Circle of Christhood

Many years ago, I had been told that Starcke and Joel had had a falling out. When I asked Geri MacDonald what the reason was, she said it was because Walter was gay. This hardly seemed like the right reason, but I left it at that.  I then asked what Joel thought about homosexuality.  Geri replied with one word, "Error." 

Since I knew little of Starcke's relationship with Joel, I was pleased to receive "Joel Goldsmith and I." I had just finished reading it when the student who had sent the book to me called, and we began to talk about it. Certain points came up in conversation.  It is this conversation that has led to what follows. 

I hope that the information will help IW students see some very valuable lessons Starcke has been able to set forth in his book.  Some of these may be rather "sensitive."  Some may need more details or corrections by Walter or his friends and students. I will welcome this and hope that in the interest of spiritual learning, we will be able to share and illumine others.  It is with thanksgiving and prayer that we will strive to look further into the information Starcke has provided for us.

Given that The Infinite Way is the spiritual home of a number of gay students, it seems an opportunity may have been missed by leaving this valuable information about Walter and John van Druten (being homosexual partners) out of the story.  We will do our best to add what we can on this important topic. I was initially reluctant to mention this about Walter for it might have been information he wanted to remain private. However, Starcke mentions Christopher Isherwood and many other names.  While researching this information,  I found several references to Starcke's work with the gay community which led me to feel that this was public knowledge. The references will be listed below and will serve to clarify further.

All IW students should know that it does not matter what our sexual orientation is.  We do not define anything as sin, nor do we pass judgment on our fellowman.  We see that lust is lust, carnality is carnality, regardless whether gay or straight.  As one evolves on the path, desires, ALL worldly, material desires, fall away.  This is where Starcke made a huge mistake. He forced himself to be celebate, teetotaling, non-smoking and vegetarian. A change in human behavior cannot bring on illumination or spiritual progress.  We cannot will, or force or "act" illumined.  We must wait for Grace to bestow the experience upon us. Grace alone can dissolve our individual desires and passions.

I continue to feel gratitude for Starcke's candid sharing. There is much material to study and use as teaching and learning examples.  The hope is that Starcke may choose to add more insights into this important area of his life and how it affected him and the homosexual Infinite Way students he has come to know on the path.  How did Joel respond? What were his comments or suggestions? Perhaps Joel and Starcke never discussed homosexuality. (This is possible given the comment on page 15 about Joel being Victorian.) We know Joel instructs wives and husbands in the work to meet their marital responsibilities. Sex was not sin.  Students, particularly when their spouse is not in the work, were instructed not to abandon any familial or worldly responsibility.  The discussion may have been subtle and polite, but Joel's message was very open and to the point.  Joel would not have shirked from this topic. It is however, very possible that Starcke did. Until we hear first hand, we can only speculate.  Any comments, corrections, or added information will be welcomed through the Guestbook and posted.

About Walter Starcke

http://www.walterstarcke.com: 

"Walter Starcke, Author, Speaker, Unity Board Member, Entrepreneur, Metaphysician"

"There's just no pinning Walter Starcke down. Ask him what he professes, and the cheerful octogenarian will answer, "to be alive." Ask him what his next lecture is going to be about, and he'll provide, "the answer to everything."

...."I'm not a man of earth or a man of God," he says. "I’m both. And my job unto life is to make those two me’s communicate and get along together. Anybody who is all this or all that is missing the boat." Meaning, he can quote scripture with the fiercest evangelist, but he also likes his margaritas, has a brand-new, tomato-bisque-colored Saab, and, in relating his long and varied history, will name-drop like crazy.

"Starcke's spiritual journey began in 1945, when, as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he decided not to return home after World War II. "At the end of the war I didn’t want to go back to Texas and the hypocrisy of the society I’d been brought up in," Starcke says. "So, I went to New York where I could live in Greenwich Village in any kind of lifestyle I wanted, and no one would point fingers at me..."

"While in New York, Starcke met and befriended many of theater's great minds, including Noel Coward, Cole Porter, and Tennessee Williams. Yet, the most influential person in his life would not be one of his writerly cohorts. In 1946, van Druten introduced Starcke to Joel Goldsmith, mystic and author, whose teachings centered on the Infinite Way, a method of communicating with God through silent prayer and meditation. In keeping with his desire to learn about the world’s religions, Starcke would study with Goldsmith for 18 years, often traveling and lecturing with the guru. "Joel was an extraordinary man," says Starcke. "I’ve never taught the Infinite Way, no one but Joel could, but I’ve referenced his teachings in every book I’ve written."

"Goldsmith died in 1964, and 35 of his books are still in print. Starcke's current writing project, Joel & I, is an autobiographical account of their relationship. "It’s going to shoot me out of a canon," Starcke says. "It's not just the effect a spiritual master had on an eager young student; it's archetypal of any father-son relationship." .......

