With the first resignation of a pope in six centuries, a huge energy block has been moved out of the way of human relationships.
For its entire history, the Roman Catholic Church has set the rules for relationships in our society and many others. Yet its own sexual and relational conduct has been so horrific that it has paid out more than $3 billion in settlements for child sex abuse.
Numerous archdioceses have filed for bankruptcy in recent years as a result. The outbound pope has had to use his diplomatic immunity as a head of state to protect him from being sued in the US for personally taking part in the coverup.
Unprecedented in the modern world and with few precedents in the past 2,000 years, the papal resignation was surrounded by some truly astonishing astrology, descriptions of which I will link to in the Internet edition of this column on the beautiful new Chronogram.com (for which I am now writing weekly).
The astrology involved centaur planets, which speak to experiences of wounding and healing, and can bring up all kinds of shadow material. A key player was Nessus, a planet providing information that helps people heal from sexual abuse.
The day the pope tendered his resignation (technically, he abdicated, since he is a form of royalty), lightning struck the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica not once but twice—symbolism so obvious even the most literal-minded person could hardly fail to notice.
Later that week, a massive meteorite struck the planet, injuring more than 1,500 people (miraculously, none were killed) the same day as an asteroid passed within 17,200 miles of Earth (30 million miles is considered by astronomers to be too close for comfort). This was followed by an earthquake in Rome. Yes, the pope quit, and both Heaven and Earth moved.
At the peak of the astrology involving the papal resignation (which came three days later, on Thursday, February 14), there was a conjunction of the Sun and Nessus (the planet about healing sexual shadow material and abuse legacy).
That very day, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights played the role of the Sun, and filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They moved the court to open an inquiry on behalf of The Survivors Network, accusing the pope and the church of crimes against humanity.
Their complaint said that the global Catholic Church has maintained a “long-standing and pervasive system of sexual violence” despite promises to swiftly oust predators, the UK-based Telegraph newspaper reported. This received next to no press coverage in the United States.
“Lawyers for the victims say rape, sexual violence and torture are considered a crime against humanity as described in the international treaty that spells out the court’s mandate,” the Telegraph reported. “The complaint also accuses Vatican officials of creating policies that perpetuated the damage, constituting an attack against a civilian population.”
This scandal has repeatedly exposed the morbid, perverse goings-on inside the church that has preached sexual purity and chastity for the entire duration of its existence.
In November 2012, a film called Mea Maxima Culpa came out that exposed the systematic coverup of sex abuse claims. The film focuses on a Catholic school for the deaf in Milwaukee, where more than 200 students say they were sexually abused by one priest. The film details the systematic coverup of global sex abuse complaints, an effort headed by none other than Joseph A. Ratzinger, who as of February 28, 2013, is no longer Pope Benedict XVI (I will have full coverage of the astrology of the papal election on the Planet Waves blog and podcast). Mars in the chart for the film’s opening hit Ratzinger’s chart like a bomb. He was out less than 90 days later.
What would life be like if we stopped letting these deeply troubled people set the terms of our relationships? I think the world would be less coarse and more relaxed. The terms as set by the church are sex only for reproduction, within the bonds of marriage, with minimal pleasure, at the core of which is the concept that pleasure is sinful.
Many of us have begun to question this. We all know that a lot more is possible, and I would like to talk about some of that today. There has been some attempt to embrace sexual diversity in recent years, though nearly any such movement is wrought with conflict all of which has its roots in church dogma.
We are healing from sexual abuse on the metaphysical level: aimed at nature and origin of existence, shaming the feeling of life itself. This is an attack that goes beyond any one Christian sect or denomination and spreads into the whole population. Now that we can (once again) see this hypocrisy for what it is, we have a question—how and where do we begin the healing process?
We don’t need a sexual revolution. We need conscious sexual evolution, which means many people individuating and living lives of authenticity, transparency, and awareness (the opposite of hypocrisy). The sexual evolution is about being real. That alone leads to growth and healing, because once you’re real, you then must confront and bring to the light all the aspects of yourself that were hidden in the shadows.
The core of sexual evolution is that you are an independent person and so is everyone else. Then you do what you want to do in an ethical way. Part of that ethical way involves honoring independence, sexual choices, and understanding that nearly all of us exist on a continuum with each of our lovers, as they do with us—there are (for nearly everyone) those who “came before” and those who will “come after.”
That leaves plenty of room for deep exchange, safe containers for family, and longterm or even lifelong commitment.
