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) but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic — with two exceptions.
First, there’s a dedicated (more or less) open post on my Dreamwidth journal on the ongoing virus panic and related issues, so anything Covid-themed should go there instead.
Second, I’ve had various people try to launch discussions about AIs — that is to say, large language models (LLMs) and the utilities they power — on this and my other forums. The initial statements and their follow-up comments always end up reading as though they were written by LLMs — that is, long strings of words superficially resembling meaningful sentences but not actually communicating anything. That’s neither useful nor entertaining. Thus I’ve decided to ban further discussion of this latest wet dream of the lumpen-internetariat here, and have extended that ban to LLM-generated content of all kinds.
With that said, have at it!
I saw this cool book on emblems, as in alchemical and other traditions, and using them for divination and meditation today. It’s going on my reading stack soon.
Symbolarum: The Secret Wisdom of Emblems by Mandy Aftel.
“The emblem book, which reached the peak of its popularity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, presented mysterious allegorical images–rather like those we now find on tarot cards–alongside Latin mottoes. A learned text explained the connection between image and motto, and the lessons each emblem held for the reader’s life. Drawing on sources such as medieval bestiaries and Aesop’s fables, emblem books reflected an enchanted view of nature in which our human lives were intertwined with plants, animals, the moon and the stars. World-renowned natural perfumer Mandy Aftel first encountered emblem books in the course of her researches into antique botanical illustrations, and quickly became entranced. Here she presents one hundred emblems from perhaps the finest emblem book, the Symbolorum et Emblematum of Camerarius, originally published in four parts between 1590 and 1604. Aftel has sensitively tinted in watercolor the bewitching circular engravings of the Symbolorum, in which giant hands reach from the sky; lions, bears, and unicorns gambol; and distant spires beckon. The mottoes and explanatory texts are given in translation from the original Latin, along with Aftel’s own commentary. An illustrated introduction illuminates the history and magic of emblem book.”–Provided by publisher.
Since surrealism has become a topic of discussion here on Ecosophia the past year or so, as one of the headwaters of Situationism, and its connection to the occult, I thought I would share my latest feature article for Igloo.
https://igloomag.com/features/babs-santini-the-formless-irregular
It is a review of the book The Formless Irregular by Babs Santini… “A definitive, full-color celebration of the elusive visionary Babs Santini—whose surreal, erotically charged collages shaped the visual world of Nurse With Wound and its avant-garde circle—The Formless Irregular spans five decades of radical image-making that transforms waste, dreams, and noise into haunting, darkly humorous art.”
Santini, aka Steve Stapleton of Nurse With Wound has incorporated numerous surrealist techniques both into his music as Nurse With Wound and the visual work he does as Babs Santini, his artistic alter-ego. In figuring out a way to approach the book which is huge, I settled on an A to Z of surrealist and Dadaist techniques, how those relate to the work. It is also a bit of an A to Z of various things that relate to the Nurse With Wound cannon.
Steve Stapleton remains one of my favorite living artists in both the visual medium (where he had his training) and in sound where he had another kind of training in the seventies as a roadie for various krautrock bonds and his extensive collection of out-there records.
He is also a close collaborator with Current 93, which gives some of these images a gnostic edge.
Hello Mr. Greer,
I saw a repost of your views on Jesus Christ, and have a two-fold question. What are your thoughts on Jewish, Islamic and in general abrahamic eschatology and messianism? My second point relates to the first in that there is a distinction made between Athens (masculine, knowledge, individual) and Jerusalem (feminine, revelation, masses) － what do you think of this framing, and in terms of social organisation which do you adhere to, if any？
Hi JMG,
Welp, it looks like Spanberger and a group in Portland are trying to invoke Kek, in imitation of 2016. It was part of their State of the Swamp protest. I can’t see this working out so well for them. If you are using a god of darkness as a means to regain control, I only see immense blowback.
Justin, thanks for this! A good reference on emblem books, aside from its other advantages, will be very useful for a current book project of mine. As for Santini aka Stapleton, hmm. I’ll give his work a look/listen when circumstances permit.
Planasthai, I consider messianism in all its forms a mistake. It’s a typical Piscean distortion of spirituality to think that you should wait for the arrival of the One Perfect Person to solve the world’s problems, instead of realizing that the world you experience is largely a consequence of your own actions and inactions and doing something about those. As for Abrahamic eschatology, I’ve written an entire book titled Apocalypse Not, now on its way to republication, about what I call the “apocalypse meme” — arguably the most disastrous idea in all of human history. With regard to the false dichotomy between “Athens” and “Jerusalem,” I don’t find it useful; like most forced binaries, it obscures far more than it reveals.