"And so, in the early 1960s, Starcke abandoned the comfort of his fabulous Hotel des Artiste apartment and moved next-door to Tennessee Williams in Key West, Florida. There, Starcke helped form the Old Island Restoration Foundation, a successful revitalization project, and turned an old bank building into a silkscreen factory — the one where Lilly Pulitzer’s first designs were manufactured.

"He also wrote three spiritual books: The Double Thread, The Ultimate Revolution, and The Gospel of Relativity. “All the world’s religions have had some wonderful presence, whether you call it God or Allah, or whatever,” Starcke says, describing the essence of his books, “but they all say you’ve got to get rid of your humanity — lock it up in the false morality we’ve created — and that creates a duality.

“Anyone in the religious field who doesn’t share their humanity is laying a guilt trip on everyone else. So, my quest in life, until this minute, is to close that gap between our divinity and our humanity. Until we do that, we can’t be whole,” he adds. "

http://www.walterstarcke.com/menuframeset.htm

The Author's Confession

 

I have been helplessly driven all my life by what has simplistically turned out to be an inability to accept either/or. On one side there has been an insatiable appetite to experience and merge with what is universally conceived of as God.

On the other hand, though Lord knows I have tried, I have been unable in the process to ignore, reject, or dishonor my personal presence as a materialized human being. The carrot that has constantly dangled before my eyes has been the possibility that I can arrive at and live with a full compatible and simultaneous realization that my two selves are one and the same.

 

At last, right on time for the 21st Century, all the pieces have come together, not just for me but for everyone. Now we can all enjoy being human beings and all that includes without its contradicting the achievement of spiritual perfection. I am not out to start a new religion or defend the past. In my books I share the ways that make it possible for everyone to love themselves in no matter what tradition they follow.

http://www.whitecranejournal.com/50/art5010.asp

"Walter Starcke is a figure in the current day culture of the Texas Hill Country and a friend of the gay community of San Antonio. He's been a young dashing Texan in New York City, a Broadway producer, a friend of Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal, Chris Isherwood and his circle, a Key West entrepreneur, a gay man, a straight man, an adventurer and world traveller, a spiritual seeker, a mystic, a teacher for the various progressive churches called "metaphysical," a retreat master, a meditator, a spiritual writer, a devotee of Joel Goldsmith, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Albert Einstein and Jesus for the quantum age, a textile manufacturer, an innkeeper, the wise elder of central Texas' original Shaman Circle. "

The following is a list of Walter's friends and associates who influenced his life

Metaphysicians:

The Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship http://www.spiritual-frontiers.com/

...to promote a multidisciplinary view of the religious, spiritual and esoteric phenomena

Catherine Ponder: 

http://catherineponder.wwwhubs.com/

Catherine Ponder is considered one of America's foremost inspirational authors. She has written more than a dozen books, which include such bestsellers as her Millionaires of the Bible series. She is a minister of the non- denominational Unity faith -- long known as the "pioneer of positive thinking" -- and has been described by some as "the Norman Vincent Peale among lady ministers." She has served in Unity Churches since 1956, and heads a global ministry in Palm Desert, California.

Catherine wrote her first prosperity book The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity in the early 1960's .....The second book was entitled Open Your Mind to Prosperity. She has given lectures on the universal principles of prosperity in most of the major cities of America (and a lot of small ones, too): from Town Hall and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, to the Phoenix Country Club in Arizona, to the elegant Pioneer Theater Auditorium in Reno, Nevada. From Honolulu to New Orleans she has given interviews on television and radio, as well as numerous interviews by the print media.

The principles of abundance described in her books helped her to successfully serve one church in the Deep South, and to found several others from financial scratch. He present global ministry reaches into all 50 states, and 47 foreign countries. Her books are now translated abroad and she receives lecture invitations from all over the world. Although she is no longer able to honor the many requests that are made, she continues researching and writing on the subject of abundance. She is listed in Who's Who and the Social Register, and has received an honorary doctorate.Catherine Ponder writes from a Christian perspective. Pagans may wish to substitute their own diety form where Ponder mentions God. Those uncomfortable with religion can substitute "The Universe".

