Month: August 2023

The Law of Consequences

John Michael Greer325 Comments

It’s a longstanding custom on this blog that whenever there are five Wednesdays in a month, the readers get to vote on what they want me to write about for the fifth Wednesday.  Far more often than not the resulting contest is a lively one, and this month’s was no exception. By a significant plurality,…

August 2023 Open Post

John Michael Greer421 Comments

This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly (well, more or less!) open post to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers. All the standard rules apply — no profanity, no sales pitches, no trolling, no rudeness, no paid propagandizing, no long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank — but since…

Futurus Interruptus

John Michael Greer410 Comments

Most of the time, in writing these essays, I try to treat the decline of industrial society with the seriousness that it deserves. Sometimes, though, the plain raw absurdity of our current situation rises to a point that only raucous laughter can address. I ran into another of those points a few days back, while…

The Ritual of High Magic: Chapter 4

John Michael Greer65 Comments

With this post we continue a monthly chapter-by-chapter discussion of The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Lévi, the book that launched the modern magical revival.  Here and in the months ahead we’re plunging into the white-hot fires of creation where modern magic was born. If you’re just joining us now, I recommend…

Notes on Stormtrooper Syndrome

John Michael Greer396 Comments

For some time now I’ve been looking for a way to talk about one of the most common bad habits of thought in the modern industrial world.  Habits like this are far more important that a casual glance might suggest.  Plenty of pragmatic factors are piling up crises for our civilization just now, but many…