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 there’s no topic, nothing is off topic.
Before we begin, I’m pleased to announce that the latest kickstarter from Founders House Publishing has succeeded in reaching its goal, and the Silence in the City anthology will be happening — including a very edgy story by yours truly. The kickstarter campaign is now finished. However, Founders House will also be putting out an open call for submissions for stories between 2500 and 5000 words in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres on the theme of this anthology. This is a paying gig, so fire up your keyboards and go for it.
With that said, have at it!
Hi JMG
On your other blog, I noticed you said this:
“there’s something very disturbing about the socially approved reaction to the virus. The word that keeps coming to mind is “fey,” in its original sense — the weird attraction that leads people to stroll calmly toward their doom.”
My immediate thought is that they are under a malign enchantment. What are your thoughts? I believe you are working on a book about malign enchantment. When can we expect it? Thanks.
Hi John,
https://theconversation.com/whats-the-valneva-covid-19-vaccine-the-french-shot-thats-supposed-to-be-variant-proof-160345
What is your take on these type of vaccines, which use traditional vaccine technology?
“Valneva’s vaccine, called VLA2001, is based on tried and tested vaccine technology. It’s the technology used in the vaccine against poliovirus and in some types of flu vaccines. And the company already has a commercially available Japanese encephalitis vaccine based on the same technology.
VLA2001 uses an inactivated version of the whole virus, which cannot replicate or cause disease.”
In regard to the experimental Covid vaccines, I’m starting to see articles in the mainstream media warning of the risks – see https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-covid-vaccines-riskier-than-advertised-11624381749
It will be too late for the majority of people, given the huge push to get the majority of the population vaccinated by September.
I will be avoiding the Covid vaccines currently on the market and wait for a more traditional based vaccine technology to become available, after a few months data before being vaccinated.
I hope it’s OK to ask a Magic Monday-style question here.
During the SOP, I find myself often thinking about how I’m doing, like a secondary train of thought that is going over the part of the ritual I just did to ‘check’ it, or reinforcing the symbolism behind the section I am currently doing. While saying out loud the words of an invocation, for example, I simultaneously catch my mind thinking about the previous part of the ritual to see what I’ve forgotten.
So there are several things happening at once in my mind: the part concentrating on the ritual itself (visualization, speaking, etc), the part doing this checking-up, and the part noticing I’m doing the check-up. It does take me 15-25 minutes to do the whole ritual, so maybe this mental activity is why it takes this long.
Is this normal, and if not, what might you suggest doing?
Something for everyone. As the Weird of Hali RPG nears release, I’ve become obsessed with watching people play tabletop roleplaying games, especialy on Stream of Blood and the Glass Cannon Network. What are people’s favourite RPGs, and especially is there a type of game you’d like to play that doesn’t exist? Maybe one you’ve thought of writing yourself?
Hello JMG and Commentariat
I was wondering if anyone had information as to where I could find circuit diagrams and instructions for a Hieronymus machine. I’ve tried searching around the internet but all I can seem to find are instructions on how to draw one of J. Campbell’s sigil Hieronymus machines. If anyone could point me in the right direction I’d be much obliged.
Thanks,
John
Good afternoon, JMG. Given the recent discussion about CGD tinctures and the LBRP over on dreamwidth, if one did the four Bardic tinctures about two years ago, and made slow progress since, but suspects the tinctures should be remade now with better precautions against banishing, would one remake the same four as guided by divination two years ago, or cast new wands to match what my elemental balancing requires at this stage?
Now there’s a complex sentence to rival one of yours. 😉
Thanks!
Dear JMG,
I have a couple of questions about witches (As this word was used in the past):
1. Can witches also be male?
2. Are all witches conscious of their nature?
3. Can a witch decide to reform her witchy ways? Or at least use her powers to spread good energies rather than bad? If so, how is it done?
As is my tradition I watched the sunrise from nearby Marys Peak on the summer solstice. This year it was a giant red ball climbing the slopes of Mt. Hood, obscured by smoke from an unseasonably early fire. An ominous portent perhaps…
It appears that public sentiment is slowly shifting with regard to the vaccines, with increasing reports of heart inflammation in young people and even the WHO backing away from recommendations to vaccinate youth. Of course the fearmongers are going on about the Delta variant, as they simply can’t let it go.
Meanwhile strange things continue to be afoot in the real economy. Lumber prices have stabilized at record levels. Two of the three electric motors that I use in my seed cleaning machines are out of stock (though I can easily substitute). Here on the west coast we are facing a chlorine shortage which is affecting drinking water supplies – due to “electrical failure” at a chemical factory in Washington. Steel seems to be following lumber into shortages and price craziness – I received the following message from one of my suppliers:
“We buy over 24k pounds a week of perforated metals. Normal lead times were 3 weeks for the past 40 years. As of January 15th our suppliers told us to expect 3 month lead times into the 3rd quarter. Last week all of the suppliers revised that and said any orders currently in process and future order will be 6 month lead time and that is expected until the 2 quarter of 2022. As a result steel prices are out of control with no stopping.”
This month’s energy news tidbits:
Limits exist
https://www.euci.com/solar-installations-break-records-in-q1-of-2021-but-face-rising-costs-and-supply-chain-issues/?x=59427u242282Sy&utm_campaign=062321_energize_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=energize
Surprising, yet not surprising
https://www.syracuse.com/state/2021/06/ex-national-grid-employees-took-bribes-prosecutors-say-report.html
So would walking
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/storage/automated-ev-charging-could-help-the-us-meet-carbon-reduction-goals/
Vogtle lumbers onward
https://whbl.com/2021/06/21/u-s-nrc-launches-investigation-at-southern-georgia-vogtle-3-nuclear-unit/
But there are times when a 90-day supply of fuel is handy
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/ct-illinois-pritzker-coal-clean-energy-20210615-lgx35ouufjfsvgimmfoqa37qdu-story.html
Again, but the other way
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/14/texas-power-grid-conserve-ercot/
Of trade and taxes (well, tax credits)
https://www.yahoo.com/now/south-dakota-rocked-again-wind-043100112.html
For the wonkier among the community:
A recent paper from NRRI (National Regulatory Research Institute, the research arm of NARUC, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners) titled: “The Intersection of Decarbonization Policy Goals and Resource Adequacy Needs: A California Case Study”
https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/55D05995-155D-0A36-315C-A161357DA070
And finally, a selection of public comments in a pending WI Public Utility Commission docket re a utility-scale solar project:
https://apps.psc.wi.gov/ERF/ERFview/viewdoc.aspx?docid=413970
https://apps.psc.wi.gov/ERF/ERFview/viewdoc.aspx?docid=413988
https://apps.psc.wi.gov/ERF/ERFview/viewdoc.aspx?docid=414015
https://apps.psc.wi.gov/ERF/ERFview/viewdoc.aspx?docid=414035
Given that we’re an agricultural state, the opportunity cost of land use (solar versus crops or herds) is a very real thing. Solar farms can take up anywhere from 5-8 acres per MW of capacity.
Dear JMG, Was wondering about your old neighbors in West Virginia. You spoke of the common cause among blue-collar people you saw, across racial lines. Have you kept up with anyone there and how they weathered 2020’s political extremism?
I have noticed how the populist movement that brought Trump into power has spread across the world. For example, Mexico’s president Obrador is being treated by the establishment exactly like Trump was and the same void narratives about them being totalitarian have started to spread among the well to do, meaning, they are scared. Obrador is much less smart than Trump but I wonder if that event will have a wider spread effect than just the United States. Peru is also in a similar situation right now with the presidential election being disputed vote by vote between Fujimori and Castillo. Now, Latin America is very different to the United States in it’s socio-political conditions but many of the models have being borrowed. It would be interesting to see how that plays out, doubtless it won’t be pretty, but I also think that could be one less brick on the wall of the U.S hegemony over their Empire.
Side question: are html insert images disabled or don’t work here on the blog for comments?
Another Benchmark of decline in industrial civilization happened recently. A couple of weeks ago the main transformer feeding electricity in to the Chlorine factory in Longview Washington Blew Up. This stopped production of chlorine products used to disinfect water and wastewater throughout the entire pacific nw. In fact it is the only plant in a the entire NW and the only source of Chlorine for every municipal user. Back in 1963 there were 5 plants making chlorine chemicals in Oregon and Washington. It is unknown how long it will take to replace this transformer but usually transformers this size ( chlorine production uses huge quantities of electricity to split chlorine out of salt brine) are custom made and come from outside the U.S. Most water treatment plants only have a few weeks of supply on hand as it degrades quickly. It is fairly likely that many of the municipal water customers in the NW will be issued ” boil water” directives in the next week or so. To make matters worse the largest chlorine plant in the US i n Louisiana is also offline due to a fire, as well as a plant in Florida. The interesting thing is that this was successfully kept out of the media for a full week for fear of a run on bottled water. As it is, the situation is much worse than the limited news on the subject lets on.
I’m interested to know what you think about the current trend of urban autonomous zones, such as CHOP (Seattle) and George Floyd Square (Minneapolis). What role do such zones play in the downward slope, and eventual restructuring, of society?
Over a year ago in the article linked to below, Richard Heinberg wrote that no international, national, or even regional plans had been made to transition society to renewable energy. For example, no pilot project “Renewable City” exists, and — in general — nobody takes the renewable energy transition seriously.
In your opinion, what’s the most important thing that would have to change in order for society to take the transition seriously?
https://www.postcarbon.org/nobody-takes-the-renewable-energy-transition-seriously/
Does anyone have any recipe suggestions for good food that can go well on a small budget? I have rice and beans, pea soup and bread, omelettes, and fried rice in my repertoire, but if anyone else has anything that tastes good, easy to cook, and works well on a low budget, or any other resources, I’d love to hear them.
I’m moving out in just over a week, and after writing my budget, it looks like my grocery budget is $50 Canadian a week (around $40 US), which I suspect is going to feel very tight and limited at first. It looks like it should be doable with some careful thinking and a little effort on my part, but I think it will still be a shock to my system and I’m hoping to make the transition as easy as possible.
What are your thoughts on dowsing, aka water witching? If you’ve already published something on it, please provide links.
Also, just finished the King in Orange, loved it, will re-read it later this summer
Thanks!
Separately, a few non-energy stories that caught my eye:
More issues with statues
https://www.yahoo.com/news/unanimous-vote-final-step-toward-120847010.html
I’m not sure this wins hearts and minds, exactly
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/macy-gray-calls-for-redesign-of-tattered-dated-divisive-us-flag/ar-AALdJd6
In the first, I can understand the symbolism at issue, but we also have to allow for historical context, a thing scarce these days. (Of course, when even the Lincoln emancipation statue is being vilified, I’m not sure what hope there is at all.)
For the second, yes, our flag has been through many designs, but not for reasons like the ones offered. And I’m not sure that calling the national flag (whatever the issues I have with our national emblems, they’re still our national emblems) divisive is not itself divisive. Free speech is a thing, of course; however, if the goal is to hold the country together (rather than, say, virtue signal like a search beacon), perhaps this isn’t exactly the way to go about it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have an issue with the flag, though I do with parts of the Pledge of Allegiance: specifically, the “under God” clause (keeping religion out of politics) and the word “indivisible” (as I’d argue that the states collectively have the ability to dissolve the union if they so chose). I just don’t recite those parts.
I think this could be of interest to readers here.
Pacific Northwest National Labs is hosting an event on June 28 and 29: “Energy Storage for Social Equity Roundtable”. To my knowledge, anyone can register.
https://www.pnnl.gov/events/energy-storage-social-equity-roundtable
You can read the “pre-reader” here:
“Energy Storage as an Equity Asset”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40518-021-00184-6
The agenda is here:
https://www.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/media/file/EED_1392_EVENT_EnergyStorageEquity.pdf
JMG, would you please list the herbal books/resources you currently use to treat physical issues?
@JMG
I have a few questions:
1) You have written about the rationalist revolt against the old religions in Eurasia, characterized by Buddhism in India and Taoism in China, for example. Did any such similar thing take place in any of the New World civilizations? Or is it that we simply don’t know? If such a thing did happen, could you point me to a reference where I can read about this in greater detail?
2) Could you recommend a book on climate change which sketches out a ‘climate change is a serious threat, but it’s not apocalypse’ type scenario in detail, particularly the technical part of it?
3) In your book ‘The Long Descent’ you have written about how the obsession with cultivating corn at the expense of less nutrient-intensive crops like manioc and sweet potato sent the Mayans to their doom. Could we then draw the following analogy between the Mayans and the modern world:
High-tech: corn:: Intermediate tech: manioc and/or sweet potato
Is this analogy correct or is it an oversimplification?
Also, more populist surge form the leftward end of the spectrum as another Democratic Establishment fixture may be about to go down:
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/india-walton-poised-become-buffalo-043426356.html
John, have you gotten any sense of the dynamics of our resurgent populism in these months that Biden has been in office? I see a lot of flailing and some localized focus, but nothing in the way of the real organization or coordination that would be required for a viable political party. Yet.
JMG, I’m curious to hear your perspective on schizophrenia and autism as an occult practitioner and former Archdruid. Do you think that there is a spiritual explanation for these maladies?
I’m working with the CGD, and want to learn how to do Tarot divination. Could I use the tarot exercises in LRM, with the modifications related to the different assignment of the cards to the paths and spheres in the CGD form compared to the classic Gold Dawn?
Thanks for the Open Post, JMG!
Here’s some photos of my summer garden in northern Illinois: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/35819.html
My brother ‘s coming to fix Linux and I’m struggling with Paypal so I bumped my book launch to 5 July—that’s a Monday and after a holiday so easy to remember. Does anyone know how to make Paypal accept payments? All it wants to do for me is MAKE payments and I don’t need it to do that.
Some notes of gratitude from the potluck:
JMG – thank you for being a gracious and open guest of honor at the potluck! It was great to meet you and Sarah.
Peter Van Erp – Thanks for opening your home to the potluck again. As the Great Khan of Potlucks, I hope you were pleased with the event and are willing to try it again next summer!
Esteemed fellow potluck guests – it was great to meet and be part of such an eclectic crowd! Thank you for indulging my curiosity by answering my many questions and for tolerating my attempt at Vaudeville humor! I hope the conversation was at least mildly entertaining!
All the best to you all and maybe we will meet again next year,
Matt
In ‘05 I had foot surgery (heel bone). After sitting there quietly for 17 years, the scar has begun to itch. Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else? The itching is intermittent so it’s not a big problem, I’m just curious.
Today I’m a bit in Schadenfreude mood:
Bad news for “bitcoiners”: (ex) true bitcoin believer said…
https://www.coindesk.com/nassim-taleb-bitcoin
Now, is Taleb right or wrong this time?
Dear JMG and commentariat:
In my own local scene I’ve noticed a heightened pitch of insanity: for instance, on a local bike trail machines cut enormous amounts of poison ivy and sprayed them all over the path. Likewise a very sinister mural has gone in on the bike trail, with very creepy imagery. While certainly in years past people engage in all sorts of stupid and self-defeating behaviors, I’ve noticed that a profoundly unhinged atmosphere and behaviors in the area where I live, in seeming increasing frequency. I’m curious if other people have experienced this sort of thing where they live in the past few months.
Again and again I find myself reflecting on the amount of fear going around these days. And not just around: it’s in me too. I’m not very afraid of the virus, but I do fear other people’s fear. The pressure on and around me to get vaccinated is just one instance.
JMG, you told a story about a year ago about the goddess of cholera visiting a village and carrying off exactly as many souls as she’d promised beforehand. Meanwhile many of those who heard her coming had died of fear. Now I know how truly true that little fable is. I have seen people close to me weaken and sicken without the virus so much as touching them.
How have others dealt with this, and found courage or peace? I’ve avoided news as much as I can, but I’m finding I also need to stay abreast of developments so as to make informed choices. I work outdoors and ground myself in my garden and in nature. I eat well and I try to get enough sleep and quiet time. Are there other practices or rituals that experience has proven effective?
Fellow Ecosophians,
Inspired by the annual potluck in Providence, which is too far away for me to attend any time soon:
Is there anyone else in the vicinity of Wheeling, West Virginia? I would like to set up an occasional group discussion if there’s anyone else in the area.
I’ve been a reader since the ADR days, including many of the comments, but haven’t commented much myself. You can send me an email at jaegerthewolf at yahoo if you’re local to me and interested in meeting.
@Violet: In our local newspaper and in the Guardian, I believe, I found a few articles talking about customers in shops and restaurants losing their tempers at cashiers and generally behaving badly, in a way and at a frequency that is apparently unusual. And there was a murder that happened last weekend in this rural, otherwise peaceful, area – someone drove over someone else repeatedly back and forth in their truck. Which is certainly unusual as well for this area.
There’s some good as well: a work colleague who I really get along with, and who I can talk about some of these things with, suddenly decided this week to start reading more and getting off the internet. He told me he found some poetry from the 60s and 70s he wants to start reading. This is someone who’s delving into this for the first time. So I was very happy to hear that.
I haven’t seen any particularly unusual behavior related to this or anything else lately, but I usually keep to myself.
Dear JMG,
I find myself being drawn to the sea, over and over again; not wanting to go in it necessarily (though I do), or on it (though I don’t), but just to be by it. Whenever I have to leave it, I experience an actual grief, as though I am being exiled. I am feeling like moving there permanently and simply being in relationship with it. This is starting to be such an overwhelming impulse that I began to wonder whether there is some tradition of druidry involving the sea, in particular, and in this case where could I find out more about this? I would like to honour and explore this connection. Thank you.
Since this is an open post, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone at the potluck for their concerns about B____’s condition and for their assistance, and also to make appropriate apologies. She didn’t have any signs of any injury or medical emergency, so I took her home and made sure she was hydrated, and she recovered in the manner and time frame one would expect for someone who’d gotten very drunk.
My best guess for what happened is that she served herself a cupful of one of the flavored rum concoctions from the drinks table without realizing how strong it was. (The jars were clearly labeled, but she’s been known to not bother to fetch her reading glasses at times when they’d be useful.) I have to guess because she has no memory of doing so, or of anything else that day beyond a certain point in the conversation.
If she said anything offensive to anyone while under the influence, we both apologize for that. (I don’t think she did, but I wasn’t with her during the time I was cooking.)
For those who weren’t there, please don’t get any wrong ideas from this about the nature of the gathering. It was not an expected or typical sort of occurrence at Ecosophia potlucks!
Cutekitten, regarding Paypal, I think you have to link a bank account or debit card to accept payments, but for me it was relatively easy to set up, but I do remember it was cumbersome. I found this article that seems okay, https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-set-up-a-paypal-account-1003716/. If you don’t like it, they have a competitor called Stripe.
Regarding itchy scars, I’ve had those. I think it is a good sign, mine got itchy when it started to become less visible and bumpy. I think it was because it was extruding stuff out from inside like death skin and debris (my scar was a skateboarding scar with bits of pavement on the inside).
Due to life, I didn’t have quite as much time this month to continue my reading on Buddhism, but I did find a few interesting things to share.
For example, I found a big key to how Western atheists got the idea that Buddhism is either a philosophy or a religion without beliefs: that idea was intentional propaganda. As Kaspalita, a priest in the Amida Shu tradition of Pureland Buddhism writes in Just As You Are: Buddhism for Foolish Beings:
At the 1893 World’s Fair, Dharmapala, a Buddhist educated monk from Ceylon, gave a speech describing Buddhism as ‘free from theology, priestcraft, rituals, ceremonies, dogmas, heavens, hells and other theological shibboleths.’…
Dharmapala felt that Buddhism in Ceylon was under threat from Christian missionaries and deliberately chose to side with the scientific movement in the West, which was itself beginning to reject Christian ideas.
For Westerners, a spirituality or philosophy which offered liberation without the trappings of religion was very attractive — so much so that many ideas about what Buddhism is are still shaped by that early publicity.
I also found some evidence that even the claim that Buddhism lacks a creator god is not universal. In The Pure Land Handbook: A Mahayana Buddhist Approach to Death and Rebirth, Master YongHua states that “Each world, whether pure or impure, is created by a Buddha in order to attract and serve certain types of living beings.”
(Side note: where Early and Theravada Buddhism assumes a polytheist context but largely ignores it, in Mahayana — and especially Vajrayana — traditions, polytheist beliefs and practices seem to reassert themselves as part of the core of the tradition.)
I have a couple more things to share, but I’ll put them in another comment.
For those who have experienced any of the Christian eucharistic rites –
I believe it’s an important topic to study, from a magical point of view, and I’m curious if anyone is willing to share their perceptions of differences in the effects and theurgical or subtle-energetic ‘flavor’ of the various Christian eucharists across denominational lines (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Mormon, Gnostic, etc.).
Regards,
Josh Rout
I was born in France in 1956, where I grew up and still live. I was thus 18 in 1974. The Vietnam War ended in 1975. Had I grown up in the USA, the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam would have put a dark shadow on my high school years. Yet, for most of my life, I thought that it would be great being an American, and I was fascinated by all the facets of American culture.
Now, considering that health care costs an arm and a leg in the USA, for disappointing results (the average French person lives three years longer than the average American, although France spends only half as much on health care per capita), and also considering that Americans are 6.5 times more likely than the French to be in jail, and also much more likely to be shot, I am glad not to live in the USA, even considering the very worrying problems we have in Europe (including a rise in Wokism similar to America’s).
I am not alone in thinking this. For millions of us Europeans, America has lost its allure. Yet, somehow, she is still like another homeland to us, even if we never set foot in it. Like millions of other French children, I read Le Journal de Mickey every week when I was a child, watched American series on TV, and my parents were subscribers to the French edition of the Readers’ Digest. Millions of us don’t want to emulate the US anymore, seeing where it’s headed, and our own nations not too far behind in the same direction…
This being said, congratulations for your work, dear Archdruid. I find it… enlightening.
@Violet #29: the poison ivy near the trail where I hike daily is thriving, along with some patches of common hogweed. Most of the poison ivy I’ve noticed is climbing up trees to the point where it hangs near the path at about eye level. The mowers just mow a few feet either side of the paved path — which I appreciate since I’m trying to avoid ticks by staying away from the edges. What are the alternatives? To spray roundup all along the path? The city does use a sweeper on the path now and then, but I’d hate to be breathing that dust. Ah, the hazards of going outdoors!
As for general craziness, yes, things feel quite tense. No new murals around my immediate vicinity, however. I notice that I’m staying near home a lot more.
Dear Mollari,
If you can, learn to bake bread. Home made is much denser and more filling than store bought.
My current go-to cookbook is the 1983 American Wholefoods Cookbook, by Nicki and David Goldbeck. Every recipe I’ve tried has been a hit with most of the family (and with ten family members, nothing is ever unanimously popular).
Example from page 29, called Chopped Bean Liver (tastes nothing like liver, btw). It is a sandwich spread: serve it on home made bread with a slice of tomato and of lettuce. 1 cup cooked white or soybeans, drained, 1 chopped medium onion, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, soy sauce, optional hardboiled egg.
I use white beans, leave out the onion, oil, salt, and pepper, and added the egg. Mash all together well, soy sauce is added carefully to taste. It is supposed to make two servings. If you use the onion it must be sauteed.
It is horribly hot here so we have been doing as little cooking as possible, as we don’t have air conditioning, and what I do cook, late at night.
Another trick: using a crockpot, in the evening, put in dry beans. I do four cups in a six quart crockpot, but by yourself, you will rarely need to cook for a horde. Perhaps half a cup of dry beans will be as much as you want. Fill the pot with water, turn on low, go to bed. In the morning, turn off the crockpot, and when it’s cool enough to handle, dump the contents through a collander into your sink, rinse your beans well, and they are ready to use. If you are sensitive to beans, add a presoak all day, throw away that water and rinse well, then cook them overnight, and rinse well a second time.
Forecastingintelligence: There are a few “traditional” COVID vaccines already on the market: Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. I personally chose to take j&j for the reasons you stated.
Bridge: what amazing synchronicity. I made a note to myself to ask JMG that very question next magic monday 🙂
Following up my last comment, for those with the willingness to spend two hours watching a video lecture, Rev. Kenneth Tanaka of Buddhist Churches of America (a Jodo Shinshu organization) has a video in which he puts forward an allegorical tale of a sailor tossed overboard by waves which he intends to capture the core ideas of Pure Land Buddhism similar to how the Ox Herder pictures capture the core ideas of Zen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YM72YWypWQ
To summarize: A sailor is tossed overboard by large waves, and begins to swim toward safety. He swims as hard as he can, but soon becomes tired and begins to falter. Then he hears a whisper: “Just let go.” He realizes he can lay back and float when he is tired, and swims more effortlessly toward an island, where he is able to get a boat and head back out to save others who had been tossed overboard.
(This highlights a problem I have with Buddhism generally: in its “Sutrayana” — non-Vajrayana — form, it seems to reduce the meaning of life to escaping suffering and helping others escape.)
Tanaka also famously coined the acronym GAS — greed, anger, and stupidity (aka ignorance) — for the “three fires” of Buddhism, and has some fun with the idea of “releasing GAS” in the video.
Furthermore, unlike Master YongHua, BCA seems to have a very non-literal approach to their religion — to the point that I’m concerned they’re “atheism lite” the way liberal Christian churches tend to be. Consider the following statement by the head Bishop of BCA: “Amida Buddha is not a being or a deity. Amida Buddha is a metaphor for the truth of enlightenment, or wisdom and compassion.”
https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/post/the-universality-of-namuamidabutsu
From what little I’ve seen, the Amida Shu tradition seems to take a more symbolic-but-serious position, which I think of as the correct approach to religion generally:
http://www.amidashu.org/
JMG I feel like we’ve entered the eye of a hurricane… now I know that long descent has periods of relative stability however my spider senses tell me this isn’t one of them, am I right?
The mention of the new RPG makes me wonder…do you think that after the Long Descent RPGs will be a viable form of entertainment in the Neomedieval Age? They can be pretty low tech.
Bridge, I’m not sure if it’s a malign enchantment in the narrow sense of the word — something that human enchanters have cast upon them — or if it’s something coming from nonhuman sources. As for a book on malign enchantment, er, no — the last thing I want to do is to give malicious people ideas.
Forecasting, I’m not a doctor and I don’t even play one on TV. I don’t have any particular opinion about vaccines, other than I want to see them adequately tested before I’m willing to take them, and I also like to weigh the risks against the benefits. I’ve had Covid-19, and it was no big deal — I’ve had colds that were worse. Since I’ve had it, I also have as much immunity to it as a killed-virus vaccine will provide, so I’m really not in the market for a vaccine these days.
Anonymous, that’s a fairly common bad habit. While you’re performing a ritual, make an effort to concentrate on what you’re saying as you’re saying it. It may take you a while to get there, but as you focus more strongly, the ritual will become more powerful.
Yorkshire and John, I’ll toss these out to the commentariat.
Wayne, follow the guidance of the original divination. Make the same four. How’s that for simple sentences? 😉
Deadnotsleeping, 1) yes, witches in the old sense — people who radiate harmful magical energy at others — can be any gender. 2) No, not at all — these days in particular, a lot of witches actively avoid noticing that the people at whom they direct their hatred and anger tend to have bad things happen to them. 3) It’s a rough road. The first step consists of recognizing that she’s harming people by pouring out hatred and anger at them, and accepting the karmic consequences of that, which can be pretty bad. Next comes the long slow process of dealing with the roots of the hatred and anger in her own psyche. Finally, once that’s been done, getting some training in an effective system of practical magic is the last step, so the energies can be directed intentionally in a controlled fashion.
Mark, thanks for this. Things do indeed seem to be shifting.
David BTL, many thanks for this!
Daniel, what I’ve heard has suggested a lot of hardening of opinions in the direction of populism and against the attempt by the privileged left to whip up race hatred. Still, we’ll see.
Augusto, I’ve been noticing that as well. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. As for images, I can post them; if you put the raw URL of your image into the text of your comment, without the html command, I can insert the html tags that make it appear.
Clay, thanks for the heads up! This is worth knowing.
Materia, none whatsoever. The same thing was done by protest movements in the 1960s, with zero long-term effect. It’s a stunt, and only functions when the establishment goes out of its way to permit it. CHOP is a great example — it existed precisely as long as the left thought they could use it to embarrass Trump, and thereafter it promptly got shut down.
Doodily Do, what it would require is a willingness on the part of Americans to accept third world living conditions. There is no way to make a modern industrlial lifestyle sustainable. That’s the hard truth that next to nobody is willing to confront.
Mollari, I wish my cookbook was out! It has a lot of good cheap recipes.
Raymond, I haven’t written about it. It’s not one of the psychic arts I’m any good at, but I know people who are very, very good at it, and it definitely seems to be something that works.
David BTL, did you know that “under God” wasn’t added until the Eisenhower administration?
BCV, thanks for this.
SCC, I don’t currently use herbs to treat physical issues. I use biochemic cell salts and Do-In, a form of accupressure. I’m sure other people who are into herbalism can recommend something for you.
Viduraawakened, 1) I don’t know of any solid evidence that it happened in the New World, but that’s not a specialty of mine. 2) I wish I could! My book Dark Age America has some discussion of this, but much less technical than you probably have in mind. 3) That seems like a reasonable comparison to me.
David BTL, what I’ve seen is divided by party. Populists on the right seem to be focused on completing their takeover of the Republican Party and gearing up for the 2022 midterms. Populists on the left seem to be divided between floundering aimlessly on the one hand, and pursuing local races in an attempt to build a viable candidate base on the other. I’m watching both sides closely.
Rodger, schizophrenia is a very mixed bag; I’m personally convinced that a lot of different things get lumped together under that label. Some of them do seem to have metaphysical origins, some seem to have wholly physical origins, and Gregory Bateson’s double-blind theory — which is rooted in family problems with distorted communication — explains a very large number of cases. As for the autism spectrum disorders, here again, there are a lot of different factors; my own experience of Aspergers syndrome leads me to think that in at least a significant number of cases, it’s caused by an inflammatory brain condition in early childhood.
Anonymous, yes, you can certainly do that.
Kimberly, thanks for this.
Matt, thank you — I’m glad to hear you had a good time too.
Your Kittenship, hmm. Not to me. Anyone else?
Chuaquin, thanks for this. Bitcoin does seem to be having a rough time just now. PayPal is splashing ads at their users encouraging them to buy Bitcoin with their PayPal accounts — pretty clearly PayPal has taken some heavy losses and is trying to find more suckers.
Violet, not where I live, but more generally, yes.
Dylan, I don’t recall that story at all, so it may have been someone else who told it. I’m not sure what to suggest; one of the upsides of Aspergers syndrome is that I’m not affected by other people’s state of consciousness…
Regarding both Violet and Dylan’s comments, all I can say is, “yeah, me too.” Feel like I could have written either of those comments, with just the examples changed.
Hi, Mollari.
I’ve had to live on a small income at various times of my life, and have found a few tricks to stretch the ol’ food budget. Here are some things I make regularly:
1) Back-of-the-fridge chili. If it has beans, tomatoes, and chili seasoning, you can’t go too wrong.
2) Back-of-the-fridge curry. I recently made this with some leftover taco meat, about half a cup of Ragu pasta sauce, and a can of chick peas, and it wasn’t too bad. Kind of like the above, but use curry powder instead of chili powder. Serve over rice.
3) Black-eyed peas. They plump up faster than any other kind of bean and are super tasty. Go to YouTube for recipes. I cook them with a ham hock, with a little paprika, white pepper, garlic powder, and cumin.
4) “Mulligan Stew” – hamburger stew made with canned beef broth (I use Campbell’s), a pound of browned hamburger (get the fattiest, cheapest kind), and frozen mixed veg.
5) “Canadian Hotdish” – This is Kraft dinner with browned hamburger mixed in. There’s nothing better if you’ve been outside all day in the cold and wet. Fun Fact: You don’t need milk to prepare the Kraft dinner; use water instead. I almost never have actual milk on hand.
6) Special Ramen – boil those 10-cent noodles in a saucepan until soft; then set them aside in a bowl. In the same pan, heat a couple tablespoons of cooking oil and saute some shredded cabbage and a shredded carrot. Add a sliced hotdog or sausage if you have one. When the veg is nice and softened, add the noodles back in, along with the seasoning packet, and stir it all up. It’s like cheap ramen, but with nutrition!
7) Jiffy’s Cornbread – To make this actually taste good, add 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of honey to all the other stuff they tell you. Also, I use water instead of milk (since I almost never have milk).
Look up “Food budget challenge” on YouTube and you’ll find hundreds of ideas. Good luck!
Meanwhile, in the Radiophonic Laboratory:
Part I of a longer essay on The San Francisco Tape Music Center:
http://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-san-francisco-tape-music-center-part-i
itself a part of the section “Do or DIY” in my Radiophonic Laboratory project.
Industrial Alchemy, I hope you can get a group together — there’s a number of Green Wizards groups out there at this point, meeting regularly, and they seem to have a good time and get useful things done.
Lark, there isn’t anything specific in the literature about it, but it’s quite true that many people are drawn powerfully to certain environments. (I recall a bit from an old John Denver song: “Coming home to a place he’d never been before.”) I’d encourage you to move someplace close to the sea and let the relationship itself teach you.
Walt, thanks for this. I was worried about her — and no, she didn’t say anything in my hearing that was offensive, for what it’s worth.
Slithy Toves, fascinating! I wasn’t aware of that, though it makes a lot of sense.
Joshua, I’ve had the opportunity to partake of communion three times in three different settings, each time after making sure that it was fine for an unbaptized person to do so. The first was performed by a priest of the Order of St. Michael, an independent sacramental church; the second was performed by an independent bishop; the third was an Episcopalian service. (I’m pretty sure the priest was breaking the rules of her church by offering communion to the unbaptized, but it was her choice to make.) In the first two cases, there was what I can only describe as an electric quality to the wafer — a very distinct tingle or crackle I felt on my tongue and, thereafter, in my body as a whole. In the last, that quality was absent — it felt like a piece of stale cracker.
Horzabky, I’m glad to hear this. The United States needs to stop pretending to be the light of the world and get to work fixing its own serious problems, and if people elsewhere are aware of this, hey, all the better.
Slithy Toves, interesting. Thanks for this.
Austinofoz, here in the US, at least, it’s not stable at all. We’re being hammered by soaring prices and shortages. So I’d say trust your spider sense.
Thomas, I hope so, but we’ll have to see.
Justin, thanks for this!
JMG,
Your cookbook being the Weird of Hali cookbook? Do you have a publication date? I’m not sure how many books I’ll be buying for a while, but the Weird of Hali cookbook is one I’m planning to buy; I know I’ll need cookbooks that cover how to make good, cheap, and easy food, and given your comments before on how you cook, I figure that any cookbook you write would be a good place to start.
Boysmom,
Thank you! The American Wholefoods Cookbook looks quite promising, from a quick, cursory look online. I’ll definitely be getting a copy. Also, the idea of cooking beans overnight is brilliant, and one that I fully intend to use.
Dear jbucks, thanks for the response! I’ve heard of new stories like that here in the States. What has me more concerned are the local things. For instance, often when I go out there are multiple lawn mowers and weed whackers throwing plant material and small stones into the street, right onto cars, bicyclists and pedastrians. This didn’t happen last year nearly as much. People in cars act crazier, some people I haven’t seen for a year look like they’ve aged a whole decade or more.
Dear Phutarious, well, there’s also significantly more poison ivy growing this year than last where I live. On the trail there’s now a carpet of poison ivy leaves. Also ticks have been considerably worse this year than last where I live.
Dear JMG, thank you for the response and I’m very glad it’s not so crazy where you live!
@Mollari: Chicken soup! Chicken parts are usually readily available, not too expensive. Put in a slow cooker with carrots, celery, onions/garlic and/or ginger root, rice, whatever herbs or spices you like, lots of possibilities. Simmer in the cooker for 4-6 hours until the chicken falls easily off the bones. Add salt to taste, and enjoy one of the easiest, most highly nutritious and delicious meals around. Freeze any extra soups for snacks.
Another shout-out to the commentariat, requesting info sources and/or advice:
I was planning on not getting vaccinated, but someone very close to me has just been diagnosed with a serious and terminal illness. My loved one is fully vaccinated with Pfizer, which as I recall was found in clinical trials to give 100% protection against Covid-induced hospitalization and death. However, my understanding is that all the trial participants were healthy individuals.
What is the risk to fully vaccinated individuals of contracting serious or fatal Covid disease, especially if they are already seriously ill? Has anyone else faced this situation?
(Understanding that none of you can give actual medical advice; anecdotes and/or relevant sources of reliable information and/or sympathy would be much appreciated).
@JMG: Fair enough- that story about the cholera goddess very well could have been from someone else on this forum!
Thank you, I ask because I wanted to share a painting that I like and was later on pleasantly surprised to know that it is the Tree of Life as interpreted by Leonora Carrington a British-Mexican painter. Here is a version that is not too large.
Of the number of articles I’ve been following from your readership, Violet’s musings and series on the shape of religious and spiritual practices to come has been particularly interesting. Whether it’s the potential unveiling of Yoruba/Santeria esque deities in the dreams of Florida’s orphaned children, the growth of Santa Muerte for Hispanics in the Southwest/Mexico or the stability and even growth of Heathenry in the former Christian working classes, it seems like there’s a bubbling ferment of spiritual activity hiding under the surface of mainstream society. I can easily imagine the further drop down the peak oil ladder bringing these elements further out.
Compare that to most of the main religions, all primarily linked to the middle and upper classes, really seem to be tottering. Western buddhism is primarily a spiritual veneer, NA Judaism seems cultural and non religious, Christian denomination seem to range in strength from anemic to barely standing. Islam seems a possibile exception given its growth in black and latino communities but Neopaganism is definitively on the decline. The religion of progress seems like a tottering drunkard thinking they’re fine for more at the bar, with the rising cost of living and covid + vaccine popular reaction coming up quick to bring it to the floor.
Do you, or any of the readership, see any additional trends in your neck of the woods? I’m curious if there’s other movements rising to the surface which aren’t exactly making frontline news.
Tamanous
Thank you JMG — “home” is indeed what it’s like; and, also, your suggestion of being close to the sea and just seeing what emerges from this proximity is exactly what feels indicated — nothing to do with imposing my ideas or expectations. To be there would be enough. What a strange and powerful and humbling thing to be happening at this stage of my life — completely “out of the blue” … literally (and littorally) …!
A new theory about collapse–baling wire
For those unfamiliar with country ways, baling wire is the flexible steel wire used to hold rectangular bundles of hay or straw together. Farmers would usually save it because it had many potential uses for temporary repairs, etc. However, baling wire has been replaced by plastic twine. So, the country is falling apart for lack of baling wire to hold it together. Unforeseen consequence or malign plot–you decide.
Encyclopedic silverback hedgehog
@ JMG
Re “under God” being added
I did recall that, yes. As I remember the history lesson, it was added as a counterpoint to “those Godless communists” during the Fifties Red Scare.
Re the various flavors of populism
Your assessment makes sense with regard to what I have seen, though I’m perhaps less sure of how successful the rightward group has been or will be. The focus seems to be on the old Establishment players in Congress or the governorships, but then I’m likely looking in the wrong places for data, too.
Here in WI, it appears that Scott Walker’s former lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, is planning to make a run for the governor’s office in ’22. I’ll be interested to see her policy platform and assess its level of down-to-earth populism–though to be fair, in the wake of his unconstitutional house-arrest [sic] order and other ridiculousness of The Year That Shall Not Be Named, I’d vote for a rock over Evers.
I have no real presence on social media and I’m not much of a meme-creator, but #BeckyNotTony
I’ve encountered a particularly good analysis of the development of authoritarianism by the left in the wake of Trump, as reflected in the reporting of a couple key authors, Greenwald and Taibbi. This probably meshes well with JMG’s concept of the “Ctrl-Left”.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2021-06-22/greenwald-trump-happened/
“The problem with characterising Trump as a supremely evil figure is that all sorts of authoritarian political conclusions flow from that characterisation – precisely the political conclusions we have seen parts of the left adopting.
If Trump poses a unique danger to democracy, then to avoid any recurrence:
– We are obligated to rally uncritically, or at least very much less critically, behind whoever was selected to be his opponent. Following Trump’s defeat, we are dutybound to restrain our criticisms of the winner, Joe Biden, however poor his performance, in case it opens the door to Trump, or someone like Trump, standing for the presidency in four years’ time.
– We must curb free speech and limit the free-for-all of social media in case it contributed to the original surge of support for Trump, or created the more febrile political environment in which Trump flourished.
– We must eradicate all signs of populism, whether on the right or the left, because we cannot be sure that in a battle of populisms the left will defeat the right, or that leftwing populism cannot be easily flipped into rightwing populism.
– And most importantly, we must learn to distrust “the masses” – those who elected Trump – because they have demonstrated that they are too easily swayed by emotion, prejudice and charisma. Instead, we must think in more traditional liberal terms, of rule by technocrats and “experts” who can be trusted to run our societies largely in secret but provide a stability that should keep any Trumps out of power.”
So many medical debacles regarding early care treatment for covid appear to have been fueled by the forced association of any treatment outside the party or corporate line with populism and Trump. Front-line medicine is populist – doctors interact with patients and make decisions based on their own experience (gasp!), guided by emotions (gasp! – not wanting to send their patients home to suffer or die), and share their observations freely with other doctors and practitioners (gasp!), be they on the effectiveness of early-care treatments or the side-effects of approved products. Systems put in place to collect data from the masses (VARES, Yellowcard) cannot be trusted because the masses can input data. Conclusion: clinically practicing doctors and reporters who seek them out threaten the stability of society by risking igniting populist movements if they speak out of line, and must be brought to the heel of technocratic experts.
JMG and others – is the tinder this dry?
Augusto @11, For whatever it might be worth, my decidedly non expert sense is that the USA has already lost hegemony in at least the Spanish speaking part of South America. I suspect the failed coup in Venezuela was beginning of the end, and now we have an American VP telling people south of the border don’t come here. I can’t say I much like the woman, but I had to admire her not doing the required photo op at the southern border. Brazil, I suspect, non expert again, so grains of salt, a lot of American rich have money tied up in Bolsonaro.
I was quite amused to hear the local radio politics talk show devote an entire about 2hrs. air time to Netanyahoo losing and not one word about the election in Peru. Same hemisphere, you would think they might have noticed. Don’t look and it might go away?
Monsanto/Bayer is still in trouble in court
https://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/permission-speak-freely/essential-reading-week
All of a sudden the big M is not sacrosanct. Both political parties are on the wrong side here, though I guess the right might be marginally better. I would really love to see Biden, Obama, Trump, McConnell et al explain why they choose to ignore the harm being done by large scale use of agricultural chemicals.
@ Mollari # 15. Visit your library or used bookstore and look for older, budget cookbooks. A lot of them got written in the 70’s. They do assume you can cook but they don’t assume you have a lot of unusual ingredients floating around your kitchen.
Look for titles like Make Your Own Groceries or Good Cheap Food. For example, you can make your own granola and save big bucks over even the cheapest store brand.
After that, learn to bake your own bread (easy and you’ll never be able to afford anything as good as you can bake), soups of all kinds, pasta, rice in all its permutations, and oatmeal. Learn to like dry milk for cooking purposes.
Save ALL your cooking fat from cooking meat, not just the bacon. Don’t buy cooking fat when you’ve already paid for it. Yes, you can reuse the fat that cooks out of hamburger. Strain it through a paper towel if you feel up to it or use it as is. I do suggest you keep various meat fats in separate coffee cups in the fridge as they taste different. They keep a long, long time too.
Keep track of your prices at the grocery story via a price book. When something is Buy One, Get One Free take BOTH items! Do not leave the second item on the shelf. Buy One, Get One Free does not mean 50% off. The usual acronym is BOGOF.
If something’s on sale at a good price, buy two or three and slowly build up your pantry at the lowest cost to you.
If I may be permitted a shameless plug, I wrote two lengthy chapters about food shopping, storage, and cooking my my book: https://peschelpress.com/fed-safe-and-sheltered/
Think of grocery shopping as a competitive challenge. You can play to win or you can slog through the grocery store on autopilot and pay far more than I do.
Spices keep a long, long time if you store them where they’re cool, dry, and in the dark. Over your stove is the worst possible place for them. Ethnic groceries have better, cheaper spice selections.
Coupons aren’t what they used to be. They only work if you are going to buy that product anyway. Otherwise, you’re better off shopping the sales and learning to buy store brand (which go on sale) as opposed to nationally advertised name brands.
Be flexible and be willing to experiment. You’ll eat better.
Is there any advice (magical or otherwise) you would give someone entering a relationship with someone who has a chronic health condition?
@Jack
The J&J and AstraZeneca shots are *not* traditional vaccines. They are viral vector vaccines, a technology which has only been used for the recent Ebola vaccine which has not been given to a large number of people worldwide. Mechanistically they are similar to the mRNA vaccines in that they train the human body to produce viral antigens rather than injecting the antigens themselves.
Some of the next generation vaccines (e.g. Novavax) are more akin to traditional vaccines, but if the spike protein is cytotoxic as some studies suggest then it may be difficult to produce an entirely safe covid vaccine.
Mollari: Here’s a cookbook literally called Good and Cheap
JMG –
Halfway through The King in Orange and loving it. Also really digging my daily explorations of le Bateleur via Lévi.
@ Violet #29
“In my own local scene I’ve noticed a heightened pitch of insanity.”
Same here. Gun crime has gone through the roof this year, and in my (currently online) workplace, coworkers talk about vaccinations like the Second Coming of Christ, and though the tone has changed, the energy is no different from last year’s histrionics about Literal Hitler, and is in fact even more unhinged. People talk about segregated meeting spaces and compulsory vaccinations like those are not merely normal ideas (bad enough) but that they always have been. I guess we’ve always been at war with COVID. And the way that people are responding to the supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages is appalling, but sadly predictable. We’ve repressed a lot that is now returning with reinforcements. Buckle up.
@ Dylan #30
“How have others dealt with this, and found courage or peace?”
Taking it day by day. Long walks with the dog in the park nearby. Gardening. Listening to music. Journaling, which went from once or twice a year to nearly daily. PRAYER (Christian turned agnostic turned Buddhist turned UU turned trans-orthodox Christian — just made that last descriptor up but it works for where I’m at now). Reminding myself that I am not alone. Reading poetry out loud. Lifting heavy things. Smiling and saying hi to strangers.
Questions of my own for JMG and the ecosophian commentariat:
– what do you think about cannabis use as it relates to spiritual work? I know you don’t see psychedelics as an adjunct to spiritual work, and usually an impediment, with good reason. (I think of the story where the tripping dude in the Zendo got up and slapped the Zen teacher, who then looked him in the eye unflinchingly and said, “Yes, but is it real?”) Is moderate cannabis any worse than moderate alcohol consumption in terms of possible stumbling blocks? Not as an adjunct to spiritual practice, but as a way of helping take the edge off? Asking for a friend. 😉
– I know you practice aikido, JMG. I used to as well and was looking into resuming it, when my daughter sent me a YouTube video which described aikido as a “fake martial art.” I fell down that YT rabbit hole and discovered that MMA has “revealed” that aikido practitioners, as well as practitioners of other martial arts such as tai chi, are “fake.” I would LOVE to hear your nuanced take on that subject.
Hi Walt,
SUUUURE it wasn’t a typical occurrence. I know all about the wild rumpuses you crazy Northeasters throw. 😉
More seriously, I’ve been to a party or two where the punchbowls were not labeled AT ALL (I guess the host figured the taste would tip you off) so B’s mishap is no surprise to me. I am happy to hear that was all it was and she wasn’t actually sick, and that in general a good time was had by all.
RE: Joshua & communion
Thought about posting this awhile ago. I am a lapsed Catholic. I attended a funeral for a close family member about 2 months ago. After communion (which I performed divination on before taking) I experienced a light energy rushing through my body releasing tensions.
When the communion was being prepared at the altar by the priest I observed a big ball of energy pooling over the altar. When the priest transitioned the congregation into offering each other the sign of peace the ball burst and dispersed over the congregation (I felt kinda giddy). I didn’t actually observe the burst because I was swept up in the moment but realized what happened a couple seconds later.
The priest was a Jesuit for whatever that is worth. It was only my training in magic that allowed me to be conscious of the above; I attended mass for years growing up and didn’t notice a thing.
Anyway, because of this I know the Christian [G/g]od is still doing his thing in some churches at least.
Have you read anything by Victor Davis Hanson? I recently became aware of him through his podcast, the Victor Davis Hanson Show, and much of his commentary regarding our current political situation reminded me of things you have said. His background, in the classics, drives much of his commentary.
To Mollari and others interested in cooking on the cheap:
I have some advice. Learn how to make soups from scratch. The basic order is this: In the bottom of a big pot (this could be a crockpot or pressure cooker) fry some aromatics, such as onion, garlic, and herbs or all three. Then add vegetables or meat, cover with water, and cook it until the vegetables are soft. Salt to taste, and I really mean that: add a bit of salt, then taste. Add a little more, than taste it again until you get the desired saltiness. A gallon of soup can handle a couple of tablespoons of salt. You don’t need to use vegetable broth. When you cook vegetables in water, that’s what vegetable broth actually is. Don’t add noodles, dairy, or cooked rice until the very end. You can thicken any soup mixing with a few tablespoons of flour (including chickpea flour, aka “besan”) with a cup of water, than pouring the slurry back into the pot.
Savory pancakes: Take produce such as broccoli, onions, carrots, cabbage, spinach, etc. Cut it into bite size or smaller chunks. Pour 2 cups of flour (chickpea flour is again OK) into a bowl, add the raw vegetables, and then add enough water for the flour to get a pancake batter consistency. Salt to taste. Drop the veggie batter into a hot, oiled frying pan and brown on both sides. I like these with sweetened soy sauce: ¼ cup soy sauce, a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of hot chili flakes or hot sauce, and a tablespoon of mirin rice wine). In the summer, I like to eat the aforementioned soy sauce on slabs of plain, silken tofu with rice and whatever wild edibles I can forage from the garden, such as purslane.
If you feel out of ideas, look at frozen dinners in the grocery store. You can make and freeze all of those dishes yourself at a fraction of the cost, plus they’ll taste better!
Hi Just a question regarding your thesis you layed out in ‘The Secret of the Temple’. I’ve been reading the findhorn literature on Nature spirits. In the book ‘encounters with nature spirits’, its said that for the nature spirits do do their work you need to set aside an area of your garden as a sacred space or no go zone for humans.
I’ve been thinking that the creation of limited zones of the kind you describe in the temple tradition, that is parts of the temple where only certain people can go, or rituals such as clensing oneself in water before you enter the temple. Could the creation of this sacred space, help enable the nature spirits to do their work more easily on the surrounding farmland. This is not to discount or downplay the rest of the thesis you layed out in the book, its just a thought I had. Cheers
JMG
Could the current fatal (in some cases) attraction come from a mixture of human and non-human sources? I know that TV has long been programming the masses but it’s never been as bad as it is now. The news is total propaganda and fear porn. Also, smart phone addiction could be a conduit for something other than human.
Also, I was referring to Weber’s disenchantment theory, not asking for a book on how to do malign magic Maybe I should have phrased it better. You disagreed with that theory and said that while the world is not any less enchanting, we seem to have fallen under a malign enchantment and therefore can’t see it, iirc. I thought you were going to write something about that?
Mollari
I buy onions, tomatoes, carrots etc in poor neighbourhood markets. Eggs and sardines are also a cheap form of protein. Try hitting the shops in the evening. Often to can get very cheap food that’s about to expire. Beware of eating lots of empty cheap carbs just because they are cheap like Ramen. Your health is your wealth.
Violet, I second that emotion. A friend’s 16 year old daughter was recently raped by a 27 year old man. She was walking a bike path. Plus the drivers have been insane. Dylan, are you familiar with the Druid Sphere of Protection? If I wasn’t doing it every day, I’d feel like I was in the current astral s**tstorm without a raincoat.
For our public water system experts, including David By The Lake:
If chlorine is going to be running short, are there any alternate treatment chemicals that work at scale for a municipal water treatment plant? I’m wondering about injecting ozone or hydrogen peroxide.
(When I lived in Dallas, the summer algae bloom in the lakes our tap water drew from made the chlorinated water taste terrible. Then they switched to less chlorine and a fair amount of ozone, and most of the problem went away.)
Do things shifting include the apparent disconnect from what is realistic/helpful/reasonable to what people are doing and what decisions are being made governmentally.
It seems that the last 18 months has erased a cause an effect from what you would expect to happen with the data, and extreme reactions are abound ( like illness has been a recently discovered oddity ) – I am thinking particulaly with covid but it could relay to everything. It seems like any decisions could spring up and there is increasing misfiring with responses.
Is this likely to calm down anytime soon?!
JMG, about rationalist movements against traditional religion in pre-Columbian America, that would have required a significant middle class, probably urban, wouldn’t it? There is room for that during the last glaciation (not counting the sudden-onset short freeze that was really the last), but we apparently know very little about those cultures. Understandably, considering what the meltwater floods and rising sea levels would have done to most of their town sites.
I do have an instance of rationalizing a Native American religion in the sense of cleaning it up. When the Incas knocked over the fading Wari empire, their basic teachings were not vastly different, but Wari rituals depended on blood in nearly Aztec quantities. Inca religion included human sacrifice, but the casualty rate went down more than 99%.
Dear El, sorry to hear that!
Dear Rage Monster, Thank you for your response. Yikes! Yeah, the situation strikes me as profoundly grim.
Dear Kimberly, Thank you for your response and I’m very sorry to hear that. It really seems like we’re living through the death of an era.
A very good article here about horrible contemporary architecture: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/why-you-hate-contemporary-architecture
As this is a topic we have discussed on this blog in the past, I thought your readers might enjoy it.
As shortages and high prices have been mentioned several times already, I’ll add a few observations from Germany: Basically, it’s the same here. Lumber prices are soaring to unprecedented highs in spite of the fact that there’s an overcapacity of trunk wood because of the huge damage the droughts of the last few years have inflicted on the German forest. There are various rumors about the reasons circulating – one was that the US is buying everything as a result of some stimulus package of the Biden administration. But apparently you don’t seem to have our lumber…
There are various shortages of certain products that are mainly imported from overseas. Here, too, the construction business seems to suffer the most from the shortages. Many companies will have to switch to short-time work again in the very near future since they are rapidly running out of supplies. Needless to say what this will mean for the employees… My guess is, that out government and the EU as well has only a very limited supply of magic bullets left since they’ve fired most of them as a response to the events of the last 1.5 years.
The upcoming federal election makes it likely, that fuel prices will rise massively afterwards and they will push for e-cars even more strongly (the number of e-cars you see on the street is already rising rapidly). I doubt our electricity grid will be able to handle this. The last active nuclear power plants will shut down in a short while and there’s the ongoing call to do the same with coal-fired power plants, too. Renewables are very unreliable and there are far to few power plants that run on natural gas to bridge the gaps. Over the last few years there already have been a few incidents where massive regional blackouts could only prevented by emergency measures.
Still, the majority seems to still be able to go about their days just very normal. But all of this makes me think of this one sentence out of Jung’s Wotan: “A hurricane has broken loose […], while we still believe it is fine weather.”
Lastly, speaking of Norse Gods a more MM-related question, if I may: I am currently carving rune staves I have made of oak wood. I intend to color the runes with some natural colorant. The staves are intended to be used for divination. Any suggestions about the color and the colorant? Or any procedure to magically energize the colorant (I have no background in ceremonial magic)?
Greetings from Germany,
Nachtgurke
A personal remark on the Pledge of Allegiance:
I’ve always been uncomfortable with this civic ritual. Partly my version of Aspergers making me a poor band animal, and partly the state of the Republic. If I am ever pressured to take part in it again, I think I will give the Bellamy salute.
(For fans of Progressive patriotism, S. M Stirling is producing a series of alternate history SF novels in a world where Theodore Roosevelt outdid cousin Franklin’s record on our timeline for years in office. Spies, special operators, and people we recognize cast in unfamiliar roles.)
Hi JMG,
One of the things I mentioned on this week’s Magic Monday was journalling, and it seems I’m getting a lot of information this way, but I don’t know how to tell if it’s really accurate or not.
In response to a question I asked, an answer I got was that I should try and make contact with a particular person’s higher self (I don’t know whether this person is currently incarnate or not). I’m wondering firstly if this is actually possible through meditation/prayer, and secondly, I’m wondering if this is a good idea. I imagine it’s a bit like ringing an astral telephone and just hoping whoever picks up on the other end is who I intend it to be. What do you think of all this?
Thanks.
Not sure if you have seen this already, but here is an article about how power companies in Texas are remotely adjusting customers’ internet-connected “smart thermostats” without their knowledge in order to conserve power: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/texas-remote-controlled-smart-thermostats/
If I have the choice to relocate my family to a small city of 150,000 surrounded by suburban sprawl, or a small town of approximately 20,000 (adjacent to a small city of 85,000) surrounded by suburban sprawl, is there a better choice for riding out the Long Descent?
If I understand your message on this point, then adjacent farmland is important for the survivability of a town or city through the Long Descent. Both options, however, are located near enough to New York City metropolitan area that there really aren’t any active/working farms left near either. Perhaps a handful, and maybe more near the small town just because it is slightly farther out from the metropolitan region. Both locations would entail an office job downtown so it’s possible to live such that a car would not be necessary for commuting. We have small children so we intend to home school them if possible. Thank you for your help.
Hi JMG. I’m curious what you predict will happen to the stock market if the great decline unfolds over coming decades? Most analysts in the financial industry predict about 6+% growth per year in the S&P 500 for the next decade or two. On one hand I think it would be logical that the great decline would also mean a declining stock market, on the other hand indexes like the S&P 500 (which continuously swap in new companies) have continued to do well over recent decades so maybe they’d still do well in the context of a future great decline. Thoughts?
