This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly open post to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers. All the standard rules apply (no profanity, no sales pitches, no trolling, no rudeness, no paid propagandizing, no long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank, no endless rehashes of questions I’ve already answered) but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic — with two exceptions.
First, there’s a dedicated (more or less) open post on my Dreamwidth journal on the ongoing virus panic and related issues, so anything Covid-themed should go there instead.
Second, I’ve had various people try to launch discussions about AIs — that is to say, large language models (LLMs) and the utilities they power — on this and my other forums. The initial statements and their follow-up comments always end up reading as though they were written by LLMs — that is, long strings of words superficially resembling meaningful sentences but not actually communicating anything. That’s neither useful nor entertaining. Thus I’ve decided to ban further discussion of this latest wet dream of the lumpen-internetariat here, and have extended that ban to LLM-generated content of all kinds.
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Before we go on, a few words on my fiction. As I think most of you know, my novels have migrated to a new publisher. That’s not surprising; I don’t write mass market fiction — in fact, I’ve been pleased to hear my novels described more than once as cult classics — and that means they necessarily lead a hole and corner existence with small publishers. This move wasn’t my doing; Aeon Books, who remains one of my main publishers for nonfiction, sold their fiction imprint, Sphinx Books, to another small press.
So far things with the new firm, Sul Books, have gone very well. One result is that the fourth of my Ariel Moravec occult detective novels, The House of the Crows, is now available for preorder and will be released next month. You can preorder it here, in paperback or hardcover; use the discount code JMG2026 for a 20% discount.
The earlier volumes in the same series are also being re-released in paperback and hardcover, with new cover art. The first volume in the series, The Witch of Criswell, is accordingly available here, and the same code, JMG2026, gets you the same discount.
With that said, have at it!
So America and Iran are bombing all the oil refineries in the Middle East, leading to fuel rationing around the world. Meanwhile, California is trying to keep an oil pipeline shut down:
https://apnews.com/article/california-offshore-oil-order-lawsuit-e961fe0f713ed3cb4d5999f87de2c1b2
In America, all roads lead to Boston. As such, I have decided to start publishing my three part article on the psychogeographic history of Route 128 MA, the first circumferential highway, and the belt that cinches up the fat waistline of Boston, a week early.
This first foray into American Psychogeography can be found in these two places:
https://www.sothismedias.com/home/looking-backwards-at-route-128
https://justinpatrickmoore.substack.com/p/looking-backwards-at-route-128
(The articles are the same, but after hanging out on subslack for well over a year, I was convinced by some of my fellow writers there to start a subslack. At the same time I am well aware of enfrackification and enshaleification of internet platforms and I very much like maintaining my own website, hence the two places. It does seem that people who hang out in that gated community of subslack do not like to leave, and so the experiment has been going well so far to get their eyeballs on my words.)
This part of the psychohistory gets into a brief look at the land and first peoples of the Boston area, Saint Botolph who rules over boundaries and is patron saint of travelers, the work of Edward Bellamy and how his Looking Backwards inspired movements in garden cities and regional planning that becomes important later, and the military development of our roadways, all of which have had a profound impact on our landscape.
The next installment will look at the work of Benton Mackaye and his plan for the beltway that was not followed, along with ideas from his fellow Lewis Mumford and Clarence Stein.
JMG, have followed your work for a number of years now. I can’t help but view current events through your model of collapse. Feels like the Trump/Netenyahu attack on Iran – humourously, referred to as a ‘war of choice’ in the British press, rather than a ‘war of aggression’ – is brewing up a big step down the staircase. Shell are predicting fuel shortages in Europe in April. Farage is desperately trying to put clear, blue water in-between him and Trump. There is talk of planning for rationing.
What is the feeling that side of the pond? Are prices biting? I read the NYT website the other day, and the war (sorry – ‘special military operation’ ) wasn’t even the first story.
