Hakim Bey Chapter 43 the Occult World

8172019 Hakim Bey Chapter 43 the Occult World

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullhakim-bey-chapter-43-the-occult-world 13

9830922983092

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

HAKIM BEY

Christian Greer

Peter Lamborn Wilson (1983097983092983093ndash) dropped out of Columbia University to pursue anautodidactic and largely peripatetic course of education that would be as wide-

ranging as it was unorthodox This began with an initiation into the MoorishOrthodox Church which was fashioned after Noble Drew Alirsquos Moorish ScienceTantra Hazrat Inayat Khanrsquos lsquoUniversal Su1047297smrsquo and the sacramental use ofhallucinogenic substances (lsquoentheogensrsquo) As a member of the church his interest inpsychedelics was accented when the Moorish Orthodox Church installed itselfalongside the Neo-American Church and the League for Spiritual Discovery at theMillbrook lsquoashramrsquo then under the direction of Dr Timothy Leary As a conscientiousobjector to the Vietnam War and with the foreboding sense that the spirit of thecounterculture was lost Wilson expatriated in 1983097983094983096 and embarked upon what wouldbecome a decade of spiritual sojourning throughout North Africa the Indiansubcontinent and the Middle East After his tutelage under Ganeesh Baba (ShriMahant Ganesh Giriji Maharaj ndash a teacher in the tradition of Kriya Yoga) and aninitiation in Tara Tantra in India Wilson spent the following years trekking whatbecame known as the lsquohash trailrsquo through Nepal Afghanistan and Pakistan where hefollowed itinerant Qalandariyyah Su1047297s sought initiations from Hindu gurus and Su1047297 masters and availed himself of the abundant supplies of opium and bhang Followingthe recommendation of Vilayat Inayat Khan upon reaching Iran Wilson sought outthe Nimatullahi Su1047297 order However after an introduction to Seyyed Hossein Nasrit has been plausibly suggested that he joined Frithjof Schuonrsquos Maryamiyya orderinstead His af 1047297liation with Nasr and connection with the Maryamiyya led him to an

editorship of Sophia Perennis which was published under his guidance from 1983097983095983093 to1983097983095983096 and functioned both as the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophyrsquos journaland a mouth piece for Schuonrsquos Traditionalist Su1047297 order Also working as the directorof English language publications for the academy Wilson worked alongsideTraditionalist luminaries Henry Corbin Toshihiko Izutsu and William C ChittickAt this time Wilsonrsquos own scholarship re1047298ected a traditionalist bias However in thefollowing years his literary output would be transformed through a closer engagementwith anarchism hermetic philosophy and post-structuralism

The Occult World indb 424The Occult Worldindb 424 9152014 11239 PM9152014 11239 PM



ndash 983139 983144 983137 983152 983156 983141 983154 983092 3 H a k i m B e y ndash

9830922983093

After the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1983097983095983097 Wilson returned to the US Once there

he escalated his involvement in the underground press by publishing prodigiouslyunder the name lsquoHakim Beyrsquo named after the eccentric sixth Fatimid caliph Hakimbi Amr al-Lh While his work appeared in the underground press as early as themid-19830979830950s his use of the pen-name lsquoHakim Beyrsquo did not begin until his return to theUS and it was not long until the work of this mysterious 1047297gure became a staple innumerous anarchist queer and esoteric zines (abbrev lsquofanzinersquo small circulationoften self-produced publications) and underground newspapers As distinct from hisprevious traditionalist scholarship Beyrsquos writings amalgamated Nietzscheanphilosophy and Individualist Anarchism with Hermeticism and esoteric themes toform a powerful brand of mystical anti-authoritarianism Unique within the anarchistcircles in which his work appeared Beyrsquos spiritual anarchism was summarized in thename of his own esoteric order the Association for Ontological Anarchism (AOA)

