Happy Solstice Season from Serena - A Calendar of EcoSexual News

Hi lovely Earthlings,

A Joyful Holiday Season to You!

Leighton: Return of Persephone

Solstice weather is with us and yours truly is reminded of a legend from ancient Rome and Greece that explains why the Earth is sad in the winter, with short days and bare trees.  Ceres, the goddess of harvest, lost her daughter Proserpina to the Underworld with her kidnapper Pluto.  The mother's mood explained the seasons for the Greeks.  Ceres was sad because she couldn't see the beauty engendered by her fertility.  When Proserpina came back in the Spring, Ceres became beautiful and abundant again with leaves, flowers, fruits.  It's a simple reminder of how our metabolism and the Earth's metabolism are linked.  Ceres, Demeter, Persephone, Proserpina, Kore, Isis, Gaia, Hestia, Hecate, Artemis: different names to imagine the sacred feminine and its magic to invoke Eros, the force of love, within.  Honor that primal bond that links genealogies of life givers and you will engender joy and abundance. 

How can we all participate in this?  Ecosexual Love is the love that embraces all of life as a partner with equal rights.  It's the gist of Gaia practice and theory.  Let's acknowledge love as the ecology of life.  Here's an option offered by yours truly:

Photo by Teri Ciacchi

Does the practical aspect of EcoSexuality intrigue you?  Join us in Portland, OR, for an enchanting summer course, July 17-21, 2013.  Many agree that EcoSexuality is the art of loving beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, and species to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.  It’s the art of becoming a resource of love for Gaia.  With EcoSexuality: Becoming a Resource of Love, you will learn how to generate all the love you want in your life and the lives of your beloveds, families, and communities.   

Photo by Mina Bast

Here's a summer program is designed for those ready and willing to become resources of love.  Hosted at the White Oak Retreat Center in the Portland North Hills.  Facilitated and anchored by Reverend Teri Ciacchi and yours truly.  The Arts of EcoSexual Love are designed to expand the range of sensations one experiences as pleasure and the range of emotions one experiences as love.  We'll explore the resonance of our inner landscapes with forces of nature.  We'll get energy centers in our bodies to resonate with waters, lands, mountains, forests, bacteria, the animal world, air, winds, astral, aural, and energetic bodies.  We'll practice various forms of sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness as we open to the planetary embrace of EcoSexual Love. 

Mina Bast

Intrigued?  More details in the blog description.  Space is limited.  The first three registrants get 50 % off tuition.  Sign up now!  The offer expires on February 1st.  Meals and residential arrangements are an added $ 200 payable in full by May 1st. We look forward to welcoming you at the Bartlett Retreat Center in July! 

Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition

Offer Expires on Feb 1st

Serena's new car

When the first travelers from Europe reached the evergreen shores of the Caribbean in 1492, they must have imagined that Ceres' ban had been lifted in that new eternal Spring.  And perhaps it had?  This season of adjustment to New England has been quite momentous for yours truly.  Two minor disasters manifested an inner resistance to being out of the comfort zone of cozy Playa Azul.  Can one be too surprised?  Trying to adapt to a system where possessing fire arms is considered less dangerous than owning tidbits of Cannabis requires a big stretch of the imagination.  It's a bit beyond the pale of those accustomed to Puerto Rico.  Let's hope to ban the weapons soon, so education can fulfill its promise of peace.  Let the President know here!  I lost a car and a computer, and in the process of getting back on my feet, found many new friends, hosts, collaborators, groups, colleagues.  It was really an amazing adventure of connection and renewal.  And yes, I am now equipped with new versions of those dependence-producing machines!

UCHI: 2012-13 Fellows

Amorous Visions

A major joy of this semester has been participation in the Fellowship Program at UCHI. The group brings great conversations, direction, synergy.  At U Conn, Institutes and Centers are spaces for dialogs where disciplinary discourses meet.  Now I know what it feels like to build bridges between disciplines, designing the education Gaia would wish to host for our future.  Thanks UCHI for welcoming me this year!  It feels really good when others believe in one's projects and support their coming to fruition.  My public presentation at the Institute is for February 28 at 4:00 PM, CLAS # 301.  It's free.  "Amorous Visions: Fluid Sexual Moments in Italian Cinema."  You're welcome to attend if you're in the area and feel drawn to the theme. 

Generous hospitality has met me in Connecticut too, with good company at Karen and Dave's home in Glastonbury, the love of sweet animals, and beautiful decorations to invite the Holiday Season.  With a whole wing of the home for me, I can to focus on writing projects and am happy to welcome visitors.  If you're in the area, please let me know when I can have you over for dinner!  New York state is also quite generous in the ways of polyamorous communities.  Thanks to all who welcomed and embraced me.  It's good to meet new people and share experiences and wisdom.