Jon, the frog god is going to have so much fun with them! But then it’s a consistent bad habit of decadent elites to think that they can tell the gods what to do…
Probably a babbling incoherent mess of thoughts, but something that has been on my mind lately is a burgeoning trend of decluttering, flea markets, yard sales and finding residual value in the leftovers of a high material production society. I recently built a house and moved to a rural area and realized how much STUFF I have even though I live pretty light. Even so, a big project I want to pursue is gathering up STUFF and having a yard sale or taking it to a flea market. In the little town near where I live there are a few impromptu daily flea markets sprouting up in the older shopping center parking lots; mostly low or working class older folks and some basement dwelling types selling old furniture, sports memorabilia and Pokemon cards.
Second, looking up information on yard sales and decluttering, there seems to be a cluster of videos and articles from around 5 years ago about clearing STUFF out. It’s mostly recently retired people (and mostly women) giving some saccharine advice about Facebook Marketplace and how their kids don’t want their elder parents’ STUFF and how to deal with the emotions of throwing away things that seem important or useful. Oh boy and the unused greeting cards! Makes me wonder about hoarding as a psychological problem similar to an overeating disorder that is unique to a culture and society that seems like it is post-scarcity.
I wonder if the elderly and working class can find some kind of economic stability developing a new economy of trading used goods and if this reuse or repurposing can help build a comfortable life while still reducing actual material consumption and perhaps create community along the way, like an old medieval fair. Obviously, selling used items or repurposing them has been around forever, but would it help create a viable economy or society?
Thanks to JMG’s writing about catabolic collapse and the job of the main character in “Star’s Reach” I perhaps have a more focused lens to see this “junk swapping” phenomenon in its correct context.
I would like to ask both our host his opinion on the matter and the commetariat to chime in if they have been noticing it. And if I may suggest this as a topic to vote on in an upcoming post, let’s call it the “Flea market” or “junk swapping economy.”
Thanks, God bless all, and if you are Catholic, please pray for me. I’ve decided to join the Catholic Church and embrace it fully and am starting the education process currently.
Hi John,
I have been reading Cayce, Steiner, and other “prophets”. And it seems that while they were quite accurate about current events, they were way off about the future. I was going to ask about this, but see a lot of posts on divination, which I need take a look at.
Instead, would you consider a post about Gurdjieff’s system. Especially his cosmology, and the transformation of impressions.
Hi JMG, just a follow up on the Blizzard of 2026.
While you missed this one by being in Maryland, it is quite possible to get a crippling blizzard in the DC area. And the heads up on that is — the DC area normally gets so little snow that there is not much capability to deal with a big storm. During the great “Snowmaggedon” storm of 2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_5%E2%80%936,_2010_North_American_blizzard
a large snow plow got stuck on the street in front of our house and sat there for 12 hours til they brought in something big enough to dig it out (this in a wealthy suburb inside the beltway). And while there was a large grocery store I could easily walk to, it was cleaned out of almost anything useful to purchase.
And another heads up — the panic ahead of a major snow event in the DC area is something to behold.
I think there is a very real chance that Canada is about to turn into a full blown police state. There are a number of problematic bills before parliament, but I want to focus on three of them that are especially dangerous: Bill C-2, Bill C-8, and C-9. Any one of them, if passed in their current forms, will essentially overnight turn the country into a police state; while the combination of the three will essentially end all civil liberties in the country.
Bill C-2 makes it a lot easier for the government to monitor essentially all financial transactions in the country; makes it much harder to use cash; allows the government to search mail without a warrant, and to use illegally obtained material for investigations; and makes crossing the border (even to leave the country) an awful lot more invasive and more difficult. Bill C-8 strips away all privacy and free speech rights for anything done on any computer system, and makes it possible for the government to issue orders in complete secrecy ordering anyone who provides any computer service to spy on any, or all, of their users.
Bill C-9 is a little more subtle, but it removes most of the key checks on the government abusing the hate speech laws. They are already uncomfortably broad, but there are several extra steps that need to be followed before the government is allowed to bring charges. Getting rid of those will do a pretty good job of stripping away what remains of our free speech rights.
I’m bringing these up because I know there are a number of Canadians here, and I have not seen nearly as much discussion of these bills as I think they warrant. I also think it’s probably worth forming a plan to leave the country, if you are able to do so, and have not already made one.
The esoteric implications of the geology of Glastonbury Tor.
Round about the middle of 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the weekend in Glastonbury that had been organised to coincide with JMG’s visit to the UK. From recollection it was the Friday that we went round the ruins of the abbey, then up to the White Springs. After which, JMG and several hardy souls climbed to Tor itself. I left them too it, it had been a long drive over from my lair on the south coast and for entirely unconnected reasons my knee was hurting.