founded in the early 19830979830960s His voluminous output termed lsquocommuniqueacutes ofontological anarchismrsquo as well as the mystery surrounding his Beyrsquos identity garneredthe author (and more speci1047297cally his alter ego) a great deal of attention withinunderground Pagan anarchist and queer milieus Beyrsquos underground notorietycontinued to grow as a result of his radio show The Moorish Orthodox Crusade hiseditorial work for Semiotext(e) publishing and his controversial contributions to thenewsletter of NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) not tomention the vitriolic attacks made against his brand of anarchism by notableanarchists such as Murray Bookchin His most famous work to date The TemporaryAutonomous Zone Ontological Anarchy Poetic Terrorism (commonly abbreviatedto TAZ) is an expansion on an earlier collection of Beyrsquos writings culled from notablezines like Factsheet Five Popular Reality and Kaos Apart from his science 1047297ctionman-boy love novel Crowstone published in 19830979830963 under the name lsquoHakimrsquo TAZpublished in 19830979830971 was Beyrsquos 1047297rst full length book and the one with which bothidentities are routinely associated This is due in large part to the profound in1047298uencethe text has had on for example Chaos Magick rave culture Post-Anarchism andthe Cacophony Society who later founded the massive temporary autonomous zoneevent known as Burning Man Alongside the vast array of Beyrsquos anarcho-mysticalpublications Wilson continued to write numerous learned books on esoteric andheretical sects of Islam psychedelic spirituality and angels

In the late 19830979830970s Beyrsquos identity became a public secret largely due to the internetbut little changed in terms of the use his nom de plume served Essentially hearticulates the same premises concerning esoteric non-authoritarianism in twodifferent voices for Wilson they functioned as historiographic tools and for Bey theywere fodder for ontological anarchist agitation and utopian engineering The basis of

these premises lay in his anarchist refashioning of traditionalism whereby the non-authoritarianism and lsquoshamanic spiritualityrsquo of paleolithic society is identi1047297ed as amore traditional form of traditionalism Much of Wilsonrsquos historical work traces thecontours of this proclivity for nonauthoritarianism as it expressed itself in dissentingand esoteric doctrines beliefs and groups In his reading this loose lineage originateswith the lsquoshamanic spiritualityrsquo of the hunter-gatherers and continues in medievallsquofree spiritrsquo movements lsquohereticalrsquo traditions and renaissance hermeticism In hisworks Wilson attempts to show how the Anarchist tradition has a lost prehistory inthe utopian aspirations of a number of heretical antinomian and esoteric discourses




ndash C h r i s t i a n G r e e r ndash

9830922983094

and enumerates the ways in which these discourses can revitalize what he considers

to be the obsolete logic of leftist anarchism Writing under the name Bey he claimsthat a paradigm shift must occur within Anarchism if it is to remain relevant andmore importantly effective against the lsquotechnopathocracyrsquo of global capitalism Todo this he argues it must base itself in an ontological framework de1047297ned by chaosAnarchism scholars such as Lewis Call have traced the origin of the postmodern turnwithin anarchism termed lsquoPost-Anarchismrsquo to Beyrsquos theorization of ontologicalanarchism although post-anarchists general ignore its thoroughly esoteric nature

Arguably todayrsquos foremost anarchist writer Wilson has spent the latter portion ofhis career participating in art exhibitions once notably with fellow lsquoBeatsrsquo BrionGysin and William Burroughs publishing a number of poetry chapbooks promotinghis brand of environmental esotericism termed lsquogreen hermeticismrsquo and teachingalongside Allen Ginsberg at Naropa University

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Bey Hakim (2003 [1983097983096983093]) TAZ The Temporary Autonomous Zone Ontological AnarchyPoetic Terrorism second edition Brooklyn Autonomedia

