Casey Giovinco - Garbed In Green: Gay Witchcraft & The Male Mysteries

Garbed in Green

Gay Witchcraft & The Male Mysteries

Casey Giovinco

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Includes bibliographical references.

Copyright 2018 Casey Giovinco

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9998719-1-1

On the Cover: Artwork by Stewart A.

Project Editors: Thorn Nightwind; Stewart A.; and Shawn M. Shadow (Afolabi), Olorisa (Oni-Yemaya) and Spiritist (a.k.a. anxiety-ridden, nut-job, editor-in-chief).

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to Thorn Nightwind and the God and Goddess who were kind enough and wise enough to make him my initiator, my mentor, and my friend. Thank you for all that you do. I love you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T his book could not have been written without the work of so many wonderful people. Above that, though, the work that we do in Gala, which this book is designed to augment, could not have been done without the dedication and commitment of some really wonderful witches. I would like to take a moment and thank them briefly for their support.

As you will find out further on in this book, I would never have embarked on this Male Mystery journey in the first place if it were not for the gentle and loving guidance given to me by my mentor in Witchcraft, Thorn Nightwind. Beyond his initial encouragement, Thorn has consistently provided me with a plethora of resources whenever I have asked for help. In the beginning of my research, he held my hand and provided a shoulder to cry on. As Gala Witchcraft grew into the tradition that it is today, he helped me iron out rituals, write the traditions Book of Shadows, and initiate the witches who have become like family to me. I could not have done any of this from developing Gala to writing this book without his help, so first and foremost, I would like to make sure that my eternal debt of gratitude to Thorn is acknowledged.

Second, I would like to thank Stewart A., whose artistic vision and attention to detail has kept me on track all these years (both as a witch and as a writer). His eye for what is truly sexy and incredibly powerful along the Gay mans path through the Male Mysteries never ceases to hold me in awe. It was his vision for this books cover that made me recognize the full scope of what we were attempting to do here. When I saw it, I felt like an author for the first time.

Since Shawn M. Shadow has come into my life, he has challenged me to take a second look at opinions that I held to be above scrutiny, and my life is 1,000 times better today because of his influence. He has helped me be more moderate politically, which came in very useful during the writing of this book. He has helped me to understand my own philosophy more fully by constantly questioning my assumptions. I could not have written the Baudrillard chapter without his assistance. He also kept my over-use of the comma (an under-valued grammatical tool, if you ask me) in check. At times, I am sure that being my voice of reason certainly drove him crazy, hence his wonderfully comical title as this books "anxiety-ridden, nut-job, editor-in-chief.

Finally, I would like to thank every initiate of Gala Witchcraft who came in between 2013 and today. To the first three initiates, who believed in me when they had no reason to, and who stuck by me through all the trial and error, this book could not have happened without their assistance and patience. I will never forget that debt, which I owe them. I owe a similar debt to the subsequent generations of Gala witches. They allowed me to use their spirituality in order to test my theories and work out the kinks within our magical system. Our magic is as potent as it is today because of your kindness. Thank you all for standing by me and helping me to bring this book to light.

CONTENTS

Preface

M y own fascination with the Male Mysteries started after my formal training as a witch was already finished. Prior to that, I was like many people new to witchcraft. I came to this path in order to get away from an overbearing Christian God, and I genuinely wanted no mention of God or a masculine deity of any sort within my own personal practice. My mentor did his level best to introduce me to the Godhe certainly invoked the Horned One in ritual, and he encouraged me to connect with the masculine energies outside of ritual as well. Unfortunately, no matter how good his argument or how moving our coven rituals were for me spiritually, my personal baggage with men prevented me from being able to fully appreciate the masculine energies on any real or lasting level.

By that point in my life, I had survived quite a lot of abuse at the hands of men. Long before I knew what it meant to be Gay, I had been bullied in school by other boys because of my sexuality. The bullying turned physical in middle school, and my parents had to send me to a private school for my personal safety. In college, I was raped by a Gay man who took me home from the Gay bar after one of his friends slipped something into my drink. (Apparently it was his birthday, and I was the gift!) I dont remember the actual events of the rape. I only remember dealing with the aftermath of that encounter. Being fully aware of the physical pain that my body was in when I woke up, however, I can assure you that what he did to me was certainly not consensual by any stretch of the imagination. From that experience, I contracted gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. The doctors treated the gonorrhea and chlamydia immediately, but somehow the syphilis slipped everyones attention. It wasnt until a severe rash broke out all down my back and in-between my fingers that we finally caught it. Needless-to-say, I had very good reasons to hate men, and, at the time, I really did hate them.

During my entire training in the priesthood, I had two memorable experiences with the God that I can recall. Only two! However, those two experiences were perhaps the most transformative experiences of my life.

The first experience happened just after my first degree initiation into Witchcraft. A few days after the ritual, I had the most vivid dream. It was so vivid, in fact, that I can still remember every detail of it all these years later.

I was in a cinderblock room. There were stairs along one wall, and the only lights in the whole place were fires lit in antique-looking iron braziers, which hung on the walls. I was kneeling on a dingy, old mattress on the floor, and my arms were outstretched, pulled in either direction by iron chains attached to the side wallsthink quintessential German dungeon porn.

Suddenly, the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my entire life descended the stairs. He was exceedingly tall and beautifully muscular. His long blond hair fell just above his shoulders. He looked like the very image of a male model in his naked glory.

He said, Were going to play a game, as he reached the bottom of the stairs and approached a table, which was behind me. I am going to cut out both of your kidneys, and if you scream, I will let you die. If you refrain from screaming, however, I will put them back, and well have sex.

I remember feeling him cutting into my back to get at the first kidney, and then, all of a sudden, I felt myself floating above my body, watching the experience from a birds eye perspective. Apparently, I did not scream in the dream, because this beautiful man and I were in the process of having sex when I woke up. The dream was so vivid that I had to do an unexpected load of laundry later that day.