The springs are a slightly eery place. A Victorian brick structure – originally a water pumping house – has been built over some natural caves and in 2012 the entire site was taken over by a slightly mysterious group who converted it to a temple. Inside there are some pools fed by springs and various pieces of artwork. I splashed some of the water on my face and hands and took a few slightly suspicious sips. As it happened, on the Sunday morning of the weekend someone had to drop out of the speaker schedule and instead we were treated to a fascinating talk of the geology of the Tor itself. It sparked an idea in me because on that first evening I experienced something quite extraordinary. Something that I’ve not recounted to anyone until today.
I’m writing about it now because this last weekend I stopped off in Glastonbury while on my way to pick up some raw deer skins from Devon. I’m in the process of retraining as a bookbinder and I want to see if I can make vellum the medieval way. It’s an endangered craft in the UK but real vellum – not the plasiticised paper substitute – is in high demand by both artists and calligraphers. Naturally, I’m interested although it’s a gruesome and rather smelly process. Glastonbury is a natural layover point and it has a great many bookshops which is all the excuse I really need. If you’ve never been, I can give you a flavour of the place by recounting the following conversation I overheard whilst browsing in an occult bookshop between the man behind the counter and the Mayor of Glastonbury who had wandered in out of the rain.
“Have you seen Jesus today? I’m looking for him.”
“Which one?”
“The Welsh Jesus, not the one from Wells.”
“No, sorry, I have seen one of the two Lokis though.”
In any case – on that particular Friday I went back to my room and since it was past time, meditated. Usually this process leaves me relaxed an cheerful because the particular style I follow is designed to stop thought. Since my day job requires entirely too much thought already I find it ideal although of course it is completely distinct from the discursive meditation JMG has frequently written about.
I gradually became aware of a remarkable sensation which I can only describe as a golden glow surrounding me – as if I’d been temporarily transformed into a low power incandescent light bulb. Not that you could see anything I think. I was by myself and had my eyes closed so its a poor analogy at best. My knee stopped hurting and for 20 minutes I basked. Can’t think of a better verb. I felt absolutely fabulous – all the more so because it was completely unexpected. A gift.
Was it the resinous atmosphere of Glastonbury? Was it the water? I had no idea and of course no way of finding out, but the lecture on Sunday offered a clue.
The Tor is something of a geological anomaly rising high above the lower swampy Somerset levels like a natural island. It’s visible from miles away and in case anyone failed to notice it, a ruined stone tower perches on top. The geology is stratified. Layers of sand, clay, and limestone alternate and the whole thing rests on a structure of ammonite marl – that is a layer of mudstone thickly studded with crushed Ammonite shells.
Rain water trickles down through these layers and emerges in the White Spring having been thoroughly filtered. Thousands of gallons a day and during rainy periods far more than that.
Nobody seems to have commented on the fact that whereas sand and clay are effectively mineral inorganic materials, limestone has an organic origin as does ammonite marl. Wilhelm Reich would have been delighted – in effect the Tor is probably the largest natural Orgone accumulator on the planet. With a built in water supply!
And so, this last weekend I was in a position to see if I could repeat the experience. After I’d visited the bookstore, heroically limiting myself to just a few dozen purchases, I went up to the White Springs again. This time with an empty water bottle.
That evening, back in the hotel I meditated and although it was perfectly easy, useful, and relaxing there was no repeat of the _glow_. Was I disappointed? perhaps a little. It really had been wonderful but perhaps lightening doesn’t strike twice.
And then that night I had the best night’s unbroken sleep I’ve managed for several months and this has repeated for the last several days. That’s unprecedented for me.
As a side note, this coming Friday represents my third attempt to retire from my day job and start my bookbinding and publishing career. I have been unexpectedly held back since December and so various promises of books from me to others have not progressed as far as I’d like. There has been some progress however and some emails with updates will be going out shortly.
Hi JMG,
Can you tell me when the next entry in your Ariel Moravec series is scheduled to come out? I haven’t yet seen any reference to it online, yet. Thanks!
Speaking of Jesus Christ, in 1 Corinthians 15:45 (written about 20 years after the departure of Jesus) Jesus is termed “a life giving spirit” which fits the usual Christian understanding of Jesus AND the undoubted spiritual effects stemming from the Jesus phenomena in JMG’s understanding of the Jesus thing, even though he doesn’t accept the classic view. Jesus has certainly been “a life giving spirit” for me. The strong peaceful experience for me fits the traditional viewpoint and I am not threatened or bothered by other takes on Jesus as being in friendly relationship with people is more fun unless they are ornery and not safe then I keep a friendly distance.
Hi JMG,
Just listened to you on the Plant Cunning podcast. I really enjoyed the discussion! Can I enquire what style of Tai Chi you are learning? I can recomment a very good Chinese martials arts teacher in DC, he teaches everything, but his specialty is chinese straight sword.
