Hammering Hot Iron is a rare work that raises important questions, draws vital distinctions, and elevates discourse within the spiritual community on the Men's Movement, Jungian psychology, archetypal and mythological studies, and polytheistic religions. Drawing on the perennial philosophy, the universal expression of absolute truth, Upton offers a metaphysical and cultural critique of Robert Bly's Iron John. Upton adopts Bly's shadow in the Jungian sense. His intellectual argument is masterfully intertwined with his own personal and spiritual journey, often expressed through original poetry. "The book is excellent. Upton's insights have exposed the shallow philosophical thinking associated with the Men's Movement, the inadequacy of polytheism as a religious faith, and the bias against Christianity. Hammering Hot Iron does a splended job of critiquing Jungian writers and in showing there is more to God than the archetype of God in the psyche. Thank you for your excellent work in setting the record straight " -- John A. Sanford, Jungian analyst "Charles Upton provides a long-overdue masterful critique of the Men's Movement, its popularizing heroes, and the archetypal psychology on which it is based. In this marvelously iconoclastic book, Upton articulates the feelings and thoughts of those who have left the movement or are wondering why they are still part of it. He does so with eloquence, wit, and not least, wisdom. --Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., author of Voices on the Threshold of Tomorrow and Structures of Consciousness Charles Upton is a poet, social activist, and writer of the spiritual path. He is author of many other books published by Sophia Perennis
Can we really know what UFO's are? The answer is Yes-but only if we study them armed with a kind of knowledge that explains the true and complete structure of the universe-spiritual, psychic, and material-a knowledge that only traditional metaphysics can provide. Science can supply one piece of the puzzle, detective work another, psychic investigation still another. But only metaphysics can put the puzzle together, and give us a complete and satisfying picture of the UFO phenomenon. Cracks in the Great Wall analyzes of the findings of UFO researcher Jacques Vallee and some of his colleagues in light of the teachings of René Guénon, particularly as expressed in his prophetic masterpiece The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times. According to Guénon, one of the signs of the End Times is the erosion of the energy barrier or 'Great Wall' between the material plane and the world of subtle realities-which is why our world is now being invaded by 'infra-psychic forces' of a terribly destructive nature. Author Charles Upton shows how one of the most obvious examples of this invasion is the UFO phenomenon, including the experience of 'alien abduction'. A lifetime student of comparative religion and mysticism, he explains the true nature of UFOs, the quality of the world they come from, and also something about the agenda these beings, or some of them, are trying to impose upon our world. If you want to remain merely mystified or fascinated by the UFO phenomenon, this book is not for you. But if you want to understand it, Cracks in the Great Wall will give you the conceptual tools you need. With the help of UFOlogists Jacques Vallee and John E. Mack, Christian writers C.S. Lewis and Seraphim Rose, Kaballah authority Leo Schaya, and traditionalist writers René Guénon and Whitall Perry, Charles Upton has provided the most comprehensive explanation of the UFO phenomenon yet written. It is difficult to be objective in areas outside our collective view of reality-but if, as the author contends, his argument is based on sound principles, it deserves serious consideration by all who are interested in the UFO phenomenon and its effect on our world. . "Charles Upton is a serious writer from whom I have learned much. His writing deserves close attention." -Prof. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, etc.
From the days of the first shamans, through Homer, Dante, the traditional ballads, Rumi, Blake, Emily Dickinson, and Lew Welch, poetry has been rooted in metaphysics. In What Poets Used To Know, Charles Upton presents poetry both as a set of contemplative techniques and as a key to the accumulated lore hoard of the human race.
When poet Jack Gilbert, some time in the 1970's in San Francisco, asked his poetry class, "Who here aspires to write a masterpiece?," not one hand was raised. I, on the other hand, wanted to do just that; after reading Blake's Prophetic Books for the first time, as a naive youth, I said to myself: "Wow! I'd like to write one of those!" So I tried my best; it took me thirty-three years.The idol of "street language" that entered my art in the 1970's was of no interest to me; I wanted to write in a dense, heightened, magical, poetic language such as ear of cabbie or bar-fly had never heard. I respect those poets who, like my mentor Lew Welch, can bring high poetic diction and "the common speech of the Tribe" seamlessly together; in many ways I like that kind of poetry better than I do my own. But I was given to write in a certain style, to fill in a certain blank square on the map of the English language, and so I complied. The Muse assigns styles as God assigns fates, and thus - to paraphrase the Hindu scriptures - "it is better to write one's own poetry, no matter how poorly, than to try and write somebody else's, no matter how well."Much of the poetry in this book hails from a collective psychic era of great and chaotic imaginative force, whose ruins we are in many ways still poking around in today, looking for shards, coins, and old photographs. It was written over a period of around 40 years; it's all the verse (apart from what appears in my books Panic Grass, Time Raid, and Doorkeeper of the Heart, and the few scattered poems in Hammering Hot Iron: A Spiritual Critique of Bly's Iron John; Findings in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology and the Spiritual Path, and Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition) that is really worth preserving. Not much of a harvest for a 40-year crop, a dearth which I believe is explained by the fact that I am basically not a poet but a metaphysician. And although it is rather short on "personal history," in reality it is my only autobiographical work - the story of the soul known as Charles Upton, or at least some of the more darkly idealistic aspects of it, which is one of the many, many souls God always knew He was going to create, with all its strengths, weaknesses, imbalances, and challenges. This book is the story of that soul's entry into and emergence from an essentially Neo-Pagan worldview, derived from the American counterculture, and its debarkation on the shores of a traditional sacred worldview and a living spiritual Path.
