Spiritual Cowgirl

So what the hell is a Redvolutionary?

“A Redvolutionary is someone who does not play by the social, religious, cultural, sexual, or political rules. She affects change by daring to be herself, forging a unique path, and serving her planet authentically through “ecstatic actvism”. She’s a kind of “spiritual superheroine,” rebelling against dogma and ideology in order to experience a direct and intimate relationship with the divine. She has a fearless commitment to truth and freedom, healing and empowerment, sex toys, red wine, and gold body glitter…for all.”

If this definition intrigues you please sign up for my newsletter and I will let you know future exciting news like the Redvolution documentary, The Red Book, the forthcoming Red Book of Saucy Spiritual Superpowers (I’m talking with publishers right now!), my workshops, talks, red products and projects, an upcoming brand-spanking new serabeak.com website (finally) that will launch this December, and plenty of red ignition to light your heart, your soul, and your life on fire.

I also offer spiritual mentorship to women, which is one of my greatest joys. If you are interested, please contact me sera@serabeak.com

If you want to know more, read below. You see, lately, I’ve been asked more than usual to define a Redvolutionary. So tonight I decided to pull out some notes from my Redvolution talk and lay it out there. Well, the first twenty minutes of the two-hour talk about Red, anyway. For you philosophical/theological type A’s out there, this post is just skimming Deeper Meaning’s surface, and yes, the definition of a Redvolutionary is constantly evolving, shifting, and growing brighter as I live the experience, but for now, I offer the first fist of notes.

That’s right, notes. The copious words below are what I normally bounce off of when I’m giving a talk, so I apologize in advance for their lack of literary flair. I promise when I weave them into a future book they will flow like red lava onto white snow…or warm honey onto heated skin….or a bee’s breath onto it’s hive. Or something. For now, we have notes. Ahem:

There are 6 main qualities or 6 bold ways of being that a Redvolutionary intends to encounter, tickle, and eventually manifest through her life and they are:

1. Know Myself
This means I take the time and make the effort to really know who I am: my mind, body, emotions, sexuality, patterns, beliefs, issues, spirit, soul - the conscious and the unconscious and the in-between via certain practices and approaches that resonate with me (some of these may look traditionally spiritual some may not – meditation, hula hooping, yoga, cupcake appreciation and so on).

Besides actively seeking out and using specific practices and approaches to come to know myself, I treat my life as a teacher. I’m aware that the universe speaks in metaphor. I’m willing to use symbolic sight in order to realize that everything that happens in my life – from the glorious to the shitty – if I allow it too, has the potential to wake me up even more to myself so I can be a better, more authentic human.

As a redvolutionary, knowing my self, means knowing the divine. Let me repeat, the best way for me to know the divine intimately, is to know myself intimately, as our essential nature’s are the same. Yum.

2. Know this World
I do not try to escape this world, or transcend this world, or treat this world only as an illusion or a trap or a mistake or a pit stop on the way to heaven or nirvana or the 5th dimension. I do not treat this world as anything less than divine.

This means I do not numb out in front of the T.V. with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s every night (or however I may numb out or be apathetic). I’m not only willing to wake up to my own personal reality, but also to the impersonal reality of this planet. I’m willing to see the truth of this world – globally and locally: of politicians, religions, social structures, environment, the media, what’s going on in my neighborhood, my own community and family.

I educate and inform myself so that I make clearer more conscious decisions across the board – how do I vote? How do I recycle? Where do I buy my food/clothes/vibrators? I take responsibility for my actions, thoughts, energy and my life. Just to be clear: There’s not a “right” redvolutionary decision, a “right” redvolutionary choice, thought or way to be. A Redvolutionary is simply willing to become very conscious of her choices and she’s willing to see the reasons why she is making that particular choice.

Turning red is also about embodied spirituality – meaning my spirituality is dynamic, active, fleshed out and lived in. Spirituality is not separate from my everyday, compartmentalized into a after-work power yoga class or morning meditation practice or Sunday prayers. It is life. And life is It.

3. Embrace Myself
What I come to know about myself, I intend to accept and eventually love – all of it: my spirit and my soul, my body and my sexuality, my desires and my passion, my talents and my gifts, as well as my unhealthy habits, addictions or fears, so my light and the dark, my seemingly “good” and “bad,” my clear skin and my pimples.

