In San Francisco, he met the poet Lew Welch, who became his mentor. Although much younger than most of the Beat poets, Upton's first two volumes of poetry were also published by City Lights. It was associated with many of the earlier Beat poets. After his first two volumes of poems were published, Upton became involved with the Sanctuary Movement for Central Americanrefugees. He produced and distributed a video, Through the Needle’s Eye, containing testimonies of refugees. In the late 1980s he was briefly involved with the "magical populism" of the New Age peace movement. He studied group dreamwork and dream networking. In 1988 he joined a traditional Sufi order. Under his wife's influence, Upton became interested in the metaphysics of the Traditionalist or Perennialist School. He continues to be partly identified with this school. His papers are held at University of Connecticut.
Activism
In 2013 Charles Upton conceived of The Covenants Initiative, based on the book The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World by his colleague Dr. John Andrew Morrow. The Covenants Initiative urges Muslims to abide by the covenants concluded between Muhammad and the Christian communities of his time: http://www.covenantsoftheprophet.com. In November, 2018, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World was cited at length by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in their decision to acquit the Christian woman Asia Bibi on charges of blasphemy.
Doorkeeper of the Heart, Versions of Rabi’a, Threshold Books, 1988; Pir Press, 2004;
Hammering Hot Iron: A Spiritual Critique of Bly’s Iron John, Quest Books, 1993; Sophia Perennis 2005;
The System of Antichrist: Truth and Falsehood in Postmodernism and the New Age, Sophia Perennis, 2001;
Legends of the End: Prophesies of the End Times, Antichrist, Apocalypse, and Messiah from Eight Religious Traditions, Sophia Perennis, 2005;
Cracks in the Great Wall: UFOs and Traditional Metaphysics, Sophia Perennis, 2005;
The Virtues of the Prophet: A Young Muslim's Guide to the Greater Jihad, the War Against the Passions, Sophia Perennis, 2006;
Knowings, in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology and the Spiritual Path, Sophia Perennis, 2008;
Reflections of Tasawwuf: Essays, Poems and Narrative on Sufi Themes, Sophia Perennis, 2008;
Who Is the Earth? How to See God in the Natural World, Sophia Perennis, 2008;
Folk Metaphysics: Mystical Meanings in Traditional Folk Songs and Spirituals, Sophia Perennis, 2008
Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition, Sophia Perennis, 2008;
Findings in Metaphysic, Path and Lore, With a Response to the Traditionalist/Perennialist School, Sophia Perennis, 2010;
The Science of the Greater Jihad: Essays in Principal Psychology, Sophia Perennis, 2011;
The Wars of Love and Other Poems, with "A Reader's Guide to The Wars of Love" and "Lew Welch as Teacher", Sophia Perennis, 2011;
Vectors of the Counter-Initiation: The Course and Destiny of Inverted Spirituality, Sophia Perennis, 2012;
Day and Night on the Sufi Path, Sophia Perennis, 2015;
The Words of God to Prophet Muhammad: Forty Sacred Sayings, 2015;
What Poets Used to Know: Poetics, Mythopoesis, Metaphysics, Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis, 2016;
''Dugin against Dugin: A Traditionalist Critique of the Fourth Political Theory, Reviviscimus, 2018;
Editor
Dark Way to Paradise: Dante's Inferno in Light of the Spiritual Path,Jennifer Doane Upton, Sophia Perennis, 2005;
False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism and the Quest for a One-World Religion, Lee Penn, Sophia Perennis, 2005;
The Ordeal of Mercy: Dante's Purgatorio in Light of the Spiritual Path, Jennifer Doane Upton, Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis, 2015;
Anthologies
Mark in Time, Glide Publications, 1971;
Excerpt from Panic Grass in City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Books, 1995;
Diamond Cutters: Visionary Poets in America, Britain and Oceania, Andrew Harvey and Jay Ramsay, Tayen Lane Publications, 2016; ISNB 978-1-944505-22-0, ISBN 978-1-944505-37-0