From Cindy Baker's Ecosex Pride Flag

The course I'll be teaching at U Conn in the Spring is another piece of good news.  Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love will be hosted in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Department for a nice group of students.  How did Ecosexuality come about and why it matters?  How does the concept help to explore intersections between ecology and sexuality, science and the humanities, global and personal health, and love?  What is "nature": an enemy, a mother, a hostess, a lover, all of the above?  Intrigued?  Ask me about it.  More details in the blog description.  

Isis Phoenix

Acknowledging plants and animals as sources of love for humans is an EcoSexual thing.  Stones, rocks, mountains, minerals, rivers, seas are there for us too.  One inspiration for this is sensual shaman Isis Phoenix, a gifted writer and healer who hosts Sensual Woman's Soirees in New York City.  We plan a day event on EcoSexuality sometime in the Spring.  Stay tuned as we announce more details and let us know of your interest.  

Karen, Emma, Rusty

As I reflect on EcoSexual Love, I am reminded of my dog Eliot, the fluffy papillon from East Berlin who accompanied me for fifteen years.  How synchronized was he with my biorhythms.  How ready for a walk when he heard me shut down the computer.  What did I learn from that?  A dog's love is unconditional.  I wish I could imitate it, even minimally!  A gift of my home in New England has been welcoming pets in my life again, with hostess Karen's permission.  The joy of their love is really rubbing on me.

Linghzy

Can one fall in love with plants too?  One got me recently.  Fortunately, it's legal.  It's called Linghzy.  It's actually a Chinese mushroom.  A royal food of the Mycelium phyla.  It kept me in balance in the whole transition.  It offers calm, vitality, nourishment.  It's available to you.  It comes in veggie caps from Alphay, a company one can join to get one's own provisions.  Interesting?  Find out more here.  Or ask me! 



Dear Earthlings,

As the year draws to a close, let's cherish love and radiate warm wishes for a joyful Holiday Season.  Sadness is part of joy, and we mourn those who perished while learning at the Sandy Hook school.  Ignorance is the only sin.  Gaia invites education that's true to its meaning.  How else can we learn to respect our hostess and all the life that resides within her?  Bringing out the best in each student.  Hosting a space for trust, abundance, peace, is what allows talents to become expressed artistically.  True education involves the whole person, transforms the inner being, instills love for love, wisdom, peace.  It can offset desire for violence, inviting fairness and prudence in.   

A shift in perspective is called for here.  Let's invest in knowledge, education, wisdom.  Let's invite laws that make the world a safe place to live for all species.


Yours truly sends warm wishes from the winter days of New England.  Let's hope that Proserpina comes back to her mother soon!  Our offering in EcoSexuality is open.  Spaces are limited.  Register quickly for your 50 % tuition.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Stay tuned for more wonders and come back to see us.  Let us know if we can answer any questions or be of further assistance.  

Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition 
Ecosexuality: Becoming a Resource of Love, Portland, July 17-21

Offer Expires on Feb 1st

Namaste,

Serena
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

 
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Ecosexuality & the Ecology of Love @ U Conn, Storrs

Ecosexuality & the Ecology of Love

Cindy Baker: Ecosex Pride Flag

The course is dedicated to exploring ecosexuality, as a social movement, a style of amorous and creative expression, a cosmic theory, an orientation, and a practice of love. 
      What is ecosexuality?  How did the concept come about and why it matters?  How can it help us to explore the intersections between ecology and sexuality, science and the humanities, global and personal health and love?  How does ecosexuality intersect with other orientations and practices of love, including those common among gays, bis, straights, polys, swingers, metrosexuals, and so on?  How does ecosexuality contribute to defining our relationship to the environment, to technology, the natural elements, and the web of life that sustains our species?  Is nature our enemy, mother, hostess, lover, all of the above? 
      A number of recent sources touch on the theme of ecosexuality.  They include books and articles that study and analyze cultural expression, films, dvds, websites, and other educational and documentary cultural texts.  Some of those in the assigned and optional reading lists may include: Sexual Fluidity, by Lisa Diamond; Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Calcida Jetha; Gaia and the New Politics of Love, by Serena Anderlini; Polyamory in the 21st Century, by Deborah Anapol; Mystery Dance, by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan; Microcosmos and Acquiring Genomes by Lynn Margulis; Sirens, by John Duigan; Shortbus, by John Cameron Mitchell; An Inconvenient Truth, by Davis Guggenheim; Sluts and Goddesses by Annie Sprinkle, Love Art Lab by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens; French Twist by Josiane Balasko, The Ignorant Fairies by Ferzan Ozpetek, and Science of Panic, by Patrizia Monzani.

