November 2019 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.
While we’re at it, I’m also delighted to announce that the first volume of The Dolmen Arch is now available for preorder from Miskatonic Books. This is my reconstruction of an early 20th century correspondence course in Druid occultism, available to students for several years as a private study course and now in book form. This first of two volumes contains the four grades of the Lesser Mysteries — the Gradd y Newyddian (Grade of the Novice), Gradd y Damcaniwr (Grade of the Theoretician), Gradd yr Ymarferiwr (Grade of the Practitioner), and Gradd yr Athroniwr (Grade of the Philosophizer).
The first volume will be released in February of next year. The second volume, containing the three grades of the Greater Mysteries and a great deal of additional Druid teaching and practical instruction, is currently scheduled to appear about six months after that. There are two editions of this book; the signed limited hardback edition may be preordered here for US$65.00; the oh my god over-the-top signed leatherbound fine edition with leather traycase may be preordered here for US$395.00. There are 550 copies of the first and only 35 copies of the second; first come, first served…
With that said, have at it!
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Thank you for hosting another Open Post, and for taking the time to answer all our questions every month (and mondays every week)! It is much appreciated.
The Dolmen Arch was based on scraps of an early 20th century Druid correspondence course.
Do you know of (scraps of) any other (correspondence) courses like it? The available material on (Welsh) (Revival) Druidry is really rather limited, all in all, and any leads would be much worth having!
Kind regards, Brigyn.
In The Blood of the Earth , you cautioned against political magic. In re-reading The Kabylion , however, the introduction speaks of mental alchemy and transmutation and how Initiates can manifest change in the world indirectly in this manner. Politics leaps instantly to mind.
However, I sense there is a distinction between the kind of political magic I believe you were referring (forcible, direct magic in the manner of The Resistance) and the kind of magic that is, more or less, effective politics. I think that Trump is a good example of the latter: he observed the untapped power of the masses and created simple but powerful images (MAGA, The Wall) on which those masses could focus their energy of their own free will . He then took that focused energy, harnessed it, and rode it to the White House. (Of course, using a tool effectively and using a tool wisely are completely different things…)
So if we were to distinguish between “poor” use of political magic (again, The Resistance trying to “bring down” it opposition) and “effective” use of political magic (e.g. MAGA), would your warning still apply to the latter? Would the creation of suitable images, focusing the power of the populace and transforming the mental state of the people (or more appropriately, aiding the people in transforming their own mental states), not be a “proper” use? Revitalizing the image of the American Republic as it once was, for example, in contrast to the empire we became?
It occurs to me, too, as I write this, that one might also illustrate these two kinds of political magic with the Nazis and Dione Fortune during WWII, with The Resistance being the former and Trump (however counter-intuitive it might appear) being the latter…
A question for the commentariat! Can anyone recommend a good, natural treatment for eczema? Asking for a friend _
Happy thanksgiving to all who celebrate, and abundance to all!
Happy Thanksgiving to all in the US! This forum is something for which I am very, very thankful, now and all the time. My deep gratitude to JMG for hosting us, and to all who participate.
I want to shout out to Violet, please – my elecampane grew like a wild thing this year, and at least one of the walking onions survived transplant and the jungle that was my garden. Thank you!!
I will start with some low hanging fruit in the ongoing religion of progress front. Elon Musk’s new cyber truck. The Tesla fan boys are in a froth over what is possibly the dumbest vehicle on the planet. Battery powered vehicles for the purpose of hauling loads over a distance are especially stupid because most of the load capacity is taken up by the weight of the batteries. In the case of the Cyber Truck this is made worse by the decision to use 3 mm, thick low grade, stainless steel ( 301 is the cheapest of the stainless grades) to make the body out of. This is so heavy compared to the normal thickness of stamped sheet metal normally used on cars and trucks that will will add hundreds ( if not over a thousand) lbs to the weight of the truck. This style of construction will never be cost effective. It is clearly just hype intended to harvest deposits from gullible buyers and raise more money from gullible investors to keep Elon’s Ponzi scheme going a bit longer.
John, am halfway through ADR 2016-2017, “The Politics of Decline”. Wonderful insights…
When associates continue to mindlessly hammer on the “Trump Bad!” message, it’s refreshing to bring up some of the real issues possibly behind his support. “Outside The Hall Of Mirrors” (June 29, 2016) talks of whose benefiting from current policies, and who bears the brunt.
Rising real estate, cutting social benefits, unrestricted immigration and offspring of industrial jobs are discussed.
One might also add rising stock market, low interest rates, high-tech healthcare research (when so many simply need basic care), autonomous vehicles and this push to require advanced degrees.
When I bring these points up, no one seems willing to take any actions for change, much easier to yell “Trump Bad!”.
Friends will call me when they see certain actions by the elites (pulling student newspapers from the racks at Radford University, e.g.), laugh and say, “So how many Trump voters did these administrators just create?!”
You have any further thoughts on the advancing senility of our elites?
for a while now I have been periodically checking to see if you are translation of on the shadows of the ideas have been published. But apparently it was already published and I missed it! Are there any plans to do a second print run?
Ah, I was waiting for this.
