International Gay & Lesbian Review

Essential Gay Mystics

• Nonfiction
• Publisher: Pilgrim Press
• Publication Date: 1998

Andrew Harvey's latest book, Essential Gay Mystics, comes to us “as a loving protest” against contemporary attitudes of homophobia that gays and lesbians are accustomed to encountering in society on a daily basis. Reading these selections of writing can have a healing effect on our wounds and help restore in us a stronger, healthier identity. Harvey's purpose is clearly stated: “I wanted everyone, most of all my gay brothers and sisters to be aware that there is no authentic witness in our western culture or in that of any other culture, of the Divine itself in any way excluding homosexuals from its love.” (pg. 2) Harvey assures us that our marginalized social status is of relatively recent origin and (...has no basis in divine.) He feels that the best weapons we have at our disposal to counteract this situation is to be found in the writings of our own mystics speaking of the sacredness of our unions. From them, we ourselves and society at large, will find effective tools with which to reshape popular sterotypical, denigrating images of gays and lesbians. Harvey's selection of witnesses begins with Sappho, the Greek poetess, who was admired so deeply by her compatriots in Lesbos that they put her image on their coins. She represents well what Harvey is presenting to us (and our straight friends) that our relationships with the divine often begin and evolve through our erotic experiences and eventually mature in the transforming union with God and the cosmos. His discriminating discernment of authors represents many different mystical paths taken by gay people, but he emphasizes one particular strand, namely, ”..the tantric vision of reality. This is the vision that rejects old separations between heaven and earth, body and spirit, heart and mind and lives in wonderment of the explosive dance of divine energy,” evident throughout the universe. (pg. 6) An ample selection of well known ancient authors are represented from Greece and Rome: Pindar, Empedocles. Sophocles, Plato. Other cultures represented are from the Native American tribes, honoring the berdache ”...who enjoyed widespread respect for their sacred and practical powers.” (pg. 57) Traditions from the Far East include Qu Yuan to Basho who testify to the presence of same-sex love and shamanistic rituals in China and Mongolia honoring the Mother Goddess. Excerpts from Japan include Kukai (Kobo Daishi), Zeami, “founder of the Japanese theatrical form called No.” (pg. 75) Basho is regarded as the greatest Japanese poet. Who, like few others in any language, convey the mystical power and presence of the ordinary. (pg. 80) From Persia Attar, Sadi and Hafiz are offered as representatives of the Sufi tradition who were admirers of beardless young men and had no hesitancy in seeing the divine reflected therein. Witnesses from the Renaissance and the nineteenth century are more familiar to us: Michelangelo and Shakespeare, Thoreau to Oscar Wilde are among the men; among the women Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz might be of special interest.

Sor Juana lived in Mexico City and is one of the great Spanish mystics. Before she became a nun, she was a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Viceroy and astonished everyone there with her erudition and mystical writings. In order to avoid marriage she became a nun at the convent of San Jeronimo where she continued to compose passionate poems and letters to aristocratic ladies. The integrity with which she pursued these relationships supplies us with an unusual role model with which to counteract the guilt imposed on us by homophobic church officials. She, herself, could not escape their wrath and suffered the last two years of her life deprived of her personal library and of her freedom to write.

Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti are other female role models from this period. Dickinson, of late, is being considered an important American witness to lesbian love. So significant were her feelings toward her sister-in-law, Sue, said Emily, that it would have taken but a word from her to make the poetess “forfeit righteousness.” Christine Rossetti loved both men and women but, sadly, in a repressed way. Her poem, “Goblin Maker,” is a favorite among lesbians because of its female erotic content.

Harvey's preference among American males of the nineteenth century goes to Walt Whitman, who, in his estimation heralds the next stage of human evolution as a “wholeness that integrates with, and in, divine love and all of life's powers. (p . 143)

Much encouragement can be derived from these and the other gay mystic authors whom Harvey offers us in his anthology. The list continues on into the twentieth century acquainting us with writers we might not be aware of who can enrich and inspire our spiritual lives as much, if nor more, than earlier examples. Who knows, perhaps they will engender in us, too, a living witness to the “extraordinary freedoms” that the Divine invites us to enjoy.

This book was nominated for Lambda Literary Award .

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