Queer Devotion: Spirituality Beyond the Binary in Myth, Story, and Practice

by Charlie Claire Burgess

A liberating exploration of the queer divine in deities and figures of myth and legend that opens pathways for LGBTQIA+ people to revere the divinity within and create an affirming spiritual practice.

A spiritual practice can be an intensely affirming thing, but for many LGBTQIA+ individuals, it is instead an alienating one. Queer Devotion seeks to open pathways for LBGTQIA+ people to connect with the divine by revering and celebrating the queer divinity in ourselves. By exploring the Queer Divine in existing gods, goddesses, and goddexes of mythology—Inanna, Hermes, Loki, Osiris, and more—we’ll resurrect the queer divine within ourselves through explorations and queered retellings of their stories. But we can also queer the idea of divinity itself, illuminating queer threads in Arthurian legend, European folklore, Victorian monsters, and witchcraft.

Lastly, to build a queer devotional practice, Burgess offers exercises, reflection prompts, and ritual suggestions for you to build your own, personal practice of liberated, self-defined, and self-directed queer devotion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, History, Spirituality, Religion, Mythology, LGBT

264 pages, Paperback

Published May 20, 2025

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Usually I don’t rate or log the stuff I read for the pleasure of poking holes in it (see: most of the evangelical self help I read, and to a lesser extent, some really out there new age nonsense) but this is so egregiously, offensively bad that I had to. As a queer historian of Christianity with a background in ancient comparative religion stuff (before I went medieval), I am offended by the idea that being a conscientious scholar is somehow mutually exclusive with queerness. There’s a whole thing in here about fighting against the inner voice that says they’re not qualified to write this, and man, Charlie, I wish you’d lost this fight, because you are not fucking qualified and this book is an embarrassment. There are in fact solid queer scholars of religion and myth doing excellent work out there. You even allegedly read some of them, because you do actually cite some good books in your bibliography.

Also they cite my nemesis (is it a nemesis if the feud is like 98% one sided, the 2% not one-sided being for that time her mom flamed one of my reviews on here) Sophie Strand way too much for any book that is supposed to be taken seriously. Especially her Joan of Arc essay, which is one of the most idiotic, ahistorical, and honestly kind of offensive things I’ve ever read. Have some self-respect. Avoid Sophie’s nonsense.

I also loathe the take on Norse myth in here, which completely sidesteps the lively debate about whether or not Ragnarok and the recreation of the world as portrayed in the Prose Edda is a Christian interpolation (considering Snorri was writing well after the Christianisation of Iceland).

The queer Christianity chapters are also deeply frustrating because they’re so clearly working through baggage under the guise of saying something universal (cue me screaming about the inherent queerness of Eucharistic mysticism and the emphatically filthy, bodily nature of medieval affective piety, which Charlie does not even seem to consider). Anyway, if you’re hungry for something like what those bits should have been like, might I recommend Blood Theology: Seeing Red in Body- and God-Talk, which is fantastically queer and physical, and, crucially, rigorously sourced academic writing? As for much of the other stuff, go read some translations if you don’t have the languages. But unlike Charlie, read translations that aren’t from 1904. That generally helps avoid the bigotry and bowdlerisation they mention running into.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always liked Charlie Claire Burgess's work, so this was a fun read. I think the choice of myth to feature was kind of strange, since the book is pulling from so many different stories and traditions. The result ends up being pretty uneven since it's like three chapters about Greek mythological figures, a couple about King Arthur, one about Jesus, etc. Just not super clear why the breakdown ended up being what it was. But I liked the journaling prompts.

[Helen Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to Charlie Claire Burgess through tarot, so I was really curious to see what they would do with a whole book about queer spirituality. Queer Devotion ended up scratching an itch I’ve had for a while: wanting spiritual practice that can engage seriously with gods, myth, ritual, and devotion without making gender feel like this rigid cosmic law where everything has to be divided into masculine and feminine.

The mythology was probably my favorite part. Burgess looks at queer and gender-expansive possibilities within stories and divine figures and asks what happens when queer people are allowed to encounter mythology as something that can actually speak to our lives. I loved the willingness to look beyond the most conventional interpretations and find places where transformation, fluidity, desire, liminality, and queerness have been present in sacred stories all along.

There’s also actual practice here, which made the book feel useful rather than purely theoretical. The rituals, reflections, and exercises invite you to explore what devotion could look like on your own terms. As someone with a slightly witchy streak, I especially liked the parts where myth moves off the page and becomes something you can engage with through personal spiritual practice.