What is the significance of ritually destroying swastikas, or sigils in general? https://twitter.com/chelahhorsdal/status/1195755868052049920.
South Dakota’s been making waves lately with their “Meth. We’re On It” campaign. From a magical/affirmation standpoint, though, I find myself just shaking my head at the whole thing. Attention grabbing? Sure. But the impact on people’s subconscious? Oh my.
In Star’s Reach, what are the interstellar radio beacons powered by?
Currently, I’m rereading Catton’s centennial Civil War trilogy. Something that came forcefully to mind is the degree to which the Confederacy had all of of the classic signs of a revitalization movement: a proud people facing the end of their way of life; the determination to live a script, that of Southern chivalry, honor, etc.; and the whole thing being more or less strategically, a Lost Cause from the beginning. Even the dazed giddiness with which people joined the Confederacy seems like, to a certain extent, they had lost their minds. the image of planters’ sons who had never worked a day in their lives building the fortifications around Ft Sumter with their slaves under the tactful orders of General Beauregard comes forcefully to mind.
War, then, seems like it can be an excellent outlet for a revitalization movement, especially when the mythos that possess the people call for it. Honor calls for war, and so it was easy to channel the energies of the southern people into war.
All that said, Catton seems convinced that the system of plantation slavery was ultimately doomed by the economic forces at hand at that time. and, likewise, the whole emphasis on “states rights” that were so emphasized in the Confederate Constitution made the ultimate cohesion of the confederacy questionably in the extreme, especially with France and Britain watching the whole war so eagerly.
the Confederacy seems like the fruit, then, of a revitalization movement. This causes me to wonder the obvious, whither the current revitalization movement?
Gratefully, the current folks have been anti-firearm for awhile and have few military members within their ranks. So the situation isn’t a military powder keg, at least immediately. Perhaps the real folks to watch are antifa, who embody militant progress so well?
There are certainly very compelling parallels between the radical left and Confederacy, the same sense of thwarted aristocracy, the same dependance on slaves be they flesh and bone or energy in composition, the same shrieking as a way of life comes unglued, the same highly rigorous sense of honor — for what is the whole business around microaggressions, preferred pronouns, and the minutiae of correct speech but proof of good breeding?
While the rank and file of the radical left may be absurd, are they any more absurd then the pampered planters’ sons who fortified Ft. Sumter?
The other thing to watch is which, if any, folks throw their lot with the radical left as things get increasingly crazed. A major reason the Confederacy attracted so much talent — I am convinced — is it allowed for social mobility. Nathan Bedford Forrest would probably never have become a general on his own, but in the chaos his military genius was given a chance to express itself in the world of actuality. it is compelling that so many of the most skilled, talented and passionate Confederates originally harbored Unionist sympathies, including Robert E. Lee! Furthermore, the Union caused was radicalized to the point the Lincoln behaved like a radical abolitionists.
I wonder, then, at what point is the current revitalization movement at the point of radicalization? To what degree have sides been chosen and the sides began to exert secret pressure on the plant-wise nature of men?
I’m very curious your thoughts JMG and those of the commentariat on these consideration.
Now, for our regular energy news…
This next news item is likely waaaaay too much information for most folks, but for the ultra-mega-nerdy nerds out there, here’s the direct link. I’ll summarize for everyone else in what is hopefully an understandable synopsis:
Okay, so NERC is the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Originally formed as an industry council in 1968, it was reorganized and re-missioned after the 2003 Northeast Blackout, which brought about the Energy Policy Act of 2005, mandatory industry reliability standards, and a whole lot of bureaucracy.
So this paper is a set of recommendations for grid modeling, specifically with regard to the growing issue of DERs, or distributed energy resources (think solar panels on rooftops, in contrast to central power plants). The paper distinguishes between utility-scale DERs and retail DERs (so, a utility-owned solar farm that connects to its own distribution system versus a customer’s rooftop solar set-up). The gem buried in this paper is on page vii under R-DER Modeling where is says “The threshold for R-DER should be 0 MVA*, meaning that all forms of DERs be accounted for (not netted with load) to the extent possible.”
What this is saying is the the system operator should be able to model every DER, regardless of size and regardless of whether or not it is connected behind a customer’s retail meter. Every roof-top installation, every battery pack, every home-brew wind turbine. And what gets modeled eventually gets monitored and what gets monitored eventually gets controlled. The ideal for which the central planners are striving is full control of everything on the system, because reliability.
Practical issues aside, this runs headlong into issues of state-federal jurisdiction. It has other, less savory aspects as well, which I’m sure my fellow Ecosophians can supply from their own imaginations. Not good. Not good at all.
* MVA stands for megavolt-amp, similar to a megawatt (MW) but including both real and reactive power (think, real and imaginary components of a complex number). A MW is, of course, 1000 kW. Your household usage is measured generally in kWh or kilowatt-hours.
JMG: My question is about population. Life expectancy in the US has been in a decline for the past few years, while fertility rates have been falling for a decade and are now well below replacement levels. Do you see this trend continuing for a long time as part of the civilizational decline that Spengler predicted would happen in the twenty-first century, or do you think it’s part of a short-term, generational pattern? And at what point do you imagine the graying of America would make the welfare-state untenable?
