“Cassidy Hall reminds us that there are many roads to contemplation, that queer people have a head start in understanding alternative consciousness, and that things are not the way everybody thinks. Queering Contemplation is going to help a lot of people.“
–Father Richard Rohr, OFM

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What would it mean to queer contemplation? To disentangle contemplative spirituality from heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity, and instead engage with openness, curiosity, and a little weirdness? The world of contemplative Christianity has yielded to the same voices for far too long, many of whom are from centuries before our time, with lives unlike our own, and often from experiences disconnected from marginalization, oppression, and what it feels like to be an outsider.

My queerness reawakened my own contemplative life–queering and questioning the contemplative tradition allowed me to listen more closely to voices that are queer, marginalized, and oppressed–voices that have often been overlooked or silenced. That also meant moving differently into contemplation, into silence, into liminality and ritual. Queering Contemplation invites us into seeking the infinite possibilities of our own identity and engage our spiritual lives with open hearts and open hands.

Queer is the way I tilt my head to look at the world. Queering is not solely about identifying as queer or applying queer theory; it is about what is gained by seeing things differently. Whether you’re queer or want to queer your own perspectives, or whether you want to uncover the queerness and queer voices in the contemplative tradition–You’re welcome to join the journey and the conversation!

Along with the book, I have recently launched a new podcast with the Christian Century also titled Queering Contemplation, where I engage other queer contemplatives about their own unique journeys in queerness, contemplation, and the variety of ways we all engage with our inner sanctuary.¹ You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or anywhere you get your podcasts. More on the podcast in a future post!

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About the cover: After telling my editor my experience of queerness was not only my sexuality but also the way I tilt my head to look at the world, she reminded me of Emily Dickinson’s words, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,”² both ideas became a kind of foundation from which this book, and cover, emerged.

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Note: this book is about on my own queer and contemplative journey––one person’s journey, and I can only speak for and from my own experience of queerness and contemplative life. My experience is not a universal experience of queerness, what it means or feels like to be queer, nor is it a universal experience of contemplative life. None of what these pages contain is intended to be truth for all people nor anyone other than myself. My words do not speak for every queer life, queer experience, or any contemplative experiences other than my own.

1.Thurman, Howard. Meditations of the Heart (p. 174-175). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.

2 Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998)