What stayed with me most, though, was the idea that queerness can shape spirituality rather than simply being accommodated by it. There’s a huge difference between being told there’s room for you inside an existing spiritual framework and asking what entirely different ways of understanding the sacred might emerge from queer experience itself. That question gave me a lot to think about, and I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.

[Lorien Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the readability of a novel, yet is chock full of citations and quotes, it feels like the sort of book I would feel lucky to read for a theology class in College. Each chapter stands on it's own which is great for us adhd readers who are always reading way too many books at once so we don't have to track one continuous story/essay.

I was surprised by how much examination of Christianity is in the book, however it did not feel at all like the author saw Christianity as any more or less valid than Heathenry or Greek Paganism or any other sort of religion/spirituality. I suspect at least one reason for the in depth examination of several Christian figures and concepts is because many of us, especially Americans, live in a predominantly Christian country, therefore it's both useful to know more about Christianity, and potentially healing to consider parts of it that we don't tend to hear from mainstream Christianity.

As a heads up in case you're look for a specific subset of deities. There's 3 chapters on Greek/Roman gods (Aphrodite, Dionysus, Artemis), 2 on Arthurian myth, 3 on Christian figures or concepts, & one on Norse gods (Loki & Odin).

I will also say that even if most of the chapters aren't the subsets of myths or religions that you're primarily interested in, the book's still very worth reading. I didn't think I had ANY interest in reading about Christianity, (I also didn't think I had much specific interest in Greek/Roman gods or Arthurian legend either) but I loved every chapter.

[Ashur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a bit complicated. There are factual errors in the text; some I caught, but it makes me feel uncertain about those I did not and/or lack the background to identify, and also instills a lack of confidence about the author's rigor in the background reading and sources consulted for this project.

However, this is not a scholarly work; it does not intend to be a scholarly work. One could argue that the spiritual value of myth and story does not lie in the strength of how strongly they're attested to in the various tiers of source material, but at the same time, some of the errors feel glaring and they disturb my ability to engage with the text.

That being said, the book contains useful content from a devotional standpoint; I find the end-of-chapter questions for thought particularly interesting. It also provided plenty of jumping-off points for me to look into topics on my own.

I will be reading a book that is referenced a couple of times in this text and I'm interested to see how it compares. It's entirely possible that I'm approaching these books the wrong way in my expectations for popular, devotional (?) texts; we'll see, I have some more interesting things lined up.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not exactly what I was looking for, but I enjoyed it anyway. This book is not of any specific religious tradition (the author describes themself as a witch, but clearly incorporates pieces of various traditions in their spiritual practice), but it is a crash course in queerness in the western religious canon. You will probably get more out of this (especially the reflection questions and activities) if you identify as queer and/or some form of witchy; that being said, I do not identify as either of those and still really enjoyed the mythology and the discussions about historical figures and the interpretations of them over the centuries.

[Angel Lemke]

Not usually my cup of tea, but I have enjoyed the author's writing on tarot so I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. Intriguing questions and framings for thinking through one's relationship to Western spiritual traditions.

[maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️

I lovelovelove queerness this altered my brain chemistry in the BEST ways

[Emery Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queering so many religious/spiritual myths and practices is *chefs kiss. No notes. if your gay and even vaguely witchy, please read

[bubu]

“the best protection is liberation”

[Quinn Ramsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.0 rounded up

[Leanna Florez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot to love about the book. The narrative was amazing, it was fun to read, and the author was someone you could really connect to. Their voice was super enjoyable.I think the guided exercises after each chapter were also nice and helpful, all the more connected to the author and their message. My favorite section was probably the Joan of Arc chapter, and that’s coming from someone who wasn’t a huge Joan of Arc obsesser. The reason I docked a star was because for an author who does a really good job of being inclusive towards the queer and disabled community, I wish that there had been more perspective or analysis on non eurocentric witchcraft, because african and caribbean witchcraft has been queer and genderless for a long time, so even a bit of that mentioned would have been nice. Basically, I just wanted them to go further, researching not just what they’re connected to, but what a potential reader might be connected to. A person of color might feel kind of excluded from this book, even though that wasn’t the intention. Overall though, a lovely gay witchy read.

[Rikyjanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected, and simultaneously what I expected at all. I thought this would be a historical reading of queer saints and mythical figures, and it turned out to be that, but also a part queer divine practitioners guide. This felt uncomfortable at times, but as I read on, the devotion Burgess put into these pages made me appreciate the writings even more. The reading questions are a very nice addition to deepen my own thoughts. I would not recommend it to people who shy away from spiritual and divination practices like tarot, ancestral communion, and queer joy.