Greetings JMG & all Ecosophians,
I have completed a few Negativland related things this past month and am sharing them here for any and all who are interested. I will also be doing a Folk-Punk themed radio show this weekend, more below…
Two weeks ago I did a 40th anniversary episode celebrating the work of Negativland. Set list and audio file are avaiable for download at my dreamwidth site here: https://sothismedias.dreamwidth.org/2695.html.
My dreamwidth spot is also generally the place where you can find any of the broadcast radio stuff I’ve been up to: shortwave transmissions with Free Radio Skybird or filling in on Trash Flow Radio at WAIF, Cincinnati. I have air checks and other recordings over there.
Also my article on the late Negativland member Don Joyce and his radio show Over the Edge on KPFA can be found in the most recent issue of my ham clubs newsletter here. It would be of interest to anyone who is interested in a really different type of free form radio show not beholden to format or commercial interests. http://qfiver.ohkyin.org/2019/December/QFiver_Dec_2019.pdf.
(I’ll be crossposting that shortly on my main website sothismedias.com)
Also, coming up this weekend I will be doing a Folk-Punk special on the radio and will be featuring an excellent tune from Ecosophia reader Isaac Hill’s group The Hills and the Rivers among many others. This show is a musical tie in to the “Down Home Punk” project I’m slowly working on.
If you want to tune in you can listen live between 3-5 PM EST on Saturday the 30th via the stream here: http://waif883.org/ I will post a link to a recording later.
Thanks to any and all who check any of this stuff out.
I hope all of you in the U.S. have a happy Thanksgiving -or otherwise a happy Thursday- tomorrow.
I have been thinking about the speed with which civilisations collapse. When I first read your view that collapse is a slow process that will take 100 to 300 years, with periods of crisis followed by partial recovery, it did give me some grounds for hope. I thought this would give us plenty of time to take measures to cushion our descent and maybe make the move to an ecotechnic society. From a more selfish point of view it meant I got to hold on to my middle class lifestyle for longer. However I am beginning to think that it is the very slowness of collapse that makes it inevitable, because it makes it difficult to see the direction we are going and allows us to cling to the notion that there is nothing wrong and we can just continue doing the same thing. When a crisis comes along we take measures to prevent our society collapsing, but these are only partial jerry rigged measures that will not change the trajectory we are on. For a good example of this look at the measures that were taken in 2008.
I am beginning to think it would be easier to deal with a fast collapse as that would force us to see the trajectory that we were on and force us to take measures proportionate to the crisis we faced. Would love to hear your view.
Brigyn, I wish I did. One of the reasons I reconstructed this one is that so little seems to have survived.
David BTL, good. Dion Fortune’s work during the Second World War is in fact a first-rate template for constructive and successful political magic: focus on ends rather than means, build up what you want to succeed rather than trying to tear down what you want to fail, and focus on providing a channel for collective forces already in motion rather than trying to force something to happen just because you want it. It’s because such an approach is all but unthinkable to most people these days — yeah, the Resistance comes to mind — that I tend to discourage political magic in general. (Not to mention the way that so many people want to use political magic to evade the necessity for personal change!)
Clay, he had to do something — his enterprises are not doing very well. I’m a bit surprised the truck wasn’t made of cardboard and tinfoil.
Chicken Rancher, keep in mind that all these things that hurt working Americans benefit the comfortable classes. That’s why they yell “Orange Man Bad!” at the top of their lungs — they’re trying to distract attention from the way that they spent forty years cashing in on the destruction of the American working class. Kleptocracy is not the same thing as senility.
Steve, it came out a year ago, and yes, it sold out quite promptly. I’ll be checking with the publisher shortly to find out if he wants to bring out a trade paperback edition, or if it’ll have to wait until the contract runs out.
November 27th 2019.
Happy Thanksgiving. I have been tossing over thankfulness as a chapter in a book I have been writing about sustainability. Here is a little section about needs that I feel needs revision, as a fellow writer I’d be curious to get your feed back as well as the communities.
Being thankful stands between death and life. Knowing how precious life is, is a concept few people in the industrial world have to grapple with on a daily basis. If they actually did, they would realize what is really important. I think this is why many people who have near death experiences suddenly attempt to reform their affairs in the wake of it. Our willful blindness at this point goes beyond even knowing how precious life is, we fail to even understand the human life cycle, setting up our society in a way where it is impossible to come to terms with the realities of aging past the teenage years; things such as the age people are biologically best able to have kids, is now a moral argument not a physical one. (Younger the better from the kid’s DNA’s point of view.) We don’t grapple with mortality today until we are old; most of us have kids that live into adult hood. Those of us who have lost a child, have suffered something so unspeakable that it is almost a taboo to talk about with other people today. While healing is important, losing a child scars the soul in a way that will never truly heal. But deep scars like that, open a grand canyon into the soul where seeds may easily fall. Such a wound is unnecessary for the realization of life’s value happen, developing a meaningful spiritual life is all that is required.
