In search of erotic vitality
and some updates.
Hello beautiful people,
Today I wanted to share some reflections I’ve had in the last few days, and tell you about this new amazing feature that we can use to sporulate together: referrals! With referrals, people who cannot afford a paid subscription can get a free subscription by referring the newsletter to someone who they think will love this community.
Also, at the end of the essay, please find a few propositions to foster this community and meet, I would love to know your thoughts and dreams about this space too. I am deeply grateful for this community, and your support and engagement. Thank you so much! We are growing!
I had taken the sun for granted, its warm embrace on a cold day, how it always found me everywhere, and its incredible painting skills. This is something that I realised three years ago when I spent two months without much possibility of getting out of the house. It was a unique experience, one that allowed me to really go deep inside myself and find the resources I needed to plant the seed that is growing into this newsletter today.
It got hard and lonely at times, and I more than once found my attention going to unusual places. After a few weeks, I noticed specific light patterns inside my home. For example, the sun would hit the flowers on the dining table and create a beautiful shadow on the wall, almost like a painting. After a few days of observing its patterns, I began to play with the sun. Those specks of light changed my whole experience, they gave me a sense of joy and vitality that was difficult to feel with everything that was going on in the world. I posed naked with the sun and took photos, played with its light to draw things on my body, I became obsessed.
What the sun gave me at that moment was erotic vitality, a feeling of pleasure, awe, and joy. Because of the solstice, and things that are going on in the life of people I deeply love and are realising they have been numbed, I have really been reflecting on the importance of erotic vitality.
Vitality is the thing that keeps us living, and the erotic is a place of replenishment, together they create a revolutionary mix that stands their ground against oppression and numbness - two things capitalism and patriarchy love.
Erotic vitality lives outside of the boundaries that this society places in front of us (productivity, monogamy, binarism) it inhabits a space where desire becomes a right, the driving fuel to the way we live, it is a place where rest and pleasure take the lead, a place where we thrive.
The erotic is affirming our life force. In Western culture, we have confused the erotic with the explicitly sexual, we have made our life force pornography and the true meaning of erotic vitality has been relegated into a dark corner of our cultural psyche, as Hanna Close said. I have been working for months on an essay unpacking the erotic, and I am not ready to share it yet, but I did want to share this reflection with you.
Erotic vitality is an act of celebration and a right. We can cultivate our erotic landscape in many ways: from eating something we love to swimming naked, to massaging our beautiful bodies with oil.
One of the most life-changing pieces of work about the topic of eroticism as a poetic antidote is the essay Uses of The Erotic by Audre Lorde, it is part of her book Sister Outsider, but also exists as a lecture. Video and Essay.
Some announcements 🌻
REFERRALS:
First of all, this work is all thanks to you! Without your support, feedback, and love, I would not have continued doing this work. Referrals are a way for this nurturing community of people who want to decondition joyfully to grow and support in different ways. If you cannot afford a paid subscription but want to access all content, you can refer the newsletter to other people, essentially sporulating this work whilst getting something for you too. See all options for referrals here
Book club 😬- I am going to start writing reviews of books that are poetic antidotes. I have a library of poetic antidotes in the form of books that have been replenishing my life and I would love for us to read them together, and then discuss them. Who would be interested in this? This will all be done slowly and at our own pace.
🌞 In honour of the sun, here are some poetic antidotes it teaches:𝐉𝐨𝐲 & 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲. When I lived in London, a rare sunny day was a reminder to enjoy life. Offices would sometimes close earlier so people could enjoy Pimms in the park. On Sundays, families and friend groups would prepare picnics and head to the lakes and parks. Sun that reminds us to dance together. Read more on this.
𝐍𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬. I recently discovered that some indigenous communities in Mexico do not distinguish night from day, but they look at the position of the sun. Sun reminds us that there are no boundaries, but perpetual nuances. Non-binarism is inherently revolutionary in a society where hierarchies prevail, see more here.
𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭. The other day I got anxious, so I went outside and found a spot where the sun could soothe me. I was forced to close my eyes in its potent light, I was forced to rest and abandon. Sun reminds us that rest is imperative. Sun Day, a day of rest. Rest is a practice of resistance, as The Nap Ministry teaches.
Call To Presence/Ritual: 20 min
I find erotic vitality in little rituals, this is why every essay is paired with one.
Find a body of water near to where you are, or set up a bath or foot bath. If doing the latter, make a tea with Chamomile and Lavender and once brewed put it in the bath or bacinet where you will place your feet.
On a piece of paper, write down what you are ready to release to be in your erotic vitality, for example, “I let go of the fears that block me from taking the next step in my relationship”, or “I let go of the anger that keeps me paralysed”.
Once you have written everything down, reread it out loud and then burn it on the water, seeing the ashes float away. In this way, you are starting a new chapter post-solstice.
You can also cultivate your erotic vitality by doing any practice that involves pleasure and awe, just make sure you do it consciously.
Mucho Amor,
V
Really beautiful, loved to listen to it with the sunny background music :)
Loved it :)