Here is a thoughtful review of The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Nicholas Collof, from his excellent website, Golgonooza, named after William Blake’s mythical city of art and the imagination. Like Blake, Nicholas “shall not cease from mental fight” and his followers are the better for it.
Archive for the Notebook Category
A Review of The Secret Teachers of the Western World from Golgonooza
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags consciousness, esoteric, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, hermeticism, Iain McGilchrist, Jean Gebser, mysticism, philosophy on January 12, 2016 by Gary LachmanThe David Bowie Colin Wilson Story
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Aleister Crowley, blank generation, Colin Wilson, David Bowie, Gary Lachman, gary valentine, occult on January 11, 2016 by Gary LachmanWith All Respect
By 1981 I had fallen into a dark crowd. I was no longer interested in the rock scene but had no other social connections and found myself wondering why I was in the Mudd Club at 4:00 am with enough stimulants in me to make Aleister Crowley proud, blathering to people I cared nothing about, and taking home women whose names I’ve forgotten, if I ever knew them. Not a golden age. Boredom, lack of purpose, and the souless drift made up a few months of my mid-twenties. I was not making music, was spending money, and lacked true friends. Yet Colin Wilson appeared once again. At a party at David Bowie’s loft in mid-town, the king held court, discoursing on all and sundry. The occult came up as a topic; Bowie had predelictions in that area. He went on about witchcraft and an acquaintance mentioned that I knew all about this stuff: I read Colin Wilson.
“Colin Wilson?” Ziggy Stardust said. “Yes. He goes around at night and traces pentagrams on people’s doorsteps.” Was he joking? “Yes, he draws down the ectoplasm of dead Nazis and fashions homunculi.”
Bowie was a skinny, shivery man and he may just have remembered that not too long ago during a brief flame up of our past passion, Lulu and I conversed with him at the Mudd Club. He asked her back to his place, very gentlemanly-like. Not me. I was gratified that she passed him up, and stuck with me. Could this brief episode have stuck with him? In any case, I took him at his word and pointed out that he was wrong.
“Wilson isn’t into that sort of thing,” I said.
“Oh yes he is. I know for a fact that he heads a coven in Cornwall.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“No. It’s true.”
“I doubt it, David.”
This carried on for a few more volleys. Then the thin white duke wearied of my obstinancy. A sight gesture of the hand and his two female body guards appeared, like Thumper and Bambi in Diamonds are Forever. “David is a bit tired now,” Thumper said. “Perhaps it’s time you left,” added Bambi. Perhaps it was.
A Quick to Listen Interview about the Secret Teachers
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Aleister Crowley, blondie, Carl Jung, Colin Wilson, consciousness, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, gary valentine, hermeticism, Iain McGilchrist, Jean Gebser, Ouspensky, Phenomenology, philosophy, Rudolf Steiner on January 7, 2016 by Gary LachmanHere’s a link to a recent interview with Grant Valdes at the Quick to Listen website. We talk about my new book, The Secret Teachers of the Western World, as well as a few other things, such as philosophy, split-brain theory, Jean Gebser, Colin Wilson, esotericism, Blondie, music and the demise of free time, peace, and quiet. Quick, now listen.
Secret Teachers Interview
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Aleister Crowley, Carl Jung, Colin Wilson, consciousness, esoteric, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, gnosis, Gurdjieff, hermeticism, Iain McGilchrist, Jean Gebser, Madame Blavatsky, mysticism, new age, occult, spirituality on December 24, 2015 by Gary LachmanHere’s a link to an interview I did recently with Chris Flisher at his Turning the Wheel website. We discuss some of the basic ideas of my new book, The Secret Teachers of the Western World, how the history of western consciousness has been informed by an often fierce rivalry between the two sides of the brain and what this has meant for the western esoteric tradition. Chris brings in the cosmic aspect, but I try to keep the conversation focussed on what is going on inside our heads and what this might mean for our future.
And if anyone feels inspired to disagree with the first review of the book on amazon, I won’t stop you. Evidently the reader was expecting something different.
And not to forget: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Secret Teachers at Reality Sandwich
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags consciousness, esoteric, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, Gurdjieff, Henri Bergson, hermeticism, Madame Blavatsky, mysticism, occult, philosophy, Plato, spirituality, William James on December 10, 2015 by Gary LachmanMy friends at the Reality Sandwich site have posted an excerpt from The Secret Teachers of the Western World. It’s the closing sections of the Introduction, where I present the main argument of the book, that the western esoteric tradition has been the victim of a “consciousness war” going on for the last four centuries, the protagonists of which are our two cerebral hemispheres.
This tradition - which we can also call the “western consciousness tradition”- has never disappeared. It has only gone underground, and its work has been carried on by many individuals, the “secret teachers” of the book. These range from full-on esoteric figures like Madame Blavatsky and Gurdjieff, to more mainstream thinkers like William James, Henri Bergson, and Plato, the father of western philosophy. I chart the contributions these “secret teachers” and others have made to western consciousness, from the distant past of ancient Greece, to our contemporary “post-everything” world, and suggest that, although we are undoubtedly going through a time of crisis, there is no cause for despair. The very precipice we seem to be teetering on may trigger a profound and much needed shift in our consciousness and enable us, in the words of the poet W. B. Yeats, to “complete our partial mind.”
Secret Teachers at The Daily Grail
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags altered states, consciousness, Dante, esoteric, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, hermeticism, mysticism, occult, spirituality, Suhrawardi on December 9, 2015 by Gary LachmanI’ve put up an excerpt from The Secret Teachers of the Western World on my blog at The Daily Grail. It’s titled “Dante’s Inner Journey” and it shows how one of the classics of western literature is informed with ideas and insights coming from the western esoteric tradition. Please share the link if you can and spread the world.
Coast to Coast with the Secret Teachers of the Western World
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Aleister Crowley, blondie, consciousness, counter culture, esoteric, esotericism, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, gnosis, hermeticism, kabbalah, mysticism, occult, philosophy, secret societies, spirituality, Theosophy on December 7, 2015 by Gary LachmanI’ll be on Coast to Coast Radio in the wee hours of Tuesday, December 8, talking about my new book The Secret Teachers of the Western World. The book is released that day and everyone awake at 3:00 AM will hear about it. Give a listen if the insomnia keeps you up…