Earlier in this book I touched on the topic of sustainable relationships. Now it is time to attack an economist’s notion that people have “unlimited wants.” Knowing the value of life, inherently puts a cap on what a sane person would want. Economists would coldly call this price discovery. At the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is food, water and shelter. The very top of Maslow’s Hierarchy is self-actualization, a term that is so vague and godlike in it’s implications that many psychologists agree very few people ever achieve it. The term self-actualization is the state for which most left leaning activist movements aim. It is the epitome of “progressing.” Telling people to divorce their spouses in the name of self-actualization, runs counter to the lower levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs because maintaining healthy human relationships comes before self-actualization.
Facsimiles of emotional wellbeing and a sense of belonging, can be churned out of printing presses on demand. Potatoes, homes and ancient aquifers know no such alchemy. In the United States today, the physical needs of food, water, shelter, and security should be in ample supply, yet fewer and fewer US citizens enjoy them. These are the human wants that cannot be manufactured by mere words of politicians or central banks.
The disconnect between availability of physical needs and propped up emotional wellbeing is itself an unsustainable situation. Maslow talks about self-actualization as though it is only a good thing. I think we can all agree Adolf Hitler met most of the criteria for self actualization for the last decade of his life; he achieved all he could, leader of his country, military success, mass murder etc. and thank god he failed. If you forget about self-actualization the next layer down on Maslow’s pyramid is filled with most cliches people would spat at you, when describing what they perceive to be a meaningful life. So what actually is self-actualization? Put in the context of industrial society, self actualization is merely doing what society expects you to do and doing it the best you can.
As a writer and artist, I realize there is a counter argument that art, poetry and music exist at the level of self-actualization. I say no to that. All art exists at the level of meaningful relationships, itself a tool to sustain them. It does not transcend those and get a level unto itself. People talk about being in love with the idea of love, as if it were a bad thing. Being in love with love, is essential; it requires we learn to accept the muse of love into our life and make ourselves agreeable to it. Unlimited wants is thus destroyed by quality over quantity, while embracing mortality.
Doll on a Windowsill.
I’m reading about Brexit, following the election, and considering resorting to necomancy. Maybe Tony Benn could get us out of this nightmare. _
What I really wanted was a No Deal Brexit and for Corbyn to be PM. But thanks to spectacular Labour misjudgement, this no longer seems possible. Does anybody have thoughts on any ways this combination could still happen?
@David BTL & JMG: re-political magic…
What would happen if the Resistance started calling themselves the Acceptance? Then they might be willing to do some things to change themselves first before trying to change the rest of us.
However, I Accept that the Resistance might be resistant to actual acceptance.
What is Art? I saw some vague and nonsensical definitions when I was an art student, such as “Art is what artists make.” None of those definitions mentioned the ease of going to a store and buying all the materials we need, or what that ease does to the quantity and quality of art.
Was Art more sharply or clearly defined when the artists spent more of their lives making or trading for their materials?
JMA, depending what you mean by ‘natural’, it might be worth having a look at http://www.draron.com My daughter struggled with conventional and unconventional therapies. This one worked for her.
Really anything with lanolin and beeswax is good, and no alcohol (it’s in most lotions to make the excess evaporate and therefore not feel "greasy," but ends up just drying out your skin and continuing the cycle). Taking evening primrose oil internally seems to be helpful as well. Also try to find gentler soaps that are sulfate free if possible (sulfates are unnecessarily harsh), or cut down on your washing with soap. And good luck! Am commiserating with you!
Delving back into politics, something I saw earlier today stuck with me. It was just one random entry in a comment feed broadly discussing the current slate of Democratic contenders, but its point (and the point is misses) really stood out.
The specific context of the comment was with respect to Tulsi and her (in the commenter’s opinion) disqualifying approach to foreign policy. To quote (from memory): “Isolationalism results in the world being conquered and leaves you standing alone against your rivals.”
First, I would correct the first part of the statement to “…the world being conquered by someone else …” as the intent of the speaker is very much to have the US in control. Second, the statement uses the old technique of false dichotomy: one either conquers or is conquered; there is no third possibility. Which, of course, is not true: a self-reliant republic, fully capable of defense but otherwise unconcerned and uninvolved with the goings-on in other regions, is a viable option, but not one which is acceptable to the current American worldview (or at least the worldview of the American comfortable classes). Defense has a natural advantage over offense — survival is victory and, as our host has pointed out in his various narratives, one only has to make the price of winning greater than an attacker is willing to pay in order to effectively deter attack. We could (have) take(n) a different path.
Mr Greer, I have a question about climate change. I’ve heard that due to unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide in the air (along with other greenhouse gases) that rainstorms and droughts will make agriculture untenable within a generation. Do you think this is a reasonable prediction? Thank you.
(Apologies if a version of this was in your queue; I kept getting an “Invalid security token” error when I tried to submit.)
I’ve been thinking for a while about the issue of moral realism vs. its competitors, and I thought I’d submit my thoughts here since we have some differing perspectives (e.g. JMG, Onething, Nestorian if he’s still here).
Moral realism says ( contra non-cognitivism and error theory) that some non-trivial moral propositions are true, that ( contra trivialism) some others false, and that ( contra subjectivism) their truth-value is not arbitrary. On the other hand, it does not require that always be one right action, or even any right action in some cases (e.g. tragic dilemmas). A realist can also reject the “unity of the virtues” doctrine and hold that there are conflicting incommensurable values.