Dylan, please do some thorough research before considering the inoculation. The VAERs reports or Vaccine Adverse Reactions for it are off the charts. It is my belief that those who get the vaccine take part in the karma of the set of people who “fiddled while Rome burned” since 2020. The comfortable classes benefited a great deal from the Plandemic and are still benefitting: they sat at home while so-called non-essential businesses shut down forever and cost families their homes and livelihoods, while sick and elderly people died surrounded by strangers because of needless fearmongering and ginned-up numbers, and while countless rites of passage got cancelled for this politicized faux plague. My thoughts are that the karma of those pushing and normalizing the vaccine by getting it is so bad that it may take several lifetimes to clear. That’s why I’ve done my level best to avoid that karma by starting a now 3300 member group on Facebook devoted to supporting freedom-loving businesses and establishments. Of course I’m not getting the shot. I would honestly rather die. There are alarming, heavily-censored reports that people who get the shot shed spike proteins and pose a danger to the unvaccinated. The vaccine’s spike proteins lodge in the reproductive organs and wreak havoc on the vaxxed and anyone unfortunate enough to be around them, such as little girls getting periods as toddlers and post-menopausal women bleeding anew. Look up Dr. Christiane Northrup and Dr. Carrie Madej. Both have eye-opening videos on Bitchute and Rumble about the vaccines. Also, please ask yourself why would anyone need to be bribed with lotteries, donuts, burgers, etc. if the vaccine was as safe as advertised?
Dear Papa Greer (Papa G)-
2 questions:
1) why are people so averse to the term “magic”???
is it because of the history of hiding the “secrets”, you need to make it seem absurd?
2) and how do i post photos? i tricked out some of my Marseille tarot cards with permanent markers to make ’em my own and i wanna share with the rest of the class and not wait until we return to your “Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic.”
i think you’ve started the only kind of underground we can have now for artists now that everywhere is gentrified. i know you’re taking ME to the Next Level and my intuition (catch-all word to avoid other words) is off the scales now.
thanks for this. really.
i would never deny you.
x
To Mollari:
Potatoes are pretty cheap and easy to cook. Maybe not as cheap, but spaghetti sauce is pretty easy to make with canned tomatoes. If you get tired of pea soup, you can try lentils. If you have an oven, and are in the house enough to wait for it to rise, baking your own bread is not that hard. If you want something quicker, quick breads (made with baking powder) like pancakes, biscuits, or cornbread are easy to do.
Where I live, bean sprouts and cabbage are very cheap, so I make salads with those. See what’s cheap where you are, and use your imagination.
Mollari, that’s the one. I don’t have a release date for it yet, but the manuscript is at the publisher. I had Brecken Kendall write it for me so it’s full of cheap tasty food, with hints for what to serve shoggoths, Deep Ones, and the like. 😉
Dylan, I’m very sorry to hear this!
Augusto, the problem was apparently with the website where you found it, not with this blog. I had to swipe a copy and upload it to a different website to be able to link to it. It’s classic Carrington — thank you for this!
Tamanous, I haven’t seen anything else yet, but then I haven’t really been looking. I’ll be interested to hear what else people have spotted.
Lark, you’re welcome. A lot of people seem to be getting unexpected promptings these days.
Rita, if there’s ever a duct tape shortage, we’re doomed.
David BTL, I’m still just catching hints and glimpses where I can. So much of what’s happening these days is under the radar!
Coyote_Rambler, the tinder’s that dry, and the leaders of the Ctrl-Left are splashing it with gasoline.
Mary, I’d like to see that too. I wonder if any of them will have the courage to admit that it’s because Monsanto bribed them.
Christopher, treat yourself as though you were convalescing from an illness, because in any sexual relationship, the etheric bodies become linked and the stronger etheric body will energize the weaker one. If you’re okay with that, it’s not a reason to back away — it just means that you’ll have to behave as though you have a milder chronic illness yourself.
Rage Monster, glad to hear it on both counts. With regard to cannabis, it’s about on a par with alcohol; don’t do practices when you’re ripped. The best way to do it is to do your practices first thing in the morning, and don’t partake until later in the day. As for aikido, no, I don’t practice it, though I did so; there’s a lot of inept aikido and t’ai chi practice in the US, but in both cases the real thing is stunningly effective. The issue, of course, is that MMA is basically a circus and a lot of serious practitioners of all kinds of traditional arts roll their eyes and walk away from the clowns and the dancing bears.
Gavin, yes, I’ve read some of his work on classical history — he’s very good. I haven’t read much of his work on modern politics, though I’m going to make time for Bonfire of the Humanities one of these days.
BB, certainly the traditional habit of setting out spaces that are left to natural vegetation is a core element of the broader set of techniques in which the temple technology works. Whether that works primarily via nature spirits or by some other means, or by all of the above, is a complex question!
Bridge, okay, gotcha. Of course there could be multiple factors involved! As for the upcoming book, I’m still finishing up other projects, so haven’t really given that one much attention.
Planetpriya, I wish I knew.
John, if we had more extensive historical documents from Precolumbian America we might have a better idea. It’s very difficult to track shifts in theology in the absence of written records!
Loon, thanks for this.
Nachtgurke, many thanks for the data points. That’s well worth knowing. As for the staves, since you don’t have a background in ceremonial magic, don’t try using it. I’ll let my heathen readers suggest answers to the other questions.
Mr. White, I don’t recommend trying to mess with someone else’s higher self. Pray to a deity and ask the deity to take care of it — they’re much more knowledgeable about such things than you and me.
Trojo, I heard about that. Ouch!
Blue Sun, they’re about equal. In both cases you’ve got a modestly sized city in the suburban outwash from a major urban center; that being the case, assess the two on other standards and take your pick.
Kel, the stock market doesn’t actually mean that much any more — with the Plunge Protection Team working overtime to gimmick it, I expect it to climb merrily upwards, despite occasional downward jolts, while industrial civilization lurches unsteadily downward into the abyss.
Erika, (1) magic is a power that individuals have and use, and so our civilization — which is obsessed with the kind of power that only huge corporations, governments, and institutions can use — is naturally hostile to it. (2) You have to load the images onto a website; once you’ve done that, include the URL for each picture in a comment.
El #46, sorry to hear you’re in the same boat, but also good to know that we’re not alone in this.
Just Another Green Rage Monster #66, all of those are excellent suggestions. Thank you!! I’m doing most of those practices already, and I do find courage in them. Just today I met a young person in the park who was selling art and who smiled and talked to me like a human and it was WONDERFUL. There is also a group locally who do afternoon outdoor dance parties in tucked-away corners of the park, and that was another bright ray today.
Kimberly Steele #73, that’s a good thought too. I tried the SOP in the past and shied away from it when I discovered that it actually did stuff. Now seems like the time to take the plunge again. I’m very sorry to hear about your friend. That is truly difficult and sad to hear.
JMG,
Thanks for the reply. When you say messing with someone else’s higher self, does even attempting to contact them count as “messing” as such? And if this was given to me as an answer, does this mean that the source of these answers in my journalling is unreliable?
Kimberly Steele #85, thank you for the research suggestions. Yes, I will have to take a deep breath and do some research on both the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ sides. I appreciate your forthrightness on this issue. No one among my family or closest friends is talking this way. I am going to stay tuned to this forum for encouragement and clues.
@John P. Evans – Stirling’s Teddyverse feels to me very, very much like the alternate 19-teens in The King In Yellow. He does love his totalitarian dystopias. And yet, the Emberverse was a prolonged hymn to a widely variegated non-industrial future where the gods were alive and magic was afoot and the entire western USA was a loose federation of these cultures under a High King with very limited powers, whose rule was, they could all do their own thing except for slavery or attacking other members of said federation. There was loose talk about “when they got their powers back,” but it was easy to see that when that happened, they wouldn’t want them! Except for the very old-fahioned Boise, which still believed that “The Change was just a broken carriage wheel on the upward road of progress,” and were laughed at for that.
I’m just going to leave this here:
2016: John McAfee on Clinton: The FBI is either incompetent or corrupt in dealing with Hillary’s emails
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/john-mcafee-clinton-fbi-either-incompetent-corrupt-dealing-hillarys-emails-1589757
2021: John McAfee dies by suicide, hours after Spanish court authorized his extradition to U.S.
https://news.yahoo.com/john-mcafee-dies-suicide-hours-202849676.html
I’m sure its just a coincidence.
@ Mollari # 15: I would also suggest older (1970s or earlier) ethnic cookbooks if you can find them – from your own cultural background or whatever appeals to you. The modern ones often seem to have been ‘modernized’ (more meat than traditionally called for, more ‘nutritionally-correct’/boring, either overly complicated or dumbed-down, etc.). The world awaits! And I second teresa from hershey’s (#62) recommendation to buy spices (among other items) from ethnic grocers. Best of luck – especially these days.
JMG,
Following up on your recent blog post, I constructed an Eeman bio-circuit out of copper screens, pipe, and stranded wire. I tried the right hand to base of spine, left hand to back of head, ankles crossed circuit. It is pretty intense at first, but the feeling starts to fade after a while.
For what it’s worth, I find ten or fifteen minutes on it pretty relaxing. The wife and kids don’t seem to get anything out of it, although they aren’t patient enough to spend more than a couple of minutes on it. My wife mentioned that her hands got warm.
Mollari, if you’re not restricted by texture issues, porridge/congee is a good dish to learn to like. It’s basically a thick rice porridge, but in addition to regular white rice you can add other grains and legumes: steelcut oats, barley, millet, beans, peas, peanuts (raw). For extra protein we’ve added ground pork, pork riblets, and salmon heads (the latter two are cheap since they’re butchers’ offcuts). Season with salt, ginger, white or black pepper, other spices from ethnic markets that you like. Eat with lacto-fermented or pickled vegetables – the salty/sour flavor perks up the congee. It’s supposed to be thick and is certainly an acquired taste, but it’ll stretch your grocery dollars.
Another thing I’ve done and continue to do is limit the hours I eat (~noonish or 1pm to ~7:30 pm). I’m not supremely active, but even when I was working at a cafe ~6 hours/day and on my feet and busy all that time, it wasn’t difficult. Essentially it takes one meal out of the equation saving both time and money.
Oats are cheap and good for you for breakfast (I eat them for lunch (see above) and in the summer I sometimes just eat them “raw” like muesli, mixed with dried fruit and nuts and a few chocolate chips) – Oats are cheaper than cereal, and less sugary (cook with cinnamon or “pumpkin pie spice” and raisins, serve with a tsp of maple syrup and a pat of butter and a chopped apple. Mmmm.).
Oh, and butter – if you like butter on bread, don’t buy the ready-made spread stuff. You can mix room-temp butter with an equal or slightly decreased volume of olive oil in a blender or food processor (I use a stick blender with a bowl) and refrigerate that. Doubles the quantity of butter (or halves the cost), and is spreadable right out of the fridge.
Like the congee, broths/stocks/soups benefit from the long cooking times – all the nutrients are made available.
Look to shop at discount markets – in the US we have Grocery Outlet which has discontinued or overstock or package-damaged items for significantly less than the regular grocery stores. I’m not sure it’s the same as “The Grocery Outlet” in Canada but maybe?
And, one website to look at is Budget Bytes – the author’s got lots of diverse recipes and breaks down the costs very conveniently.
I hope some of this is helpful.
I tried to respond to a question some weeks ago about societies with a large proportion of itinerants. I recall clearly a book stating that at any given point during the 11th century, about 10% of the European population was on the road as pilgrims, scholars, beggars, brigands, knights and others. It now seems to me that the name of the book is in fact “L’enfance de l’Europe” by Robert Fossier, but I loaned it from a university library a long time ago and can’t read it right now. It is in any case a worthwhile book to read and agrees with Spengler that a new kind of society arose in the 10th century in Western Europe.
Greetings Mr. Greer .. from Port Angeles, Wa.
Apparently, it’s supposed to be scorchingly hot here in the North West .. as in triple digits in the Willamette Valley, the Columbia Gorge, Anywhere east of the Casades. Uhg! Cliff Mass has all the hadean details, on his site.. We’re, locally .. looking at 85° forcast – (I call mid 90’s, for extra *Caliente .. with lows not so low, for several days at least! Cooling strategies will be in order, as virtually NOBODY has AC capacity of any sort. Our hens will Not be roosting in their coop proper – too hot! So time tomorrow ..to build a makeshift roosting bar for their more opened screened-in covered run. At least their Big Bird has endowed them with a shady yard inwhich to scratch in.
This will probably be one for the historical documents. I just hope fire season hasn’t arrived early, vengeful-like. Any dry lightning, or pyros, and thar she goes!
I will be making several pizzas tonight .. while its a cool 67° .. to consume – hot or cold – energy conditions pending of course, for the duration.
I’m sure by now, you’ve adjusted relatively well to your adopted climate scene .. different climate, different heat. Anyway, just an FYI *carrumba’ from the other coast.
Looking forward to grooving on old tech. Cheers.
*hope no wokies were offended by my usage of such shameless exapproriations ..
‘;]
Hi JMG, I had one of those DUH! moments while reading the post about all those seekers of physical immortality. My initial reaction was along the lines of ho hum, more nutjobs, but it got me to thinking about the individuality vs the personality. The individuality persists while the personality incarnates, lives, and dies on the physical plane, and the individuality will incarnate in a new personality, based on what you , Dion Fortune and others have written.
The sudden insight was- wait a minute, that means that the individualities of all the personalities I have known in this incarnation that died, may be incarnate in new personalities right now, somewhere on the physical plane, right? Maybe this is a blinding flash of the obvious, but somehow I had previously not made the connection. Any thoughts ?
Hello All:
I work in a retail job. I would say that some of my customers seem more impatient than normal. Also, the county I work in is still masking. We have to uphold that in the store. It’s really ticking off some people. Other folks just appear more scattered brained, rattled, just slowly coming unglued. I think things just kind of settled in lockdown mode. With the opening up, which is uneven, it makes people jittery. That, and every pent up emotion and urge seem to dribbling out and in odd places. It’s difficult to articulate. It’s more like some people’s auras have gone plaid and not in a good way.
To Mollari,
Another thing: you might learn to pickle. Buy vegetables when they are cheap, and eat them all year. Same goes for home-made jams and preserves, apple sauce, etc..
The book Stocking Up is pretty comprehensive, if you can get your hands on it. There is also lots of info on the internet.
@John P Evans:
A well-off friend has told me that bromine works as well as chlorine in swimming pools, and has the added benefit that one can drink brominated water, unlike chlorinated water. He puts bromine in his own pool, so as to have a very large store of potable water in case of some emergency.
@Mollari:
Sourdough bread! It’s easy enough to make, if you have time to let it rise overnight; it tastes wonderful (especially when fresh out of the oven). In our younger, very impoverished years, my wife would make two loaves every few days, and the four of us (that is, with our two small children) would go through an entire loaf as soon as it was cool enough to eat–that would be most of our food that day. The quality of your sourdough starter is essential here, so borrow some from a friend who already makes sourdough, and whose bread you regard as very tasty. Then use a little each time you make bread, and refresh the rest so it grows back sufficiently before it’s time for you to make the next batch of loaves. And use a good quality flour, too.
For variety, there is always corn bread. I think it’s one of the most delicious foods on the planet. It certainly has kept thousands of dirt-poor families going for generations.
Beans, especially lentils! And peanut butter. My first esoteric teacher (outside my own family), C. H. Harvey, got through his poverty-stricken university years at UC Berkeley–no tuition whatever for California state residents in those days–on a diet mostly of pilot crackers and peanut butter three times a day. He seemed in very good health when I knew him in his ’30s.
Eating legumes (beans, lentils, peas, peanuts, etc. etc.) and grains together, you can get almost every essential nutrient that most folk like to get from meat. I’ve never liked rice much in any form, but other grains work as well.
Baked yams and sweet potatoes! (White potatoes are OK, too, but not as rich.)
And–though I personally don’t like their taste and texture–squash of every sort. Some indigenous tribes here in New England would plant corn (maize, that is), squash and beans together. They called them the “three sister” foodstuffs.
We were helped immensely, in our younger very poor years, by Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet.
Best wishes as you begin your new life!
To John P. Evans
Regarding alternatives to chlorination, you could do what people in many countries do, and boil any water that you are planning to drink. One could argue that potable tapwater is wasteful, because the water you use to shower, wash your clothes, flush the toilet, etc. does not need to be potable.
Archdruid, viduraawakened, and any Indians who happen to be lurking on this blog,
I’m pleased to say that after talking to the friend who did the strategic analysis of the Mahabharatha on my podcast a few months ago, that we’re setting up a Council of Indian Scholars to help support Indian’s who want to support the Indic Revival. The council is open to any field of study, including the neglected field of occultism. Anyone interested?
Regards
Varun
Hi all,
I am curious whether or not anyone here has read much about Dr. Emoto’s work around water crystals and the effects of consciousness on their formation.
Hope this Summer treats you all well!
In response to Violet’s question about whether local behavior is getting worse: From what I observe here, the peak of the local unhingedness passed with the end of the mask mandate. In this upper middle class Republican area, it was the anti-mask people who went off the deep end and there were an alarming number of reports of them physically attacking poor grocery store workers who had the unenviable task of enforcing the mandates. At present, things are calmer and the complaints on local social media are back to issues like unleashed dogs and such.
And an update on the shortages and things: I mentioned before the saga of my garage door. I had one more meeting with my garage door installer and we spoke again about the matter of lumber and steel shortages. I told him what I’d read from a commenter here about the normal economy in Mexico and he was able to confirm that. He says he has seen commercial lumberyards full of lumber and that the word in his industry now is that private equity and multinational corporations are buying up commodity supplies explicitly in order to make mid-cap businesses go under to reduce competition and to buy some of the businesses for cheap. I presume after they’ve starved out enough businesses they’ll start letting the materials back onto the market at suitably high prices.
@Nachtgurke:
It strikes me that some very rich people here in the US (or the US government acting at their behest) might well be buying up all your lumber not to use it, but to store it up somewhere, precisely to create artificial shortages. Then the insistent pressure of unmet demand will let the hoarders sell it at vastly inflated prices a year or two down the road. If you’re obscenely rich, you can actually play vile little games like that with the global supply chains to increase your already bloated wealth.
As for your rune staves, oak strikes me as a very good choice. My own best set was made from oak, which is the tree I have always felt a sort of kinship with ever since early childhood.
Sometimes a person who makes a set of rune-staves will color the runes with their own blood–never the blood of anyone or anything else. (I didn’t sense any need to do this myself.)
As you learn to divine with your runes, at first interpret the meaning of your castings only from the traditional names of the runes that you get. Your readings will be vague and uninformative at first; with repeated experience, including feedback from your own first incohate efforts, each rune will develop something not unlike a personality in your sight; and it will eventually became easier to get useful information from a rune-casting.
Much later you can also take the corresponding verses from the three extant rune-poems into account, as well as other stray tidbits of meaning scattered here and there in the surviving early documents. But their bare names are the oldest things we know about the individual runes, so start from their names alone.
You can use any sort of tarot-style spread for your rune-castings, if you like. Another way is to cast all 24 runes over some form of a cosmogram showing the nine worlds and other such things. Ignore the runes that fall outside of the cosmogram.
Re: Communion
Yes, it’s a real thing. I converted to Gnosticism and was baptized and confirmed in that church. I also served at the alter at times. I remember gazing into the chalice once and being overwhelmed by the amount of rich gold light pouring out of it. When the priest invoked the Holy Spirit, sometimes it seemed like the air moved.
Also, in that church, when I was not serving, I believe I saw, what I call the, “ Christian interface, “ fall away and could only see the bare Egyptian/ Greek/Sumerian (?) structure underlying the entire ritual. It was eye-opening. So much so that I wasn’t able to see it as Christian anymore. I could only see that it wasn’t. That was surprisingly disappointing. In some ways it convinced me that Christianity is a heck of a lot more contrived than any of us realize.
Kind of a bummer, really.
On the other hand, I went to a very severe Tridentine church where I was not allowed to take Communion but, right on cue, during the Eucharist, the whole place achieved lift-off. The energy completely changed. It was beautiful. And this Mass is celebrated in Latin and is a pre-Vatican 2 relic.
Whatever the signal is in that Mass, it can still come through. Whatever it is, it’s old and it’s still there. So, there is something in the forms of the Mass that work. Now that I am confirmed in a liturgical tradition, even if Gnostic, I would take Communion. My belief is that the Light behind the signal understands my intention. The priests aren’t the gatekeepers on this as much as a they would like to be.
At least that is my experience and opinion. I have deeply and heart-breakingly missed Mass more than I can say during the pandemic.
I can’t honestly say that I am Christian Gnostic anymore. Since my vision of the unveiling of the Mass, I don’t know what I am,
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I would love to hear.
Just a question: as a Freemason, what would you say are the major differences between York Rite and Scottish Rite Masonry? And are any of the more “esoteric” rites (like Memphis-Misraim) still practiced in the United States?
Note to Mollari:
When I left home for college many eons ago, my mother gave me a copy of ‘Joy of Cooking’, a frying pan, a small kettle, and a kitchen knife. Now over 60 yrs I still have them and use them. The older editions of ‘Joy’ have lots of nice instructions and not all the recipes are fancy. Shop at farmers’ markets if and when you can. Prices tend to be cheaper than retail. learn to not depend on canned foods. If you have a food co-op near you, become a member. Co-opers are generally good cooks.
Good luck and may all your eating be a pleasure!
Jim of Olym
Regarding Covid early treatment and vaccines, Bret Weinstein’s Dark Horse channel has become a bastion of sanity amidst intense claims across the spectrum.
In an interview that’s a couple weeks old now, Brent hosts a round-table with Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology and Steve Kirsh, the founder of a funding group specializing in using repurposed (off patent, cheap, and available) drugs to prevent and treat covid. This interview gets heated; it was a serious “red pill” for me, having previously been agnostic towards vaccines in the “wait and see” camp. Steve is more calm elsewhere, and apologized for his conduct in a comment on the original video. Bret has slammed into Youtube restrictions prohibiting the advocacy of Ivermectin, so all videos have been moved elsewhere.
Related; digital censorship has gone off the rails. In a Monty Python x. George Orwell moment, Dr. Tess Lawrie, the author of a peer reviewed meta analysis evaluating the effectiveness of Ivermectin, was censored from sharing her research on Linkedin, because her post violates a terms-of-service rule saying that assertions on Ivermectin’s effectiveness are unsupported by evidence.
During the Dark Horse interview, a graph showing the organ system distribution of mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles after injection of the Pfizer vaccine is presented and discussed. These lipid nanoparticles deliver the mRNA that induces cells to produce cytotoxic spike-protein (see Salk Institute paper) on their surfaces; already, this goes against the claims on the vaccine tin, as everyone appeared to think (1) the spike protein wasn’t toxic and (2) the delivery particles would stay in the shoulder and local lymph following injection. This claim may have been defensible at the outset, but censoring discussion after learning otherwise has not. This just emphasises that we now have science, and ScienceTM.
The graph discussed in the video contains accurate data, but leaves out important organ systems from the original dataset, and doesn’t make it clear these distributions were observed in rats. I’ve updated the graph to show this, and linked the original Pfizer study with the raw data.
Interview: https://odysee.com/@ReelNews:8/How-to-Save-the-World-in-Three-Easy-Steps,-Robert-Malone,-Steve-Kirsch,—Bret-Weinstein:5
Updated graph: https://preview.redd.it/u5i5hctrcq471.png?width=910&format=png&auto=webp&s=73f89a0fed4755cdb1dd199b2d6dc60a7b5c4f20
Pfizer data: https://www.pmda.go.jp/drugs/2021/P20210212001/672212000_30300AMX00231_I100_1.pdf
Dr. Byram Bridle at the University of Guelph contributed to research on spike protein distribution, and apparently filed the Freedom of Information request that released the Pfizer organ distribution data. For Canadians, here’s a recent press release interviewing Dr. Bridle and two other Canadian doctors, on censorship and covid preventative care. Sharing here because it’s well worth a listen, and you probably wouldn’t find it otherwise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrp5PlnBwQ
Take care out there,
Wylie
Thank you! I appreciate your advice on this.
Something that I have often wondered, since words change meaning over time, is what the word worship originally meant and if we use it the way it was originally intended. One thing I have seen is that in Spanish, worship is adorar (to adore). This definitely has a different slant than the way we think of worship in English. Does anyone here have any insights that might illuminate my understanding.
Hi JMG and Commentariat,
My 84-year-old mother plans to sign on with a palliative care outfit next week. They offer many services, one of which is that of a chaplain.
Mom is a fierce ex-Mormon and staunch agnostic, and has no interest in that. She says she wants me as her chaplain: From 500 miles away, but that’s do-able over the phone.
I thought it would be fun to get myself a bogus chaplain/minister certificate, and mail her a copy.
Any suggestions where I might find such a thing?
Thanks in advance!
OtterGirl
@Rita Rippetoe, are you saying the going of haywire is the reason things are going haywire? It almost makes sense…
@Mollari and Materia Indigo, Materia’s “Special Ramen” is almost identical to what Owen (a thrifty-by-necessity grad student) cooks for his dinner on the very second page of JMG’s The Weird of Hali series. So yeah, I expect that cookbook will be great for budget cooks.
@Mollari and teresa from hershey, while it’s true that sales like “buy two get one free” require you to buy the specified numbers, in my experience sales that are simply “6 for $12” or the like usually just mean the items are $2 each regardless of how many you buy, and they’re just suggesting you buy some large number.
I still sometimes see some stores try to pull the “selected varieties” trick, where only certain “selected varieties” of an item (such as flavors of ice cream) are on sale, identified by special shelf tags, but the varieties stocked behind those shelf tags aren’t the ones the tags (in tiny print) specify, and you end up paying the full price at the register if you don’t notice. That’s a “never shop there again” offense in my book, but sometimes ones shopping choices are limited.
@Mollari and Kimberly Steele, that soup recipe points out a good start for all kinds of cooking, recipes or improv, and not just soups. Dicing up an onion and sautéing it in a pan (with or without garlic, other veggies, herbs, etc.) is the start of countless recipes, from Italian pasta sauces to Indian curries. Include carrots and celery in the sauté and it’s a “mirepoix” if you’re feeling French and a “soffrito” if you’re feeling Spanish. Half the time I start chopping the onion while deciding what I’m going to be making.
@Lady Cutekitten, we do like our wild rumpi! Er, rumpuses. Thanks for being sympathetic!
@Elizabeth Skewis
What Gnostic denomination did you convert to? Do they have a website?
Dear Breanna, thank you for the data point — it’s been just the opposite here.
I myself get the impression of a calm before the storm. I’ve turned into one of the unemployed, but my traveling, impressions, and observations from suburbia tell me that things won’t blow up yet. We still have the crime, the shortages, the decimation of the various artistic scenes that has yet to recover (and, in some cases, WON’T recover) and the drive towards dismantling the police, but I’d be surprised to see the collective insanity we saw last summer. THAT will come later – heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it break out this coming winter.
Clark,
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “worship” comes from “worth-ship” and meant “worthy.” It was in the 1200’s that it became a verb meaning “to pay reverence.”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/worship
Also worth mentioning: “to adore” has a technical meaning in a religious context that’s quite different from adoring a baby. IIRC, the Catholic Church distinguishes between two types of worship: adoration and veneration; the first is the kind of reverence properly paid to God alone, and the second is a lesser reverence paid to saints. (We have enough Catholics here that they can correct me if I’m wrong!)
Mr. White, what comes through in journaling is not from some higher spiritual source. It’s from your own subconscious, and so is a mix of all the many things that can feed into your subconscious. Treat journaling as a conversation, not an interview with a guru! Yes, trying to get in touch with someone else’s higher self counts as “messing.”
Ecosophian, yes, I heard about that.
Weilong, thanks for the data points!
Matthias, thanks for this.
Polecat, oof — I’ve been to Port Angeles fairly often, and 85°F is harsh there! Still, be glad you’re not in Portland, where they’re expecting to break 110°F.
Erik, yes, exactly. They’ll have spent some time outside of incarnation but it’s quite possible that someone you knew when you were young will show up as a young person when you’re old.
Elizabeth, thanks for the data points.
Varun, delighted to hear it. I hope you’ll create a journal or a website one of these days, and that some of the papers will be in English.
Kidvrain, I read a little about the subject but it was a long time ago.
Tolkienguy, in terms of ritual and symbolism, York Rite is more strictly Judeo-Christian, while Scottish Rite (especially in the Southern Jurisdiction) embraces a wider range of spiritual traditions. In terms of organization, York Rite is far more decentralized while Scottish Rite is very centralized. As for the “esoteric” rites, not that I know of.
Coyote_Rambler, thanks for this. That chart showing the vaccine getting into the liver, spleen, and adrenals is harrowing.
Clarke, good! The word “worship” used to be “worthship,” that is, recognizing something or someone as worthy, valuing someone or something. To worship something used to me simply to value it, to consider it to be of worth.
Ottergirl, enter “online ordination” into your favorite search engine. There are hundreds of places that will provide you with ministerial certificates free or for a modest fee.
Godozo, thanks for the data points.
Dear Dylan, thanks, I hope you are able to make the best and most informed decision for yourself.
Here are some videos of interest about the COVID inoculation’s side effects.
Why the Vaxxed are Acting Strange
https://www.bitchute.com/video/JkkyiA4wWMVU/
Dr. Carrie Madej: “There’s No Off Button”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/U33GARzdBsFH/
Girl’s Pfizer Jab Reaction: Blind, Deaf, Throat Paralysis, Tremors
https://www.bitchute.com/video/rWcbg2peAHWh/
Pharmacist Quits Job and Spills the Beans – CVS Pharmacy Pays $6500/Week for Giving Vaccines
https://www.bitchute.com/video/WWq5wFqcag3j/
In the US, 30 People Die Per Day of the Corona Vax
https://www.bitchute.com/video/mKZGWAyIytYD/
Ex-Pfizer VP Yeadon Warns: Children 50 Times More Likely to Die From Vaccine Than Virus
https://rumble.com/viaz6n-ex-pfizer-vp-yeadon-warns-children-50-times-more-likely-to-die-from-vaccine.html
Dr Roger Hodkinson: Everything is a Pack of Lies
Reproductive wild cards. Children as young as six months being vaccinated.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/jDQQUzOGUZRK/
Otherdave,
You had mentioned The Black Hills in an earlier post. Since I lived nearby at the time, I went there for the Harmonic Convergence in the late 80s. I think there is a tremendous amount of energy, or something there. I don’t think the energy I felt had anything to do with the Harmonic Convergence though. I don’t know how to describe it. The air just felt more alive, I guess. I didn’t have any spiritual practice then, I was just a curious seeker.
@Lark, I’ve been in the place I was drawn to for nearly three years now, and it’s been amazing. I won’t speculate on reasons, because they’re still unfolding and yours might not be the same anyhow. I agree that going in acceptingly without your own designs or expectations does seem to be the right approach.
I wonder if it’s people who are inclined to do that, to honor and explore the connection as you put it, who are receiving these impulses (it might be presumptuous but I’d say invitations) in the first place.
JMG, hmm, I’ve been using Dreamwidths image hosting, I think I’ve used it before here. I don’t know what could be wrong about it but oh well, it got posted, thank you! I am not surprised you know about her, are you into art much? What’s a painting you like?
On a different note, I’ve been burning some candles based on the correspondences of your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic, the color correspondences of past MMs and your basics of Astrological Magic post but I was surprised that the Full Moon was not mentioned there. Is the full moon not relevant for astrological timing? How far from the exact day of the full moon is the moon considered waning or not waxing anymore for magical purposes?
@Green Rage Monster:
what do you think about cannabis use as it relates to spiritual work?
I’ve tried cannabis a few times since taking up magic. It does seem to give a boost to my imagination, but I dislike the sludgy feeling it gives me. Not to mention, I’ve been feeling the need lately to ground more in the material world, rather than floating off into what Terence MacKenna called the “dragon realms.”
I’m no teetotaller – I’ve got a mild dependency on alcohol I’m not wild about. For whatever reason, I find it more congenial to me than cannabis. And I do my spiritual practices while sober.
a YouTube video which described aikido as a “fake martial art.” […] MMA has “revealed” that aikido practitioners, as well as practitioners of other martial arts such as tai chi, are “fake.”
Counterpoint: Youtube is fake.
Hello everyone! So I’d like to start things off with a bit of a lighter question.
What’s the strangest music that you enjoy listening to? Something that, given your background, people would be surprised you actually like?
For me, I’m a devout Catholic but I really enjoy listening to Islamic nasheeds (basically Muslim Gospel music). Stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DxpcOmpqFo
It’s weird in that I’m supposed to be worshipping Jesus and not Allah, but I really like listening to OTHER people worshipping Allah. On the other hand….. perhaps, if I like both kinds of music, maybe there isn’t that much of a difference between Catholicism and Islam to begin with.
How about you Mr. Greer and company?
Thanks JMG!
I duck ducked “online ordination” and for $0.00 now have an impressive and freshly printed certificate of ordination and completed training in “conversations with or without coffee”.
OtterGirl
Oops, not that it really matters, but “estuary walkthrough” is me, typing in the wrong email address and reinstating a mostly-defunct user profile.
Joshua and others re: Communion,
When I was in my 20s, I made my way through a variety of branches of the Christian tree, including Anglicanism and formal conversion to both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (in that order). I had some very interesting experiences along the way, and in general I find JMG’s idea, that various churches aren’t actually following the same Jesus, to be at the very least plausible.
In terms of subtle energies and theurgy, my opinion/experience is that the Eastern Christian rites tend to be the most potent and thus my experience of Communion there was most powerful. I include in that both the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom as used by the Orthodox and many Eastern Rite Catholics, as well as some of the others I’ve experienced—the Maronites in particular stand out in my mind. It’s little wonder to me that those churches able to consistently attract young American converts to institutions that’re wildly ethnocentric and run by the leftover bureaucracies from defunct foreign empires: if you want power and theurgy in a mainstream Christian tradition, it’s in their chalices.
After that is the Tridentine Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Communion there is still incredibly powerful but the energies there are much more… I don’t know if constrained is the right word… but I wonder if the fact that the laity only receive the Host has something to do with that (and I’d be really curious to hear JMG’s thoughts there).
The Novus Ordo Catholic masses and Anglican liturgies I’ve been too have mostly just been polite gatherings with no energies, subtle or otherwise. High Church Anglo-Catholic rites have some power to them, and occasionally there will be a particular Catholic priest who seems able to overcome the shortcomings of the NO Mass, and my experience of Communion there has left me with a bit of the electric feeling JMG described, but that’s rare and much less than the Eastern Communions I’ve received.
Hope that’s helpful. Let me knows if there are any other experiences or opinions I can share!
Ryan M.
@nachtgurke
Robert had some good pointers, but as another data point, here’s what I’ve done with my rune staves:
I purchased a dowel made of olive wood (I believe it was “Bethlehem Olive”, but I chose it more for it’s lovely grain and color and because I was a classics major and Athena still has a special place in my heart, even if I’m more drawn to northern myth and Gods). I cut the dowel into disks a few mm thin (okay, I really cut them into disks about 1/8 of an inch thin, because I’m American, but I’m trying to be helpful). I tried to hand carve the runes, but found the combination of olive wood and utterly inadequate tools/sharpening skills unworkable. So I used a small, hand-held rotary tool a Dremel) with a cutting bit to carve the staves. While carving and coloring, I tried to concentrate on the rune and on imbuing its essence into the physical item (I also had used a banishing/hallowing ritual for the space I was working, but I had zero experience). One downside to the round shape of the tokens is that it makes it much harder to do any kind of casting that cares about how the runes are oriented toward one another. I just bought a square yew pen blank that I’m planning to make some rectangular staves out of to see how they work for me.
To color, I purchased Linseed Oil and Dark Red Ochre powdered pigment from an art supply store, which are used by some artists to mix their own oil paints (it was important to me to use all natural ingredients, and ochre has been used for magical/religious purposes since at least the Proto-Indo-Europeans). I pricked my finger with a device meant for home blood testing and mixed a bit of my own blood into the pigment and oil mixture and then painted the carved staves. I finished the rest of the pieces with Tung oil and got a lovely smooth, glossy finish by working up to very fine wet sanding sandpaper.
That was about 5-6 years ago, and I’d say I’ve attempted to use them for divination for about 1/2 of that time, with very big gaps in between and little formal magical practice. My results during this time were not great.
Within the last two or three months, I’ve been working through the Heathen Golden Dawn exercises JMG posted on his other journal along with discursive meditation on the runes (now on stanzas of Voluspa) and daily prayer. During this most recent phase, I’ve found my results to be waaay more accurate and helpful, and I’ve had multiple times a week where a synchronicity or stray “accident” has given me great insight, like a stave falling out of my hand as I’m putting them away resolving the uncertainty I had on my reading.
Here’s my current procedure: after I finish meditation, I say a short prayer to the Norns and to Odhin, I get the question firmly in my mind (usually “what do I need to know about today?”) and drop the runes into a leather dice-rolling tray. Without looking, I focus on “Urdhr”, then “Verdhandi”, and then “Skuld” and pick one stave for each and place it on a white cloth in a triangle, with Urdhr in the upper left, Verdhandi in the upper right, and Skuld closest to me. I then look at the staves and try to interpret them as an answer to the question, with the first rune describing things already established affecting the situation, things in the second as ongoing/current matters, and the last as things that are to come from the interaction of the first two. It’s the “nornic” reading from Thorsson’s “The Runecaster’s Handbook”. In the past, I found “draw a single rune to reflect the character of the day” unhelpful, and “cast the runes onto a full representation of the nine worlds, where each world governs specific influences” to be unwieldy for a daily practice, but very helpful for “big” questions.
As for meanings/interpretations, I think Robert’s advice to start from the bear meanings and work up your own interpretations is likely good if you are actively engaging in other magical practice. I did not follow that advice because I felt like I needed something more to get going on, and instead began with treating Thorsson’s works as the foundation, with comparison to other sources to get a broader view.
If you decide to go with the minimal-commentary approach, Stephen Pollington’s “Rudiments of Runelore” and Sweyn Plowright’s “Rune Primer” both avoid a lot of the more specific symbolism of other commentators. For a very in-depth work on the history of the runes and what we know/can infer about their use, Pollington’s newer “Runes: Literacy in the Germanic Iron Age” is wonderfully thorough and scholarly, but doesn’t stray much into their symbolic meanings, so it might be a good book for getting to know the runes more deeply without picking up a lot of specific “this rune means this and this and that other thing”.
If you are looking to get some input from folks who have worked with the runes a lot, a commenter named Sven Eriksen over on the dreamwidth pointed me to Kveldulf Gundarsson’s book “Teutonic Magic” which included some “guided meditations” on each Rune. I read each of these the night before and then worked my way through them as visualizations during meditation the next morning, and I found them quite helpful, but that was after a few years of reading lots fo commentaries. I find “Nordic Runes” by Paul Rhys to be mostly not very new or helpful, but it does very clearly link runes to specific mythological stories, and “Helrunar” by Jan Fries seems a lot more willing to include speculation and things derived from his own work/practice, which I usually disagree with, but often find thought-provoking.
On a more serious note, I have been reading more about the financing of the nuclear power industry since our last conversation in April. I do note that the nuclear industry has received twice the subsidies that Oil and coal have received, while producing far less energy.
That’s fair, and nuclear energy clearly has high setup costs. However, you also claimed that the nuclear industry isn’t taxed as much as the oil and gas industry. But the nuclear industry is clearly tax positive.
> The average nuclear power plant also pays about $16 million in state and local taxes annually. These tax dollars benefit schools, roads and other state and local infrastructure. The average nuclear plant also pays federal taxes of $67 million annually.
https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Nuclear%20Energy%20Institute.pdf
> About one-third of the district’s annual $79 million budget comes from Indian Point’s payment in lieu of taxes. By 2024, three years after the power plant shuts, the yearly payments will have dwindled from $25 million to $1.35 million.
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/09/05/nuclear-plant-closures-bring-economic-pain-to-cities-and-towns
Given that there are types of reactors that have less complicated setup costs (ex: molten salt reactors), I definitely still think nuclear energy could, in principle, sustain an advanced industrial society for the long term. Thus, avoiding collapse is an engineering and design problem, it is not inevitable.
Anyway, now I think there are certain forms of renewable energy (that Greer hasn’t heard of) that could also power the world. That will require a separate post. Either way, I feel very confident that, while PARTS of civilization might collapse, there will still be countries with a lifestyle comparable to ours in existence in the far future.
@ilona Hey! You were going to ask me more questions about cryptocurrencies back in April. Now’s your chance. And if anyone else has any questions about Bitcoin or crypto, fire away.
@Tolkienguy
The Gnostic church I was connected to is Ecclesia Gnostica. I belong to the group in Seattle. That church is called Hagia Sophia. EG is Stephen Hoeller’s organization. That tradition came down through Duc du Palatine, broke off from the French Gnostics a ways back and has some Old Catholic Church in there. It’s a real Heinz 57 tradition as are many Gnostic churches these days. Hoeller is a Mason and a Theosophist.
I’m working my way through “Doctrines and Rituals of High Magic,” with JMG’s book club. It’s great stuff. I don’t think I’d understand as much as I do without my baptism, confirmation and taking the first steps in holy orders at Hagia Sophia. I was compelled to move out to Port Angeles, WA due to personal circumstances, so no church,
Hey, polecat! Maybe we could meet up for coffee sometime. It’s nice to know I’m not the only JMG fan on the Olympic Peninsula.
About Ivermectin-
Weinstein et al. have mentioned the possibility that Ivermectin could mitigate the damage that spike proteins may introduce to the body. Including the spike proteins arriving in the vaccines. I’m waiting to see what develops. I got the j & j version of the vaccine I was pressed by my employer to get it. I’m my much more motivated in my spiritual work these days in case something untoward happens. Never thought I would live to see anything like this. I’m the same age as JMG.
@Kimberly Nice garden pics
@Joshua Rout
Hey there! As a Catholic, I can talk a about the Eucharist in the Catholic Church.
> theurgical or subtle-energetic ‘flavor’
I’m afraid, I don’t know what this means. What specifically would you like to know?
@chuaquin
Feel like I’m making too many posts, but I saw that post on bitcoin. Eh, why not respond?
Alright, so here is Taleb’s ACTUAL post. Let’s read through it: https://nassimtaleb.org/2021/06/bitcoin-currencies-bubbles/
So the first part is where he describes how bitcoin works. No real disagreements there except for one. Proof of work does not merely prevent spam, it is essential for securing the network.
ON COMMENT 1: His argument seems to rest on the assumption that one day, there will be no more miners and that bitcoin will one day become obsolete. Because bitcoin will one day be obsolete in the future, bitcoin should be worth zero in the present, and thus, its value is based entirely on speculation.
This is a huge assumption, there is no justification given for why one day there should be no one mining bitcoin. Anyone with an internet connection and a computer can mine bitcoin, and the fewer miners there are, the greater the profit incentive to mine is.
Furthermore, it does not take into account that if you buy bitcoin, you are not just buying into present day bitcoin but any future forks bitcoin might have. So for example, let’s say one day in the future, it turns out the current chain becomes unstable due to the decrease in mining rewards. If that happens, the chain can be forked to add additional inflation. What happens then is that the market will decide which chain is more valuable, the original chain or the fork. You, however, will have coins on both chain.
A lot more can be said about that scenario, however, the fact that coin hodlers have access to bitcoin’s potentially more technologically advanced descendants by owning coins now should sink Taleb’s argument.
ON COMMENT 2: Taleb says bitcoin can’t be used as a currency because it is too expensive. He fails to take into account the growth of the lightning network. The lightning network is perfectly viable, see for example, this video of someone using it: https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/o5jzxg/this_is_how_easy_and_simple_it_is_to_send_a/
I personally have used bitcoin to send money across the world, it’s perfectly viable.
Also, he’s complaining about how 12 years into its life, no one is setting price is bitcoin? Please. Impatient much?
The rest of comment 2 seems to be focused around bitcoin’s volatility. However, bitcoin is only volatile right now because it is growing. If the entire world adopted bitcoin, bitcoin would be much less volatile. This is actually born out in the empirical data.
https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1381633972531122184/photo/1
So that would be my response to what Taleb posted.
JMG, Hokey smokes! I was scanning through my (few and far between) saved Reddit sites and lo and behold there you were on the just recently launched r/Shortages! Pretty cool and of course a well done commentary on your part For those who are wondering, the ‘about community’ states that “this community is to share information on post Covid supply shortages and to share knowledge of things in short supply in your area or line of work.”
A bit of data point also for anyone interested. We live in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, and on weekdays have begun to go out to our favorite haunts of wineries and craft breweries more and more to renew friendships and catch up with people in the industry. Yes, there is a lot of drinking and tourist are underfoot as per usual. But there is also this strange sense of something wicked crackling in the background, in peoples behaviors. Its may well be physical changes to people’s grey matter, but I also sense something else is amiss. Like something has harmed people, or is harming people on a spiritual level. it’s not something soft and rounded on the edges like the heralding of dementia, it’s something more feral than that. Like compulsion.
Also, I’ve noticed that people who normally consciously do not over imbibe are now getting drunk pretty fast, and some who in the past could hold their liquor are unaware just how much they now sound act intoxicated….
Thanks for everything you do JMG. Be well!
-Black Tuna and Hand
@ Rose Red Loon comment #78
I agree broadly with the article on why people generally hate modern architecture.
However, when I see older buildings with their ornate decorations (usually in a state of poor maintenance or disrepair where I live) I can’t help but think that buildings were once built that way because slaves of varying degrees of slavery were used to build and then maintain these buildings. Today such an undertaking would be unaffordable, which is probably another sign of catabolic collapse.
That is not to say that new buildings can’t be welcoming to people – ornate decorations are not the only features that make a building such – but try to imagine building the Alhambra today. Who could afford that except for a few gazillionaires? And inherently they do not pay attention to anything that is not shiny and new, so they would not have provisioned for the maintenance costs.
The Apalachians and the Carpathians have a very strong connection. Our Druids here have been called Molfar. I would like to learn and talk with somebody here in Middle Europe. May you tell me serious Druids in Germany or Ukraine I can contact. And what dou you know about history and the disappearing of Druids 100B.C.?
@David by the Lake
In the UE there’s a ongoing battle between activists and politicians (and lobbyists) to stop considering biomass as a renewable energy source. In UE’s law “renewable” means “climate neutral”.
Does anyone know when exactly environmental movement started mixing “renewable” with “low-carbon”, forgetting what the word means? Maybe our host @JMG know when it happened?
@Rose Red Loon I have come to the conclusion that our built environment is simply the outward manifestation of the soul of industrial civilization. It’s a perfect storm, combining a deranged architectural philosophy with a mechanistic, reductionist worldview and the brutal workings of industrial capitalism. What else could come out of that toxic brew?
Christopher Alexander (mentioned in the linked article) argues that the contemporary construction process is literally incapable of creating living structure and I think the evidence for this is quite strong.
Dylan, not a doctor here but I’ll weigh in on the vaccine topic.
In Italy, where I live, more than half the population has gotten at least one shot. That’s over 30 million people. Mostly they’ve done it to protect themselves or others, or to work in the health sector, where it’s required; there haven’t been prizes of any kind on offer, though you do get a “green pass” once you’re vaccinated. The number of infections and deaths has very significantly dropped; I can’t tell you how much of that is due to vaccines.
Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and J&J have been used, though, due to some (extremely rare) deaths probably linked to the vaccine among certain vulnerable groups such as young women, AstraZeneca is no longer used under a certain age (or at all, I’m not sure, they keep changing it).
All of my family and most people I know have gotten at least one shot, most of them two. I got one shot of Pfizer and am waiting for the second. You get to speak to a doctor before you do it and discuss with them your health situation.
No one I know has gotten any serious side effects so far from the vaccine. Some people complain of a few hours to a day of arm pain (Pfizer) or serious flu symptoms (AZ). They all disappear quickly.
I’ve read reports that Pfizer might be linked to rare hearth inflammation in young males. Of course, we must remember that we are vaccinating an extremely large number of people at once, and even with no intake of medicines, there would statistically be a number of deaths or serious conditions among them anyway.
I have decided to get the shot because I don’t like to treat *other* people as guinea pigs, and, the way I see it, if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me. I see us as “all in this together”. I have spoken with people who’ve had serious Covid or long Covid, and decided that that scares me more than the vaccine. I know people who were young and healthy and are now weak and might never recover fully. I don’t know anyone who’s had problems with the vaccine but I do know quite a few who’ve had their health wrecked from Covid.
Variants seem to be a worry as they’re figuring out as they go along whether the vaccines work for those as well, so you might want to read up on those.
@Varun
That’s interesting, could you give me some more details on that? I’m not very well-informed about occultism to make a meaningful contribution, but I can pitch in to help on ecology, if you’re considering including this as well.
Also, if you’re considering discussing about Hindustani Classical Music, I can help a bit there as well, as I do have an interest in both listening to and reading about HCM (especially the technical parts about ragas).
@JMG
There is a thought that keeps coming to my mind. I was thinking that the whole is a cover up for our civilization running out of energy. I am not denying that Covid exists, but the reaction seems way out of proportion. Our leaders should be aware of the problems of resource depletion. Do you think that it is possible, that the Covid crisis was a first step for controlled demand destruction to adopt to a lower energy future?
@Darkest Yorshire #4
My favourite RPG has changed over time. When I started with RPGs as a teenager, I played a lot of Mechwarrior and Cyperpunk with my school buddies. Later, it was mainly D&D 3rd edition and then Pathfinder with a few sprinkles of Shadowrun. I have quit around ten years ago due to my Pathfinder group sucking (power gaming and mobile phone addiction) and allocating my time to other endeavors. In retrospect, I would say that it was more important to play with nice people than which ruleset I was using. From a rules perspective, I still like D&D the most with it´s simple resolution mechanic (D20).
Since there are already nearly an infinite number of RPGs available, I don´t think that it would be necessary to add further products to the existing portfolio.
@Horzabky #38
When I was younger, I was also fascinated by the American culture. The idols of my youth were American movie actors (Arnie, Sly, Bruce Willis), athletes (David “The Admiral” Robinson) and music bands (Guns ´n Roses, Metallica, Slayer). I admired the American engineers for their planes, ships, and other vehicles (civilian and military). I still think that the Boeing 747 is the most beautiful civilian aircraft. The first cracks to the idolization of the USA came, when I visited the country multiple times during the 90s. Back then, my father lived in Los Angeles. When I visited him, I was shocked by the wealth disparities on display in this city. You had these ultra-wealthy districts like Bel Air and districts, which you thought would only exist in much poorer countries. I also became disillusioned with professional sports and Hollywood movies. With Dubbya becoming President, I started to lose the respect for this country. The final nail in the coffin were the stupid forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Therefore, I am currently in the situation, that I don´t admire the USA anymore but am not allowed to admire Germany due to our dark past (1933-45), which is drilled into us like an “Ersatz” religion.
@Violet #29 and Just Another Green Rage Monster #66
Here in Germany, it feels like insanity is reaching record height levels every day. If you read alternative media and look in your surroundings, it seems like the whole country is on the brink of madness.
At work, we must document the time we enter and leave the office, nobody does a handshake anymore. As Just Another Green Rage Monster said, the vaccinations are treated like the only way to salvation.
Producing chocolate with cocoa from Afrika is racist, it should be produced in Afrika. Milk is racist since some minorities are lactose intolerant. It goes on and on and on.
@Rose Red Loon #78
I did not read the whole article, but I also loath modern architecture. When I think of beautiful buildings, nothing built after 1945 comes to my mind. I am a big fan of castles, old churches, and half-timbered houses. Fortunately, the town where I am currently living offers all of them. Since I am currently reading “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, I think that modern architects all seem to be like the book character Howard Roark, who doesn´t give a damn, if anybody likes his buildings.
@Nachtgurke #79
I have also read that fuel prices will rise after the federal election regardless of which party would be elected. I saw that in an article, where they wanted to save the reputation of the Green party, which is the major proponent of higher fuel prices.
I am also very skeptical of our electrical grid. I have read an article in the Tumult magazine in 2017, where they compared the stability of the electrical grid from 2017 and 2001. In 2001, the organization responsible for the load management of the electrical grid had to intervene 3 times a year to keep the grid running at the right frequency. In 2017, it was 3 times per day. If this trend continues, I expect blackouts to become a major problem within a few years.
@Trojo #82
I always thought that this is the only reason why these smart devices are being installed.
@blue sun #83 and JMG
I have the same problem. I am currently living in a small town of 22000 people, but I drive 45 minutes to the next larger city (130000). My friends and family live in the largest metropolitan area in Germany, the Ruhr area. I was thinking about relocating back to the Ruhr area, but I am not sure due to the dire projections for the future.
Hi, Mollari,
I might be a bit too late, but I love the topic, so I’d love to join in.
We feed ourselves with 250€ per month, my wife my son and I, but we aren’t trying hard to save money on this. We just like to cook. If I had to cut expenses on this, I guess I’d do the following.
1. Don’t overeat. In other words, I’d eat only when hungry. An oversized body requires more calories to maintain itself just by existing.
2. Never let food or ingredients be tossed or spoiled. Purchasing in bulk may save some coin, but only if I am able to keep the ingredients fresh until I can cook them, or have safe places to store them. A great aid for this is to think the diet in advance before buying the groceries. I’d write in a paper a few dishes I want to eat in the following three to four days (make it nutritius), then buy exactly what I need for preparing them.
3. Cooking in bulk saves me time, not money, but I can use that extra time for things that will save money. When we cook a whole pot worth of three days, we usually eat this the first and the second day, and we save the third ration in the freezer for a few days later.
4. As already has been said, cooking at home saves a lot of money. When I see how expensive it is a ready to eat package, I really have to think if I am in such a hurry that I can’t cook that myself.
5. Cereals and beans are cheap and easy to store. Fresh vegetables and fruit are not. Luckily there are a few cheap sources of fresh vitamins.
5a. Microgreens. Usually legumes and whole cereal sprouts. A glass jar, some water and a dark place is all that I need to get some fresh sprouts, a substitute for lettuce in salads.
5b. Ferments. Bacteria and funghi can spoil the food, but in the proper conditions the add benefitial vitamins to whatever they are consuming. Sourdough, prickles, kefir, sauerkraut,.. My tools for this are just glass jars, salt, vinegar and sugar. Sourdough pizza and bread simply taste better and are healthier. I’ve learned to bake bread in a steel pan, not so pretty, but very tasty.
5c. Anything I can grow will be welcome, greens in pots, market gardens, whatever, as long as it does not cost me more that what I am saving. Using your kitchen scraps as compost is a great adition to gardening.
5d. Foraging. It is surprising (at least for us city dwellers) how much edible food can be found in weeds. Not feasible in harsh weather, though.
6. Ignore the expensive stuff as much as I can. Chocolate is a treat I don’t know if I can pass without, but I’d restrict myself to one small piece aftel meals. Cookies I can cook them so I control how much sugar and whole wheat flour they contain (they don’t last as long as the purchased ones, but then, we eat them rather quick).
I guess the best recipes depend on what you can find cheap around. A very cheap soup here is the garlic soup. Just fried garlic, a few fried bread slices and water, seasoned with salt and parsley. The rich man’s version adds an egg. Garlic is very abundant here, but it might not be the case in your place. Whatever you cook, just try that it has some fats, some proteins and some vitamins, if not everything in the same dish, in the next dish.
In the Uk they are continuing with masking high school kids after summer, setting up testing centres everywhere ( despite the tests being inaccurate ) putting masks on already isolated elderly people in homes and the expectation is that at some point we will lockdown again for our own safety – this is among evidence of huge mental health issues in children and adults alike and many people falling through the cracks. If I read about it too much or let myself get into a catastrophe mindset I can viscerally feel the energy drain out of my body – I am spending increasing time with plants and in natural settings just ignoring it all – perhaps like a fool !
Honolulu is getting increasingly sketchy with 20% more tourists than a normal year and the bookings out to 6 months say it is about to get a lot worse. Every time a fancy car drives slowly by we get nervous that it might be someone who will make an obscene offer that our landlords cannot refuse. Violent crime is up (although way better than other liberal run cities) and the police are now regularly gunning people down which is very disturbing to those who live in an upper class bubble and do not understand the increasing danger they face. The legendary island corruption is very obvious at this point, but thanks to the 100% mail in voting with automatic registration the politicians do not seem to be that worried.
We just got a taste of what it was like to live without tourists which was truly amazing, and now that they are back even worse than before people’s tempers are flaring. Driving is very dangerous and for the first time in a long time I feel the need to constantly look over my shoulder when going on errands to places that used to be so relaxed. I used to ask my relatives when they were planning to coming visit, but now I say do not bother. Much of the fun got sucked out of this place, and with tensions building in the Pacific things could be getting a lot more crowded soon with an increased military presence.
It is not an easy choice to stay, but right now our community connections are deepening and we could quite possibly figure out a way to squeak by on the cheap and do some important work once the market crashes and the essential services get rolled back like they did in 2008. I am avoiding asking the all-important question in a geomantic reading because I do not want to know what it says, but I also have a Saturn opposition Moon coming up next year so maybe getting the bad news first is better. How would you recommend approaching divination in a case like this?
@Rose Red Loon #78
I have read the complete article now and (un-)surprisingly, Howard Roark is also mentioned in it.
The article is really excellent and formulates more or less exactly, what I was thinking about modern architecture.
A little signal on the progress (Ha!) of the Limits of Growth.
