A journey into the mystical and spiritual side of the famed Doors front man
• Reveals Jim Morrison as a shamanic initiate and esoteric teacher who used his role as a rock singer to promote the adventure of the spirit and express the power of inner experience
• Examines Morrison’s deep occult and artistic influences, including Kurt Seligmann’s The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider, and the works of Jack Kerouac
• Draws on Morrison’s lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek
The groundbreaking 1960s band The Doors, named for Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, achieved incredible acclaim and influence, ultimately serving as a key group in the development of psychedelic and progressive rock. At the center of it all was front man Jim Morrison, who died in 1971 at age 27. Yet, as author Paul Wyld reveals, despite Morrison’s reputation as a lewd, drunken performer, he was a full-fledged mystical, shamanic figure, a secret teacher of the occult who was not merely central to the development of rock music, but also to the growth of the Western esoteric tradition as a whole.
Wyld looks at the mystical works that inspired Morrison, including Kurt Seligmann’s The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider, and the writings of Nietzsche and Jack Kerouac. Drawing on Morrison’s lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, the author makes the case that Morrison was not simply a superficial dabbler in the occult but an actual secret teacher transmitting knowledge through the golden thread stretching back to Egypt and Thoth-Hermes.
Explaining how Morrison sought to use his role as a rock singer to express the power of inner experience, Wyld shows how praxis was at the heart of Morrison’s approach, revealed in his journey through the arduous ordeals of shamanic initiation. He was a shaman, mystic, and sage—and an essential part of a great spiritual awakening to which he gave himself over fully.
By:
Paul Wyld
Imprint: Inner Traditions Bear and Company
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 413g
ISBN: 9798888500804
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 24 October 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
PREFACE 1717 Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION This Is the Strangest Life I’ve Ever Known PART I Into This House, We’re Born 1 It’s Not a Ghost Story 2 Faculty X 3 A Spiritual Awakening 4 The Secret of Mind-Change Reality 5 This Is The Land Where the Pharaoh Died PART II Thoughts in Time & Out of Season 6 There’s Danger on the Edge of Town 7 Lessons of the Ancient War 8 Right Back Where I Came PART III Specialize In Having Fun 9 Testing the Bounds of Reality 10 A Funny Sense of Fun 11 I’ll Never Look into Your Eyes Again PART IV The Time to Hesitate Is Through 12 The Path of the Sun 13 A Vast, Radiant Beach 14 Who Are Our Friends? 15 An Intense Visitation of Energy 16 The Call of the Wild 17 And We’re on Our Way PART V This Ancient & Insane Theater 18 Paradise Now 19 There’s a Killer on the Road 20 Death Makes Angels of Us All EPILOGUE Retire Now to Your Tents & to Your Dreams Notes Bibliography Index
Paul Wyld is a singer-songwriter, artist, poet, and author with a liberal arts degree in history. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
Reviews for Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side
"""Wyld evinces the complexities of Morrison's vital existence as a poet, shaman, mystic, and sage, and at the same time, a Dionysian maelstrom struggling against tides of cultural conformity.""-- ""Marlene Seven Bremner, Artist and Author of Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy and The Hermeti"""