Also, what a time to be alive! “Normies” i know are now talking to me about how elites are eating babies after the Epstein document dump. Do you think there is anything to the allegations of occult rituals and sacrifice?
Hello Mr. Greer,
You have mentioned in your podcasts and writings that a person who exhibits talent in a particular area studied that material in a past life. I was curious to know how far back you think this extends. I understand that according to reincarnation if I study music in this life, I will have aptitude for it in my next life. But will that be true two lifetimes from now? What about 12? Or is it a use it or lose it thing? If I study a lot of music in life number four, do other stuff for lives 5 through 16, and then come back to music in life 17, will I have forgotten most of what I learned or will I retain it?
IDK what the frog symbol means to Spanberger, et al, but for me, frogs and other amphibians are the early warning system for ecological distress from poisons. Amphibians “breath”, not air, but moisture, I hope I have that right, through their skins. I tend to think that the presence of toads and frogs in my yard shows that that patch of earth has accepted me.
Spanberger is a smart lady. She gave a decent, workwoman like speech in which, if I read her intentions right, she declined to audition for the 2028 Democratic nomination, intending instead to build her reputation by taking care of business in Virginia. As a state gov., she won’t need all that lovely dual-citizen, Zio-con money, and if she ever does decide to get into national politics, she won’t owe that faction a thing.
Watchflinger, welcome to the Church in which all are welcome at God’s table. Best wishes for your spiritual journey.
“The amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.
Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/23/new-datacentres-risk-doubling-uk-electricity-use-ofgem-peak-demand
I hope their wind turbines do better than ours. Due to a long streak of really calm days I pulled the data from the BPA and found it was not my imagination. From Jan 14 to 27 the output of the wind turbines never exceeded 10% of the name plate rating. On Jan 13 they made 11.5% of nameplate. Jan 28 came in at 10.6%. Solar ran about 17% of nameplate for the month.
The good news was that from mid-January to mid February my power use was 1900 kWh instead of 2700 kWh like last year. The warm winter has been pleasant, but the consequence is that it’s raining instead of snowing and the mountain snowpack is really low.
In a recent Magic Monday, the topic of godless paganism came up and you mentioned that the folks were entryists.
Can you expand on that.
I experienced John Halstead of godless paganism first hand. He came into Polytheist spaces and complained that we were not welcoming to him and his cohort since we all worshiped archetypes. I ended up doing hand to hand combat with him until I realized he wanted the last word. So I gave it to him.
The Polytheist movement at the time was infiltrated with people who wanted to turn it to political Maxism. That part fell apart, but there are still a dedicated group of Polytheists still doing what they do best.
What I did notice that the godless pagan types did enter paganism, but they seem to have left when people refused to leave Patheos after it was bought out by a Christian group. However, they must have gone into pagan groups like ADF since that and other similar groups are more and more political in their bent. Now, it seems that Progressive Witches and Pagans are all about politics and fitting the religion into their political lens.
Meanwhile, there is/was a moment to brand certain Polytheists nazis and fascists, complete with do not read lists, and a naughty list of nazi pagan sites. It is still buzzing around but more people seem to back off from the Gods smiting xyz person for being a fascist.
Was this a process of entryism or simply a progression of Neo-Pagans moving to less spirituality. I left ADF when it became very political, but I could not place any individual as an entryist.
—
Halstead btw had a metal breakdown, recovered, and still blogging – low key stuff. Mark Green the other godless pagan went on to form atheopaganism, which he boasts has 5000 members world wide.
Hello JMG and All!
I am excited to announce my book Yoga, Magic and Tarot: An Esoteric Manual of Eastern Philosophy and Western Occultism is available for pre-order from everyone’s favorite publisher, Aeon. There is a 20% discount code for you until 11-30-26. Use code YOGA20.
This never would have happened without all of you and our most esteemed host, JMG. I am so grateful. Thank you.
Warmest regards always
Jill C Yogaandthetarot
https://spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/yoga-magic-and-the-tarot/95448
https://spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk/ProductImage.aspx?aID=95448
Yoga, Magic and the Tarot : An Esoteric Manual of Eastern Philosophy and Western Occultism – Jill Camera – Aeon Spirit
Yoga, Magic and the Tarot : An Esoteric Manual of Eastern Philosophy and Western Occultism – Jill Camera : 97818…
Speaking of data centers, there is a new power line going in from Wanapum dam to Quincy (Washington State). The new load is all data centers of course.
“Once complete, the upgrades are expected to increase available transmission capacity into Quincy from approximately 372 megawatts to about 750 megawatts — effectively doubling the area’s capacity to serve new and existing load.”