Japan’s Natural Population Decline Tops 500,000 for 1st Time – https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2020060500720/
I saw it said somewhere that nowadays then population decline in Japan is worse than during World War 2. As it has been said in many of your books, decline will be slow and hard to see in real time.
Hello, JMG so a couple of questions if you don’t mind,
First about your natural magic methods:
*With the infusion instructions in your book about natural magic: Do you think sanitizing materials like crystals/stones/others in alcohol and substances like methylated spirits before washing those off with water before using them in a water or oil infusion would be ok or would they likely lose their charge?
*Is there a problem with bacterial growth when using the sun tea method for herbs and plants btw? Saw articles claiming it is problematic because it ’causes bacteria to grow’. What would be a safer means if this is a concern or for people who might be concerned atleast?
Going back to the problem with subsistence of information to maintain an identity of life some people have as a habit:
The thing is what if some people do it because they feel extremely weak and lacking in energy, vitality or some kind of strength if they don’t? I’ve had somebody complain that they feel like a ‘husk’ although their connection to reality and other people improved when they got knocked out from doing it. Do those people have a certain condition or would you say it is weakness from over-reliance on it?
Cheers,
James
Adding to my previous question about certain people sorry. Other words they might come up to describe that feeling in states where they might be unable to do it is as a sense of hollowness*
Hello JMG,
Since this is an open post and I’m feeling chatty, I’m willing to provide an answer to chuaquin’s question about cryptocurrencies and Taleb’s paper.
I’ve studied cryptocurrencies as a researcher for 5 years within a corporate applied research program back when the hype about bitcoins has reached its climax. Long story made short, I didn’t buy it (pun intended). From a technological point of view, I stated halfway my research that bitcoins was a uncorporeal asset backed by energy availability and, eventually backed by the People’s Republic of China coal throughput and willingness to operate coal power plants and to allocate electricity to BTC mining operations. That was in 2012. I don’t want to get credit for that, it was an easy prediction. I then reoriented my research to other usages of blockchain technology that would have less negative externalities like private blockchains using proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work which requires huge computational power hence raw electric power. The conclusion was that blockchain has no real usages because more manageable and less complex alternatives exist.
Well, back to Nick Taleb. He’s basically saying bitcoin is a scam and that he was wrong promoting it earlier which for any economist is uncommon enough to be duly noted. In the details, this paper of his (https://bit.ly/3gZ0qV0) states that bitcoin’s exchange rate over time follows the path of a non-ergodic system that is, sooner or later, the rate will reach a low point and stick to it. In modern economic theory, pricing such an asset with a bounded decreasing exchange rate must account for this outcome and thus make its actual price nil.
No need of fancy maths to notice that : any asset backed by collateral that can vanish rapidly due to political decisions must have a very low value unless it yields enough of a reward to repay for the risk in the future. The problem with cryptocurrencies is that they don’t repay for anything at all or that the proposed reward is worthless (being some amounts of the same cryptocurrency). It’s like being rewarded for hard work with more hard work to do.
Another aspect of Taleb’s paper is the inability of bitcoin to become a currency. I guess he’s right also on this. A currency should serve at least one of these 3 goals : being a unit of measurement of value (unit of account), being a value store, being a mean of exchange. Take the USD for example : you can measure your wealth by counting the notes in your pocket or by accounting your assets and your liabilities. It’s a value store because you can put notes in a safe or let a bank doing so with computers. And it’s obviously a way to exchange goods and services. Side note: before being the euro, the euro was the ECU and was only a unit of value. Local complementary currencies are often simply a unit of exchange sometimes also a store of value.
Bitcoin fails to achieve these 3 goals. It’s not a way of exchange because enabling a transaction in BTC is costly (in terms of computer power) and for the common folk involves paying good dollars to do so (you need a broker service). Compared to a Visa card for instance (at least here in Europe), a transaction costs next to nothing (a few network roundtrips).
It’s not a reliable store of value because it’s exchange rate is chaotic and ultimately tends toward zero.
It’s not a reliable unit of account for the same reasons.
The rest of the paper discusses of using bitcoins as an inflation hedging technique but the details are tedious and I don’t have the full article.
So, basically, Taleb’s right but his opinion slammed into the ideological consensus among his peers. Ourselves, engineers and researchers in experimental sciences or reality-applied mathematics, we welcome his heel-face turn.
Can you trademark a God?
Has anyone seen the reports that Disney is attempting to copyright Loki? From what I’ve found out, Disney is streaming a show by Marvel Studios and wants to copyright their version of Loki. People fear that it will tumble over into other usages (and prohibition of use) of Loki.
https://www.distractify.com/p/is-disney-trying-to-trademark-loki
https://www.newsweek.com/disney-denies-sending-cosplayer-takedown-notice-looking-like-marvels-loki-1603204
https://www.piratesandprincesses.net/update-on-disney-copyright-claim-on-low-key-loki-shirt/
What are the karmic possibilities for a person or corporation that does this, as it would seem to be an attempt to control and profit off of a higher being (even if the person/corp doesn’t view it that way)?
Joy Marie
Making your own sourdough bread is definitely worthwhile. Mine is much nicer and healthier than store bread and half the price. Since I don’t have an oven, I bake it in a frying pan with a lid. The steamy atmosphere gives me a thin crust which I prefer to a thick chewy crust. I mix equal weights of white, wholemeal, and rye stone-ground flours which gives me a dense, fine-grained crumb.
If you don’t have a starter it’s easy to make one. Mix flour and water into a thick slurry and leave at room temperature. Every day add more flour and water. After three or four days it will start to bubble. It’s now ready to use. From now on store in the fridge and take 2/3 to make bread with. Keep feeding the remainder and build it up till you next make bread.
Mix starter, flour, and salt in a bowl, and leave to rise (3 hrs). Turn onto a floured board, knead, and leave to rise in a bowl lined with olive oil (3 hrs). Turn into greased frying pan (I use coconut oil). Bake on medium heat 14 mins, flip using plate, 12 mins, flip, 2 mins. Leave on rack to cool. (Experiment to get best baking times and heat settings)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51267567951_63f0ba9bf6_c_d.jpg
I’ve read the recent post on the search for immortality but was unable to comment at that time. It brought to mind some things I’ve been hearing about activated charcoal. This is supposed to be a detoxifying agent and you can find it in skin scrubs, toothpaste, etc. Lately I’ve seen it appear on the supplement shelf at the supermarket also. I saw a video presentation and the speaker was promoting it for detoxifying your system, which he claimed can extend your life 40-50%. I guess the idea is with activated charcoal in your system, it takes the stress off your liver and kidneys, so that they (and therefore, you) will last longer. While he didn’t seem to think you’d be immortal (though he did give a hat tip to the Taoist Immortals), he hinted at up to 140 or 150 years. While I doubt that’s possible, I could see activated charcoal aiding you in living a normal long life if…IF it works.
Has anyone had experience with activated charcoal as a supplement, or know anything about it? Searches reveal what you would expect; alternative sites promote it, mainstream med sites warn against it, or at least claim it’s useless.
Joy Marie
And just one more comment: Erika Lopez (#86) referred to JMG as “Papa G”. That sounds like a rapper’s name (Jay-Z, Cardi-B, Ice-T, etc.). I could just see JMG being introduced at a potluck: “And now, Papa G will rap the SOP…”
Joy Marie
@ Clark
In French, worship is adorer, cognate with Spanish adorar and English to adore. I don’t know about Spanish, but whereas English has both worship and adore, French has only adorer. One verb, two meanings. It is not a problem for us French speakers, since worshippers are adorateurs here, but a house of worship is un lieu de culte. The two meanings are never confused.
I adore Greek gods = J’adore les dieux grecs
I worship Greek gods = Je suis un adorateur des dieux grecs
The worship/adoration of Greek gods = L’adoration des dieux grecs
To adore, and adorar, adorer, come from the Latin ad-orare = to pray to. Orare comes form os, oris, the mouth. To worship a deity is to pray to him/her.
According to my Latin dictionary (Gaffiot, 1934; in French), adorarein Latin first meant “to speak to someone”. It still has that meaning in the works of ancient Latin authors. Then it meant “to speak words of veneration or prayer to someone,“ then simply “worship”. The meaning “to love deeply or very much” is an innovation of the French and English languages.
One factor which wasn’t mentioned here by anybody about the coronavirus vaccines it the dosis given. I don’t know if the dosis given in different countries for the same vaccine differs, but that may be a factor to be reckoned with about side effects.
In addition to Nachtgurkes observations about shortages in Germany, I would like to add that there have been some shortages of some fruits in the fruit and vegetable aisles in some supermarkets, but not everywhere. And besides them, I didn’t have more difficulties than usual at shopping.
Kimberley Steele
I was wondering if you could share the link to your Facebook group? I am not in the US but it sounds great.
Greetings John,
Just something I was curious about.
So in regards to your book covering the paranormal. Do you think there could potentially be aany cases of people being fatally drained by real verifiable ‘psychic vampires’? I mean in spite of them not needing as much as their dead counterparts, would it technically be possible for any type of feeding which is fatal?
If any people have been killed by them I imagine it would be very hard to verify their deaths and most likely it would be blamed on the victim’s ‘health problems’. How would it have to happen and what kind of circumstances involving contact with the ‘psychic vampire’ would it likely be in?
Dear Archdruid, I come to you to ask you your opinion about a somewhat strange and lurid occult-themed phenomenon I have observed recently.
Now as you know, in recent times there has been a large level of enthusiasm exhibited with regard to cryptocurrency. I find the meme-filled crypto culture entertaining, so I occasionally visit various imageboards where the crypto-enthusiasts congregate. The strange behavior I observed took place on one of these imageboards.
What I observed was an enterprising crypto enthusiast going around the imageboards and spreading the idea that in order to make cryptocurrency price go up, the people of the imageboard should congregate together and perform a rather vulgar ritual. Without going into too much detail, the ritual involved the imageboard tribesmen “sexually engaging” with images of various young female e-celebrities who are experienced at cultivating young male attention.
Interestingly enough, I found that the thread got a rather enthusiastic response, with several imageboard tribesmen volunteering to join the ritual. Whether it made the cryptocurrency go up, I did not check afterwards, but I doubt it did, considering how terrible the crypto markets have been for the last few weeks.
Most of all, it struck me how without being prompted, these highly connected 21st century people started engaging in behavior that resembles a ritual in the more iconoclastic occult systems (i.e. left-hand practices). It would be interesting to know what you make of this, given your vastly larger occult knowledge. Would you maybe have any advice to these occult entrepreneurs?
I recently read “The Spiritual Roots of the Tarot: The Cathar Code Hidden in the Cards” by Russell A. Sturgess. I learned that the Cathar way of thinking is a lot like my own.
The last known Parfait of the Cathars, Guillaume Belibaste, uttered a prophecy moments before he was burned at the stake in the second half of the year 1321 (one source mentions August 21,1321 as the specific date while other sources say it happened in autumn of that year). He said, “In 700 years, the laurel shall be green again.”
Any thoughts?
I just thought I might share an observation with you. Over the course of most of 2020 and one month into 2021, it was as though I were hypnotized or under some sort of spell with regard to Covid and the national political situation. I even voted for HideEmbarrass back in November, even though I originally went into 2020 resolving that I wouldn’t. Needless to say, I feel like a total sucker for that now, as it is clear that the stealth-Obama Administration, as I like to call it, has no intention of keeping any of the campaign promises it made to appeal to voters such as myself. My disgust with “Team Blue” is compounded by their zealots attacking conservatives and others on social media who are trying to make the public aware of the benefit of treating Covid with Ivermectin. I’m pretty much done with them now.
Interestingly enough, the period during which I was under this spell almost exactly corresponds to the period of time during which Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto were within at most ten degrees of one another, with the first two planets being in Capricorn most of that time.
Some notes on a carnivore diet:
Earlier in the month I succumbed to an e-copy of the King in Orange, because I couldn’t stand waiting any longer for the paper version to become available in my region. I’m not sorry; it’s a highly enjoyable read and there’s lots of new material although the themes have been covered here many times. I just got to the short piece covering those who try to impose their crank diets on everyone else. So, I thought I’d report on how my own crank diet has been going.
I’ve been working remotely since March 2020 and later that year in response to several bouts of IBS and discussion here – I excluded wheat from my diet. In reality that meant that I bought in several oat based alternatives. My digestion settled down quite a lot, but by Christmas it became clear that oats act on me like a pump on a tyre. I had dramatically inflated.
There have been glorious periods in my life when my weight has been under control. The decade of my 20s when I spent large amounts of time at the gym and possessed a working metabolism, and a 5 year period in the 90s when I was able to get hold of an SSRI drug called Reductil that had failed miserably as an antidepressant but certainly worked as a weight reduction drug. Apart from these moments it’s been a lifelong problem. Unfortunately, working remotely doesn’t help and like others I developed serious additional lockdown weight gains. In something like desperation by the time the rice and beans essay was published I was a few weeks into a close to zero carb diet.
It’s an old idea popularised by the Duke of Wellington’s coffin maker, a man called William Banting. I dropped oats, potatoes, bread, rice, beans, desserts, beer, carrots, sweet potatoes, fresh fruit, preserves, and cheese. There’s a modern version of this approach called the Norwood diet and in terms of weight loss it has worked. I’ve lost half of my lockdown gains and since I’m perfectly happy living on large amounts of meat, eggs, leafy greens and home made saurkraut, there’s no particular reason to suppose that the slow steady decline wouldn’t continue. It costs a bit more but one unexpected side effect is that I never felt hungry at lunch – so I dropped that too.
However, looking at the list I see that most of my verboten food sources are plant based and in any case I’m made of meat. So I’ve announced to my already highly sceptical family that I’m going to switch to a pure meat (mostly ruminant) diet for a few weeks to see if things speed up. I’ll be giving up alcohol and all dairy too, that should help. Coffee? Well there limits, but it will be mostly water to drink with some salt added as it seems people have a tendency to lose electrolytes on this kind of regime. So I’m well down the rabbit hole; if I see any I’ll probably eat them.
Dylan: Specific piece of information (don’t have time to find the graph, I was researching for info to try and persuade my parents, in their 80s, to get vaccinated): in Scotland older and medically vulnerable people were vaccinated first. Once the programme got going the number of people dying over 80 plummeted dramatically (that age group being the only one that had a high levels of vaccination), while death amongst other age groups continued to rise slowly. More generally: The UK now has high vaccination levels, has some level of shut down, and use of masks, and got to a point where there were no deaths from Covid anywhere in the country (for several days I think). Loosening of restrictions, and the Delta variant (much more transmisible) mean that the numbers of cases and deaths have been getting worse. All the MSM reporting and evidence seems to indicate that in ALL age groups vaccination dramatically reduces (but not completely) serious illness and death. For those with serious health conditions it obviously becomes more complicated, but it’s pretty clear that millions of people are dying from Covid infection, millions of people are not dying from having been vaccinated, and people that have been vaccinated are not dying in significant numbers from either Covid or the vaccine. I’m in my 60s and have had both Pfizer vaccine injections, several weeks ago, with no problems (in France!). Good luck!
@ JMG
Re politics
I suppose that I should bring my focus back to my own path, in any event. It is so easy to get caught up in the machinations of the system–very much a bright, shiny object for someone like me!–and while a certain situational awareness is necessary, excessive engagement can be less than helpful to one’s actual work here in this incarnation. Perspective, as I keep reminding myself.
@ John P. Evans, @Weilong
Re chlorination
My knowledge of the water-side of things is limited (my career has largely been on the electric-side of the utilities and I’ve only recently begun getting involved in water & wastewater), but I did bring the question up to one of my colleagues who is far more knowledgeable in the matter. He explained that the water utility is required to meet a certain percentage of bacterial-removal and gets credit for different treatments. While we use chlorine, because we have a membrane-filtration system (versus a sand-filtration system), we might be able to get away with adding UV treatment if chlorine were not available. He also mentioned “ozone” treatment as another alternative. (The source of water also matters: surface water requires much more treatment than groundwater.) Of course, different regulatory jurisdictions may have different requirements. Ours are promulgated by the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) here in WI.
And as Weilong noted, boiling is always a backup. It is standard for water utilities to issue “boil water advisories” when there’s been potential contamination (usually due to a loss of pressure in the distribution system which might allow infiltration of outside water).
I have heard that there are times of energy from space. This is true in the planetary sense, nothing more than astrology, but also in the Hindu Kalpa. That is, energy increases as we fly through the galaxy, hitting eras of Aquarius that are higher than the low-level Pisces, 2,000 or 20,000 years long. As a low-energy human minds get hit with high energy, the become frenetic if they can’t channel it, aren’t able to tolerate the intensity. They then lash out in animal ways. On the flip side, governments and overlords exist only because people are passive, obedient, and generally dim. When they light up, their dominance wanes and they also panic about maintaining control, trying everything to poison human intelligence and re-create the Piscean Age. A fool’s errand for the fools they are. But what else can they do? Stop trying and be arrested?
If so, right now people raised and tuned to a low-energy age are being hit with 10,000 volts and overloading, which seems to be true as it’s happening in lumpy batches and waves.
However, we’ve also heard that the vaccine spike protein is the danger. So people who got that have the same brain fog that Covid patients got or even frustrated emotional outbursts. This may be worse as long CV persists, or maybe even that the breakdown of the molecule may harm the brain similar to Prions. If so, we’re going to be living with such problems and behavior a long time. News article reports unexpected increase in traffic accidents, even though many people aren’t driving to work yet, and miles traveled remains down. That’s exactly what you would see if this were happening, so it’s a good yardstick for mental decay.
However, illogic and frustration reign whenever people are no longer in control of their lives. Since the top wants all control and is doing everything right now to punish self-direction, it’s little wonder people are doing angry, illogical, counterproductive things in a passive-aggressive frustration. Take that! I don’t care!
There’s been some kind of “America” spell worldwide. I don’t understand it. We’ve always been just who we are. Why wouldn’t France or Bali be who they are? It’s an escape from addressing their own history and challenges to focus on and borrow ours, and then claim some of it is our fault. American culture and TV is poisoning them. Ignore it. Don’t watch it! We don’t. Be proud of yourself. Harbor your culture. Like Japan, perhaps, although they’re mixed.
In my experience, food is not really a cost. Cars, insurance, taxes, rent, phones, utility, medical are over 90%. If you cut food in half you’d save 5%. And the best food saves on health. Is it worth it?
“What is the risk of vaccinated people for Covid” Unless vaccines don’t work, zero? If it weren’t zero, why would you take the vaccine? Is this a misprint?
Another bit of recent energy news:
https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/ferc-naruc-unveil-formation-federalstate-task-force-transmission
Necessary, given the natures of the transmission system and our federated system of governance, though we’ll see where it goes. I’ll be interested in watching how the negotiations work between the states importing the power, the states exporting the power, and the states where the power is largely being “wheeled through” (yet whose property is required for the interconnecting lines).
@Molliari
On the subject of cheap food I can highly recommend a book called “Cheap Chow” by Kenneth Lo. I lived on these recipes as a penniless student. It’s long out of print but seems to be available as an on-demand book from the River. It’s largely Chinese food and it was all pretty good as I recall.
Mollari,
I encourage you to look for discounts in the produce and butcher sections of your local (and presumably not too upscale) grocery store. There is often a special section for fruit and vegetables to be sold at big discounts as long as you are prepared to consume, freeze, or dry them very soon. They are often deeply discounted, and are still an excellent source of perfectly good (albeit less desired) food. Try to avoid commercially processed foods. I feel they are often too expensive and offer the body false and sometimes harmful “sustenance”.
Now, having said that, I personally, still keep a few cans of Hormel brand tamales in my pantry that I purchase at the local dollar store. I enjoy them as a nostalgic (and guilt free) treat every now and again.
If you feel your cooking skills are lacking, try to approach it the way professionals teach culinary arts: namely you learn the basic techniques of cooking, such as making stocks (the French word is fond, or foundation) which become the basis for all soups, sauces, and so much more. If you have ever found yourself browning a tough cut of meat, then drenching it in a can of tomato sauce (or beer, or wine or…) covering it and slow cooking it, well then you’ve just mastered the art of braising.
Good luck and bon appétit!
Kind regards,
Court
For the commentariat: I’ve seen a lot here recently on supply chain issues, and am curious about everyone’s “macro” take on what’s been happening.
I’m fairly disconnected from the real economy, and find myself alternating between agreement and disagreement with what I read here.
After COVID (or more precisely, after our reaction to COVID) a lot of the issues we’re seeing now seem to be expected. We had an unbalanced shut down in the economy, now we’re having unbalanced supply chain issues.
Where I seem to differ from many here is that what we’re seeing hasn’t really changed substantially from where we were before.
Kimberly’s points stick with me the most: the effects have been unbalanced towards small businesses. I live in NYC, and I’d add that this experience has happened fractally. Even if you separate national chains, the mom & pops with multiple locations are doing much better than those just starting out.
The big economic boogeyman awaiting us Americans is the day the dollar stops being the world reserve currency. The story there hasn’t changed substantially: the dollar is saying it’s long goodbye, but no alternative is currently ready to displace it on the global stage.
@mark thanks for the clarification on my previous comment. I was using “traditional” in a very broad sense, but you’re absolutely right in your distinction. IMO J&J still involves teaching your immune system to fight off some version of a “dummy” virus. MRNA involves giving your immune system instructions it needs to fight off the virus. That’s the distinction I was focusing on in my decision.
@joshua I’m also a lapsed Catholic, and your comment is really thought provoking. I personally haven’t taken communion in a while. I imagine my experience might be different if I attend a mass now, but thinking back I find myself more affected by the energy of the priest than the energy of the sacrament. I find myself noticing the priest (or bishop in the case of my confirmation!) as affecting the “flavor” more so than the denomination.
Dear JMG and commentariat,
If I might share a meditation:
Frankly I’m very much impressed at how quickly decline seems to have lengthened in the past few months, and how much nature has seemed to grow increasingly hostile to humans. While I’m not surprised by this, I’m amazed by the rapidity of the unravelling. Already, a few years ago seems like another world!
What I find particularly impressive is how much the infrastructure in the United States seems to be in the process of failing: for instance, in RT today there are several stories about buildings and bridges collapsing. Furthermore, it seems that at least some of the vaccines for covid may actually be extremely dangerous and there’s that news story mentioned here of the destruction of a chlorine plant in the PNW with the full on descent of major portions of the United States into the grubbier end of Third World conditions where forgetting to boil water may turn out to be fatal.
On top of that, there are literally witches and warlocks battling each other on every new moon! It seems that collectively have taken leave of the mundane and entered a world that is from the perspective of the old utterly fantastical.
While I’ve never been a particularly big fan of fantasy fiction, I remember your essay JMG on “The Blood of the Earth,” and think of how apropos it seems now! It really does seem like we are all of us living in a pulp fantasy novel, and a rather over-the-top one, at that. It seems that we have really come into a foreign country of the future since the Grand Mutation. This I find the most incredible: the more that people seem to cleave to the old world, the more that a new one seems to burst violently through the seems.
Personally I’ve found this all very painful and hard, but also there’s something exhilarating in the freshness of this new world. It’s not just that an era dies, but also that new possibilities open, although the possibilities are still tender and emerging like delicate blades of grass. The times I can remember this, even in the face of all of the disaster and decay I feel suddenly tremendously alive and life seems like an amazing adventure rather than _only_ some litany of loss. It seems to me that the new forms and opportunities of the dawning era only come through the loss of the forms and opportunities of the old. I don’t want to diminish the loses at all or pretend that they don’t exist, but likewise I don’t want to diminish the sense of possibility opening up in this new era, either. It seems that they both exist as something polar and related: the destruction of what was making room for the creation of what will be.
@Mollari, I can recommend The More-with-Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. It was put together by the Mennonite Central Committee and is focused on eating well but using fewer resources than is common in the West. I’m on my third copy; it’s been my go-to cookbook since I left home in 1989.
One of the best things I’ve learned from it is to use meat as a flavoring rather than a big chunk of the main course. When you’re poor, a whole chicken or a canned ham can seem very expensive, but if you use a little of it a frittata, and a little of it in a stirfry, and a little of it in soup, and a little of it over pasta… I can get four or five meals out of one chicken or ham and that’s for a family of four. Make up the rest of the meal with veggies, pasta, rice, beans, eggs, etc. Also buying spices in bulk if you can is far and away cheaper than buying them in little jars, especially if you’re experimenting with a new spice and only need a little bit.
I can also recommend a website called The Prudent Homemaker. It belongs to a woman who is raising nine children on one salary. She has reams of information about saving money, shopping, cooking, gardening and living well on very little money. Her website is theprudenthomemaker.com.
As a follow up question, if “worship” used to be “worthship”, what did the practice of “worthshipping” look like? Anyone know??
And yes, I have noticed that where I live in Guatemala, the Catholics and Evangelicals have different vocabulary for what they do. The Catholics use “adorar” and the Evangelicals talk mostly about “alabanza” or “praise” as in “praising the Lord”. Since I was raised non-denominational Protestant, this vocabulary is a bit unfamiliar and since there seem to be so many different forms of worship, I am wondering what the word meant originally in practice.
On people behaving badly these days.
I live in D.C.
Northern Virginia which is full of professional managers and their supporters (we are after all a company tri-state area – the U.S. Government) has taken over Virginia as a whole. They passed a Transgender bill which has all schools refer to children by their decided pronouns. A local teacher was put on leave because of his deep Christian beliefs. Then the local county (Loudoun) decided to have a school board meeting about pronouns.
At the same time, they decided to teach Critical Race Theory in the schools to help the Black and Hispanic students feel better about themselves. Loudoun Ct. Gov’t is all white professionals voted in as anti-Trump. (One is the woman who flicked Trump off.) Unfortunately the powers that be didn’t realize that most of the white people in the place are ahem red necks i.e. working class.
Well the um….. hit the fan a few days ago at the school board meeting. You can look it up. It made all the news.
https://news.yahoo.com/pushing-back-hard-critical-race-151600371.html
Loudoun school board meeting erupts over critical race theory and transgender content, two arrests made.
The Tuesday night meeting, which included more than 300 spectators, featured debates on critical race theory and transgender students, though the latter was cut short.
Shelley Slebrch and other angry parents and community members protest after a Loudoun County School Board meeting was halted by the school board because the crowd refused to quiet down, in Ashburn, Virginia, U.S. June 22, 2021.
…..
A board member offered a motion to end the public comment section, which was unanimously approved, though observers then chanted, “Shame on you.”
Superintendent Scott Ziegler urged deputies to clear the spectators out of the boardroom, but many refused to leave.
—–
So I will leave this here. My observation is the law of physics – for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. So, bring out the popcorn.
Kimberly: if prayers are welcome, then may blessings of healing, protection, and strength pour over your friend’s daughter, and may she recover fully in body, mind, and spirit. Prayers also for her family; it’s horrible to have something happen to a child and be helpless to either prevent or remedy it.
@mollari: casserole. A big dish of casserole lasts days, and stretches out anything you had in the fridge to throw in it. A carb (pasta, potato cubes or rice) a protein, a sauce (canned soup, tomato, homemade alfredo, chili, mayo or mustard) and then whatever ends of vegetables you had to use up, including ferments like sauerkraut. Cheese.
Also, learn to fry bannock in your bacon drippings like a good Canadian 😉 Talk about filling… The crisper small pieces last a long time, too. You don’t need berries, you can just slather it with jam if you don’t have any fresh or dried fruit. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/bannock-recipe-2014229
I am reading your UFO book.
I remember listening to Whitley Strieber discuss his alien experiences. At the time, he said he had to choose between aliens or an unknown mental illness. He choose aliens. Since then he has branched out into religious topics such as Jesus. Still trying to make sense of things.
I pondered this and wondered if a part of the alien abduction stories is a new form of mental illness. I do know in my own experience, I has this fear that a ufo would land on my apartment roof in the middle of Wash. D.C. After much work on my mental illnesses, I no longer have that fear. Nor do I expect one to land.
I wonder if this has been considered.
The vaccine issue has troubled me a great deal lately. I had reluctantly decided to get it until I read this article:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/04/the-cdcs-vaers-and-vaccine-complications-the-system-is-broken.html
Since then, I’ve been reading a lot.
What worries me the most is actually not the description of the death itself, but that the doctor couldn’t seem to get anyone at the government health agencies to care. Based on the VAERS data, it seems that your risk of death after getting these vaccines may be 1 in 60,000. That might be acceptable, depending on your circumstances, but when nobody in authority is even willing to acknowledge that there is any risk at all, and instead focuses on shutting up anyone who mentions it, how can you even be sure that number is right?
The double standards have been pervasive and bizarre. At every step in the pandemic we’ve been told to assume the worst and act accordingly, but right now there are 3,916 deaths associated with COVID vaccination listed on VAERS, and we’re told to believe this is just coincidence and “statistical noise”. Ivermectin, a drug that has been around for 40 years has dozens of studies showing its safety and effectiveness against COVID, and they say the evidence isn’t good enough to use it, meanwhile pressuring every person on the planet to take part in a stage 3 drug trial makes perfect sense. Its insane.
So why is this happening? Here are some possibilities that have been proposed:
1. Its all about the money: There’s big money to be made in the vaccines and even bigger money to be made developing bespoke COVID drugs at $3,000/dose. There is very little money to be made in out-of-patent treatments. The drug industry has such a tight control over our government that they are able to suppress and direct discourse towards their most profitable outcomes.
2. We are caught in some sort of mass hysteria whereby irrational forces are driving our decisions. Simon Sheridan describes this idea from a few angles on his blog. One is the idea that once we decided we were living in a “plague story” the story had to be lived out to its traditional conclusion, which in our time means scientists create a vaccine that ends the plague.
3. We started on this path in a panic and are now in too deep to turn back. A lot of powerful people have put their weight behind our current course of action. If the worst case scenario were proven true (The virus escaped from a lab and the vaccine is unacceptably dangerous) there are a lot of careers in jeopardy.
4. This is all part of a secret program to track, control or kill most of the population of the world for the comfort of the global ruling class of ultra rich people.
Personally, I think its a combination of the first 3. I can’t really believe that the people in charge would consciously choose to let that many people die over a few billion dollars, but I agree with Bret Weinstein’s analysis that everyone was so accustomed to favoring expensive treatments over cheap ones that it just happened on autopilot. I do think there is an element of mass hysteria when I hear people describe COVID as an actual existential threat to humanity and view it as their duty to accept vaccination. I also think that the stubbornness and censorship emanating from supposed scientists shows they’re afraid of the consequences of being proven wrong.
What do you all think?
JMG,
I recently listened to The Numinous Podcast episode where you joined and talked about your book “Monsters,” back in March 2018. After listening to it all I became very interested in your book and tried finding it on your Bookshop page and it wasn’t there. Next I searched Amazon for it, and could only find an expensive version at $60+, and I was surprised since most of your Bookshop books are much cheaper. Do you have any more plans to sell your book “Monsters” on Bookshop again, or do you know of any better vendors than Amazon selling it? Thanks.
@jmg
you got a shout out in James Kunstler’s and Chris Martenson’s chat https://kunstler.com/podcast/kunstlercast-345-jawing-about-covid-19n-stuff-with-chris-martenson/
“Problems and Predicaments” is the phrase you were given credit for.
Cool beans!
Jerry
Dear Darkest Yorkshire, the RPG I would most like to play is called ‘Rogue Trader’, one of the lesser-known properties in the Warhammer 40K universe. The basic setup is that in an age of spacefaring and psionics, Humanity is at war with every other major spacefaring race and becoming ever more totalitarian and corrupt. Rogue traders are a kind of middling nobility grandfathered in from a more optimistic era of human history, who are charged with forming peaceful contact and trade relations with nonhuman peoples.
There are multiple reasons I’m attracted to the setting. One is the sheer opulence of playing a noble in a rich but declining civilization where a powerful player might buy and sell planets. Rogue Traders are supposed to make throwing in with humanity look attractive, so even the most spartan among them tend to engage in public hedonism for appearance’s sake. The IP being as old as it is there’s a huge amount of stuff that one could explore, buy, or run from, so it’s a feast for the imagination. As the player takes the role of a vaguely-defined mix of conquistadore, privateer, merchant, and diplomat, the possibilities of how play goes are really huge as well. And perhaps most importantly, the way I imagine playing it is that in a setting where most meetings of strangers are win-lose, the players are required to find win-win solutions – and that would be immensely satisfying to me. I’ve only found one recorded session I enjoyed, which you could check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTSTThSff98&list=PLSJ6kwwJv4NpYi2yJG9M5rKvbTrYAejXm
I haven’t played enough RPG’s to get a sense for a kind of game I’d like to play which doesn’t exist yet, I have only a vague idea of how it would go.
Dear John Zybourne, I hadn’t heard of a Hieronymous machine before you brought it up, but this looks like the original patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2482773
and this looks like a blog post by someone who built one: https://josephmax.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/hieronymus_machine_1/
Both, by the way, I found as sources on Wikipedia if you’re looking for similar stuff in the future.
Nachtgurke, I suggest ochre aka ferric oxide to color your runes. I would only give them blood if I intended to work with the runespirits at a deeper level than common divination (and if I had a relationship established with Odin beforehand). That bit in the Havamal about “better not to ask than to pledge too much, as a gift demands a gift”? That’s Odin talking about the runespirits. But I admit to being overly cautious in such matters.
@Dylan, if you are interested in researching non-vaccine preventatives then the ICU doctors in the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care alliance have put together an evolving protocol: https://covid19criticalcare.com/. They discuss different drug/supplement options and cite their reasons and the studies underlying their current protocol, which gets updated fairly regularly to reflect new trial outcomes. Then you can research those studies yourself and make up your own mind. They also have advice about how to source ivermectin with links to Drs in various countries that will prescribe it. Or, you may choose to go with some other drug/supplement combo. Preventative treatment matters because if you drastically reduce your chances of developing a Covid infection then you also drastically reduce the likelihood of passing it on.
Re the effectiveness of the vaccines, one of the editors in the British Medical Journal did a good job of attacking the dodgy stats in the Pfizer studies a few months ago. You should be able to find it if you search. Anyway, even assuming the vaccine manufacturers did not massage the trials to improve their data, it does seem that even on the manufacturer’s own data the vaccines are not nearly as effective as claimed.
Dylan,
For what it’s worth, I’ve found it helpful to dial down the fear. I do that by comparing my environment to the panic and hysteria in the media as well as by looking at actual numbers of cases. People in my environment are more or less like they’ve always been. Tempers are rising, like they always do in the heat of summer, and young people are being a bit more stupid and aggressive than usual, probably because they haven’t had access to the usual ways to let off steam (clubs, parties, sports, shopping). All in all, things are more or less the same where I live.
Remember what Greta Thunberg said: ‘I want you to panic.’ Well, that’s the media’s motto as well, always has been as far as I can tell. My obstinate, pig-headed self refuses to go along with it. Some people like to panic because it’s the most excitement they’ve had all year (again, no parties, funfair rides, bars or drinking contests, etc).
I can’t speak to the pressure to get vaccinated, as I haven’t witnessed it first-hand (media/real-life comparison). However, my argument there would be that vaccination reduces the severity of the illness but does not sterilise the body against it. Therefore, it should be up to each person whether they want to get it.
One more thing, to all and sundry: I think the media’s ship has sailed. They shape the public narrative but I think they have lost control of peoples minds. They still have many followers, but following and believing are not the same thing.
Regarding water treatment systems and human behaviour :
The Canadian Pacific Northwest also relies on the US chlorine plant for our water treatment chemicals (though if your are in the greater Victoria area, we have a six month store to feed our chloramine plant, since we are on an island, and we evaluated the weaknesses of all of our supply chains again at the beginning of the pandemic… Let’s see what that buys us).
It’s not just the PNW though.
“The problems started last August after a fire crippled production at BioLabs, a chemical manufacturing plant in Louisiana and one of the industry’s leading manufacturers [70% to be exact] of chlorine tablets.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/chlorine-shortage-1.6023708
They never mention the water supply-but your new pool you put in during the pandemic (you did, right?) may be unusable and full of mosquitoes by August.
Here I just see dissensus. Some people have pledged never to stop wearing masks in public, because they’ll never even get colds again. Others – good federal employees, even – have rolled their eyes that September is “back to normal” because they’ve noticed our infection curve this spring was identically shaped to last year, even though 80+% of adults are vaccinated, so the odds are its just the same seasonal reduction in respiratory sickness that will go up again in the fall. Some cities have cancelled Canada day, and others are happily going ahead with the ones they had been planning for a year with their First Nations partners. I’ve never seen so many kids riding bikes around or walking to and from school and hanging at the park trading Pokémon on their own. Still, kids who were kept home this year or were sent to school double masked are still not allowed to play with others and must wear masks at the park, though neither measure has ever been health guidance here.
My block’s party is this Saturday, and I intend to blast Cho Cho Fire by Buffy Sainte-Marie (who I should point out was 72! at this concert, and looked, sounded and danced the same when I saw her at 77). (Also, no, I don’t know if cho cho has the same meaning in Cree when she first heard the main chant at a pow wow and borrowed it… Just go with it… ).
JMG,
I am re-reading your Hali series and I was wondering about the fictional languages in the books. Some of it is obviously taken from existing fiction (Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nfah Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!). But you have expanded upon a great deal of it and (I think) introduces some new languages (Hyperborean from certain periods).
I’m curious how much work you put into those snippets of language? I’m sure they are not Tolkeinesque Con Langs, but did you work out a grammar? Did you keep a word list? Did you base them on real world languages?
AV
Mollari – if you eat meat, offal can be very cheap and add really important nutrients to your diet, while stretching out more expensive ground meat. Whenever we use ground beef, I always blend (I don’t have a food processor) some liver to add in. Also, after you cook a whole chicken or use it to make chicken soup, make another round with all bones and add in some chicken feet. Broth made this way is good eating on its own or as a base, instead of water, for rice, lentils, etc..
Nachtgurke – I believe red is the appropriate color for your rune staves, based on my readings of Galina Krasskova and Diana Paxson.
Yesterdays tragic collapse of one wing of a condo tower in South Florida has many ramifications for catabolic collapse. Back in the 1980’s my wife was a young civil engineer for a large international engineering consulting firm. She was tasked with designing some minor concrete infrastructure for a project in Miami. Her mentor at the firm ( a very experienced structural engineer) told her she needed to design things in South Florida with double the factor of safety she would use in other places because the corrupt construction industry there tended to mix their concrete with seawater. This caused a large reduction in concrete strength and premature corrosion of the rebar. It is my guess that is what played out yesterday. The big issue is how many other buildings in south florida are of the same age and construction type? How many other buildings in the US are of the same age and construction type ( but have a slightly longer expected life due to honest materials). And then how does the issue of insurance play out when peoples condos get condemned. And how does that affect the current real estate and finance bubble?
@Pinghanling (#136)
My father, who grew up on the streets of Rome and was far from the “wokest” guy out there, often made remarks about these structures:
“Beautiful buildings, but never forget they were all built with blood.”
@Breanna (#106)
Same here in the Metro New York area…the unhingedness, as far as I can observe, has been primarily from the maniacally anti-mask and anti-vaxx crowd. But I admittedly don’t get out much…
Axé
JMG, I have read that a big comet, called 2014 UN271, which is estimated to be around 125 miles in diameter, has been discovered, and will arrive at the orbit of Saturn in ca. 2030, where its perihelion will be. It may be relevat to political astrology.
Since this is open post week I hope JMG doesn’t mind me sharing this with the commentariat. I just did a Tarot reading (this is getting surprisingly fun!) today that once again made me sit up.
My question:
9 card MD/TP – Corporations influence on Congress and Presidency overall today? – 6/24/21 – 11:51 am
I’m linking to the result and hoo-boy is it a doozy!:
https://tinyurl.com/bzehz8vd
Outline of method:
I used 9 card Mystic Diamond spread which according to the website “helps you solve a problematic situation.”
I chose Tarotpedia for the interpretive portion because the sentences generally are short and to the point.
***********************
In other words – Business as usual in D.C. I am guessing this is just another typical day by the corporate self-appointed “betters”. This reading is really sour completely across the board. Not a single card indicated anything good or hopeful for the U.S. as a whole by the corporate participants in D.C. today. It’s definitely turned into a cage-match all-out brawl thanks to the long descent. Corporate America is under attack and knows it and is using every trick in the book against the public and each other to fight back.
Oops. Forget to mention that in Mystic Diamond spreads you start at the bottom then (weirdly) read the cards in reverse reading order (right to left).
Hi JMG,
Do you have advice for approaching the writings of H.P. Lovecraft? I have a volume of the complete works ready in the to-be-read-next stack.
In other news:
On the virus front here is a link to a fun analysis of the risk of covid versus risk of vax for the young using, in part, the CDC’s own data. Looking at the data behind the essay I would say the author is on to something.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/delta-variant-as-pretext-for-youth
I read this article a few days ago
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/why-you-hate-contemporary-architecture
Which reminded me of some of your comments on the state of the arts these days,
And this passage from The Shoggoth Concerto
“They criticized the bourrée not because she’d made this or that mistake, but simply because it was a bourrée. The old musical forms were dead, tonality was dead, nothing worthwhile could be said with them any more, they were all just arbitrary rules, music had moved on and Brecken needed to get out of the eighteenth century and join the twenty-first—”
Be forewarned, some of the pictures will hurt your eyes.
One other comment.
I noticed one of the cards said corporate America is winning today vis-a-vis everyone else but it’s coming at a high cost. My guess is that they are winning the battle today but losing the war when it comes to much of the tax-paying public. Even formerly gung-ho defenders of corporations are not as relentlessly enthused about them anymore as they once were (example: MAGA grandpas* in fly-over and poorer states or at least much more sour than they were 20 years ago according to my admittedly still noob tarot readings).
*yes, I did a reading specifically about large corporations and MAGA grandpas for the U.S. and according to the reading MAGA grandpas have a bunch of conflicted emotions and soured opinions on the supposed benefits of large corporations for Americans a LOT.
Dear Pinghanling,
I live in a part of the USA that was not settled prior to late 1800s, and the earliest buildings extant date to early 1900s. There was never any slave labor to build here. (Pre-settlers, this was nomad territory. Inhabited, absolutely, but not settled.)
Earlier buildings are beautiful, ornamented, decorated affairs. Not as richly decorated perhaps as wealthier places (aside from the old Churches) but still beautiful stone, brick, and woodwork.
So I submit that this proves your hypothesis wrong, and suggest that the reason our wealthy today don’t pay for beautiful, durable buildings has something to do with the same deliberate uglifying of Arts that was done in the USA as a Cold War psycological trick. I think the declassified materials may be found on the CIA website, it’s been a few years since I downloaded and read them. And of course everyone just had to copy bad fads, humans being what we are.
It’s a bit harder to be successful as a pop architect than a pop artist, after all: can’t exactly hawk buildings at a craft show like you can paintings or cds if the fad says you’re unfashionable.
@Alex
I would vote for mostly #2 and a little bit of #3. Yes, there are folks who want to control/track everybody and there is money to be made in some industries, but I don’t think the relevant parties have the power to shape the overall zeitgeist.
I like Simon’s “Plague Story” analysis, but to me it is equally overlayed with the “Progress Story”. In the Progress Story, The Past Was Bad is a standard mantra, and that badness is alternately associated with discrimination (e.g. slavery, racism) or with infectious disease. So it is that we must retroactively discredit historical figures, and we must never accept increased deaths from infectious disease. From within the Progress Story there is also the expectation that the savior will be a cutting edge technology, and so believers in Progress will naturally favor new and high tech solutions over cheap repurposed drugs, and many would even willingly accept an equal or higher risk from the vaccine than from the disease, because it is more acceptable to die from an accident of modern technology than from an old, evil, primitive virus.
More thoughts on this at:
http://www.luterra.com/blog/?p=1286
@Jack
The J&J vaccine does not inject a “dummy virus” that generates an immune response. Instead it uses an adenovirus “vector” to deliver genetic instructions to the body’s own cells, which then produce spike proteins and activate the immune system. In this way it is very similar to the mRNA vaccines which use lipid nanoparticles instead of modified viruses to deliver genetic material.
@ Walt F. #115.
You are correct! BOGOF is not the same as 50% off.
10 for $10 does not require you to buy ten items.
Unless it does.
This is where you MUST carefully read the advertisement and ask for clarification at the service desk. My local grocery frequently does sales where you MUST buy 8 cans of X for 88 cents each. Buy 7 cans of X and you’ll pay MORE than if you bought 8, i.e, 1.49 each! Similarly, buy 9 and you’ll pay less OVERALL than if you bought 7 items because you got the super-discounted price for 8 and then #9 rings up at $1.49.
The printed advert will give the details as should the shelf tag. Again, if you are unclear, ask at the service desk rather than wait until you get to the register. The cashier may not know.
Many grocery adverts are harder than they should be to understand. This is to separate the sheep from the goats; the serious, attentive shoppers (who cost the store money by cherry-picking loss-leaders) from the automatons that the grocery industry prefers.
Never forget, price is what matters, not location in the store. That is, the endcap doesn’t necessarily mean the items on it are on sale. They may not be or only some are. The point of an endcap is to showcase the pasta that’s on sale. The jars of sauce, loaves of ready-made garlic bread, and jars of parmesan cheese are NOT on sale, but their proximity to the on-sale pasta will encourage less careful shoppers to toss them into the buggy.
Grocery stores are very carefully designed to make the casual shopper spend casually. That’s why dairy is at the back of the store, forcing you to walk past all sorts of lovely items to pick up a gallon of milk. That’s why bakery is up front, so you can’t miss the delicious smell as you walk past to the milk and all the way back, you think about being hungry.
I want to weight in on MMA vs Aikido/Tai Chi as someone who has spent a good amount of time watching and learning about MMA as a fan in the past. First, I don’t think aikido and tai chi are “fake”. But, that youtube video of the tai chi master getting beat up by the MMA fighter isn’t fake either. I’m pretty sure I recall the Tai Chi master decided to train MMA after the fight.
You can’t take a narrow discipline like Aikido or Tai Chi and put them in a ring against athletes who have synthesized the pragmatic aspects of lots of martial arts. In MMA you’ll see people use moves copied from Tai Chi/Aikido successfully but you’re never going to see a strict Aikido/TC practitioner succeed. At the outset of the UFC that could happen (Brazillian Jiu Jitsu specialists won a couple, but IMO that’s still a lot more practical than Aikido/TC). The specialists spar in a way where people only use the techniques of their speciality; they can’t handle when someone trained in practical fighting deviates from the script.
The UFC is like a petri dish for fighting. The fighting arts have seen a rapid evolution and synthesis through it.
The same thing applies to boxing; boxing specialists would get their behinds kicked in the UFC. Some transition to UFC, but they have to learn other things. Brazillian Jiu Jitsu specialists used to kick butt (and still get some wins) but they’re starting to have to learn other skills to keep up. For the record, BJJ is considered the most practical speciality in UFC.
The UFC is a circus only in the sense theirs a lot of hoopla and showmanship, but the fights are deadly real, and the athletes are top notch.
Here’s an analogy. If a generalist intellectual debated via blog posts some biologist who only knew biology and had very little knowledge/understanding of anything else on some topic other than biology, the generalist would win. In biology, the biologist would probably win (maybe). If you put a UFC athlete in the narrow rules of a strict fighting discipline he would probably lose. Remove the rules; the UFC athlete will win. Specialists, for the most part, only succeed within the limits of their specialty.
Little ways
I’ve once written a fairy tale contrasting little and big ways; in a very condensed and simplified text I wrote about the “think big” and “think small, but kindly” issue (the main characters being potato beetles 🙂 . There is a general tendency to think big but use the same simplified ways/tools of thinking and rhetoric which does not serve the big and peaceful goals well – peaceful ages or peaceful nations or even neighborhoods…
I am not good at thinking big and I do tend to oversimplify or overcomlexify😊 sometimes, so I would like to share a “small, but kindly” way of thinking; which means, for me: Water a plant. Slow your stride down a little bit. Touch a tree, gently. Let the breeze touch you. Offer help to or greet the elderly and mean the greeting. In my language we say “Good day!” – usually not even realizing the obvious meaning. So, I try to greet my neighbors and mean the greeting. These are little drops, but I think they are truly important.
I know I am being a little repetitive here (same topic as in one of the recent open posts), but I deem it important to repeat what seems to be the obvious, yet, perhaps, is not: many people seem to be lost in the quest of searching for the big treasure…they do not seem to look around at (or even try to reach for) the small treasures presenting themselves freely every day.
As I was lucky to capture one of those, I would like to share it: as a thank you for the ideas in the comments to the commentariat and of course, as a thank you for the possibility to have these inspiring discussions to you JMG.
But I do not know how… How can I send an image?
With regards,
Markéta
To all,
RE: more fights than usual
There have been many more incidents on airplanes than usual, despite fewer people flying. The numbers aren’t consistent between articles, but somewhere between a threefold and twenty fold increase in passengers starting fights on airplanes, possibly more if one factors in the fact that fewer people are flying.
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/06/10542851/airplane-fighting-violence-increase-reason
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/southwest-flight-teeth-fight-mask-b1854201.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/passengers-return-air-travel-bad-behavior-skyrockets-78421268
So, yes, people are angrier and more prone to violence these days by a measurable degree. The timeframe is concurrent with covid lockdowns but also with BLM protests/riots.
My suspicions for the proximate causes are as follows.
1) Background levels of general frustration over political, economic, ideological, climate change, and covid issues have all increased greatly in the last year. People have more reasons to be upset about something.
2) Various VIPs in politics and the media have said that one can and should take matters into one’s own hands. ANTIFA says to punch fascists, Trump says you have to fight to stop the steal, and others are basically saying that the police no longer have a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. One can and should go out there frack shale up because the bad people are in charge and their rules should not be respected.
3) Something like Carl Jung’s Wotan is happening in the USA. In Jung’s essay he said of the German faith movement that “the German god was actually the god of the German’s” meaning that the faith the movement had was not in the Christian god but in the German god Wotan. I don’t have any idea who/what the god of the American’s is but it feels like a comparable amount of needless, angry, violent, and crazy animosities are being stoked up.
JMG,
Following up on 3) The TDS Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have a pretty exact counterpart on the right with half of Republicans believing that the Arizona audit will overturn the election results and Trump will be reinstated as POTUS this term. ANTIFA is mirrored by Qanon, the covid is the worst plague ever and I have to wear a mask in my car by myself after getting vaccinated crowd are opposed by equally crazy folks who, for exam, shot a cashier for enforcing a store mask policy. It makes me think of this bit from Wotan:
“Perhaps we may sum up this general phenomenon as Ergriffenheit — a state of being seized or possessed. The term postulates not only an Ergriffener (one who is seized) but, also, an Ergreifer (one who seizes).”
But who is possessing people on opposite sides of any given divide? A large number of otherwise rational people have gone to full on crazy, bats in the attic crazy, on a number of issues and they seem to be mirrored by a roughly equal number of people who are diametrically opposed on the issue and every bit as crazy. So what sort of Ergreifer stirs up people in opposite camps? Janus, the two faced god? What sort of ergreifers are there that have irrational polarization as a fundamental aspect of their being? Because Coyote the change doesn’t seem to fit that bill.
Thanks,
Tim
Populism is not going away, and should be expected to grow in the near future. It feels like Trump will split the GOP, and the ultra-progressives are going to split the Dems as well. This leaves a whole bunch of folks in the middle – likely to prefer populism to the two presented extremes. Populism is fine, especially locally as it is a response to generally stupid federal mandates and policies. I hope another party materializes, but if so it is likely to be semi-crazy rather than centrist.
With the signing of this latest “gun release” bill, Greg Abbott has put Texas back in the previous century, but with many more laws. As a Texan, this feels like a correct step towards heading off any federal bullshit gun laws.Passing gun laws in the face of the 2nd amendment just feeds lawyers for the most part – the gun cow has been out of the barn and produced an entire herd – there is no stuffing them all into the barn. This is a wet dream of the DC-centric federal folks.
As a Texan, I am behind the border control issue – the number of gang types caught, number of abandoned kids rescued and huge volume of fentanyl confiscated are enough that everyone should be concerned. These numbers are NEVER talked about outside of local venues, but as we can only get hold of about 25% of the illegal traffic, the number is likely 75% higher than any statistics revealed. Texas has to get control of this – we have the longest and most porous border. Cali has no border at all – look at where they are.
The oil price picture is worsening and in exactly the fashion I presented here months back: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/unintended-consequences-punishing-big-oil Everyone can see prices climbing – don’t look for anything other than some brief plateaus on the way up.
The western drought is raising feed prices, so meat is unlikely to return to lower prices; the edges of this drought extend into the midcon region, so that will be affected but not talked about. I am glad Mexico is exporting more into Texas – we have no shortages visible for the most part. Government and corporate policies are not helping. Still have no idea why the Oroville reservoir was emptied – it was full enough for 3 years of operation last year.
We are keeping our heads down and working towards off-grid possibilities due to all the insane federal things going on. Texas is not showing much in the way of a “Texit”, but at this point, it will take far less for that movement to gain traction. The border issue and the anti-gun lobby in DC are being met head-on in Texas – if they continue to push on other fronts, the resistance will materialize.
I hope the Vaxes are harmless, but it appears they are not. I elected to go the ivermectin prophylaxis route – no regrets. It appears that most who craved the vax have received it – numbers in my state are fairly static, with just under 40% having got the jab per state figures. I think it likely their estimates are high – more like 25% based on those I know. Either way, what is done is done and no undoing; which is why I chose “no” for any experimental vax.
I’m off to plant some more castor beans and clear some margins for beehives this spring.
I was listening to your recent podcast (People and Collapse from Australia but I probably have the name wrong) and you mentioned warbands of young men who like to fight.
As I recall, you said that warbands get started on the peripheries.
How do city gangs fit into that? How are they different? The gangs in Chicago and LA control territory and must be hand-in-glove with the local politicians.
Thank you!
@Matthias Gralle,
My apologies for being too busy during the remainder of the open post last month to come back and see your question about the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) studies that overdosed severely ill patients.
1. Brazilian study comparing high and low doses of chloroquine (a related compound, sometimes used interchangably with HCQ): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2765499. The high dose patients were dosed at 600mg*2 daily for 10 days. Unfortunately, unlike HCQ, chloroquine has very narrow margins between therapeutic, toxic and lethal doses and also has a half-life in the body lasting months and days in blood plasma. 1200mg (1.2g) is considered toxic for a 60kg person and continuing it for so long would just keep increasing the concentration in the patients. 2.5-3g may be lethal and 4g is generally lethal without early intervention: http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/chloroqu.htm. Symptoms of toxicity include QT prolongation in the heart (which they duly found) and severe GI upset which in already fragile patients, many elderly with significant pre-existing co-morbidities, would probably be enough to kill on its own.
2. Oxford Recovery trial: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031652/. Patients received a loading dose of HCQ 800mg at 0 and 6 hours, then 400mg at 12 hours and 400mg every 12 hrs for 9 days. HCQ has much wider but poorer defined safety bands than chloroquine (it’s perhaps half as toxic: https://entokey.com/pharmacology-of-chloroquine-and-hydroxychloroquine/), so that is approximately equivalent to the Brazilian dosing. A VERY high proportion of the treatment group died and yes, symptoms of acute toxicity such as severe gastric upset and QT prolongation were common.
3. Concerns were raised that the researchers had confused the dosing with Hydroxyquinoline after they referred to using the same dosage as that used to treat amoebic dysentry (which is treated by Hydroxyquinoline at that dosage where HCQ is not): https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-marx-brothers-do-science/). Perhaps it was just a mistake, but the same foundations that helped fund Recovery also helped fund the WHO Solidarity trial which used the same dosing, with the same results (at least they stopped that one early before killing off so many patients) eg: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/history/NCT04330690?V_10=View#StudyPageTop.
4. Then, finally, there is the REMAP international trial: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02735707. Same dosing as Solidarity and Recovery, though only continued for 6 days. However, the patients were all on ventilators, in shock or otherwise incredibly ill. Again, no adjustment for weight, or liver or kidney function (noting many of these patients would be in organ failure and that affects drug clearance rates). This one hasn’t reported any results yet and is still ongoing, but given the outcomes of the previous three studies, the lack of action to amend the dosage is remarkable.
@Pixelated 173: Buffy Sainte-Marie rocks! I had no idea she was still performing.
2 Haliverse questions here, one trivial. The trivial one: Jenny’s trademark is a big mop of mouse-colored hair, and she is a small, thin person. Has she ever thought of cutting it, and why not? A good haircut for her is probably the first thing any woman friend of hers would suggest. And has she tried a camomile rinse for the mousiness?
Big one: how in blazes do you pronounce some of these words in the Hyperborean and other languages quoted so extensively?
I wonder if the uptick in unhinged derangement is especially prevalent in areas and establishments with a high preponderance of PMC liberal progressives? Yesterday I went to my local coop, an ultra groovy wokist supermarket where the vast majority of members/shoppers fit that profile. Everyone in the store (except yours truly) was masked, despite the strict mandate having been lifted in Massachusetts nearly a month ago. It’s as though they were virtue-signaling how abundantly cautious and right-thinking they were. I could sense everyone noticed my nonconformity but likely assumed I was fully vaccinated. Then I visited the local big chain supermarket where most working class and non-PMC folks shop and hardly anyone was sporting the chin diaper!
Apparently the most schooled and privileged are the most gung-ho for strict adherence to what “the Science says”. They have only contempt and scorn for the great unvaxxed deplorables…no surprise I guess. Most would likely prefer I be required to prove my vax status before being admitted sans mask, but there’s no way to pull that off at this point. Could be on the way however.
