Tuesday, August 25
8-10am Pacific / 10am-12pm Central / 11am-1pm Eastern / 5-7pm CET
Saturn-Neptune in Aries: Kink/BDSM Practices + Lineages of Queer Resistance + Sustained Defiance w/ guest facilitators Kim Calder & Elly Higgins
Registration is available by sliding scale and includes a recording of the workshop.
REGISTER FOR THE WORKSHOP HERE
This drop-in workshop is part of a 10-part series, Saturn/Neptune in Aries - An Initiation Into Spiritual Warriorship with Aziz Bisanz, a monthly series from March through December, 2026. Click here to register for the full series including access to recordings of all sessions.
About this workshop
As queer and trans people living in a time of increased fascism and violence towards our communities, we turn towards the ancestors from both the ancient and more recent past to guide us forward.
During the last Saturn-Neptune conjunction in 1989 we were 10 years into the AIDS crisis in the so-called US. Near the exact conjunctions that year was the time when the death toll reached 100,000. Creative practices centering and making visible queer BDSM subcultures began to be censored more heavily as fear and hatred of queer life surged.
We will look at some charts of queer ancestors who uplifted queer BDSM culture with their creative work and also died of AIDS during this time to feel for how their lives, experiences of struggle and deaths still impact us and may help us navigate this current moment.
Last session we learned about Dionysus and his band of maenads and who inspired several revolts against the repressive Roman state and who used initiatory experiences like sensory overload, deprivation, pain, and rhythmic movement to induce ecstatic trance states which supported breaking away from oppressive structures and remaining aligned with the feral and wild spirit of the land. Dionysus reminds us that collective kink and BDSM practices have been used in queer communities to transmute the violence of empire into deeper states of collective dignity and sustained defiance against harmful systems of power for many thousands of years. Kink and BDSM in queer communities play a similar role today.
In the session we will discuss personal and collective shame related to the AIDS epidemic and the very long legacy of violence against queer and trans people worldwide that continues to live in the collective today and how practices of BDSM and kink can support our personal and collective bodies to find greater states of healing and liberation.
—
Kim Calder (PhD/MFA) is a writer, creativity consultant, editor, and astrologer. They view astrology as a tool of both personal and collective liberation and emphasize somatic, psychological, ceremonial, narrative, and mythological approaches to chart work and creative processes. In readings and studio/editorial consultations, they seek to help clients navigate creative blocks that limit relational possibilities and prevent self-expression.
They are particularly drawn to astrology's capacity to expand our sense of connection with cosmic and earthly intelligences across lifetimes. At anaretic degrees,they write about creativity,theory, astrology, and activism.
Elly Higgins is a consulting astrologer and bodyworker invested in the lives and histories of queer art, culture, and activism through his project, Star Gays: The Queer Astrology Archives Project. He has presented on queer astrology for ISAR, the Astrologer's Co-Op, and The Astrology Podcast. He is available for astrological consultations at ellyhiggins.com and more information on Star Gays can be found at stargaysastrology.ghost.io where you can join him live each month to talk about the astrology of our queer ancestors in the Living Room Archive.
Aziz Bisanz
As a queer, trans, and mixed-race person, inhabiting liminal spaces, borderlands and intersections of experience has deeply shaped me as a person and I bring this perspective to my astrological work. I have been studying astrology with Renee Sills and Embodied Astrology (EA) since 2021 and last year completed the Your Chart is a Body Certificate Program. Since my studies with EA, I continue to be involved organizationally and as a facilitator. I am currently offering this 10-month series revolving around the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries called "Saturn-Neptune and Initiating Spiritual Warriorship."
As an Arab-American (SWANA) person, the more ancient lineages of astrology live in my bones. I enjoy learning about Sumerian and Mesopotamian myths and stories that bring more depth to the more commonly known Roman and Greek myths. I am always seeking to reveal the understories of queer, trans and indigenous ways of being through astrological archetypes that help us make sense of our lived experiences, offer guidance for times we are living in, and simultaneously support our emergence into the future.
Scholarships are available for those who need them.