What separates realism from relativism is that realism rejects the notion that there are multiple valid standards that each assign truth-values to moral propositions. This can mean there is one and only one such standard, but another possibility, which I favor, is to accuse relativism of misplaced concreteness with regard to standards.
Moral standards (such as professional codes of ethics) are tools to guide practice, produced by communities and individuals as they grapple with moral issues; they don’t make moral propositions true or false any more than a scientific theory makes its predictions true or false. (Side note: for precisely this reason the concept of an “unbreakable scientific law” is nonsense I wish we’d give up.)
So here’s a question, especially to Onething and Nestorian: does a genuine realist position require that there be at least one categorical imperative (e.g. “Cultivate the virtues.”)? Or can a realist position be purely hypothetical-imperative (e.g. “If you want to be happy, then cultivate the virtues.”)? I personally reject categorical imperatives because I have difficulty imagining any reasonable categorical imperative that cannot be recast as a hypothetical.
Another question, aimed more generally: I find the is-ought and fact-value dichotomies dubious as usually stated, but it seems intuitively correct to say, “The moral cannot be reduced to the nonmoral.” What, if anything, is the difference?
P.S. Thank you, JMG, for hosting these threads.
Regarding the Tesla Truck “strength test”: the fact that the Tesla truck pulled the competition backwards proved only that it could overcome the friction of the competitor’s tires, not the strength of the competitor’s engine/transmission. And friction depends on the weight of the load; which is why many pickup truck owners carry a few bags of sand in the box during the winter: it increases the friction (traction). Did Tesla prep the competition with a loaded box? (The Tesla was loaded, at least with just its battery pack.)
The Tesla truck, though, will be the perfect vehicle for those who might otherwise commute to their office park cubicle “farm” in a Ford F-350 Turbo Diesel, but find it insufficiently ridiculous.
But, so we have just another auto-maker selling expensive fantasies. Nothing new here.
Another recent auto ad featured a weird blend of transportation, information technology, extortion, and the supernatural. The supernatural: Santa Claus is bending away from the camera as he places gifts under the Christmas tree. Technology: tween-ager with a smart-phone snaps a photo of Santa’s big butt. Extortion: “Hey, Santa, you wouldn’t want this picture to go viral, would you?” Transportation: said tween-age extortionist is happily sitting behind the wheel of his new luxury automobile, as parents look on in surprise. Where’s Krampus, when you need him?
Alice, depends on the intent and the degree of concentration and ritual focus. If the emblems are just trashed to the accompaniment of a burst of self-satisfaction at the trashers’ virtue signaling, it’s empty. If it’s done by people who know what they’re doing, it can have a modest but real effect on the energetics of the egregor.
Bipeninsular, it reminds me of the old Doritos ads where the slogan was “Doritos Knows Jack About Cheese!” (I figure the company must have really annoyed the ad agency.)
Wesley, the ones on this planet were powered by electricity generated by Stirling engines driven by the heat from sealed containers of vitrified high-level nuclear waste — that’s hinted at in the book. The ones on other planets? You’d have to ask the Cetans et al.
Violet, that’s an interesting question. Have you compared the Civil War example to the shrill but futile resistance to FDR after 1932? That latter might actually be a closer fit.
David BTL, thanks for this!
Nathan, I see it as continuing for the next five centuries or so. As for the welfare state, it’s already a walking corpse; a lot of my age cohort at the end of the Boomer generation already know they’re never going to be able to afford to retire, and once the dollar loses its reserve status internationally and it’s no longer possible for the US to pay its deficits via IOUs, I expect the welfare state to unravel fairly quickly. When? Anybody’s guess.
Justin, thanks for the heads up!
Jasmine, and that’s why fast collapses don’t happen but slow collapses do. If you get a situation that would cause a fast collapse, governments and individuals take action, and the collapse is averted. Meanwhile the slow collapse unfolds unnoticed.
Doll, it seems very clear and well written to me.
Yorkshire, Corbyn’s political career is over. Once he agreed to an election, he was doomed, because his waffling over Brexit satisfies nobody; Labour is heading toward a stinging defeat. At this point BoJo’s going to get a solid majority, a negotiated Brexit will happen in January, and away we go. It’s unfortunate, really; I think Corbyn could have been a good PM, and if he’d stuck to his guns and stayed pro-Brexit he’d probably be looking at moving to No. 10 shortly.
Recently, I have been thinking about how to relate the “three cauldrons” in Druidry to four levels (bodies) of microcosm in Neoplatonism. I thought that these energy centers might be connection points between consecutive bodies in their hierarchical representation. More precisely: – Moon cauldron: Connection point between Higher Self and mind (nous). – Sun cauldron: Connection point between mind and astral body. – Earth cauldron: Connection point between astral body and material body.
Is this a valid interpretation? If not, how would you relate the three cauldrons to Neoplatonist view of microcosm (if such a relation is possible)?
An open post week. Hmm.. I just now read this lecture: “https://policyscotland.gla.ac.uk/ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come-brexit-lecture-full-text/”. Reading it reinforced my notion that this is the ABC election. “Anyone But Corybn|Conservatives”. What consequences might be forthcoming?