Meanwhile, the relentless drumbeat of ‘be very afraid’ propaganda continues unabated and dissent is crushed/ridiculed. I have never witnessed anything like this in my 68 years and, as far as I can tell, the pressure continues to build. The community of ecosophians here is truly a saving grace. Thanks John Michael and all who comment here for helping me stay sane.
@Dylan, I’m the one who told the cholera goddess fable (in case you are staying awake wondering ‘who’). Glad you liked it!
Dear team10tim, if I may, have you read “Myths Over Miami”? https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/myths-over-miami-6393117 I think a good case might be made that at least one of the archetypes fueling the current madness in the United States is the Bloody Mary, the devourer of children, and she who feeds on terror. She who is the evil face in the mirror, and hounds all those whose face she sees. The mask relates to this — the covering of the face. Likewise, the great amount of fear, the mental health issues of children, the general madness, and the sense of unravelling seem to me all consonant with her symbolism.
Dear Secretface2097, I’m sorry to read that — you have my sympathies.
Secretface, I can only speak for the city of 201585 inhabitants where I live, but the craziness there is relatively mild compared to what happens in the United States. Wokeness has lately ratcheted up (in advertisements for work, one sees after every profession the addition: (w/m/d) for female, male, divers; and the EM play germany – Hungary was a pretext to display rainbow colors at several places to stick it to Orbán), but outside of buildings, one sees people masked, half-masked and unmasked, and nobody bothers much about this.
About vaccination, many people seem to regard it as a silver bullet. Somewhere I read that someone with a doctor title bristled at the idea that the coronavirus pandemic will end, vaccines or not, because all the historic epidemics ended sometime, even without vaccines.
@ Clay Dennis #188
Your comment reminded me of the sewage pipes in our neighborhood back in South Carolina. Most of the houses had been built at about the same time (the mid-1950’s). The sewage line connecting the houses to the main line was, IIRC, Orangeburg pipe. By the mid-1990’s, the pipes were uniformly failing across the neighborhood.
You could see where the sewage line was, connecting house to street, because of the bright, lush grass growing over top of it formed a clear, straight indicating line. Even during drought periods, this grass remained green.
The sewage lines were built by the house builder long ago. The current homeowner is responsible for replacing the line today. We replaced ours but we had the money available (about $1000?) Many people in our neighborhood didn’t bother until they experienced problems they couldn’t ignore any longer. Or, they waited until the house went up for sale and they HAD to fix the problem.
How many sewage lines are out there, all failing at the same time? Replacing them will cost a lot more than building them did.
@Phutatorius she is one of my all times heroes! – she still does odd shows, usually small, to raise money to go to her while she’s travelling around to the communities she works with.
I’m actually sad that I forgot my favourite “cultural appropriation” story that she told when we had a thread about it. She was hugely influenced by Appalachian folk music (among everything else), and spent a lot of time writing it in her hippy days when she was blacklisted for her anti-war songs.
One day at an indigenous music festival above the Arctic circle in Sweden, an Irish singer approached her with a book of Traditional Irish Folk Songs that she sang both English and Gaelic from. The woman said that some guys (holding their sides laughing) had told her Buffy had actually written one of those ancient songs. It was this one. . No comment, Ireland, lol.
Augusto, I’m familiar with Carrington but I’m rather too old-fashioned to appreciate her art. As for the moon, one second before the moon is full, it’s waxing; one second after, it’s waning. That’s why the full moon doesn’t get a lot of attention — it’s the dynamic process, not the static position, that matters.
Rus, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but my tastes in music are very conventional. I tried to think of something weird I like to listen to, and can’t think of anything.
Rev. OtterGirl, delighted to hear it.
Rus, er, I notice that you didn’t mention the very large subsidies that nuclear plants get, which massively outweigh the taxes they pay. Here’s an article from the Union of Concerned Scientists that addresses that fact. More generally, if nuclear power was anything like as profitable as pro-nuke lobbyists claim, utilities would be building them right and left — and of course that’s not happening, because the gargantuan upfront costs, the expense of running the plants, and the equally huge costs of decommissioning make them white elephants on the grand scale. As for these renewable energy technologies that I allegedly haven’t heard of, care to name them? Or are you simply trolling?
Black Tuna, I lurk and occasionally comment on subs such as r/collapse and r/peakoil, so the moment r/shortages popped up I jumped on there. In 1972 and 2007, a sudden spike in shortages preceded a major spike in oil prices, so I treat shortages as an early warning system for peak oil — and also, on a broader scale, for catabolic collapse. Thanks for the data points!
Michel, that’s interesting about the Appalachians and Carpathians. I don’t happen to know any Druids in central Europe, but some of my European readers may be able to help you. As for Druids disappearing around 100 BC, er, no, I’ve never heard of that; there were still plenty of them in Gaul when Caesar went there in 58 BC, and there were plenty of them in Ireland when St. Patrick arrived there in 432 AD.
Secretface, that’s an interesting hypothesis, and worth considering. Can you think of a way to test it?
Planetpriya, that sounds like a very good way to deal with it!
Chandler, thanks for the data points!
Michael, Japan is doing the right thing. The faster its population declines, the better it will be able to navigate the twilight of the industrial age and preserve as much as possible of current knowledge and technology on the way down.
James, (1) I don’t know. You’d want to experiment. (2) People have been making sun tea for hundreds if not thousands of years, with no ill effects, so I suspect the concern is overblown. (3) That’s a complex question to which I don’t have a simple answer. You’d have to examine the individuals on a case by case basis.
Sebastien, thanks for this.
Joy Marie, it’s not just a matter of karma. Do they really want to get a trickster god with a notoriously nasty sense of humor very, very interested in them? I don’t have any info on activated charcoal; sorry. As for rap, well, as a Mason I was asked to make three distinct raps on a certain door, so that might qualify me for something or other… 😉
Lux, it’s not common but it apparently does happen. Dion Fortune’s book Psychic Self-Defence has a fair amount of discussion about this sort of thing.
Sam, I’m not at all surprised at this. The One-Hand Path, as we might as well call it, has become very fashionable among some strata of young men, mostly (I suspect) because they’re doing the basic activity anyway and are perfectly happy to have another excuse. The vast majority of people I know of who’ve done it got nothing in return but sticky fingers, but it’s still popular, for the reason just mentioned. As for my advice to them, basically I’d encourage them to learn something about the economics of speculative bubbles, and exit their positions before they lose their shirts.
JayT, fascinating. I haven’t read the book in question and I wasn’t familiar with the prophecy, but the Cathar church was revived back in the 19th century — there’s a whole cascade of Gnostic churches descended from that revival, including the one in which I was consecrated as a bishop — and it wouldn’t utterly surprise me if those churches were to see a sharp increase in interest in the years ahead.
Mr. Nobody, interesting. Thanks for the data points.
Adwelly, I’m hoping that in the future people who choose to get into some kind of diet do what you’ve done, describe your own diet, and leave it to other people to decide whether they want to do the same thing. Thank you.
David BTL, politics is a fun spectator sport, no question! For some people, it’s more than that, and I don’t claim to be able to tell who should do that and who shouldn’t.
Jasper, well, we’ll see. Do you have a source for the increase in traffic accidents? I’d like to look into it.
David BTL, thanks for this.
Violet, this is what catabolic collapse looks like when it’s happening. Maintenance costs have risen above what our economy can pay for, and so a great deal of capital is converting itself to waste. But you’re right that it’s also got the Michael Moorcock pulp fantasy vibe I discussed in the blog post you mentioned, and the sense of exhilaration is part of that. I’ll take the liberty of quoting myself:
“If we’re actually stuck inside the pages of a trashy fantasy novel, as I’ve suggested, and all the details of the setting and the plot are in place, where is the protagonist? Who is the hero or the heroine who will turn the pages of the long-lost Gaianomicon, use its forgotten lore to forge a wand of power out of the rays of the Sun, shatter the deceptive spells of the lords of High Finance, and rise up amidst the wreckage of a dying empire to become one of the seedbearers of an age that is not yet born?
Why, you are, of course.”
JMG and all,
Here is the most recent essay by Charles Eisenstein: “Fascism and the Anti-Festival.” Very good way of thinking about the whole Covid phenomenon. I’d be interested in hearing what you think of it, JMG, if you have time to read it. There is a Part I, but it’s not necessary to read it first to understand Part II.
https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/girard-series-part-2-fascism-and-the-antifestival/
JMG, Bridge @1 mentions another blog of yours. Where is it? I can’t find the text quoted anywhere….
I mean this text:
“there’s something very disturbing about the socially approved reaction to the virus. The word that keeps coming to mind is “fey,” in its original sense — the weird attraction that leads people to stroll calmly toward their doom.”
Thanks in advance!
@Joy Marie, regarding attempting to copyright a version of Loki:
“What are the karmic possibilities for a person or corporation that does this, as it would seem to be an attempt to control and profit off of a higher being (even if the person/corp doesn’t view it that way)?”
Blowback of an entirely devastating and unpredictable nature, perchance?
@Tim:
“I don’t have any idea who/what the god of the American’s is but it feels like a comparable amount of needless, angry, violent, and crazy animosities are being stoked up….So what sort of Ergreifer stirs up people in opposite camps? Janus, the two faced god? What sort of ergreifers are there that have irrational polarization as a fundamental aspect of their being? Because Coyote the change doesn’t seem to fit that bill.”
According to Jung, all archetypes can manifest both positive and negative polarities.
That being understood, I would nominate Loki as being an especially strong contender for that role.
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is an entertaining read for some insights on the subject.
On a related note, The Watchers, the apocryphal egregoroi in the Book of Enoch who bequeathed the arts and sciences to humankind [resulting not only in stained glass windows in Gothic cathedrals, but also to nuclear fission and genetic manipulation of viruses] come to mind.
@ James # 149. We’ve made sun tea for decades and never had trouble as long as it got drunk promptly.
We’ve even forgotten the jar and left it out overnight.
I will say you should refrigerate your sun tea and drink it relatively quickly.
The only time we’ve had a problem (and my daughter likes to experiment with bunches of herbs, sweeteners, varieties of tea, etc.) was when the tea didn’t get drunk within a few days and eventually developed bacterial growth.
I think it took a week or more to start showing issues.
Dear JMG, those are excellent points and thank you for the heartening words of your quote! If I might be so bold, I’d like to share an essay I wrote up concerning the archetype of the Devouring Mother that many have noticed in which I speculate that the specific archetype may be that of the Bloody Mary. In it I also speculate on some of the possible identities of the Blue Lady: https://violetcabra.dreamwidth.org/150741.html
Peter Zeihan is channeling the Archdruid a bit.
Other than a brief introduction, it’s a video.
https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/the-end-of-more
@ 1:21
“… the world that we are entering into is something fundamentally different from what has come before and the era of globalization is almost over”
@ 2:15
“global consumption is peaking right now, global production is peaking right now, and global capital supplies are peaking in the next year. We don’t have an economic model for the new reality that we are in”
Also had an interesting presentation in a meeting today:
Queued Up: Characteristics of Power Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection As of the End of 2020
https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/queued-characteristics-power-plants
TLDR: Lots of solar and battery storage in the interconnection queue.
@RusTheRook,
You peaked my interest with the ” various kinds of renewable energy that Greer has not heard of” line. I have to disagree with you because from a Thermodynamic point of view there is only one kind of renewable energy,which is the energy that falls on the earth as it is radiated from the Sun. It is collected in various ways such as Hydro via the water cycle, or biomass through plant growth, or direct photovoltaics but that is it. If you dig it up, or convert one element to another it is by definition not renewable. So maintaining a stable human culture on earth ( notice I did not say civilization) boils down to learning to live within the energy budget provided by the sun and leave plenty of energy untouched for the rest of the plants and creatures on earth to use. Just so many watts of energy fall on each square foot of the planet and that is it. We have been able to cheat for the last 200 years by digging up and using the stored energy from previous eons, but that is nearly over. I personally think that gift of fossil fuel was a test. Could humans be mature enough to use a huge gift from the planet to build a permanent sustainable culture that could then continue on within the earths solar budget for centuries. I am afraid we failed the test, we used it for Jet Skis, Freeways, Disneyland and Suburbia and now it is almost gone. No amount of computerized technology will change things. We stepped up to the plate and struck out. Now we will learn how to live within the solar budget of the planet the hard way.
JMG – that is reassuring as I have exhausted the alternatives – mentally at least and a garden and a small allotment is a great privilege that I do have access to and this year it’s thriving as a result of the extra attention.
@Secretface2097
I’m American. I’ve noticed we are also not allowed to admire our country, at least not according to much of the mainstream media and their audience. Now, as a recovering liberal who never belonged to the “We’re Number One! USA!” camp, I nevertheless always found the self-hatred liberal Americans have toward the US odd. I’ve been deeply troubled by the incessant messages that we are dumb and should be ashamed of ourselves. Many of us are culturally and spiritually homeless as a result. We bought into the message for reasons that were well-meaning and extraordinarily empathetic but ultimately misguided. The message is that we are essentially born in sin, that we cannot rid ourselves of this sin, that at best we can exist in a constant state of shame. Sound familiar? It’s the shame that will set you free, the message goes. Despite having experienced my fair share of poverty, I bought into a great deal of this for a long time. The past decade, and especially the past year, has been humbling to say the least.
What gets me is the shame they ram down the throats of the average citizen when we should be pointing up the ladder, because without fail the same groups have been running the show for hundreds of years or longer. The structure changes–sometimes they use communism, sometimes democracy–but the rulers largely remain the same. Scratch the surface and the same names are moving the pawns and using the media to foment discord. It’s all an easy formula: get them to fight amongst themselves and grab the money and power while they’re distracted. Get them to abandon their culture for shame so they have no culture, no spirit, no anchor. Let a generation pass on, then wipe out their names and their memory. Write history. Repeat.
Thanks Oilman2 (#187) for your comment about choosing Ivermectin as a prophylactic protocol for covid. Would you be willing to share a little more about that? Were you working with a local physician who agreed to work with you? Is Ivermectin readily available with a prescription and what is the dosing? Here in uber-compliant Massachusetts I doubt I could even find a doctor willing to prescribe…it’s maddening!
Mollari, –
I second the recommendation to invest in a crock pot. Where by “invest” I mean spend a few dollars at a thrift store or yard sale. Crock pots (or “slow cookers”, to use the non-brand name) are very handy for cooking on a budget, and very easy to find second hand.
I am also going to disagree with our esteemed host on the matter of bread makers (as I believe JMG has posted about not liking them), and suggest you also keep an eye out for a second-hand bread maker, and/or see if a friend or relative has one they no longer use.
While it’s true that bread-maker bread is not quite as good as an oven-baked loaf, and while I do also recommend learning to bake it yourself, I am still of the opinion that bread makers have their advantages. One, you may not always be able to be home to knead and bake bread, and you can set a machine on a timer to do it for you while you’re at work or asleep. Two, if you live somewhere that gets hot in the summers, not having to turn on the oven and heat up the whole house/apartment to make bread is a big benefit. The machines don’t use a lot of electricity, and if you can score one for a few bucks at a yard sale or thrift store, I think they are useful and can save you money over buying bread. (By the way, if the machine comes without its instruction manual, just do a google search with the machine’s make/model and the word manual, and you should be able to find a pdf online, no problem.)
I’ve been baking (or having the machine bake) almost all of my own bread for years. In cooler months I do it in the oven if I have time, but when it’s hot out, or if I’m really pressed for time, I just dump the ingredients in the machine and press a few buttons. And I’ve never bought a new bread maker, either. My first one was $10 at a yard sale, and, when that one finally broke after a number of years of frequent use, a friend gave me her cast-off, which I’m still using, plus I have a back-up cast off from a relative sitting in the basement for when the current one finally gives up the ghost. The savings of buying flour and yeast instead of pre-made bread add up, you have to use some sort of fuel (electric or gas) whether you use an oven or a bread machine, and I’m sure that I’ve long since made back my original $10 tag sale investment.
Someday electricity may be more expensive and cheap/free cast-off machine less readily available, but for now, I find my second-hand bread machines quite handy and thrifty.
El
Progress?
https://www.change.org/p/blue-origin-petition-to-not-allow-jeff-bezos-re-entry-to-earth
@ Robert Mathiesen – Many thanks for your advice. For a start, I’m going to stick with the traditional names of the runes, indeed. I got a first round reading and writing down what I found out about each rune and then went on to meditate on each rune. I found that I got the most significant results when meditating on the name and the shape of the rune alone. I’m also using geomancy for divination but I don’t find it very informative for readings of the “what do I need about today”-kind. So that is, where I’m going to start with the runes.
@ Jeff Russel – I thought about making round chips as well… somehow I landed at a rectangular shape. Olive is a very beautiful wood! It seems to be an almost syncretistic choice for you… And regarding the color I came up with an almost identical solution. I’m using a lacing based on linseed oil for my beehives which is colored red with ochre pigments. I’m not going to add any blood, though.
@ Secretface – You’re most likely right. Funny thing is they’re all screaming about the 16ct price increase which is proposed by the Green party – but they somehow forget to mention that the others are aiming for 15.5ct… One could argue that what the Greens have written about how to use the money sounds better than what the others say – but then I’d say look at what the red/green government under Gerhard Schröder had written in their programs and how they stick to it during legislature…
@ Booklover – I have observed the same thing. Additionally, I noticed that Aldi had to switch to other brands than their own for certain products to maintain their range of goods. A few articles were completely missing for a while. Currently everything seems to be normal again.
@ SisterCrow – Many thanks for the advice. I have the same feeling about using blood although I could not put it in words. And as I wrote to Jeff above – I’m indeed going to use ochre for coloring 🙂
@ Ip – Thank you and see above 🙂
Joy Marie (#154): way back in the 1960s my father was prescribed activated charcoal to absorb stomach acid to avoid ulcers. Apparently the doctor felt it had fewer side effects than aluminum or magnesium based antacids. My father made it to 82, which is pretty good considering the opportunities the universe had to take him out much earlier (e.g. he spent part of WWII in a Nazi prison camp).
Clark, well, there are plenty of books on the practice of medieval Christianity in England, so that might be one way to find out.
Neptunesdolphins, if what I’ve seen is anything to go by, Republicans are drooling over the prospect of defining Democrats as proponents of Critical Race Theory, since the great majority of Americans (including a great many people of color) reject it outright. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Dems start backing away from it. As for UFOs and mental illness, I don’t know that anyone’s explored the possibility that it may be a distinctive pathology. It’s certainly worth considering.
Alex, thanks for this. I saw that report when it first came out — I follow Naked Capitalism as a nice balance to ZeroHedge — and drew the same conclusion you did. You can’t be sure the numbers are right. That’s why I don’t intend to get any of the vaccines, and why a great many other people have come to the same conclusion.
Dan, it’s temporarily out of print. A new, expanded, and even more monstrous edition will be forthcoming from Aeon Books this autumn!
Jerry, glad to hear it. That was the first of my memetic workings to take off.
Pixelated, many thanks for the data points.
Anthony, the phrases in Aklo are simply made up to sound like they belong to the same language. Hyperborean, on the other hand, I worked out in detail; it’s not based on any existing language, though I had the help of regular commenter Robert Mathiesen to make sure the grammar and phonology were plausible. Yes, I have a word list and grammatical notes for it.
Clay, hmm! I didn’t know about the seawater, but that really does figure. Catabolic collapse, taken in a slightly more literal sense…
Booklover, interesting.
Panda, thanks for this. Glad to hear you’re finding the tarot entertaining!
Eric, don’t try to read more than one at a sitting — his use of language is very unfamiliar to modern readers — and keep your sense of humor handy. Not bad advice when reading CDC press releases, for that matter. Thanks for the link — the author makes a very good case.
Bill, thanks for this. I saw it already, and yes, they’ve chosen some gut-churning architectural failures. As for the bit from The Shoggoth Concerto, yes, it’s the same thing — Brecken was fortunate that her talent was for composition, as a talented architect who likes classic styles gets to flip burgers for a living.
Youngelephant, in early 20th century China, practitioners of taijiquan hired themselves out as bodyguards; my teacher’s teacher was one of the bodyguards of Chinese president Chiang Kai-Shek after the latter fled to Taiwan in 1949. They had to be able to handle everything that other martial artists could throw at them. That’s why I say there’s a lot of really inept taijiquan these days.
Marketa, thanks for this. You post images by uploading them to a website and then posting the URL.
Tim, I ain’t arguing. I’ve had to explain to Trumpistas more than once that under the Constitution, it doesn’t matter if Biden’s election turns out to be completely fraudulent, he’s president until and unless the House impeaches him and 60% of the Senate votes to convict and remove him. They really, truly don’t want to hear that — just as the Qanon people kept on clinging to one excuse after another to believe that Biden wouldn’t be inaugurated. As for who’s involved in the Ergriffenheit, do you recall the legend of Cadmus and the dragon’s teeth?
Oilman2, trust me, I’ve been watching the price of oil closely. I’ll be posting on it soon, as we’re fairly close to a familiar kind of crisis, but next to nobody seems to be aware of that!
Teresa, urban gangs have existed as long as there have been cities. The current set are simply the latest run from that particular mill. It’s the rise of warband culture on the peripheries that marks the beginning of the process that ends in a dark age.
Patricia M, a certain fraction of women who aren’t conventionally attractive go out of their way to ignore the usual advice. Jenny is one; I’m married to another (and wouldn’t have it any other way). Jenny leaves her hair loose and mousy for the same reason that she doesn’t wear makeup except on social occasions. As for Hyperborean, well, can you give me some examples? I can walk you through the pronunciations.
Jim W, I’ve noticed the same thing. Virus panic seems to correlate directly to income — which is itself a fascinating thing to watch.
Lydia, thanks for this. If I have time to read it I’ll let you know.
Mario, that’s my Dreamwidth journal.
Violet, I’ll give it a look as time permits. Thank you!
BCV, it’s been one of my amusements for years now to watch ideas that I introduce out here on the fringes trickle into the mainstream. Heh heh heh…
Planetpriya, glad to hear it.
@Darkest Yorkshire #4
I managed to stay away from Tabletop Rpg’s until I got to college (I wasn’t a nerd, you see. I liked Star Wars and Comic books like normal people ;D). Then in college, I got introduced to D&D 3.5 and the New World of Darkness game lines and a new love was born. But, because my friend groups back home didn’t play and none of the hobby shops in my area ran non-Wizard’s of the Coast campaigns, I’ve been forced to imagine what it’d be like playing with other people while buying the setting books of various game lines because I enjoy the lore. I’ve been subsisting on Actual Play podcasts and like ever since. Hopefully I’ll find a group that fits me someday.
Some RPGs I like these days are the Wild Talents RPG (2nd edition) which is a “superhero” style game that explores alternate histories and what life is like in a super-world. Any Powered by the Apocalypse engine game is worth a look to me because of the game’s simple yet deeply expansive design. The World of Darkness always holds a special place in my heart, so I always keep an eye out for new releases from them.
Anyway, as for the question of RPGs I’d like to see or thought of writing, I’d love to see a Fast Food Wars style RPG set in Spaaaaaace! Players either play the alien entrepreneurs that sold out their people (and the food stuffs their bodies make) to get a leg up on the fast food corporate ladder (called the Corporate Food Chain, of course) or freedom fighters that band together to resist the corporate regime trying to turn the Bee people of the Honey Planet into wage slaves for Big Honey Corp. or what have you. The scale of play can vary anywhere from expansive space operatic battles between the fleets and armies of mega-food corps to small personal stories of struggle in the remote villages of the Banana Republics that now span the universe.
Another RPG I’d like to see and thought of writing is something I’m calling Fantasy Heart Breaker, the RPG. For those not familiar, Fantasy Heart Breakers are games who’s basic premise are “What if D&D, but better?” and that’s it. They’ll usually have one cool idea buried somewhere beneath layers of 3rd edition rules minutiae but otherwise are completely unoriginal and forgettable. The premise of the game, then, is that players are all playing generic fantasy characters in a generic fantasy setting but also collectively embodying the poor game designer who is trying to make his game cool and unique and different. The goal would be to flesh out the fantasy setting and the characters through collaborative creation in play by filling in the half-filled character sheets with interesting details and back story as the game unfolds. The gal playing the Elf Archer, for example, could inform the group that, “elves in this setting are known as A’Qua Fen, which means Fishers of Men, because they are in fact aquatic elves and hunt by spearing unwary humans that stray too close to lakes and rivers.” It’s collaborative world building in the same vein as a Powered by the Apocalypse game so everyone has buy-in to the setting as it gets made at the table. We can even throw in a mechanic that rewards and motivates player creativity with bonuses every time someone fills in their character sheet or uses their back story creatively in game.
Here’s a question for the more mythically literate among us: can anyone explain the relationship of Saturn and Prometheus and what the following line in the Orphic Hymn to Saturn suggests?: “Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wise.”
Dylan, to take one piece of information from one of Kimberly’s videos, 5100 deaths allegedly caused by Covid in the USA.
There have been 320,000,000 vaccine injections in the USA. That means there is 1.6 chance in 100,000 of death, per injection, and that is only if all the deaths mentioned above were caused by Covid (and assuming I got my arithmetic / zeros correct!)
To put it another way, in the USA:
There have been 34m Covid cases, and 618,000 deaths;
There have been 320m Covid vaccination injections, and 5,100 deaths.
Go figure!
Regarding craziness, apart from the occasional unauthorised rave party, due to restrictions (that appear to be reducing illness and death), that become crazy (usually due to police violence), things are pretty calm here in France. I live in a city of 300,000, and have just cycled through the city centre, at 11pm, from having a drink with a gay social group. Everyone pleasant, streets peaceful, after a balmy day in the low 20s C (70s F). I was a volunteer at the city’s Gay Pride March (around 2,500 people) just last Saturday. Went off without a hitch.
Re: Valneva VLA2001 Covid vaccine:
Valneva’s approach to making a COVID vaccine is indeed one of the usual ways that vaccines are manufactured. The manufacturer’s website points out that they are making this vaccine in a facility that has been making Japanese Encephalitis vaccine with the same process for 10 years– ie., this is not a fly-by-night operation.
The Phase I, II, and III clinical trials look pretty standard, and they are reporting good results.
The next step in the process is to vaccinate the general public and see what happens.
Viruses can be very different in the ways they interact with larger beings like us, so its not a given that this vaccine will work better than the vaccines we already have, or that it will have fewer side effects.
No one knows the duration of immunity, if it generates immunity. That usually can’t be estimated until 10 or more years after it has been on the market.
Any vaccine has adverse effects. Are the side effects/risk of death/disability worse for the vaccine or for the virus? That’s the crucial question here. Hopefully we can all muddle through…
Talking of ignoring the insane murmurings I have just been sent this which would have seemed like it was straight outta science fiction not that long ago but that’s our era apparantly – straight from the uk government website – all I can hope is that this stuff will fail epically and cause a mass movement away from such explorations
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/human-augmentation-the-dawn-of-a-new-paradigm?fbclid=IwAR3VYtqDb0ZOMzQcefrzu9qjS_nAMnyqBSaWqEF6mlHPmceUuCLDdgiE0yc
JOY MARIE-
yes! maybe because i do listen/dance to rap/hip hop, “Papa G” just came to me like it was hella OBVIOUS one afternoon. i figured he’d clip me or allow me.
(and Papa G, i thought YOU had to insert the URL thingie on the cards. i’ll do it later.)
x
It’s certainly easy, as Martin Back noted, to make your own starter. However, starters vary enormously from one culture to the next, depending on which particular yeast(s) is(are) living in it. And your choice of yeasts (in practical terms, your choice of starter) will greatly affect the taste and texture of the loaves you make. This is why it’s better to get some starter from a fellow bread-maker whose sourdough you already know to be particularly delicious. There are definitely “dud” yeasts out there in the air, and there are also regions where all the common yeasts are “duds” and yield inferior sourdough bread. Experiment if you like; you may be lucky enough to live where newly made starters have the yeasts that it takes to make your bread delicious.
Starters have pedigrees, and often their pedigrees are known by the afficionados who use them. The pedigree of the starter we used to use, back in our baking days, was known to reach back in her family as far as the California gold-rush days (that is, the middle 1800s).
Thanks, JMG – I’ll be glad to dig up some Hyperborean to run by you. Here in sunny Florida, we’re in the middle of what I think is Tropical Storm Claudette – downpours, thunder and lightning – Thor rules this week! So I disconnected my computer and took a nap with an ibuprofen in me, thanks to some serious bridgework where the stub of a broken tooth had been extracted. I hope Rhode Island is having decent weather.
http://erikalopez.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/tarot-2.jpg
http://erikalopez.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/tarot-1.jpg
JMG,
I have another question about reincarnation. To what extent are we able to make choices about (or influence) who we are and what happens to us in our next reincarnation? And if we do have an influence, do we exert during this lifetime (through karmic deeds) or do we exert it between lives?
@ Jim W RE: ivermectin
I used to train labs for field trials, and kept 24 dogs at a time most of 2 years. You gotta give them ivermectin or heartworms from mosquitoes will kill them. I got the ivermectin from local vet supply.
This stuff I bought as bovine. The dosage is by weight, and clearly written. I just used the same dose as recommended for canines monthly. Mixed it in milk or cream and drank it. I did this after talking with friends in Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.
US medicine is hugely messed up. I was told by a PA, NP and ER nurse that contracting tetanus was fatal. Not only that, but not getting the DPT vax for tetanus made me 1000x as likely to contract it. There are annually less than 12 cases per year in 370,000,000 – as I doubt whooping cough or diptheria are likely to affect me, I said no DPT shot. Whaddya know – I did not contract tetanus. If I had, the cure is tetanus immunoglobulin.
I kid you not – these people are as mal-informed by their peers as ditch diggers from where I sit. I avoid hospitals as best I can for that reason. You can buy animal ivermectin same as you can but animal antibiotics. There is no special “animal product” drug manufacturing – same plants put out meds for animals and humans. Chances are a rural feed store will have it – just steer clear of vets because most of them only treat pets and simply refuse o sell it. I assure you no rancher is loading his animals up to take a herd in for shots or paying a large animal vet to come to the ranch and do this.
Only take it if your job exposes you or you are just too paranoid. I took it for about 6 mos, once a month. Done with that because everyone is basically over it at this point.
Bridge, here is a link to my Speakeasy Illinois Politics and the Speakeasy Illinois group, which you are welcome to join:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/279117997210977
https://www.facebook.com/groups/speakeasyil
Sister Crow, yes, prayers for her are welcome.
Here is a fundraiser by the grandfather of the victim:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-my-granddaughtera-victim?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
Someone asked me which vaccine stock do I like. Between shoeshining and the rentier class, she’s closer to shoeshine.
Re: copyrighting the gods – Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch explored that idea in his comic book series, “The Authority”. One of the heroes named The Doctor, who was a kind of a world shaman, got his powers from the spiritual plane.
When he was temporarily defeated, the marketing men moved into his sacred grove and created a “Religimon” – a god who was mass-marketable with universal appeal. A short while later the gods reasserted themselves and converted all of the invaders to their religions. (“Sir, the guy we’re trying to kill keeps getting up and saying he forgives us.” “Shoot him again.”)
It’s a cracking good read, full of symbolism and comic book references, about what might happen if the superpowers actually took on the billionaires who run the world.
@Molliari
One good source for cheap recipes is the Amish/Mennonite world: I specifically recommend the website “Mennonite Girls Can Cook” and the cookbook “More With Less.”
Personal advice (I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than your budget per person on food, and have often spent much less).
Learn to bake bread, and learn where to buy flour in quantity – if you can buy 25# bags of flour it is the cheapest foodstuff in North America. It should cost less than $1 Canadian per kilo.
Eggs are the cheapest animal protein.
Frozen vegetables are much cheaper than fresh in most cases.
Spices are worth the money if they keep you from buying prepared food. It’s easier to buy spices for one cuisine at a time, and ethnic groceries are generally the cheapest place.
If I may weigh on on the subject of taijiquan and MMA, as a taiji practitioner who has practiceda number of other fighting arts–
First of all, the “tai chi master” who lost to the MMA fighter was a fraud, and a well-known fraud. That was part of the point of the fight in the first place– The guy did things like film himself holding a bird in his hand “with his qi” for Chinese government TV channels, when the bird was actually taped to his hand; it was a stage magician’s trick that no self-respecting stage magician would actually try to get away with. If you watch the fight, it’s clear that he has no idea what he has doing, and has probably never been in an actual fistfight in his life.
That said, there is a lot of similarly fraudulent tai chi out there. And there is also a lot stuff that’s taught as tai chi that is simply a movement art. In traditional taijiquan, the forms are a part of the practice, but only a part. These days, 90% tai chi instructors will teach you forms and forms only. And that’s actually very good, if what you want is to develop peace of mind, tendon and joint strength, and physical coordination. If you want to fight, you need to follow the traditional path, and move on from forms to push hands, and then from push hands to sparring. In the US, some instructors know how to teach that, but most don’t, and many of those that do don’t teach it anyway, because there simply isn’t much of a market for it. Most of the students who come to you are coming for meditation and health reasons, not fighting.
There is another issue here, too, though. A formal fight, like a UFC match, is not the same as a real-world self-defense situation. This is easier to understand if you imagine it in terms of warfare. Suppose the United States and Russia go to war, which God forbid. But suppose, further, that they determine at the outset that the war will commence on January 14, 2022; that it will take place entirely within the territorial limits of Ukraine; and that hostilities will cease on September 14, 2022, provided neither country surrenders before then. The countries further agree that each military will be limited to no more than 500,000 and no fewer than 475,000 personnel and that certain techniques, including tactical nuclear weapons, poison gas, the release of biological agents, assassination of enemy commanders, or attacks on the civilian government of either country, shall be prohibited, with automatic surrender the penalty for violation.
Of course, such a war would not happen. But does anyone suppose that if it did, it would in any way resemble the sort of real war that might come about through an event like an American attack on Russian forces in Serbia or the like? Does anyone imagine that wargames held by either country’s general staff based on a scenario like that would yield any information useful for fighting in an actual war?
In the same way, a self-defense scenario or street fight is, emphatically, not the same as a UFC fight, a boxing match, a duel to the death, or any other pre-planned sport fight. Techniques that work in the UFC are not useless in a real life self-defense scenario, but they relate to it in about the same way that the techniques used in my imagined 9 month war between the US and Russia relate to a real war.
Kimberly Steele, Gaiabaracetti, Michael Miller, TamHob, Eldritch Piglet: Thank you so much for weighing in, with calm, clear words and helpful references. I hope to have the time to delve more deeply into these clues soon.
My main concern right now is balancing my need to act cautiously around a poorly-tested vaccine and my loved one’s need to suffer her illness without undue fear or risk of contagion from me. The risks to be weighed for each of us are just totally different. Like I said, she has had two Pfizer shots and I am grateful for whatever protection the vaccine can give her, but I don’t know if that will be enough if I am around her in an unvaccinated state.
Preventative treatment, with ivermectin or something like that, sounds like a promising idea that I hadn’t considered yet, but have heard mentioned before. Whether it will meet the approval of my vaccinated family and friends is of some importance in the current situation.
Ron M, thank you for the fable and for piping up to claim it! Yes, I found it helpful.
viduraawakened,
All subjects are open to exploration and discussion. What we’re trying to accomplish initially is a place where would be scholars can present their research, papers, or interests to each other outside the normal academic route. You can e-mail me at v b h a s k a r s e e @ g m a i l . c o m and we can discuss it further if you’re interested.
Varun, I am very interested in your project. I have a decent knowledge of sanskrit. I know of a few scholars who can help with some forgotten knowledge and interpretations of texts and practices. (Can you post the link for your blog/podcast here? I remember you posting the link a few weeks ago but I lost it)
Vidurawakened, classical music is an under-explored source of occult wisdom! The ragas and swaras trace their origins to the singing of Sama veda verses during Yagnas to make the Devas happy.
man, i really needed this open post. i’m going through madness but i’m surfing it. i’ll explain in a moment BUT my QUESTION IS:
Papa G, is this tarot thing about making NEW STORIES??? but if we’re repeating history, then this isn’t new, yes? but this feels to me like you’re teaching us how to make NEW STORIES at a fertile time for them to take.
i’m asking this because i’m reading back and forth between your “Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic” translation, and the Alejandro Jodorowsky’s book on his Marseilles interpretations, and seeing more clearly HOW you’d transmute this information into the Real.
i say this because i’m full on living life with drama like it’s actually a stage and i’m doing secret improv out in public and the exhibitionism, the visibility, is keeping me emotionally AND THUS PERFORMATIVELY very painfully–and needless to say, PUBLICLY– honest.
i’m doing this because it’s not enough to write my ideas, especially nowadays; i must live them out in the open. but it’s hella dangerous. i’ve already brought a half dozen people to their depths and it’s not going so well in the short term but i think it’s necessary in the longer term.
or i could just be a crazy girl with “Leo” in her chart at least 5X and she’s taken megalomania to new heights.
but i beg to differ with myself, for i feel like even the cheesiest most general tarot on utubes are even amazingly accurate regarding stories and i never really believed in this stuff. but now i’m at home.
it’s not scary. it’s …it’s exciting.
so is that what this tarot thing is about? because i tried to upload or give you links to the art i did on the backgrounds, and in considering how i felt about what colors to do, i realized that the “bad” cards are now celebratory cards for me all the sudden, and opportunities for …well, death and clearing for new truths deeper truths.
and so while i’ve spent the last month losing and clearing bad relationships ideas, i’ve been publicly sobbing while dancing in the street and getting lots of hugs from people i barely know, and even at the same time i’m so sad and despairing about the state of everything and everyone here in SF (they’ve gone completely mad here), and even as i’m sad i feel deep in me an optimism about this new thing with your book and this reading here.
i feel a new way of thinking about concepts and i’ve been craving getting out of the deadening binary paradigm we’re in. what i love about “Doctrine of High Magic,” is that the answer to ME is the …gotta be careful with my words here– but he says we can be blending things that we think are opposite. that it’s somehow supposed to be. i should’ve quoted.
but specificity isn’t the point. the point is a different way of THINKING and blending things we are locked into thinking are diametrically opposed.
so is this work with your translation of “Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic,” and the work with the Marseilles deck, is this you re-training us artists freaks and mad people new ways of thinking and sending us out into the world to …scatter seed? give away plants?
because it SOUNDS “cute” but living it is …WOW.
am i right? or am i just making stuff up so’s i have something to live for? (giggle).
and sorry i couldn’t get the shots of the cards right. technology steals my life and i have to give up after a decade passes and i cannot get a printer to work.
because the “Answer” to any riddle or mystery of alchemy keeps on turning out to be Love. love as a verb. it’s agony and terrifying and thrilling. i mean the vulnerable but strong complicated… love is such a crappy word. but it’s what everyone wants and if they really knew how to love, everything all the incentives that keep everything running just disappear.
it seems quite revolutionary when i’m about to get my ass kicked i’ll tell you that right now. i got attacked a few years back when i was dancing in the moon, and a man and woman attacked me and sicced their pitbull on me. i refused to feel hate or even too much fear because i was dancing and it was impossible. i protected myself but i couldn’t summon the will to survive and rip their eyes out.
that scared me and it kinda freaked out the cops who came when i was the one calming down the crowd of neighbors who were scared and sobbing. i’ve got blood streaming down my face but i couldn’t FEEL anything. i cried later in the bath but it was hurt feelings.
but i thought the dog didn’t disembowel me because he thought we were playing because i didn’t have or reflect their… energy rage fear whatever it was.
the dog just jumped on me and i bent over to cover my guts and they whaled on my head with blows. later a homeless guy said they’d stabbed him in the head so i felt extra lucky in case you think that was a bad break.
and one at a time it’s no big story, but i realized how powerful it was to not fight back in an expected way. i can’t explain any of this. but it’s what you get when you fall into your fear and it’s gone.
that’s a love and surrender thing and the opposite of mask world is all i’m saying.
this feels like you’re training us to think differently so we can BE different.
maybe i’m putting much on you. but as an artist this is the first exciting thing ABOUT being an artist that i’ve seen in a long time. something to do other than make crap for etsy or someone’s sofa. something in action radical and new and …WOW.
am i right? or am i blowing smoke up my own skirt, Papa G. i can take it. couldn’t be a better time to tell me i’ve lost my cotton pickin’ mind. maybe i just can’t accept the world as it’s become. that san francisco ain’t coming back any time soon because… we aren’t even HERE anymore. more illusion.
sheesh.
x
To Joy Marie (#154)
I don’t know if it was activated or not, but when I was a boy scout we used to brush our teeth with charcoal when out camping. You grab a chunk from yesterday’s fire, chew it up a bit and rub it around on your teeth with your finger. It seems to be good for indigestion, too.
@rus the rook: re music
If you want weird, check out Heilung. They are an experimental group with members
from Denmark, Germany and Norway. They must be channeling shamanic spirits, Odin or
something along those lines because I keep going back to listen to them. Very mesmerizing.
I can only figure there’s a viking or two somewhere in my family line because I can’t
imagine why else this stuff appeals to me. YMMV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wy-W-pYlds
To Michael Miller (#164)
I haven’t checked up on the situation in the UK lately, so I can’t say anything for sure, but it is probably worth doing some digging before accepting the numbers at face value. I know that in the USA, at least, the definition of what constitutes a COVID case or death differs depending on whether the person in question has received a vaccine or not – i.e. there are circumstances in which, all other things being equal, an unvaccinated person would be counted as a COVID death but a vaccinated person with the same symptoms and test results would not be. The expected result is that cases and deaths among the vaccinated will be lower simply because of the way they are counted, even if there is no actual difference in outcomes. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the vaccines aren’t working. But it does mean that they would appear to be working even if they weren’t.
Oops, my comment #213 was supposed to link to her cradleboard project … Not look like she funneled money to herself (she doesn’t need it).
If I may make a prediction on what will happen to Disney if they try to trademark Loki, I suspect the same thing will happen to them as happened to the people who tried to make Trickster play by human labels https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/michelle-latimer-ancestry-report-expert-1.6024508.
The TLDR is that a woman wrote what I’ve heard are some very good American Gods-style novels about a boy who is the son of the Haisla Trickster. The CBC adapted it as a major show in their lineup, with a very acclaimed indigenous director. The cast had various fawning news coverage about how many nations were there in the actors playing Haisla people on the show (Inuit, but not Italians anymore!), and this would launch a generation of indigenous careers. Someone decided to doxx the director as not indigenous, and the CBC made hay with that. The show imploded without the director, who has now entered into lawsuits with one tribe she is related to, who won’t recognize her because of blood quantum rules and how that affects their band role and aboriginal title… And the Québec métis have gotten in on it, which is really funny, from a historical “true metis” perspective: (in my always humble opinion) the Powley gatekeepers will have no leg to stand on, if they decide to play this, and many fur trade metis from Labrador on west formerly shut out from their place in Canada’s founding will be able to claim their piece. And the indigenous film community is now at each other’s throats about who is real, and have removed Latimer’s films from film festivals, museums and film school courses – where she was previously lauded as The Person Who Brought Indigenous Stories to Canada.
P.S. something about proclivities and the tower card looking like WEEEE! and YIPEEE! instead of horror from falling from up high into disaster. bring on disaster! i’ve been bored and ain’t nada on TV! we need to clear out the riff raff! no one dies or breaks up this way. it feels different. and i love the skeleton with flesh and absently painted him a little lavender for blood as he’s crawling out of earth and death to make something LIVE.
it’s sadomasochism of loving life vs. comfort. / and why it feels like we’re having a global existential crisis.
i ask as a wild girl who only just now realized i was having all the fun even as i envied and wished i’d be a Regular Ordinary Person. now i see the world The Ordinary People made and am horrified.
so magic to me here is counter-propaganda or propaganda of a different kind. we artists fight back with our visions and when Levi said our imagination shows our souls… i thought WOW. we know what we’re to do…
my toes curl with glee! / love and anti-love literally vs. “hate”!
i thought it was all over. even if i’m mad thank you for inspiring this madness. i don’t want the drooling madness. i want the one like the commenter who had the grandma who kept giving stuff away.
i thought, “she’s mad? i want THAT. i wanna go where she’s going!”
x
Hi JMG,
I’m about halfway through “The King in Orange.” Thank you for your insights. The second half should be just as revealing.
Your chapter on hate was an eye opener. It explains a lot of the weirdness in corporate culture. Severely repressing a normal human emotion is really a bad idea and explains the effects you described.
I once worked for a national, upscale department store headquartered in Seattle. I always felt suffocated by the enforced niceness, and enforced it was. The politeness came across as phony and fabricated, and tension was released in the oddest ways: a sudden outburst at someone over missing a simple e-mail, for example. Below the surface was the typical cut-throat nature of corporate America.
It makes me wonder if, back before the 1980s, when drinking was allowed at work, employees were able to blow off steam by revealing their true feelings and then saying, “I was just drunk!”. That is how it works in Japan today.
If anyone is interested in a conversation between Tim Pool and Steve Bannon, here is a link. Pool is a left-leaning populist, and Bannon is right leaning, and a big fan of “The Fourth Turning.” They really get along. Bannon and Pool many, many ideas that JMG does in his book… except the magic 🙁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_nUUzvrjJQ
I should note that the prophecy I mentioned is not discussed in the Sturgess book but is featured on numerous websites.
When I read the 1321 prophecy – “In 700 years, the laurel shall be green again” – I got chills through my entire body, not only because I realized that our time is exactly 700 years later, but because my house is between two streets, Laurel Drive and Evergreen Drive; in that moment, I really felt with certainty that I was being spoken to directly.
@clay dennis
So I was going to save this for another open post. That being said, why not now?
So the amount of energy that the Earth receives from the Sun is more than enough to power the entire world for a year. So why can we not power the Earth with renewable resources?
The answer, as Greer very excellently points out, is EROI. Sunlight is too diffuse to serve as a good energy source. BUT….. this still mean’s the energy is there, and if it were preconcentrated, we could use it. After all, hydroelectric power IS solar power, as the water got on top of the mountain originally from solar power.
So…. is there a pool of preconcentrated solar power that we can use? I think there is. High up in the air, the wind blows steadier and stronger because it is in less contact with the Earth due to less friction. One possibility for fueling the world is to harvest that energy using automated aircraft.
This sounds crazy, but there are already two companies with prototypes and one company which is actually selling units. Right now, the units are only 200 kw but they’re trying to scale up to megawatt size units later this decade. Here are some links:
https://skysails-group.com/
Here’s a really great video explaining the basic physics behind it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGoV3SxjLeY
Other two companies are Kitepower and Ampyx power. Just to give you an idea, modern day offshore wind turbines have a capacity factor of 50%. These kites have a capcity factor of +70% while using far less materials, which should give them a much greater EROI than wind.
What else is there? So there’s a concentrated solar power company called Heliogen which is trying to create solar thermal energy for industrial applications. What they’ve done is they have automated a field of heliostats to focus the heliostats even tighter on a single point. They claim that they can get temperatures of over 1000C with their processes. And like Skysails, they are also a real company, they have plans to set up their heliostats for a mining company in Chile in 2023.
1000 degrees Celsius is a big qualitative jump. With those temperatures, you can fuel reactions like high temperature electrolysis to make hydrogen and methanol fuel from water.
————————————————————————————————————————————–
Anyway, both of these technologies are very new and there’s no telling if they will succeed. But ever since I read Greer, I’ve been trying to read into energy technologies that have high EROI. And from what I’ve read, between potential 4th gen nuclear power, wind power, especially high altitude wind power, and solar thermal technology, there’s enough there that at least SOME parts of industrial society will be able to access power for a very long period of time.
This isn’t to say it will be done. BUT IT CAN BE DONE. I think is nothing in the laws of physics that says it can’t.
“it’s been one of my amusements for years now to watch ideas that I introduce out here on the fringes trickle into the mainstream.”
I feel like credit for the introduction to the idea should go to Jay Hansen, but he is dead now.
https://ecologise.in/2019/04/26/obituary-jay-hanson-early-populariser-of-the-converging-crises/
Temporaryreality, one of the things that you have to read odd sources to get about the Greek gods is that they weren’t as strictly separate as Homer makes them seem. The Orphics equated Saturn and Prometheus; they also taught that Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone!
Planetpriya, funny. People who’ve read too much science fiction have been trying this since the 1950s, with about as much success as they’ve had with flying cars.
Patricia M, sorry to hear that! I’m glad to say that we’re having fine weather — highs in the seventies, lows in the fifties, mostly clear and sunny. The forecast is that it’ll get muggy next week, though. 🙁
Erika, weirdly, I can’t get these to display as images, but the links ought to work.
User Name, how much choice you have depends on how far along the process of spiritual maturation you’ve gone. Most people have no choice at all — the process is as reflexive as digestion. Only when you’re getting close to the end of your human lives do you have enough clarity of consciousness between lives to have any influence on things. Generating good karma while you’re alive will improve things in your future lives, but it’s a very general thing, not a matter of being able to make specific choices.
Lunchbox, thanks for this. Everyone else — are you listening? GET OUT OF STOCKS. NOW. When people who usually have no interest in stocks are asking for or offering stock tips, that’s a flashing red light and a siren telling you that the market has lost track of reality and a crash is on its way.
Kfish, interesting.
Steve T, thanks for this.
Erika, excellent! Yes. Tarot is among other things — it has many uses — a tool for storytelling. That’s what divination is — when you do readings for people, you’re teaching them a different way to tell the story of their lives. When you study the tarot yourself, you’re learning to do that. To become a mage is to learn how to tell stories that are so interesting and unexpected that people make them real. That’s what I’m hoping to teach, because the familiar stories of our civilization don’t work any more.
Pixelated, oof. Yeah, that’s what I’d expect.
Jon, glad to hear that you’re getting something out of the book. Bannon knows about magic, by the way. He’s just not talking about it publicly, because he’s chosen to walk the path of a respectable pundit, and you can’t breathe a word about magic if you do that. Me, I chose a different path.
JayT, thanks for this. I’ll see if I can chase it down.
Rus (if I may), crunch the numbers on those sometime. Better still, take them to Tom Murphy at Do The Math and let him walk you through the process. There are plenty of cornucopian gimmicks that sound really good until someone actually tries them. Do you recall GreenFuel, by any chance?
BCV, interesting. I didn’t know that the late, great Jay Hanson had come up with it first.
JMG-You are most welcome. In addition, if you have not already passed by, you might want to check out r/PrepperIntel (limit: One gun per hand) and r/supplychain. Both average to good insights for anticipating outcomes.
As always good sir, wishing good fortune and positive flowing energy to you and yours,
Black Tuna and Hand
On the last Magic Monday post, you fielded a question from someone who had a frightening experience of the archangels during the LBRP, and you said this sort of experience was normal and to keep going.
Would you mind elaborating on this experience? Why does it happen and what’s the point of it? And why isn’t the prudent thing to take it as a sign that you’re messing with things you shouldn’t be?
(I never got deep enough into ritual magic to have that kind of experience there, though I’ve had experiences of the gods as dark presences, which frightened me mightily. I’m still wrestling with the implications of those experiences.)
JMG,
Thanks for your response! Well in that case, I will wait until the new edition of the Monsters book comes out. I’m highly looking forward to it.
JMG, I listened to your most recent interview. I am still mulling over what I heard.
One question: what do you think happened in the 2020 election? (I wrote in Bernie Sanders, not that that made any difference in NY) I thought Trump would pull out a win. Do you have any sense of what did happen? Better magic on the other side? Fraud? Death by 1000 cuts?
If I had to guess, I would say that the last minute Supreme Court nomination of an attractive and likeable but clearly unqualified person was the proverbial last straw. I think it is clear what happened there.
Trump requested dossiers on women candidates. He didn’t read them and after looking through the photos, picked the one whom he thought would make the best impression on TV.
I have heard your discussion of brown sugar water several times. I would like to add that I think that advertising has at least one other purpose besides selling products. I think it also is used to delineate the limits of social acceptability. So, not just you can have a great time with good looking people if you buy our cola, but also you must exert yourself to look and act like the TV actors. Dress like them, make sure the interior of your house resembles a stage set, and so on.
re: Martial Arts
Traditional martial arts (TMA) are both real and effective, but finding a good teacher can be immensely difficult. Comparisons to mixed martial arts (MMA) are actually a lot less helpful than one might casually think. TMAs are usually designed to be practiced over a long period of time and have deep medical and philosophical dimensions. Theoretically, anybody should be able to take up a traditional art and gain something from it, health and fighting being the most obvious applications. MMA sacrifices EVERYTHING for combative efficacy, and that within a fairly specific context and short timeline. The failure / wash-out and injury rates for MMA are extraordinarily high. Not everyone can take it up, and not everybody is going to get something out of it. The single-minded lack of depth in MMA does have some serious upsides however: the skill floor is very high, and there is very little room for delusion. If somebody competes in MMA, they probably have a decent grasp of how to fight, the same is not necessarily true of TMA.
Tai Chi isn’t doing well, but the problems are centered around teaching environment and the sort of people who tend to be interested in it. The stereotypical practitioner in the US is an old fart in a park, not a wise sage (Shi, in Chinese, has long had martial connotations) moving in perfect harmony with the universe. For reference, this was my art of choice (I had an excellent teacher) for a few years. When I took up MMA for a while; my biggest problem was that nobody believed my background was in Tai Chi, and they had no patience for the subtler aspects of their own system.
I’m hesitant to talk about Aikido; I started with it and had a bad experience, I later found out that my school was pretty well regarded in the Koichi Tohei lineage. To me, it seems like a broken art; all the pieces are there, but they are no longer assembled correctly. The free-wheeling nature of the training means that there are no clear basics to work on and nothing is structured, so it is very difficult to work progressively. On top of that, the founder’s vision of Aikido as a revolution in the martial arts world means that they tend to be really cut off from the larger martial arts community and any insights it might have to offer; Aikido is the only true way, seem to be a recurring message. Yoshinkan, the style taught to police officers, seems to have avoided most of these problems; but they also appear to have had a falling out with Shin-Shin Toitsu and Honbu styles over it. Anything more gets into the territory of spreading rumors.
On the different sub-systems of MMA, while it is true that Brazilian Jujitsu is the most popular single art, and often paired with Muay Thai, it is worth noting that most of the people who go out and win competitions seem to have a background in wrestling. Wrestling, of course, is not so flashy and exotic, and thus doesn’t seem to get the attention even though it is the source of so many skilled competitors.
A final comment, real self-defense isn’t about fighting, it is about being aware of your surroundings and responding appropriately to them. Real fighting isn’t realistic, because fighting is very far away from our mundane reality.
Suggestions for good, cheap eats: find someone to show you how to make both flour and corn tortillas. Flour tortillas take three ingredients, flour, some kind of fat, and water. Corn tortillas take masa flour–that’s the corn flour treated with lime–and water and are absolutely delicious homemade. They can be squashed between two heavy frying pans, no need to buy an expensive tortilla press.
Do, please be careful about gathering wild greens. I leave alone all mushrooms and all members of the carrot family. There are you tube videos about gathering wild greens and also about IDing the ones to avoid.
Grocery stores tend to have sales on things to bake with around the holidays. That is the best time to stock up on butter, which keeps indefinitely in a refrigerator.
I want to ask about fire ants.
We recently moved to a new apartment that is on ground floor with a back yard, and found it full of little fire ants. These are probably not as nasty as the larger ones you have in parts of the US, but their sting is quite painful and they are said to be very aggressive towards other species of insects (and even small vertebrae). They have been spreading rapidly here in Israel in the last two decades.
Desperate for an immediate solution (getting stung in our beds at night…), we started using poisoning them with fipronil baits, and so far tiny amounts gave wonderful results. But it’s a real heartache, spreading insecticides around our new compost pile, and I understand that the material is quite devastating for bees and marine life (if it ever gets in the water); and anyway I understand that poison will not be effective in the long run.
So my first question is a practical one: do you know of more ecologically sound approaches to keeping them in check?
Or maybe something from the magical sphere? a spell to keep them away?
And I also have a more theoretical question regarding “invasive species” in general: the classical “wildlife preservation” standpoint is that invasive species endanger local populations and therefore should be eradicated if possible, or at least (more realistically) their numbers should be kept low by any means available. I sounds wrong to me. Intuitively I feel that (while it’s a good idea to try and slow down their spread) wherever they are already established it means that this is the kind of wildlife the local environment can now support in its current degraded condition; and that therefore this is the wildlife that we now have to live with and that we should now preserve, lest we create a void to be filled by even nastier species (the terrifying yellow crazy ants for instance). But it’s just an intuition, I’m not sure about this, and would love to hear your opinion.
Thank you.
A short commentary: I have observed that since quite a while, the recommendation of social distancing, that is, not being nearer than 1,5 m towards each other has more or less fallen in abeyance, except for some circumstances in public transit.
To Michael Gray (#148)
I had just been looking at the demographic statistics for Japan. I was looking at the COVID deaths for 2020 (there were 3,466, by the way, revised downward with no fanfare from an incessantly publicized initial count of over 11,000). COVID came in just behind traffic accidents. There were almost six times that many suicides, and twelve times as many people died from choking on things.
Anyway… since I have settled here and am raising children, I have thought about where things are headed in the mid to long terms. It seems that the population of Japan at the end of the Edo period (mid 19th century) was around 25 to 30 million people. I take that as a good proxy for the carrying capacity of the land, when people have a full suite of mature technologies available to them. Toward the bottom of the Long Descent, the country will lack many of the skills, as well as the mature rural ecosystems, that supported that population. Just a guess, but maybe half or less of the Edo period population might be supported after fossil fuel imports cease. That works out to about 10% of the peak population of 2005.
I also did a little research on historical climate trends. It seems that Japan tends to get more precipitation in periods of higher average temperatures. Recent trends seem to be toward less snowfall in winter, and more torrential rains and flooding in the summer, though. More precipitation overall, but also more concentrated into shorter periods of time. A side effect of that is reduced insolation due to increased cloud cover in the summer. All in all, it makes things difficult for agriculture, and could further reduce the carrying capacity of the land below the estimate I outlined above.