And on the climate change front, Wisconsin is doing well. It’s also worth mentioning the lowest point is Lake Michigan so sea level rise won’t be bothering them.
” A new report by the Weiss Energy Policy Institute analyzed 130 years of Wisconsin climate data and found that as atmospheric CO2 rose 45%, Wisconsin experienced 63% fewer days over 90°F, heatwaves 71% shorter in duration, powerful tornadoes down 70%, and significant drought decline since 1894. This isn’t just absence of evidence, it’s negative correlation. As CO2 increased, climate extremes decreased.”
https://www.weissenergy.org/uploads/b/8f73f530-1264-11ef-92ea-53aa1763991e/Wisconsin%20Energy%20Policy%20Innovating%20within%20the%20regulated%20monopoly%20and%20dismatling%20the%20climate%20case%20against%20hydrocarbons_OTg1MT.pdf
I had the pleasure of collaborating with JMG to create a Blasting Trident of Paracelsus. Feedback on its use has been good, and I’m offering the same items to others who wish to own one. These items are handcrafted and ship from Canada.
Photos and a detailed description of the trident are on my blacksmithing website, https://reforgedironworks.com/product/blasting-trident-of-paracelsus/
Any questions can be sent to info-at-reforgedironworks-dot-com or posted here.
Thank you,
Tim PW
About godless paganism, it seems that the people wanted the benefits of spirituality without the god stuff. I noted that Atheopaganism has all sorts of rituals that nearly approach the mystic, but then stops.
I wonder if the current crop of Neo-Pagans are moving in that direction. I noted that many were previously interested in theological topics have jumped on the anti-Trump train. It seems that the politics have become the religion. Now as Jonathan Turley observed in his new book – it is the age of rage. He cites more rage from the left than the right. (But personally, I noted it also from the right as well.) The rage is showing up in Neo-Pagan blogs such as the Wild Hunt.
I am also struck by how everyone is in different tribes now, with different information. I heard that ICE has concentration camps and kidnaps U.S. citizens from Progressive folks. I have heard how we are under Sharia Law from the Steve Bannon folks. I guess, the middle is missing between the two camps on pro-Trump and anti-Trump. Is part of the problem is that we all have our own facts and refuse to meet in the middle. Am I making any sense?
One last post and I’ll take a break from power vs Augmented Idiocy.
“Grant PUD increased the fee required to remain in the waiting list, prompting customers and prospective customers to reassess and “right-size” their power requests.”
“Commissioners heard Feb. 17 that the utility’s Large Power Solutions group has significantly reduced the amount of requested power in its connection “queue,” cutting it from 2,191 megawatts to 692 megawatts following a recent “queue-cleansing” effort.”
“The results showed 43% of applications remained unchanged, 20% were resized, 17% were canceled, and 20% were eliminated due to lack of payment or response.”
So 37% complete vapor at least when asked to put money on the table. I heard something in the news about making data centers build their own power plants on site. That’s an obvious solution to the problem. Since small power plants tend to be less efficient then big ones that will create its own issues.
Looks like Twilight’s Last Gleaming plot rhymes with today events, at least some of it, it could be Crete it could be Diego Garcia. Some people say that the Iranian missiles can reach both. The dopamine addicted people that are following these feeds now are saying this is the “calm before the storm”. We shall see.
Some ar making fun of how a t-shirt disabled an aircraft carrier. I won’t repost here the news with the shale problems Ford aircraft carrier is facing.
JMG, I’d be fascinated to hear your thoughts on the distinction between science fiction and fantasy. I recall an essay by Philip K. Dick in which he suggested that you could argue the film Alien is fantasy, if you believe it’s impossible for a creature like that to exist; but if you believe it could exist, then Alien is science fiction.
I’m in rapture over your novels The Fires of Shalsha and Journey Star, but they feature interstellar travel, which you’ve since come to regard—correctly, I believe—as impossible. If we grant that science fiction is fiction that portrays events as consistent with the known (or at least plausibly extrapolated) laws of nature, while fantasy is fiction that departs from those laws, then would you say fantasy is the more accurate way to categorize Shalsha and Journey Star?
Re-read your “How It Could Happen” series from back in 2012 on the old blog; seems uncomfortably prescient vis-a-vis the current Iran situation. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Likudnik/neocon faction has gone pants-crapping insane. I’m eerily reminded of Jan Matthys riding out from Munster with twelve Anabaptist followers to attack the armies of Count Franz von Waldeck. Quos Dei vult perdere, prius dementat?