ICKY
Since 1st January 2026, I have been experiencing waves of fairly high anxiety in regard to United States events, from various sources. I feel as if I am walking on the ceiling, my whole body upside down,— just plain icky. I am upset enough that I can’t write about anything cohesively.
I would love to hear the commentariat’s (regular writers’ of this blog) opinions on current events of the last three months. Western culture is in decline, but how does that downward trajectory apply to this last quarter?
Sorry for being so befuddled…
💨🤢💨Northwind Grandma
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Hey John, I know this needs to be fixed on the publishers end, but just thought I’d mention the promo code isn’t working for me… I am delighted to pick up your book in hardcover. I got a copy of George Macdonald’s Phantastes annotated by Rhyd in hardcover and its very nice. Glad that Sul provides that option.
Bill and I are enjoying our second annual Ocean City Do-It-Yourself writers’ retreat.
On the way down, we deliberately drove down Delaware 1’s coastal highway from Rehoboth through Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island (all in Delaware) and into Ocean City, MD.
Some notes:
You can see the Delaware/Maryland state line as you approach. In Fenwick Island, state law and zoning keeps the buildings lower and smaller. In OC, the condo towers leap up to 20 and 30 stories and line the ocean front.
We drove past BILLIONS of dollars of property: houses, townhouses, condos, apartment towers, hotels, even a few singlewides in ancient trailer parks. Houses ranged from antique beach houses (you can tell because they’re tiny) to mansions. I’d guess, basing on the empty parking lots and what we’re seeing at Ocean Walk East (by the empty Carousel Hotel) that 95 percent of those properties are sitting empty.
Think of that! Billions of dollars of fully furnished, with all utilities properties up to date on their taxes and insurance and they sit empty.
The majority of businesses were also closed; maybe 75%.
All these homes, hotels, and businesses are waiting for the summer tourist crowd.
In OC, the population swings from about 10,000 in January to 100,000 in the summer with 150,000 or more on summer weekends.
It is astonishing when you think about it. Just astonishing.
JMG,
It appears that studying the city of Portland gives one a good insight in to the future of collapse. One of the main drivers of collapse is that the built infrastructure of civilization becomes too expensive to take care of in relation to the actual ( not fictional) wealth of the economy.
Cities and counties are mostly funded by property taxes with additional income from gas taxes and fees like parking, sewer and water. But the amount that can be collected from property taxes is limited in most places and gas tax revenues are on the decline for multiple reasons. So when local government’s insatiable need for revenue runs up against this, they of course look for new avenues to tax.
Portlands streets ( like many places) are in terrible shape and the bureau of transportation thinks they need much more money than they have to fix them ( of so they say). The answer is a street maintenance fee to be added in to every consumers water and sewer bill. The mentality is that there is no shortage of ability to pay from the citizens just a shortage of clever ways to extract it from them.
There is zero awareness among anyone in the public sector that we can not afford to keep up the infrastructure that we have, and no sneaky fees will fix that.
Back in the 2000’s my wife was the director of public works for a small industrial city in Oregon. Money was always tight there for roads, even 20 years ago. Occasionally she would introduce the city fathers to the idea of infrastructure triage. Things like returning some of the less important roads back to gravel. But even though the city council was pretty grounded and mostly republican such talk would make their skin clammy and their eyes spin back in their heads.
So I guess we are in for a future of junk fees while the infrastructure winds down.
A question I’ve been wondering about.
Why has our culture gone so all in on freedom, freedom, freedom? Where community matters not at all? Where you, a citizen of your community, should not have to contribute in any way to your community but you should expect to be catered to because you’re you?
I’m not sure if I’m phrasing this correctly.
It’s like we’re being deliberately atomized from each other and then whining about a lack of connection.
You can’t have connections if you don’t put in effort.
How can you expect your family and friends and community to rally around YOU if you don’t support them with your efforts? And yet we seem to think that’s the way it should be.
Independence over all!
Any ideas why?
