Seeds of Unity

An earlier version of this statement of vision and values was consensed to at Nomenus Great Circle, June 3, 2012.

We hold this as a living document, to be changed as needed to reflect new understandings of our group consciousness.

1. Radical Faeries

We are the survivors and the lovers and the lineage of those gay men who gathered in the desert of Arizona in 1979. Moved by a powerful collective vision, they went on to found the Radical Faerie movement and the church of Nomenus, and to found Wolf Creek Sanctuary through the legacy of those whose ashes were spread in mourning on in its soil.

We are here in response to their call. Their intentions are alive in us. Our fabulous diversity is the flowering of spells they cast.

We stand in gratitude to honor them, along with the indigenous traditions and other liberation movements that inspired them. We claim them as our spiritual ancestors and ourselves as their descendants.

2. Radical Queer Liberation

As queer-affiliated people of diverse identities, we come together to throw off the shackles of homophobia, sexism, gender programming, transphobia, racism, classism, lookism, and all other forms of internal and external oppression.

We are here to heal and liberate ourselves and each other. We are here to to share our unique gifts with each other and the world, and to step into our power as full and essential members of the family of life.

3. Radical Relationship

We hold ourselves in subject-SUBJECT relation with everything in the world and acknowledge our interdependence with all our relations.

Embracing as lovers and friends, holding hands with the ancestors and descendants, we are woven into a multi-generational quilt of community. Looking into each other’s eyes, we see the Beloved gazing back.

We recognize each other as equals and each viewpoint as a piece of the truth. We reject authoritarian hierarchy in favor of dynamic shared leadership and organic self-organization.  As members of this church, we commit to the communal practice of consensus decision-making, and to group process that is inclusive, accessible, and transparent.

Together we practice self-kindness, accountability, personal growth, compassionate communication, and heart-centered listening. We explore conflict and shadow, and work to reclaim the power embodied in our projections.

We find the living spirit of our tradition in the center of every heart circle.

4. Radical Sex

We celebrate sex, expressing our erotic natures freely and without shame, and honoring all forms of loving sexual expression.

We are a culture of consent, speaking and respecting boundaries, and treating each other as subjects, never as objects (unless that would be fun for everyone involved).

5. Radical Spirit

Recognizing that the same Spirit moves in us all, we see our individual expressions as pearls of dew on a vast web, all connected by the same gossamer strand and reflecting the same light.

We neither create nor bow to spiritual dogma. Yet through our lived experiences, we find striking commonalities.

As we grow in our shared learning of applied spiritual practice, also known as magic, we are developing a common spiritual vocabulary and a set of distinctive magical styles.

6. Radical Sanctuary

We affirm the mission of Nomenus: “to create, preserve and manage places of cultural and spiritual sanctuary for Radical Faeries and their friends to gather in harmony with nature for renewal, growth and shared learning.”

We hold these spaces in a spirit of sacred service, hospitality, and radical inclusion, requesting of all who enter that they do so with respect and reciprocity. We affirm the need to set clear and compassionate boundaries as an essential aspect of holding sacred space.

Our membership is a community of practice for the arts of tending these communal containers.

We ensure that our gatherings are open to all by offering NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds) whenever sustainably possible. To this traditional Faerie spell, we add GAYAABAGS: Give As You Are Able But Always Give Something.

7. Radical Healing

We acknowledge the work of hundreds of Faeries, living and dead, whose generosity and vision have created the Church and the Sanctuary whose benefits we now enjoy. We humbly ask their blessings on us, and on the great evolutionary changes we are present to.

We affirm the value and importance of faggot space, and hold in a place of special honor the faggot mysteries that lie at the root of our tradition. We support each others’ right to gather in whatever kinds of circles bring healing, evolution, and joy.

We acknowledge the pain of separation caused by the church’s past gender-based member policy, unintended though that pain has been.

We acknowledge the former caretakers of the Sanctuary and members and officers of the Church who have left the community under circumstances of conflict and resentment. We recognize the harm caused by patterns of dysfunction that have recurred throughout the history of the Church, especially mistrust and alienation between Faeries of different classes, generations, and ways of living, on the land and off.

We recognize the role played in these patterns by unskillful communication and unexamined power dynamics. We commit to evolve our collective capacity for conflict resolution and circle facilitation, and to hold space for reconciliation and healing with those who have been harmed in the past.

We intend to learn from this painful history to treat each other better from now on. In present and future interactions between the individuals and communities that make up the Church, we invoke the spirit of the spell of the Great Three-Way: ecstatic engagement, with mutual warmth, enjoyment, and respect.

8. Radical Vision

We see Nomenus as the catalyst for a national network of queer sanctuaries and the communities that support them. We seek to share the privilege conferred by our legal status as an IRS-sanctioned 501(c)3 church with other Radical Faerie circles, and to use it to fertilize, activate, and connect our communities around the country.

We see sanctuary as taking many different forms: rural residential lands with surrounding Faeborhoods; creative collectives holding local and regional events and gatherings; urban domestic sanctuaries and intentional communities; and as many other variations as Faerie ingenuity can conceive.

The work of the Church offers spiritual revitalization to a queer culture that is being commoditized and assimilated, and a welcoming home to queer youth of Spirit who seek a better path.

9. Radical Change

We see the work of the Church as a small yet vital part of the Great Turning: the movement of human culture away from the destructive myth of separation back to the reality of interdependence.

We stand in solidarity with all who work for liberation, peace, and the healing of the Earth. We work to recover and share skills for more sustainable ways of living, to heal and re-wild our bioregions, and to decolonize our own indigenous souls.

In these times of disruption and collapse, our membership in a living multi-generational culture represents a vital source of community resilience, and a reservoir for skills and Spirit in days to come.

As queer people, our teachers and elders tell us that we have a special role to play in the healing of our world. This moment desperately needs our gifts.

Now is the time to let our queer hearts shine forth with integrity and fierce compassion. Now is the time for us to grab each others’ hands and hold on tight.