Japan could be a pretty lonely place for my great-grandchildren.
Re: Repurposed drugs
@TamHob, thank you for enumerating the studies with high dosage of (hydroxy-)chloroquine. I was aware of the ill-designed Brazilian study comparing different doses of chloroquine. 1200 mg/day seems high and might indeed be toxic – 500 mg/day is the common maintenance dose in the case of liver infection.
I hadn’t investigated the dosage of hydroxychloroquine in the RECOVERY trial. At 800 mg/day, it is twice the maximum dosage commonly used for asthma (400 mg/day). That seems high, but not outlandish (if HCQ is half as toxic as chloroquine, then it would be a third as toxic as in the Brazilian study); the reasoning for the regimen RECOVERY used is explained in great detail in this paper (ref. 15 in the RECOVERY paper you cited; the argument is summarized in the Section “The case for evaluating large doses in COVID-19”).
In any case, I note that the Covid-19 protocols of the FLCCC which you cited in your other comment don’t include chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine anymore, though they recommend ivermectin.
With regard to ivermectin, I am very much looking forward to the results of the trial conducted by McMaster University in collaboration with the Federal University of Minas Gerais. In Brazil, it should be possible to find more than enough participants and see more than enough of all outcomes ranging from light symptoms do death; at the university department in Rio de Janeiro where I worked (~200 researchers total), two researchers of 32 and 40 years died this March/April of Covid, while I know of two of my former medical students who died of Covid last year during their residency.
Finally, I would like to note again (@scotlyn) that I am not at all against individual patients using and individual doctors prescribing known drugs at a dosage known to be safe. I do have a beef with governments recommending and distributing treatments (whether vaccines or drugs) without proper evaluation, especially when this is meant to substitute for non-pharmacological actions.
Out of curiosity.
If a person keeps swords made of steel/iron in their bedroom or whichever room they sleep would it affect whether a being decides to attack them or not in etheric situations? Would etheric beings or people manifesting as such recognize if a person they are attacking owns swords for example? I’m assuming people after the iron age to medieval times had less attacks happen to them than others who didn’t, unless the goal of those beings was to pin them down in attacks and stop them from grabbing it.
Sword ownership has also been much higher since than, either because of laws which make owning firearms illegal or as a fascination hobby.
What effects do sharp iron objects have on a living person’s body? For instance in the case of vaccines or blood tests its very commonly done today. What would have happened to the etheric bodies of people wounded or killed by iron in battles during times past?
@Greer I have always appreciated that you understand the scale of humanity’s resource consumption. This has been a great contribution to how I see the world, and I’ll definitely be reading up on that blog.
However, I don’t know if my worldview is really THAT cornucopian. I think high technology (the internet, computers, cars, refrigeration, ect), will exist somewhere in the world centuries from now. I just think it will be more limited in scope. In other words, maybe only a few tens or hundreds of millions of people in a few countries will have access to some of the goods we have today.
BTW, I really appreciate all the effort your put into your thoughts. You’re a seriously smart guy, even though we have disagreements.
@ Sebastien Louchart
In an earlier post, I replied to Taleb’s objections against bitcoin.
> any asset backed by collateral that can vanish rapidly due to political decisions must have a very low value unless it yields enough of a reward to repay for the risk in the future.
You need to back up your claim that bitcoin can vanish rapidly due to political decisions. All it takes to mine bitcoin is a computer and an internet connection. Just look at China. China banned bitcoin, and miners simply left the country and set up shop elsewhere.
And as I also explain, because bitcoin can be forked, by buying bitcoin, you are also buying into bitcoin’s descendant protocols.
> It’s not a way of exchange because enabling a transaction in BTC is costly (in terms of computer power) and for the common folk involves paying good dollars to do so (you need a broker service).
The lightning network is not costly or difficult to use. I posted above a video of the lightning network being used in El Salvador. And I’ve used bitcoin to send money around the world, it was totally fine.
As for bitcoin’s volatility, that’s a matter of adoption. Bitcoin’s volatility has been declining as it continues to grow.
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/volatility-index/
https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1381633972531122184/photo/1
@Rus
Your last comment reminds me of my own green energy optimism of years past, which faltered when I actually spent six years working on one of those cutting edge projects in graduate school. It’s amazing how many obvious barriers and EROEI-reducing inputs are ignored when smart people really want to believe that something will work.
I’m willing to grant that it might be technically possible within the laws of physics to replace all of the energy currently produced by burning fossil fuels. The question is: at what cost? How much of the economy and human activity are we willing to pour into the effort to generate more energy, and how much are we willing to disrupt natural processes? And how much of our lavish and wasteful energy use would continue in a world in which energy and energy-dependent “stuff” costs 5-10 times as much, which would inevitably be the case if we were harvesting high-altitude winds or smelting steel with concentrated solar heat?
Furthermore, skimming a meaningful amount of energy off of our planet’s solar-powered heat engine would have unanticipated and potentially disastrous consequences. High altitude winds drive weather patterns, and slowing them by a few percentage points in a few areas could easily shift precipitation bands enough to cause crop failures, as just one example.
Over some years I progressed from expecting a future of abundant green energy, to insisting that it was possible despite significant challenges, to hoping that it might be possible, to ultimately concluding that we – and our planet – will almost certainly be better off in the long run if we are forced to get by with less energy than if we discover some new source of abundant and cheap energy. At which point I stopped hoping that we will find a magic energy bullet, and started hoping that we won’t.
Good article about the oil situation
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021/06/23/mere-statistics/
Tip for resilient cooking.
Make a hay box
https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/haybox-cooking-zmaz80jfzraw
I personaly use wool instead of hay, and it works great! Only have to boil up a pot of meat on the bones twice, with 2 x 8 hours stay in the wool box to make it fork tender.
Also I use a chewed up willow stick for brushing my teeth. Willow grows fast and makes a fine brush if you chew the end of a stick a bit. Stop wasting money on buying toothbrushes!
“Lunchbox, thanks for this. Everyone else — are you listening? GET OUT OF STOCKS. NOW. When people who usually have no interest in stocks are asking for or offering stock tips, that’s a flashing red light and a siren telling you that the market has lost track of reality and a crash is on its way. ”
Wise words!!!
@Booklover #211
I would say that craziness is also relatively mild where I am living now. Maybe this is due to the whole Harz area being mainly populated by older people. In my town, there are more people above 75 years old than kids. I would think that they would be more resistant to the current propaganda than the youth. But if you listen to the media, you get this impression, that whole Germany should be confined in a mental asylum. This includes the mainstream media, which spread the insanity, and the alternative media, which point at the insanity. I am currently thinking that the best way to improve my mental health would be to not read any media at all.
Regarding the (w/m/d) addition to every job posting, I read something funny on another German blog, where they stated that m/w/d stands for männlich, weiß, deutsch (male, white, German). I never understood, why you have to write the genders into the job description at all. According to our constitutional law, you are not allowed to discriminate someone based on their gender. Therefore, a job posting should be automatically open for all genders.
@JMG #214
From my point of view, this test would involve three components. First, the oil production must be checked whether there was already a decrease in production or at least a plateau visible before the Covid issue started. The second component would be to look for evidence, that the Covid issue was planned. The third component would be to bring the two topics oil production and Covid issue planning together via evidence that shows a causality instead of just correlation.
@a rose by any other name #223
This self-hate seems to be a problem of the whole western civilization. I am still trying to figure out, why this is the case. It would be interesting to analyze whether other empires encountered similar self-destroying tendencies.
I also agree with your second part. What absolutely boggles my mind, is that the whole German aristocracy stepped down after the German revolution of 1918/1919 without any effort to conserve their positions. My interpretation is, that they still preserved all their influence but got rid of their titles to please the mob.
@Nachtgurke #227
The honesty of the Gerhard Schröder government seems to be one of the main reasons why the SPD lost more than half of their voters since then. In general, I would say, that the politicians in Germany have a glaring problem with their integrity. They all seem to be opportunists at best and fraudsters at worst. You get the feeling that most of (or all) political parties are working to maximize their own profit instead of serving the people.
Jay Hanson had the dieoff.org website, that I stumbled across in about 1997 in a fit of depression. He then started the Energy Resources newslist(?) on yahoo. I don’t recall if you were on that mailing list, but in my mind those two locations were the seed of the peak oil movement. I also don’t know how much of his thoughts were his own and how much was cribbed. Jay Hanson was how I got introduced to peak oil and the iminent limits to industrial society. Some of the stuff from dieoff,org is still available on a different website, but maybe worth a read (definitely a different tone than the Archdruid):
https://jayhanson.org/oldindex.htm
https://jayhanson.org/dieoffindex.html
@RusTheRook
Solar concentrated energy in heavy industry is tested since 70’s. Check out this site:
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/07/solar-powered-factories.html
BTW: Something is changing in the conciousnes of bright greens. The last raport on PV energy in Germany written by solar industry promoters says that “Fossil fuels cannot be replaced by renewable energy [PV and wind turbines]”.
https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/en/documents/publications/studies/recent-facts-about-photovoltaics-in-germany.pdf
@Darkest Yorkshire #4
about RPG
I’m an avid player since my teen years in high school. Now, I mainly play D&D 3.5 in the Eberron setting because, well, fan of neo-noir mixed with magic (Dresden Files and sloppy shows like the Magicians).
I’d like a RPG set in the Dune universe (Fading Suns still exists somehow, it’s a good game but will always be an ersatz). I don’t want to write it myself because the cost of the licence to use the IP would be prohibitive.
A not so long ago, I started to work on the design of a board game set in JMG’s Retrotopia disembodied US but I temporary gave up. I came up recently with the idea of a RPG based on it instead, a spy/spec ops game set either in Chicago or in the Atlantic Republic prior to border openings.
@JMG
@teresa from hershey #203
In Freakonomics, there is a tale of how a particular gang internally reorganized to structurally resemble a corporation.
There was a man who had grown up in the ghetto where the gang had territory, but had studied, left for college and joined the corporate world, a success story in the PMC’s eyes of rising from the dregs of society to join the “people of good [breeding]”. However, (the reason was unspecified in the narrative) he became disillusioned with the corporate life, quit, and returned to his former neighborhood and joined the gang.
Once there, he proceeded to propose, demonstrate and enact various reforms that resulted in the gang becoming significantly more profitable and prosperous for its time.
In the same podcast or in one of the other King in Orange podcasts, JMG makes the point that a third option for members of the PMC who don’t want to get crushed under the gears of the bureaucracy they serve, nor get shanked by the internal/external proletariat is to defect to said proletariat, with the prime example given of Mahatma Gandhi, who as a young lawyer dressed in the manner of the British until early attempts at conciliatory accommodation with the British fell on deaf ears, and thus he transformed into the image of the bespectacled independence leader in a home spun loincloth at the spinning wheel.
My guess is that the thirty something leaders of the warbands are drawn from the illusory successfully raised collegiates of the military colleges, who had learned TO KNOW TO DARE TO WILL AND TO BE SILENT well enough to keep their lack of loyalty to the central government well hidden. Examples of this type are the Romanized Germans like Arminius, who repeatedly led revolts against the Roman Empire at its fringes. Imagine if our college educated man from Freakonomics instead of a business graduate, was a West Point or a VMI graduate.
Another source of graduates is volunteering enrollment in the great college of war. Of the warlords of the Donbas, many have in their biographies the detail that they spent a stint as a volunteer in the various Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Similarly, the warlord in charge of one of the victorious main factions in the first Congolese civil war of the mid 90s was a Congolese Tutsi who volunteered in the Rwandan civil war, before raising and leading a Congolese Tutsi child soldier army.
Greetings all
Concerning the decline of our modern industrial civilisation. I was thinking about developing metrics to chart, bench mark or map out this decline. For instance, energy consumption per capita is an obvious starter. I was wondering if either JMG or anyone for that matter have any other ideas for such metrics?
Furthermore, it might be interesting to draw up a list of probable milestones to watch out as indicators of decline. For instance, loss of internet connectivity in rural areas, then small towns and so on. Milestones need not have dates, of course as different countries or regions may reach those milestones at different points in time.
All suggestions welcomed.
We might even share data on open posts weeks as work progresses (with our host’s permission of course!)
Regards
Per @GoldenHawk’s comment about positive and negative aspects, and the recent news of hundreds of more bodies being found at a First Nations “school” in Canada…
@JMG’s thesis about multiple Jesuses (Jesii?) is interesting, and plausible, but there is a core dynamic in Christianity between sin/redemption that I believe is universal. This is what makes the communion such a powerful experience, IMHO. But for this to work entails the first part of the equation, namely sin. Not to pile on to America’s favorite monotheism, but I’m familiar enough with it to note that strange feeling of intense hypocrisy present when I’ve had to interact with some of its more mainstream sects. I suspect this is not by accident, and that the fourth part of the Trinity, as it were, is (unspoken) Satan (after all, in Job he attends the council of the sons of God like anybody else). Others have surely made this point, but without descent there can be no ascent. Without sin, no redemption. In my view, Christ, in whatever superficial guise, is always in the process of harrowing hell.
This might lead to the conclusion that he is actively producing evil, but I would suggest that no, all gods are ultimately good (I include Christ among the gods). It’s just that the view from “up there” is much different from our mortal view “down here,” where the proximate outcomes are real suffering for individual mortals. As Hesiod says in his reference to the hawk and the nightingale, “You’re in the grip of real power now, and you’ll go where I take you…”
Leaving this two-bit theodicy aside, the issue with monolatry/monotheism becomes that one is actively discouraged from recognizing this relationship (perhaps deliberately, on a cosmic level), such that the sin-redemption dynamic is obscured with the end result of the propagation of evil outcomes in the here and now.
Axé
All, thanks to everybody who have provided their insights on the Covid vaccines issue.
The official data e.g. from the US and EU reporting databases – which grossly under-estimate what is happening in the real world – show a huge number of adverse reactions and thousands dead.
These data point simply don’t compare with your “traditional” flu jab.
What is also concerning is the early signs of rises in serious health issues that appear to be related to the spread of the spike protein around the body.
Now, I’m not a scientist, but there is sufficient concern, from the official data, for me to give these spike protein based vaccines a massive miss. We don’t have any long-term data on them and we have no idea if there is going to be serious longer term health consequences of these vaccines.
I am more open minded about a more traditional vaccine, once we have sufficient data that it is safe. I am conscious that at some point, the pressure to be jabbed will become overwhelming but until I am comfortable, I am staying strong on this issue.
Anecdotally, I have heard locally of some coincidental tragic health issues shortly after being got jabbed, including one person, healthy and middle aged with no previous heart issues, who recently died of a heart attack shortly after getting jabbed and a pregnant lady who suffered a miscarriage shortly after getting a Pfizer jab.
Coincidence? Possibly, but these reports and the oddity of adverse incidents occurring shortly after getting jabbed, are being reported around the world.
Hello to John Zybourne, post #5.
You asked about instructions for a Hieronymus machine, and JMG referred the question to his readers. So….
I’d recommend: http://www.charlescosimano.com/e-books.html
Specifically, the first PDF book of his “Elementary Psionics.”
There, he has instructions to build a machine out of basic parts and a shoe box. Certainly, this is the most beginner-friendly plans I’ve seen so far.
Good Luck!
~DavidinCminor
Re sourdough starters: Sandor Katz, author of “The Art of Fermentation”, wrote that many people had sent him ancestral starters that had been in the family for generations. He tried to keep them separate to preserve their unique flavors, but over time they all started tasting the same. His explanation was that the yeasts on the local flours he used eventually overpowered any foreign yeasts and came to dominate the starter.
When I started on the sourdough path, I used to mix my starters outside in order to catch the wild yeasts floating about. Until one day my dough developed a very definite doggy poop smell. I had mixed the starter outside on a very windy day and must have got poopy dust from the pavement into it. (Waste not, want not. I still baked that bread and it tasted okay.) I now always make my starters indoors.
One other point. One of my starters developed a ‘bad breath’ smell. I had dental problems at the time and assume the smelly starter was from licking the spoon then mixing the starter. Nowadays I’m very particular about cleanliness when working with sourdough.
@Walt F 123
Thank you for the encouragement, and please feel free to speculate on reasons — I think it’s fascinating. And yes, “invitation” would definitely be a word I’d use, or, perhaps, “strongly-worded request”, or, even, “command”! — because the word “impulse” sounds like something that’s self-generated, whereas this feels like a response to a stimulus. The imperative of it is undeniable, and I only have the choice of whether to resist it or comply … and I believe resistance is probably useless …
On the topic of vaccines, the experimental covid jabs were only licensed for emergency use as they are still being trialled on humans for the next year or two. They were licensed on the grounds that no other treatment was available for covid which was a convenient lie put about by Big Pharma. Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin showed very good results against covid, but this was denied by Big Pharma (and its handmaiden, MSM) because they are cheap unpatented drugs (with a long history of being safe and effective, unlike theses novel vaccines.) I firmly believe many died from Covid who could have been treated safely with these drugs, not to mention the easily obtainable vitamin C, D and zinc. Governments have blood on their hands and I hope they are made accountable. Some people are saying a Nuremberg 2 will happen eventually. We’ll see. I personally never wore a mask, nor socially distanced and I will never be jabbed either. People have more power than they realise. I firmly believe that if everyone had acted like me, this “pandemic” would have been over long ago.
JMG – finally, my question is, what do you think of the theory that the real reason for this overreaction to a run of the mill virus (the death statistics show no great jump in average numbers of deaths) is to test how compliant people are to government overreach?
Dylan – I notice a lot of people are being guilt tripped into taking a vaccine they don’t want. You need to think about the long term implications of the jab, not just the short term. What will be the results for you 1 – 2 years down the line, if you take it? And just because your neighbour, friend, etc is fine doesn’t mean you will be. Also, if you are your wife’s carer and you get vaccine injured, what will the consequences for her be? I would ask you to ponder these questions before doing anything rash.
Kimberley – I signed up to your group but I had to get through 2 lots of this – This group discusses vaccines. When it comes to health, everyone wants reliable, up-to-date information. Before joining this group, you might be interested in information that can help answer questions you may have about vaccines. Visit the National Health Service’s website.
Luckily, I am fairly immune to propaganda.
@Michael
I take issue with your analysis. There may be 34 million reported cases in the US, but the majority of infections go unreported. It is more likely that around 114 million people have contracted coronavirus.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html
Similarly, adverse events on the VAERS database also tend to be unreported.
https://greatmountainpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Harvard-Vaccine-Injury-Study-Page-6-Reveals-1-Percent-Report-Rate.pdf
These combined could make the disparity a lot smaller.
@Dylan
You don’t have to dose your own veterinary ivermectin. The FLCCC has a list of doctors willing to prescribe it as a prophylactic.
https://covid19criticalcare.com/ivermectin-in-covid-19/how-to-get-ivermectin/
I myself used the text2MD service, it was all via instant message and I had my prescription within a few hours.
@Kimberly Steele:
I meant to respond to your comment on the latest book club post: I’m glad you found my note on sacred geometry useful, and I look forward to your upcoming book about Sacred Homemaking!
@erikalopez:
is this you re-training us artists freaks and mad people new ways of thinking and sending us out into the world to …scatter seed? give away plants?
Your post, and particularly the quote from it above, reminded me of the introduction to one of my very favorite novels, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. The introduction takes the form of a very short essay, which touches on some of the same themes that Lévi writes about in the first couple of chapters of Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic. As she concludes: “truth is a matter of the imagination.”
I went digging, and found a copy of the introduction online, so I will link to it here in case you’re interested and you haven’t come across it before.
@Everyone:
I just wanted to give an enthusiastic plug for the Green Wizards forum. I had some questions that I posted, and got a ton of useful, actionable replies. I’d greatly encourage anyone who is looking for practical advice about how to prepare for the future that seems headed our way via the long descent to sign up and post away!
Secretface #143, if I played Cyberpunk Red I’d want to play as an operator-mechanic of one of those walking tanks like at the end of Ghost in the Shell. 🙂 One recent game the RPG world seems to have been desperately waiting for, even if they didn’t realise it, is Blades in the Dark. They’re enthusiastically using features like the heat mechanic, progress clocks, and especially downtime activities and long-term projects, in all sorts of other games.
Christopher Henningsen #181, Rouge Trader sounds like an intersting combination of the adventurous life of a pirate while bringing the opulence of a merchant prince’s palazzo with you. Then get where you’re going and it’s like the circus has come to town, and you get dressed up to go to the ball and impress the local aristos. I’m seeing every shade of gaudy. 🙂
StarNinja #230, Old World of Darkness were the first ones I read. On the theme of unusual food sources, if the story I sent to New Maps ever gets published, I think you’ll see something you’ll like. 😉 One idea I had for extended character creation was characters with amnesia. So you don’t know how good you are at something until you try to do it, and then still don’t know why you’re good at it – Jason Bourne style. 🙂
Thanks for the reports on activated charcoal. Sounds like it may be useful for digestion issues, if not life extension.
On the Miami Condo collapse: I saw a news report where the son of a missing woman said she had called him and complained of noises that woke her up, like creaking noises. The report showed firefighters trying to shore up the building, and they were wading through water to do it. We know that Florida is like a honeycomb, with underground caves of water. And this was on the beach front anyway, and exposed to water erosion. It was also noted that the building, build in the 1980’s, had been sinking 2 mm. per year since the 90’s. Someone here earlier commented on corrupt construction work being a possibility. I would guess all of these factors worked together to bring the building down. A preview of the future of the USA.
Joy Marie
Book offer for anybody interested:
Diana Paxson’s Essential Asatru. Galina Krasskova’s Exploring the Northern Tradition. Bulfinch’s Mythology: The Age of Fable. Oberon Zell’s Companion for the Apprentice Wizard. Prof. John Lindow’s Norse Mythology: a guide to the gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs. It’s an A-Z dictionary like the one in the Weird of Hali Companion, with introduction and articles first. Penguin Classics, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. C.J. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsccious. Stewart and Janet Farrar, The Witches’ Bible, already packed to mail.
And for light reading – are you there, Lady CK? – A Cat’s Tale, a (somewhat skewed) Journey through Feline History by Baba the Cat, as dictated to Paul Koudounaris. Hardback. glossy pages and illustrations like a half-sized coffee table book.
If interested, email me at mathews55 at msn dot com. And note spelling! It’s M-A-T-H-E-W-S. One T. Or else the email will go astray.
A couple of questions I’ve been meaning to ask on Magic Monday but have forgotten three weeks in a row:
1. In alchemy what symbols are used for solvent and coagulent?
2. How are the experiences of etheric projection and astral projection different?
John–
Just a random observation I had stemming from a recent conversation with a co-worker re my educational path. One of the main things I learned in college was that I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought I was in high school. And since finally leaving the university world (in some ways, the best ten years of my young adulthood) , I’ve learned that I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought I was back in college. In fact, each passing decade brings the lesson that I’m not as smart as I thought I was previously. So my path is this incarnation seems to be that of getting progressively less and less smart!
JMG and fellow Ecosophians,
This is a subject I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and wonder if any shared a similar experience. I’ve noticed a certain mental “pattern” that keeps recurring every now and then. Even though I’ve long have moved away from at least the exoteric practices and beliefs of the religion I was born into, I find myself returning back to the religion as a whole, and I try to observe it as an outsider as much as possible, obviously because I don’t want to contradict my own current beliefs and to have a better and wholesome understanding of the religion regardless. I guess this is the source behind stuff like “new born” Christian and the like? Of course there are instinctual psychological factors that has to do with fear and childhood beliefs that are deeply encrypted in our subconscious mind, but I wonder if there’s other stuff going on. I’m also wondering if this apply even to those who were grown up as atheists, or any other dogma, do they have these recurring patterns?
I’d appreciate it if you shared your experiences.
Cheers,
Aziz
Re lumber prices: https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/@LB.1 Big spike, but back down to last September’s prices, and steadily falling.
I learned something interesting today, and thought I’d share. I was looking at a book called “Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern” by Adam Roger. I flipped through the index and looked up Goethe to see what the author had to say about him and his work with color and light. What I found on that page was more interesting. It was about Benjamin Whorf and how he was inspired in his linguistic investigations into by Antoine Fabre d’Olivet’s ideas about the hidden significance of Hebrew letters.
While eating my pb&j breakfast sandwhich, some of this percolated around ideas I wrote about in the “Synthesis of Speech” chapter of my Radiophonic Laboratory writings. In that chapter I explore utterance, and the cryptological background of the vocoder. If a prism can be used to split light into its spectra, a vocoder in a similar way splits speech into its spectra and sub-atomic phonemes.
In any case, it may be time for me to revisit the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis soon, especially when it comes time to revise my work and add in some other emergent threads I’ve come across in the course of writing.
I also see a connection here between the study of the Eliphas Levi book and the Verb. Joscelyn Godwin wrote a very interesting book about the use of vowel sounds in magic, The Mystery of the Seven Vowels. So, these thoughts all connected as I ate pb&j: the spectra of light as related to the spectra of the fundamental makeup of speech, the vowels.
There is something within all this to tease out further. And I’ll be looking into this more when it comes time to revise the Synthesis of Speech chapter…
(the work so far done on the Radiophonic Laboratory is all indexed here for anyone interested:
http://www.sothismedias.com/the-radiophonic-laboratory.html )
Words are Light
or
The Verb is Light
—
Speaking of cryptology. … I started listening to a fascinating book yesterday (I listen to audiobooks, radioshows and podcasts at work to make better use of the time), Douglas Preston’s, The Lost City of the Monkey. A nonficition work about the search for La Ciudad Blanca, a legendary lost city, that they seem to have found in Honduras. Anyway, an early explorer Theodore Morde, had ties to OSS. Without getting into it all, according to Preston, Morde fabricated his own claims to having found a lost city in the Honduran jungles. He worked as a journalist and radio broadcaster, a good way to disseminate misinformation for someone with OSS ties. He later committed suicide.
Anyway, having just finished reading “CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties” by Tom O’Neill I have a sneaking suspicion more was going on…
…of course it could have been simple gold hunger as Preston claims that Morde was really prospecting when in Honduras, not looking for archaeological sites. Fascinating book though by Preston.
—
Yesterday I also came across the story of Forrest Fenn and his treasure hunt. I was fascinated to learn about this character and also that he was friends with Eric Sloane during the last ten years of the latter’s life. Something in the story of Fenn, and the people out there looking for his treasure, and the fact that he was friends with Sloane (and a huge fan of Americana in general) struck a chord with me. He wanted to reawaken a spirit of magic and sense of wonder (among other things) and it seems he tapped into that. In his story I found a rekindling of that old American magic…
https://www.outsideonline.com/2419429/forrest-fenn-treasure-jack-stuef
There is a new book about him too:
Chasing the thrill :obsession, death, and glory in America’s most extraordinary treasure hunt by Daniel Barbarisi.
@Joy Marie
I use charcoal powder occasionally as a tooth cleaner– particularly if I have bad breath during/after an illness. Does wonders for that. I also ingest a bit of it in water if I feel I have a stomach bug brewing, or if I’m planning to fast for the day. I don’t know if it helps, but it doesn’t seem to hurt.
My dad thinks this is funny, because when he was a kid, charcoal tablets were a standard and totally non-controversial treatment for any kind of diarrhea: he remembers his mother dosing him with charcoal tablets.
I don’t see the logic in using it as a regular supplement, though, since it will readily absorb nutrients as well as toxins. This is why I use charcoal heavily in my garden: the soil here is basically sand, and dumping charcoal in with a bit of “hot” compost helps retain the nutrients in the soil, and also holds on to water– otherwise, with sand, everything just washes out in the rain, and then the water’s gone too as soon as the rain stops. But if you use charcoal in the garden without the heavy composting, what happens is it hoovers up all the scarce nutrients and makes them unavailable to the plants. I’d be worried it could do the same in my guts.
A new round of regional Covid-lockdowns in China might have something to do with these shortages people are discussing here this week, and they might get worse if the author to the linked piece is right.
Another astrological observation: I find it interesting that during the extended Grand Mutation (when Jupiter and Saturn remained within five degrees of one another starting in November and lasting through December and January), they were in Capricorn and then later in the neighboring sign of Aquarius. I find it interesting that for quite a while immediately after that, the ruling planets of those signs, Saturn and Uranus respectively, will be in an extended square formation with one another for something like a year (though the formation will temporarily break up a bit in later 2021 before coming back to within five degrees for a while longer). Starting today, Mars will be in an extended t-square for about two weeks with that Saturn-Uranus Square. May we live in interesting times!
About the stock and bond market – they are both acting loopy. Completely detached from reality. Depending on who you listen to, it is the Fed’s fault, low interest rates, fiat currency,….. Unless you know what you are doing, now is not the time for stocks or bonds.
JMG & all – It seems to me there are a lot of data points piling up fast and thick right now, doesn’t it? From Covid vaccines to John McAfee…man, it’s a lot!
On that, I tried to post the following links to the Dreamwidth blog the other day, but it was off-topic so didn’t go through. I apologize for that.
Turns out Coyote_Rambler already beat me to it, but I think it’s important enough I’d like to reiterate it and add one more link to the pile (along with Kimberly Steele’s list of links about Covid vaccine side effects—also good). Here’s my contribution, which includes the link to Steve Kirsch’s article which may have more detail along the lines of that graph/chart Coyote mentioned.
A video interview of Robert Malone and Steve Kirsch by Bret Weinstein (you can turn off the video and just listen to the audio if you like):
* (15-minute clip on YouTube) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du2wm5nhTXY
* (Full Video on Odysee) – https://odysee.com/@BretWeinstein:f/how-to-save-the-world,-in-three-easy:0
Here’s the article written by Steve Kirsch that’s discussed in the interview:
* https://normanpilon.com/2021/06/14/should-you-get-vaccinated-steve-kirsch-trialsite-news/
Kirsch claims in the article that the vaccines have likely killed 25 thousand Americans and disabled 1 million. A pretty heavy claim!
On UFOs and mental illness.
I have given it much thought. One aspect is incest. I have noticed that people would rather be abducted by aliens than deal with incest. I know that choosing between the two, I would have alien abduction any day. The two are similar in aspects of aliens, helplessness, and sexual probing.
As for Dr. John Mack, I have problems with his work. I think that hypnosis is not a good tool to figure out things. My friend who has multiple personality disorder had a breakdown. She did seek help and under went hypnosis. What came out matched why she had MPD in the first place, and facts in her life. However, she told me that the process was many fold, with checks along the way.
Mack seem to take the alien abduction as fact in his patients.
Perhaps it is a neurosis in itself. As more and more people seem to come up with alien experiences and scars, etc, etc. They all have in common is hypnosis and a desire to believe in alien abductions.
@ Jon, the place I worked at also had enforced niceness. You are right, it is indeed suffocating. Add to that the awareness that everyone is silently plotting ways to claw up the corporate ladder (or just hang on to it), it leads to a massive double bind. I wonder this is one of the reasons why PMC class is so mentally wrecked.
And thanks for sharing the podcast with Bannon. Even though I knew most of the facts of our civilization’s predicaments thanks to our gracious host, it was refreshing to hear them from Bannon with such hard-hitting clarity.
@ JMG, I know you don’t do videos, but I recommend a look at some of the comments in the video Jon shared. Hundreds of left-leaning people are discovering to their surprise that Bannon is not the monster the media made him out to be, and that he has ideas that they can easily support. Then there was the BLM 757-Boogaloo boys joint protest Matt Taibbi covered a few weeks ago.
Dry tinder indeed.
RE: The drug who must not be named for the Virus which Shall Kill us All! Joe Rogan hosted Dr. Pierre Kory and Bret Weinstein on his show several days ago, so the powers that be are all in a frenzy. Dr. Kory is a strong advocate for the use of Ivermectin to treat Covid-19. Last night BBC World Service Radio (from the Misinformation Unit, no less) had a 10 minute segment (at about 11:00) about how Ivermectin hasn’t been adequately tested with randomized trials, featuring a Spanish physician who has used it for parasitic infections, and a Peruvian physician in the division of public health. The Spanish physician warned that the only properly published test was the report of a lab test, which showed that Ivermectin works against Covid-19 cells cultured in a lab. The Peruvian physician warned that many people in Peru were self medicating with Ivermectin. Neither one of them said anything about whether it actually worked, or what harm it might cause. As usual, careful attention to what isn’t said in the Official Story will tell you what you should know.
@Rose Red Loon #78: The people in Surfside, FL should have read that article, and they wouldn’t have bought into a 12 story building built on sand.
@Erika: I have a similar reaction to the Tarot, in that we each develop our own understanding of the cards. I have another deck, done by a friend, in which the Devil is obviously a trickster and con-man, who will lead us to the evil within ourselves. Most tarot portray the devil as an external force.
@Mollari #15: The easiest bread I make is based on the no-knead recipe from the House Organ of American Empire (aka the New York Times). I’ve adjusted it to my own preferences by exchanging some whole wheat flour and adding olive oil. Weigh the flour instead of measuring it for better results. Older versions of Joy of Cooking have lots of basic information on cooking, the sort of thing that used to be taught in Home Ec. Classes.
For all those interested: we enjoyed the potluck, though we were dowsed by a brief shower late afternoon, and had only solved about half the world’s problems when the rain really started to come down at 9 or so. Mark your calendars for June 18, 2022 at 2 PM! Thanks to Walt F. for updating us on B__.
I’m not Mollari, but I’m appreciating folks’ responses to the question in #15. I already have a stack of new ideas I want to try, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of the suggestions.Thank you all!
(And perhaps a new unofficial slogan is called for? Ecosophia: come for the collapse, stay for the food.)
@tim I remember seeing in a previous comment that JMG mentioned our time is characterized by multiple archetypes vying for our attention. If that’s the case, I imagine the conflict you describe could be two separate archetypes battling it out (please hop in if I miss-characterized your words JMG!)
@Mark don’t let anyone tell you I don’t adopt my worldview when faced with new data 🙂
It’s the strangest thing… I remember reading somewhere that J&J was more traditional. I personally needed less convincing to take a vaccine (being in NYC and living in a neighborhood with a significant elderly population was really something in those first few months…)
I think I just read part of the explanation, thought “sounds like a traditional vaccine to me!” And filled in the rest of the details.
I do have some anecdotal evidence from friends of strange symptoms after vaccines (anyone else come across tinitis?) I also have anecdotal evidence from friends of “long COVID.” My personal experience with Lyme disease and how quickly the medical establishment shifts from “we’re here to help” to “frack you you’re not getting anymore antibiotics.” made me a bit more scared of long COVID than the vaccine.
Anyway thanks for the thought provoking comments.
@JMG thank you for your comment on divination, magic and storytelling. It all seems obvious in retrospect, but it’s definitely something to meditate on.
Where did the idea of the Veil come from? I remember that in the ’90s very much on the internet. That if only the Veil would be thinner we could escape to the spirit world and reveal what supernatural creatures we were. It’s not in the medieval grimoires though. Is it a folklore thing? Or just from popular fiction?
Culture shifted. There was no Veil in Harry Potter. I suppose the Veil was a bit of escapism too: nothing we do here matters because our true and immortal selves exist beyond the Veil.
And a second question: Are anti-gossip spells like curses? It does involve bending the free will of another. Does the raspberry jam effect apply to anti-gossip spells? Or is it healthier for a person to be out in public, visible, like a politician rather than trying to dive back into the murk of anonymity? I’m supposed to Will, Dare, and Be Silent but I can’t be invisible. Politicians and celebrities seem to have a bit more oomph when it comes to spells being tossed at them.
@Karim Do you know Tim Morgan’s blog by any chance : https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/ you may find a good model there.
Best,
@Just Another Green Rage Monster
Weighing in on the aikido v MMA thing (as an aikido practitioner who also practices some of the striking arts that underlie MMA, although not MMA itself). I am very familiar with this debate.
The short answer is that
a) Aikido takes a long time to learn to a high level of skill that is good enough to be effective and most people at that level of skill are far too old to be in MMA (today). To put it another way – if you take boxing, it can take many years to *master* it – but 6 months of boxing training will make you far more effective in a real fight or in MMA than you were before. But 6 months of aikido training is nowhere near enough to be competent in the ring.
b) Even more importantly, the central issue IMHO, is that aikido in the modern era is evolving to be closer to something like tai chi (a martial based meditative/physical training practice) than an actual martial art. I’ll spare you the detailed history of how aikido evolved from its founder to his son who popularized it globally and so on, but basically, the founder (Morihei Ueshiba) and his direct students before World War 2, trained in a brutal martial environment (it was not called the Hell Dojo for nothing) and were renowned brawlers and fighters, led by Ueshiba himself, who would have had no trouble handling themselves in MMA – because they trained aikido to actually fight.
The current (4th) generation of the Ueshiba family that runs aikido is nothing like this, and it is hardly surprising that the current generation of aikidoka cannot handle MMA-style fighting and live sparring – that is not how they are trained, and that is not what they are taught. Because internal politics of aikido took it in a different direction. But that is mainly an issue of training methods, not aikido’s capabilities.
Incidentally, there *are* (or were) people with an aikido base in MMA – google a guy called Rik Ellis. He wasn’t famous or anything, but he was an aikidoka competing in real MMA. It’s quite possible to do with the right adaptation.
As a separate point, note also that MMA is also its own sport with its own specialized rules and elite athletes specializing in it. It’s very far away from a “real fight” whatever that is. So while it is true that aikido is not one of the core martial arts that underlie MMA (usually boxing/kickboxing/wrestling/judo/Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with some variation), saying “why is an aikidoka not good at MMA” is kind of like saying “Why is this tennis player not good at golf?” It’s something else and not designed for MMA. That kind of statement is usually based on a false premise equating MMA with “real world fighting” and trying to find out what is the best martial art for that. But MMA is really its own highly specialized thing with its own nuances (just the switch from a boxing ring to an octagon massively changes the strategic equation for example, and there are many others).
“A bird has a Left Wing and a Right Wing. The bird brain is in the middle.”- C. Elliot Friday
@ ighy # 279 and jmg.
Thanks for reminding me of that Freakonomics story. I’d forgotten.
So inner city gangs could go different ways.
They can remain a sideshow; tolerated or prosecuted by the city authorities depending on their own needs.
They can become more, depending on unusual circumstances. So if Chicago is sacked by tens of thousands of rabid, heavily armed Canadian werewolves in an orgy of looting, slaughtering, burning, pillaging, and raping; the gangs — since they’re already young fighting men — will be the first to recover whereas the properly socialized young men will all be dead meat and their properly socialized young women will discover life as a concubine.
But I think I understand better now why warbands arise on the periphery. Since city gangs have always been with us and have always been mostly a sideshow (unless you’re unlucky enough to live next door) they don’t demonstrate the loss of control.
A warband prowling the borders of Illinois does.
@Peter Van Erp There is going to be a proper trial of the magic super-drug at Oxford University – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57570377 – so we’ll see who’s right.
Thanks JMG, it’s hard to make (mythic/symbolic) heads or tails of some of that stuff sometimes. I appreciate the tip.
erikalopez, bless you and your dancing playful soul and the bright sparkling “wow!” and heartful questions you bring to this party. Just wanted to say that.
Also, onething, warm thoughts sent your way.
And, Grover and Kevin Taylor Burgess, haven’t heard from you two in a long while and I hope all is well.
@ Omer #266 and fire ants
We sometimes had a nest of fire ants appear in our yard in South Carolina.
This is what I did: You’ll need two people. Fill the biggest pots you own with water and bring them to a boil. A big stock pot full of scalding water is heavy, needs a lid and might need to people to carry safely. The other person is also useful to open doors and gates on the way to the fire ant nest.
Pour the boiling water in as thin and direct stream as you can manage into the nest.
Repeat as necessary. Boiling water does kill almost everything in its path but it cools quickly and isn’t toxic.
Thanks, JMG, for letting me know about Bannon. I will listen to him even more closely to see what he is doing, magically speaking!
He was raised Catholic, before Vatican II. Maybe he’s using techniques he picked up as a youth? I do see he’s very good at framing the narrative–influencing our consciousness according to his will?
@RusTheRook,
One of the big differences between the energy we now get from fossil fuels, or from simple renewable energy technologies like wood stoves or solar water heating is if they can be net energy positive quickly, and create enough energy to be able to reproduce themselves. An analogy I like to use is one of a spaceship landing on a theoretical planet. If that spaceship had a computer filled with the entire catalog of technological information from our entire civilization and a crew of scientists and engineers, how well could they recreate our current technological lifestyle in one of two places? Planet A has fossil fuels with some of the easy to get. The space crew could probably quickly ( a generation or so) smelt metal, make tools, dig mines or wells, and create the modern stuff we have today. But if that same spaceship landed on planet B an otherwise ecologically perfect planet but with no stores of ancient sunlight ( fossil fuels) about the most they could hope to accomplish would be the equivalent of Tokugawa era Japan, and that would take several generations. Our current technology is totally a creation of the surplus energy available from burning fossil fuels. Maybe we could hoist up a couple of solar kites, but as soon as the fossil fuels gone the excess energy will not be available to replace the ones that crash to earth, the chip plants will rust away, the factories that refine and grow silicon crystals will be shuttered and we will slowly glide down to an economy of unheated wooden homes, a grain based diet, and a good portion of society being employed hauling human manure out to the fields.
@Patricia T
Thank you for your reply on last week’s post and linking those concepts together:
“Does fit into the theme of seeking immortality – those who seek it imagine it as lace (green pastures and flowering trees) but would find barbed wire (gray prison fortresses with dark dungeons).”
Your Poetic metaphor is insightful in thinking about why Khan popped into my head when reading the article.
Alex #178:
“What do you all think”?
I think you’ve got a well-written summary that might have been plucked from my brain – I literally sat on the front porch with my wife last night, describing to her what I thought was going on and I nailed your 4 hypotheses exactly. It’s one of those things that makes you say, “Whew, glad someone else sees it and I’m not nuts.”
I particularly appreciate your number 2 and 3. I find that too many people in the conspiracy set (a term I do not mean disparagingly – I’m in it) are prone to jumping directly from #1 to #4. “Mass hysteria” – agreed, too often this is lost amidst Hanlon’s razors and other razors. Yes, there is malice, and yes, there is stupidity, but there’s also human psychology and mass hysteria is a real thing – we’re living through it.
There is an element to the mass hysteria that bothers me most terribly, it grieves me in fact, and this is because I am a physician, and it has to do with the principle of Informed Consent. As in, we (the medical establishment as a whole) didn’t give it, for any of this. It’s hard to over-emphasize what a big deal this is. It’s medical school ethics 101 that you always ALWAYS ALWAYS get informed consent for ANYTHING. You spend a significant proportion of your time in training going around “consenting” the patients for what you’re about to do to them. And we just bloody well threw this away, and everyone was okay with this??? Am I taking crazy pills??? I’m really, really grieved over this, I consider it a stain on my profession.
To your point #3, I would add my belief that one of the reasons we are finally seeing the relaxation of restrictions is because it is sloooowly dawning on leaders that they Done Messed Up and Are Going To Be Found Out, and the only way – the only MAYBE, POSSIBLE way – to avoid losing their careers (or worse) is to open it up, real fast, while nervously offering some variation of, “Hehehe, um, sorry guys, you know wedidthebestwecould underthecircumstances but uh, here’s your freedoms back now,” and get to a semblance of normality before people become really mad about what was done to us all.
@Darkest Yorkshire #289
A friend of mine in high school showed me his Old WOD books. By then we’d already had the Blade and Underworld movies so the idea of Goth Punk and “sexy leather” modern vampires had already gotten kind of silly to me. These days, I appreciate the OWOD for what it was, even if it devolved into Monster Superheroes sometimes 😉
A Jason Bourne amnesia mechanic with regards to skills would be perfect for a Fate Core game! There has to be a setting book that covers espionage, surely, but doing it Bourne would definitely be a twist.
I’ll keep an eye out for that New Maps story.
Black Tuna, somebody on r/shortages suggested r/prepperintel already, and I’ve joined it. I’ll check out r/supplychain — many thanks for the hint.
Slithy, when you begin practicing magic, your subconscious mind typically freaks out a few times, because it’s not used to the resulting experiences. Fearful imagery is one standard way that this freakout happens, or you can simply get waves of fear. (That’s what I experienced.) If you stop at that point, you’ll never get further. We were talking about Carlos Castaneda on this blog a little while ago; when he wrote that fear is the first enemy of the man of knowledge, he was spot on target.
Dan, I’ll announce it as soon as it’s available for preorder.
Mary, it was a very close election, and US elections have been riddled with election fraud since colonial times. I thought Trump would win by a narrow margin; of course I was wrong, but I don’t claim to know how much of Biden’s whisker-thin margin of victory was the product of fraud. As for advertising, that’s an excellent point — the central message of every ad is that your entire reality must conform to what’s being shown, and of course that includes accepting the false belief that you can get things like happiness and self-esteem by buying products.
Omer, I’m glad to say I’ve never had to deal with them. Anyone else?
Booklover, I was at the local farmer’s market yesterday, and nobody was social distancing. A few elderly people wore masks, which is of course quite reasonable — if you’re in one of the handful of vulnerable categories, sanitary precautions are smart. (If we’d had a sane response to the virus, we would have focused on making sure vulnerable people got as much protection as possible, and not worried about the vast majority of people who have nothing to fear from the virus.)
Lux, those are fascinating questions to which I don’t know the answers. It would take quite a bit of experimentation, preferably with the assistance of competent clairvoyance, to find out.
Rus, I expect some form of computer technology to squeak through, if only in the form of salvaged machines kept working by ingenious repurposing; I expect electricity to remain available in modest amounts and refrigeration to be something that the well-to-do can afford. Cars and the internet, however, require huge amounts of infrastructure that a deindustrial society won’t be able to afford — a car is pretty much useless without a road network and gas stations, for example. Rather, I expect what remains of modern technology to undergo ferocious adaptation as people figure out how to make the core principles of technology function in the very different conditions of an age of scarcity. (For example, ultralight aircraft will very likely play an important role in warfare during the deindustrial dark ages, as a means of scouting — knowing where the other side is was a constant challenge to premodern armies.)
One of the big mistakes most people make when thinking about the future is falling into the trap of thinking that there was anything inevitable about the particular, very idiosyncratic suite of technologies we’ve ended up with. What counts as a modern lifestyle has much more to do with which corporations got government contracts and which marketing schemes worked best than it does with anything deeper. Thus advanced technologies in the future may look very different from what we consider advanced technology today!
Seideman, thanks for both of these! Consciousness of Sheep is worth reading — I don’t agree with all of it but the author understands the hard realities of energy, which is rare these days.
Chuaquin, unfortunately, the people who most need to listen to them won’t.
Secretface, excellent. I’ll add a fourth — now that the virus panic seems to have failed in that apparent purpose, they’ve got to try something else. If some other excuse to slash fossil fuel consumption pops up, you may well be on to something.
BCV, I met Jay first by way of the original Running On Empty Yahoo group — iirc this was in 1997, but don’t quote me on that. His comments were way over on the doomer end of things but he always had facts to back up his views. That was where I met Richard Duncan, where I first heard of the Hubbert curve, and where it first occurred to me that maybe there was a point in dusting off all the books I’d saved since the death of the appropriate tech movement in the early 1980s.
Ighy, that’s an excellent example of the process I had in mind. Keeping an eye out for military vets is very important — once those start leading nascent warbands, the coming dark age is a lot closer.
Karim, that strikes me as an excellent idea. My background is in qualitative rather than quantitative assessment — that’s what historians of ideas do — but having a set of quantitative measures as a backup would be very useful. I hope those of my readers with a better head for numbers can help.
Fra’ Lupo, interesting. Jung had some fascinating comments along the same lines in Answer to Job, as I recall.
Bridge, I don’t think that was the whole reason. I’m sure that it was part of what was involved.
Yorkshire, (1) there are a bunch of different symbols for each, since there are different processes involved — solve and coagula are general categories, not specific operations. Any good book on alchemy will give you some. (The one I used just now, because it’s first-rate, is Spagyrics by Manfred Junius.) (2) That seems to vary a lot from person to person. The crucial test is whether, when you’re projected, you can make physical objects move. If you can, you’ve achieved etheric projection.
David BTL, remember that Socrates was considered the wisest of the Greeks because he alone realized that for all practical purposes, he didn’t know anything at all.
Aziz, my family wasn’t atheist so much as apathetic, and so I didn’t (and don’t) have that experience. Anyone else?
Tarian, thanks for the data point.
Justin, good heavens. So Whorf was influenced by occultism! As for The Lost City of the Monkey, I’ve also read it — the local library had a copy — and yes, the Morde affair was fascinating.
Mr. Nobody, pay attention to how those placements affect your natal chart and you may be able to tell just how interesting the times will get for you.
Neptunesdolphins, thanks for this. I’d gotten that impression, but it’s good to hear the same thing from someone who was part of that world.
Blue Sun, many thanks for this. I do try to keep Magic Monday focused on occultism — but this sort of thing is what the open posts are for.
Neptunesdolphins, ouch. Yes, I could see that.
Collapsenik, I’ll check ’em out.
Jack, you’re most welcome.
Womensatlasrc, if I recall correctly the concept of the Veil comes from spiritualism, and was adopted into various corners of pop occultism from there. As for anti-gossip spells, depends on the spell — the ones that I find ethically suitable are the ones that have intentions like “I am safe from harmful gossip.” That way people can gabble all they want but it doesn’t affect you.
Teresa, exactly.
Temporaryreality, you’re welcome.
Jon, Bannon is a Traditionalist — a follower of the esoteric spiritual movement started by René Guenon and Julius Evola. He’s kind of an idiosyncratic Traditionalist, but then I’ve never met one who wasn’t! To judge by what I’ve read, he’s got a first-rate knowledge of esoteric philosophy and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he’s got some magical training as well.
RE: JMG, Jon -> Bannon
JMG you have redpilled me again. A close family member is obsessed with Bannon and I had absolutely no idea he knew about magic. How did you find this out?
Oh and with regards to Tai Chi, that sounds fair enough.
Jon, Thanks for the podcast link. I used to obsessively watch Pool so I’ll have to give this one a listen.
@Omer, The standard treatment for ants in many parts is to mix sugar with boric acid and leave it where the ants will find it, if the ants are of the sugar-eating type. If the ants are of the fat-eating type, butter might be a better bait.
@RusTheRook,
To elaborate on JMG’s point and Clay’s excellent analogy… you cannot assume that a few rich people can retain anything technological that everyone enjoys today simply because those products and services are only economically feasible when purchased and used by the masses.
Justin Patrick Moore:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on light and sound. I’ve been exploring similar connections in my meditations on Lévi and The Magician tarot card.
While investigating Goethe’s theory of colors, I came across René Schwaller de Lubicz’s idea that “the septenaries of the natural cosmos, from the colour spectrum through to the intervals of musical harmony, would reveal the laws of manifestation underpinning all things, from the structure of the atom to the organisation of the solar system.” (https://www.aaroncheak.com/call-of-fire)
Some indigenous people believe that the stars of the Milky Way sing with their light:
“We are the stars which sing
We sing with our light.
We are the birds of fire;
We fly over the heaven;
Our light is a star.
We sing on the road of the spirits;
The road of the great spirit.”
Passamaquoddy Texts, by John Dyneley Prince, 1921
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51200/51200-h/51200-h.htm
These words were used by Dead Can Dance in their song, “Song of the Stars.”
It is believed by some that the songs (icaros) sung by the shamans in ayahuasca ceremonies can shape and direct the visions that manifest under the influence of the medicine (personal anecdote).
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the creation story begins with the breath of the Creator speaking the first words, creating light.
Courtesy of Jean Lamb in Oregon, who adds “This is the path to Asimov’s Naked Sun. ” a dystopia for our times. “Togetherness Day.”
https://dailysciencefiction.com/
@ shipwrecked colonists on Planet A and Planet B – it’s been done in the older s/f. In the Darkover books, the would-be colonists included a back-to-the-land Scottish commune who adapted very quickly, while the other load, who had a high-tech destination to begin with, had a harder time adapting, and the crew, most of all. That’s for example. In Bujold’s far-future novels, Barrayar seemed to have no fossil fuels worth exploiting with what the first wave colony ships had on hand, and the vegetation was poisonous. Between that and being fewer in numbers and without the machinery the subsequent ships were going to bring, they developed into a society of villages and a district overlord, probably a logical development of “the most successful person in the village.” The sample we see (Mountains of Mourning) was very Appalachian in culture.
I have been getting subtle and not so subtle pressures from people that I play music with that I am a bad person because I refuse to get the vaccine “for the good of the community”. One of the guys is a doctor and he accuses me of being a unvaxxed person hiding out in the population of the vaxxed. I sent him a long email defending my position with points such as I already had the real disease, it is a very dangerous vaccine as demonstrated by the deaths and long time injuries in the vaers and other data bases, it is very narrowly focused on what is now an extinct version of the spike proteins, and it is a non-sterilizing vaccine (hiding out in the population is not a thing with that).
I was very disappointed in his response. I expected a data driven and scientific rebuttal. What I got was an evidence free article stating that the data bases I used are invalid. The article was filled with ad-hominum attacks claiming people using the databases were anti-vaxxers. No alternative statistics were even offered. It was then I realized that this is not a scientific issue at all but a matter of faith with them. I don’t think reason will work with them. Do I keep trying or should I be silent? Should I employ the fourth of the four verbs; to know, to dare, to will ,to be silent. I feel like I am a heretic in a vulnerable place and I could get burned at the stake if I don’t employ “to be silent”. But I can’t live that way so it would be a parting of the ways for me. The separate treatment of the unvaccinated is a divide and conquer tactic and builds resentment and I don’t want to play into that situation either.
To Omer (#266)
If you can find some borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate), mix it with sugar and water to make a thick paste. Leave that where the ants will find it. The nest will be dead the next day. As far as I know, borax is relatively safe. It is sold as a laundry soap in the USA.
“I do have some anecdotal evidence from friends of strange symptoms after vaccines (anyone else come across tinitis?) ”
I have a work associate whose tinnitus got much worse this spring. Right around the time she had her covid jabs, if my estimate is correct. She just very recently got special new hearing aids to help with the tinnitus.
Coincidence? Causal? I don’t know. I do know she doesn’t seem to think there could possibly be any connection, but, well…we’ll see if more data come in, I guess.
@Mieczysław
> Solar concentrated energy in heavy industry is tested since 70’s.
And they were not able to get temperatures over 1000 degrees Celsius. These new companies can. And there are things you can do at over 1000 degrees Celsius that you can’t do at lower temperatures, such as make fuel.
The difference is that these new technologies use computers to focus the mirrors more precisely. Computer technology was not as advanced as it was in the 70s. And Heliogen has some powerful mining like Rio Tinto and ArcelorMittal backing it, so I wouldn’t quickly write it off as vaporware.
@clay dennis
> they can be net energy positive quickly, and create enough energy to be able to reproduce themselves.
What does a High Altitude Wind kite, like the ones SkySails is making today, need? It needs 1) Fabric for the kite and rope. 2) A generator. And 3) Computer chips. The hardest part is computer chips, but those are absurdly plentiful today and as long as at least one factory exists that can make computer chips in the future, you can build a skysail to get more power for the computer chips.
As for your analogy, it’s not applicable to real life. No society has ever existed in a vacuum, every society has always interacted with its past and with other societies. We shouldn’t restrict ourselves to building a society from scratch, no human has ever lived under that restriction.
But if we want to entertain your analogy, global warming will make places like the artic regions more accessible. This means more oil. So by your own analogy, we’ll still end up on planet A.
@TJandTheBear
> only economically feasible when purchased and used by the masses.
I’m not saying a handful of rich people will manage to buy their way into prosperity. I’m saying that some of the tech base of modern society can be reworked to last for essentially forever.
A good image of what I’m thinking of would be the 3rd world. In India today, there are more people with access to cell phones than have access to toilets. Likewise, I don’t think all the technology we have today will survive peak oil, but I think a lot of it will and that humanity’s energy use per capita will be much higher than it was in the middle ages.
Maybe, for example, private ownership of cars won’t exist and we’ll be forced to use public transportation, but things like refrigeration or drugs will exist. Or maybe the internet won’t be widespread but public sanitation will.
I do think that the decline in the EROI of our energy resources will result in a more unequal society though.
Michael, Bridge, Alex, thank you for weighing in.
Alex #178, I also think your four-part analysis is quite good. To explain crazy times you don’t need large doses of conspiratorial ill-intent, you only need the psychology of crowds, a high enough temperature, and a few poor decisions sprinkled in.
Bofur #317, I guessed more than a year ago, at the start of all this, that the poor decisions that precipitated the worst of the situation would never be personally ‘fessed up to, and that the history books would be written so as to glorify the tough decisions that had to be made in 2020-21. But now that I see so many people resisting and questioning that narrative, I wonder whether this is instead going to trigger a much more massive and near-term crisis of public trust than even what the last several years have seen.
@temporaryreality here’s a good start on Saturn and Prometheus links (his blog is great for constellation lore in general) https://www.starmythworld.com/mathisencorollary/2014/08/prometheus-bringer-of-fire.html
@ Greer
I think we’re actually more in agreement than our previous discussions have suggested.
On no private cars….. yeah, I agree with that. In fact, the whole idea behind driverless cars is to make private cars obsolete. I do think that we’ll have a capacity to make expensive synthetic fuels like methanol from renewable energy (NOT from biofuels). So public transport like buses will still exist and we’ll still be able to power heavy equipment.
I’m surprised you think the internet won’t exist. The internet was designed to withstand a nuclear war by being totally decentralized. The internet might be STRUCTURED differently but I can still see a global network of corporations, governments, and public internet cafes and libraries linked to each other through computers.
