedictine nuns in France. Women were preserving women’s writing over the centuries, despite harrowing clashes with authorities during the Protestant Reformation and French Revolution. A Benedictine monk published a translation in 1670, but it got little attention. Finally in 1901 Grace Warrack, a Scots Presbyterian, discovered a copy made by French nuns at the British Library, painstakingly copied it by hand, translated it into modern English, and introduced it to an enthusiastic 20th-century audience. Based on gender stereotypes, many readers assumed that the author of such profound spiritual visions must be a man, especially since the name Julian is more common for men. Many of the most popular and best-remembered historical women in the Q Spirit’s LGBTQ Saints series were writers, including Julian, Perpetua, and Hildegard of Bingen.

Julian lived a long life. The date of her death is unknown, but records show that she was still alive at age 73 to receive an inheritance in 1416.  She was never formally canonized, but Julian is considered a saint by popular devotion. The Episcopal and Lutheran Churches keep her feast day on May 8.

Julian wrote of God as mother

Julian is considered the first Catholic to write at length about God as mother. Her profound ideas speak powerfully today to women and queer people of faith. A popular theory is that Julian drew on her own personal experience as a mother whose children and husband died in the Black Plague before she became an anchoress.

Here are a few short quotes from Julian’s extensive writings about “Mother Jesus”:

“So Jesus Christ who sets good against evil is our real Mother. We owe our being to him–and this is the essence of motherhood! –and all the delightful, loving protection which ever follows. God is as really our Mother as he is our Father.“ (Chapter 59)

“So Jesus is our true Mother by nature at our first creation, and he is our true Mother in grace by taking on our created nature.” (Chapter 59)

“A mother can give her child milk to suck, but our dear mother Jesus can feed us with himself, and he does so most courteously and most tenderly with the holy sacrament, which is the precious food of life itself… The mother can lay the child tenderly to her breast, but our tender mother Jesus, he can familiarly lead us to his blessed breast through his sweet open side….” (Chapter 60)

These quotes come from modern English translations of “Revelations of Divine Love” by Elizabeth Spearing and Clifton Wolters.

Other saints who wrote about God as mother include  Aelred of Rievaulx, Bernard of Clairvaux and Anselm of Canterbury.

“Dame Julian’s Hazelnut” by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM, Prints available at Amazon or TrinityStores.com

Julian saw God’s love in ordinary life

The sacred feminine is just one of the many revelations that have endeared Julian to the public. She also uses objects from ordinary life to illustrate God’s loving, forgiving nature. For example, in one vision God shows Julian a small object like a hazel-nut in the palm of her hand. Julian writes:

“I looked at it and thought, ‘What can this be?’ And the answer came to me, ‘It is all that is made.’ I wondered how it could last, for it was so small I thought it might suddenly disappear. And the answer in my mind was, ‘It lasts and will last forever because God loves it; and in the same way everything exists through the love of God’.” (Chapter 5)

Julian of Norwich in art

Julian is a favorite subject for Tobias Haller, an iconographer, author, composer, and vicar of Saint James Episcopal Church in the Bronx. In addition to the icon at the top of this post, Haller sketched an elderly “Julian of Norwich” was sketched against a lavender background.

“Julian of Norwich” by Tobias Haller

Haller enjoys expanding the diversity of icons available by creating icons of LGBTQ people and other progressive holy figures as well as traditional saints. He and his spouse were united in a church wedding more than 30 years ago and a civil ceremony after same-sex marriage became legal in New York. He is the author of “Reasonable and Holy: Engaging Same-Sexuality.”

“Julian of Norwich,” a memorial drawing for his cat Betty, by Douglas Blanchard

New York painter Douglas Blanchard shows the saint with the artist’s own cat Betty in a drawing done as a memorial tribute to a beloved feline companion who died in 2013. He includes a favorite quote from Julian:

“He that made all things for love,
by that same love keepeth them,
and shall keep them without end.”

Blanchard is best known for his epic series “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” which is now available as a book. He teaches art and art history at the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York.

“Julian of Norwich” by Brother Robert Lentz, OFM,  Prints available at Amazon or TrinityStores.com

Another icon of Julian and her cat was created by Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar based in New York. Known for his innovative icons, he was rebuked by the church for painting LGBTQ saints and God as female.

Many important writers have been influenced by Julian, including 20th-century British poet T.S. Eliot. He quotes her in his masterpiece “Four Quartets,” which led to him receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.

