How much better could sex be if guilt & dogma would just shush up

Those who were raised in religious homes know too well the Gremlin of Guilt and how it plays out in the bedroom. Our reactions to sex are often rooted in dogma. Society responds as if the Puritanical umbrella needs to protect us from the stormy weather we might encounter in the messiness of carnal urges. It’s too bad our sensibilities are easily ruffled: imagine how much better sex could be if we finally erased those scarlet letters. Do away with...

With a Name Like Tinamarie, You Think I Could Sing

My Motown twin (may she rest in peace) rocked the airwaves with her lyrics and mood music. Her bodacious tune, I Just Want to Be Your Lovergirl, released stuck (up) conventional restraints from places they had no business being. Those 70′s song Diva’s – Carol King, Teena Marie, Gloria Gaynor and the whole luscious posse of hip swaying vocalists – brought us ectasy in dance and song, and to this day, if I’m feeling down, music...

Your Secret Erotic Spiritual Self Beckons. Now What?

We grow up with mixed messages about sex. It doesn’t matter how many lovers we’ve bedded or how many wicked deeds we’ve committed in the pursuit of illuminating sexual awakening. Our secret erotic selves, through their sublime, hushed, hurried, languid, empowered and vulnerable natures, bring us to the edges of humanity’s comfort zones. Those who were raised in religious homes know this Gremlin even better than secularists. That is because the...

Does Having a Womb Make Me a Woman?

With our understanding of gender and sexuality transforming, it’s going to take more than biology to answer that age old question: Is it a boy or a girl? As a young child, I climbed trees and rode horses, squeezed my athletic rear into Ditto Jeans – the fashion statement of the times – and got in trouble for fighting with boys. Running free and making wild nourished my spirit, which was part ‘Indian warrior,’ part nature freak. Swimming...

When God Created Sex, She Smiled

Sacred female sexuality, with its feelers in earth-based worship, meets resistance in dogmatic circles. The idea that woman with all her undulating curves and desires can cohabitate with formal religion creates waves of shock and awe shock, and conventional wounds taint or even forbid certain pleasures. To the most conservative believers, the Divine Feminine isn’t just an insult to established order: she’s blasphemous. “Goddess worship, even in...