Birthright.
Who is The Sensualist?
Editorial Reflection on co-curating Issue 3 of the Wellspringwords® Literary Anthology | The Sensualist…
Well, she is the unnamed who has called us here together for this occasion. She is the dance of light and shadow as my slender chocolate fingers tickle the keyboard, bringing life from my soul out onto a digital page.
She is our play, our ever-living play.
I posed the question to the Wellspringwords® community in the early months of 2025. Specifically, I asked us all, “Who are you as The Sensualist?”
And like with all the soul-led inquiries I offer to this soul-curious and soul-empowered community, I did not know what I would receive — as an individual — and what we would receive in the curation of this Issue of our Literary Anthology.
Because in each Issue, during each curatorial season, there is a necessary deepening and expansion. I often tell the community that Wellspringwords® is an Oracle. She simply knows. And so whoever finds themselves interwoven in Her weave, for whatever length of time, will always receive what they need.
Engaging with submissions taught me about my body’s sensitivity.
Before we began our reading period, I consciously did not assign a measurement of yes or no to attribute to each piece we read and each artwork we gazed upon. I, personally, wanted to learn more about what kind of intimate literature and visual art we are cultivating on this platform — the kind of unique literature and artwork we are putting into the world. And I wished the same for our open-hearted and soul-present Guest Editors.
In my reading and viewing experience, I learned of a language my own Sensualist speaks through my body that I would come to be guided by as I co-curated this Issue: involuntary moans from my womb; goosebumps rolling through my body, sometimes staying a while; an openness; a wetness; a smirk; a leaning in; a breathiness; a warmth of heart; an “oooh, yes”…
…and also…
…a clenching of my heart; a desire to look away from what was painted in my inner vision; a flash of cold throughout my body; numbness and visceral need to dissociate… Because in the written and visual artworks we selected, it was important to demonstrate a whole and critical, lived somatic experience of The Sensualist.
Surely we are healed and wholed when our Sensualist is seduced into pleasurable and sustainable arousal, orgasm, and loving play.
But we are empowered when our Sensualist remembers Her rage; when She remembers her sensuality is her rightful political power; when She moves — as gracefully as she can — through the violence of our times because Her sensuality is also her self-protection, her soul-protection, and ultimate resiliency.
It is our birthright to be safe in our sacredness.
It is our birthright to exist as pleasure.
It is our birthright to walk erotically in the world and be powerfully guided by the Divine forces that called us to become manifest in the first place.
And on a practical level, I desired to co-create something that we can all turn to time and time again to nourish our erotic selves… to fill our cups, and feel held in the sensuality of being alive and deliciously embodied. Something to soothe the soul through pleasure, arousal, deeply intimate connection, reclamation of our power, and the unique inner peace all of this generates.
Our cover artwork, BAHOUSEA, created by D.Woodring, The Portrait Priestess, was a unanimous selection amongst the editorial team. Damara graciously executed the challenging task of representing her soul through her artwork in a way that allows others to not only see but feel themselves in her. BAHOUSEA is powerfully evocative and seems to live comfortably in the void — the womb — between life and death. The black serpentine smoke rising from her vocal orifice is one indication of such a state of knowing. Home for a seasoned Sensualist, which all Sensualists are, for The Sensualist is a remembrance.
May I share a few (of the many) lines that touched me deeply through this editorial process?
“I was taught that to be good, I must be quiet. To be strong, I must be still. That to want was dangerous. But La’Rue doesn’t care for rules that cage her. She stretches beneath my skin like prayer. Like rebellion. And when I kneel, I do it for her. Not out of obligation but as an offering to the wild, sensual spirit within me that has waited too long to be honored.”
—La’Rue Swann, The Weight of Jasmine
“As the wind
Gently caresses
Its hands
Over my soft breasts
A surge of femininity
Gushes through my veins”
—Sri, The Midnight Lover
“/ Use me / I’ll wax and wane under the tides of your need, my flame will be drawn to your breath, and you’ll eventually learn to yearn for me / You’ll lose yourself in my fire and be entranced by how I flicker and tremble as I obey your steel gaze.”
—Evangeline, A Sacrifice of Flesh
“...true protection is both fierce and tender.”
—Kaliah Hekima, Protected
I transform a little more each time I read the words in this Anthology. I come a little more undone through each curve, crevice, brushstroke, and intentional line I see, deeply, through the included artworks.
It is my Sensualist who becomes as I transform, though. It is my Sensualist who embodies as I come undone.
So, who are you as The Sensualist, before you peruse this Issue, throughout your perusal, and after you’ve let the art make you a new being?
Let your Sensualist respond…
