ABSTRACT
Generalization and comparison may furnish the best introduction. Both Edward Carpenter and Walt Whitman democratized same-sex love–formerly it could be dismissed as upper class indulgence–but whether or not Whitman's sexual democracy was promiscuous, Carpenter's approach was moralistic, favouring the ideal union. Both were inspired by a horizontal rather than vertical mysticism, directed more towards unity than transcendence, albeit Whitman expands into a world that Carpenter is more inclined to absorb. Carpenter's way is more conventionally linked to the One of Asian mysticism, in whose light he believed independent views inclusive of gayness were possible as part of the whole. But like many gays, especially before modern liberation, Whitman also cultivated a precious indirection, a language of hints and signs which in his case seems to have drawn him into deception and self-deception. Though Carpenter personally inclined to rationalism and mysticism, not the occult, his theory of homosexual function has contributed to gay spirituality appropriation of magic as spirituality.
