Patrik Olterman
Did I go to far?
Read more: Did I go to far?After more than half a decade of deconstruction I face this question. It all started with deconstructing our worldview and how we view god. Moving on to deconstruct our traditions and our ways of being Christian. This is not weird and is done all the time. In progressive circles the hermeneutics of different Christian…
I am Queer!
Read more: I am Queer!I remember last time I walked with the pride parade in Malmö, I had walked the parade many times before but last time was special, it was the first time I felt that I was walking not just in solidarity, not just a straight ally but this time I was walking for myself. I was…
Falling in love
Read more: Falling in loveIt’s a funny phrase isn’t it. We say that we fall in love like it was an open manhole cover on our way to work. Like we have nothing to do with it, like it is completely out of our control. We seem to think that love over powers us and strong-arms us into submission…
True love
Read more: True loveDisney has time and time again claimed that there is no higher power than this, that true love’s kiss is the most potent magic of all. This does of course come with the caveat that you can only have one true love and that comes with the constant fear that you may or may not…
Tantric what???
Read more: Tantric what???A friend of mine pointed out that I talk a lot about tantra, but I never explain what it is. So here is my attempt at offering a brief view on what tantra is and the tantric tradition has to offer. Wikipedia defines tantra as: Tantra, also called Tantrism and Tantric religion, is an ancient…
I love you just the way you are ….
Read more: I love you just the way you are ….I am cleaning the house and dancing around the apartment with the monster we call a vacuum cleaner singing cheesy love songs. I find myself singing along to Billy Joel’s “Just the way you are” thinking it’s a song about accepting the other radically, unconditionally. I said I love you and that’s forever And this…
The naked truth
Read more: The naked truthAnother week has past since I posted “Our sacred journey” and there have been countless of private messages and questions, ranging from: “How dare you?” to “Congratulations, now tell me how I can get there.” Although in every conversation there is this dancing around the question: But are you having sex with others, outside of…
Relationship Anarchy
Read more: Relationship AnarchyIn the wake of my most recent post on how love is not static I would like to add some thoughts on what has been called relationship anarchy, a term coined by Dr Andy in 2004. Dr. Andy writes: “Relationship anarchy questions the idea that love is a limited resource that can only be real…
Love is not static
Read more: Love is not staticIt is especially true in relationships, love keeps changing and transforming and unless we change and transform with love we will “fall out of love”. The minute we freeze frame the relationship or our image of our partner, we are no longer dealing with reality or life, then we are dealing with a construct of…
Reclaiming eros
Read more: Reclaiming erosLove is such an important word. Regardless of who you are and what path you follow love is somehow at the centre of things. Love is a many splendoured thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love! (Moulin Rouge) In the sacred scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition there are four…
Oh my, what a week!
Read more: Oh my, what a week!Today is fathers day and I am promptly staying in bed, drinking tea and slowly looking at the world and my life with awe and wonder. Earlier in the week I had a lunch with a friend who told me that to boost her ego she would look at the girls from school who used…
It’s not about sex
Read more: It’s not about sexIn the past week I have been in countless conversations about mine and Hanna’s chosen path. For the most part it has been deep and meaningful conversations where some parts of our journey and the sharing of it has been deeply healing for someone. Some conversations have been less than friendly and a very small…
How tantra saved our marriage
Read more: How tantra saved our marriageAnyone that was around when Hanna and I met knows that we had such an energetic attraction that generated sparks. And anyone we ever met assumed that when we got married that vibrant passion was carried into the marriage and into the bedroom with us. Nothing could be further from the truth. From our wedding…
Holiness and wholeness
Read more: Holiness and wholenessHoliness is a big deal. It is the purpose of the Christian spiritual path. For some the word means sin-free for others it means living according to specific rules and having ordered your life in a specific way. For me Holiness means coming home. To be united with the divine spirit of love and to…
It’s happening!
Read more: It’s happening!After years of people telling us week in and week out, and after long contemplation, and after much soul searching, prayer, conversation and just a little bit of divine intervention we have decided to do it! It was simply a coincidence that we ran into an old friend who asked if we had been in…
Why I am religious AND spiritual
Read more: Why I am religious AND spiritualIt has become very popular in the west to state that one is “spiritual and not religious”. For years I have felt that Religion was a bad thing and that religious was a derogatory term. For me religion was all the man made traditions and customs that many times where contradictory to scripture and inhibiting…
We are the dead
Read more: We are the deadHalloween has just passed and as little ghosts and skeletons have been in and out our door in a quest for excitement and candy we have been clearing out som skeletons out of our closet. In many ways it has been the death of the old story, the old life and the old paradigm. Clearing…
Coming out …
Read more: Coming out …Yesterday was a bit of a coming out process for me. The minute after I hit the publish key on my blog post was filled with a sense of immense release and freedom followed by “Oh my god, what have I done?”. For a moment I thought maybe not so many people would read it…
Our sacred journey
Read more: Our sacred journeySo if you have been reading my blog for a while you know that over the last couple of years I have deconstructed my faith and the Christian tradition me and Hanna have belonged to. This has included deconstructing our sexuality and the institution of marriage. This has led to the transformation of our faith…
How to really touch someone
Read more: How to really touch someoneSo I am hearing a lot of women say: He just doesn’t know how to touch me. Touch is one of our most basic forms of communication and is so important. It is at the very base of the mallow pyramid and one of our deepest needs. So here are some tips on how to…
Yes, you are decent people, but that is not what I had in mind
Read more: Yes, you are decent people, but that is not what I had in mindThe words are from a poem written by a Hassidic mystic as he was adressing his disciples. So many times we confuse the call of religion with the call of society, to become decent, functional people. If our idea of following the spiritual path is to become successful or to fit in to today’s society…
Tree of life
Read more: Tree of lifeThe divine light filters down from the stars,into the fertile ground of our souls, seeding our innermost beings with love.The seeds that are growing, that has always been growing that will always growforms the tree of life ripe with precious fruit.As we reach up for the branches to the succulent fruits we know that the…
Sacred sexuality
Read more: Sacred sexualityI am getting some carefully worded questions on email and Facebook about this new direction we are moving in. Especially after the announcement that we are teaching at the Sacred Sexuality conference in Jerusalem. Any reader of this blog will know that I not only think that sexuality is an important part of being human…
The extraordinary in the ordinary
Read more: The extraordinary in the ordinaryThis morning it is easy to believe in magic. At the sun slowly rises out of the aegean sea and the sound of crashing waves envolopes my experience. The old sea battering this old Island saturated with myth and magic. The little boy in me stirs filled with wonder and awe. The wonders of story,…
Staying open…
Read more: Staying open…For most people it is hard to open the heart. To just allow love to flow freely in and out. It is hard because we are so guarded, I think especially here in Scandinavia. A friend of mine argued yesterday that it has something to do with the cold and the light. We crawl deep…