As Easter approaches, I’ve been thinking about the secularization and commercialization of the holiday. Even when I was a child 40 years ago, the outward expression in the culture was that of egg hunts and chocolate bunnies. While I am aware of the pagan origins of some of the celebrations and festivities surrounding Christian holidays, and I don’t have an issue with some fun or parties outside of the religious tradition, I do find it disturbing that a mention of the religious foundations are barely spoken about outside of churches. Saying “He is risen” is almost a symbol of a secret society these days and is not a common greeting during the season out in public. Most of the world may have religious freedom, but outward manifestations of faith in public seem to be unwelcome by the society at large and even governments to some extent. However, as more people begin to turn back towards religion, perhaps public displays of faith will renew. Easter is after all, Christianity’s holiest day, and there should be no shame in expressing faith, especially at this time.
Second, I had a good experience at a Catholic shrine/convent last week. I sat in a church silently regarding the Eucharist wafer on the alter while the nuns chanted and prayed behind a partition behind the altar. I was pleasantly surprised that after a few minutes, my brain shut up and I was able to meditate with a silent mind. God bless all.
Hello John,
What are your thoughts on the Iran war?
I am excited to announce that my own book is coming out, published by Aeon Books called Sacred Homemaking: A Magical Approach to a Tidier Home in May and possibly sooner than that. It’s at the printers at the moment and there will be an audiobook version read by me, the author. Sacred Homemaking is my occultist’s take on the tidying genre as popularized by Marie Kondo’s The Art of Tidying Up and Swedish Death Cleaning. In it, I take the primary focus off of the stuff itself and methodologies of sorting it and emphasize relentless and diligent gratitude. The problem I address in the book is the endemic spiritual detachment we have as a collective and the resulting urge to hoard stuff, and I am certainly not perfect when it comes to stilling this urge within myself. There has not yet been a book out there to my mind that talks about the sentience of stuff and places in this kind of deep and thorough manner. I also tried to eliminate all forms of gatekeeping, as I perceive the aforementioned tidying books as more than a bit elitist in their tone. My wish is that Sacred Homemaking is not only an easy read, but provides easy ways of improving your personal ecosystem and fortifying the all-important protective barrier of home that helps you and your loved ones to develop spiritually. I will be interviewing for the Plant Cunning podcast about this book next week. You can pre-order the book with a 20% discount until the end of this monthat Aeon Books using the code SACRED20. Here’s the link: https://spirit.aeonbooks.com/product/sacred-homemaking/95403
I posted this comment on the YouTube channel of a Gen-Z social commentator (Alex Wei) on his most recent video:
I turn fifty-nine years old this year, and I can tell you that the real turning point that made this time the way it is started happening in 1989 and lasted through 1992 at the latest. Human beings need purpose, meaning, and direction in their lives, but starting in 1989, a kind of dark spiritual revolution happened in which the love of money, possessions, status, and ego pushed meaning, purpose, and direction aside with a speed and completeness that brainwashed people into thinking it was all normal by the time it was done. When acquisitive materialism and ego take over a society to that degree, the values of community and basic human decency, all the true human virtues, really, become degraded and even actively denigrated by people who think they’re “cool” when they are really just cold. I’m not sure what caused this transformation, but the nascent Internet with the way it enabled people to communicate to an extent that wasn’t possible previously accelerated without being the cause of this change. The point is society became a completely different place in a way that seemed “overnight” compared to previous cultural changes. And it has stayed that way ever since, and I hope it is your generation who has been psychologically traumatized by having born and raised in this “great hollowing out” in its full bloom who finally looks around and says, “Okay, this is just sick and wrong”. Sorry for writing War And Peace in a YouTube comment, but I think it would help your generation a lot to understand this history.
My question for you is, did you sense the kind of sea change in the social culture that I believe I experienced, or had you insulated yourself from the mainstream of society enough that it didn’t really register for you? The change for the worse in society that you have spoken of in the past is your generational cohort exchanging its idealism for material comforts in the late seventies and early eighties, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you built some kind of “firewall” between yourself and mainstream society in response to that change knowing things would probably get worse instead of better (which I would say it did in a way I experienced very viscerally).
Firstly, I want to wish everyone a Happy Spring. It has just turned Springtime Proper in our corner of Donegal with the arrival of lambing – as per usual just as the weather took a turn for the stormier! Busy, busy time for Himself Outdoors, I can tell you! 🙂
Secondly, yes, looking forward to the new Ariel Moravec novel. I’m taking a second read through the first three just now, and enjoying them very much.
Blessings on everyone who will have them.
Overly interesting summer is likely on the way;
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/wildfires-tear-through-nearly-750-000-acres-as-state-declares-emergency/ar-AA1ZiuDl
This is in Nebraska. Here in Washington although the total precipitation is doing fine, most of it came as rain so the snowpack in the mountains is well down from expectations.
Related since the snow that didn’t fall won’t melt in late summer to power the turbines,
https://www.yoursourceone.com/columbia_basin/report-grant-county-sees-power-demand-double-as-data-centers-grow/article_77300fef-149c-4466-91ed-92e7cbab1a62.html
“MOSES LAKE — Data center capacity in central Washington surged past a major milestone in 2025, with total inventory nearly doubling to more than 400 megawatts, according to a Feb. 26 report from commercial real estate firm CBRE.
The report found the region added 154.5 megawatts of net absorption last year, pushing total capacity up from 246.4 megawatts in 2024. The rapid growth reflects increasing demand from cloud computing and artificial intelligence, industries that require massive amounts of energy and infrastructure.”
Long time reader but seldom comment. I’m a big Ariel fan and went to pre-order your new book. The discount code is wrong. It should be JMG2026.
Thanks for all you do!
Hello JMG and commentariat:
First of all, congratulations to you, John, for your two Ariel Moravec books covers you’ve shown in this Wednesday Open Post. I think they’re cool (congrats to those pictures author), but I also hope their content it’ll be good too (I think the novels author will be good too, methink). I guess you haven’t Ariel Moravec stories translated to Spanish yet, so to enjoy them I’d have to read it in English (well, I have no severe problem to do that, so…)
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On the other hand, it seems unavoidable to use current Open Post to write about the Middle East mess which soon it will reach its first month. I’ve got many ideas and doubts about Iran war reality and its several many consequences for the whole world (especially the West), but I’m going to write by now my opinion in the short form, to not be boring.
If the USA&Israel first idea was to repeat a bigger and bloodier decapitation strike against the Iranian theocracy (like it worked with the clean strike against Maduro in Venezuela), well, after their first apparent success (killing old Khamenei and some more Iranian high spheres leaders), following days have shown the Western “silver bullet” hasn’t achieved its goal: to provoke a regime change toward a more friendly government in Tehran (breaking possibly the BRICS alliance). Indeed, younger and more fanatical leaders have occupied soon the void seats left by the dead leaders…so a future peace deal with them is more difficult that after the beheading strikes (in the doubious case Netanyahu would allow Trump peace talks with Iran govt).
Before ending my current commentary, I’d like to point you a Trumpian decision which may have been ignored within the war fog during these war time. I’m thinking about Trump idea (some days ago) for lifting oil sanctions against Russia, so starting soon again to buy oil to the “Bad Bear”. This made EU got angry (evidently). I think there could be a geopolitical reason to do it (maybe to “divert” a part of Russian oil production to bother China oil supply), or it could have been a “friendly warning” for Putin (more oil incomes for Russia in exchange for not sending military help to Iran?). Well, I can guess Iran regime has been receiving China and Russia help until today (if not, I think Tehran would have lost war before first week of war, methink), so…
Maybe Trump promise to buy Russian oil can be explained by his fear to an explosive situation: higher oil prices or eventually real oil shortages in the West. Time should give me the reason (or not).
What do you think about this “strange”
act?
Hi all,
‘Maid’ – an old word. Looking to the past… to prepare for the present. Maid also means young girl, or young unmarried girl. Maids work as servants but the word reminds me of a time were the young people served the older people, among others thing, to learn manners from them. A time when in any typical Spanish village the difference between being young or being old was much more important than the difference between high class and low class. A time past. Congratulations on your new Ariel book.
By the way, I used to sign as Tired21, but I changed that to Agnes. I don’t feel Tired anymore.
At my age I have clear memories and a feel for the world back in the very end of the 1950’s and into the 1980’s in the United States We are in the passing and dying of a civilization and a culture. “the center does not hold”
I am not saying that the America of the past was a paradise. No culture at its peak of vigor and creativity is – Roman, Chinese, Islamic, Victorian England, Incan, Mongol, Aztec is, there is always a number of failings and even horrors by good moral standards.
You write frequently about “the myth of progress.” Is that really the myth driving modern societies?
In my view, the proof of belief is sacrifice. What you believe in is what you’re willing to sacrifice for. What, then, are Western countries sacrificing for the sake of? Progress?
The fanatical “woke” movement that not long ago fought to transform every aspect of life in the West claimed that fields like science and mathematics are racist and that being on time and valuing hard work are manifestations of white supremacy. Governments, corporations, and all the most powerful institutions fell in line with this agenda and charged down a flagrantly self-destructive path as a result.
A society that gives credence to ideas like “math is racist” is not a society that believes in progress. The true driving myth behind the modern West is equality, the idea that all people are equal. The claim that STEM fields are racist and misogynist came about because despite all the efforts made to recruit a diverse student body into these fields, their demographics hardly budged. This led to a crisis of faith among people who believe that all humans are identical, interchangeable clones inside different-looking wrappers.
In your recent “end of bureaucracy” post you wrote: “There’s a reason why NASA has to hire private contractors to put people into orbit; despite more than ample budgets, the bureaucracy that once put bootprints on the Moon hasn’t been able to design and build a working spacecraft in more than a quarter century.” I have spoken to people who work at NASA, as well as Microsoft and private companies that need similar assistance from outside consultants to get anything done. The biggest drivers of the stifling bureaucracy are the myriad policies that have emerged downstream of the Civil Rights Act and pro-equality pressure movements. If people in those workplaces so much as have a conversation mentioning breastfeeding or pregnancy, it can trigger lawsuits and social media smear campaigns.
One of the most powerful driving forces in popular culture today is nostalgia. A viral video game called Retro Rewind that recently came out simulates being a clerk at a 1990s video rental store. This is clearly not the product of people anticipating a better future, and the unspoken undercurrent of it all is a yearning for a time before the myth of equality had the cultural dominance it enjoys today.
Saw a new Pixar movie (Hoppers) with my kids that was surprisingly good, and it’s more data on how the cultural landscape is changing. Data that you’ll miss since you don’t watch screens.
First, it wasn’t woke. Even the environmentalist message it contains (the main character, a young female Asian activist, starts out as an unhinged activist trying to save a glade from being paved over) is more nuanced than usual and resists the urge to cast the developers (led by an older white male mayor) as evil. The main character also calms down quite a bit after accidentally starting an animal revolution which quickly evolves from “Save the Glade!” into “Squish the humans!”
Second, the movie introduces the idea of humans being just another mammal, with the other animals chastising the mammal king (who’s a beaver) for letting humans get out line. That’s also a very different message than the usual fare where humans are presented as existing outside of nature and having control over it.
Third, the movie features a hilarious plot point where the only reason the villain’s scheme fails is due to a failure in MFA (facial recognition technology) to unlock his phone. Got a huge laugh out of the audience. It’s not an anti-technology movie, but it does reflect the increasing exasperation the public has with a lot of this crap that has intruded upon our lives.
It’s popular, both conservative and liberal parents are taking their kids to see it, the only controversy around is some of the dark humor, and it gives me some hope that our cultural rift can be healed around a different set of ideas that are starting to show up in mainstream entertainment.
So I’m sitting in the ol’ buckboard’ .. waiting for the light to change, when I notice a bumper sticker on ride in front, which read: Do you hate trans people? Then go kill yourself! What came to mind was Emperor Palpatine giving Luke the deadly static treatment; where the pasty hooded one projecting All That HATE is, in reality, the trans comm./sympathizers … with Luke representing most of the general public. Not sure where Vader fits in just yet. “sigh”..
I hope you are all fine and well in these interesting times!
I published an essay today about the topic of war. Telling the story of my family, it’s a lot more personal than what I usually write, and also less light-hearted – but I would be very grateful if some of you read it, and, if you should be so inclined, would also pass ithe link on to others:
https://thehiddenthings.com/the-story-of-my-family
And on a lighter note, the world could definitely do with more blessing and spiritual healing right now! 🙂
One very useful way to achieve this is to practice the Modern Order of Essenes. You can find it as posts on JMG’s dreamwidth ( https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/tag/modern+order+of+essenes ), as pdf files on the Order of Spiritual Alchemy’s site ( https://octagonsociety.org/archives/modern-order-of-essenes ), or in an online course format on my site ( https://thehiddenthings.com/topics/moe-course ).
If you should have any questions about the MOE, I’d be happy to answer them, and I presume JMG and the other MOE Master Teachers would be, too.
Finally, I also perform a formal blessing each Wednesday, and I welcome signups: https://thehiddenthings.com/categories/weekly-blessings
I wish all of you a blessed and peaceful week, and JMG, thanks for hosting the Open Post again! 🙂
Milkyway
With JMG’s permission, I’m sharing this opportunity to purchase a Blasting Trident of Paracelsus. These are handmade to order with the utmost attention to craftsmanship and quality by myself (a blacksmith) and two other local makers. They ship from Canada a week or two after receiving the order.
The final design was reached with JMG’s input, and we are quite happy with how they’ve turned out.
https://reforgedironworks.com/product/blasting-trident-of-paracelsus/
JMG, would you be so kind as to share this image? link: https://reforgedironworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DSC_1275-2.jpg
Hello Mr. Greer,
I was hoping you could help me better understand the occult view of reincarnation. In particular, I am trying to compare and contrast the views described in your occult philosophy workbook and those exposed in Yeat’s vision. Your book made me think of reincarnation of the spiritual handmaiden to growth, evolution in the broadest sense, and general improvement. The idea I got was you build up as you work through bad karma and carry talents over from previous lives. Yeat’s vision seems to be as much about going backward as forward as you circle around the wheel. You might develop incredible talent in one life only to have to walk away from it in the next.
I understand that these are just models. The map is not the destination, after all. But it still feels like these two models pull in opposite directions. One seems to say that you keep building based on successes in past lives (assuming you are doing your part and not back sliding). The other says you build up in a particular area only to walk away and transition into something very different, even contradictory, in your future lives.
So have I misunderstood something or are these just two separate models that are not fully compatible?
I am pondering the nature of stairs. Right now, here in ‘Murca we appear to be going into a couple of steps down. I am not of the ilk that loves to predict an complete catastrophe, but I tend to think that “the American way of life is not up for negotiation,” is in fact up for negotiation.
My best guess is that we are around ten steps from the bottom, using that as an convention for measurement, I am thinking that we will be going down two steps in the next two years. I don’t see the end of the world, and should it happen there isn’t a damn thing I can do to plan for it.
I would love to hear others thoughts, but right now I am not going to sweat it and work on my understanding of tarot. Seems to me to be much more useful.
Always grateful for this community and your work, JMG. Did a pre-order on “The House of Crows,” of course. These books remind me of the teaching fiction of Violet M. Firth, only of course they are better written. You sneaky devil you! Talk about detournement!