Lion of Light: Robert Anton Wilson on Aleister Crowley

by Robert Anton Wilson, Richard Kaczynski (Foreword), Lon DuQuette (Introduction)

This eclectic collection presents a series of articles outlining Robert Anton Wilson's unique perspective on the notorious scoundrel and mystic, Aleister Crowley – the Man, the Mage and his life's work. The centerpiece, "Do What Thou Wilt," recently liberated from the archival depths of Harvard University, is published here for the first time ever. In this, until recently unknown manuscript, Wilson examines and contrasts the pragmatic and theoretical revelations of Crowley's system, Thelema, with various other contemporaneous scientific research into expanded consciousness. Lion of Light is fleshed out with an introduction and foreword by Lon Milo Duquette and Richard Kaczynski respectively, along with four additional pieces by seasoned explorers that shed light on the relationship of these two Masters, Wilson and Crowley.



“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Like many of my generation, I was steeped to magical maturity in a technicolor broth stirred by the Holy Trinity of Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, and Robert Anton Wilson. But when the subject is Aleister Crowley, I cannot possibly imagine a more informed, brilliant and insightful commentator than Robert Anton Wilson.
Love is the law, love under will.” - Lon Milo DuQuette, author of The Magick of Aleister Crowley

"Two of the twentieth century's most provocative thinkers – Robert Anton Wilson and Aleister Crowley – meet in this career-spanning collection of Wilson's essays on magick and Thelema. RAW and AC go together like peanut butter and shrooms." – Richard Kaczynski, author of Perdurabo and The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley

Genres: Nonfiction

330 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2023

About the author

Robert Anton Wilson was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews. In 1999 he described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". Wilson's goal was "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
In addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs, and what Wilson called "quantum psychology".
Following a career in journalism and as an editor, notably for Playboy, Wilson emerged as a major countercultural figure in the mid-1970s, comparable to one of his coauthors, Timothy Leary, as well as Terence McKenna.

Reviews

[Kimberly Rosenfeld · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misleading title. A collection of essays supposedly by RA Wilson on Aleister Crowley. But this volume has almost as much material by other people discussing Wilson on Crowley than what's advertised on the cover. The book is 330 pages long, but when you take away the commentary, it's down to 170.

Within the main book, the mysterious book is Wilson's lost Do What Thou Wilt, a previously unpublished 80 page typescript which recently turned up at Harvard. Also included are various articles, introductions and fragments, by Wilson.

The lost book starts off as a short biography of Crowley. Then we have a dissection of Crowley's ‘scientific illuminism’ by way of Korzybski's Structural Differential. I found myself disagreeing with Wilson in several places on his analysis of Thelema. For example, he says that Crowley's 'stellar' Age of Horus will be 'evolutionary' compared to that of Isis (maternal centric) and Osiris (paternal centric). Why not consider all three stages of humanity evolutionary? I guess we could see the Egyptian trinity as an early precursor for his deeper analysis of the same idea in his later book, Coincidance.

We get way too many sensational gutter-press quotes on Crowley in the book: who cares about his childish 'devil' persona? I'd prefer to have seen Wilson's views on Crowley's blatant support for German imperialism in the 1st World War along with his candid violence to women, specifically in relation to Thelema and 'Do what thou wilt'. I’d like to have seen an actual psychological analysis of it rather than a weak, ‘no one is perfect’ cop out.

Wilson tells us that the Age of Horus is specifically one in which we will have to 'grow up'. Fair enough, but did Crowley ever grow up? For example, it’s not like he made much (if any) effort to raise his daughter. Wilson often refers to the grades of the Silver Star with male pronouns. Again, this seemed dated to me – almost like he’s dragging me back to Crowley's period, rather than being aware of the changes fast taking place in the 1970s.

I looked forward to re-reading Wilson’s Crowley-Tarot article from The Realist. I'm sure there were beautiful illustrations of each trump in the original series, but not so here. That's a shame, but perhaps Frieda Harris’ art is still copyrighted & unavailable.

As to the articles by other authors in the book, why wasn't the same time dedicated to an index or transcribing a collection of interviews/lectures by Wilson on Crowley & Parsons? I found the introduction by Mike Gathers especially helpful and succinct, but the rest of the lengthy commentaries could have been saved for the authors' blogs.

We finally end up with several lame pages discussing a previously proposed cover for the same book that looks like a stick-figure done by a four-year-old. Hilaritas *have* kept Wilson’s titles in print after his death, for that we should be thankful. But this volume looks like a peculiar old men’s club propping itself up at Wilson’s side. That's not what I paid $20 dollars for.

[Todd R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars! What else would it, or could it, be? I was going to present a few quotes from the book, but the whole book is what's important here not a single word, phrase, or syllable.
The next edition needs to have a poster of the cover included. Wonderful.

[Jonathan D McMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, homerun!!!

This would make a great gift for any fan of RAW or Crowley and would serve as a great introduction to anyone who is curious about either of these great thinkers. In addition, the contributors to the pre and post dialogue really knocked it out of the park!!!

[Trevor Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird, fun & interesting