The Essential Gay Mystics (Essential (Booksales)) (Hardcover)

From ancient Greek society to today's varied cultures around the world, there are commonalities of spirit and sensibility that can be traced as common threads. This text, part of the 'Essentials' series, examines various mystical and spiritual writings by gay persons across time; however, not all the authors represented in this text are gay. Some (such as Shakespeare) might have been bisexual, or heterosexual, but still seem to be able to tap into that voice which seems most representative of and represented in the gay community.

There are nine chapters to this text, exclusive of the introduction by Andrew Harvey. The first two chapters look at ancient Greece and Rome, including Sappho (of course, perhaps the most famous of the gay ancients), Pindar, Empedocles, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Plato, Theocrius, Vergil, Horace, and poems from the Galli, gender-variant priests of the Cybele.

Chapters three through five look at native American traditions, Far East, and Persian/Sufi traditions. These include We'wa, Hasteen Klah, Qu Yan, Kukai, Zeami, Basho, Attar, Sadi, Hafiz, Iraqi, Jami, as well as the modern Mohawk descendent, Maurice Kenny.

Chapters six through nine look at the more modern Western culture, from Renaissance times (Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz) through to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where the names become too numerous to mention, but are well known - names such as Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Rimbaud, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Dag Hammarskjold, and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).

In his introduction, Harvey likens the gay person to the mystic in that they are both risk takers and adventurers of a sort. They eschew conventionality of some sorts, even as they might embrace conventionality and tradition of a different sort. Interestingly, one of the commonalities of many mystical traditions and paths is that for a true mystical deepening and enlightenment, the masculine and feminine aspects should be blended and cooperative within a unified spirit. Gay experience can often relate to this. Harvey has purposefully concentrated on those expressions that emphasise a breaking down of dualisms and barriers - those visions that look to eliminate the gap between heaven and earth, body and spirit, heart and mind, male and female.

Some of the authors here have never been included in a collection such as this. Some yearned for silence and solitude during their lifetime. Others sought expression and voice, but couldn't find such. Harvey also talks about the exclusions he had to make - while the likes of Mechtild and Hildegard from the Middle Ages might well fit categorially in this collection, their writing and the documentary evidence about them warrants leaving them out.

Harvey talks of putting this collection together as being one of the most fulfilling times in his life. Reading this collection and the attendant introductions and commentaries is likewise a rewarding experience, giving voice and feeling to an often overlooked presence it the past, and adds a new dimension to the gay experience in the present.