The Lizard King

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The Lizard King is a mythic figure created as an alter ego by Jim Morrison, lead singer of the popular psychedelic rock group The Doors.

Jim Morrison, The Lizard King

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Morrison was deeply interested in occultism, both modern and classical. He was a proponent of both Jungian and Nietzschean ideas, and was also fascinated by Native American mysticism. Performances by the Doors often used words, actions, images and patterns intended to provoke a subconscious reaction in the audience. On stage, Morrison would often imitate a shaman by screeching, making animal sounds, suddenly falling over, and then either getting up laughing or playing dead. He would then slowly awaken from this "death" and smile wryly.

Shamans identified strongly with one deity—often embodied in an actual animal, such as a bear or a crow—in many forms of Native American shamanism. Morrison was fascinated by the lizard, believing that it symbolized a powerful force in the subconscious mind, epitomizing fear and longing in the psyche. His conception of the Lizard King has been interpreted by some as a recognition of a profound and transcendent spiritual reality. Like Buddha-nature, the Lizard King allegory represents a transcendent experience dormant in all humans, an archetype of the subconscious mind, like the achievement of nirvana. The Lizard King agitates and disrupts, much like a Trickster Hero. Attributes associated with the Trickster archetype include cleverness and raw instinct.

Like many of his lyrics, a parallel can be seen between this and popular blues artist Howlin' Wolf whose song "crawling king snake" was an influence.

"I am the Lizard King, I can do anything!" —Jim Morrison, "Not To Touch the Earth"

The Lizard King in fact and fiction

There is a character resembling Jim Morrison and the Lizard King in George R. R. Martin's short story collection Wild Cards. The collection is written by various authors, and set in a world where a genetically engineered virus has been released upon Earth, killing many but also transforming some characters, granting them superhuman powers. One of these characters, in the short story Transfigurations by Victor Milan, is referred to as "Tom Douglas" and "The Lizard King," but he obviously represents Jim Morrison:

His voice soared in a sudden shriek, and the lights and the band boomed suddenly about him like storm surf breaking against the rocks, and they were launched on an odyssey to the furthest reaches of the night.

At last he took on an aspect of the Lizard King. A black aura beat from him like furnace heat and washed across the audience. Its effect was elusive, illusive, like some strange new drug: some onlookers it lifted to pinnacles of ecstasy, others it crammed down deep into hard-packed despair...

Douglas' powers as a superhero/supervillain include super-strength, super-speed, and an ability to disorient people.

At the end of the story, the Lizard King fights alongside the "Radical" against a Captain America-like "Hardhat."

'The Lizard King' is the alias of a fictional serial killer in the video game, Shadowman.

In an episode of The Simpsons, "Selma's Choice", Lisa Simpson is dared by her brother to drink the water of an amusement park ride at Duff Gardens. Lisa then begins hallucinating and, completely intoxicated, shouts "I am the Lizard Queen!".

In an episode of Spongebob Squarepants called "The Idiot Box," Patrick exclaims that he is the Lizard King.

In the early 1990's, an anarchistic computer hacker nicknamed "The Lizard King" played havoc with computer systems from a suspected base in Gonic, New Hampshire, USA. The individual in question was never aprehended.

In the Web Comic, Loserz, while the character Eric is at a party , he pretends to be drunk by running around with a lampshade on his head, and declares, 'I AM the Lizard Queen!'. He then demands Spam.

In Aztek: The Ultimate Man #4 by DC Comics is introduced Aztek's nemesis, the Lizard King, and in #5 he shouts "I'm the Lizard King! I can do anything!"

In the popular role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, Lizard Kings (or, if female, Lizard Queens) are the halfbreed offspring of lizardfolk and demons.

In the popular online computer role playing game World of Warcraft there is monster by the name of Lord Serpentis inside the instance dungeon Wailing Caverns. He proclaims "I am the Serpent King! I can do anything!"

In the video game , on one mission tells "I took some fellow travellers deep into the desert on a peyote safari a few nights back. We faced the inner light and communed with the lizard king."
In the controversial video game Postal², the Postal Dude says "I am the Lizard King!" when taking cat nip and going in slow motion.

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