Dugin against Duginis the most detailed critique yet published of the theories of Russian political leader and philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. His critics call him "mysterious, dangerous"--but he is no mystery to those who have preserved an instinct for the Unity of Truth, and can therefore see how his ideas both relate to one another and contradict each other. Charles Upton is an exponent of traditional metaphysics, a veteran of the U.S. peace movement, a Muslim, a Sufi, and as a native-born American. No critic of Aleksandr Dugin is more in sympathy with his essential worldview; none is more outraged by what he's done with it. That's why the author has confronted him on every level, in nearly every field that Dugin has chosen to address. Dugin has made a valiant attempt to ground his politics in metaphysics. Unfortunately, his metaphysics are inverted, his view of Orthodox Christianity heretical, his image of Islam twisted, and his flirtation with Satanism all too obvious. No contemporary political theorist has faced the doom of Man more bravely; no social critic has seen the evils of extreme Postmodern Liberalism more clearly--yet he can provide no real alternatives. He has deviated from what traditional metaphysicians René Guénon and Julius Evola called the Primordial Tradition, and turned instead to deception and self-contradiction. Dugin against Duginshines a light on the transformation of religion and the peace movement in the U.S. over the past half-century, the 180-degree inversion of the American Left, the dangers and potentials of the Alt Right, and what true American patriotism might look like in the 21stcentury. It presents traditional metaphysics as a liberation from political ideology, expands on Guénon's "science of Apocalypse," and recounts the history of the Covenants Initiative--an international peace movement co-founded by the author in 2013.
Whether the world ends tomorrow or lasts for centuries, we all exist in a 'climate' of the End of Days. As Thomas Merton wrote, 'We live in an age of two superimposed eschatologies: that of secular anxieties and hopes, and that of revealed fulfillment. Sometimes the first is merely mistaken for the second, sometimes it results from complete denial and despair of the second.' The 'end of time' obviously relates to history, but-just as obviously-it cannot be contained within it. Legends of the End have always been with us; every spiritual tradition that has a story of the beginning of things must also have one of their final end-the end of the earth, of the universe, of time itself. And just as all such myths symbolize invisible realities, so every historical event is precisely an invisible reality made visible and tangible. This book takes a look at eight Legends of the End: Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hopi, and Lakota. When these stories are placed side-by-side, great differences and startling similarities become apparent-similarities both in broad outlines and in minute details. In light of this traditional lore, the author begins and concludes with a penetrating spiritual meditation on the meaning of the End. Without a grasp of this meaning, to date the End is impossible. With such a grasp, even the most accurate dating is irrelevant, for to know the meaning of the End of Days is already to be beyond it. 'Charles Upton is a serious thinker from whom I have learned much. His writing merits close attention.' - Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, etc.
The System of Antichrist examines the present religious and cultural scene from the standpoint of traditional metaphysics and critiques the New Age spiritualities within their postmodern context. Its many references to Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon also help introduce these important but little-known 'traditionalist' thinkers. The book presents lore relating to the 'latter days' of the present cycle from the vantage point of comparative religion, drawing upon relevant doctrines from Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and the Native American traditions. It also speculates upon the social, psychic, and spiritual nature of that being known to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as the Antichrist, presenting him as both an individual and a system and warning those willing to be warned against the spiritual seduction and terror he represents, and against the regime which will be-and is-the social expression of that seduction and that terror. Finally, in tracing the roots of Antichrist in the fallen nature of man, the author sketches the particular quality of spirituality proper to apocalyptic times, the dangers it faces, the unique opportunities open to it. And along the way he describes his own course from the 'spiritual revolution' of the 1960s, through the world of New Age spiritualities, to the threshold of traditional esoterism and metaphysics. As he says, speaking of the angst that characterizes the modern world: 'The specific medicine for the shock of despair is the deeper shock of meaning. Nothing but the weight of eternity, breaking through the thin, brittle shell of the postmodern sky, can set us on our feet.
Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, which inspired passage in 1906 of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, stands as a classic of twentieth-century American literature and social protest. In this accessible and thorough edition by Christopher Phelps, a critical introduction addresses the wide range of issues raised by the text, including early twentieth-century working conditions, immigrant community, race and gender, political reform, and the continuing relevance of Sinclair’s investigation. This edition uses the most widely recognized text of The Jungle — the Doubleday, Page edition published in 1906 — and provides an illuminating supporting document: President Theodore Roosevelt’s delivery to Congress of the official report that confirmed The Jungle’s shocking allegations about the Chicago meatpacking industry. Questions for consideration, a chronology, and a selected bibliography help contextualize Sinclair’s novel and provide students with resources for further study.
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