@ Watchflinger #6
I have a positive data point to throw at this. We have a local Internet group (on Faceplant? I dunno) that my wife is part of called “The Free Site”. Folks will post an item that is useful/valuable/desirable that they no longer want and are willing to part with for free. Alternatively people will post an ISO (in search of) and someone will go dig around in their garage and pull out said item tolerably often. No money is exchanged and people are not using it to “shadow advertise” things. The group is absolutely booming. We use it extensively both to find items we need (especially kid related items) and also have given away a number of things. There are a lot of very generous people about who are happy to help out the community just for the sake of it.
I spend a lot of life being swamped in data points about how crappy things have become but the Free Site has really been a nice point on the other side of the scale locally.
HV
John,
I’ve been playing tabletop roleplaying games since I quit video games a couple years ago. I’m sure we all remember when the fundies decried Dungeons and Dragons as satanic and occult. But lately as I’ve been playing D&D alongside studying the occult, I’ve realized that maybe some occult elements are involved in D&D, funnily enough! Hear me out!
D&D games tend to create a sort of egregore over time. The Dungeon Master is the one who plans the game, but as the group becomes immersed in the game it begins to take on a life of its own and in a good D&D group it can feel very real. The Dungeon Master loses control and things just seem to unfold on their own. Furthermore, D&D games use random chance with the dice, which is similar to divination. Agency is outsourced to the universe, and if you already believe that there’s more to tarot that random chance and wishful thinking, it’s not too far of a stretch to think something similar might be happening with D&D. Finally, D&D trains the faculties of the imagination and the will in all the participants. I think that at its best, D&D can act as a sort of ritual of imagination that brings the group close together in a very special way.
The book looks really neat… I look forward to reading it myself. Best of luck with that writing project…
As for Nurse With Wound, and knowing your own tastes to a degree, I would perhaps suggest starting with the song Two Shaves and a Shine from the album An Awkward Pause:
https://nursewithwound1.bandcamp.com/track/two-shaves-and-a-shine
My personal favorite albums, beyond the ones above are Soliloquy for Lililth, Rock and Roll Station, Sugar Fish Drink, Large Ladies with Cake in the Oven, and Simple Headphone Mind, among all the rest.
Also, I saw this counter curse for your meme collection:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hXPx!,w_371,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe11cf977-038b-4b0f-a00e-c9cd0da9f42a_946x1072.jpeg
I do have a question for Jon G (#4 above):
I am curious where you discovered “a group in Portland are trying to invoke Kek”? I don’t disbelieve you, but, living in a suburb of that esteemed city. I would like to keep an eye on what people are up to so that I can stay out of the way.
I’ve been trying to decide whether this should be on Magic Monday or open post. Since it’s not really a question, but just an invitation to discussion, if anybody is interested. I’ve been reading several books that are more or less Christian, lately; books by Rudolf Steiner, Boris Mouravieff, Dion Fortune and Gareth Knight. It’s the last of these I want to discuss here; his “Experience of the Inner Worlds.” He is quite clear that he’s written it for unambiguously committed Christians. Clearly, I’m not one of those. JMG’s comment above, that ” I consider messianism in all its forms a mistake,” is a sentiment with which I agree — and that becomes a little bit of a stumbling block regarding Christianity. The first thing that struck me when I first read it years ago was that Knight has described someone just like my own mother on p. 120. It’s an uncanny resemblance, really. Beyond that, the exercises he provides in the early chapters, the sphere of light and the flaming sword have much in common with the sphere of protection, which I practice daily. Further on, however, he warns that “We are about to embark on the study of magic, and this differs in many respects from mysticism.” From that point (Ch VII) on he concentrates on the “tree of life” and the Hebrew alphabet. He sets up a cube with a Hebrew letter on each side. That connects quite easily, in my mind, with the six elemental symbols used in the sphere of protection. He also gets into the Picatrix and its three tiered Universe, which puts me in mind of the three principles in “The Way of the Golden Section.”
A second topic but not entirely unrelated; I’ve also been re-reading JMG’s “A World Full of Gods” along with “From Yahweh to Zion” by Laurent Guyenot. The early chapters of the latter book, especially chapter 2, and JMG’s book complement each other quite nicely. Again, there’s not really a question here, but just an invitation to discussion should anybody be interested. (I have a busy reading schedule these days.)
Watchflinger – you said “Second, looking up information on yard sales and decluttering, there seems to be a cluster of videos and articles from around 5 years ago about clearing STUFF out.” What that makes me wonder is, if there’s an emphasis in the spiritual world right now encouraging people to get it to whoever needs it more than you do. One person’s junk, is another’s treasure. And even our treasure can, at some point, be junk, if we are hoarding it. Or even just not passing it on, especially if one of the reasons we have it to start with, is someone “passing it on”.
JMG – Thanks for the Isaac Hill (and thanks, too, Isaac) podcast on Plant Cunning. What a hopeful vision – the Kali Yuga as collective initiation via the nadir. Appareciate your stalwarness in all things seemingly dire.
