From the forward : Hermes was the messenger of the gods and the brother of the goddess of wisdom, Athena. He was also something of a trickster. And, in his incarnation as Hermes Trismagistus, he served the role of being an initiator into the mystical depths of the ancient wisdom schools. Thus esoteric knowledge was once known as Hermeticism. Zeus rather liked him and made him his naughty messenger.

Like Hermes, Timothy Leary was an "avowed rascal"-and his very delightful and poetic writings on the subject (he had an almost unparalled gift for word play), indicate that he understood the role of the rascal in an elevated, cosmological sense-i.e., the archetype of the trickster.

The old panthiestic religions understood the importance of the trickster as a figure for spiritual awakening. So did the shamanistic cultures. Trickster is a major figure in American Indian folk wisdom. And also in Sufi tales. Leary implied that there is a certain type of "rascal" with a certain grin and wink (and wisdom beyond wisdom)-who, in a spiritual sense, were far more trustworthy than the more sober types.

In the Zen tradition, this is known as the School of Crazy Wisdom. Leary, himself, studied, or was otherwise acquainted with the masters of this tradition-Aleister Crowley, Milarepa, Ken Kesey, Lao Tsu, and Alan Ginsberg to name a few...

Pages: 151
Special Interest: Philosophy, Psychology, The Trickster & Enlightenment, Shamanism, Counter-Culture, Brave New World.