This is where I see crypto fitting in in the long run. I think eventually (maybe decades from now) cryptocurrencies might be adopted as a global base currency. That can still happen as long as a decentralized network of computers exist, even if the masses don’t have access to it.
Our disagreement seems to be this. I think that energy resources are more abundant than you think, and that therefore, we’ll be somewhat more technologically advanced than you’re saying. I think peak oil and global warming will cause parts of our civilization to collapse but we regress to a roughly 1950s level or what we see in the Third World like Africa, as opposed to full on Middle Ages.
But I don’t know, that’s just my best guess right now.
Speaking of populists on the left and populists on the right….
As an auditory learner, I like to listen to podcasts and interviews when I’m doing mundane tasks, so I sample a wide range of stuff. If any of the readers here are auditory learners like me, then I highly recommend the three podcasts JMG did recently about The King in Orange. All three are fantastic conversations. You can get to them through JMG’s Dreamwidth page.
I’m pretty sure it was in all of them, but in at least two of them JMG mentions the story of the decline of the working class’s purchasing power since the 1970s (which I’m sure most readers here are familiar with). Imagine my surprise when I heard Steve Bannon telling almost the exact same story on a podcast. He was recently on Tim Pool’s show, and walked through the same description of how a family of four can no longer survive on one working class income. He also expressed his desire to see populists on the left and right joining together. It was a bit surreal. I don’t know much about Steve Bannon, but my opinion of him was more on the negative side than the positive. After hearing him echo so many of the same themes JMG has been writing about, I’m beginning to think maybe the media smeared him a lot more than I realized.
If you want to listen, you can access the show on the free version of Spotify, or on YouTube (no need to view the visual component). Look for “Timcast IRL # 314 – GameStop Stock Apes WIN, Hedge Fund COLLAPSES w/Steve Bannon.”
@ Mark L
> Your last comment reminds me of my own green energy optimism of years past, which faltered when I actually spent six years working on one of those cutting edge projects in graduate school.
Also @ Clay, I hope I haven’t come off as too aggressive or forward in my comments, it’s hard to communicate over the internet.
Your comment reminds me of the amount of time I spent thinking I wanted to get into graduate school to become a scientist (a biologist) only to decide that working on uncertain projects and begging for funding was too difficult for me to handle.
A lot of research projects do fail, if they didn’t we wouldn’t be researching them. But we use ONLY 0.015% of the amount of energy the Earth receives from sunlight every year. Wind energy has an EROI of 20, High Altitude Wind Energy may have even higher EROI’s because it uses less materials. Solar energy is good at producing high temperatures, and there’s lots of nuclear reactor designs that haven’t been used.
That’s a lot of design space. With so much space left to explore, I think we’re not out of options for replacing at least parts of our infrastructure, even if doing so is going to be very difficult
Also, I’m not interested in what we ought to do, I’m interested in what we can and will do. As for how disruptive, lavish, and wasteful that will be, well….. knowing human nature, it’s going to be disruptive, lavish, and wasteful to the max.
Ought we to do it? Those are good considerations and as a Catholic, I’m uncomfortable with rampant consumerism. I personally live a very simple life. I don’t own a car or a TV or even have internet at home (I’m using a library computer). To be honest, if civilization collapsed back to the 1500s, as Greer predicts in his book “Dark Age America”, I wouldn’t be displeased.
That being said, from a biological perspective, humans are basically bigger ants. Because humans are eusocial animals, we’re destined to simply dominate the world’s ecology for a long time, just like ants do on their level.
JMG and commenters,
Re your response to Lunchbox (“GET OUT OF STOCKS. NOW”): My intuition has been telling me that for months. Nearly all my $ is in a 401-K and its investment choices are (a) stocks, (b) bonds, or (c) a “guaranteed interest” account (treasury bills/money market accounts). I’ve moved a lot of it into (c), but I’d like to hear ideas from commenters. What are people doing with their savings? (Buying land, buying gold or silver coins, or…?) I’d like to know how others are preparing for the inevitable stock market crash. Out-of-the-box suggestions welcome!
Also, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our gracious host and all the commenters for your wisdom and humor.
@ teresa from hershey, yep, supermarkets are full of misdirection, mind games, manipulation, and possibly other things that start with m. (And I don’t mean meat, milk, melon, marmalade, mangoes, macaroni, or marshmallows.) Good advice on double-checking on the “x for $y” deals.
“Extreme couponing” is a hobby for some, but since few coupons are for products anyone actually needs, one wonders who’s playing whom in that game.
@ youngelephant, a humble response about professional fighters. UFC and MMA fighters are highly trained individuals, who have spent years honing their craft. It’s safe to say that one must have a death wish to try and get into a tussle with them without equivalent training and dedication! They are to be respected for their talents and hard work. But, they are also practicing their art in a very rule constrained manner. These rules have been implemented so that the outcome of a match should NOT be death or dismemberment, unless something has gone horribly wrong. Historically, this is not the case with traditional martial arts. Although some great teachers and systems purposely avoid harming an opponent to the extent possible, first by avoiding conflict, then by attempting to diffuse conflict, and only lastly resorting to physical conflict, most martial arts through time have been developed to end a confrontation as quickly as possible. Lots of terrifying weapons and techniques exist to aid this. You don’t see many UFC fights with swords, spears, hammers, forks, eye gouges, groin strikes or sand thrown in the eyes. Removing these from the ring removes part of the vast repertoire a skilled traditional martial artist has to work with. And, to be fair, if we are strictly speaking of who has the best fighting techniques, it’s the person with a gun hands down every time.
Much of the value of traditional martial arts training gets overlooked in the ongoing “who has the best technique” debate. Like magic and the occult I’m sure, any good school has indoor and outdoor students. Outdoor students pay the bills and keep the school open. Most people you’ll meet with martial arts training will probably be of this type. It’s not ideal to judge a tradition and art form based on them, even if they are talented and well trained. If you prove your character over time, doors are opened to you. Doors which hide dangerous technique, philosophy, story and magic. And by default, if these doors have been open to you, you have self-selected to be someone who probably isn’t sharing this technique in a competition. To know, to will, to dare, and to … as JMG says!
Traditional martial arts are also a fantastic way to repeatedly, and in a controlled manner, confront your most challenging opponent: yourself.
@JMG and justin Patrick Moore:
Whorf was indeed very deeply influenced by occultism. He joined the Theosophical Society early enough in his life that his surviving daughter was able to share with a recent biographer (Penny Lee) memories of her good times at Theosophist summer camps for children.
I put two of Whorf’s best and latest papers up on http://www.archive.org recently. I recommend them highly. There are not many other authors who have had as deep an impact as Whorf on my own esoteric thought.
NB The so-called “Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” comes neither from Sapir nor from Whorf. It was formulated by a few linguists of the next generation in a form that was deliberately meant to be (and was) readily falsified. Neither Sapir nor Whorf ever formulated a testable hypothesis, but simply collected evidence that different languages shape in strikingly different ways the ways that their native speakers conceptualize reality, and hence also affect the behavior of these native speakers of different languages–a much weaker claim than the hypothesis that bears their names.
@JMG and womensatlasrc:
The “Veil” was indeed a wide-spread concept in early Spiritualism, but–to my surprise–I also found it in a 19th-century work on Druidry: W. Winwood Reade, The Veil of Isis; or, The Mysteries of the Druids (1861). Later Madame Blavatsky’s first big book was called Isis Unveiled (1877).
@Goldenhawk:
There’s something similar in the Bible, Job 38:7 — “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of god shouted for joy.”
@Omer re: fire ants
It’s basically impossible to get rid of them, so the best strategy is deterrence. Sprinkling diatomaceous earth around their nests and pathways can be helpful. It’s not toxic, but you don’t want to breathe it, so protect yourself and be strategic about where you put the stuff, if you do that.
It also helps to try to understand what they’re after, when they’re in your house/car/potted plants/etc. They like food, of course, so being fanatical about crumbs on the floor helps, but here at least, their main objective is to stay dry. Our yard floods any time there’s a heavy rain, and that’s inevitably when the ants come in to visit. Nothing’s foolproof, but our strategy (some of it accidental) has been raised garden beds away from the house where they can get out of the damp (if you want to see something fun, invert a glass bowl in the yard and just leave it there– it’ll create a dry patch and they’ll fill it up with earth and tunnels– automated ant farm!), and a generous dusting of diatomaceous earth under and around the house where they gain access. We still have to resort to poison baits now and then (like when they colonized my car), but not as often now. YMMV
Ramraj,
Please do email me at v b h a s k a r s e e @ g m a i l . c o m
JMG, that makes sense, and is a relief. Thank you.
If I might ask a follow-up question, can you suggest guidelines for distinguishing your own fear from actual warning signs?
Youngelephant, Bannon’s Traditionalist leanings have been splashed all over books on the Evil Orange Man, and I happen to know a certain amount about Traditionalism (and about Bannon — I read some of those books as part of the research for The King in Orange).
Patricia M, thanks for this.
Daniel, it really does seem to me as though they know there’s something very wrong with the vaccine, they’re trying to pretend that this isn’t the case, and pushing everyone else to get the vaccine is part of that pretense. Don’t try to reason with them. It won’t do any good.
Rus, the internet that was designed to survive nuclear war was a much simpler and much less resource-intensive system than the one we have now — go look up the specs for ARPANET sometime and compare them to the current internet. People I know who work for the big internet companies talk about the semi trailers full of new hard drives and other components that arrive every single day at the data centers to replace the ones that burn out that day. The internet as it now exists is hopelessly unsustainable. If anything survives it’ll be BBS systems communicating by radio — and that will be possible only if less energy-intensive ways of building computer parts can be developed in a hurry. As for energy, the crucial point is not the amount of energy but the amount of net energy — how much energy you have left after you subtract what’s needed to extract, refine, and distribute your energy resources — and renewable sources have very modest net energy returns. That’s why I don’t agree with your assessment.
If you think that I believe we’re headed back to the Middle Ages, though, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention. As I’ve discussed at great length in blog posts and books, modern industrial society is the first of what I’ve termed technic societies — societies that get a significant amount of energy from sources other than food and biofuels. As the first, ours is the clumsiest and most wasteful, and most of what counts as a modern lifestyle is shaped by that clumsiness and waste; cars, buses, heavy earth-moving machinery are included in that. The dark age ahead will use salvaged and fragmentary versions of our technology the way that the dark age after Roman times used salvaged and fragmentary versions of Roman technology — thus my comment about ultralight planes in future warfare. Future civilizations, thousands of years in the future, will develop their own less clumsy and wasteful technologies to a high level of sophistication.
Blue Sun, one of the things that makes Bannon an effective force in the political scene today is that he’s willing to go there, and talk about the destruction of the American working class. That’s the most important fact in American politics today and it’s also the most unmentionable — which is what gives it its power.
Yavanna, my money is currently in cash — it’s not making me much but at least it’s not vulnerable to a crash. Once the crash hits, we’ll see.
Robert, fascinating. Many thanks for this! I had no idea.
Slithy, the things you should be wary of won’t frighten you. They’ll give you a hot, confused, excited feeling — that’s the typical sign that a malign spirit is involved.
@teresa @Clark @weilongwang @methylethyl
Thanks for the useful suggestions! I’ll try them out 🙂
@Greer
> If you think that I believe we’re headed back to the Middle Ages, though, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention.
I see. If I have misunderstood you, I apologize.
Well, it will be interesting to see what happens I suppose!
As to activated charcoal, I would point people to biochar. Google it up. I have used it in my garden with surprising results. it was used by the ‘prehistoric’ people of the Amazon.
JMG and the commentariat, I am considering building a thermoelectric generator. We get plenty of sunshine year around, and temperatures stay in the 70-100F range. After going through the Seebeck coefficient table in my college physics book, I concluded that Nicket-Aluminum and Nickel-Copper combinations are the best suited. They are easily available, modestly priced and not toxic.
Does anyone have experience in building one of these, or can anyone point me to some good resources on building a thermoelectric generator? I searched Greenwizards forum and the Master conserver handouts, but they do not have anything on this.
Thank you.
@RusTheRook
Already in 1969 Odeillo solar furnace built in France reached 3,500 °C (6,330 °F).
Concentrated solar has a problem with clouds. One cloud blocking sunlight can ruin whole smelting process. Keeping right temperature is crucial. This can’t be solved by just adjusting mirrors position, even with electronics. And of course it can’t work at night.
Concentrated solar in heavy industry was abandon because smelting metals with coal was cheaper, easier, more reliable and could be done 24/7 for decades in every place in the world, even beyond the Arctic Circle (think Norylsk). In a very competitive world of metallurgy having a plant that can’t operate 24/7 means that you should start looking for something else to do.
Concentrated solar is finding its own niche but without massive subsidies I don’t think we will see its come back to heavy industry any time soon.
@temporaryreality, to JMG’s point, that’s not the only instance of conflation of divinities in the hymns: in the Athanassakis translation, for instance, Apollon is equated with both Bacchos and Pan (the former is an association noted elsewhere as part of the tri-aspect of Apollon by, I believe, Macrobius (?)).
This also feeds into the Neoplatonic concept that all the gods are in each.
Axé
@Ramaraj
Indeed, classical music does have a strong connection to the occult. Not only that, there’s the entire field of musico-therapy, in which specific ragas are played to act on particular ailments. After all, the classical dances of India, especially Bharatanatyam, are all connected to classical music and temples. Even in the Hindustani Classical music tradition, while there are a fair number of Ustads, the music itself abounds with Hindu devotional themes (although to a lesser extent than in Carnatic Classical), and the tradition of Dhrupad singing is very much connected to Hindu religious traditions and philosophy! By the way, if you’re interested, you can check out the book ‘The Ragas of North Indian Music’ by Alain Danielou, it’s pretty good.
@Varun
Thank you for this. I’ll try to pitch in and see how I can contribute, especially regarding HCM.
@JMG
Do you know of a good book on ecological history other than Clive Ponting’s ‘A New Green History of the World’ that I can check out? Thanks in advance.
Hi John Michael,
Had a lovely winters solstice. The winter weather was sort of warm for this time of year, the skies were blue and there was not even the merest hint of a breeze. A really lovely day – which is very unusual for this time of year.
Still, I needn’t have worried as the winter weather soon returned with force, but this time the warm waters way off to the north west of the continent in the Indian Ocean produced an epic continent spanning atmospheric river which produced rain in every state. An impressive feat. It is a really wet year here.
I’ve been ferreting away at the problem of how to talk to true believers about the limitations of renewable energy sources. And I reckon I came up with a sort of good idea in that I refer to the suns interaction with plants so as to highlight the lack of energy in the sunlight during the winter months – and people can observe that particular observation without having to point at a model (my absolute pet hate) or having to even install any of the technology. So I say to people: If the plants aren’t growing during the winter months, there probably isn’t much energy to be had from the sun.
A mate of mine is going to run a film night on Tuesday night from about 7.30pm Melbourne time on this very subject. People can either turn up in person or watch over the interweb. And there may even be a discussion at the end of the movie with the documentary film maker. I think the film is titled: Bright Green Lies. Hopefully none of the other readers were triggered by that film title? 🙂
Cheers
Chris
@JMG
Is this habit of coming up with theories like ‘Aliens built this’ or ‘a prehistoric civilization with ultra-advanced technology built this’ when attempting to explain the construction of the Egyptian Pyramids, the Mayan Temples or the Kailasa Temple in Ellora, India, just another consequence of the myth of Progress? I mean, apart from belief in long-distance space travel (in the case of the ‘Ancient Aliens’ fanboys), the very idea that some kind of techno-utopian technology is necessary to build such structures itself seems to be something that results from believing in the myth of Progress.
I’d like to use an analogy, here. The engineers who sent Neil Armstrong to the Moon did so using calculations done using slide rules, as did the engineers who designed the U-Boats of WW2. When I mentioned this to my friends, they were all shocked and unable to believe that it is the truth (some of them had never even heard of slide rules before). If people cannot believe, despite such a well-documented history, that the WW2 weaponry was designed using slide rules and not laptops running Scilab, then maybe it’s not surprising that when discussing about such structures built hundreds and thousands of years back, people need to resort to the ‘Ancient Aliens’ theory, right?
Yavanna #335
I have had my 401K in cash for the last 5 years. I am currently using it to pay for the renovations of a house right next door that my spouse and I purchased about a year and a half ago. It will become a rental when we are done. It seemed best to put my money into a “real” thing rather then watch it evaporate in a stock market “correction” as it did once before in the dot.com crash. I have to pay a rather large tax bill of course, but hopefully we will have a modest stream of income when we are done. Also the large back yard will provide more garden space.
JMG and Ecosophians,
I would like to start incorporating an S.o.P. into my daily routine and am wondering how to learn one? I recall that In the past, our host has directed inquiries to his books and I have purchased “Learning Ritual Magic” and “The Druidry Handbook but I haven’t found mention of it yet. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Courtney
Wow. I guess I got beaten to the punch twice! Ha! Thanks for hosting such a rich conversation JMG— it’s hard to keep up!
I’m glad so many other voices are finally noticing and talking about these issues. It’s very encouraging that the truth is getting out there, and we can link to the Bret Weinsteins and Tim Pools of the world.
It feels like yesterday when you and Kunstler (and several others, to be sure) were the lone voices in the wilderness talking about this stuff.
I clearly remember Kunstler and Nicole Foss talking about the receding Trust Horizon back in 2012— and now we’re watching it actually happen before our eyes!
[ That’s KunstlerCast #190 for those interested—-I’m pretty sure no one will beat me to the punch posting that link… 😉 ]
@ Daniel –
I wish I had something really helpful to say, but I’m afraid that I don’t.
I’m in a sort of similar situation with a group of friends I used to see regularly, insofar that they are covid-vax religious zealots who think that there is no valid reason or excuse for anyone not getting these experimental jabs “for the greater good” (one of them even used the phrase “for mankind”). They loathe “anti-vaxxers”, of course.
So I lied – mostly lies by omission, due to assumptions – about getting the vaccine. They think i got it but I didn’t. But now, because I think they are a bunch of propagandized sheep who don’t respect other people’s right to either their own choices or their medical privacy, I don’t really want to spend time with them any more. I’m lying to them, and I don’t like lying – but felt like I had little choice but to lie or get into endless pointless arguments about something that’s none of their business anyway, so I took the easy way out. But I don’t really want to keep hanging around people I have to lie to, if that makes sense?
So I don’t know what to tell you about your music group, except that you have my sympathy You chose to be honest and try and argue with them, but got nowhere. I lied, but don’t respect them anymore – or at least, I now view them as crazy people to be “managed” rather than as friends to be trusted.
It all just sucks.
El
Wind is changing. I read in my local paper this morning that the RI Legislature is is proposing to expand the scope of the “Hate Crimes Sentencing Act”. Writing to the Legislature in opposition to the expansion were two emails, one from LGBT RI Action, and other gay-rights groups, and the other from the ACLU and other social justice groups. They have begun to see that expanding police powers is not in their interest.
RE; the vaccines for the Virus which may Not be Named: I felt much foggier after getting vaccinated two months ago, which has been slowly improving since.
Dear John,
This is more of a web site logistics question: would it be possible to have nested/threaded comments here at ecosophia.net, similar to the Dreamwidth site’s comments? This would make it much easier to read your replies juxtaposed with the questions. Right now I have two windows open where I sync up / scroll your replies to their respective questions and keep Alt-Tabbing between the two windows – workable but not an ideal solution.
Thanks for all your support to the community.
Regards,
Rajesh
@SCC
You might try “PDR for Herbal Medicines” published by Thompson. Includes scientific studies where available, cross references for traditional usage, indications, side effects, drug interactions etc.
To give you an idea of how comprehensive this book is: it has thin pages and weighs over 5 lb.
From Yavanna number 335
JMG and commenters,
Re your response to Lunchbox (“GET OUT OF STOCKS. NOW”): My intuition has been telling me that for months. Nearly all my $ is in a 401-K and its investment choices are (a) stocks, (b) bonds, or (c) a “guaranteed interest” account (treasury bills/money market accounts). I’ve moved a lot of it into (c), but I’d like to hear ideas from commenters. What are people doing with their savings? (Buying land, buying gold or silver coins, or…?) I’d like to know how others are preparing for the inevitable stock market crash. Out-of-the-box suggestions welcome!
—-
Put your money in a tin can and bury it in your backyard or put it under your bed.
I am being serious. The gold and silver markets are wonky as is the bitcoin market. Fiat currency may or may not be worth anything. Interest rates are dipping into the negative range i.e. you pay the bank to keep your money. The dollar will cease to be reserve currency, which throws the whole system into chaos.
T-bills are guaranteed income, money market are not.
Land may be the only thing as people can live off of land.
What is going on is a dramatic shift in monetary flows and how currency and banks work. Since the world is awash in debt, people are chasing money pots trying to get some interest income. The world of money is changing and no one know what it is changing into.
@ Robert. In what ways would your native language shape how you see the world?
@ martial arts. This debate on martial arts is really interesting. How would one decide which traditional martial art is the right fit for them? What are the pluses and minuses of each.
Thanks everyone
Anonymous collapsenik: re “temps between 70 and 100 degrees” – where do you live?
JMG – whay do you make of the increasing trend for Conservative pundits such as Tucker Carlson to mock the US Military for their supposed lameness? The Tweet below seems to be increasingly typical of the Right’s attitude on this issue:
https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1408505934448451585
Meanwhile, in surprising global trends, I found the story below intriguing:
http://www.danielpipes.org/20489/iran-christian-boom
>> my money is currently in cash — it’s not making me much but at least it’s not vulnerable to a crash. Once the crash hits, we’ll see.
Do you mean cash as in it’s in a bank and not “invested,” or cash as in literally paper? I’ve always assumed that an event significant enough to render bank accounts valueless would be significant enough to render paper dollars equally valueless, but if I’ve miscalculated something there, please let me know.
Pixelated, thanks, I’ll take a look at that!
Fra’ Lupo, interesting. That “This also feeds into the Neoplatonic concept that all the gods are in each” makes me wonder if this is behind the monotheistic impulse (that posits “one” god to do it all)…
Daniel Kislinger, I feel ya! I’m an introvert with few friends but one that I do have (going on 20 years give or take) called to tell me she was having a 75th birthday party at a location with lovely indoor *and outdoor* spaces and “have you gotten the vaccine yet?” I said no. So I’m not invited. Now my introvert self is OK with not having to go to a party, but the deeper meaning is rather unfortunate. A greater distance has opened up with another friend (that one’s going on 30 years!) though it’s not been explicitly mentioned… I just know she’ll despise my reluctance and so it’s better if there’s distance so I can pretend I have friends. The other two… Well, all signs point to something similar, though we’ve not talked in a while. I believe I’m out of luck and less than helpful – commiseration can be offered at least.
@Mieczysław
> Concentrated solar has a problem with clouds.
> Concentrated solar in heavy industry was abandon because smelting metals
I think these two points are best addressed together.
The real prize for concentrated solar power is NOT heavy industry, it is solar fuel. At temperatures over 1000 degrees celsius and the right catalysts, you can thermochemically split water into hydrogen, then combine that hydrogen with CO2 to create methanol. You can then power the economy on methanol fuel. This is well recognized by Heliogen, their CEO has mentioned solar fuels several times.
Thus, geographic position doesn’t matter so much if your goal is to make solar fuels instead of smelting metals. You can just put the facilities in the desert where there is less cloud cover. And thermal heat storage for concentrated solar power does exist.
————————————————————————————————————
Looking at pictures, the Odeillo Solar Furnace requires a ton of materials and it looks like it requires a specific geography. Compare the two instillations in the following photos. See how Heliogen uses far fewer materials than Odeillo?
https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/heliogen-lancaster-facility-drone-7-1574192299.jpg?resize=768:*
https://ivypanda.com/essays/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/48251_2.png
At this point, I’m probably a bit out of my depth but if Heliogen is able to deliver high temperatures at low cost (ex: heat at 1 cent per kilowatt vs 1.5 for Natural Gas), that is what is important.
Robert Matthiesen :
Thanks for the pointer to Job and the singing stars.
I’ve recently discovered that the poetry of certain Bible passages is mysteriously calming when read aloud.
Sebastian Louchart #278, how complicated would the Retrotopia board game have been? Are we talking Iron Harvest level of complicated? I watched videos how to play that and was lost before they’d even finished setting up the board. 🙂
Q-anon and the LA yoga-New Age – etc community. The LA Times is quite upset about it.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-23/covid-adds-to-california-yoga-wellness-qanon-problem?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Hi JMG and comentariat
This is a link from the Spanish government advicing the Covid-19 vaccinated spanish people that want to go to China, that they will be send to a hospital where they will make you many test (blood, urine, etc…) and scans (mri and others) without informing you and during 3 to 4 days
http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/SHANGHAI/es/Consulado/Paginas/Articulos/2021-06-24.aspx
I suppose this is happening to the people of other western countries, I don’t know if it hapening also to americans, but it seems it is a huge campaign of data analysis & recording of the health situation of vaccinated people from the west, and up to certain point sound something scary to me.
Anyhow I would like to know the data from the Chinese autorities, bacause this is what the health authorithes in our countries should make in this kind of massive vaccination campaign with experimental vaccines instead of trying to minimize all the alarming reports of adverse events we hear every single day.
I think the chinese authorities are learning from our “experiment”, and they really want to know the real health effect of the brand new vaccines, I think this is a medium to longterm campaign of the chinese, which is clever, and may be they can use this information, if the results are not good, to even destroy the legitimacy of the western institutions, more and more hostile to them.
Cheers
David
Violet, Dylan, Kimberly, and anyone else noticing people acting weird, I came across someone on Reddit discussing why he thinks that the vaccines are causing brain damage. Long story short, the MRNA vaccines use a class of compounds which are also used to get things across the blood brain barrier. An earlier study of an MRNA vaccine found the protein concentrated in rodent brains, and a lot of people are reporting issues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal/comments/o7zxtc/there_are_so_many_things_wrong_with_this_single/h345efj/?context=3
All,
I’m amazed once more at how much support and advice is available here. Thank you to everyone who’s responded with advice on how to eat well on a budget.
@ Yavanna # 355.
Tangibles.
That is, pay of any outstanding debt, followed by insulating your house, improving overall energy efficiency, and body repairs like getting those loose fillings replaced and spare pairs of glasses. Your eyes, ears, and teeth NEVER get better.
Do you have a full pantry (a solid month’s worth of eating without a trip to the grocery store)?
How about several months worth of income stashed away so if you lose your job, you’re not instantly at the foodbank.
Got good, sturdy gardening tools? A gas grill with three full propane tanks so you can cook when the power goes out?
Similar to what you were mentioning a few blog posts ago regarding the change of narrative regarding the pandemic, I’ve also started to see articles like this were Progress is questioned. This one by The Atlantic, though in their own terms, say that Tech as an economic force has plateaued and only trade at the high price and have the status they do because of the image of a times past, even though other sectors are comparable.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/is-the-age-of-tech-over/580504/
And “scandalous” claims made in this better thought out essay which says that progress in Physics has halted for a long while and some phrases like this one sound familiar:
“Today, progress is defined almost entirely by consumer-driven, often banal improvements in information technology. The US economist Tyler Cowen, in his essay The Great Stagnation (2011), argues that, in the US at least, a technological plateau has been reached. Sure, our phones are great, but that’s not the same as being able to fly across the Atlantic in eight hours or eliminating smallpox. As the US technologist Peter Thiel once put it: ‘We wanted flying cars, we got 140 characters.’”
https://aeon.co/essays/has-progress-in-science-and-technology-come-to-a-halt?fbclid=IwAR15MU-xlWNdfPAJlHW1PvMaIAIhRzgRnKKoFO-GGaxMGPX2QUrnSHE7FuI
RE stocks
Anyone going to get out of their 401ks? I’ve had a persistent intuition this last year to pull all my money out of there and have embarrassingly not followed up on it. I guess I’ll look into doing what Yavanna did. The rest of my money sits in a savings account. I noticed the same thing as JMG; two people who are the last I’d ever expect to buy a stock were talking about trading on Robinhood. I face palmed right there and said this was a sign the market would crash.
RE Anonymous and MMA
You make some good points. I agree about the weapons and that any speciality martial artist who could fight in the UFC is too busy shutting the duck up/would never fight for money or sport.
@ Walt F # 336
I don’t believe there’s nearly as much extreme couponing as there was in the past. Most of the coupons I see are for health and beauty, followed by things like air freshener. In other words, mostly useless. The food coupons tend to be for heavily processed items so again, mostly useless.
Coupons only work if you would buy the item anyway and then you get the added discount.
Even today, I am sometimes able to buy shampoo on sale, with an added store online coupon attached to my store loyalty card AND a manufacturer’s coupon. Result? about 50 cents a bottle. But those deals have mostly gone by the wayside.
There aren’t nearly as many printed paper coupons as there were years ago. They’ve all migrated (I think) to smartphones. Since I don’t use a smartphone, I’m out of luck. I wouldn’t do it anyway because downloading and using smartphone coupons must lead directly to serious datamining. I don’t know for sure, but it seems logical.
The coupon and grocery industry move with the times. They are also responsive to how many people use sales and coupons. When times get harder, more people take advantage of sales and loss-leaders. When that happens, stores lose money so future sales aren’t quite as good because too many people take advantage of the deal.
I see this with my own local grocery. They don’t run triple coupons anymore, they require you buy more to earn gas points, and you are limited on how many deals you can take advantage of for gas points.
Why? Because they started losing money as more people started paying attention.
For anyone interested in learning more about how grocery stores operate, I highly recommend Benjamin Lorr’s book: The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket.
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Groceries-American-Supermarket-ebook/dp/B083RZFYZC
It’s a stunner. You’ll never look at a truck, a store shelf, or a shrimp the same way.
JMG,
My family and I are considering moving from our current state of residence to another state in 2 to 3 years. My wife and I have differing ideas of where we should move.
So, my question is: what process or processes would you recommend that we utilize for determining the best place and time for us to go?
Thank you.
Rus, one of the things I find most interesting about this whole debate is that people on your side of it so rarely pay attention to what people like me are actually saying — it’s always portrayed as a choice between modern technology and the Middle Ages, and no matter how often and how exactly I say otherwise, believers in the omnipotence of technology seem to be unable to get their heads around any alternative to that false dichotomy. That’s one of the reasons why I consider belief in progress to be a religion, and a rather dogmatic and fundamentalist religion at that.
Collapsenik, I’m delighted to hear this — but I’m sorry to say that engineering questions like this are out of my league.
Viduraawakened, I wish I did.
Chris, hmm! That might make a dent in the mental armor. As for the film, glad to hear it — it might wake a few people up.
Viduraawakened, exactly. The belief is that “primitive people” can’t do anything by themselves — no, it must have been aliens with our kind of high technology. It’s all part of industrial culture’s insistence that human beings are feeble and helpless without all the nice machines that the nice man in the nice advertisement is trying to sell you.
Court, here you go.
Blue Sun, I still feel like a voice in the wilderness sometimes, but I suppose that comes with being a Druid!
Peter, fascinating. Thanks for this.
Rajesh, nope. A lot of people find it useful to open two browser windows so they can line up reader’s comments with my responses.
Logan, I think they’re reflecting the attitudes of the grunts who actually have to obey stupid orders and use defective weapons systems in the US military. The division between populists and the managerial class is parallel to the division between enlisted personnel and upper-level officers, after all. As for the news from Iran, no surprises there: the best way to kill a religion is to mix it with politics. That’s why in all the European nations that have established churches, those churches are moribund.
Patricia, too funny. Not any kind of surprise, but funny.
DFC, I hadn’t heard anything like this. Yeah, it seems very fishy to me too.
Mollari, oh dear gods. Okay, that makes sense of a lot of things.
Augusto, fascinating! Many thanks for these.
Will, make a list of the things both of you want in a new location. Then start looking. Don’t hurry, and be ready to ask people who live there for their recommendations.
JMG,
Thank you. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of divination, astrological evaluations, etc., because you had mentioned somewhere along the way that RI had been good energy for your writing and that astrological analysis had supported, or had positive indications for, your move.
Will1000
@Will Oberton:
Whorf answers your question in some detail in his paper “The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language,” which you can read online for yourself at
https://archive.org/details/whorf-1941-relation
Speaking from my own experience, the world in its activity “looks” quite different to me depending on which language I am using as a “lens” to express it in words. English verbs classify most actions as past, present or future; Russian verbs can express time, but first of all they characterize actions as “imperfective” or “perfective,” and we don’t even have words in English to make that difference clear to someone who doesn’t speak Russian. If you’re an English native speaker learning Russian, it takes forever to wrap your mind around the difference between the two and become good at choosing which of the two categories to use in each sentence, when either choice would be translated back into one and the same English verb form.
Russian doesn’t have any way to distinguish between “the book,” “a book” and just plain “book.” When a Russian speaker is trying to learn English, this is one of the harder things to learn how to get right.
And then there’s Bulgarian, a fairly close relative of Russian, but in Bulgarian you always have to distinguish, in almost every sentence, between whether you’re saying something on your own authority, or only as hearsay from someone else. In Bulgarian you do this by choosing one or another of two parallel verb forms, both of which would be rendered by the one adn the same verb form when you’re speaking Russian or English. German has a means for making the same distinction (“Er ist ein Mörder” vs. “Er sei ein Mörder”), but you don’t usually bother with using it in casual conversation.
And so forth …
And these examples are all just from related languages of Europe, descendants of a common remote ancestral language. When you start looking into Indigenous American languages like Hopi (as Whorf did) or Navajo or Nuu-chah-nulth (as Sapir did, though he called that indigenous language “Nootka”), such differences between them and various European languages run completely off the charts! Some of these languages don’t even have separate word-classes for verbs and nouns …
But do read Whorf’s paper. He has more to say, and says it better, than I can here.
Good to know re the rise of the transhuman/robot – perhaps it’s just a distraction and fantasy rather than imminently realisable – like cloning and all sorts of other morally dubious experiments.
PS increasingly enjoy reading these questions and answers on such an array of subjects.
Also re the C 2020 threads – does anyone have an insight on whether this is likely to be legit…
https://rumble.com/viww3n-leaked-docs-on-permament-lockdown-of-uk-in-3-weeks.html?fbclid=IwAR0Z3u59z2369N1sgVgpPrrL7th3kUI9KAumowezd35Zb4F_SxI71rli6qU
Hey, there was someone on Magic Monday who asked about how to bless Amazon workers – so I thought I’d share this idea. My husband has decided to print out this article, bring it to his staff meeting and suggest he shops for the office supplies and brings them in if they won’t switch to a local supplier. Most big companies and especially public entities have social or environmental procurement policy mouthwords – use them as leverage https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/amazon-prime-day-dystopian/619265/
I think Cajuns might be an important group in the future.
Mississippi delta music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZiGOrCW9_w
@ viduraawakened re: aliens and gods
This is an issue which has also irked me; the assumption that ancient people were knuckle-dragging oafs with no imagination, knowledge or ambition, incapable of building anything more than grass or mud huts. There’s been a fair amount of literary drek written supporting these assumptions which hasn’t helped any. It’s irritated me enough so I wrote a send-up of the notion in the book I’m currently laboring on and posted the segment to my blog.
https://www.jeannemlabonte.com/tag/annunaki/
Hi John,
I wanted to ask you a somewhat controversial question but an important one as it is very much reflective in the era that we live in. It is regarding white identity politics.
From my own observations, I would say that people of European descent are in the same place that the Jews were in the 19th century or stretching far back as the exile period in the Bible.
Now what is interesting is that the main dissident intellectual movement these days is from the right wing and many of these intellects have views that I would say are coloured by white identity politics. They remind me of Theodor Herzl and the early Zionist movement back in the 19th century.
Considering that Europeans pretty much face minority status at the end of this century, I do wonder to myself but could we end seeing some sort of strong determined minority push back later on down the pipe line?
Thanks
@Temporaryreality, it may be behind the monotheistic impulse…but per Butler’s polycentric explication of Proclus, it’s not necessarily indicative of one “high god.” Instead The One (a principle, not a god per se) delimits the set of supraessential (above Being) divine individuals, each of which in effect contain all things (and all other gods.) The attempt to anthropomorphize The One and access it directly, in this theory at least, is futile and leads only to frustration…
Axè
Little ways…
http://www.lecivaslova.cz/mak-a-vcela-p6.html
Dear JMG,
I’m curious to know what you think about an experience I have been having.
I’ve been singing for most of my life, and eventually picked up the guitar to accompany myself. Mostly these days I play around a campfire out in the woods. But, people seem to like it, and I like playing for them.
I learned to sing from my feet up. I always play and sing standing. Sometimes, when I’m really feeling the song, I get this energy buzz. I can hardly catch my breath to sing, even though I’m an expert singer. What kind of energy am I tapping into?
Also, I’m wondering if playing and singing and thinking is some form of meditation. I mean, my fingers are fretting the right strings, my other hand is plucking the right notes, I’m remembering the lyrics and singing, and yet my mind is thinking about something else. Somehow, keeping part of myself in The Song, frees my mind to roam. Is this anything like a meditation? That’s a door I haven’t opened (yet), unless maybe I have with the playing and singing music.
I know you get it all the time, but thank you again for this oasis of sanity in a crazy world.
Cheers, Adam
If anyone here besides me has an interest in classical history, it distresses me to have to report that the recent book, SPQR, by Mary Beard, is, IMO. not worth your or my time and attention. I got this from the library and found it wordy, opinionated, and lacking in precision. I could maybe overlook the first two, not everyone is a great stylist and historians always do reflect the preoccupations of their times, but the last defect infuriated me. Granted, not much is documented about the early history of Rome, but it can’t be too much to ask for a reasonable level of precision when mentioning what we do know. For example it makes no sense to refer to a coalition of Etruscans, Gauls, and two different indigenous Italic groups–Samnites, I believe and one other–as “Italians”. I am reluctantly forced to conclude that SPQR amounts to 500+ pages of instruction in currently acceptable opinion. Which will probably change in about 5-10 years hence.
@Anonymous collapsenik:
Thermoelectric devices have a LONG history of invention, intensive research and failure to be practical, when trying to get useful power from a source of heat.
The problem is that the materials chosen have to satisfy two incompatible criteria: high conductivity of electricity and low conductivity of heat. The best materials found -last I read- require many watts of heat to get a watt of electricity. Something might come up using 2-dimensional atomic sheets. but don’t hold your breath.
A military satellite or two has/had a radioactive lump heating a TE device that ran the onboard electronics. And somebody was running a very low power ham radio on the heat from, IIRC, burning briquettes in a coffee can.
Do some surfing, I think you will be intrigued by the complexity of the problem.
Ol’ Bab
@Lark 285
Okay, I’ll try to put some ideas into words, but it might take a few tries and I’ll have to ask a few questions.
First and most important, resistance is not useless and yes you do have a choice. That’s what makes your action (whether acceptance or refusal) meaningful. You might not be naturally inclined to refuse, but that’s not the same as being compelled against your will. If your will aligns with the attraction, that’s something to rejoice in. (Among other reasons, because it’s a pretty good definition of love.) Whatever follows, knowing the decision as your choice will be the core of understanding it.
Second, I suggest thinking again about the “out of the blue” part. I may be wrong, but I think it’s likely that if you review your past, you’ll find some connections after all. I’m not talking about dime-novel psychological melodrama (that time you spent at a beach when you were eight years old was your last truly happy memory…) but deeper and less direct foreshadowings. Maybe not even having to do directly with the sea, but perhaps with other liminal places or times, or other austere landscapes, or the moon (tides) or water or the wind.
Whether that pans out or not, what stands out to me is that the edge of the sea (when you’re not in it, or on it) is the most naturally liminal place on Earth. Unlike meridians, borders, or crossroads, it needs no human definitions or conventions or constructions to demarcate it. Liminal places are meeting places. Might that mean something to you?
To venture any farther, I’d like to ask, if you don’t mind: what shore of which continent would you be likely to move to, if you follow this call?
@Daniel K, Temporaryreality re: vaccine pressure:
I’ve had my nieces over to visit for the summer. Part of the deal is that I take them to see all their aunts and grandmas during the vacation, since they normally live too far away. This year, they had a grandma and an aunt refuse to see them, because they had not been vaccinated. Even though the ladies in question *have* been vaccinated (so… they don’t trust the vaccine to work or what?), and the vaccine is not being given to children under 12 anyway, so the girls wouldn’t be eligible. It’s completely insane, the girls are… well, the younger one is a sweet, naive personality who 100% believes the ladies are just afraid of the virus, bless her heart. The older one is more cynical and has figured out that no, those ladies just don’t like children, and finally have an excuse not to endure a visit (even once a year is too much, I guess). It’s a little heartbreaking to watch.
I think probably there are a few people out there who have been scared silly over the virus– latent or not-so-latent OCD cases and germphobes who’ve been pushed over the edge by the media coverage and lockdowns. But I get the feeling most of the vaccine and mask fanatics are just misanthropes of one stripe or another who’ve been given Science(tm)-stamped approval to be jerks in public.
Hi JMG,
Do you have knowledge and/or opinion of Randall Carlson’s online sacred geometry course?
Thanks
@ Elizabeth Skewis (June 23, 9:52 pm, #108)
Re: Communion / your fascinating vision of the unveiling: My first thought was Alpha and Omega / beginning and end. (sorry so late here & if someone already brought up a similar point – a lot of comments to look through!).
UFO report released….
https://www.space.com/us-government-ufo-report-released
Big nothing burger.
Why am I not surprised ….. 🙂
Hi John Michael,
It’s a start at least. I’d really like to be able to take a sledge hammer to those beliefs, but alas the resistance is strong and the energy gets deflected back at me, which I’m no fan of as it just annoys me. Hey, speaking of such things, I had this really odd notion the other day which I wanted to get your opinion upon. So, I don’t have much of a visual memory, it’s virtually non existent, my memory has other strengths and areas such as words, music and concepts, but not visuals. Our society spends an awful lot of energy projecting images for the purposes of thaumaturgy. It strikes me as being a very wasteful activity, but I’ve been wondering of late whether given that the dominant form of thaumaturgy is a visually based medium, the delivery medium might affect some people more than others? Dunno.
Mind you, like you I don’t own a television and haven’t had one for over a decade now – which is often remarked upon by visitors. A part of me believes that the lack of the device makes visitors ill at ease, but then the absence of the device after a while tends to relax people. I’ve observed that it is common practice in other households to have the device on and projecting images even if there is nobody to watch the thing. I’ve heard people find watching television to be a relaxing activity, but I do wonder whether they are merely comforted by the device rather than being relaxed by it. Again, dunno.
Cheers
Chris
@JMG,
Thanks for the info on Bannon’s traditionalism. I will have to look into Evola. I know you wrote about him awhile back.
@Anonymous Collapsenik
I’m sorry you also had to endure the enforced niceness. I think you’re on to something with it damaging the minds of the PMC.
With regards to the video, it’s pretty incredible that many of the commenters are agreeing with Bannon. As JMG likes to point out, the elites want to keep the left and right apart, but in this case, it isn’t working!
@Youngelephant
I hope you like it. It made me happy to see the left and right finding common ground.
@Mollari
So, a zombie apocalypse coming soon? Brains! 🙂
But yes, I read about it too, that it might cause effects similar to the Mad Cow disease (also known as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy), that potentially can be really bad. That’s why I’m never going to take a mRNA vaccine.
Mollari, I’ve only read the first fifty comments, so someone else may have made this suggestion. If you are not vegetarian, find some way to dress up canned sardines that you like. Sardines are sold next to tuna in most grocery stores; they are cheaper than tuna, often go on sale, and being small fish are less likely to have mercury in their flesh. They are an oily fish and are canned whole, so you get calcium, the good omega fatty acids, protein, and fat.
The issue is that some people don’t like the taste. I’ve found two ways I like canned sardines. One is a sardine sandwich with a slice of raw onion and mustard either spread on the bread or sardines canned in mustard sauce. The other is to make a pasta sauce out of sardines canned in olive oil. I saute chopped red bell pepper and a few red pepper flakes in some of the oil, mashing up the sardines in the pan, and adding a few currants. This sweet/hot combination might not suit your palate. If not, you could put in different ingredients that fit your preferences.
@Pixelated:
Thank you for the article on Amazon! I’ve been mulling over if it’s feasible to pull my workplace away from Amazon. I’m thinking, because we’re a branch of a larger library district, it may be best to wait until the economic shale hits the economic fan, and see where we all end up.
Will1000, well, what kinds of divination do you know how to do? Using an unfamiliar method to try to make important decisions isn’t really a good idea.
Planetpriya, there’s a lot of this sort of nonsense going around, and it’s sufficiently hardwired into our culture by way of science fiction media that a lot of people take it much more seriously than it deserves. As for the proposed permanent lockdown, I hope they’re not that stupid…
Pixelated, thanks for this.
Sim, maybe so, but they’ll have to migrate — Louisiana will be underwater within a few centuries.
Ksim, I have no idea. It’s not something that interests me and so I haven’t really followed it.
Markéta, thanks for this.
Adam, of course music can be a form of meditation; what do you think all those monks are doing while they chant? As for the energy, that’s a good question — it’s something on the etheric section of the spectrum, from what you’ve described, but the etheric plane is just as complicated as the material plane and so working out what particular etheric force is involved is an interesting question.
Mary, I wish I was surprised. There seems to be more really lousy historical writing these days than usual.
Kay, nope — I haven’t heard of it before now, in fact.
Jerry, yes, I saw that. The Pentagon keeps doing the Lucy trick on UFO believers, snatching away the football of Disclosure at the last minute. I wonder how long the believers will keep falling for it.
Chris, it would take some experimentation to find out, but it seems plausible enough — people who think in images might well be more vulnerable to image magic.
Jon, Evola’s a *very* mixed bag. Well, to be honest, so are all the ,main Traditionalist writers.
Will1000,
Can I recommend Arkansas? Low population (except in Little Rock itself). Cheap compared to a lot of other states. As an immigrant to the USA, I breathe a huge sigh of relief every time I come back to Arkansas. The trees are absolutely beautiful here. There is a proper winter with real snow – and a hot humid summer when everybody eats watermelon and ice-cream and visits lakes and goes fishing, and beautiful Springs and Falls. And the people are quiet and stoic, but go out of their way to help you if you need it. It is not a glamorous state and there is poverty and people move at their own pace and won’t be rushed, but I feel about the people here as George Washington may have felt about Virginians in this quote attributed to him (although apparently no-one really knows if he actually said it… “If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region, and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to British tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger” . Substitute the place names for Arkansas and I feel that’s an apt description of my homeland here in Arkansas, and my adopted countrymen’s attitudes to their personal freedom being infringed. If you like the basic things of life and don’t crave excitement, then Arkansas is a very good state to be, in my opinion. Also everybody seems to be a wonderful cook. The potlucks at church are something else altogether…
“Blue Sun, one of the things that makes Bannon an effective force in the political scene today is that he’s willing to go there, and talk about the destruction of the American working class. That’s the most important fact in American politics today and it’s also the most unmentionable — which is what gives it its power.”
Respectfully, I suggest that what is even more unmentionable is the major role that the professional managerial class played (PMC) in that destruction. At least on the left, some do mention the destruction of the American working class, but I know of no one who hopes to be elected who dares mention the role of the PMC.
The need to avoid these facts at all costs is a major driver for support from on high for wokeness.
When the fact of whose fingerprints are on the knife that the working class was stabbed with is discussed, it will break the Democratic Party in half.
The corresponding unmentionable on the right is the role of the corporations and the “free market” in that destruction.
@RusTheRook
I checked the Heliogen site. Looks nice. I learned that now It’s one small test plant in California so we have to wait for a large scale commercial installation. As we all know, many technologies claimed to be able to replace cheap concentrated energy of fossil fuels, but they failed for many reasons. Lets give a chance to Heliogen and see how it performs.
Odeillo looks cumbersome because it smelts iron on site. It needs thick walls made of brick and concrete to handle high temperature and support the weight of the furnace but it’s more “low-tech” technology than Heliogen.
@ Rajesh: I prefer the comments the way they are, in date order rather than nested. That way you don’t miss any. One could put a link in each reply and navigate by clicking on the link, then the back arrow (like I’ve done here), but seriously, is that necessary? It’s easy enough to use Ctrl-F and search for the original comment.
Here is Randall Carlson’s website on sacred geometry. I think I had stumbled into it before, but forgot about it. Unfortunately for you, it seems to mostly be in video of one form or another. I was just wondering if it was worth the price. Is anyone else familiar with this program?
https://sacredgeometryinternational.com/
Thanks much.
John, Peter and others,
Had to miss the potluck this year due to a family wedding in Milwaukee. Hopefully next year it will be possible to make it. It is certainly one of the high points of the year.
Here are some links that suggest that Covid ADE is happening:
The Pandemic Is Over; Shots are Worthless
The Risks to the Fully Vaccinated
I consider neither at all definitive, just suggestive. The ADE effect, if it exists, also does not seem to be all that large – at this point.
Let’s hope that the pandemic is over for us – there will be plenty of other things for the currently comfortable classes to worry about in the future.
@Mary Bennet
Re: your question about the 2020 election. Since this is open forum I feel I can chime in even though your question was not dirrected at me.
IMO the reason Biden squeaked out a win was that the Dems put together a strategy that could win but not really endanger the status quo. (e.g they sabatoged Bernie so they wouldn’t have to do all that much for the working class) Part of the strategy was to whip up hate against Orage Julius and with the help of a compliant MSM they were sucessful. They kept the hatred level at fever pich for 4 years. This helped turn out the anti-Trump vote. They also picked Harris to turn out the black and female vote. It worked, which is not really surprising.
The surprise came in ’16 when Trump managed to win in the EC. He was helped by the fact that he ran against someone at least as unlikeable and untrustworthy as himself. It’s popular to say the the EC counts and the popular vote doesn’t, but that’s not as true as it seems. The Dem party was clearly more popular with the slight majority of voters. Therefore a reversal of fortunes should not have come as any surprise at all. It was bound to be a squeaker.
The Dems spent 4 years finding Ruskies hidiing in the bushes to help explain Trumps victory. Trump loyalists are going to spend 4 years claiming election fraud, despite what Pence, or Barr, or any other Republican says about it.
I liken the recent elections to a high school basketball game. When you get beat 101 to 99 you start to look for that bad call by the referee to explain the loss. When you get beat by 101 to 46 you concentrate on improving your defense, or your shooting, etc. You don’t try to blame it on a bad call, or cheating, Neither team is going to re-write their play book until one of them gets beat decisively.
IMO there was no significant election fraud. Emphasis on significant. There is always some, on both sides. But it wasn’t fraud that swung the election. Trump was never goiing to win the popular vote and Biden managed to turn a couple states blue, preventing Trump from winning the EC. It might very well have gone the other way, but it didn’t, and neither outcome should have surprisedd any one the least little bit.
T
JMG, Subscribestar vs. Patreon — do you have a preference? I am going to subscribe to your astrology posts. I remember you mentioning somewhere that one of them is a little more establishment-aligned than the other. I want to support the one more tolerant of alternative viewpoints.
@ Neptunesdolphins #359 RE: what to do…
‘What to do’ depends on your goal. Ours is to hang on to what we can during this craziness.Others views crises as opportunity, and simply canot walk away from the roulette wheel.
Tangible assets will ave value beyond anything paper or electronic. Bitcoins are useless without internet – there’s a vulnerability. Dollars are useless if their value drops due to things far outside of the USA. Gold and silver, physical, are a way to avoid risks of other people holding your assets for you or others being in control of the value of your assets. In other words, precious metals are a way to retain some wealth in the face of cataclysm – but you must actually have the metals in your hand, not merely the promise of them.
Our money went into our small farm, as a place for family to get away to outside of the city; a place to grow and harvest food; a place where we can scurry to and survive if the cities get crazy; a place to store things of usefulness such as tools which can be used to eke out a living.
Gold sounds great, until you realize that if gold prices go ballistic, what do you do with a 1oz gold coin? How do you make change? Do you want to be carrying that around in your pocket, then taking it out where people can see it? We have a bit of gold, but in the main we have silver. We bought it as industrial wire, so easy to store and use. It is a hedge against everything going to hell in the proverbial handbasket.
The most valuable thing you can store is working knowledge of things. We have this in a library in paper form at our farm. Yes, it takes space and requires acid-free paper to last, but we spent the money and printed things, using it as an excuse to learn bookbinding as well. Unless we have a fire, this should help my offspring as things decline.
People seem to have no idea of how anything mechanical works – not even the concepts behind simple things. As things decline and values of things morph into the future, I can see where repairing things mechanical will be a most useful skill. Making biodiesel as well, albeit you simply must get a screw press to make the oil from which to percolate biodiesel. At my age, these things are of limited value – but for my offspring, they may be helpful if for no other reason than saving their money to spend on other things.
So, we are back to your goals as the determining factor for ‘what to do’. In all cases, owning “things’ is better than owning a promise, regardless of the other end of the promise.
To @Omer #266
One way to discourage sugar ants from entering a home is to place a dried bay leaf near the opening (such as tucked in the edge of a windowsill, if that is their means of ingress). I do not know if it would work with fire ants, but it might be worth a try.
Re: Violet and Bloody Mary and devouring mother–THANK YOU FOR THAT. i read you piece and dig where you’re going. one of your commenters said the mirror was the screen and you took it too literally as a reflective glass, but if you think of it as a reflection of what’s ON the screen it makes total sense. and why there’s nothing new in art fashion music or love and why the world will all be wearing leggings soon instead of moving on from them.
—
Re: (#312) Temporaryreality — thank you so much for the kind words. i always feel particularly nervous awkward and shy when posting my free self here. (smile) x
—
Re: (#288) jbucks — thanks for the link to the Ursula LeGuin intro on truth as a matter of the imagination. yeah.. .that was good. still ruminating on it.
—
Re: (#303) Peter Van Erp (aka Peter Khan) — “I have a similar reaction to the Tarot, in that we each develop our own understanding of the cards. I have another deck, done by a friend, in which the Devil is obviously a trickster and con-man, who will lead us to the evil within ourselves. Most tarot portray the devil as an external force.”
i don’t think i’d “trust” anything for very long that wouldn’t let me dance my own way– metaphorically and literally. i can’t go to a dance “class,” as i feel awkward out of my body and unnatural trying to follow anyone else telling me how and what steps to do.
as for the devil trickster con man, i smiled because i often took that role on MYSELF, and still do on occasion. (actually maybe i’m LIVING that role full time, because that’s actually what i feel like as i identify more and more with Kali the older i get, when it used to be a “joke” people calling me things like that.)
it’s where i use the term “sadomasochism,” because you have to get off on that role as well as the karma that may snap back and hurt you if you do it ..”in-elegantly.”
it’s why i say never waste a break up now, and not just with lovers. i also do it because i tend to attract vampires and passive talkers (most people now), but hang with me long enough and you’re gonna be tested by me or by life, and i’ll turn it into a lesson and not just go talk behind your back.
i had a couple of gay friends, an older couple from the wilder days of san francisco, and i used to vote 3rd party, but because they were catching so much hell here in town about voting for trump the first time, out of solidarity i decided to vote trump the second time and told anyone coming up to talk to me at the gym or anywhere, “you can come say hi, but know i voted trump!”
the first few days i did that at the gym it took me hours to get home because all these other colored folks stopped to talk to me about their own secrets.
so then my two friends lied to casual acquaintances about getting vaccinated to make them “comfortable,” and i called them out because, “i thought that’s not what we’re doing here.”
i wanted us all to make each other STRONGER; not lie to cover our weaknesses and hypocrisies.
my favorite he’s alpha and got it because he and his family were refugees from Czechoslovakia and his family left behind said how you couldn’t trust anyone; the other is a bottom in ALL ways not just physical but philosophically and existentially and got mad at ME and that was the end of our friendship because… what can you talk about when you can’t believe anything one says anymore?
that’s an easy play. i’ve done things that’re on the low and my soul is in danger so i have to have a witness or a confessor like James or one of my 3D-5D friends at the gym. it’s best to have a coach when you’re like this or you end up trolling people on the internet and wanking off alone in your bedroom feeling like darth vader. it’s unsatisfying.
so this is related to Papa G saying–with MY devil/trickster twist: “To become a mage is to learn how to [LIVE and PERFORM] stories that are so interesting and unexpected that people make them real. That’s what I’m hoping to teach, because the familiar stories of our civilization don’t work any more.”
but in living these stories, i’m still giving people vertigo that i give one-on-one. but we’re all leveling up now, and getting beat up for dancing outside was a test, just as i started out younger by simply asking the next question I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK, instead of swallowing it like we’re taught in polite society.
you don’t have to go out and dance or start anything; just ask one too many questions and watch what happens. the interesting question. the inappropriate question. and BOOM!
but it’s not asking to shame expose and annihilate, it’s asking to get to reality and that’s when the BEST conversations happen. beyond the polite slick veneer of the water’s surface. and if you can answer without shame you cannot be annihilated. it’s coming out and and saying you’re fat first.
again, you have to get off on not being liked. it’s opposite to everything we’ve been trained these past 25 or so years online. to be liked accepted happy smiling get the thumbs up the likes the clicks.
you have to get off on the pain of being ostracized (such a cute word for how it really feels) at times, but that’s because i have a story that is about swaggering past pain. i hate it and complain plenty but i don’t change. / can’t.
and i only welcome my own tower moments now because i’ve got so little left to lose. my downfall started a decade ago, my own finale ignited by my own devil trickster visiting ME. i call him a gargoyle chasing me out of theatre and writing, so that i’d quit it all and be lost and test myself in real life anew now that i wasn’t worried about being “respectable” anymore.
it’s like i picked up where i left off as a wild teenager, albeit with James and others having my back when i pulled the zip tie. but you have to practice being this way and be ready to pay for extensive damages or deal with the law and the fines lies and all that shtick.
so i’m trying to use all that i know how to mess up to change up ways but with focus and yes… a NEW STORY. i don’t wanna just react against but open another way or direction.
i called it the third way out of my despair for this binary shtick, and this book study of “Doctrine of High Magic” gives me hope for how to do “me” all big for a good reason, for the first time ever. we need coaching when we go off the rails, like a director pulling an actor back in after a crazy scene.
i’d felt art was irrelevant and meaningless. powerless. a distraction. but take art to LIFE and …there’s that WOW again. and how do you do wild with god not against god but WITH? because passivity and acceptance isn’t necessary godlike even if you think you look all peaceful and beatific. right now passivity IS the devil, like when i have my friends’ back and they cower so little white women will feel SAFE.
i said, “how will this ever end if you men will forever cower suck up and take it to make your women feel good? when feeling good for them means safety, security, no freedom of speech or anything….sending people to take your guns and freedom and free speech because you scare them? they’ll just think you agree when they come for you because you never said anything otherwise and then what’s the point of my having YOUR back when you won’t have your own OR mine?”
someone said it’s easier to come out as gay than non-liberal. true. it’s easier to be a slut whore con artist murderer trickster DEVIL than it is to try and be anything else now.
x
@ RustheRook, JMG all RE: energy
I think what people need to understand wrt energy is that the weakest link is supply chain – centralized energy being distributed in various ways.