JMG, I would also like to express my thanks to you for hosting this discussion space. I learn something new every week.
FYI, Kurt Cobb had another interesting blog post this week that builds on the one I brought to your attention a couple of weeks ago.
Also, Fred Reed had a blog post a few weeks ago in which he comes to some of the same conclusions you have about the US military.
Long ago, you wrote this:
[…] The introductory books on Jung’s work I’ve read are basically sales brochures meant to convince you to hire a Jungian therapist — rather like all those old-fashioned occult books that were basically sales brochures for this or that magical order. The serious works are a plunge into the deep end of the pool. One of these days I’d like to write an introduction to Jung as an occultist, for other occultists, but it’s a monumental job and would require a good publisher and a decent advance.
Colin Wilson wrote a book called C.G. Jung: Lord of the Underworld ; would that one be adequate?
More spittle flying in the comment threads over Trump…well, Trump doing anything:
“Trump as Putin lackey” seems to be a theme…
NATO as an organ of US hegemony doesn’t enter the discussion, probably because it is one of those unmentionable realities that attention is supposed to be directed away from. Likewise our interventionism (per my earlier comment re isolationalism).
It would be interesting to see people discuss the actual issues–the elephants in the room, as it were–rather the proxy-issues which take up so much space. Perhaps the 2020 general election campaigns will see some of that–here’s hoping, at least.
@Justin Patrick Moore thanks for sharing everything you’re up to! Along with playing the banjolele, getting HAM radio licensed is one of those things I want to do, and never get to. There’s quite an active club in my area, and the University club offers free training and coaching, and I just need to make the time. But, I really appreciate reading about your projects, so thanks for the updates.
@JMG I have a quick question for you, and apologies if you’ve already written about this, but I was noticing your orphan “hero’s” in the Weird of Hali books, and being an orphan, always loving (and relating to) orphan characters, and recently researching just how many famous literary orphans there have been through the years, were your orphans on purpose?
It’s been said on here that nuclear energy is a net energy sink. Could someone please supply a few links for evidence to support this and perhaps expound upon it some more? I haven’t been able to find any. Thanks.
Oops. sp. For Corybn read Corbyn.
Is qigong under the 5th or 6th house in a Geomancy reading?
Since you are fairly conversant with Moby-Dick, I thought I’d open a discussion of a couple of what I see as Melville’s religion chapters in Moby-Dick, disguised as cetology First is ch. 89, “Fast Fish and Loose Fish.” Notwithstanding Melville’s very raunchy joke at the end of the chapter, I can’t help but feel that it refers to folks like me, whose early training left them “allergic” to Jesus, but who can’t quite commit to something in its/His place. Those of us who are “loose fish” may fare poorly in the period between incarnations, if I don’t mistake his multi-leveled meaning. The other religion chapter is ch. 103, “Measurement of the Whale’s Skeleton.” I am reminded of various “esoteric” books with titles like “Anatomy of the Body of God” or “Measurement of the Body of God” and have long suspected that Melville was doing some kind of parody in that chapter. Ch. 98, “Stowing Down & Clearing Up” pretty much speaks for itself.
JMG and everyone,
I hope a bit of self-promotion is acceptable on Open Post Day, and a request for support.
I’ve been part of this community since 2007, and have promoted these ideas in places like the American Conservative, Mother Earth News, and Irish newspapers and magazines. Now – if you won’t mind a bit of self-promotion — I’ve created a web site to put them all in one place, called Old School School – http://www.oldschoolschool.org. It’s still only lightly filled out, but I’ll be adding a few articles a week.
I’ve also been interviewing elderly Irish about their pre-fossil-fuel way of life, and making how-to videos based on what they teach me, and I plan on doing a long video series going through the work of Oswald Spengler a few pages at a time. You can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3y2KFrPtDRvkYLnlvLkKrQ.
These projects are intended to take the ideas that people talk about here and bring them to a wider audience, and since I know many of the people here – at least digitally — I’m asking for a bit of support. I would appreciate it anyone reading this would take a few seconds to:
1.) Bookmark the web site and check in occasionally,
2.) Like and subscribe to the video channel, and leave comments,
3.) Send me suggestions for people to feature and talk to, including yourself. I’m looking to interview people who are homesteading, simplifying their lives, and organising with their neighbours to make their corner of the world better. Send e-mails to oldschoolschool@protonmail.
4.) Send your friends links to these sites.
Thank you for everything.
Speaking of raunchy, how could I forget, Ch. 95, “The Cassock”?
Perhaps a MM question, but as this is an open post, what is your assessment of the AMRC.
as a vehicle for spiritual and/or magical development?
I’m flattered that you asked my opinion, but that sort of sophisticated philosophical banter leaves me in the dust, puzzled.
I think I missed the class in which all those abstract propositions were fleshed out a bit.
Perhaps if you rephrase it.
Coming up to the end of another year I just wanted to say to all JMG and especially to the folks that comment on here, thank you!
One of the best things I do in life is when I get interested in something I end up finding places were I am way out of my depth. By that I mean that when I walk into the room, I know I am the dumbest person there. Every time on these comments I feel like that. Every reference, idea and concept that comes across leads me down another avenue of learning. That feeling of mental strain that you get when something is just out of your mental grasp, that is a great thing. I am learning so much every week through here. It is something that should be cherished by all if you get into that groove. So again, thank you!
