Ecstaticism is a genre-blurring work of memoir, myth, mysticism, and embodied philosophy about what happens when the identities and certainties we have built our lives around begin to fall away.
Moving through grief, queerness, sexuality, spiritual rupture, love, and transformation, Kaelan Strouse explores the thresholds between death and rebirth, certainty and mystery, who we have been and who we are becoming. Rather than separating body from spirit, sacred from profane, or myth from lived experience, Ecstaticism asks what becomes possible when we stop trying to transcend our humanity and begin to recognize the holiness already within it.
"Kaelan Strouse teaches people to fuck shame and live authentically."
- Billy Porter, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning actor, singer, and author
"As a queer person, I especially loved the idea that the things that make us different might actually be the most special parts of us. It's honest, weird, sexy, spiritual, and a little filthy. Spirituality with its clothes off-and I LIVE for that."
- Trinity the Tuck, drag artist, performer, and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars winner
"I can't help but wonder how different and easier my journey might have been had I read this when I was younger... I feel damn lucky to have read Kae's triumphant story about not just loving but forgiving and embracing our full selves."
- William Norwich, author of My Mrs. Brown and longtime Vogue writer and editor