Let My Worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.

~~The Charge of the Goddess

This track explores the spiritual path of the Lover, the devotee of Sacred Romance in service to deity experienced as the Divine Beloved, who brings to the world a living, active practice of beauty, hospitality, ecstasy, and deep love.

We will begin our time together by ritually co-creating a temporary Temple to Love , the space within which we will share our hours for the rest of the weekend. Over the course of our journey, we will explore the concepts of Creativity, Hospitality, Liberty , and Chivalry and how they allow us to live a more Romantic life and to express our natures as Lovers in our communities and the world around us. We will seek or deepen our relationship to our Divine Beloveds through archetypal pathways, coming to a better understanding of our life’s work and our role as a devotee of Love. We will study and discuss ethical, responsible love magic and how and when to use it for constructive purposes. We will contemplate the ancient rite of the hieros gamos, the Sacred Marriage, and the ways in which it could be revived to serve the modern world through its purpose as a means by which to heal the land.

Our work will take us deeply within ourselves, to “polish the mirror of the soul” and come into a more loving relationship with the person we have chosen to create this time around; but we will also put what we have learned and shared into practice through a gift of sacred love that we will choose together, create together, and offer to the community of this event.

We will move between discussion, learning and practicing rites and techniques, ecstatic ritual work, the creation of beauty, and sharing comfort and joy. Our work will include sacred dance, ritual bathing and adornment, divination, the bardic arts, and sacred conversation. Our meals will be taken together puja-style, honoring the Beloved as our cherished guest and companion.

PLEASE NOTE: Although Sacred Romance is inclusive of sacred sexuality, this is NOT a sacred sexuality track. There is no requirement for nudity, sexual touch, or attending with a partner. We will at least discuss affectionate, non-sexual touch, but any practices involving this kind of touch will be completely dependent on the comfort levels of the participants.

This track is appropriate for anyone who feels romantic longings towards one or more deities, who is or desires to be “in love with the world” and to express that bliss through a spiritual practice, who wishes to make a serious practice of love magic and/or service to a love god/dess, who seeks to serve deity as a priest/ess through nontraditional means such as artist or host, and in particular those who wish to extend their spirituality outward from their self-work into active and committed service to their communities. Though our work is joyful, creative, and even perhaps Fool-ish at times, and some may experience this track as a gentle or blissful progression, that does not mean this is an “easy” track. We will approach this work with serious devotion and wholehearted commitment, and for some, opening the heart to love and beauty may be as intense and challenging an experience as a traditionally cathartic rite. There are no physical requirements for this track; we will work within each participant’s range of mobility.

PRESENTER: Rebecca Proch is a writer, filmmaker and artist with a theater education and many years of experience as a performer, which she now brings to the practice of sacred dance and ecstatic ritual. A priestess of Sacred Romance and "kitchen mystic", she teaches and presents ritual events locally, and maintains the site http://thebloomingheart.wordpress.com for her written work on the path of the Lover. She is leading the development of the Temple of Amor as a spiritual home of Sacred Romance.