Now to do a bit of David, by the lakes work – Ford government spending $231M to cancel renewable energy projects. Cases of them actively paying out to remove wind turbines. Never thought I would see this happen.
The Cybertruck isn’t a truck in the traditional sense of the term, it’s an overhyped battery powered SUV aimed at the artsy-fartsy crowd and other “Privileged Progressives” with too much money. The backward sloping roof in the rear means that ergonomics for passengers is going to suck. That same feature will also limit it’s cargo capacity. But then again, one buys a Cybertruck for the same reason one buys a Prius, as a means of virtue signaling and showing off ones affluence to fellow members of the liberal overclass.
Speaking of the Cybertruck, I trust many of you have seen Elon Musk’s little stunt at the unveiling that turned into a major embarrassment…
Re: Musk Cybertruck.
I would call it “The Pitchfork-Ready Truck”, because, what is the reason to make an expensive car, for rich people, resistant to be hammered or having bulletproof glass?, what kind of future “landscape” he thinks rich people should be prepping for? This is the same guy who wants to build a civilization in Mars because the Earth y “doomed”; it seems to me that he is not very “optimistic” in his assessment of the future.
In any case seeing the "armored" glass test he performed on the Cybertruck, I think he should have much more problems to find volunteers for future manned Space X flight test.
Better do not talk about the design, it is ugly and also dystopian in the Mad-Maxian sense, but OK, it is "green" and “sustainable”, and if you have massive rooftop solar panels, may be you can drive it in the after-oil collapse.
Poor Elon, he seems so scared…
Also I suppose if had to pay royalties to Minecraft for the design.
@John M, I would recommend the first half of JMG’s Dark Age America in regards to climate change and how it will impact crops/living conditions. I recommend the whole book, especially chapters 6 and 7 they lay out the predicaments of technology so clearly as well. It is difficult to make progress if you are trying to prop up an every increasing maintenance burden.
@JMG in regards to Corbyn and being anti-brexit. I find it so interesting that people are still yelling the streets over Brexit as though it is the end of their entire country. Look similar to those protests once Trump came into power. They are so desperate to simply hold onto their current way of life that any other option is non-negotiable. I like Corbyn to some degree but he seems to making the same mistakes as all the other failed candidates of years gone by, lots of soft talk but not much to inspire folks.
Personally, while I wouldn’t say Brexit is a great thing I would say long term it could be a good thing to distance themselves from the EU. It just takes the collapse of things like Deutsche bank and a flood of climate refugees with EU passports to make the whole idea of being a part of the EU look very unappealing.
Hey JMG, excited to hear about The Dolmen Arch! I’ve preordered my copy today!
I wanted to ask your advice regarding training. I’m working through the standard AODA sequence, with your Druid Magic Handbook, in addition to the usual SoP and grove rituals, since I’m very interested in the ritual aspects of practice. What would you suggest in terms of timing regarding The Dolmen Arch? Can I work through DMH and DA at the same time? If so, do you have a suggested sequence (e.g. wait until you finish DMH before progressing to grade 3 in DA, etc.)?
I’m unsure how the material in the grades overlap, but I know you’ve said in your Q&A that they are compatible with one another. In any case, I want to be thoughtful about the process, rather than just running headlong into things before their own time.
Thanks for your help! David.
Reply to JMA I have seen oatmeal and cornstarch work wonders on eczema. The oatmeal was cooked up and patted on the skin which returned to normal in a few hours. The corn starch was mixed with water and put on the eczema with similar results. Best of luck with that..
Peak Oil and Climate Change brought me to John Michael Greer John Michael Greer brought me to Donald Trump Donald Trump brought me to Kanye West Kanye West brought me to God… The Second Religiosity is here folks People are returning to Church.
JMG- a few weeks ago in Magic Monday, you recommended that people who have a working knowledge of a world language might investigate books on magic in that language. I’m reasonably fluent in Spanish, but I wasn’t sure where to begin. A little voice said, “what about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera?” and sure enough, as I started to dig, I found that Rivera was one of the founders of the Mexico City Rosicrucian lodge. As I have time, I’ll keep digging. There should be some interesting stuff to read. Apparently, the Communist party wanted to prevent Rivera from re-joining it, and cited his involvement with the Rosicrucians as a reason. He was like, “C’mon, back then, everybody in Mexico was doing magic….” The primary objection of the Communists was that Rosicrucians were too close to being masons.
What do people think of the concept of entity or spirit attachments, and how to remove them? Most of the New Age things I see don’t really match my own experiences all that well.
“Peak Oil and Climate Change brought me to John Michael Greer John Michael Greer brought me to Donald Trump Donald Trump brought me to Kanye West Kanye West brought me to God… The Second Religiosity is here folks People are returning to Church”
This, yes, wow. Well for me, not quite in this order exactly, I took a brief Kanye detour between Environmentalism and JMG/DT (during Katrina).
Just finished all of the Weird of Hali and the Shoggoth Concerto and was delighted. When I do my reading, I try to balance fun with serious. Your series was as fun as I could have hoped for.
