You're Invited! Workshop on Collaborating with the Universe
How It Came About And Why I Hope You'll Join Us
Join me and my friends Bonnie Violet and Venus Starfruit on Thursday, May 4th for a virtual workshop on collaborating with the Universe!
In this ninety-minute interactive workshop, we’ll:
Discuss ways to engage — and play — with the Universe, such as tarot, rituals, drag, and kink.
Engage in guided exercises to identify spiritual threads in your narrative and recognize how the Universe is responding to your desires.
Have an open-ended Q&A for all your questions.
How This Workshop Came About
Note: For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to call God/Goddess/Universe/Bob/Source of Being/whatever you want to call that Presence we’re searching for and curious about “Spirit.”This is Bonnie Violet’s term, and I love it.
— What control do we really have over our own lives and what external forces intercede on our behalf?
— How do we best interact with Spirit? And is a relationship really possible?
Each religion and spiritual tradition seeks to answer these questions. They provide frameworks for relating to Spirit, as well as ideologies on the role that Spirit plays in the world.
And growing up in evangelicalism, I was raised with specific answers to these questions that don’t serve me anymore.
I was taught that the faithful were rewarded, so God would show up in my life in positive ways only if I were good. And I was taught I needed to surrender my desires, my future … everything to God.
It took me years to realize that I didn’t have a foundational sense of self-worth because I was constantly taking in messages about how inherently unworthy I was. Worthy of God’s love, sure. But only if I believed the right things and continued to break my own will and surrender, surrender, surrender.
Now, having left the church, I believe that a very different kind of relationship with Spirit is possible: one of collaboration and co-creation instead of surrender.
I got the idea for a workshop about this topic during a conversation with a friend who is also working through religious trauma.
So many of us are on spiritual journeys outside of religious institutions. We’re figuring things out on our own: finding new spiritual practices and learning how to build positive, affirming relationships with Spirit and with ourselves.
And I thought about two people who are thoughtful and intentional about this work and (I believe) do it really well. I want to introduce you to them and why I asked them to be presenters.
Bonnie Violet
Bonnie Violet is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist and digital chaplain. YouTuber & Host of a queer chaplain podcast. She shares her experience strength and hope with HIV for 24 years, recovering from drugs, alcohol, and sexual assault among other things for 14 years in classrooms, community centers, churches, online and pretty much anywhere else she is invited.
As a queer chaplain, she is present with people in death and dying to self by helping to lace one’s narrative with a spiritual thread to remind one of their resilience, strengthen faith in self and create serenity in the now and instill hope for their future.
Why I asked her to present: Bonnie Violet has dedicated her life to helping others — especially queer folks — embrace their inherent worthiness. There’s a fierce compassion that radiates from her that I know is rooted in the self-acceptance and healing work she’s done for herself. She “walks the talk.”
Venus Starfruit
Venus Starfruit is a Chicago-based queer mystic, artist, and sex educator with over 25 years of experience with the occult. She offers grounded, trauma aware tarot readings and spiritual guidance, as well as hand crafted spiritual supplies such as oils, incense, and candles. She loves working with her clients to help them align with their blessings, pleasure and purpose in life, using techniques including divination, guided meditation, and earth-based magick. She believes the magick is already inside you, waiting for your curiosity to awaken and empower it.
Why I asked her to present: When I think about Venus Starfruit, the word that comes to mind is authenticity. A sex educator, artist, and mystic, she’s a little bit of everything, and she’s constantly trying new things and evolving. And during our 10+ year friendship, I’ve witnessed a beautiful sensitivity to Spirit that she cultivates through a unique blend of rituals, practices, and curiosity.
I’m really excited to bring these two individuals together in one space and give others the opportunity to learn from them.