Author: John Michael Greer

A Vision: The Moon is Full

John Michael Greer1 Comment

With this post we continue our survey of the Great Wheel of the 28 lunar phases, the central symbolic mandala of Yeats’s A Vision. In last month’s episode we followed the arc of the evolving soul around the second quarter of the wheel, from the bitter conflict and unavoidable failure of the 8th phase to…

Minutes of the Grand Council of Five of the Bavarian Illuminati, 18th day of Discord, 5975 AM

John Michael Greer403 Comments

(see note 1) GRAND MASTER CORNELIUS SCHRECK, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: Well, I think we can begin at this point. Brother Sentinel, are we secure? GRAND GUARDIAN HENRY JAMES BALOR, ILLUMINATUS PRIMUS: Grand Master, the doors are sealed, the guards are at their stations, and the interdimensional horrors from the Slime Pits of Blagoonah are sniffing around…

March 2026 Open Post

John Michael Greer500 Comments

This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly 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, no endless rehashes of questions I’ve already answered)…

Situationism: The Art of Détournement

John Michael Greer285 Comments

It’s been a while since we last talked about Situationism, that giddy fusion of radical politics and performance art that seized the imaginations of a certain fraction of the European avant-garde in the 1960s. (Readers who missed those discussions the first time around, or simply want to review what’s been covered, will find those earlier…

A Vision: The Second Quarter

John Michael Greer67 Comments

With this post we continue our survey of the Great Wheel of the 28 lunar phases, the central symbolic mandala of Yeats’s A Vision. In last month’s episode we followed the soul through the latter part of the first quarter, ending with the shattering experience of the 8th Phase. There the soul must wrench itself…

The End of the Bureaucratic Era

John Michael Greer383 Comments

For several years now I’ve had readers ask me from time to time about my opinion of the current media and investment frenzy surrounding so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI). The first thing I’ve had to explain in each of those cases is that the label is a misnomer; generative large language models, to give these bloated…

February 2026 Open Post

John Michael Greer520 Comments

This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly 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, no endless rehashes of questions I’ve already answered)…

The Laws of Co-Creation

John Michael Greer199 Comments

Last December’s contest over what theme would get discussed in the fifth Wednesday post, as I’ve noted here more than once already, was unusually lively even by the standards of my lively and eccentric commentariat. What’s more, all three of the leading contenders were themes I wanted to write about anyway. Long before the contest…

A Vision: The First Quarter of the Wheel, Part Two

John Michael Greer87 Comments

The Great Wheel of the symbolic phases of the Moon, as noted already, is the central mandala of Yeats’s Vision. Two months ago, in the last installment of this (usually monthly) book club, we examined phases 2, 3, and 4 of the Wheel, the phases in which the soul makes the first fumbling efforts to…

On the Education of Desire

John Michael Greer335 Comments

As I mentioned a little over a month ago, the competition over which theme would get the fifth Wednesday post in December was almost unparalleled in the enthusiasm it generated and the number of votes the top three themes generated. All three of the themes are worth a post, and I decided well before cognitive…