A Redvolutionary embraces her whole self out loud, boldly, uncompromisingly. And when she’s not able to do this cause she’s dealing with a particular hardship or trauma or simply stressed out or having a bad hair day or if she just simply forgets – she forgives herself, laughs or cries, resets her intent to embrace herself and moves with total gratitude into the next opportunity to do so. As we all know, life is great at providing us non-stop opportunities to practice embracing ourselves.

This is an important one: Despite the somewhat glorious title of “spiritual superheroine” - being a redvolutionary isn’t about being invincible or perfect or being “spiritual” or “enlightened” – it’s about being yourself – the full messy, raw dirty, funky, authentic lovely human self. A woman willing to be this transparent and vulnerable, a woman willing to reveal her true self in this world no madda what - is revolutionary, rare, daring, a superpowered strength – and I think it’s one of the main reasons we’re here.

Through this awareness, intent, practice and openness to our own embrace - eventually and quite naturally, a redvolutionary falls truly, madly, deeply in love with her self and this planet. She becomes a Lover with a capital “L”

Being a Redvolutionary is about becoming a “making of love”. A juicy wild ecstatic “oh yeah!” of necessity.

Embracing myself in this way, loving myself UP (and down), is how I come to also truly embrace and love the divine (cause remember, in the red perspective, you two are not so two as you are one. Essentially).

4. Embrace my World
As I practice accepting, embracing, and eventually loving myself, it’s only natural that I start to practice accepting, embracing, and loving others with all their faults and gifts, and this world in all it’s pain and horror and wars and devastation and injustice as well as all it’s joy and peace and beauty and creation - and every nuance in between. And I am grateful, so very, very grateful to be here. And I act like it.

Through this intimate embrace, I start to experience, on a fundamental cellular level, through knowing, not just believing, that All really is One. We’re all made up of the same divine energy, particles, dirt, air, stardust as the rose bush, that dog, that Iraqi woman, my coffee cup. So, I embrace this world as a living, breathing, growing, natural element and extension of my self.

My actions, thoughts, and choices begin to stem from my heart, they come from love -not sappy vanilla pudding hallmark love, not fluffy new age “love and light” mumbo, but red blazing true love, unconditional love, fierce love, the type of love that sets your eyelashes on fire and blows your “spiritually correct” panties off – the type of love that creates massive change on this planet. As Tom Robbins says “Love is the ultimate outlaw”

5. Liberate Myself
I intend to liberate myself from everything (conscious or unconscious) that keeps me contained, repressed, unhealthy, or that makes me feel small, ashamed, sinful, separate, and forgetful of my true divine nature.

I begin to do this by igniting my divine spark, which means becoming more conscious and intimate with my inner self. Yep, a divine spark has many names, some refer to it as Spirit, or your higher self, or True Self, your inner God or Goddess, or Buddha nature, or True Being, or Self with a capital S as Jung would call it, or Love, or as my tango teacher calls it “my inner chilli pepper”. Labels and theological or philosophical distinctions don’t matter to me, personal meaning and direct actions do.

So…I live my life based on my intuitions and guidance from this internal authority, my divine spark – I do not live my life based on the opinions, ideas, beliefs, rules, trends given to me by external authorities such as the media, politicians, fashion magazines, doctors, spiritual gurus, priests.

This does not mean I exclude external authorities, I respect them and learn from them and enjoy them and I seek them out when it’s appropriate, but my ultimate authority is my divine spark.

By becoming my own spiritual authority I might start quite naturally and quite organically breaking away from the status quo – I might blow up boxes: religious boxes, spiritual boxes, political boxes, social boxes, health boxes, age boxes, relationship boxes, sex boxes, fashion boxes, cookie cutter molds and so on and so forth.

This means I will probably not be a stereotypical “good girl” anymore.

BUT I do not break boxes in order to be provocative or simply rebellious. I do so from a place of authentic love and compassion. My redvolution is NOT done out of conscious or unconscious reaction, but out of a fully conscious response to my inner truth. In other words, I live from the inside out. I am empowered from the inside out. I am free to be whatever it is I am in the moment - in the bedroom or in the boardroom.

BOTTOM LINE: There can’t be a Redvolution if our divine sparks, our true selves, aren’t leading the way. (Goddess knows we’ve witnessed enough “revolts” led by the ego and the penis).