Hi JMG,
My husband and I just want to offer another thank you for the ever-entertaining and ever-useful Cosmic Oom. It is the best and funniest password generator ever!
OtterGirl
@William, yes, I’ve been following that, and signing such petitions as I can find against them. It doesn’t feel like anywhere near enough. I want to find more ways to do something about this. Any suggestions for practical things I can do? I’m serious. The hate speech one concerns me especially as it looks to remove protections from religious free speech in particular.
I am in the process of acquiring a Canadian passport, though since I’d lose my source of income if I left and other countries are unlikely to want a disabled person as a new member, my options would be very limited. I have dual citizenship in Britain so I could go there and they couldn’t stop me, and I’d have relatives who might help but A) I’d need a british passport for that since they now just started insisting that dual citizens must travel using a british passport, even if non british citizens with a canadian passport can visit just fine unless they’re also british citizens and B) Britain isn’t exactly a shining example of free speech either right now.
I think I’m probably best off staying in Canada, short of civil war in my specific location, or a government going completely nuts and deciding to turn MAiD into ‘lets murder every single non economically productive person in the country’.
But getting my passports for both nations seems like a good idea. Because sometimes events in the long tail happen.
JMG in post #5 said: I consider messianism in all its forms a mistake. It’s a typical Piscean distortion of spirituality to think that you should wait for the arrival of the One Perfect Person to solve the world’s problems, instead of realizing that the world you experience is largely a consequence of your own actions and inactions and doing something about those.
I think that for thousands of years millions of people have reinterpreted the messiah story in accordance with what they thought, or believed, or wanted to believe. I also think that people’s perception of reality is based largely, if not entirely, upon their own thoughts, emotions, and actions; and that understanding and working to understand these aspects of the self is probably man’s highest good.
That being said, I find the messiah concept highly useful. Not in terms of waiting for the One Perfect Person but in terms of doing my best to become the Best One Perfect Person that I can be. Not perfect in the sense of “having no flaws”. Perfect in the sense of doing the best with what I have to work with in the present moment. I believe that everyone needs help doing this. I know I do.
So if I can grab a piece of the messiah story and understand it in a way that helps me to become better I am definitely going to do it. I do the same with any belief system that I discover. I believe the flaw is in uncritically accepting the prepackaged story. Because, even within a particular religion, the story seems to vary considerable from person to person.
Hi JMG,
It’s been a while since I’ve commented here, but I’ve still been reading everything you’ve been posting, and I’ve been appreciating all your work as always. I’m reaching out because I’ve been finding all this Epstein files stuff really quite upsetting. I think I’ve followed a lot of these threads as conspiracy theories, but seeing it all vomited up in a way that I can’t hand wave away is feeling like some sort of psychic attack. It feels like the whole endeavour was designed to degrade humanity to such a degree that even to hear about it pulls you down. At any rate, I am struggling with this and was wondering what advice you might have for those of us who are. I guess I was naive about the dark potential of human beings and of our society in general, even though I never would have thought I was prior.
I think I am seeing the positive threads in what is happening right now, the way people are on this and doing the work to bring this to light and to bring justice, both through official and unofficial channels, but still it is a lot, and I’m torn between wanting to keep up with the information before it can be squashed, and a desire to retain a general sense of hope about us and the world. I don’t want to hokd a view that is false, so it feels I want to know the truth, but I am finding it very difficult all the same.
I hope you and your readers are well, and I apologize if I missed anything from you on this subject asking us to stay away from it in the comments.
Thanks,
Johnny
Watchflinger, that’s an important sign, and one I’ve been watching as well. In some ways it’s a good sign, in that it shows that at least some people are beginning to extract themselves from the spell of consumerism — but it’s also a warning sign of economic stress. In my recent move, btw, I had to confront all the stuff that had piled up since my last move 8 1/2 years ago, and I’m still in the process of paring down.
Kevin, I know very little about Gurdjieff’s system. The Fourth Way is its own thing, largely unconnected to the Western esoteric tradition, and I haven’t studied it so don’t really have anything to say about it.
Cyclone, I was in Cumberland, MD in 2010, and well remember the spectacular blizzard that year. I’m well aware that DC can get heavy snow — I’m just glad to have missed out on this example of the species.
William, I wish I could say I was surprised. If I lived in Canada I’d be making plans to leave, fast.
Andy, thanks for this. Glastonbury is one of my favorite places on the planet, and the earth energies there are part of the reason why.
Chronojourner, The House of the Crows, Ariel’s fourth adventure, is due out in April.