Books about Julian of Norwich

Julian is the inspiration for the queerly creative book “Visions of Divine’s Love: A Drag Theopoetic” by Max Brumberg-Kraus (author) and J. C. A. Freeman (illustrator). It reframes Julian’s 16 visions as 16 poems about the drag queen Divine by a 21st-century professor and film buff — a reimagined Julian — and her unnamed teaching assistant, a novice nun. It was published in 2023 by AC Books.

Recommended book: “Perpetua’s Journey: Faith, Gender, and Power in the Roman Empire (Graphic History Series)” by Jennifer A. Rea (author) and Liz Clarke (illustrator). Published by Oxford University Press, 2017.

Julian of Norwich in song, literature and prayer

“Julian of Norwich, pray for gender fluidity” by Avery Arden of Sapphic Stiches/NeuroQueerCrafting

Various prayers related to Julian of Norwich are in circulation, including “Julian of Norwich, pray for gender fluidity.”  The prayer was hand-sewn onto embroidered patch by artist Avery Smith of Louisville, Kentucky.  Smith runs an Etsy shop called Sapphic Stitches that offers a variety of patches on LGBTA+ Christian and other themes.

“LGBTA+ Christians who choose to pray for the intercession of Saints deserve to have patrons whom they trust understand and support them,’ Smith affirms.  “Whatever Saint or paired-Saint couple resonates with you as an LGBTA+ Christian can be made into a customizable patch.”

The prayer is incorporated into Q Spirit’s Litany of Queer Saints.

Julian’s famous words are set to music in the song “All Will Be Well” by Meg Barnhouse, a Texas-based Unitarian minister and singer/songwriter. The moving song comes from her album “Mango Thoughts in a Meatloaf Town” and is available on YouTube.

A longer quotation from Julian, again including “All will be well,” was set to music by 20th-century Welsh composer William Matthias in his piece “As Truly as God is Our Father.”  it is sung on video by Plymouth Choir of First Plymouth Church, Lincoln Nebraska.

A mug shows Julian with her cat and her best-loved quote: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” Available from the Drinklings Coffee Mugs Etsy shop.

___
Related links:
Medieval anchoresses found spiritual freedom in tiny cells (uscatholic.org)

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To read this post in Spanish / en español, go to Santos Queer:
Juliana de Norwich: Celebración de la Madre Jesús (Santos Queer)

To read this article in Italian, go to:
Gesù come madre. La vita e il pensiero di Giuliana di Norwich (Gionata.org)

___
Related links for Mother’s Day:
Jeanne Manford: PFLAG founder loved her gay son

Adele Starr and others: Patron saints for straight allies of LGBTQ people

___
Top image credit:
Hand holding a devotional card credited as follows:
“Icon by Brother Leon of Walsingham
of the English mystics, Julian of Norwich and
Margery Kempe of Lynn,
at S. Michael and All Angels,
Brighton.
Printed by The Postcard Company Ltd. (028) 8224-9222”
Julian appears on the left.

___
This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.

This article has evolved and expanded greatly since the first version was posted in May 2011. It was published on Q Spirit in May 2017, was enhanced with new material over time, and was most recently updated on May 3, 2025.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

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Kittredge Cherry

Founder at Q Spirit

Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality.She holds degrees in religion, journalism and art history.She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer, advocating for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.

Jesse Boy • Aug 26, 2017 The official channel RE-RELEASE of J Pee’s first music video, I’M NOT GAY. A HUGE thank you to the video’s original producers, Branden Blinn and TBBMG, for allowing me to re-release this on my own channel. Check out more of their content at:

Inferno ???? • Dec 26, 2022 • Content owned by Fox. No copyright infringement intended. ** Note that Family Guy is not family-friendly and may be unsuitable for younger audiences. (Viewer discretion is advised.)