6. Liberate this world:
I liberate myself in order to help liberate others. Although there is a spiritual superheroine archetype to a redvolutionary, she does not believe anyone or anything needs saving. In other words – a redvolutionary is not here to save the world, she’s here to serve the world. Or, another somewhat paradoxical way to look at it is a redvolutionary helps save the world by saving her self. Meaning any focus and work on (and play with) myself is done so I can be that much better at serving others and this planet.

You see, when we ignite our divine sparks we start quite naturally recognizing the divine spark in every living thing, which leads us to naturally want to be of service in ways that are appropriate for us and so we actively and eagerly seek out a variety of ways to do so.

And the cool thing is, we’re more effective with our acts of service because they stem from this deep inner well of wisdom, love, and fiery freedom. We don’t burn out so easily because we’re not relying on our personal power alone, but also the power of everything and everyone we are connected to and the slap-happy holy moly Universe itself. We are a non-stop love conduit of blaring bliss. A spirited energizer bunny on 34 cups of cosmic caffeine. A secret agent of radical red change.

When we become redvolutionary, we are tagged and We are It.

So here’s a little Redvolution ditty for ya:
When you breathe Red, you dare to be yourself
When you are yourself, you are of service
When you are of service, you help heal this planet
And you can do it all while wearing seriously cute shoes

Wow, my choppy red notes are looooong. You still awake? This is why this is better as a talk, but I hope that all of you who have asked for more details about Redvolutionaries are somewhat satisfied. For now.

Thanks so much for tuning into the red station, there’s more heat to rise in the near future.

In Gratitude, In Service, In Mad Crazy Red Love,
Sera

I have not been able to post on this blog for months. I have not been able to do much of what mainstream society calls “work” for two months. My life, my self, my universe has turned inside out and upside down. Down is now Up. But Up is definitely not Down…yet. Sigh. You see, all this cryptic gibberish is why I shouldn’t be posting on Spiritual Cowgirl at this time. A Red Night of the Soul is definitely not entertaining or witty or uplifting. And if I work too hard to explain what is actually going on for me, I take myself out of the experience…and that can’t happen right now. For it is clear to me that I need to be “In It”.

Last week, when I asked the divine what the hell to do about all this mess, I experienced an inner vision. It was that of a massive red velvet curtain - like one that hangs in those old grand theaters – dropping smoothly and quickly down to the floor.

Thud.

Cutting me off from my audience, from the house lights, from the world.

Alone, I slowly turned around in the darkness of my new environment and was immediately embraced by the energy of Her. My Red Lady. And the tears flowed and the heart hiccupped and the mind quieted and I got it.

For now, I need to be with the Divine She of Me. This is a foundational boundary I need to draw and uphold. So, a necessary cocooning, a molting, a shedding of skins (how many insect/animal metaphors can I bring in?), can happen.

And although all this probably sounds awfully dramatic and pretentious, it is where I need to be at this time. No apologies. No exceptions. No compromises.

Until She raises the red velvet curtain again.

Then I will come back to this blog shaking my bloody wings, my dusty mini skirt, and my dirty sense of humor. At you. At myself. At life.

Until then, I wish all who visit this site red bold blessings and red hot love and I thank you for your patience.

Regarding my Redsolutions down below…this piece follows my rather robust redsolutions in my Newsletter and so I’m offering it here because I dig balance almost as much as I dig imbalance.

“Now, let’s briefly tether this bright red balloon. I also have several practical intentions I made for this new year, such as: volunteer once a month, cut my energy expense in half, find more ways to practice authentic service, buy more food from local farms, organize my files, make a new budget, start offering private “red intensives”, take my dog to obedience classes, clean out my closets, dirty up my mind — but the Redsolutions down below spilled outta me when I sat down, quieted my mental “to do” list, breathed into my heart, and asked my divine spark what She wanted me to experience this year.

I quickly realized that these Redsolutions, as quixotic and even “self centered” as they may seem, are just as important for me to act upon as my pragmatic more “self-less” intentions, and both lists essentially support and enhance each other. In fact, doing one without the other is like having dark chocolate without red wine, or sex without sweat, or a body without a heart beat. So, this is just a little red reminder to check in and make sure you have given your divine inner chili pepper a voice, an intention, and a juicy red kiss for this new year.”

OK, said my piece and my peace.