BeardTree, if that’s your experience, go ye forth and follow. One of my long-term projects is synthesizing my reflections on the Divine from A World Full of Gods with some more general philosophical reflections, developing something I call “apophatic polytheism.” Basically, the point is that as finite human beings we can know so little about the Divine that all we really have to go on is personal experience guided by tradition, which is itself simply the residue of lots of personal experiences in the past. Thus it’s a waste of time to critique anyone else’s religious beliefs (though of course their behavior is subject to critique on the same basis as all other human behavior).
Crj, my current teacher does Cheng Man-ching’s version of Yang style taiji — he was a student of Robert W. Smith, Cheng’s first Western student — and also teaches a straight sword form. Since the classes are an easy walk from my apartment, I plan on staying with him for the foreseeable future. It’s been seventeen years since I last took taiji classes and I’m basically having to relearn everything from scratch. Down the road, though, we’ll see. As for the business about occult rituals and sacrifice, it’s quite common for decadent elite classes whose grip on power is weakening to dabble in occultism to try to regain control. When they do this, the kind of occultism they take up is always corrupt and debased — being decadent and self-indulgent, they can’t achieve genuine magical power, and so turn to sacrifice and other vile activities. You might look into the Affair of the Poisons in 17th-century France to get another snapshot of the disgusting behavior that too often results.
Stephen, I’ve never seen this discussed in the literature.
Siliconguy, one of the reasons I’ve come to think that a fair amount of the “AI” business is deliberate scammery is that it should be obvious to everyone that all those data centers can never get the power they require.
Neptunesdolphins, you’ve just done a better job of explaining entryism than I could. It’s precisely the process by which people join groups to take them over and hijack them for unrelated purposes — for example, turning a Pagan religious group into a front for socialist politics. Entryists who are any good make sure to camouflage themselves — but look at their actions and you can usually tell. I haven’t met Halstead or Green, but my read on them both is that they’re political activists pretending to be Pagans.
Jill, glad to hear it!
Siliconguy, thanks for the data points.
Tim, glad to see this, too. I’ve received three tridents so far, and all three of them are good solid workmanlike pieces, yours very much included — and the trident of Paracelsus is a classic magical tool in the European tradition that deserves much more attention than it’s gotten.
Neptunesdolphins, the avant-garde cycles back and forth from mostly spiritual to mostly political. It was primarily spiritual from the twilight of Sixties radicalism to the first election of Donald Trump; now it’s going hard in a political direction. I expect to see most of those political Pagans ditch the Paganism in the years ahead and center their lives on political activism. Yes, you’re making sense; this is part of what I talked about in my post late last year about cognitive collapse.
Siliconguy, thanks for this also. That’s another argument for scammery…
Archivist, yeah, I’m watching that situation closely. I really didn’t intend that novel as a manual!
Frank, it’s impossible to draw a line between the two. Synchronistically enough, I’m reading a classic Andre Norton novel right now, Judgment on Janus, which splits the difference straight down the middle — it’s a fantasy story in an SF setting. Rather than having a hard criterion, I’d say they’re two overlapping genres; what differentiates them is that science fiction takes its imagery and identity from technologies, real or imagined, and fantasy takes its imagery and identity from magic, real or imagined. Thus I consider my two Eridan novels to be science fiction, since all the imagery and identity relies on supposed technologies — interstellar colony ships, an alien planet with its own biology, and the neurological effects of a native plant. Whether or not the technologies are possible doesn’t matter that much — otherwise you’d have to retroactively recategorize any SF novel that depends on technologies later research finds to be impossible!
RaabSilco, oddly enough, that comparison had occurred to me also. I’d also point to the equally giddy delusions of those European politicians who are insisting that their countries should go to war with Russia and defeat it. In the twilight of corporate-bureaucratic globalism, a lot of allegedly serious thinkers have taken the short route to the loony bin.
Nephite, you’ll be amused to know that occultists have been discussing that for decades. Tabletop RPGs at their best are wonderful training for the imagination, and approximate a sort of group pathworking.
Justin, oh my. Whoever came up with that is either very well informed about magic or simply naturally wise. That would work, you know…
Phutatorius, delighted to hear both of these.
Celadon, we were born to face this time. Chin up and on we go!
OtterGirl, ha! I didn’t think of that use for it, but it ought to work well.
Point, if that works for you, by all means. My opinion is simply my opinion.
Johnny, it’s really revolting stuff. I haven’t followed it closely, because I’m aware of just how vile human beings can be, partly via reading and partly from a quiet evening many years ago when I was working in a nursing home and one of my coworkers, a guy from Cambodia, talked about what he experienced under the Khmer Rouge. (He came from an extended family of nearly forty people; he and his sister were the only two survivors.) I don’t recommend getting too obsessive about it; you may be right about the degrading intent — demons do that, by all accounts.