Joseph Campbell and the Lunar Vision

Toby has four new books out: an updated, revised and expanded edition of his classic soft sci fi romance novel
SECRET MATTER -- with its quirky and mystical spin on what it means to be gay. Click on the title for info.
An historical novel, written in collaboration with historian/anthropologist Walter L. Williams,
set in the Old West TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life With the Navajo. And a collection of gay positive stories
contributed by more than 30 writers titled CHARMED LIVES. And his beloved spiritual romance novel
GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE has just been rereleased by Lethe Press.

Contact Us Table of Contents Search Site Home Also on this website: Toby Johnson's books: TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with the Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe SECRET MATTER: updated, revised & expanded edtion from Lethe Press with Afterword by Mark Jordan GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE PLAGUE: A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING. CHARMED LIVES: Spinning Straw into Gold: Reclaiming Our Queer Spirituality Through Story About ordering Books on Gay Spirituality: White Crane Gay Spirituality Series   Articles and Excerpts: Read Toby's review of Samuel Avery's The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco" The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate Why gay people should NOT Marry Wedding Cake Liberation Gay Marriage in Texas What's ironic Shame on the American People The "highest form of love"  The cause of homosexuality What is homosexuality? What is Gay Spirituality? What Jesus said about Gay Rights The purpose of homosexuality Interview on the Nature of Homosexuality What the Bible Says about Homosexuality Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men Varieties of Gay Spirituality Waves of Gay Liberation Activity Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium Easton Mountain Retreat Center Andrew Harvey & Spiritual Activism "It's Always About You" The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara Joseph Campbell's description of Avalokiteshvara You're Not A Wave Emptiness & Religious Ideas Experiencing experiencing experiencing Going into the Light Meditations for a Funeral Meditation Practice The way to get to heaven Advice to Travelers to India & Nepal Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva John Boswell was Immanuel Kant Curious Bodies What Toby Johnson Believes The Joseph Campbell Connection Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy The Nature of Religion Being Gay is a Blessing Freedom of Religion The Gay Agenda Gay Saintliness Gay Spiritual Functions The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives. The Sinfulness of Homosexuality Proposal for a study of gay nondualism  "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the Cross & the Dark Night of the Soul." Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.  Eckhart's Eye Let Me Tell You a Secret Religious Articulations of the Secret The Collective Unconscious Driving as Spiritual Practice Meditation Historicity as Myth Pilgrimage Next Step in Evolution Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah Hu: "God is present here"   Adam and Steve The Life is in the Blood Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery" Seeing with Different Eyes What are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel? The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis The Techniques Of The World Saviors Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Part 2: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Part 3: Jesus and the Resurrection Part 4: A Course in Miracles The Secret of the Clear Light Understanding the Clear Light Mobius Strip Finding Your Tiger Face How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated About Alien Abduction In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance More about Gay Mental Health Psych Tech Training The Rainbow Flag Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. About Michael Talbot, gay mystic About Guy Mannheimer About Dennis Paddie About Sterling Houston About Michael Stevens Our friend Tom Nash Second March on Washington The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the  "Statement of Spirituality"   Book Reviews Be Done on Earth by Howard E. Cook Pay Me What I'm Worth by Souldancer The Way Out by Christopher L  Nutter The Gay Disciple by John Henson Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry

On the evening of the full moon of August 1972, Joseph Campbell was lecturing at the Mann Ranch Seminars in northern California. I was on staff at the Mann Ranch. That evening we'd surprised the guests by leading them on a long hike up to the top of the highest point of the coastal range above Mendocino. There on the rocky ground, covered now with blue-and-white-checked tableclothes, we'd laid out a sumptuous picnic supper spread. (What the guests hadn't known was that the peak could be reached easily by road from the other side.)   As we were preparing to eat under the deep twilight sky, Campbell pointed out what was going on in the heavens above us. At that very moment, he said, as the sun was slipping below the edge of the earth to the west, the full moon was rising over the brown brink of the horizon to the east. Joe explained that as the sun was setting, the Greeks imagined, in its last ray it shot forth an arrow that wounded the full moon. And it was for that reason that the moon would then begin to wane until reborn two weeks later when it would rise with the rising sun.   Campbell also said, under that darkening azure sky with the great lunar globe ascending with ponderous majesty, that now the most powerful image in the mythological imagination--indeed since the crucifixion of Jesus--is the vision of the earth from the surface of the moon taken by the Apollo astronauts. It signified that for the first time the Earth was able to look back on itself through the eyes it had grown in human beings. The planet had evolved self-awareness.   That Campbell could entertain both the ancient mythological image and the modern scientific accomplishment as evidences of the dynamics of consciousness impressed me. From Campbell, I learned a certain enlightenment: that achieving perspective is the highest enterprise of the spiritual life. After all, it's all metaphor. The goal is to be able to understand truth from over and above, and to not make others wrong for how they see the world differently. That was also the message I'd discovered in my homosexuality: that being gay meant being outside the narrow confines of "normalcy," over and above the opinions of people, so that one could see, with critical distance, from a higher perspective and discover that nobody was wrong--us especially.   Joseph Campbell, though himself not gay, offered a way to think about truth and religion that seems to me especially appropriate for gay people. The attitudes that follow from his matter-of-fact and compassionate way of looking at things would result in the world of acceptance and honor we as gay people long for. If religion is one of the biggest problems the gay community faces, then we'd do well to encourage and support the transformation of religion. Keeping alive the vision of Joseph Campbell is the work of the Joseph Campbell & Marija Gimbutas Library on the campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara. Membership in the Library supports the kind of revolution in religion that most of us seek. For info, write the Campbell & Gimbutas Library, 249 Lambert Rd, Carpinteria CA 93013. Click here for the web sites of: Joseph Campbell & Marija Gimbutas Library Joseph Campbell Foundation This article appeared in White Crane Journal Winter 1997 (#31): EXERCISES IN SPIRITUALITY

Toby Johnson, PhD is author of eight books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, three gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality. In addition to the novels featured elsewhere in this web site, Johnson is author of IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD and THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET (Revised edition): AN APPRECIATION OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL.

Johnson's Lammy Award winning book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness was published in 2000.

His Lammy-nominated book  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was published by Alyson in 2003.