To do something each week that makes absolutely no sense, but reawakens every one of my senses

To laugh as much as possible at impossibility

To claim ecstasy as my birthright

To dance the way a star explodes, a baby yawns, an angel groans, a wave crashes, a Universe fucks, a Sera moves

To soak my ego in Love’s drool

To serve Her by serving my Self (so I can truly serve others),
to love Her by loving myself (so I can truly love others)

To spread eagle my convictions

To claim my wants, needs, desires, shadows, issues, quirks, fears, freckles as Holy

To give without abandoning myself

To completely redvolutionize my sexuality

To sleep with as many deities as possible..and some angels..and maybe some demons… if they use the proper protection

To speak my truth, even when it feels like a lie

To let the divine undress every inch of me before a roaring fire

To turn On as many people as possible (we have way too many “spiritual” things turning us off)

To allow abundance to attack my life

To have a tawdry, passionate, intensely authentic threesome with Me, My Self, and I

To direct the first spiritual film ever to be partially funded by a sex toy company

To unleash a Red that beckons and giggles between the thighs of Heaven and Hell

To play play play play play play play play play play play play

To let Love show me what I’m truly made of… again and again and again

Today, when I walked my dog through one of my favorite nearby parks in SF, I saw a man in the distance gazing up at one of the many beautiful trees. He was looking at the tree in total awe, a soft smile playing across his lips. As I respectfully approached him I realized I was witnessing a man witnessing God. The moment felt holy, hushed, magical. He broke his darsan with the tree momentarily, when my dog sat on his feet, and the shaman-like man said:

“Can you believe how incredible this tree is? How it twists and turns? The bark? Just look at it. Beautiful, beautiful. I talk to this tree. I love this tree. I am in love with this tree. I moved to an apartment a few blocks away so I could be closer to this tree, to all the trees in this park.”

I smiled deeply and told him, “these trees appreciate your appreciation, and believe me, they are talking right back”. He looked me in the eyes, smiled, and walked past me a few feet till his eye caught the next glorious branch of another exquisite tree, and he stopped and gasped and fell In Love, again.

I felt blessed for having seen him. Reminded. Walking through this park daily I almost always admire its beauty, but this man reminded me to do more - to go ahead and open my spiritual thighs to this park, to allow myself to fall in passionate love with the trees and the birds and pine cones and even the dog poop and random cruddy human litter.

But back to the trees. Last summer when I was teaching a workshop at Omega, I was asked to try and describe something that happens when you turn “red”. I blanked, but said something utterly wacky like this:

Some people, when they walk by a beautiful tree, they don’t even notice it. Some people walk by a beautiful tree and nod in appreciation. Some people walk by a beautiful tree and stop to hug it compassionately (what people would normally refer to as “tree huggers” and “green” peeps). A Red One will walk by a tree and not just nod or hug, but, well, hump it… passionately. That’s right, Redvolutionaries are “tree humpers”. I’ve already designed the t-shirts.

When you allow yourself to turn red (not to be confused with this past election) you can’t help but want to make crazy wild naughty love to All of Existence because at some point, no matter how brief, you’ve been fist fucked by mother nature. You’ve been spread open by the stars. You’ve been tickled, teased, and turned by every atom in the Universe and all you can think about doing is returning the favor. Again and again and again.

Now, obviously we Red Ones are not dripping in this pumpin’ red-hearted state every minute, but this direct infusion of orgasmic cosmic love juice is our raison d’etre, and we continuously look for ways we can allow it to fuel our days, our sweaty nights, our over all consciousness, and the planet.

That’s right, in case you may be thinking right about now that this all sounds pretty and nice, but also like an inebriating distraction from reality and the troubles of the world, and by the way won’t it scare the children? - let me say that this sort of seduction of and from the Sac(red) is incredibly, remarkably, deliciously healing for the planet (and for the children who get to grow up in a love-saturated world). I mean really, what could be more important, especially at this chaotic yet hopeful time, than to “make love” as much as possible with as many things, people, places as possible? I’m talking energetic love here folks, but physical touch is always beautiful when done with respect and authenticity.

So, we Red Ones have jacked up “spiritual activism” to “ecstatic activism”. Naturally.

As Lalita says in Daniel Odier’s book, Tantric Quest “Ecstasy, the continuous experience of the divine through knowledge of our own nature, is our natural state.” You get it? Ecstasy is you at your mostest (red dictionary), it’s your spirit taking naked pictures of you, it’s the divine doing you till you come undone.

And all it takes is the willingness to make a tree blush.