Warner Bros. • Jan 8, 2025 • From the studio that brought you The Notebook, and the creators of Barbarian. ❤️‍???????? #CompanionMovie tickets on sale now. Only in theaters January 31. https://www.fandango.com/Companion New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you “The Notebook”—and the unhinged creators of “Barbarian” cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story… Written and directed by Drew Hancock (“My Dead Ex,” “Suburgatory”), “Companion” stars Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets,” “The Boogeyman”), Jack Quaid (“The Boys,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), Lukas Gage (“Smile 2,” “Dead Boy Detectives”), Megan Suri (“Never Have I Ever,” “It Lives Inside”), Harvey Guillén (“What We Do in the Shadows,” “Blue Beetle”) and Rupert Friend (“High Desert,” “Asteroid City”). The film is produced by the filmmakers behind “Barbarian”—Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Zach Cregger and Roy Lee. The executive producers are Tracy Rosenblum and Jamie Buckner. The cinematographer is Eli Born (“The Boogeyman,” “Hellraiser”). The production designer is Scott Kuzio (“Dumb Money,” the “Fear Street” trilogy). The editors are Brett W. Bachman (“The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Pig”) and Josh Ethier (“Don’t Move,” “Orphan: First Kill”). The costume designer is Vanessa Porter (“The Toxic Avenger,” “Archive 81”). The composer is Hrishikesh Hirway (“Song Exploder,” “Everything Sucks!”). The music supervisor is Rob Lowry (“Do Revenge,” “Miracle Workers”). The casting is by Nancy Nayor (“Saw X,” “Barbarian”). New Line Cinema presents A BoulderLight Pictures Production, In Association With Vertigo Entertainment/Subconscious: “Companion.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters only nationwide on January 10, 2025, and internationally beginning on 8 January 2025.

New Thinkin • Apr 30, 2025 Beverly Rubik, PhD, a biophysicist, is president of the Institute for Frontier Science. She is a former president of the U. S. Psychotronics Association. She is also professor of integrative medicine at Saybrook University. In this video, rebooted from 2019, she points out that the notion of “aether” goes back to Aristotle, although she views it as akin to the Sanskrit concept of “akasha”. It is the matrix within which all experience, and wave-propagation in particular, occur. She describes the thinkers who advanced the idea of the “aether” and she points out how we now have an assortment of new concepts — such as dark matter and dark energy — that have replaced it. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on May 6, 2019)

New Thinking • May 2, 2025 This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1992. It will remain public for only one week.  A professor of hydraulic engineering at U.C. Berkeley, the late James Harder, PhD, was one of America’s foremost specialists in the hypnotic examination of individuals who have had “contact” with extra-terrestrial intelligences. He has testified before Congress about UFOs, and served as Research Director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). He discusses his insights concerning extra-terrestrial societies as a result of over 100 hypnotic sessions. Such civilizations, Dr. Harder points out, may be constructed quite differently from our own.  Now you can watch all of the programs from the original Thinking Allowed Video Collection, hosted by Jeffrey Mishlove. Subscribe to the new Streaming Channel (https://thinkingallowed.vhx.tv/) and watch more than 350 programs now, with more, previously unreleased titles added weekly. Free month of the classic Thinking Allowed streaming channel for New Thinking Allowed subscribers only. Use code THINKFREELY.

Aloha,  

In May, Salon Calvin brings another of the master storyteller William Shakespeare’s plays to enjoy – Othello

This Story tells of our protagonist’s fall, a fall into lies, deception, and destruction. It points a finger at an issue that may not be apparent to its audience until it is pointed out. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to connect with people’s hearts and minds.

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, is a tragedy  Set in Venice and Cyprus. The play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity, with fatal consequences. 

Join us for an evening of  video and conversation like no other

Coming May 30th, 2025

(Contributed by Calvin Harris, H.W., M.)

Elephants lustrating Queen Maya (Sanchi, India) Photo: Anandajoti Bhikkhu

A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg

lustration

PRONUNCIATION:

(luhs-TRAY-shuhn) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. An act of purification by means of rituals.
2. The purging of those associated with crimes committed under an earlier regime.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin lustrare (to make bright). Earliest documented use: 1614.

NOTES:

If you’ve ever tried to cleanse your browser history or remove the lingering influence of a previous group project gone wrong, congratulations — you’ve dabbled in lustration.

Originally used for religious or ceremonial purification, lustration was what you did when your crops failed, your city got a plague, or someone angered Jupiter by parking a chariot in a fire lane. Think of it as spring cleaning for your soul.

In modern political use, lustration took on a sharper edge. After the fall of totalitarian regimes (e.g., post-Communist Eastern Europe), it came to mean the act of cleansing the government of people tied to past abuses.

There’s something poetic in the root lustrare, “to make bright”. You’re not just wiping the slate clean, you’re polishing it until it gleams. Although some politicians subjected to lustration might prefer a dimmer switch.

Logo of the Ukrainian Lustration Committee Image: Ukrainian Lustration Committee / Wikimedia