Woof!

These G-men cover illustrations came across my virtual desk recently, and I really love them! G-men is a Japanese gay rag, done in the fabulous style for which Japanese publications have become justifiably well known. But to hell with the style, look at all that beef! And oh yea, the wonderful expression on the guy's face as he's being adored by his pet Doberman. Japan has strict "morality" codes that prohibit printing stuff like erect cocks diving into hungry asses, so they somehow sublimate it all into wonderfully suggestive poses that are at least as hot as the full monty.

Sometimes, I think homosexual repression has it's good side. Only a repressed Japanese could create art this fuckin' good.

"Traditionally, Japanese ninja fighters were always accompanied by a pet dog. Usually small dogs who were treated most gently and sweetly by these giant, tough warriors. Why? It was a lesson in the ways of Zen. To know you had great power and strength but never to use it on a helpless and vulnerable person or thing. To respect the weak and elderly, the very young, or perhaps a small dog easily hurt by rough and careless handling. It was always a reminder to only use their strength against those who threatened in aggression against them or to protect those who could not defend themselves." -- Jayman

It's a good reminder to me that all that studly male muscle is more than a turn-on. It's useful - it gets things done, and it's especially sexy when it's being put to a good use (like defending the weak). No muscle, no movement, no deeds done on earth, no nothing. Is it the muscle that turns me on or is it the power that is manifest within them? The will, and the strength to "make it so"? The ability to pile boulder on top of boulder... to make. The Maker.

Art: G-men magazine. Click to enlarge.

The Water of Life

In erotic muscle growth fiction, one of the most popular vehicles authors use to transform guys into big muscle studs is simply the act of eating cum. Sucking cock. A guy sucks the big dick of a transformed man, and then he is transformed - made into the image of the super man.

• The Good Freak
• Uncle Matt's Farm
• The Journal

Sometimes the power to transform stays within the the original super stud, but my favorite stories are when the power travels like a virus from man to man, transforming exponentially. The free gift is available to everyone, but you must be willing to humble yourself in order to receive it. Most of the stories have at least one character who is too proud to submit - at least at first. The eventual humiliation and repentance of this character - his willing acceptance of the gift - that's a classic biblical theme - The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) revisualised as gay porn!

Of course, human semen doesn't have the power to literally transform people. It has the power to continue our mortal species, which is a miracle all its own, but it falls a tad short of the author's fantasies. On the other hand... what about the semen of a god?

Egyptian creation myths are many and varied - reflecting the flux of their religious beliefs. One of the most common begins with Nun, the primeval ocean, from which Amen rises in splendour. He takes the name Ra. By an act of masturbation (described as such in the temple texts) he creates the original universe.

In Frank Herbert's Dune, the great sand worms of Arrakis create a substance called "spice melange" - a substance that among other attributes, imparts long life and the ability to see the future, even to "fold space" (warp speed). The native Fremen believe that the actions of the sand worms are the direct actions of God, and so the worms have been given numerous titles such as the Great Maker, the Worm who is God, Old Man of the Desert, Old Father Eternity, and Grandfather of the Desert. Just what IS spice? It might be the semen of the worms.

Manna - literally "What is it?" in Hebrew (AKA "Ambrosia" to the Greeks and "Mfkzt" to the Egyptians) was the food that the Israelites ate while roaming the desert for 40 years. It was a bread-like substance that fell from the sky every night, and was collected every morning.

In the Zohar (written as commentary on the Pentateuch in the 13th century) The "Ancient of Days" (sounds like "Old Father Eternity") is described as if it were a supernatural Manna producing machine - with twin orbs and a penis - and guess from where the Manna flows.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. -- John 4:14

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. -- Revelation 22:17

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." John 4:9-10

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." -- John 6:57-59

Reading between the lines, I wonder, just what IS the Water of Life? It sounds like the Water of Life is the same thing as Manna - but not just any old Manna - Super Manna! The bread that gives eternal life. In all these erotic stories, the semen has the power to "glorify" a man, to transform him into something far greater than he was before. I think these writers of homoerotic fiction are telling us exactly what the Water of Life really is, and from where it comes.

Hidden Treasure

We're deep into another week of sub-freezing temperatures here in the great white north, so thoughts naturally turn to milder climates - sandy beaches, palm trees, smooth, bare-chested Latinos cruising the dusty cobblestone streets of old colonial cities, big brown eyes searching for the kind of love their Catholic society won't officially condone, even while the priests eat forbidden fruit in secret.

Young, Dumb, and Fulla Cum

There's a certain theme in homoerotic muscle fiction that imagines a man becoming immensely muscular, hung and sexual, while inversely becoming intellectually dimmer.

Apollyon by Absman420, is the story of one man's introduction to a secret gym where every member injects a serum before working out, which causes an intense sexual drive that translates into workout intensity and muscle growth. The serum make a man grow into an immense bodybuilder with supernatural sexual powers, but it has a side effect - the subject loses IQ every time he works out.

David Devolving by FanTCMan is the story of a successful, young and handsome straight man who comes under the spell of a magical personal trainer who transforms him into a massive bodybuilder who is too dumb to do anything but get off on his own body and others who appreciate it.