      Research projects will be required.  Writing for the course may be considered for inclusion in an anthology on ecosexuality.

Note:  The first edition of this course will be taught at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, in the Spring of 2013.  It will be designed as a seminar in the WGSS Department.  If you are interested in enrolling or auditing, please contact the professor or department. 

Dr. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD, gave the opening remarks at the world's first Symposium on Ecosexuality in Los Angeles on Oct 24, 2010.  She keynoted at the second Symposium on Ecosexuality in San Francisco on June 18, 2011, and at the EcoSex Symposium in Portland on June 29, 2012.  She is the author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, a seminal text of ecosexual theory.  She blogs at http://polyplanet.blogspot.com

22 of 26 - De l'Absurdite des vers - Mohamed Nait Youssef

Dear Earthlings:

My gift this year is a collection of 26 poems in my favorite language, French.  It's the language of love, so full of charm and mystery and music.  Those earth tones, warm vowels that feel like deep ocher.  It produces oxytocin, at least for me.  The author, Mohamed Nait Youssef, is a promising voice.  Very touching, heartfelt his journey into awareness of nature and being.  Here is the 22nd in the series.  We'll come back every Friday.

 

-->

22. Métaphysique achevée:

C’était,
Le temps de la folie
Le temps des bêtises et la mélancolie
C’était,
L'histoire de l'homme avec la schizophrénie
Des paroles, et chansons abandonnées
C’était,
La logique de l'ironie
De Candide, Don quichotte et Homme manipuler
C’était,
Le temps des relations virtuelles
Des mots pâles
Lion d’une rencontre réelle
De l’étant et des livres jetés
Du maquillage et de la fausse beauté
C’était,
L’ère de la métaphysique achevée...

Published here with permission.  Reach the author:

Mohamed NAIT YOUSSEF né en 1988 à Tripoli Libye. Étudiant de la littérature française à la faculté poly-disciplinaire d’Errachidia. Jeune issu du Sud-est du Maroc -village qui s’appelait, Gourrama, dans province de Midelt.

Esprit-libre03@hotmail.fr

+212615156476

Dear Earthlings,

Courtesy of Poliamore Italia

Remember to come back every Monday for another poem by Mohamed. And tell all your French-speaking friends to show up to.  "Like" our blog and keep us in mind when you have something interesting.  Meanwhile, watch for snippets from Serena's new book, What Is Love?  She dares to answer the million dollar question in this one.  Would like to pre-read?  Find out how to endorse her book here.

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders.  And check out out vacation offerings.  

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

PostaHouse: Apennine Eco Community
Book Online

The Question of Love - Proposal for a Study in 2013-14

 

 Dear Earthlings,

"Appetite comes while you eat" says an old Italian proverb, and I am enjoying so much the research I'm doing here at U Conn that another research project came to me.  It's on my favorite theme: Love.  It's well supported, thanks to generous referees.  I want to share it with you, the outline at least.

The Question of Love: 

Beliefs, Realities, Practices across Human Cultures

Proposal for a Fellowship in 2013-14

Presented by Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

 Abstract

The question of love endures across human cultures whose belief systems have been organized around prevailing answers.  Cultural interpretations of what the nature of love might be tend to change as a culture’s epistémé evolves overtime (Foucault, 1990).  For example, love has been understood as a cosmic energy, a force of nature, an art, a virtue, a vice, a sin, an emotion, a need, an instinct, to name just a few (Anapol 1997, Cristaudo 2012, de Rougemont 1983, hooks 2001, Passerini 2009).  Typically, a given cultural interpretation of what the nature of love is results in a belief system that organizes the culture where that interpretation prevails.  This study focuses on the history of the question and its interpretive answers.  It revisits specific eras in the light of these answers and the ensuing belief systems.  How does the prevalence of a given belief about love affect the experience of those living?  Does this belief affect the ways people practice love in relation to each other and the web of life that sustains each species?  Can a belief about love lead a culture on a self-destructive path?  Is it possible to produce an interpretation of the nature of love that helps a culture trace a path of sustainable evolution?  The study intends to address these and other questions as they emanate from the central one. 

Earth as Lover, Cindy Baker

What do you all think?  I hope I get to do it.  Some of it already exists, and perhaps the funds will materialize to continue.  For a tentative outline click here.  My desire is to prove that learning how to love, how to experience this feeling, how to generate the energy that makes it real, is what we really need at this time in human and planetary history.  I hope you agree and send this project good energies.  Send your comments and questions too.  Thank you!

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders. 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini