LGBTQ+ Companion to Myth, Symbol and Spirituality

The LGBTQ+ Companion to Myth, Symbol and Spirituality is a revised and greatly expanded edition of the Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit (Cassell, 1997). The volume remains an unprecedented reference source on the theme of same sex desire, gender variance and the sacred with a multicultural, transhistorical focus. In anthropology this grouping of various related topics into a central theme is sometimes referred to as a “domain.”

The result of more than 30 years of research, the Companion is a collection of LGBTQ+ related deities, spiritual/symbolic figures, mythological stories and folklore (ancient and modern), symbols (e.g. sacred animals, flowers, colors, designs, or motifs), language/terms/slang and literature and the arts (authors, artists, texts, and artifacts). This variety is extensively researched and presented from a broad range of historic evidence and perspectives in written records, as well as from personal interviews, and oral histories.

Entries and longer articles often include the analysis of, and approaches from various LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+-positive scholars of linguistics, religion, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, politics and popular culture. Negative, orientalist and homophobic critiques and analysis, especially from the mid-19th-early 20th centuries, of spiritual leaders and academics, are also examined.