When you think of the word ‘queer’, what comes to mind? Is it a person who identifies as queer, as in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer)? Is it a cultural aspect of queerness such as a certain popular tv show? Or perhaps you have some understanding of Queer Theory, which applies a critical lens towards those aspects of life we have traditionally understood as normative around sexuality and identity. Queerness is also showing up all around us in broader culture and in politics, oftentimes in ways that are fraught with superficial understandings, confusion, misunderstandings, and even enmity.

The exact 16th century origins of the term queer are uncertain, but you are probably familiar with the initial meanings – that something or someone was strange, odd, peculiar, or eccentric. 

Strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric… don’t these terms describe important aspects of our spiritual journeys?

So with all that in mind, what if we contemplated queerness as a mystical path?

All authentic spiritual paths invite us to deeper meaning and deeper life, beyond our constructed self, and towards our True Self – our Essence.  This often involves leaving behind old aspects of our learned selves, deconstructing harmful ideas we were taught, and shedding notions of our lives, and reality, that are lodged deeply. We have a hard time letting go of these – occasionally, we are nagged, disturbed, and upended. But through open-hearted, compassionate investigations with a spiritual companion, we are invited to new ways of being, new insight, and new life.

Who better to teach us of these spiritual processes than those who have walked the queer path, out of traditional understandings of identity and self, and into the non-binary? Those who sometimes have done, and are doing so, despite the sufferings that can arise. History has tragically shown us again and again how we treat those who fully awaken. With courage, and much trial, one walking an openly queer path is met with broken relationships within family and community, marginalization, exclusion, and even violence. In spite of these difficulties, and perhaps blazing through them, the queer path is a realization of True Self that fully embraces the unknowns of the mysteries of Life and Reality, in a deeply incarnate way.

What does it mean to be queer, to exist beyond binaries and challenge normativity? What does it mean to live into that freedom? And, who doesn’t ultimately want that kind of freedom?