Friends and Associates

John van Druten

www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDBellBookCandle.htm

"John van Druten was gay, most famous for his play I Am a Camera, which became Cabaret. "

(1901-1957) English playwright and novelist. Isherwood met van Druten in New York in 1939, and they formed a friendship on the basis of their shared pacificism. Of Dutch parentage, van Druten was born and educated in London and took a degree in Law at the University of London.  He achieved his first success as a playwright in New York during the 1920s, then emigrated for good in 1938 and became a U.S. citizen in 1944.  His strength was light comedy; among his numerous plays and adaptations were Voice of the Turtle (1943), I Remember Mama (1944), Bell, Book and Candle (1950), and I Am a Camera (1951) based on Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin.. Many of these were later filmed.  Some works were less successful, for example, Leave Her to Heaven (1940), his play about the Crippen murder. In  1951, van Druten directed The King and I  on Broadway. He also wrote a few novels and two volumes of autobiography, including TheWidening Circle (1957).  His mature habit was to spend half the year in New York and half near Los Angeles on the AJC Ranch which he owned with Carter Lodge and -before her death - the British actress and theatre director Auriol Lee. Van Druten also owned a mountain cabin above Idyllwild which Isherwood sometimes used. A fall from a horse in Mexico in 1936 left van Druten with a permanently crippled arm despite numerous operations; partly as a result of this he became attracted to Vedanta and other religions (he was a renegade Christian Scientist), and in his second autobiography he describes a minor muystical experience which he had in a drug store in Beverly Hills.  He was a contributor to Isherwood's Vedanta for the Western World.   - Isherwood Diaries, vol.1 p. 1004-5.

Christopher Isherwood 

http://www.huntington.org/Isherwoodexhibit/Isherwoodmainpage.htm

"Isherwood was one of the first major, openly gay writers to be read extensively by a wider audience."

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1986/03/1986-03-09.shtml

Arriving in Hollywood in 1939, his first two months were spent with George Heard, a fiftyish Irishman, mystic-historian who meditated 6-hours a day and founded his own monastery at Trabuco Canyon. It was eventually gifted to the Vedanta Society. Heard was the first to discover Swami Prabhavananda and Vedanta. He had introduced Huxley to the swami. Through Heard, Isherwood joined an extraordinary band of mystic explorers which included Huxley, Bertrand Russel, Chris Wood, John Yale and ex-Theosophist messiah Krishnamurti. Every Tuesday the group would enjoy a vegetarian picnic under olive trees at a faddish Hollywood open market. Through Huxley, Isherwood befriended the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky who recalled that when Isherwood first met him at his home, he fell asleep while listening to a record of Stravinsky's music. Stravinsky said that's when his affection for Isherwood began.

Gerald Heard 

http://www.monkfishpublishing.com/pages/Pain,%20Sex%20&%20Time-Reviews.htm

Gerald Heard (1889-1971) was a well-known social commentator in Great Britain in the first half of the 20^th Century. He was a BBC announcer with a marvelous voice who captivated many, including, notably, H.G.Wells, with his reports on science. He was author of 38 books. He came to America in 1937 with his friend Aldous Huxley; he taught briefly at Duke University then moved to Los Angeles. Always interested in religion, he there met Swami Prabhavananda, founder of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. It was he who brought Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, John Van Druten and others to the Vedanta Circle. In the early 40s, he created Trabuco College, a kind of experiment in modern monasticism and academia, a college of comparative religion and research into meditation techniques. He was an openly gay man, though in the modulated style of pre-liberation days, and wrote about homosexuality as an evolutionary, spiritual phenomenon.

Gerald Heard is then one of the central figures in the development of contemporary ideas about the evolution of consciousness and about the nature of gay spirituality. His writings are certainly of interest to historians of ideas. Though now largely forgotten, he was one of those pivotal homosexuals who changed the world by his presence and by the force of his mind and personality.

Aldous Huxley

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,6121,683205,00.html

Huxley, curiously, disliked male homosexuality but had many homosexual friends, Isherwood among them....Maria was a wartime Belgian refugee whom Huxley met at Garsington and married in 1919. Murray describes their marriage as intensely close and happy, although Maria was an active bisexual. Huxley seems to have taken quickly to their special version of open marriage.

Gurus:

Swami Prabhavananda

http://www.vedanta.org/vssc/prabhavananda.html

Swami Prabhavananda was one of the pioneer swamis sent to America by the direct disciples of Ramakrishna to build on the work started by Swami Vivekananda at the turn of the century. The swami was born in India on December 26, 1893. In 1914, after graduating from Calcutta University, he joined the Ramakrishna Order of India and was initiated by Swami Brahmananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.In 1923, Swami Prabhavananda came to the United States. After two years as assistant minister of the Vedanta Society of San Francisco, he established the Vedanta Society of Portland. In December 1929, he came to Los Angeles where he founded the Vedanta Society of Southern California the following year.Under the able care of the swami, the Society grew into one of the largest Vedanta Societies in the West, with monasteries in Hollywood and Trabuco Canyon and convents in Hollywood and Santa Barbara.

http://www.galva108.org/hinduism.html

"..Several modern Hindu teachers, who draw on traditional concepts of the self as genderless, emphasize that all desire, homosexual or heterosexual, is the same, and that aspirants must work through and transcend desire. Thus, when Swami Prabhavananda (1893-1976), founder of the Vedanta society in the U.S., heard of Oscar Wilde's conviction, he remarked, "Poor man. All lust is the same."