In a way, these stories are analogs of the eternal "coming out" story. The moment of truth when every gay man decides to either go with the feeling, or live forever in society's "straight" jacket. To obey his cock - or his mind. Even more than that, these stories question the assumption that the highest state of being is found within the mind, or more precisely, within the intellectual, conscious mind.

Eastern spiritual tradition teaches that the goal is to quiet the conscious mind, to stop its mad and incessant chattering, so that our true nature may be discerned. Meditation is the Eastern path to the mind's "off switch". I admire people who have the discipline to spend hours sitting with painfully crossed legs while thinking about not thinking and yet... I wonder if there isn't another path? Maybe an off switch within handy reach, and one that doesn't require the dedication of a monk?

Most guys I know have masturbated for as long as they can remember. We're compelled to do it, we can't help it, and we do it all our lives. We don't know why we do it, we just know that it feels good. When we don't do it we get anxious and sort of depressed. I think this is by design. Men are designed to need to cum, and even though the continuation of the species is the obvious answer for that, I think it goes a bit deeper.

Jerking off is a way to stop the roar of our own mind - a way to shut it down. The easy access off switch! Stroking temporarily releases us from the prison of our own ego, and in doing so, it becomes a gateway to the super ego - a little slice of heaven on earth. That's why I think that erotic art is so amazing, because it's made with a pen in one hand and a cock in the other. When our own brains quit justifying and judging, they can become conduits of wonderful stuff.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. - Matthew 6:6

I remember when I was a kid, how I'd hope that Jesus wouldn't catch me masturbating when he finally returned, because I was always doing it. If I'd only known.

Gay Sex in the 70's

V and I rented 'Gay Sex in the 70s' from Blockbuster last night - about the dawning of gay liberation in NYC. It's an amazing movie. It interviews some "survivors" of the period, who describe the freedom of the scene back then, the piers, the trucks, the clubs, the back rooms, the parties, the FREE love as only gay men can give it. When these guys, all in their 50's and 60's now, describe their youth, it's overlaid with a profound melancholy (thanks to AIDS) - and at the same time, a secret joy, like they were reliving a wonderful dream. None of the men interviewed renounced their activities, or "recanted". It was like they were living in a magical moment, and they knew it, and treasured it, even WITH all the suffering that followed.

I came out in 1981 - the dawning of the AIDS crisis. I remember furtively reading the 'Advocate' in the school library, and the first press given to the growing "gay cancer". The shadow of death has always haunted my sex life. My life.

The movie interviewed a few modern young gay men - this stood out:

"I can't even smoke a cigarette in a bar, let alone have sex in a park".

Art: St. Mark's Baths poster by Boris Vallejo. Coincidentally, The Secret Gospel of Mark, yep, St. Mark, allegedly included a story about Jesus having gay sex.

The Mushroom of God

Last Saturday, I read an erotic story called 'Pollination' by Absman420. Absman's an interesting writer - his stories are certainly erotic, but they are more certainly symbolic and mythic. 'Pollination' details the alien "invasion" of a plant that creates a symbiotic relationship with a human male. The plant is penis shaped, and it "ejaculates" pollen into the faces of men who get close to it. The pollen has the effect of transforming the men into massively muscled and dicked guys, who each take possession of a potted plant, and yet who is possessing whom becomes an interesting question. The plant's goal becomes the men's goal: reproduce the seed. By ejaculating on the ground, the men cause new plants to grow, which then pollinate more men, etc. 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' as erotic novel.

This is more or less the basic theme of many Transformation stories - the seed only wants to reproduce, it brings more and more men into the fold, and by submitting to the seed's desire, the men get everything they desire. The seeds give men more than just big bodies and big dicks, they give them sexual pleasure, and other strange powers unknown to humans before them.

My hubby and I went on a mushroom tour through a local woods on Sunday. A fascinating journey into the relationship of fungi and woody plants, given by an expert in the field. Fungi are a type of super-organism that live beneath the soil - they are tiny, interlocked white fibers that spread throughout the forest floor, and they may create the largest single "being" of any kind on earth - by mass. Bigger than a whale or a dinosaur, yet "invisible" to us. The visible mushroom is the fruit and reproductive organ of the fungi, it exists simply to create spores.

The fungi live in the forest and provide a service to the great trees (though I'm not sure what that is) and the fungi get carbohydrates from the trees in return. They each cannot exist without the other. Species of fungi are specific to species of trees, or vice verse. Some fungi are parasites, and others are true symbionts. Some are able to keep "dead" leaves alive, in order to use them all winter long.

John the Revelator was exiled to the island of Patmos, which is rumored to be particularly covered with Fly Algeric - Amanita Muscaria (though I've never been there, so I can't say for sure). Were his Revelations the result of eating the mushroom? Would his visions have less value to us if we knew that they came to him via the same psychedelic mechanism used by Native American shamans?

Fig trees are recurring symbolic elements in the bible; Adam and Eve made their aprons from fig leaves, and there is the parable of the fig tree in Mat 21:19. A fig tree has a bizarre life cycle - it cannot exist without the symbiotic relationship between itself and the wasp. Which came first, the fig or the wasp?

I have to wonder - is man created by God to serve a symbiotic purpose? Is man important to God for a very basic reason? Not just romantic love or feudal fealty, but something really, really basic, like a mushroom and a tree? A wasp and a fig? Will it be a symbiotic relationship?

Is a man the mushroom of God?