Charles Upton (poet)
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Charles Upton (born December 13, 1948) is an American
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
esotericist Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
.


Life

Born in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, Charles Upton grew up in
Marin County, California Marin County is a County (United States), county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and ...
. He attended
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
schools through high school. He attended
UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
for four days.


Career

In San Francisco, he met the poet
Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 1971?) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of C ...
, who became his mentor. Although much younger than most of the Beat poets, Upton's first two volumes of poetry were also published by
City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...
. It was associated with many of the earlier Beat poets. After his first two volumes of poems were published, Upton became involved with the
Sanctuary Movement The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. The movement was a response to federal immigration policies ...
for
Central American Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...
refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
. He produced and distributed a video, ''Through the Needle’s Eye'', containing testimonies of refugees. In the late 1980s he was briefly involved with the "magical populism" of the
New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
peace movement. He studied group
dreamwork Dreamwork differs from classical dream interpretation in that the aim is to explore the various images and emotions that a dream presents and evokes, while not attempting to come up with a unique dream meaning. In this way the dream remains "al ...
and dream networking. In 1988 he joined a traditional
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
order. Under his wife's influence, Upton became interested in the
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
of the Traditionalist or Perennialist School (the followers of Rene Guenon,
Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...
and
Frithjof Schuon Frithjof Schuon (, , ; 18 June 1907 – 5 May 1998) was a Swiss metaphysician of German descent, belonging to the Perennialist or Traditionalist School of thought. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spiritual ...
). He continues to be identified with this school. His papers are held at
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...
.


Activism

In 2013 Charles Upton conceived of The Covenants Initiative, based on the book The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World by his colleague Dr. John Andrew Morrow. The Covenants Initiative urges Muslims to abide by the covenants concluded between Muhammad and the Christian communities of his time: http://www.covenantsoftheprophet.com. In November, 2018, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World was cited at length by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in their decision to acquit the Christian woman Asia Bibi on charges of blasphemy.


Marriage and family

He married Jennifer Doane. After living in
Marin County, California Marin County is a County (United States), county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and ...
, they currently live in
Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
.


Works

* ''Panic Grass'' (epic poem) City Lights Books, 1968; ASIN B001FSYIPE * ''Time Raid'', (poems) Four Seasons Foundation, 1968; ASIN B0006BVUOS * ''Doorkeeper of the Heart, Versions of Rabi’a'' (poems), Threshold Books, 1988; Pir Press, 2004; * ''Hammering Hot Iron: A Spiritual Critique of Bly’s Iron John'' (metaphysics and social criticism), Quest Books, 1993; Sophia Perennis 2005; * ''The System of Antichrist: Truth and Falsehood in Postmodernism and the New Age'' (metaphysics and social criticism), Sophia Perennis, 2001; * ''Legends of the End: Prophesies of the End Times, Antichrist, Apocalypse, and Messiah from Eight Religious Traditions'', Sophia Perennis, 2005; * ''Cracks in the Great Wall: UFOs and Traditional Metaphysics'', Sophia Perennis, 2005; * ''The Virtues of the Prophet: A Young Muslim's Guide to the Greater Jihad, the War Against the Passions'', Sophia Perennis, 2006; * ''Knowings, in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology and the Spiritual Path'', Sophia Perennis, 2008; * ''Reflections of Tasawwuf: Essays, Poems and Narrative on Sufi Themes'', Sophia Perennis, 2008; * ''Who Is the Earth? How to See God in the Natural World'', Sophia Perennis, 2008; * ''Folk Metaphysics: Mystical Meanings in Traditional Folk Songs and Spirituals'', Sophia Perennis, 2008 * ''Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition'' (with his wife Jennifer Doane Upton), Sophia Perennis, 2008; * ''Findings in Metaphysic, Path and Lore, With a Response to the Traditionalist/Perennialist School'', Sophia Perennis, 2010; * ''The Science of the Greater Jihad: Essays in Principal Psychology'', Sophia Perennis, 2011; * ''The Wars of Love and Other Poems, with "A Reader's Guide to The Wars of Love" and "Lew Welch as Teacher"'', Sophia Perennis, 2011; * ''Vectors of the Counter-Initiation: The Course and Destiny of Inverted Spirituality'', Sophia Perennis, 2012; * ''Day and Night on the Sufi Path'', Sophia Perennis, 2015; * ''The Words of God to Prophet Muhammad: Forty Sacred Sayings'', 2015; * ''What Poets Used to Know: Poetics, Mythopoesis, Metaphysics'', Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis, 2016; * ''Dugin against Dugin: A Traditionalist Critique of the Fourth Political Theory'', Reviviscimus, 2018; * ''The Alien Disclosure Deception: The Metaphysics of Social Engineering'', Sophia Perennis, 2021; * ''The Way Forward for Perennialism, After the Antinomianism of Frithjof Schuon'', Sophia Perennis, 2022;


Editor

* ''Dark Way to Paradise: Dante's Inferno in Light of the Spiritual Path'',Jennifer Doane Upton, Sophia Perennis, 2005; * ''False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism and the Quest for a One-World Religion'', Lee Penn, Sophia Perennis, 2005; * ''The Ordeal of Mercy: Dante's Purgatorio in Light of the Spiritual Path'', Jennifer Doane Upton, Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis, 2015;


Anthologies

* ''Mark in Time'', Glide Publications, 1971; * Excerpt from ''Panic Grass'' in ''City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology'', Lawrence Ferlinghetti (ed.), City Lights Books, 1995; * ''Diamond Cutters: Visionary Poets in America, Britain and Oceania'', Andrew Harvey and Jay Ramsay (ed.), Tayen Lane Publications, 2016; ISNB (trade hardcover) 978-1-944505-22-0, ISBN (trade softcover)978-1-944505-37-0


References


External links


Charles Upton's website

Charles Upton's YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upton, Charles 1948 births American spiritual writers American occult writers 21st-century American poets American male poets 20th-century American poets Writers from San Francisco Converts to Islam American Sufis Traditionalist School Metaphysicians Poets from California Living people 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers