John Michael Greer's Blog, page 28

The Secret of the Alchemists

Most of the figures we’ve discussed in our survey of America’s magical history came from very humble backgrounds, and there’s a reason for that.  While social mobility has been an American ideal for a very long time, it’s always been subject to sharp though unmentionable limits, mostly rooted in the desire of those already prosperous to see that they and their children get first dibs on the finite supply of wealth, power, and privilege available in this or any other society. That’s why in today’...

The Cosmic Doctrine: The Law of Limitation, Part One

This week we continue a monthly discussion of The Cosmic Doctrine by Dion Fortune, which I consider the most important work of 20th century occult philosophy. Climb in and fasten your seat belts; it’s turning out to be as wild a ride as I expected. If you’re just joining us now, please go back and read the previous commentaries, which are listed here; the material covered in these earlier posts is essential to making sense of what follows.

As noted in earlier posts, there are two widely availabl...

On the Metaphysics of Sex

Last month, when I realized there would be five Wednesdays and I didn’t have anything on the list for the fifth of those, I dusted off an old habit and asked my readers what they wanted to hear about. That gave rise to some extremely lively discussions.  The largest number who expressed a preference wanted an update on the Long Descent—the unraveling of industrial civilization, which began in earnest in the early 1970s and will continue until long after everyone reading this blog is dead—and so ...

The Arc Of Our Future

In last week’s open post, I noted that I didn’t have anything in particular planned for this fifth Wednesday of the month, and asked my readers what they wanted to hear about. Quite a few subjects got brought up for discussion—among others, the novels of Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, and the metaphysics of sex—but the largest number of readers asked for something less abstract.

During more than half of the fourteen years plus that I’ve been blogging weekly, the main focus ...

July 2020 Open Post

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 long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank — but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic.

Two additional comments before we begin. First, on the off chance that any of my readers have missed out on this, the publisher of The Weird of Hali...

“Try!”

One of the things that makes the magical history of America so, well, magical is the number of astonishing individuals who have played a central role in it. Even among the extraordinary gallimaufry of figures who are part of our story, though, the subject of this week’s post stands out. His name was Paschal Beverly Randolph, and he was an American original:  the first internationally famous African-American occultist, the creator of traditions of magic and occult wisdom that remain active today,...

The Cosmic Doctrine: The Law of Action and Reaction

This week we continue a monthly discussion of The Cosmic Doctrine by Dion Fortune, which I consider the most important work of 20th century occult philosophy. Climb in and fasten your seat belts; it’s turning out to be as wild a ride as I expected. If you’re just joining us now, please go back and read the previous commentaries, which are listed here; the material covered in these earlier posts is essential to making sense of what follows.

As noted in earlier posts, there are two widely availabl...

The Power of the Mind

While Andrew Jackson Davis was attracting huge crowds with his discourses in trance, and the Fox sisters were listening to tapping noises, another important 19th century American occultist was pursuing his researches in a small town in Maine.  His name was Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and his impact on the magical history of America would be far greater than that of any of the figures we’ve discussed so far; a good half of American occultism, and some of the most distinctive religious groups in the...

June 2020 Open Post

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 long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank — but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic.

A few words before we proceed, though.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve had several people comment favorably on the thoughtful, polite, and interestin...

A Prophet and a Loss

A word or two about history before we proceed.

Two weeks ago, in response to my discussion of John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed, I fielded the inevitable comment from the inevitable reader who insisted that Johnny Appleseed was a Bad Person because he played a role in the westward expansion of the United States. When I responded by saying, sure, you can impose that sort of rigid ideological judgment on Chapman if you want to, I got a tirade back, talking about how awful it was that history class...