One of the things rearing its head is that ‘the center cannot hold’, and I am not just speaking of our rapidly mental military or the useless grifters in DC. Policies currently in place are what caused the Texas train wreck during the big freeze this winter-past. This is true of most of where we stand, including fossil fuels, batteries, repair parts, etc.
Think of how our refineries work – they are designed to spit out diesel. gas. kerosene, etc. by cracking a certain gravity of oil as input. Shale oil is nearly ‘burnable’ as it is, but in order to refine it, we have to mix it with heavy oil to make a feedstock acceptable to the current array of catalytic crackers on hand. So we NEED heavy oil even with lots of light oil domestic production – and that is due to refineries and how most were designed 50 years back or more. Thus we can never be ‘energy independent’ due to refinery requirements.
Extrapolate this to our electric grid, to coal or natgas fired generating plants, to windmills or heliostats. What happens to all of these fine machines if we cannot repair their bits when they inevitably break? And even today, windmills are destroyed rather than repaired much sooner than their prognosticators told us less than 2 decades ago. How many PV farms are seeing their panels degrade more rapidly than they ever suspected? (hint; the answer exceeds 90%)
Centralized anything is more susceptible to failure, and has much larger knock-on effects than people currently fathom.
How can commoners afford their own power sources? Outside of micro-hydro, they cannot. Solar requires routine, costly replacement of panels, inverters and batteries – we know, because we use it and tried it and it was stupidly expensive. Wind requires similar storage for off times, and thus the windmill itself needs be far larger than most can afford. Now our corporate overlords are pushing electric cars – which suck due to limited range, limited pulling power and long charge times on a very touchy electrical grid. Genius at work, maybe?
The “way out” will be reduced energy usage. When they reinstate the 55mph speed limit, then you will know government has instituted the last good solution from previous generations. When you see rolling black or brownouts, as Belize and other places currently enjoy, you will understand the central anything is vulnerable.
So if we are to push a solution, it needs to be distributed, reliable and cheap to actually derive benefit from it rather than hassles or the formation of a money pit. Looking around and trying as we have, neither solar or wind are practical or cheap for the little guy. Our main uses are for lighting after dark, pumping water and little else due to battery expense.
My guess is that it will devolve into local solutions, because our governments are only good at delivering less for more, as are our corporate overlords. It will be wind and solar but used to do things that make sense, not run appliances or cars. The best bang/buck is still the ICE, provided you do not strap hundreds of regulations on it to reduce efficiency. Hell, why does the diesel Ford Focus get 60mpg in the EU, but we cannot have the same vehicle here? Oh yea – those central edicts from the managerial class.
I surely wish that steam engines hadn’t all been scrapped – their efficiency can be made to be very impressive and boilers are not picky wrt their fuels. Then again, a horse walking in a circle can actually deliver useful power for reasonable periods.
We are going to have to decide what is important, and let go of thinking that it has to be all or none. The solution lies in the murky, gray middle. It will not be provided by our overlords in any meaningful way – they truly suck at helping anyone other than themselves. It has always been so.
I am sorry if this hurts feelings and bursts bubbles, but we honestly tried solar and wind and they suck. Wind pumps a well, solar provides lighting after dark and some water transfer. If you strap much more onto those, the expense hops up rapidly. So intermittent works best, and you have to arrange your work around weather always, same as it ever was.
To get rid of some of the water transfer, we just ordered the flapper valves to make a pair of ram pumps as they are more reliable than solar this past month – when we had exactly 3 weeks of rain and one of partial sun. (note: the flapper valves were on backorder from China – takes 2-3 weeks to get them in)
Don’t shed tears – this is the way things have been for thousands of years. As we descend the hindmost curve of the Oil Age, it will certainly be quite the equalizer across the planet.
Ksim @ 386
About your comment “main dissident intellectual movement these days is from the right wing and many of these intellects have views that I would say are coloured by white identity politics.” : It seems to me that, very often, when you scratch the surface of MAGA, so-called ‘libertarian’ rhetoric, what you find is nostalgia for the British Empire.
JMG, I greatly fear that the great age of study and writing about history which began in the English speaking world with Gibbon has now ended. In the field of classical studies, i.e., the countries and peoples of the western end of Asia, along with Northern Africa, I have come across a (very) few competent practitioners. Paul Cartledge and Peter Green are worth reading. Robin Lane Fox has his moments and does pay attention to geography, but his works don’t live up to the hype around them. This is a shame because there have been some truly important discoveries in the late 20thC, such the excavations of Ebla and Nisibis in the North Euphrates valley and of various sites in what is now Sudan.
A much touted volume by one Chris Wickham about the end of the Roman Empire is, IMO, dreadful. Now, I don’t have to read such books If I don’t like, but it truly annoys me that public libraries are being encouraged to spend their ever shrinking budgets on such drek.
Stock market collapses, what to do with cash etc
I’ve been accumulating various crypto assets for almost ten years now.
Initially my plan was to allocate 1% of my portfolio as an extremely speculative bet, one that I could afford to lose, but gain greatly from in the event of widespread acceptance.
Effectively that bet has hedged the other 99% of my portfolio in the event of a major correction in equities.
The dollar, by any reasonable assessment, is losing it’s purchasing power by at least 15% per annum due to currency debasement. Can you hazard a guess as to why everyone and their uncle is bidding up real estate, stocks, and desperately seeking a store of value? Perhaps because nobody in their right mind wants to be losing 15% of their net worth every year.
What does the future hold? I don’t know and – in truth – nobody else does either. However one thing that I’m more sure over than anything else is that fearfully hoarding your cash is a losing strategy.
Going back to one of the off-topic topics last week, we spoke about Brutalism in architecture. Amongst my comments, I noted that reinforced concrete is an excellent example of how the New! And Improved! often turns out to be worse that the tried and true. “ Reinforced concrete turns out to have a relatively short lifespan, as moisture eventually works its way into the steel rebar, and the rusting rebar expands, cracking the concrete. It’s remarkably unsuitable for major infrastructure, such as bridges.”
Sadly, the collapse of the condo tower in Miami demonstrated exactly what I meant.
Dear Yavanna, if you have a recession-resilient side business – even if it’s currently just a hobby – there may be some capital expenditures that would make sense before the inflation that hit Wall Street in recent years hits main street. For example, I recently took a chunk of money out of my stock portfolio to buy a professional freeze-dryer for my medicinal herbs business. If you don’t have any such sidelines, it may be worthwhile to think about setting one up. You certainly won’t lack for opportunities to allocate capital, and at the very least you’ll develop new skills through such a venture. Having one’s own enterprise also seems like a flexible ‘tool’ that can be applied to the changing conditions we’re likely to see, if you’re the owner, you can position yourself for what the world needs quite a bit faster than if you’re looking to work for someone else who’s recognised the same need.
Hi JMG and all,
Re: vaccination as a way to end the pandemic
Here is a link of a web that track the number of natural re-infections in the world (unvaccinated):
https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/covid-19-reinfection-tracker/
So they have confirmed 149 cases of (natural) re-infection in all the world after 182 million Covid-19 cases.
Next see what hapens to the two doses + 2 weeks vaccinated people:
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/nearly-4000-breakthrough-covid-infections-have-now-been-reported-in-mass/2408052/
Well, only in Massachussets there are now 4.000 cases of fully vaccinated people positive to Covid-19, and the mass vaccination started only few months ago and we are now in the summer where the sun (= vitamin D), decrease the number of contagions (as is the case of the flu and other viruses); following this reasoning with the aging of the antibodies and the decrease in solar radiation and temperatures, a massive (exponential) increase in Covid-19 in the vaccinated will not surprise me, and of course also in the unvaccinated, but this is normal.
The natural immunity is many order of magnitud better that the produced by the brand new hi-tech vaccines, that use a very narrow specific part of the virus and also the part more subject to evolutionary changes as is the S protein, that, at the same time, the most toxic part.
Now the EUDRA system in the UE has recorded 1,5 million adverse events to these vaccines and 15.472 suspected deaths associated to them, so the number of damage is significant.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/15472-dead-1-5-million-injured-50-serious-reported-european-union-database-adverse-drug-reactions-covid-19-shots/5748346
On the other hand, as could be seen in the case of myocarditis/pericarditis in adolescents and youngs, there is an strong dose dependence in the damage made by the vaccines, for example up to the end of May there were 216 reports of myocarditis in VAERS after the 1 dose and 573 after the second one, and I think this is normal: the immune system reacts more strongly after contact with an antigen it has developed resistance, and in future doses this effect (damage) will increase exponentially.
https://www.fda.gov/media/150054/download
Anyway they are preparing booster doses for the fall and winter to inject, again, the whole population, depite the very bad safety shorterm profile and without knowing anything about the longterm safety effects, just because they say “it save lives”, but I am not so sure if this is true in all range of ages and after some months.
These mRNA vaccines are:
First to use PEG (polyethylene glycol) in an injection.
First to use mRNA vaccine technology against an infectious agent.
First time Moderna has brought any product to market.
First to have public health officials telling those receiving the vaccination to expect an adverse reaction.
First to be implemented publicly with nothing more than preliminary efficacy data.
First vaccine to make no clear claims about reducing infections, transmissibility, or deaths.
First coronavirus vaccine ever attempted in humans.
First injection of genetically modified polynucleotides in the general population.
First when the health authorities consider natural immunity does not work and people recovered of the infection need to be vaccinated against the same disease.
First to use in large groups of people not tested in the trials: pregnant women, adolescent and children, etc…
First, in many many decades, without knowing the longterm efficacy and safety profile.
So, what could go wrong?, or better: what could not go wrong?
We are not going to “crush” the virus out of existence with these vaccines, it will adapt easily to our hi-tech vaccines, that are also quite dangerous and, IMO are not a solution in the midst of a pandemic with zillions of virus changing and adapting to the environment produced by these vaccines.
I think the best way out of this pandemic should be to use prophilaxys and safe early treatments (as Ivermectin + vitamin D + melotin + Zinc) and let the virus pass through the population to achieve the herd immunity, also, as always in the history, the virus will adapt to the host (we) beeing less pathogenic, because it “wants” to live with us forever.
We must use our wonderful natural immunity with some help.
That they do not approve & promote the well known and effective early treatments, for unvaccinated and for vaccinated people, I think it is criminal.
Cheers
David
Well, well, well. Whoda thunk it?
major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder. The witness, who has a documented history with sociopathy and has received several convictions for sexual abuse of minors and wide-ranging financial fraud, made the admission in a newly published interview in Stundin where he also confessed to having continued his crime spree whilst working with the Department of Justice and FBI and receiving a promise of immunity from prosecution.
The man in question, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, was recruited by US authorities to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of his. In fact he had volunteered on a limited basis to raise money for Wikileaks in 2010 but was found to have used that opportunity to embezzle more than $50,000 from the organization.
Stundin is a biweekly Icelandic newspaper.
This isn’t your local incompetent PMC functionary from CPS or the mayor’s office, folks. This is the FBI, America’s finest, revealing itself as a clown caravan, going after the patriots who revealed HRC’s emails. Doubtless, Mr. Thordarson will soon be relocated to the US, along with numerous relatives. The same NIMBY types who won’t tolerate a bridge being built anywhere they can see it are perfectly fine with various criminal lowlifes from wherever being settled in next door.
On another topic, I would like to register that I take strong exception to that anthem of British imperialism, Pomp and Circumstance, being played at American graduation ceremonies. Lets have some Susa, please, and if the band wants to jazz it up a bit, all the better.
@Mary Bennet
Just adding to the other responses, I would also suggest that a lot of people were one, disillusioned with Trump for a variety of reasons, and also just sick of the whole Trump circus, some of which was media-generated, some not.
My data points for people who switched their votes from 2016 to 2020 include the following: one, at least two people I know who decided to take a chance on Trump in 2016, but decided they didn’t benefit from his administration, and switched their vote back the other way in 2020 (with a “well that didn’t work, let’s try something else again” attitude); and two, another couple of “never Trump, never Hillary” voters who went third party or left the top line blank in 2016, but held their noses for Biden in 2020 (slightly more non-Trump voters seemed to be able to tolerate Biden than could stomach Clinton). Given the closeness of the elections, that was probably enough to shift things.
I also think it’s worth asking if plain old fatigue played a role. Trump’s administration was pretty chaotic, as is Trump himself. Certainly, the hysterical media coverage whipped things up, but the extreme volatility of the Trump administration – all the personnel turnover, lots of tempests in teapots, and a fair number of scandals, some real, some not – plus the man’s own pugnacious personality (he’s always been larger than life and was an actual reality TV show host, for goodness sake) all contributed to a lot of drama, which of course the media were happy to run with. People do just get sick of drama, and I’m convinced that some people who voted for Trump (or just not Clinton) in 2016 may have voted for Biden (or just not voted for Trump a second time), because they were seeking some relative peace and quiet after four years of noise and hype.
Just my 2 cents.
Kay Robison,
I took Randall’s course. I got the half price discount around Black Friday. It’s good, but there wasn’t as much there as I had hoped. I was hoping that he would add more.
Recently he announced not to take the course, as he’s coming out with a new one soon. I don’t know when it will be though. He’s busy with other things. His Kosmographia podcast is fascinating and he might have more up to date info on his course in one of those podcasts. Here’s one link to it. You can also listen on Apple or any other podcast service. https://kosmographia.libsyn.com/
If you haven’t already studied it, Robert Lawlor’s book is excellent.
Dear Erika, you’re most welcome! I’ve been thinking on “Myths over Miami” over the past 8 years and suddenly a lot of the living relevance of the symbolism of the myths became illuminated to my mind. As for the screen, you raise a good point!
Jessica, I ain’t arguing. I pointed out that exact issue in my book The King in Orange.
Kay, thanks for the link. It looks like a mashup of actual sacred geometry with pop-culture notions about ancient cataclysms and the like, which can be entertaining if you’re into that. Anybody else know what’s taught in the course?
John, thanks for this. (I fixed your html; you’re welcome.) I hope it’s over — yeah, there are plenty of other things barrelling down on us. Have you checked the price of oil recently?
Collapsenik, nope. Patreon has had a bad habit of deplatforming people for political reasons, while SubscribeStar is much more committed to free speech. I list them both because some people prefer to use Patreon. I’m sure the Patreon types have noted their main rival prominently linked right next to their link on my pages, and are aware that all they’ll do if they try to deplatform me is hand a couple of thou of cash flow a month over to said rival. It seems to work. 😉
Oilman, thanks for this. Keep in mind that there are two things that next to nobody does these days that can be implemented locally — and in fact have to be implemented locally; you can’t do them in a centralized fashion, which is why they’re so neglected. The first is conservation — by which I mean everything from insulating your attic to cooking with a haybox. The second is harvesting and use of diffuse heat — most often from solar sources. Solar water heating is a great example: it was a viable technology in 1900 and would still be standard all over the sun belt if fossil fuels hadn’t shoved it out of the way. The less electricity you use, the less energy you waste in conversion — but we’ll get into that in much more detail in upcoming posts.
Mary, I know. I liked Bryan Ward-Perkins’ The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, but I haven’t seen anything published since then on Roman history that didn’t suck.
Peter, I was thinking about your comments when the news broke. It used to be standard to claim that our civilization’s big concrete legacies would still be around tens of thousands of years from now. Not so much…
DFC, thanks for this. A good solid summary!
Mary, I saw that. Funny how these things work…
@Pixelated #253 – it is sad to hear about Latimer. I made it a point to watch the Trickster series (I rarely watch TV) and was amazed at how utterly un-Western it was in its themes, plot and method of story-telling. I considered it to be fascinating and daring… but also dangerous, considering the mercurial nature of tricksters as well as the fact that most Indigenous folks who I know in Canada are (for good reasons) extremely reluctant to share their stories, for any reason, with the general public. I was hoping that — somehow — the Trickster series would not generate multi-dimensional blow-back, but it looks like it has come.
@Violet and erikalopez:
“Myths over Miami” is well worth reading and rereading over many years. It’s very good that the Miami New Times has kept it up on their website.
Have either of you seen this quite similar, equally thought-provoking piece by Alley Valkyrie?
https://wildhunt.org/2014/05/the-lost-lords-of-neverwhere.html#disqus_thread
@will Oberton, I’m not the inimitable Robert, but the examples that come to mind are from the local indigenous language where I live, where they speak in myth like the aliens in that Star Trek TNG episode Darmok and Jalad. It’s amazingly beautiful.
The word for Deer is Grandson, because of a myth about a boy (raised by his grandparents, they commonly sent children of age to live with grandparents to learn the traditional ways) who decided one day he’d kill the Creator just to show him he could. So Creator turned him into a prey animal with big ears so he’d listen to the teachings about not killing for no reason next time. So every time they hunted deer, the prayer “guide me o creator, today I hunt Grandson” reminded them explicitly of that whole story and what it means.
The word for Mountain, Stone, Rock, etc is actually the same phrase “Wish for the People”. Because Creator created mountains by throwing beach stones into the ocean, so each stone is a mountain seed.
The mountainous islands we live on are “Relatives of the Deep” created by hucking ancestral humans into the ocean to provide reefs and forests and fresh water. Imagine how different a people conceive of their place in the world when they look down on a herds of grandsons from the top of their Creator’s wish for people at a beach on the back of their relative and see a billion wish seeds!
Further, technically every word for an animal and human contains a prefix that means people, as well – so e.g. salmon are “salmon people” and humans are “human people”.
This *gestures vaguely* was literally inconceivable to them until they learned English, but there are obviously benefits to now knowing our more abstract language, too (we brought them the ability to see and use in art colours they had no names or dye sources for, for example).
@ Robert
Thank you so much for the great answer and the link. Really interesting stuff
Mary Bennet, I’d be interested to read more from you along the lines of reviews of historians’ works. A kind of “who’s who” interested readers (without much developed discernment) might then chase down. Not trying to make work for you, not sure if you have a central spot in which to make such a write-up, but what you’ve written so far is tantalizing but way outside what I might’ve realized on my own.
@ JMG RE: solar water heater
This is so very simple; a black box with black polypipe in a coil covered by glass and insulated on the sides, and voila! hot water…
We installed a very simplistic one as a pre-heater to our propane water heater at the farm – it cut out propane bill by 50% and cost a little over $100 to build. If everyone did this, imagine the savings regardless of the type of water heater.
I think people need to start getting back to attic fans (whole house fans is what they call them today) because those make most of the spring and fall really bearable without A/C in the south. The same at night, especially if your bed is next to a window. I remember even in June I wanted to pull the sheet up because that attic fan drew so much air through my window next the bed.
We may try spray mist over our tin roof in the coming year. It is already supremely insulated, but every drop of a degree external means another one internal. The pump for lifting the water to the roof apex for spraying is an ideal app for solar powered pump too – as it is during the heat of the day that the spray mist is most effective.
Look forward to that “Personal Energy Conservation” essay my friend!
@Walt F 392
Thank you Walt. I like very much your refining of the dynamics of the “call”. Yes, I think you are right —
I am certainly not being compelled. it feels like Love, indeed — like being asked to dance.
It is always the sea, the sea, but also the moon; and the soughing of trees, and especially the murmuration of starlings. I have seen a few of these, have had to go far to find them. Your mention of liminality I find appealing, but also the idea of things undefined by human limits. Especially, perhaps, the patterns that nature makes, with no human mind orchestrating. The bliss I feel when watching a murmuration of starlings rising and falling, darkening and lightening, folding and swirling is something to do with this — the utter lack of boundary or meaning is intoxicating; yet the wildness is paradoxically deeply comforting. Perhaps it is freedom made visible; the ineffable made effable (?!)
“Liminal places are meeting places.” I love that.
I have been ill and bed-ridden on and off for many years, and I know that something of the draw is a feeling of the tremendous energy that comes from the tides and the endless, ceaseless sound of the sea; the way it never changes, yet is always changing. I think my struggle with the world of humans, all the things I have to do and can never quite do properly because of my condition, falls away in the face of the immensity. I think, there, that questions don’t get solved — they get dissolved. There, I am no longer an invalid; I am enough. Or, it’s enough not to be “I”.
Amazingly, when I’ve been hunting for places to rent on the shore (within sight and sound of the sea), I have found myself nudged away from where I thought I should go (the south of England) and pushed, for financial reasons, towards the mid-west of Wales, facing the Irish Sea. There is a town there that appealed to me; which strangely enough, randomly (after an emergency trip in an ambulance), was where I spent a night when my daughter was born there, 22 years ago. I haven’t been back, hadn’t really thought of it since, but when I started investigating a little, I found that not only are there places for rent right on the seafront, at reasonable prices, but that the town has one of the biggest residential flocks of starlings in the UK, 130,000 of them gathering spectacularly at dusk throughout the winter months, over the pier …
How could I possibly resist?!
This seems like a great resource to keep track of the “waves”.
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Confirmed+deaths&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~CAN~RUS~ISR~CHN
@OilMan2
Gold sounds great, until you realize that if gold prices go ballistic, what do you do with a 1oz gold coin?
Gold is for transferring wealth from this system to the next once things have restabilized. Silver’s what you use – preferrably junk silver – in the interim. 😉
—
Regarding technology & future energy availability… I find the biggest blindspot most people have is their assumption that fossil fuels are the only critical resource past or near peak. Just like oil/gas/coal most of the largest, readily identifiable and economically extractable ore reserves have already been mined. Everything that’s left is lower grade and in far more unhospitable environments.
What good is state-of-the-art renewable power tech when the materials to build it aren’t available (or prohibitively expensive)? I’d also reiterate “the law of receding horizons” in that the EREOI of renewables goes down dramatically as the price of fossil fuels climbs, given that all green power has enjoyed an underlying subsidy of cheap energy to build & maintain them that is rarely accounted for in most studies.
DFC, that globalresearch.ca article you linked to seems to be using inflated figures. I totaled the number of cases for four vaccines (from the EU website) and only ended up with 628,000 reported adverse events, not the 1.5 million they claim (not that 628,000 is any good). Deaths total out to 286, not the 15,000 they claim.
Fearmongers don’t help – I sure can’t make a case to anyone using inflated numbers. I expect the official statistics are lowballed, but still….
maybe don’t pass that article around any more and just refer folks directly to the EU site? Info is here (https://www.adrreports.eu/en/search.html) under “Covid-19”.
Yavanna – Lots of good advice earlier in the blog: tools you’ll need, pay off debt, hold some cash, cut expenses, etc.
After all that, you might want to look at US government I-bonds. They’re intended for individuals, not financial corporations, so you can’t buy more than $10,000 in any year (unless you put a tax refund toward one). You can invest any amount between $25 and $10,000. Currently, their interest rate is simply pegged to the CPI-U, and they pay 3.5% interest. The interest rate is updated every six months. Originally, there was a guaranteed fixed rate of interest, plus the CPI adjustment, but at the moment (and for some years) there’s been enough demand for them that people will buy them with a 0% guaranteed interest rate, trusting in the CPI adjustment to pay off. I bought one 20 years ago with a 3.5% fixed rate, so it’s paying 7% now, and has more than tripled in value.
The other inflation-protected risk-free* investment is the Treasury Inflation Protected Security (TIPS). This is a bond that pays a minuscule 0.125% interest (25 cents/year on $200, subject to income tax), but the principal value is adjusted according to the CPI. At auction, the 10-year bond sold for about $111, for a $100 bond. That is, people paid $11 to get $1.25 in dividends over ten years. (This might seem crazy, but I really think I’ve got it right… It’s not $12.5 in dividends, it’s only $1.25, 12 1/2 cents per year.) After ten years, you get $100. So, it kind of looks like it has a negative interest rate, doesn’t it? But the inflation-indexed principal makes the bond grow in (face-) value, so if we have 5% inflation for those ten years, you get $162 back (plus the dividends).
You might argue that CPI-U is not an accurate measure of inflation, and you’d be right. You might argue that Congress could tell the Treasury to restrict redemption of the bonds, or otherwise change the rules of the game, and I can’t say that it couldn’t happen. But the stock market could lose 90% of its value (as it did in the 1930s). Thieves could invade your home for gold and jewels. The government could seize the contents of bank safe deposit boxes (as it did, in the 1930s).
Christopher L. Hope, thank you for the response. I liked your basketball analogy. I had the impression that the Russians under the bed meme wasn’t impressing anyone outside of those already suffering from TDS, but I would have to agree that the Harris nomination was probably decisive. Also, in states like Georgia folks decided that they had had enough of Democratic National Party bungling and decided we’ll do this one ourselves, thank you.
And, thank you also El. I do agree that chaos and drama get very old very fast. They can be useful tools, just like a judicious tantrum can sometimes get you listened to, but are not to be overused. Once elected, Trump seemed to be like a streetfighter, a guy with maybe one or two good moves and nothing much else in his toolkit.
Oops. I meant to put a footnote asterisk before that last paragraph, about the ways that some risk remains with TIPS, and some of the risks of other investments.
Jon Goddard #422
Thanks for your feedback on Carlson’s course. i have listened to some of his podcasts and enjoyed them which is why I became interested in the quality of his course. I have Lawlor’s book, but I get distracted by other shiny, sparkly books and projects, so I haven’t gotten very far in it. I will keep touch with Carlson’s website and wait for news about his new course. In the mean time, I will get back to Lawlor.
PS: JMG, I noticed, from info on his web site, that Carlson is also a Free Mason in Georga which may explain his interest in this subject.
Re everlasting concrete – Here in Germany they recently closed another highway bridge for an indefinite time. The bridge was scheduled for maintenance and work had already begun but a few days ago car drivers from under the bridge reported large pieces of concrete falling. So they closed the bridge in a hurry and after examining the damage they decided that it is too dangerous to try repairing the bridge and that it as to be blown up and then rebuild. Just a few km further similar problems though not so dramatic happened with one important highway bridge crossing the Rhine… German authorities estimate that roughly 60% of all bridges are in urgent need of repair.
Cheers,
Nachtgurke
Regarding human augmentation, as our host says, it is a big colorful fantasy similar to flying cars, that steadfastly ignores reality. It will be very hard to make the implanted non-biological materials it will rely on fully bio-compatible. People with implants report all sorts of trouble, such as severe brain fog from a zirconia implant, which is said to be the best material so far. Cancers have been reported in chipped pets, the IARC recognized radiofrequency radiation as a “possible human carcinogen,” but only after conflicts of interest were outed and corrected, and the number of people who have discovered that they react badly to radiofrequency radiation employed by the technologies proposed continues to grow. It is so big now, in fact, that the WHO and tech corporations are taking notice of it, as per this from one EMF scientist yesterday: “The WHO EMF Project — South Africa 2021 report
https://stopsmartmeters.com.au/2021/06/26/capacity-of-electromagnetic-fields-to-affect-biological-functions-confirmed-by-who-international-emf-project-report/
There are some unusual good statements by the WHO. However, under Electrohypersensitivity, the underlined parts are suspicious — ‘adaptive strategies, strengthening adaptive capacity, bio-adaption solutions for “EHS” type complaints’.
Do our South African experts know what these terms mean? It sounds like cognitive behavioural therapy or that people should adapt to these toxic EMF environments. Excerpt:
‘…The organs of state reviews have endorsed efforts toward adaptability strategies so that vulnerability can be reduced by strengthening adaptive capacity. It is for this reason that the decision has been taken to help update the teaching curriculum in medicine with biophysics in an effort to address these misunderstandings. The study into the model development surrounding “EHS” has not only brought about better understanding but also advanced cost-effective treatments into other epigenetic and genetic disease models.
In SA, the capacity of EMF to affect biological functions has been investigated and confirmed in reviews of the Ombudsman, Commission, Magistrate, and High Court. The WHO health and disabilities publication uses “disabilities” as an umbrella term to cover a wide range of conditions. The term “disabilities” covers impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in life situations. Disability is thus not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body (including physical, mental, neurological) and features of the society in which he or she lives. Overcoming the difficulties faced by people with disabilities requires interventions to remove environmental and social barriers. This makes it clear that people must be able to participate in society, function independently, and remain in their own living environment for as long as possible. Multiple international regulations confirm municipalities must promote this by virtue of providing facilities, assistance, and support. The government’s strategy toward bio-adaption solutions is not only showing promise for persons with “EHS” type complaints but also has benefits in other spheres as well.'”
Then there was this from another EMF scientist this morning: “There is a possible positive aspect and that is they are not denying EHS – this is a foot in the door scenario as I feel they are beginning to feel the consequences. I know many of the mobile phone companies are employing teams of young lawyers to address all the claims against them. James Lech is in a very tough position.”
Human augmentation appears to have more impetus than the flying car fantasy, because its proponents have been enormously enriched by both the utility and the addictiveness of the technology they have provided. We will have to endure a certain amount of attempts to fulfill this fantasy, such as trying to get the injured to adapt, and cult-like behaviors of the general public who have been led to believe the fantasy, as their beliefs come under increasingly harsh fire.
For the record, there are lifestyle changes people with sensitivities can make that can help them cope better, but in all cases they rely on improving the person’s living environment, so they can then spend some time in a bad environment without getting very sick. Also, helping people adapt does nothing to address other damage to the environment, which is becoming more and more apparent as well.
I’ll add Onething and Kevin Burgess Taylor to my prayers this morning. I hope they are okay.
@Weilong,
Thank you for the statistics from Japan. (Your grandchildren needn’t be lonely–they will be welcome at our place.) Six times as many people died from suicide! You know there was an uptick in suicides due to anti-corona measures. I also note that now that Japan is implementing sweeping vaccination campaigns, the case numbers have started rising again. This is what has happened in most countries, including Israel, where mass vaccination was encouraged, and is usually temporary, but it makes the warnings from specialists about the dangers of vaccinating during a pandemic more believable.
John—
In the explanation of Triad IX in the chapter on the Loremaster of the Path (pp 65-66 of V2 of the Dolmen Arch), you discuss spiritual energies created by the human mind (my emphasis):
“The energies of life and meaning released by thought, emotion, or Will may or may not find a home within a particular material object. Those that do not find such a home have a different destiny than those that do. The homeless energies tend to coalesce and combine, and gather in the vicinity where similar mental influences are being exerted. To the clairvoyant eye they are like clouds on the horizon, inactive in themselves, but capable of bursting forth in lightning and thunder under the proper conditions. These conditions are often supplied by persons of strong desire or focused will.”
I couldn’t help but notice that this sounds and awful lot like post-WWI Germany and a certain veteran corporal’s rise to political preeminence. Such power can be focused for means good or ill, however. It is a matter of who is doing the focusing. To what extent do you see similar unharnessed energies swirling about us here in the US today?
Just wanted to add too that Arkansas is one of the least vaccinated states in the union, which I think points to a somewhat independent way of thinking. A land of large hobbits, in fact…. congenial for those who like hobbits!
@Mary Bennett:
I would like to hear your criticism of Wickham’s book. I read it some time ago and commented here on how disagreeable it was to read. I thought I discovered the reason in the epilogue, where he admits that he wouldn’t care to talk with just about anybody from the 4th to 10th century AD. I can’t tell about the factual correctness of what he says, though I read Florin Curta’s shredding of his models for Eastern Europe (Curta declines to argue about Wickham’s models for the rest of the Roman Empire). I would like to hear your opinion.
@DFC regarding the Chinese health checks
Note this is from 2017.
https://thetravelbugbite.com/2017/03/21/what-to-expect-at-a-chinese-visa-health-check/
For those interested in Traditionalist thought–there is a blog–https://traditionalistblog.blogspot.com/–articles, book reviews, academic stuff. Ran across it on Letter From Hardscrabble Creek, which has links to many interesting blogs. In fact I think it was there that I discovered The Archdruid Report.
Rita
@Mary Bennett
I have listened to a lot of recent books on Roman history, including “The Inheritance of Rome” by Chris Wickham. I would be genuinely interested in the details of your criticism of that book. A link to a relevant piece would be great. No need to write at length about it unless you wanted to.
@Mary Bennett @JMG
Walter Scheidel’s Escape from Rome is admittedly fairly speculative, but his notion that Rome not rising up again (unlike China or Persia for example) was a major reason for Europe reaching world domination.
I have enjoyed many of the newer Roman histories that work with the notion that the “barbarians” during the decline of the western empire were not your great-great-grandfather’s barbarians. That seems to apply to our current age as well.
Also, Michael Kulikowski’s notion that the Western Roman Empire was dominated by a landed aristocracy that could retain power even under new regimes, but the Eastern Roman Empire was converted (by Constantius) into a service aristocracy that knew it would go down if the empire did and that that was a major reason for the different fates of the two halves.
On a completely different note: The other day, I found this website that’s a treasure trove of Manly Hall’s writings and lectures. Thought I’d share it here for anyone who’s interested.
https://manlyphall.info
@Naomi,
Thank you. Hmmmm, interesting. Hadn’t really thought about Arkansas, I had been thinking Montana or Ohio, myself. I would probably like it, though. I have ancestry from Arkansas (my paternal Grandmother was raised in the Ozarks on the border with OK) and before that Tennessee, so, in a way it would be kinda like going home and your description sounds beautiful. However, my wife is on the rather liberal side and wants New England (at the moment Connecticut).
We are here in California and I am ready to leave the insanity today, but my son has 2 years til he graduates HS and I have 3 years to retirement. So, who knows? We’ll see. A lot can happen in a short time. AR is on the table now, though.
Will1000
JMG,
Regarding divination and moving: I have some experience with Tarot and also know the rudiments of geomancy – enough to feel comfortable with basic issues. I guess I was wondering if it would be worth the effort to work diligently with astrological methods over the next year or two and pursue that method, or would it perhaps be better to consult a professional astrologer. But OTOH, maybe it would be better for me to work diligently with Tarot and/or geomancy and pursue those avenues.
Thanks again,
Will1000
viduraawakened,
Sounds good, if you could e-mail me at your earliest convenience I would appreciate it, I can send of the group e-mail and organizing a meeting once I’ve received confirmation from you.
Regards,
Varun
Oilman2, all of this is good stuff — and crucial, now that oil crises are starting to come at shorter and shorter intervals. I’m dusting off all the material I talked about in the runup to the last oil crisis and getting ready to get the word out again.
CLR, thanks for this!
Kay, I managed to miss that. Glad to hear it — he’ll have been given the basics of the traditional sacred geometer’s craft, then.
Nachtgurke, welcome to catabolic collapse!
Patricia O, thanks for the update.
David BTL, good. You’re paying attention. Yes, there are a lot of unharnessed energies in circulation in the US these days — and now you know part of why I’m so focused on teaching people the basics of positive occult practice…
Rita, Jessica, and Waffles, thanks for each of these.
Will1000, it’s quite a straightforward subject for geomancy readings: do house charts, ask whether it would be good to move to place X, and check for modes of perfection between the 1st and 4th houses (the 4th rules real estate and the home). Note whether each of the two significators appear elsewhere in the chart, and treat any houses where they appear as commentary on the place (e.g., Laetitia in the 6th means it’s a place where your health will be good).
Dear Robert, many thanks for the link! I read that piece a few years ago, and find it very interesting and helpful. As for “Myths Over Miami,” I couldn’t agree more — I’ve reread it many times over the past 8 years and am so grateful it’s still available online!
Matthias Gralle @ 443, It has been several years since I had Wickham’s book home from the library. What I mostly remember is his unnecessary and clumsy neologisms, such as ‘Constantinopolitan’. I also remember thinking that for all Wickham’s claims of discussing the Whole Mediterranean World, not just Western Europe, I didn’t read much about, e.g., Egypt or Syria. Now I have a habit, for which I refuse to apologize, of not completing books I dislike. I am not a professional reviewer, and my time for reading is limited by other hobbies as well as increasing age. As I have no academic credentials of any kind, it is highly unlikely that anyone would want to pay me for writing book reviews.
Do you remember when you commented here about Wickham? Who is Florin Curta and do you have a link for his book or article?
Temporary Reality @ 429, Thank you. I don’t have a blog, nor will my rudimentary computer skills, a source of great amusement to my children and grandchildren, allow for one. Briefly, for classical history, “the Greeks and the Romans”, the place to start is with the ancient writers themselves, Livy, Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus et al. Provide yourself with a good historical atlas and be prepared for plenty of wiki walking. Among the moderns which I have read, I suggest Michael Grant and A R Burns. A guy named Gerhard Herm, a filmmaker, I believe, wrote two excellent, IMO, books about antiquity, The Phoenicians and The Celts. Those turn up fairly often 2d hand and in libraries, unless the library Nazis have already culled them.
Jessica @ 446 & 447, I would have to reread, and finish, Inheritance of Rome to make a good criticism. Partly, I happen to be a detail person, so I like to read historians who supply lots of maps, tables and other kinds of detail, such as Braudel, and I tend to be repelled by grand pronunciamentos. As for why the Eastern Roman Empire persisted, my wild guess would be that it had defensible boundaries and the capital sat on the confluence of major trade routes. Also, later, it had Greek Fire.
To Omer on #266,
There’s a book called Beyond the War on Invasive Species that questions the assumption that successful invasive species always degrade the local ecosystem, and raises some of the issues you mention.
Jim W, in your post #266, you wrote,
“Yesterday I went to my local coop, an ultra groovy wokist supermarket where the vast majority of members/shoppers fit that profile. Everyone in the store (except yours truly) was masked, despite the strict mandate having been lifted in Massachusetts nearly a month ago. It’s as though they were virtue-signaling how abundantly cautious and right-thinking they were.”
Did it make you uncomfortable to be the only unmasked customer in the store? Were people glaring at you? Did anyone in the store harass you or say something nasty to you about your bare face?
If the state mask mandate was lifted a month ago, there remain several possible reasons why all or most of the other shoppers inside were masked.
1) There is still a local ordinance in place which requires people in stores to wear face coverings. The other people were obeying the ordinance; you were not.
2) There is no state or local requirement, but the store has a policy that no one enter without wearing a mask. The shoppers you saw complied with the policy. Given that the store is a membership coop, the majority of the shoppers might be members who have shares in the coop, have a voice in the store’s management decisions, and feel some solidarity with the store and its rules that you do not feel.
3) The town does not require masking inside stores. The store does not require masking. Everybody is free to make their own choice as to whether to wear a mask or not. You chose not to. The other customers exercised their choice differently. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, that neither breaks your leg nor picks your pocket. You don’t know what’s in their minds.
* * * * *
The pandemic hit the area where I used to live very early and it was the very first region in the country to impose social distancing and masking. During the first few months, when there were no tests, no good treatments for hospitalized patients, no reliable information on how it spread, and no masks available to the public for love or money, I donated the pack of N95s I had bought for protection from wildfire smoke to a local hospital for their workers, who needed the protection a lot more than I did.
I was worried for myself, because I’m in a few groups that they said were at particular risk of getting really ill. As time went on and more information was available, it became evident that apart from hospital staff, prison inmates and people in nursing homes, the highest death rates in my county were among low paid hourly workers who had jobs with a lot of public contact, and poor people living in crowded conditions–some overlap in those two categories. When the cafes were allowed to open up for carryout, I wore a mask and I tipped extra, because those people were risking their health to serve me.
I had to wait a solid year to get vaccinated. Since then, I’ve no personal worries about mingling with other people. Whatever the long term effects of an experimental vaccine given out under an emergency authorization may be, so far the vaccine I got is good at keeping older people from getting seriously ill from this virus.
As long as there were signs on the doors of stores and restaurants saying “Wear a mask”, I wore a mask. Why? First of all, I don’t see a big difference between that and a sign that says, “No shirt, no shoes, no service.” It’s a sanitary precaution. Second, businesses with mask rules make their employees keep the mask on all the time, which is a lot harder on them than on me just dropping in for half an hour. I’m not going to give them a worse day by forcing them to decide whether to follow the boss’s orders and ask me to put the mask on or leave, and risk a dose of bad temper or worse from me. Third, I don’t know the situation of everyone who works there. Maybe the owner or the manager has someone at home who is immunocompromised because they are undergoing chemotherapy. They don’t want to choose between closing their business or killing their mom; fine, I’ll wear a mask while I’m there.
If there’s no sign, I still keep a mask in my pocket. Sometimes when I see other people inside wearing masks, I put one on to spare them worry. Not as often as I used to.
@Darkest Yorkshire #289
Unfortunately, I have never seen Ghost in the Shell, but I know that at least in Shadowrun you can play a rigger, which is basically a hacker for vehicles. Maybe there is also an equivalent in Cyberpunk. When we played Cyberpunk 2020 back in the 90s, I played a Solo, who was like Robocop a machine with a human brain attached. He was totally packed with cyberware. I remember that we cheated back then with the allowance of the game master, as you had to roll dice to determine the humanity you lose per cyberware, instead we always chose the minimum every time. Unfortunately, the game became boring due to our cheating, since only military grade cyborgs posed any danger to our group, which were a rare sight.
I have heard about Blades in the Dark but never delved deeper into it. A few years ago, I somehow stumbled over the OSR (old school renaissance) movement, which tried to rekindle the feeling of 70s D&D. It seemed to be a very creative scene, using the old D&D rules as a basis for the new content. I even once tried to start again with RPG game mastering using the Basic Fantasy rules, but due to the time heavy session prepping, I dropped it again very soon.
@JMG #319
I am not sure, whether the virus panic failed completely. Here in Germany, the media still tries to scare the people with their variant talk. Currently, the evil Delta variant is propped up to scare the German holidaymakers. I could envision a scenario, where a new variant occurs regularly, and the people will be locked down until everyone has their booster shot of the vaccine.
If that is not the case, another strategy should be used. I will keep my eyes open for hints.
Since you have mentioned the traditionalists Guenon and Evola, what do you think in general about the traditionalist movement? Do you think, it is worthwhile to read the work of Guenon? Is his thinking somehow relevant or useful for our times?
@Logan Jones #362
I have also seen this trend of the right to mock the German military for their lameness. I even read a book about this topic by the military historian Martin van Creveld called “Pussycats: Why the Rest Keeps Beating the West—and What Can Be Done about It”. Unfortunately, I did not find the book very convincing. But if you read news about the German military in the media, it either is some scandal involving war memorabilia from the third reich and earlier, about improving the conditions for women in the military (like uniforms for pregnant women or more comfortable APCs) or about the sad state of the equipment (assault rifles firing in curves in hot weather, navy helicopters that are rusting due to the salty air above the sea). How could you be confident about your military if you read such news?
Those of my friends, who have served in the military, also did not report anything positive about the status of the army. One of my friends has served in the “Wachbataillon” who are doing the military ceremonies for the government. He told me that during his time there (around the year 2000), they were still using Mauser K98 rifles from WW2 for their military drills who still had some Nazi symbols on them.
I thought you might enjoy this tweet, JMG:
https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/1409249330368811009
Hello,
quite a bit of this commentariat has mentioned tumbrils, and a comparison to the French Revolution in terms of the class privilege situaiton of the USA.
With the current climatological situation in a large part of the USA, and its impending consequences on food prices, the parallels are even stronger. Apparently there are also crickets coming on cultures, because of the droughts.
One of the triggers for the French Revolution was the high price of grain due to a period of cold weather for several years on…
But for caution’s sake, after all maybe it doesn’t make sense to always try to draw parallels from one historical context to another.
Assuming (this is purely fictional) a brutal upheaval in the structure of class privilege in North America, what would be the consequences for the rest of the world?
As a side-note, here in Ecnarf, nationalism is very quickly becoming a must-have of the political discourse. Interesting, or maybe it’s just a temporary gimmick for the presidential election campaign rethorics. Again, a lot of caution needed…
Wil1000 – I’m watching from the sidelines with some amusement your dialog regarding “where to relocate?”. As I recall, you asked how to decide, and JMG offered a rational process of enumerating your goals and desires, then research on various locations. But then, you insist on a “magical” process of divination. Is this instead of, or in addition to, the research-based approach? I’ve noticed over the years that JMGs advice is often far more rational than one might expect when consulting a magician, but perhaps magic is what you need to find the will to execute a rational plan.
The research-based approach reminds me of an informal presentation I gave to my future father-in-law when I planned to relocate (with his daughter) from suburban Michigan to urban Washington DC. Having the facts, which are much easier to find in 2021 than they were 40 years ago, goes a long way toward consensus and personal peace of mind.
Deal the cards, on the other hand, is probably quicker, but that wouldn’t be my first criterion.
Mary Bennett, and JMG, the quality of books about the Roman Empire is an example of the way in which the quality of what is written in books and of scholarship in general seems to be in steep decline. Often books are now only sequels to this or that television show, or they are excessively thick tomes, the author has some hobby-horse on which he or she expounds again and again, or the work is superficial with the usual biographies and celebrity interviews thrown in, or all of the above. And of course, independent thinking is striking for its near-absence. These trends are particularly marked in the German book market, where there is not much original thinking anymore.
Naomi and Will1000,
Arkansas is also the least woke state of the 50. https://www.zippia.com/advice/most-woke-states/
And tho our waterfalls are not as tall as those in the PNW we have a lot of them. And spring-fed swimming holes for our hot summer days.
I came back to AR back in 2009 when I first started feeling like things were going to spin out of control. I feel much safer here than anywhere else I’ve lived – west coast, east coast, and several points in between.
John, et al.–
Late in the cycle, but but some additional energy news from within the Beltway:
https://cms.ferc.gov/OPP
A new administrative office, the Office of Public Participation, has been established within FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). If you pull up the public report (link in the second sentence), you can see something of the background of this office (apparently authorized back in 1978) and the high-level organizational structure of FERC (13 offices in total after this addition). Also per the report, ~1500 employees.
I understand the concept–having an office to assist less-well endowed intervenors navigate the process for which the big players have expensive lawyers and whole departments dedicated–but I wonder if there isn’t a better way to accomplish this parity without adding administrative bloat.
About the books on offer: The C.J. Jung book has been claimed and will go out in today’s mail. The cat book being unclaimed, I will donate it to The Village library. If any of you know anyone interested in either Norse Mythology or the Witches’ Bible, let me or them know.
Pat
JMG,
For another example of your ideas permeating the mainstream, the Financial Times has a piece (gently) critiquing Klaus Schwab & co, with a brief mention of the difference between problems and predicaments: https://www.ft.com/content/3177eb28-6fb1-459a-83a1-837124b43e0e
@ TJandthebear …JMG…all
We have a few sacks of junk for that very reason, but should it become necessary to actually pay with silver, people will run short of these coins and their value will become “iffy” with respect to actual silver – so we bought several rolls of wire as well.
You have hit on the crux of the “big lie” about renewables. Every single renewable is built from materials mined, processed and distributed by oil. Oil underlies every green technology, underlies all transportation, all mining, all distribution, all processing…ad infinitum. Our entire world is based on oil, from the plastic insulating every wire currently in production (we used to insulate with cloth fibers up until plastic was invented) and on into every tire ever made and even the containers for our foodstuffs. Glass can re-recycled, and I see that returning in the next century as plastic becomes expensive due to oil prices. Plastic garbage bags? Going the way of the dodo as paper is degradable and renewable, as are fabric bags.
TBH, this topic deserves it’s own essay – because people NEED to be disabused of the notion that oil is a “commodity”. It is liquid gold, and we have squandered it for the last century. I do not envision future generations treating the denizens of centuries 19-20-21 with kindness in their publications.
I did a deconstruction piece once back in ye olden times. I took a family of four in a 3 bedroom home within a typical suburban neighborhood – and slowly removed every single thing that relied on oil from their lives. They were left standing “naked and afraid”…
One more item to digest – this will NOT be a singular crises. Instead, it will be crises after crises as society tries to go back to business as usual – and slowly finds itself unable to do so one bit at a time. The coming spike may be manageable – but with oil reserves declining from here on (depletion never sleeps), mitigating every spike simply by raising the price isn’t going to work. Bit by bit, sections of the economy will be “priced out” of things, including electricity and goods.
Think of it as society, drunk on oil, staggering down a descending alley in the depth of a moonless night that is filled with potholes, detritus, bodies. All the while politicians are singing, clinking glasses together and enjoying their status bathed in disco lights far above us in their polyester garb…
@ Natchgurke RE: concrete…
We had a span come apart about 2km from my city residence. We have numerous places in city freeways experiencing similar issues. AS the one near my house spanned a stream, I drove down beneath the span and checked it out.
Engineers allow for pre-stressed concrete to have “yield” in order to maximize strength – in other words, to allow it to flex under load. Every flexure is a fatigue cycle, as the concrete is a mixture of grain sizes to reduce cost and increase strength. Running through this matrix of gravels and sand is the rebar which provides further strength – but it also provides a focus for stress, as the rebar has more yield than the concrete.
It has been fairly well documented that concrete and steel degrade more rapidly than simple concrete, but it allows far more strength to make longer spans. We still ave Roman structures made from stone and concrete (sand steel) functioning today.
From looking through my binoculars at the degraded patch near me, the steel was still present but heavily oxidized, parts of it being notably narrower in spots. The remaining concrete was cracked to bits, but the cracks ran the length of the span, adjacent to the rebar where it remained in place.
I think what is happening is related to an inherent weakness in pre-stressed construction – rebar flex and oxidizing. As with everything involving engineering, it is a compromise based on what the goal is at the outset. Maxiimum strength in minimal materials has been a goal for things for a very long time. I think we are seeing that this may have been pursued too far in many cases – for the simple reason that lab testing is NEVER equal to field testing…
There are similar stress cracks on the underside of this same bridge span clearly visible. The broken span was replaced but not the adjacent ones in the bridhe near me. I look for the adjacent spans to follow similar fatigue pattern in the coming years.
@ JMG – I’ve been listening to a few history podcasts recently, and the Chinese ‘Mandate of Heaven’ concept came up a few times. It got me thinking about, post long descent North America, and the stories people might tell themselves to explain or express their world view and governing legitimacy. Do you think a similar ‘Mandate of Heaven’ concept will be spoken into the world by the people around the Great Lakes? Do you think they will explain the harsh realities of a post-industrial world, and the rise and fall of successor governments in a similar manner to the stories the Chinese have told for millennia?
That was a very interesting article JustMe. It made me chuckle a bit. No surprises though!
Will1000, I think, on balance, if you are moving directly from California, it might be better to maybe consider a different state than Arkansas to live in, at least initially. The culture shock might be too great for your wife, as you suspect. I have known three people from California, who have all been quite unhappy here. They go on quite a lot about how great California is, which hasn’t helped – and as a result they have been also (I rather suspect from other comments made) quietly unfriended by Arkansans in their circle – and have ended up rather isolated and lonely – and a little bitter.
However, there are some places which are more liberal than others, even in Arkansas and where your wife might feel more at home. Eureka Springs, for example, is very charming and I believe very liberal. So the precise areas where you might choose to live, even within a blue State for that matter, probably matter quite a bit too.
Booklover @461, thank you for that. I was beginning to think it was just me who is too picky, weird, etc. It distresses me to learn that the general drekkiness has infected Europe also. In the USA, there seems to be, so far as I can tell, good work still being done in at least two fields of science, geology, incl. paleontology, and astronomy, and good books are still coming out in some fields, just not history, or at least, the good ones don’t reach the general literate reader level.
A bright spot, IMO, in American intellectual life is the field of current affairs, or current history, that is, events since WWII. We now have a devastating group of books explaining what did go on during the Cold War, such as The Devil’s Chessboard (a bio of Allan Dulles, which can be read as a case study in sociopathy), Legacy of Ashes (a history of the CIA, and absolutely essential reading for Americans, IMO). I am currently partway through Body of Secrets (about the National Security Agency), and next up after that is The Puzzle Palace. I was born into the Cold War, and I would like to know what the blazes it was all about. People died, a lot of money was wasted, and for what?
Robert Mathiesen–
i read the Miami New Times article and tried to read the next one but it kinda takes me back to the chaos and madness of my own often-painful childhood inner world and i got too itchy to read the second newer article because when the type of people who COULD write a cogent article for the internet are still very much outsiders.
what she got right (in the second article) is that the moment someone shows disbelief, you know they’re tourists from the outside bored world and Regular People are vampires who visit to be bad or do things to others no one will punish them for IF they even BELIEVE. there are layers of secrecy, mis-directions, and yes, psychic abilities with a good strong dose of paranoia.
i’ll probably try that pagan article again later./maybe not. i trust the writer known as “Tiny,” more when it comes to writing about the streets. but what i identify with STILL is that i believe that it’s the ones who’ve been through hell that can become masterful fighters against all “this” current “scared-of-life-and-everything” evil because they, the scrappers, know what’s at stake and have come out of darkness into light IF they’re lucky.
Regular Ordinary People are all untested valor and dangerous in their fears. they will kill you without hesitation to save their faery tales that buttress up their weak tiny ankles.
that’s related to all this, but waaaaay beyond my understandings and that’s why i’m here, trying to figure out how to propel myself forward with all i know and can do, for positive love powers, because they ARE also a fighting tactic: misdirection. when someone expects you to react according to script but you go off-road (as we all have globally)… THAT’s where you get away with all sorts of things in the chaos and confusion.
i don’t know how else to put it as “love” and “good” and even “positive” are subjective.
or so i thought.
it’s a FEELING. whether you feel ill terrified or skin-tingling rage… there’s a lack of discipline.
DISCIPLINE. that’s why love with discipline CAN be trickster energy to bring you to your real self. not for shaming but for loving acceptance so you can evolve, struggle to be MORE you.
this all sounds goofy but those kids seem to tell more truth with Bloody Mary than anything in the regular seen world.
it’s why i try to not “dominate” my evil side, but pet it into its place. this is all so complicated and hard to write online out in the open. these are discussions best when you can see each other’s eyes because the written word is not very hospitable to what we really think and feel. the written word, especially online, is like a harsh overhead buzzing fluorescent incessant scream.
even what i just wrote here is as shallow as a bubble gum comic and i apologize. that Bloody Mary stuff spooked me out as sure as if i were still 7 years old. i’m kinda speechless. i’d like to believe that the two sides can meet and blend as Levi suggests.
because i see the Regular People World as evil. i see happy safe suburban people as the ones with sharp teeth so until anyone understands that, we’re having opposite conversations like i constantly keep finding myself having here in san francisco.
x
My take on Trump losing the election came down to two factors. (1) He promised deliverables in his election campaign and he failed to deliver them (e.g. “the wall,” bringing back US steel, pulling out of Afghanistan). Whatever the reason (lack of political connection and finesse, the deep state, not being serious), and in the end who cares about the reason, he failed to deliver instead governing like a normal republican while occasionally mouthing off. (2) His Covid response consisted of half measures and he failed to control the narrative. I think (and I could be wrong) that if he had either gone full mask and quarantine for a few months or had left the economy going with minimal precautions, he would have been fine. One can argue that Trump was sabotaged by the media, deep state, Fauci, or whatever but it doesn’t matter because it was on Trump to get it right. He didn’t.
My opinion is that those two factors together sunk him, letting Sleepy Joe squeak by with a win. I predict current Florida governor DeSantis will win the presidential election in 2024, and by 2026 he will regret that he did as the great falling apart accelerates.
Secretface #457, when I first heard of OSR I misunderstood what it meant. I knew DnD came out of wargames, so thought it would be things like 14 pages of rules for flanking. 🙂 Then I found out they were supposed to be quick and easy to play.
Sebastien Louchart #278, I just found there is a new Dune RPG – https://www.modiphius.net/products/dune-adventures-in-the-imperium-core-rulebook-standard-edition?variant=37677126680746. From the same company that does Star Trek Adventures.
Booklover,
At the trajectory we’re heading down, it may eventually get to the point, where if Anyone had the inclination towards perusing through history of any kind .. it will be doing so on a carnival ride called the Time Machine .. where at the end, one finds out that a giant, helmeted Tyrannosaur known as UN, saves the world from the bad guys!
Dax: “Huhhh .. I like money …. ”
I believe Idiocracy to be a primer .. with intertainment qualities.
@ JMG, Oilman2, et al.–
Oilman (as well as others) has mentioned DUCs (drilled but uncompleted wells) in the past. The EIA has some new estimates out for key oil and natural gas basins:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48537
@Ron M yeah… I never did get around to watching it, but what I’d heard had excited me with the possibilities. Thank you for sharing your impression.
I’ve been thinking a lot about saying dangerous things that are necessary things; but which ones are in the direction of the cosmos, and so good to say, and which push back at evil so make it worse..