Now that monogamous lesbians and male homosexuals are on the way to full acceptance in society (they have all their credits and have written their dissertation—they are just waiting for the committee to sign off—that would be the Supreme Court, coming soon, folks, we don’t know what they are gonna say), it’s time to open the discussion that sexuality exists on a three-dimensional continuum (not the Kinsey scale), and that every person has a different sexual orientation with every different person we encounter.
That’s not enough for a protest. I cannot march with the “I am hot for Darla” faction of the Queer Pride parade. But the Queer Pride parade is always in factions that often exclude one another. I learned this one year when I was marching with the Masturbation Faction (me and my friend Jenna) and some other faction told me to get away because they didn’t want to be associated with something so queer.
Anyway—here are some ideas about the frontier, about who needs and deserves full inclusion in the conversation of what is possible.
People who are open and positive about sex. I am learning that this is a rare breed—of people who admit the whole thing, stating who they are, who they like, and what they do. They are the people who can carry on a conversation and create the spaces where nothing is taboo.
Self-sexuals, which includes everyone part of the time, and many people much of the time. Many people otherwise engaged sexually have their best sex with themselves. This includes people who choose to be sexual exclusively with themselves; if we were to hear from them we would find out there are a lot more than we thought.
My sense is that this is where the real change—claiming pleasure and releasing guilt and shame—will start or may have already started. I understand conscious self-sexuality to be an easily accessible, pleasurable, socially interesting path to sexual healing.
I have noticed that many people are reluctant to speak up and claim this. I am doing my best to set a different trend. (I may hold the World Internet Record for mentions of masturbation in my articles; as of today, I get 6,060 Google returns on the topic.) I know there are a lot more people who have something to say—who I have yet to hear from (happily anticipating your e-mails).
People who choose themselves as a sex partner, whether “one on one” or in the context of other sexual relationships, have the right to not feel shame about this, and we need to educate one another how to do this.
I took a little surf of my 6,060 Google hits a few minutes ago and found this quote, apropos of self-sexuality, that I wrote a few years back:
“I would propose that masturbation is about a lot more than masturbation—and that’s the reason it’s still considered so taboo by many people, and in many places. First, I would say that masturbation holds the key to all sexuality. It’s a kind of proto-sexuality, the core of the matter of what it means to be sexual. I mean this in an existential sense. Masturbation is the most elemental form of sexuality, requiring only awareness and a body. Whatever we experience when we go there is what we bring into our sexual encounters with others—whether we recognize it or not. Many factors contribute to obscuring this simple fact.”
Polyamory and nontraditional forms of relationships, which includes most people some of the time and nearly all people at some point. This awareness is starting to increase, though at the moment polyamory is at a loss for idea-based leadership and coordination, in the midst of its biggest PR boon ever. The press has never been better and we’re not really taking the opportunity to build on it. If anyone would like to collaborate on creating a Hudson Valley Polyamory Network, please write to me (editorial@planetwaves.net).
Single people. Not poly. Not mono. Not cheating. Not “asexual.” Single—those whose primary partner is “perself” to use a Marge Piercy word for “him or herself.” Single people are discriminated against structurally by everything from the tax code to the dentist office application to you name it. They are often considered a threat to the sanctity of coupled people. I could go on and on. Check out a blog called Onely.org for more info. Note, I would recommend to the Single’s Rights Movement that it could help matters by being more open and honest about masturbation.
Bisexuals and gender fluid people whose identity is not fixed and committed like registering with a political party. The official queer movements still have a hard time with this, no matter how many letters they add to their collection. I am speaking about people in harmony with their diversity of potentials, desires, choices, and options for how they can feel and express themselves. When we look carefully at this and at ourselves we will find out that many, many more people fit this description than the previously existing political parties “allow.” Gender and sexual orientation are indeed fluid. The sex organs secrete liquid, which is designed to mix with others, in case we need a biological metaphor.
Asexual and nonpracticing (apparently there is such a thing as asexual, with 1 percent of the population reporting this). Having no sexual feelings or not wanting to act on them is as queer as anything else in a world where sex is considered normal. From what I have read in my inbox, they feel left out when the conversation turns to sex and relating. They would do well to find one another and talk about who they are and what they do. There are many reasons for this choice, and we need to consider it as valid as any other.
That is the whole point. We all have a right to choose who we are and what we want. The core idea is consent: the freedom to say yes or no; the freedom to decide who you are today.
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This article appears in March 2013.