Wilson Peter Lamborn (19830979830973) Sacred Drift Essays on the Margin of Islam San FranciscoCity Lights

mdashmdash(1983097983097983097) Ploughing the Clouds The Search for Irish Soma San Francisco City Lightsmdashmdash(200983093) Queer Rain Boulder Farfalla Press




ndash 983139 983144 983137 983152 983156 983141 983154 983092 3 H a k i m B e y ndash

9830922983093

After the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1983097983095983097 Wilson returned to the US Once there

he escalated his involvement in the underground press by publishing prodigiouslyunder the name lsquoHakim Beyrsquo named after the eccentric sixth Fatimid caliph Hakimbi Amr al-Lh While his work appeared in the underground press as early as themid-19830979830950s his use of the pen-name lsquoHakim Beyrsquo did not begin until his return to theUS and it was not long until the work of this mysterious 1047297gure became a staple innumerous anarchist queer and esoteric zines (abbrev lsquofanzinersquo small circulationoften self-produced publications) and underground newspapers As distinct from hisprevious traditionalist scholarship Beyrsquos writings amalgamated Nietzscheanphilosophy and Individualist Anarchism with Hermeticism and esoteric themes toform a powerful brand of mystical anti-authoritarianism Unique within the anarchistcircles in which his work appeared Beyrsquos spiritual anarchism was summarized in thename of his own esoteric order the Association for Ontological Anarchism (AOA)

founded in the early 19830979830960s His voluminous output termed lsquocommuniqueacutes ofontological anarchismrsquo as well as the mystery surrounding his Beyrsquos identity garneredthe author (and more speci1047297cally his alter ego) a great deal of attention withinunderground Pagan anarchist and queer milieus Beyrsquos underground notorietycontinued to grow as a result of his radio show The Moorish Orthodox Crusade hiseditorial work for Semiotext(e) publishing and his controversial contributions to thenewsletter of NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) not tomention the vitriolic attacks made against his brand of anarchism by notableanarchists such as Murray Bookchin His most famous work to date The TemporaryAutonomous Zone Ontological Anarchy Poetic Terrorism (commonly abbreviatedto TAZ) is an expansion on an earlier collection of Beyrsquos writings culled from notablezines like Factsheet Five Popular Reality and Kaos Apart from his science 1047297ctionman-boy love novel Crowstone published in 19830979830963 under the name lsquoHakimrsquo TAZpublished in 19830979830971 was Beyrsquos 1047297rst full length book and the one with which bothidentities are routinely associated This is due in large part to the profound in1047298uencethe text has had on for example Chaos Magick rave culture Post-Anarchism andthe Cacophony Society who later founded the massive temporary autonomous zoneevent known as Burning Man Alongside the vast array of Beyrsquos anarcho-mysticalpublications Wilson continued to write numerous learned books on esoteric andheretical sects of Islam psychedelic spirituality and angels

In the late 19830979830970s Beyrsquos identity became a public secret largely due to the internetbut little changed in terms of the use his nom de plume served Essentially hearticulates the same premises concerning esoteric non-authoritarianism in twodifferent voices for Wilson they functioned as historiographic tools and for Bey theywere fodder for ontological anarchist agitation and utopian engineering The basis of

these premises lay in his anarchist refashioning of traditionalism whereby the non-authoritarianism and lsquoshamanic spiritualityrsquo of paleolithic society is identi1047297ed as amore traditional form of traditionalism Much of Wilsonrsquos historical work traces thecontours of this proclivity for nonauthoritarianism as it expressed itself in dissentingand esoteric doctrines beliefs and groups In his reading this loose lineage originateswith the lsquoshamanic spiritualityrsquo of the hunter-gatherers and continues in medievallsquofree spiritrsquo movements lsquohereticalrsquo traditions and renaissance hermeticism In hisworks Wilson attempts to show how the Anarchist tradition has a lost prehistory inthe utopian aspirations of a number of heretical antinomian and esoteric discourses





9830922983094












9830922983094









Documents

Hakim Bey Chapter 43 the Occult World