Ecstatic Belonging with Caffyn Jesse

This workshop relates to reimagining relationship and belonging because capitalism and colonialism work hard to steal our souls, inhibit our intimacies, and constrain our ecstasies.

They root in our most intimate experiences of self and relationship, through pervasive and targeted sex and gender violence, family dysfunction, and controlling connection with god and spirit. This workshop explores how we can use somatics, psychedelics, erotic play and death preparation practices to uproot the imperatives of capitalism and colonialism from our neuroendocrine systems. If we orient away from traumatic belonging, and towards ecstatic belonging, we can better see and savour what we already know – how to disregard the dominant culture, and feel our way to ecstasies.

Consider Joining us if:

+ You’re curious about the neuroendocrine experience of orgasm, and how it relates to death and despair.

+ You’re confused by holding the dissonance between hope and despair, as we stand at the crossroads.

+ You would like to play with being done with traumatic belonging, and reorienting to ecstatic belonging.

“Ecstatic Belonging” is the theme that loosely organizes my personal explorations, on the medicine path I want to share with you. I will talk about how I use psychedelic medicines and somatic practices to rewild my mind, enhance my intimate relationships, and support the co-creation of loving community.

Erotic celebration and death preparation practices help me find my way, in the relentless daily violences of capitalism’s crumble. We can learn to live and die in ever-better love, instead of being ruled by fear. We can feel our way to ecstatic experiences of transpersonal belonging, instead of being stuck with the traumatic experiences of belonging that capitalism and colonialism teach us.

“Ecstatic Belonging” is a way of life that helps me attune to the rhythms of the wild world, around and within. When we connect ecstasy with equilibrium, there is a truing mechanism for personal and interpersonal neuroendocrine systems.

Ideas and exercises I share in “Ecstatic Belonging” are drawn from my many years as a teacher of somatic sexual wellness, woven together with psychedelic medicine, transformative justice, and queer ecology. I am inspired by the people coming together in Rooted Global Village. Words from Alixa Garcia and Karine Bell especially encouraged me to make this offering.

In the two-hour program for Rooted on March 12, I will introduce the science, poetry and practices of “Ecstatic Belonging.” There will be opportunities to ask questions, meet in small groups, and access free resources. I identify different aspects of Ecstatic Belonging: Belonging to Our Souls; Belonging to Each Other; Belonging to Ecstasy; Belonging to Interbeing; Belonging to Repair and Belonging to Nonbeing. Particular psychedelic medicines, embodiment practices, and death preparation practices help me focus on different aspects of belonging, at different times throughout the year.

My hope is to find resonant companionship for my journey, as a queer elder on the medicine path. I also hope we can explore what it means to weave ecstatic dimensions of embodiment into somatic abolitionism. “Ecstatic Belonging” is a way of life that becomes more powerful if we find resonant others to practice with. We invent powerful alternatives to capitalism and colonialism, with our wild imaginations, loving touch and daring dreams.

Caffyn Jesse bio

Caffyn Jesse is a queer elder, sacred intimate, teacher and writer who revels in the power and pleasures of the erotic. She is the author of many books on the art and science of sexual healing and well-being, including Love and Death in a Queer Universe, Intimacy Educator, Science for Sexual Happiness, and Elements of Intimacy. They have researched and written on neurobiology, navigating generative conflict, healing trauma with pleasure, pelvic pain, psychedelic medicine and queer belonging. She is now retired from a longtime role as a teacher of somatic sex education. See more, and find many free online offerings by Caffyn at www.erospirit.ca.

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