A colleague and I had a good conversation on Friday about that, since we’d each walked into buzz saws politically. At least at this point the local click bait newsie feels so bad for me he doesn’t run me (that degree of pathetic, it’s a gift!) so I just got the tip of my nose trimmed, but she has been the golden girl, so they’ve loved throwing her down when she wasn’t politically correct. I don’t know if she knows that’s what’s what, she’s too good to realize, I think, how bad people are (she still talks to me, for example 😜).
So we debated – what we said was true, and obviously we felt it was necessary but to poke the power in its soft spot… will it just roll over and crush us? Or do we hold our ground for just basic sanity?
Some of what I got was simply instant karma – what I said was interpreted 180 degrees from what I’d said by people who are simply primed to think they’re under attack, because well, they are. Just not by me.
But the rest, especially for her, felt a little too Latimer. Yet I can’t convince myself she did wrong by simply making Trickster. Or that Robinson did wrong by writing those books. I don’t think Trickster is bloody mary who kills you because you said his name.
I can think of a Trickster we love in our house – on Thursday, my daughter wore her Moana costume to the park – and nothing bad seems to have come from that portrayal of Maui. If anything, I can see the opposite.
So what was the difference, what are the rules?
Let’s toss consideration of the CBC, there’s no way in heckity heck they would have followed them – they’re following the other playbook. Robinson and the rest of the crew could have done otherwise ones she was doxxed, that is also clearer to me they had a choice between the two. Dr. Kim Standing Bear was all over the news about those genetic test kits from ancestry a few years ago with the rebuttal (but where was she now?). But what could Latimer have done differently once in the crosshairs? This was vexing until it occurred to me she shot herself in the foot before they even aired: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/reexamining-indigenous-mythology-michelle-latimer-on-inconvenient-indian-and-trickster
Ebert:What do you want Native audiences to get out of this documentary [Inconvenient Indian] versus non-Native audiences?”
Latimer:”I think it’s a bit different. I want Native audiences to feel celebrated and have a sense of hope that the things we’re doing in our communities make a difference. We have to continue to strive even when it’s difficult because there are so many things that we come up against. I hope (Native) people see it as a love letter to our communities. For non-Indigenous communities, I really hope the documentary is a provocation. One of the most common things I hear from non-Native people is something Thomas says in the film: can’t they just get over it and move on? Or they say: sure, my grandparents and my forefathers did horrible things but that’s not me. I think the movie makes it very clear that the past is not separate from the present. With Indigenous people, as you know, our past and our present are synonymous. We walk with our ancestors right now which influences how we move into the future. So, the influence that we have now determines the future we build for ourselves. I think it’s important that we are accountable to each other, especially now when we are seeing racial violence and protests all across North America. We should be questioning all the narratives we have accepted as true for so long.”
Help me out (Mister) Cuthbert Grant, first Chief of the Métis Nation: “If you insist on dealing with the present on the terms of the past, you might as well throw away your horse and gun and go running after the Buffalo with a stone axe.” (he may not have actually said that, but novelist Alfred Silver knows how to write history).
I think maybe Trickster is very dangerous, because he is very clear on the rules by which he plays with his bits of clay, which he paradoxically plays by fairly and unerringly- rules, not outcomes – while we like to back cast the rules based on our preferred outcomes.
Hi John,
Thank you for your comment and I apologise if it was strong but it was a trend I had noticed amongst the intellectual community of today. But to get onto this subject (we will leave Identitarism behind) this is something that fascinates me and I feel that it is connected with your theory on the Long Descent.
If we go back to the 19th century and the Long Ascent, most of the intellectuals who were looking far ahead into the future actually were liberal. A lot of the advances made during that time in terms of peoples lives actually came from the left. It is of no surprise that Occultists such as Crowley (and his Thelema stuff) Dion Fortune, A.E Waite, etc had points of views that were, by and large, quite left wing in the long term outlook (sexual freedom being one huge common theme). Gardner even jumped on that ship. The overall outlook for them was that we must liberate ourselves, become individuals and the future will be peaky and rosy.
Yet todays intellects all favour the right. The big common issue amongst them, even shared by you yourself, is that civilisation as it stands is simply unsustainable. It cannot endure anymore then 100 years and will keep declining. Of course everyone has their opinions. Some say lowering IQs, others blame the environment and ease of life, some its plastics, for some its resources, others mainly focus on immigration, etc. But the one thing that unites them is that same long object – that civilisation decline is happening and we have to rebuild another civilisation from the ash heap of it.
Ultimately, as the leftist intellectuals a century ago favoured the individual, todays rightists favour the community and collective. With the exception of the Russians who still live in individual la-la land (I give the Russians 30 years, perhaps even sooner before they abandon this mindset)
So yeah that is my observations. Which brings me to an important question that maybe you can help with. If the intellects are thinking this (it takes societies ages to catch up), just how will people actually live in 100 years from now?
Since we have a long descent, am I right in thinking that civilisation will literally go back to farming, the horse and plow and the average joe having his 10 kids to help out on the farm?
Or is it going to be something not quite so harsh? I recall reading of a guy who termed the future as “Archeo-Futurism”. He said that in the future, you will have some hi-tech citadels where whatever electricity is conserved for an elite where as the masses pretty much labour outside these hubs, having their many kids and living off the land.
So it wasnt quite total collapse but it was something not quite as comfortable as our modern industrial civilisation. I guess you could say like the Greek city states.
So yeah – what is your vision?
Oh yeah and last question – electric cars. Im not going to say this is going to be a success because when it happens, it is going to cripple the oil and gas industry (Not so great for Russia). Am I right in thinking that when they do that, its likely to cause the entire Middle East to blow up? I would not be surprised if the next migrant crisis is caused….by unsustainable electric cars lol. I think they will cause more harm than good to be honest…
Anyway thanks and if you have any of your books you can recommend that really give a picture into life after the long descent, I would appreciate it. I plan to invest in Stars Reach but any others would be great.
@ Temporaryreality says:
#434June 27, 2021 at 4:54 pm,
Clearly or you do not know how to see the data in the Eudra DB or simply you are trying to hide the effects of the vaccines for any reasons. Or ignorance or bad faith, I prefer to think is the first.
I have cross-checked randomly some of the value of the globalresearch article and the figures are right, in fact now the number of adverse events and deaths are even bigger, after two days.
For example, this is the link for the adverse events of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine (Tozinameran):
https://dap.ema.europa.eu/analytics/saw.dll?PortalPages&PortalPath=%2Fshared%2FPHV%20DAP%2F_portal%2FDAP&Action=Navigate&P0=1&P1=eq&P2=%22Line%20Listing%20Objects%22.%22Substance%20High%20Level%20Code%22&P3=1+42325700
Then you have to go to the tab called “Number of Individual Cases for selected Reaction”, and inside this tab you can choose what kind reaction you want to know the deaths, etc…of this kind of adverse event; for example if you choose the adverse event.
For example if you choose “General disorder and administration site conditions” you will see the results as this picture:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/937zwrl8hl6bhxq/General%20disorders%20Pfizer.PNG?dl=0
As you can see the number of registered deaths is 2412 and there are 32.856 not resolved cases, but only associated to this kind of event, NOT for all
If you select the adverse event: “Cardiac disorders” you will see this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdu6evipvhxrx46/Cardiac%20disorder%20Pfizer.PNG?dl=0
As you can see the number of registered deaths is 1078 and the number of not resolved cases 2338, but only associated to this kind of event, NOT for all
You can do the same for every adverse reaction and if you add all of them you will have number above the values given by the globalresearch article, because is some days old
So the truth is that there is approaching 16.000 potential deaths associated to the four Covid-19 vaccines in the Eudra system, and growing very quickly…
So, make some research before accusing someone of fearmongering
Deborah Bender @456: What you’re doing makes sense. If a place has a sign saying we need to mask, I’ll mask — no use hassling the employees over it, who most likely have no say in their business’s policies.
The historian in me has no words:
https://news.yahoo.com/national-archives-racism-task-force-152253031.html
On the subject of class contempt: the Sunday crossword puzzle clue read “portmanteau coinage for the uneducated and uncultured.” The term was “booboisie.”
IIRC, didn’t that mean used to mean the “clueless middle classes who think they’re so smart?”
a.k.a. “smarty-pants.”
And – just in case you thought Retropia was kidding about future hotels,
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22543924/hotels-qr-codes-contactless-check-in-robots-chatbots-sanitation?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Lathechuck,
Thank you, yes, exactly. JMG’s rational response kinda woke me up a little (um Hello? Is anybody home?). So, following that advice is an excellent first step. However, on paper, many places might seem quite good. Once we get to a certain point, though, and find we have a few decent candidates, maybe divination can provide additional insight, maybe even indicate that some places might be or should be non-starters, and would be miserable or even be disastrous.
I am trying to slow my processes down and be a bit calmer, more patient, rationale, and conscious about decisions. There have been times in my life when I have followed passions and preconceptions or allowed myself to be talked into things and thus made poor decisions that seemed good and reasonable at the time. You know, as in what could go wrong? Well, I found out the hard way. Living unconsciously by the seat of one’s pants can be painful and depressing. I wish that I had sought out a little bit more reliable feedback and some sage advice.
JMG’s rational suggestions for a list and talking with people are beginning steps, and working with geomancy is another. Tarot will be another step and perhaps there are others. But, I want to be more thoughtful and conscious for this.
Thanks again.
Late to the party, and I come asking advice. Both my college students are required to take the vaccine for college for fall. My husband is also going to take it to return to the office in August. They are going to go on Friday for dose 1.
To say that I am worried about the side effects would be an understatement. I may have said “if anything happens to my kids as a result of this vaccine I will burn these colleges to the ground.” Dramatic expression as such, makes a point.
What advice do you have for me to deal with this? I recommend they all wait way back when the orders came down in April and they all did. I shared data and stories of what’s happened to people. They each seem unconcerned because their colleagues got it and seem to be OK.
I am not getting unless they tie me to the ground and force it in my arm. Not dramatic statement, I’m serious.
@ Lark #431,
You gave enough clues that I think I can identify the place. I took a look (via the Internet of course) at views from the roads along that coastline in between the towns, and they look pretty close to exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned “austere landscapes” earlier. Very beautiful. Not, of course, conventionally hospitable looking; the close company of the northern Atlantic generally isn’t. (I’d enjoy a swim in that water, but not many would join me.) But inspiring, the same way deserts or high mountain slopes can be inspiring settings for others.
Murmurations are indeed more than just beautiful, they’re intriguing. What you’re seeing is the propagation of information through a dynamic self-organized living structure, and I’m not saying or implying “merely” anywhere in there. That’s an important thing. It’s where life begins to give rise to thought. It can have meaning (not generally accessible to us, of course), and it happens everywhere. The starlings do a form of it that’s particularly visible, and on a time scale we can easily perceive for a purpose we think we can grasp. Imagine similar swirlings and foldings happening out of sight, perhaps all in the area of a pinpoint or spread across an entire continent, perhaps in the blink of any eye or as slowly as glaciers, perhaps toward ends we can’t begin to imagine. I think the sea does it, and might have been the first entity on Earth to begin doing it. Among the patterns nature makes is, of course, ourselves.
Be that as it may, it sounds like you have a very clear direction. So as JMG said, go there and let the relationship teach you. My own advice I’ll add is, don’t make assumptions about what teachings to expect. That is, pay attention to everything, not just the things that first drew you. Including the human aspects of your new surroundings as well.
@Mary Bennett, then we both agree that Wickham’s book is a pain to read!
My interest is mostly in the period of the decline and fall or transformation of the Roman Empire, where the written sources are much poorer, so the best historians I have read are at least half archaeologists.
This and this is what I wrote here on Wickham’s book.
This and this is on Florian Curta and on his magnum opus on Eastern Europe. If you like details, you should love it… Otherwise, the last paragraph of each chapter is a kind of summary. You would never know from the way he writes how revolutionary his theses on the depopulation of the Balkans and on the ethnogenesis of the Slavs are.
This, this and this is about Guy Halsall and his book on barbarians and the Western Empire.
@Jessica #447: Thank you for the reference to Kulikowski, I will look that up! I must say I am a bit sceptical. The different fates of the Western and Eastern Empire seem to me in part luck. Halsall stresses what a strong defence the Western Empire mounted even in the 450s under Majoran. On the other hand, the Eastern court almost fled to Sicily in 612 and again in the 670s. All through the 8th century, Sicily was the richest and safest possession of the empire. It seems to me (entirely layman, and reserving judgement until I have read Kulikowski) that the transformation of the Eastern aristocracy proceeded in great part during and after the decline.
Augusto at #11
“Obrador is much less smart than Trump….”
Are you serious?
Antoinetta III
Re: sourdough
I had little luck with sourdough for a very long time, even though I was otherwise an experienced bread maker. Someone recommended to me Josey Baker’s bread book (yes, it’s his real name) and after following his directions carefully, I now make fabulous sourdough bread. I still don’t know what I was doing wrong that the book corrected, but it doesn’t matter. The bread is delicious.
I’m sure the book is easily available from many sources, but here’s a link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Josey-Baker-Bread-Baking-Awesome/dp/1452113688
@Will1000:
The seacoast of Connecticut, from New York at least to New London, long ago became a kind of suburb for wealthy Manhattanites to live in. It’s generally liberal, but expensive as all get out. The far eastern part of the seacoast (which used to be a separate colony) is more like Rhode Island. The northwestern part of the state, especially around the Pond Mountain Natural Area, os said to be .lovely and inexpensive. A former student of mine grew up in Kent, CT, and couldn’t stop painting the most lovely picturtes of what it was like to live there.
For those of you who think Portland, Oregon is on fire, the city just set an all time high temperature of 116F today. This breaks the previous all-time record of 111F set yesterday, which in turn broke the previous all-time record of 108F set the day before. Prior to that the previous record was 107F set back in 1965. Most locations west of the Cascades in Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia have set new all-time temperature records over the past three days.
This marks the third “unprecedented” weather event – in which atmospheric circulation patterns set up in a way with no recent historical analogs – in the western US in the past year. The first – last September – involved a block of cold air moving south from northern Canada at breakneck speed, driving 100+ mph winds across the intermountain west, sparking massive wind-driven conflagrations in Oregon and Washington, and bringing summer snow to Colorado. The second – this February – sent arctic air down into the Gulf of Mexico, freezing Texas and Louisiana and bringing prolonged snow, ice, and cold to the Pacific Northwest. This time the upper air subsidence that typically resides over the desert Southwest moved 1000 miles north into BC, warming the air column through compression and shattering historical records. Perhaps I should also include the hurricane-force “derecho” that ripped across much of Iowa last year with 120+ mph winds.
There seems to have been a shift in the climate system recently that allows for greater pattern amplification. This is not itself wholly unprecedented – a similar period of instability and extremes occurred in the 1930s – but it certainly adds another element to the brewing storm of shortages, infrastructure decay, impending financial collapse, and loss of community/political cohesion.
I have also noticed an unfortunate shift in media coverage over the past 10-20 years wherein these major weather events – or even big tragedies like the building collapse in Miami – are treated as minor stories. Previously they would have been front-page news, with plenty of interviews and personal stories from affected people. Now, it seems, a major story has to have a human (or an institution) potentially at fault. So we don’t hear about the Texas deep freeze as an event that just happened – which would build empathy and solidarity. Instead we hear about how the Texas electrical authorities messed up, or how wind power advocates destabilized the grid, or how anthropogenic climate change allegedly caused it to happen. And when there isn’t anyone to blame – like in Iowa last summer – then we don’t hear about it at all, and the impacted people feel neglected and forgotten. I see that as a factor contributing to – or perhaps symptomatic of – the ongoing fracturing of society into finger-pointing mobs.
Since this is an open post and there are so many smart people here, a question to anyone who can offer information, especially all of you technical expert types who might have experience with solar equipment:
We have livestock housing, in particular a hardware-cloth screened, metal-roofed, 10′ x 30′ chicken pen, south-facing, that could benefit from some air flow in the summer, because even here in Vermont it gets hot in June, July, and August (94ºF today). We’re considering a solar attic fan in the roof of this pen to draw air in through the screened walls. Husband is a construction electrician so installation will not be a problem.
However, it’s our understanding that solar attic fans are designed to run automatically year-round so this could be a problem in winter when sub-zero temperatures aren’t unusual and the girls don’t need the breeze. Sure, when there’s a couple of feet of snow on it blocking the sun it won’t run, but is there a way we can get the thing to shut off for the season easily without climbing up onto the roof to fiddle with it every fall? Mr. Beekeeper could easily add a switch to the wiring from the panel to the fan if we installed a hard-wired fan, but all the solar fans we’ve seen are self-contained. If there’s a better option for creating air movement in the pen, we’d welcome the suggestion too.
Will1000:
I think New England is wonderful – surely I’m biased – but it’s not cheap to live here. CT is especially pricey. If your wife insists on the northeast, consider New Hampshire: no sales tax, no state income tax. It’s still more liberal than other parts of the country, but not totally nuts like Vermont. I hear that the property taxes are high in order to compensate; maybe that depends on what community you live in. There’s another commenter here who lives in NH, perhaps she has something to add.
@ Mollari, I am only through 64 comments but my advice is always buy meat on the bone when on sale. Make broth from the bones and you can add flavor and nutrients to whatever rice (grits, potatoes) dish or soup you want to make. simple once you develop the habit.
@Deborah Bender – Thanks for linking me to the book – it looks really interesting!
@RandomActsOfKarma – In my case the ants seem to enter from everywhere… but it’s good to have the bay leaf trick in mind, thank you.
Secretface, the problem with trying to scare people with ever more new coronavirus variants is that there will be diminishing returns to this practice. And the problem with further lockdowns is that it will really break the economy of many enterprises, cultural occupations and stores, so that the government and the elites paint themselves into an unsustainable situation, propagandawise.
You can NOT make this stuff up and be believed! From Australia, Sharon Micenko on the Bujold list writes
“It seems two Australian men were “sun baking” nude on a beach,
They were fined for not wearing masks, ignoring the travel distance limit and wasting police time.”
Regarding the dreamwidth post about the new pride flag:
https://twitter.com/MayorofLondon/status/1409395089378623488
Before long they’ll have to ditch the flags and mount TVs on flagpoles to keep it updated fast enough.
adwelly – You might want to check out something I’ve been using. The theory is that modern farming methods (green revolution) have destroyed the topsoil, and yes we can get things to grow through NPK fertilizer but without much of the nutrient value foods used to have. So our bodies are hungrier because they are trying to get these nutrients and struggle to do so. Taking this supplement has given me a lot of control over my appetite. My wife has also tried it and it has calmed her gut. https://vitalearthminerals.com/mb/
joy marie – disney has been at the forefront of copyright expansion, this doesn’t surprise me one bit
jasper – Vax effects – I chalked this up to people just forgetting how to function in society from the lockdowns… but yes I see it too, the grumpiness, the ease of getting into auto accidents, etc.
neptunesdolphins – why are schools all over the country pushing CRT so hard? like their existence depends on it?
teresa from hershey – A now defunct shoe store used to use “BOGO” in their advertising a lot, read the fine print and it wasn’t really BOGO, it was BOGO 50% off, or something like that. People got used to the plain meaning of BOGO and then companies started watering it down.
clay dennis – I’ve often wanted to construct a plexiglass tower in my backyard, that would cause sunlight to heat up the air within, which would rise and turn a fan, which would then turn a generator
Matthias Gralle – I heard that green tea extract, specifically EGCG, is 10x more potent than HCQ
Mieczyslaw – Maybe that is why hydrogen is getting dusted off and paraded around more lately.
Mary Bennett – Pomp and Circumstance replacement: A Christian school I went to in elementary used to use “Onward Christian Soldiers” in place of P&C
JMG: A stock market doesn’t crash out of nowhere. The market always softens considerably prior to the actual crash. September/October 2008 happened after the market had been softening since Nov 2007. Same with 2001. The market’s COVID dip in spring of 2020 proves the point. The market ALWAYS recovers well, at least in the short term, from true exogenous shocks. True recessions/depressions occur because of market weakness. Now, an exogenous shock may weaken the market, but the market will recover in the short term, and then may manifest weakness later. I think this may be starting happen now but for the moment the stock market is still suprisingly strong. I doesn’t even matter if market strength is a function of Fed QE; I would argue that taking advantage of a Fed QE pumped stock market is just getting some of that sweet QE cash for yourself! We’re on steroids now, and for good. At least until the dollar breaks, but that is not being allowed to happen; the government/Fed is stoking inflation to kill two birds with one stone 1) ease populist pressures through MMT-funded giveaways and 2) reduce the US government’s debt burden. If you think this is going to screw us Americans, it will really screw the US-dollar backed world… and I expect that to be one contributing factor to WW3 closer to 2030.
Except that inflation is the decade-long truth but not the medium-term truth. We’ve got some weakness to work out of the economy, so I am expecting deflation or disinflation as supply chains firm up over the next few years. The government will get even more aggressive printing money to pull us out of that funk, then the inflation game will start in earnest.
erikalopez wrote:
“Regular Ordinary People are all untested valor and dangerous in their fears. they will kill you without hesitation to save their faery tales that buttress up their weak tiny ankles.”
Truth!
PS Your writing is not shallow.
Beekeeper in Vermovnt,
I’ve made two types of sourdough starter – a wheat, and a rye, both of which use fresh ground whole berries (seed) .. plus a tsp. of my coarsely-filtered honey, for each when ‘recharging’ both batches. I believe that the honey helps to keep the acidity levels in check, plus all the goodies contained therein. Both starters I use regularly, incorporating in pizza dough, and of course, bread – both wheat, rye, or a combo of the two.. I do freeze small amounts, in case things go, um ..’sour’
Last year I had major spoilage issues due to our compost fruitflies accessing all that goodness via the small aeration holes (1/6″) that perforate the screw lids. I opened one up to find a whole cloud of our little friends partying down! So I cut some muslin rounds to place over the jar mouths before topping with said lids. We’ll see if polecat is faster than the fly!
Mary Bennett, I, too, have learnt in due time that there are still good books about non-fiction subjects in English, probably the market is bigger or for some other cuase, like, for example, J. M. Greer’s books. In Germany, and probably other countries, the market has become too small for high-quality works and the publishers too obsessed with churning out bestsellers for solid works to be much of an option. But there are still exceptions.
@Beekeeper #491, there are units where the solar panel is separate from the fan housing and connected with a wire. That would make it easier to add a switch. “Gable mount” seems to be the description of that type in the catalogs. However, they appear to be more expensive on average.
You could make use of seasonal sun angles and build low vertical panels around the fan on the roof to keep the solar panel in the shade unless the sun is higher than, say, 45° altitude. That would run the fan only at high noon on the equinoxes (give or take, depending on your exact latitude, and you can adjust accordingly) and for increasing portions of midday toward the summer.
One more option: add a length of vertical duct below the fan, inside the pen, ending where it’s within reach. Make an insulated cap (or plug) for the end of the duct, that you can put on for the winter. It won’t matter if the fan runs when the cap is on.
Justin, Oh, great, so now it’s getting a double penetration. I can already see other wedges coming from above and below leaving all the original colors behind.
@ Beekeeper
‘consider New Hampshire: no sales tax, no state income tax’
Well, not yet anyway. They try sneaking in little things like a
rooms and meals tax, a property tax and a view tax (yes, really.
You pay extra for a nice view when you buy a new house) but every governor we’ve
gotten so far has ‘taken the pledge’ for no income tax. As long as the economy
isn’t too bad, we can probably get away with this but if things start tanking, all bets are off.
As for who’s liberal or conservative, that depends on where you live. The tendency
is to be more liberal in the southern part and moderate to conservative in
the northern part where I am. I saw a good mix of Trump and Biden signs back
during the election about even-steven I’m guessing though the Trump signs stayed
up for quite a while afterwards.
There is a nice rural ambiance in many places. Housing is expensive right now
(more in the south where it’s more developed than in the north and especially so around
the Lakes region). But farmer markets are prospering and there are
still a fair number of farms. Employment wise I see plenty of help
wanted ads. We used to have a pretty extensive railroad system (freight) but sadly
many of the tracks have been torn up for the use of ATVs and snowmobiles. I think
this is something we will likely regret in the years to come.
For myself, I have always loved living here and can’t picture living anywhere else.
For the Long Descent this is likely to be one of the better places to be. But then like
you I’m biased.
@ Mary Bennet #470
Have you read Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough? It’s a stunner, covering groups like the Weathermen, the SDS, and the Black Panthers from about 1967 to about 1975.
I was shocked at how much of this period has been forgotten, including by me! We used to get bomb threats at my junior high and high school regularly, in central Delaware!.
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Antoinetta III, I have trouble knowing if you say it with sarcasm or with surprise but yes, Trump is much smarter than Obrador. I don’t like either as people though maybe Obrador could be a cute grandpa nor do I say it in an intellectual or academic way (Obrador did take 10 years to get his degree though) but seriously I think that Obrador is senile and often delusional and he doesn’t know how to play the people and media game as Trump did, he had the democrats right were he wanted since the beginning. Now, we could argue that Obrador plays dumb intentionally in his favor in order to distract and play with the opposition, it certainly works that way, but I think he is just enjoying a position he has been fighting for 20+ years and the people behind him are just letting him do that and taking advantage of it. Mexico also still has a very active intellectual political community, we still have thoughtful political discussions on the news for example, and they have been destroying him ruthlessly. He is well intended, and I was glad to see the people get him in place but hardly a smart person. Hopefully he will serve as a way for people to recognize we need to address the needs of the lower working class but also that such a person would still need to know how to get there not just have a good heart.
@Nachtgurke and Oilman2: Monolithic concrete is a long lasting building material: see the Pantheon in Rome, built circa 125 CE. The odds of Hoover dam lasting a long time are pretty good, since it was built with same technique, and designed (with sliderules!) to be completely in compression, where concrete is strongest. A couple million years hence, descendants of the current crows will be arguing if the form of the eroded dam is explained by an intelligent builder, or if was formed by the natural flow of the water. It’s only when you try to minimize the amount of concrete by adding steel to concrete to take the forces in tension that the problems begin. If you want to have your bridge to last 2,000 years or more, you could do worse than to emulate Lucius Fabricius, the curator for roads in the City of Rome. He was in charge of the construction of a bridge 57 years before the Common Era, which I have walked across. Stone arches mortared together will last. Steel reinforced slabs won’t.
@ Beekeeper: Have you though of adding a cupola to the pen? Basically, you add a cupola to the ridge of the shed, and it increases airflow through stack effects. That’s why most older barns have cupolas on the ridge. Plus it looks better, and it won’t have to be replaced in about 7 years. You should add a hatch to close it in winter.
I just wanted to say that I spent 3 hours last evening catching up on all the comments here and got 1) reassurance that I’m not crazy; 2) inspiration from sharing of projects and ideas (particular erika and violet); and 3) some great cooking ideas!
Also learned that when it is the open post, if I’m not reading and commenting from day 1, arriving on day 5 is like coming to the bar 30 minutes before closing time.
I’m also feeling somewhat better about my families choice of taking the vaccine. Not that I agree with it now, but more a realization that I’m not in control. I’ve spent two decades trying to protect them from the world and make sure they are comfortable (homemaking, homeschooling, prepping, etc), and in doing all that I thought I could shield them from consequences. I can’t and I never could, and I think they are informed enough about what could happen.
I am open to any and all advice from the community here. You’re the most grounded people I know.
Prayers and positive energy appreciated!
I just saw the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen. I was looking on the internet about psychology and I stumbled into this. I think I know how will the snapping minds will look like once the cognitive dissonance reaches critical mass in the form of the latest demon spawn of mindlessness mediation, Laughter Yoga, which of course now has a “proper” sanskrit name, which I refuse to write.
“I am Bianca Spears, from a young age, I was told that I could do anything I wanted! With laughter yoga you become more spiritual by making joy your own choice! There is no joking, nor faking only laughter”.
Myself personally I’ve been inside a psychiatric hospital, taking care of a friend for a few days and I can say with all confidence that half the people inside were not as crazy as this poor woman.
She has a whole youtube channel of her, just laughing “after having had the worst afternoon and crying all day”
On the ten seconds I could stand to watch on one of her videos, she starts by trying to laugh, then by making her hand as a puppet laugh in a high pitch voice, moving her hand towards her, then towards the camera and then saying: “Now imagine you yourself are the marionette, heeheeheehee. HEEHEEHEEHEE”.
Secretface, doubtless the results will vary from country to country and region to region. If the goal was to get everyone to freak out, though, I don’t think the virus worked. As for Traditionalism, that’s a very complex matter. I disagree with the Traditionalists on important issues, and I also recognize that they’re far less concerned about “tradition” than they pretend to be — Evola in particular clearly made up his Tradition as he went along, from recognizable source materials in the popular intellectual culture of his time — but they’re worth encountering, confronting, and thinking about.
Logan, the comment thread is highly entertaining. Thank you. I think the guy who posted is right that he’s in a horror movie, but the title is “Night of the Gibbering Liberals.”
Maej-Neiviv, thanks for the update from Ecnarf! I use French Revolution references purely because here in Acirema everybody knows about them; of course the parallels won’t be exact, or even close.
Booklover, I’m sorry to hear that that’s also true on your side of the pond.
David BTL, that is to say, a new gimmick to provide full employment for the managerial class. Gotcha…
Luke, good heavens. The citadel of the enemy has fallen!
Oilman2, according to Oilprice.com WTI is now upwards of $73 a barrel; a year ago it was just over $40. We’re in for it — and I plan on talking about petroleum quite a bit in the months ahead, and repeating points I made before and during the last oil crisis. The total dependence of most renewable technologies on oil is one of those points. (I say “most” because there are a handful of low-tech options that don’t depend on oil — you can build a clay stove and burn home-coppiced wood in it, for example…)
Ben, I have no idea. The culture in question hasn’t risen yet, and what narratives it will use to define its reality — well, nobody knows.
David BTL, many thanks for this.
Ksim, well, I’ve presented my vision in quite a bit of detail in various nonfiction works and in two novels, Retrotopia and Star’s Reach, with a third possibly on the way. I’ll refer you to those, as it’s rather detailed.
David BTL, remember that to these people, history is evil. They’ll erase it completely if they can.
Patricia M, it did indeed. As for the check-in robots, I’ve been to a hotel that used them. I won’t be back.
Denis, there’s nothing you can do but pray and hope for the best.
Mark, thanks for this. If the shifting of the upper air subsidence belt repeats — as I suspect it will — it’ll mark the change to a new climate regime in which the Northwest has the climate now found in the Southwest, the Columbia and Willamette will become seasonal gullies, and the intermountain West and Great Plains well up into Alberta and Saskatchewan will be desert. (That was rougly the situation in the period of warm temperatures after the last ice age.) This is on top of the pattern amplification caused by more energy in the system — as James Watt showed, you get more work out of a heat engine if you improve the insulation, and the work done by the heat engine of the atmosphere is called “weather.” So we may be in for it…
Patricia M, writing satire has got to be the world’s hardest job these days. How can you top reality?
Justin, okay, now we have a pincer movement. I note, however, a lot of pushback in the comments.
DT, I’m not concerned with exogenous shocks. I’m concerned with speculative excess. It’s true, of course, that the market can remain insane longer than you can remain solvent — but the general economic weakness that brought on the 1929 crash wasn’t visible until late Summer and stocks didn’t turn down until right after Labor Day. Watching clueless people flood the market is another reliable indicator of trouble, thus my comment.
Augusto (if I may), if new wedges come in from the top and bottom, it will look remarkably like the Confederate flag…
Denis, positive energy en route.
Augusto, thank you for this. What a perfect sound track for the crazed twilight of our era: people forcing themselves to laugh in a shrill demented tone…
DFC, thanks for granting me the benefit of the doubt – I’m not trying to promote any particular narrative and didn’t realize the database required that users look at each individual reaction to try to tally up fatalities. My mistake was to assume that the numbers shown on the “landing page” of Number of Individual Cases for selected immunization were the total. For example, clicking on the Pfizer page, you look toward the bottom and number of deaths is listed as 88. Tricky of them to make you click down the lengthy list of all possible reactions.
Also, I was not accusing *you* of fearmongering – I’d thought the article you’d linked to was giving inflated numbers. And yes, I accept your criticism of my incomplete investigation of how the site works and stand corrected.
JMG & ALL…
article: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Dawn-Of-A-New-Era-For-US-Shale.html
key takeaway, last paragraph:
The immediate priority for E&P firms, including in the shale patch, will be to use the expected super-profits and record cash flows to pay down debts and reward shareholders. Capital discipline will likely hold this year, but upstream investment will need to rise if the world is to avoid sleepwalking into a supply deficit within a few years.
No mention of increased exploratory spending or leasing by most anyone – instead debt service and dividends – which does not transform into new prospects…
It hit 39C at the highschool near my home yesterday. This is on Vancouver Island. Pretty crazy. I understand the previous record (before this weekend) was 28C. Lots of people don’t have air conditioning, myself included. I am very glad I’m in a basement suite. My landlady and her daughter camped out downstairs with me yesterday because it was so hot up there. We’re all fine.
@ JMG RE: coppiced wood
So, you being a city dweller and all, exactly where do you buy your coppiced wood? LOL How many people even know what that is might be a better question…
We both know that everything in our world is underpinned by oil – but there is such a disconnect. Cognitive dissonance sets in rapidly when you deconstruct the world by removing oil – I had people rabidly trying to tell me my facts were wrong 20 years ago. As people are even more disconnected about where their “stuff” comes from today, I expect numerous brains exploding.
I’ve left it late but here you go JMG. Flying cars by Hyundai. Not long to wait either. Oh you of little faith 😉
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/29/flying-cars-will-be-a-reality-by-2030-says-hyundai-europe-chief
Also noticed a member of the Labour party here in the UK is suggesting we vaccinate all our dogs and cats against CoVid as they could be carriers.
Yes, that seems sensible – who’s paying?
Ah, it’s Kim TALL Bear, not Standing Bear… I’m going to call that a Jungian slip
@ Will1000 RE AR
Natural boundaries are different from human ones. Both the Ozark and Ouachita mountains run down the border between AR & OK – so eastern OK is different from the rest of the state. Land prices are usually lower on OK slopes, yet the terrain nearly identical to western AR.
Just a thought from a guy who spent a week in Toad Suck Hollow…
Denis, I’m in the same boat – two college-aged daughters likely to get the vaccine (one potentially required, the other… well, she lives in Germany and I think her peer group is pushing for it and they’ve said she “should get the vaccine while visiting the US this summer” since it’s been difficult to get there). Or something. She’ll be here next week and I’ll be attempting the same thing as you: provide the relevant info then let go of the outcome. Prayers for you all to be included in my morning devotions.
JMG, re: “If the shifting of the upper air subsidence belt repeats — as I suspect it will — it’ll mark the change to a new climate regime” can you suggest sources (or a research direction for the uninitiated) for an introduction to climatology/history? Your comment there that takes into account past trends and future possibilities has me wondering if there’s a textbook you might recommend or if you picked that up in pieces through wide-ranging reading.
Walt F #502:
Thanks for the ideas! We’ll definitely look more widely to find a fan that has a separate solar panel – and the idea about a cover inside the pen for the fan is excellent.
The Great Khan #507:
I would love to add a cupola to any structure on our property, if only for the look of it. Sadly, the chicken pen does not have an actual peak onto which we could set a cupola.
Our big barn is gambrel-roofed with the long side facing south; what we did was to build an addition to the roof extending 10 feet outward, the full 30 foot length of the barn; I believe this is sometimes called a ‘farmer’s porch’, or at least it is around here because it looks like a roofed porch. We framed out the sides and enclosed everything in hardware cloth (we have a mink problem, so every single tiny opening is covered, which also keeps the chipmunks out, they who stuff their little cheeks with all the chicken food.) The girls’ equally fortified coop/room is inside the barn itself where there are no drafts in the winter, and a pop door opens from the coop into this large pen; a human-size door goes from this covered pen into a fenced pasture for non-snow season use. Since the pen roof is an extension of the barn roof, there’s no spot for a cupola 🙁 Sound complicated? That’s what happens when you’ve got a construction worker in the family: every job grows in size and complexity until it takes at least twice as long as initially estimated.
@jessica:
Thanks also for mentioning Walter Scheidel’s Escape from Rome. It’s getting late in the comment cycle. I haven’t yet had time to look at it, but wanted to mention that this idea sounds very similar to one the late Patricia Crone (a historian of early Islam) once made, I think in her “Preindustrial Societies” (a primer on how ALL earlier societies differed from our own one) – however, with the value signal inverted!
Dr. Crone proposed that (paraphrasing from memory) all other civilizations managed to transition from early growth into a stable state, while the Western European civilization never managed that transition and instead spread like a cancer around the world.
Meant to be shocking of course, in the same way that JMG has often spoken of fair-skinned barbarians on a rocky peninsula of the western end of Asia.
@DT Yes, I shall give this a try if I can source it. In the meanwhile – 3 days in and the biggest problem is boredom. If nothing else, it’s made me realise how much variety plants introduce to our food.
re: GET OUT OF STOCKS
I’m not going to make a prediction or give advice. But I will offer some tools to help think about it. The stock market isn’t really a market anymore. I’d challenge anyone to draw a diagram of what happens after you place a sell or buy order. You’d be surprised just how convoluted that diagram will get before you’re done. I think physicists draw simpler Feynman diagrams to describe nature.
I’m not sure what you call it now, but market wouldn’t be the first thing that comes to mind. That’s the world you’re stepping into when you’re talking about stocks. Someone said you need to know what you’re doing now? I’d say that’s necessary advice regardless of what the numbers on the ticker are doing. I’d also add that skill is necessary – but not sufficient. You need more.
The joker in this deck is all the money printing. Weimar was one long stock market party, although in real terms it did rather poorly. But especially hyperinflations – things get rather volatile. You can have nasty gutchecks on the road to 100 quadrillion. People tend to forget about that and focus on the end number when they write history.
I wonder if anyone during the Bronze Age was talking about the scarcity of tin and how fragile everything was that depended on it? I wonder if anyone was talking about how we’ll figure out how to replace tin with iron and life will go on like it does now?
@Ksim
Oh yeah and last question – electric cars.
Not a threat. You notice that Cali is already asking EV owners to limit their charging? The world’s power grids simply can’t handle many more EVs than those already on the road, nor is there the lithium & rare earth element supply to support a significant expansion of EV manufacturing. Oh, and the semiconductor shortage which will not be going away anytime soon.
—
Regarding the “concrete” discussion, this was rather timely:
https://energyskeptic.com/2021/enough-energy-left-to-rebuild-concrete-infrastructure/
Denis #484
Consider putting the college on notice with a Notice of Liability for Non-Consent and Injury. Its a legal document.
Punky Little Kid
Augusto @ 506, Do you see in Mexico anyone who has the combination of good heart and capability to be a good president? I don’t doubt that Trump is smart; lots of people are smart; it is an affectation of our clueless “educated” classes to suppose that everyone besides themselves is some kind of idiot. I consider Trump smart but shallow, and because of that shallowness unable to understand that a government is not a business.
Booklover @ 501, The market in Germany too small for good books to sell? I am astonished to read that. I had heard that the industries Germans had one of the world’s best systems of public education.
Theresa @ 505 Days of Rage is on my get to list as the new book about CIA involvement in those movements.
About the books: The Witches’ Bible and Lindow’s Norse Mythology have been shipped out. Remaining: the two books on Asatru, the Companion for the Apprentice Wizard (full of arts, crafts, and exercises. And, quite possibly, baloney), Bulfinch’s Age of Fable – older book, hardback, well loved – and the Saga of King Hrolf Kraki.
@JMG
I’m pleasantly surprised to see that you have a deep working knowledge of the climate system despite it being a rare topic on your blog. You have to be one of the most interdisciplinarily informed people on the planet, which is of course why I enjoy reading your perspectives.
@Beekeeper
Lots of more specific advice has been given already. Not knowing how easy it is to access the roof, I might suggest a wooden/metal cover over the panel and fan in the winter months which would both block the sun and protect it from snow and ice.
Ever-productive and increasingly-influential Archdruid, you get a major shout-out from Tim Watkins in his latest Consciousness Of Sheep posting (see your extended quote towards the bottom, but the basis for the article quite clearly derives from your prior work): https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021/06/28/climate-change-relegated/
@ Beekeeper #519: Aha.
Does the barn have a cupola? If it does, can you add openings along the high side of the farmer’s porch into the barn to make use f the existing stack effect? If not, you evidently need to add a cupola to the barn ;-).
If you think having a construction worker in the family adds to complexity, imagine what 2 architects in the family lead to: nothing can even get started without years of discussion….
@Beekeeper 491 – here in Australia we have a cooling device called a ‘Whirlybird’ – it’s a circular fan driven by hot air rising upwards, mounted at the highest part of the roof. It’s mechanical, so no electronics, and you could pin it shut during the winter time. Maybe you can get something similar in the States?
@JMG
Recently I hear people say things that remind me of you, in settings where I never expected it.
On June 17 the Bulwark podcast interviewed George Packer, who’s just published a book called “Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal.”
https://podcast.thebulwark.com/george-packer-on-how-america-fractured
Packer talks about four aspects of American society, which he calls Free America, Smart America, Real America, and Just America. Listen to minute 16 to 21 of the interview. “Smart America, the meritocratic class, rising through education and credentials… Today you are born into it … Families do everything they can to make sure their children stay in it … It has become a form of social immobility. … There is a large shift from when we were young and the Democratic Party was the party of the working class.”
Also listen to minute 27.5 to 34 of the interview. “The real America, the small towns. Sarah Palin, leading to Trump. Political and media elites did not understand. Elites discredited themselves. Smart elites got us into the war in Iraq but they didn’t bear the cost of it. Trust in institutions declined; party elites were too remote to see this.”
The day before that, the Bulwark interviewed Joanne Lipman, who talked about the Covid reopening. She says many people are looking at their work situation differently, after the lockdown. I didn’t take careful notes – I was just listening while I did some routine desk work – but she talked about the days when a single working-class job would support a family.
https://podcast.thebulwark.com/joanne-lipman-on-the-great-reopening
These discussions caught my attention because they seem different from the mainstream news. Headlines each morning show me a country in which millions of people perceive different realities. Meanwhile, perhaps new understandings are flowing beneath the surface, like the tide.
FYI – the Bulwark is a lively “never-Trump” website with podcasts Monday through Friday, plus a few short articles each day. One recent guest described himself as a “center-right person, without a political home.” Many of the people interviewed are ex-Republicans. Since a substantial part of the audience listens five days a week, it may seem “deep in the weeds” for casual listeners.
@RusTheRook #131
You said:
>@ilona Hey! You were going to ask me more questions about cryptocurrencies back in April.
>Now’s your chance.
My basic question is, how to get started. Could you give me suggestions about educational websites you trust, or write a brief description of the steps someone would take to set up a small investment in bitcoin, or in other cryptos.
A friend told me I should set up an account on Coinbase, and I am planning to do that. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, partly for lack of time (and many other projects.) Also, I see the bitcoin price has been shifting dramatically, with some observers saying it has reached a low and others saying it could fall much more.
I’m very interested in your comments. Many thanks! (And if not this month, then please post your comments in the next Open Post.)
@jed who says, #439
>@ Mollari, I am only through 64 comments but my advice is always buy meat on the bone when
>on sale. Make broth from the bones and you can add flavor and nutrients to whatever …
Also buy chicken feet to add to broth. Add a splash of vinegar to extract more food value. One website says “a touch of acid added to the simmering pot will create a richer finished product. That’s because acid helps break down the cartilage and other connective tissues in the bones of the chicken, which helps speed up the formation of gelatin in the stock…. Acid also helps extract more nutrients from the bones….”
Mary Bennett, Of course, by me saying that he is smarter than Obrador I am not saying it as praise or compliment, or jealousy even, it was merely a description used as a comparison between the socio-political atmospheres of two countries having populist movements and the effect trump had over the political spheres of latin america. (See the original comment at #11) It was an attempt at an analysis, not me choosing one over the other nor suggesting anyone should. I am not particularly in favor of any politician for that matter. To answer your original question though, I bet there are, and I think there are in every country, they are just smarter than to think that a president can have any actual impact on long term effects. This has been true throughout history, such people spread ideas and let them walk by themselves. It’s through the roots that real change happen, presidents are just a consequence of that.
Regarding the colorful confederate flag. Oof, what a good example of what you contemplate you imitate. They’ve glanced at the abyss for too long, and now they are getting glanced at. I have the feeling that most of the people that brand confederacy these days do so because they know it will boil inside their opposition. Aren’t people branding the confederate flag doing it because it annoys the hell out of them and thus creating a decoy abyss? If they are dressing up themselves as the opposition’s nightmare on purpose to turn them into it, that’d be a really smart move, though I don’t think it’s deliberate.
Hi JMG: Late question which just came up with a friend. What, if anything, is the connection between and reality of the Illuminati, the FreeMasons, and “Scull and Bones”. What I think is that they have nothing to do with each other — but I’ve been wrong enough about enough things lately I thought I would check with you, the expert and the only FreeMason I know.
Judging from the other material you have been presenting in your occult history series, I thought — and think — it would be most appropriate to get your story on these organizations; it seems like they all, one way or another, arguably connect to the occult – light or dark.
For what it’s worth, a year or three ago I would have completely dismissed any attempt to connect any of these things together. And it didn’t seem important enough to occupy myself with digging nor wondering. Now it increasingly seems evident that WB Yeats spoke early:
The Second Coming
By William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Justin, JMG and all. Twitters are not left behind, these two seem to have gotten it right and left.
https://twitter.com/LeftyUnwoke/status/1409520240782893064
https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1403950225111326724
In regards to coppicing, I did quite a bit of hunting on this subject, which seems to be pretty obscure, even, dare I say it, occult, in N. America, and this is the best online resource I found: http://tcpermaculture.blogspot.com/2011/06/permaculture-projects-coppicing.html?m=1
Given that we have lindens, we get less than a foot of precipitation annually but they get supplemental irrigation because they’re in the gouse zonre, we’re zone 3, and the power company comes by and coppices them every couple years at a most inconsiderate height, I figure they’ll be easy to establish elsewhere on the place, maybe near the creek, and probably do quite well, and may do well for others.
@Fra lupo
“I suspect this is not by accident, and that the fourth part of the Trinity, as it were, is (unspoken) Satan (after all, in Job he attends the council of the sons of God like anybody else).”
Not true. The Ha-Satan of that passage isn’t necessarily the Devil himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQmhnWEPOE4
@Fra’ Lupo
In the Christian Mythology:
The 2nd explanation is that the ejection of Satan is not possible until the incarnation:
https://www.ichthys.com/SR4(SWS).htm
Right now they are in charge as a result of the original parents of Mankind handing over the Cosmos over to himself as a result of the fall from Grace:
http://www.christianthinktank.com/victor.pdf
Hence there is a temporary Angelic administration over Mankind by the Elohim(Sons of God) over the various Nations.
They are nonetheless able to Justly punish human nations for the evil that organically arises from fallen human nature. Of course that is taken advantage of to get the human Nations to worship themselves as Gods.
The Incarnation is necessary to strip them of their Authority. By the death of Jesus Christ a truly innocent Man who is also God.
And to create a remnant saved under Grace. A New Humanity who will be joined to God and share the Divine Nature(2 Peter 1:4) and be resurrected under perfected bodies not unlike the ideals of the Olympian Gods but also better(1 Corinthians 15:35-54)
And also renew the Cosmos under their Aegis(Romans 8:18-23).
But being created beings they cannot truly join the Trinity.
The Novo Homo will replace the fallen Elohim in God’s Divine Council.
@Darkest Yorkshire #473
Since I started with wargames before I got into RPGs, I never had any problems with complex rules. Most of my friends rely on me reading the rules, if we play any new RPGs, wargames or other boardgames.
I only remember one game, where I capitulated reading the rulebook. It was a computer game called Tornado, where you were a pilot of a Panavia Tornado aircraft. The rulebook had around 333 pages and I never read any rules for computer games before and after. So, I thought to skip the rulebook and start playing the game immediately. I never left the runway…and ditched the game completely due to competing computer games, that were much simpler.
Coming back to the OSR, I found it refreshing that within the OSR a lot of rule systems based their rules on Basic D&D, which was upon release mocked as D&D for kids. Even simple RPG rule sets are already very complex, so an easy ruleset has a certain charm.
Funnily, there is a D&D blog called “The Tao of D&D”, which cranks up the complexity of D&D to maximum level to create an extremely detailed environment for the players. I highly recommend this blog, even though it somehow scared me away from game mastering.
@Booklover #495
I agree that there will be diminishing returns, if this tactic is used too long, but if you listen to the current propaganda, it seems that they will continue the scare tactics as long as possible. I have heard the first experts warning of the so-called delta variant going wild in autumn. An explanation for this could be, that the politicians and experts are currently just trying to save their face and will drop the scare tactics slowly after the federal election in September.
@JMG #510
I agree that the results will vary. The Americans, especially the ones living in the “red” states, seem to be more resistant to the state propaganda than the Germans. I mean, we also have people critical of the handling of the lockdown (called “Querdenker”, unconventional thinkers), but I have the impression that they get successfully smeared by the state propaganda as Nazis. At least, all my working colleagues and most of my friends have a bad impression of them. It is also still mandatory to wear a mask within all public buildings and I have seen only one person in total who did not comply, which resulted in a 300€ fine. If I look at the numbers of positive Covid cases in my area, there a currently 0,007% infected (24 out of 325000), but nobody seems to care, they just follow the rules.
Thanks for the short summary on traditionalism. Do you have any recommendations, which books are worthy entry points into this philosophy?
I don’t know if anyone has posted on this yet, but we may be looking at a Twilight’s Last Gleaming moment in the near future. https://www.unz.com/tsaker/will-the-russians-sink-a-british-ship-the-next-time-around/
Quoting the Saker, “the USS Ross (DDG-71), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the United States Navy, has just entered to Black Sea on her way to Odessa where the Ukies are preparing monoevers of their “mosquito fleet” in the latest “Sea Breeze” NATO maneuvers (the biggest ones to date – 30 countries participate!). The Ukies have also declared that the Ross plans to follow the exact same course as the [British HMS] Defender did. The Russians? They announced that the USS Ross is now a “fat target” on their coastal defense missiles Bal and Bastion. As for Foreign Minister Lavrov, he just authored a seminal article entitled “The Law, the Rights and the Rules” which, still using diplomatic language, shows the utter disgust even Russian diplomats feel for the incompetence and hypocrisy of the West.”
@Temporaryreality prayers to you and your family too. In my darker moments, I realize that those in charge weren’t satisfied enough with wiping out the elderly and small businesses with their covid policies, they must now sicken the young too and burden their families with medical debt. Its a battle with myself to stay centered.
@Punkly Little Kid Thank you for the suggestion! Emailing our lawyer today to see if she can produce such a document. We had to use the HSLDA lawyers to assist in homeschooling and they would produce letters that suddenly made school administrators forget their demands to us.
To everyone – I’m of the mind that who ever is running this covid thing is going to declare victory at some point and remove all the mandates. I thought they would do it by July 4th so they could concentrate on mid-terms with “look at all the good things we D’s have done. We defeated covid when orange man could not. Elect us again!” But it seems like they just can’t let go of the fear and hostility. While Americans have moved on with the lives as much as they can, the control freaks are grabbing as much as they can. Ignoring them can only work for so long.
John, et al.–
Extreme end of the open discussion, but a fascinating energy-related SCOTUS ruling just recently came out involving eminent domain and state sovereignty. A synopsis from our national trade organization:
[T]he United States Supreme Court conclud[es] that, under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA), natural gas pipeline companies can exercise delegated eminent domain authority over property in which a state holds an interest, notwithstanding states’ general sovereign immunity from suit in federal court under the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The ruling reverses a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concluding that the eminent domain authority granted to private natural gas companies holding certificates of public convenience and necessity under NGA section 7 does not extend to state property. A Supreme Court ruling affirming the Third Circuit could have made it more difficult for interstate gas pipeline companies to build new facilities authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under the NGA.
The case involves the PennEast pipeline, proposed to transport natural gas between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. FERC granted the project a certificate of public convenience and necessity under NGA section 7, which, among other things, afforded PennEast the right to take property necessary to construct the pipeline by eminent domain. PennEast sued to condemn certain property in which the State of New Jersey held an interest, and New Jersey asserted sovereign immunity in response to the condemnation suit. A U.S. district court rejected New Jersey’s sovereign immunity claim, but the Third Circuit reversed. The Third Circuit found that, although the federal government can delegate its eminent domain power to private parties (like PennEast), the NGA does not allow PennEast to sue New Jersey to condemn state property given New Jersey’s Eleventh Amendment immunity.
By a 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court reverses the Third Circuit’s ruling. The majority opinion was authored by Chief Justice Roberts and joined by Justices Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, and Kavanaugh. Reviewing the history of federal eminent domain over state property, the delegation of eminent domain authority to private parties, and the language and history of the NGA, the majority concludes that the NGA “delegates to certificate holders the power to condemn any necessary rights-of-way, including land in which a State holds an interest.” (Opinion at 12). The majority rejects the dissent’s argument that states have not waived their sovereign immunity from suits by private parties under the NGA, concluding that “the States consented in the plan of the Convention to the exercise of federal eminent domain power, including in condemnation proceedings brought by private delegatees.” (Opinion at 15). The majority also disagrees with the distinction drawn by the dissent between the power of eminent domain and the authority to exercise the power through a suit against a state. According to the majority, “[t]he flaw in this reasoning is that it attempts to divorce the eminent domain power from the power to bring condemnation actions—and then argue that the latter, so carved out, cannot be delegated to private parties with respect to state-owned lands. But the eminent domain power is inextricably intertwined with the ability to condemn.” (Opinion at 16-17).
The dissenting opinion, authored by Justice Barrett, contends that the NGA reflects an exercise of Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce, “and we have repeatedly held that the Commerce Clause does not permit Congress to strip the States of their sovereign immunity.” (Dissent at 1). The dissent strongly disputes the notion that states consented to condemnation suits by private parties in the plan of Convention, arguing that “[t]here is no ‘Eminent Domain Clause’” in the Constitution, (Dissent at 4), and observing that the majority “cannot muster even a single decision involving a private condemnation suit against a State, let alone any decision holding that the States lack immunity from such suits.” (Dissent at 6). Suggesting that the majority decision is driven by practical concerns about constructing infrastructure, the dissent contends that such concerns are not “a reason to set sovereign immunity aside.” (Dissent at 9).
While joining in Justice Barrett’s dissent, Justice Gorsuch also issued a short separate dissent focused on the plain language of the Eleventh Amendment, arguing that the text of the amendment bars federal jurisdiction over the PennEast condemnation proceeding, regardless of any consent to suit by New Jersey.
What is of particular interest is that the 5-4 decision cut straight through the traditionally-accepted ideological division of the Court.
The case is PENNEAST PIPELINE CO., LLC v. NEW JERSEY ET AL.
Another last-minute story of interest:
https://news.yahoo.com/south-dakota-gov-kristi-noem-161325376.html
States (well, governors) deploying military forces and operating in concert independent of the federal government. Curiouser and curiouser…
@Denis: “While Americans have moved on with the lives as much as they can, the control freaks are grabbing as much as they can. ”
I flew home from a family reunion yesterday. While waiting to pick up my bag, one of those annoying and frequently-repeated announcements came over the airport PA system, beginning, “In order to help stop the spread of illness, federal mandates require a face covering at all times while in the airport….”
No mention of covid, the virus, or the pandemic, just a blatant moving of the goalposts to now stopping the spread of “illness.”
I really can’t imagine how they are ever going to let it go.
Today it occurred to me, as I took last years Reddened Sky as an omen –we might as well call it Red Ominous Abnormal Sky Trouble, yes that reads R.O.A.S.T– that it had nothing to do with the political heat, but rather, with another kind of heat… I think it is getting time for me to proceed with stage two of my plan, which is using my rent money to buy a camper and live of it while traveling for a while. I can work remotely after all, and given the incoming market crash and energy crisis, it might be better that way before buying a house, until they go on sale.
I know this will be buried under 500 (wow!) comments, but wholly cattle fecal matter, did folks see this news story:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/26/project-cassandra-plan-to-use-novels-to-predict-next-war
‘At first I thought, this is crazy’: the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war
Three years ago, a small group of academics at a German university launched an unprecedented collaboration with the military – using novels to try to pinpoint the world’s next conflicts. Are they on to something?
————–
John, your ideas are getting picked up by the military! Every paragraph had me picking up my jaw from the floor.
Maybe a little concerning since it’s Germany + war, but :shrug:
JMG, I found a video that I think you’d be interested in — or, at least, find entertaining. I normally enjoy the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, but their latest video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WO-z-QuWI), about terraforming Venus, struck me as unintentionally hilarious due to the techno-grandiosity involved. It contains gems like saying that leaving Earth and colonizing other planets will be necessary for our survival sooner or later, and denouncing Mars as an option for colonization before moving on to Venus, a planet that would be even harder to colonize. Maybe it’s just me, but building an array of giant mirrors to cool down an entire planet to freezing temperatures, firing its condensed atmosphere into space to form a new moon around it (which the video refers to as an “obvious solution” to the problem of removing Venus’s condensed carbon dioxide atmosphere), and then importing water from the moon of another, even more remote planet doesn’t seem like something our species will ever get around to doing.
JMG, So where do most of the severe attacks from ‘psychic vampires’ (In the sense of the living counterparts of the revenants in your book) happen?
Is it often deliberate or unintentional and how hard would it be to catch culprits doing the fatal drainings or killings? I read the book and the author seems to distinguish between ‘leeches’ and ‘vampires’.