The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell

Johnson, Toby

Religion & Spirituality

Celestial Arts

Secret Matter is a science-fiction romance novel. It won a 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Science Fiction. In 1999, it was one of five books nominated to be the first ever inducted into the Gay Lesbian Science Fiction Hall of Fame. The story tells of the arrival of a race of aliens. They have cameleon-like autonomic functions in their skin coloration which reveal their emotional and psychological states. Thus they are fundamentally unable to lie. For them homosexual activity is consistent with their biology and normal in their culture. Recognizing our society's objection to homosexual activity, however, they try to hide their true nature. The tension created between the two cultures confuses their mission in coming to our world. The plot is a sweet love story about the relationship between a young gay man and one of the aliens. Through several levels the protagonist slowly uncovers the truth about the aliens' "secret life," including, finally, the fact that they aren't really alien at all, but rather come from a parallel world of Earth. The punch line is that in the creation myth of the Garden of Eden in their world their "Adam & Eve" did NOT commit original sin and their reward was both their inability to hide the truth and their homosexuality. The novel is about the importance of coming out and the innocence of gay experience.

Secret Matter

LGBTQ+ Books

Literature & Fiction

Lavender Pr

GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE is a post-modern gay novel about a big city literary editor who, when faced with serious illness, retires to the country to relieve stress and to write the novel he's always been intending to write. Living alone in a ramshackle old mansion in the Texas Hill Country, he begins to imagine that the characters of his novel are real. Two young gay men from the 1890s appear to him and recount the story of their lives. In the turn-of-the-century story, the two characters, having managed to find one another against great odds, seek refuge in a gay utopian colony in Colorado loosely modeled after Edward Carpenter's farm in Sussex, England. There they discover a gay positive, post-Christian, Whitman-inspired spirituality. The writer is never clear whether he is seeing ghosts or simply very vividly creating his novel. But the Topper-esque ghosts playfully assist him in coming to terms with his own self-pity and fear of dying. It's a sweet, occasionally sexy, historical romance with a contemporary spiritual/philosophical message woven in--along with justs a touch of the Twilight Zone.

Getting Life in Perspective

Contemporary

From Joseph Campbell, the renowned comparative religions and mythology scholar, Toby Johnson derived his central insight that there is a “new myth” arising in human consciousness. This is the understanding of the nature of myth itself, a “meta-myth,” the “myth of myth,” according to which our lives are always giving us clues to the secret of our true and deepest nature, and our salvation comes from following our own unique clues. One of the clues that many cultures share is the tradition of the “wise old man,” the elder who serves as guide, teacher, and companion, helping others on the path to enlightenment. When Toby Johnson, a young Catholic seminarian, left the monastery on his own unconventional spiritual journey, he had the good fortune to find such a teacher in the person of Joseph Campbell. Johnson says in the introduction: Joe demonstrated how to gently leave behind the naïve religiousness of youth and find wonder, meaning, and bliss in a new post-mythic, but re-mythologized, spiritual consciousness. Toby Johnson's spiritual/philosophical autobiography, Finding Your Own True Myth—The Myth of the Great Secret III, is both a loving memorial to Campbell and an original extension of his work. Johnson, later a psychotherapist, religions scholar, novelist, and gay spirituality writer, offers insight into the vital role that myth—and insight into myth—play in the modern world and inspiration for anyone seeking coherence and meaning. A wealth of personal anecdotes and teaching stories are woven throughout the text to provide practical applications for these lessons and concrete examples of their power to change lives.

Finding Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Book by Johnson, Edwin Clark, Johnson, Toby

Plague

Johnson, Edwin Clark

United States

Alyson Books

Chapter One:Perspective: Queer Victory
On a walking journey, when you come to a rise in the road, the horizon opens up. The world gets bigger and patterns in the lay of the land become apparent. From the summit of even a small hill, you can see more of the world than you could on the plain.
If there happens to be a wall alongside the road, especially if it is high and blocks the view, you might be able to climb to the top of it and then see both sides of the wall. Though you must be careful to keep your balance, if you are daring, you can see what other people cannot see. You can see where you have come from and where you are going. You can see things in relation to one another. From this higher perspective, your journey makes more sense.
A Higher Perspective
As a consequence of technology and science and the acceleration of the evolution of consciousness on Earth, human beings today are forced to look at the world from a higher perspective than ever before. People are asked to think outside the immediate confines of their own placement in the historical process of the universe, to see "the big picture." Whether they want to or not, they are expected to analyze the forces that construct the popular perception of the world and to understand from over and above the various explanations of reality that have come down to us.
This is especially true and world-shaking in religion. Looking at religions from over and above changes the way their truth is perceived. We see that the wise advice of the ages comes to us through a complex tangle of myths, stories, old wives' tales, legends, and religious doctrines. We recognize the metaphorical nature of religious ideas. We see that out of these metaphors we put together explanations for ourselves of what our lives are about. Such visions are the meat of both religion and spirituality. That is all the mystics and seers who spun the myths were talking about.
All too often, though, driven by practical organizational concerns, the bureaucrats and functionaries of the churches focus on the smaller picture. They inadvertently end up trying to keep people obedient and submissive in order to maintain the status quo.
The human world is full of differen

Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity In the Transformation of Religious Thought

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

In this companion volume to his cri-tically acclaimed, Lambda Literary Awardwinning Gay Spirituality, Toby Johnson further explicates his visionary stance that gay people's nature as outsiders gives them a uniquely powerful perspective on the nature of God and religion. By living outside gender norms, gay people are more open to seeing across boundaries of gender and gain access to a less dualistic outlook on the nature of life. Once again, Johnson approaches this potentially controversial subject matter with -erudition, empathy and visionary speculation and gives meaning to gay consciousness beyond superficial issues of sexual behavior.
Toby Johnson is the editor of White Crane, a quarterly journal of gay men's spirituality, as well as the -author of Gay Spirituality. He lives in Wimberley, Texas.

Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us About the Nature of God and the Universe

In this Lambda Literary award-winning title, author Toby Johnson explores how the rise of gay identity has become an important part of contemporary religious development. 
This dramatic transformation has resulted due to the perspective of gay men; their ability to step outside the assumptions and conventions of culture and see things from a different point of view. 
 This book will reward readers seeking new insight into faith as well as culture, myth and traditions.

Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness

White Crane Books

Warned by his doctor to seek some much-needed rest, Rick Carton retires to a neglected old mansion in the Texas hill country to write. But strange things begin to happen. Are the characters from Carton's novel of gay love in 19th century America real? Or is the mansion haunted by two lovable apparitions? While the charming pair tell Carton of their search for a utopian colony in Colorado that will shelter them, he faces his own fears of death and failure.  Getting Life in Perspective offers readers a sweet and sexy romance with touches of spiritual grace and the supernatural. Large-print edition.

Getting Life in Perspective: A Fantastical Romance

Lethe Pr

Genre Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Johnson, Toby. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Johnson, Toby

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Johnson, Toby. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell

Secret Matter

Getting Life in Perspective

Finding Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III

Plague

Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity In the Transformation of Religious Thought

Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us About the Nature of God and the Universe

Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness

Getting Life in Perspective: A Fantastical Romance

Getting Life in Perspective: A Fantastical Romance