Got me thinking though, and now I am having fun with rereading the original Lovecraft and, having been introduced by your story, reading the other writers in the Cthulhu canon and having a blast with that.
Having heaped sufficient praise on your efforts (at least in my mind) I have been thinking about your past writing contests and the other "universe" sets of fan fiction like Eric Flint’s "1632" universe over at Baen Books. Have you considered letting us fanboys have a go at your alternate universe of an alternate universe?
In reading your series, I can see a whole bunch of plot points that would be fun to explore. I have a sneaking hunch that there are others in this group that might find such a thing entertaining.
Regarding Tesla’s pickup truck:
I’ll be a little bit of a contrarian here and say that I consider it the coolest new vehicle since the Mazda Miata. Sure, Musk is a fraud, but he’s a fraud with panache. If I had 50,000 USD + tax to piss away, a Cybertruck would be high on the list.
Justin, if they’d simply formulate a positive ideal and pursue that, instead of pouring all their energy into hatred and rage, they might well accomplish something. I ain’t holding my breath, but it would be nice.
Lunchbox, I don’t think access to materials is the issue. I think the problem is the definition you cited — which translates out as “art is whatever someone with a MFA degree says it is.” What is art? The act of manifesting beauty in a form that can be perceived by the senses. What is beauty? The thing that’s present in Renaissance painting and classical music, and absent in their modern pseudo-equivalents. See? That wasn’t hard, was it?
David BTL, exactly. Watching the Democratic party eagerly embrace militarism and US global hegemony — you know, the things they claimed they were against not that long ago — has been quite the entertaining spectacle.
John M, nope. Increased carbon dioxide increases plant growth, thus making agriculture more productive; changes in precipitation simply mean that you need to adjust which crops you grow in any given area, and expand on standard dryland ways to stockpile water in reservoirs for dry seasons. People are already working out the details.
James, if you want to argue a pragmatically based moral realism — “accepting these values leads to better results, in terms of a specific sense of the word ‘better’, than accepting their negations” — I can’t quibble. That’s what Nietzsche was talking about, after all. I’m curious, though, why you find the fact-value distinction dubious; perhaps you’d care to explain.
Lathechuck, we definitely need Krampus this holiday season, so here he is!
While we’re laughing at the Cyber Truck,am I the only one thinking Elon missed a trick on the styling by going with the traditional round wheels? Square ones would have been a much better fit…
Sorry about that! My initial draft was a sprawling mire of text so I kept trimming it; I was worried that I’d trimmed too much out.
Moral realism is more-or-less just the commonsense position that morality really exists: some actions are bad/wrong, some are good/right, and that you can’t just change your standards when you feel like it so that you’re always in the right.
For the first question, a categorical imperative is an injunction like “Don’t be cruel.” No, I don’t care if you want to be cruel. I don’t care if it would benefit you to be cruel or hurt you to not be cruel. Just don’t be cruel. (This is somewhat crude, but you get the point.)
A hypothetical imperative has an “if-then” form: if you want X, then you should do Y. The classical example is “If you want to be happy, then you should cultivate the virtues.” Well, but what if I don’t want to be happy? Well… then don’t I guess?
The problem with categorical imperatives is why anyone would be motivated to follow them; the problem with hypothetical imperatives is they would seem to condone otherwise-immoral behavior if you’re willing to take the consequences. To take an extreme case that’s problematic for both, what if murdering people made me happy, and not murdering people made me miserable?
The categoricalist wants to say, “It’s still wrong to murder people,” but would seem to have no way to argue the point with them. A hypotheticalist would seem to have to say, “I mean, you’re a weird outside case, so I guess have at it? (But we’re going to restrain and/or kill you to stop you from committing murder, so there’s that.)” Both seem vaguely unsatisfactory.
For the second question, the “is-ought” distinction is the idea that you can’t validly reason from a state of affairs, such as (to use a classic example) “He is a sea captain,” to a moral injunction, such as “Therefore, he ought to do such-and-such.” The problem with that is that “Therefore, he ought to do whatever a sea captain ought to do,” is a valid inference, although a trivial one.
The “fact-value” dichotomy holds that evaluations such as “Doing X is wrong” are not facts, and cannot be true or false; they simply reflect someone’s preferences. The problem I have is that “Doing X is wrong” is stated as a fact, and is generally treated as a fact in the sense of being correct or incorrect.
But… “Morality cannot be entirely reduced to something other than morality,” strikes me as obviously correct, despite being similar in many ways to “You cannot derive an ‘ought’ from an ‘is.'”
I hope that helps clear up what I’m getting at.
The Radiance’s name reminds me of the New Atheist movement’s short-lived attempt, a decade or more ago, to rebrand itself as the “Brights”. Did you have that in mind when coming up with the name Radiance or is it a coincidence?
Good Evening Mr. Greer, thank you for another monthly open post.
My questions for the most part revolve around the Iliad. To start, I have strained feelings towards it. It’s an exciting read and I can never deny that, but I can’t help but feel like I’m dragging myself through glass reading it. In fact it’s my least favorite epic and in many ways it’s accurate to my feelings to say I despise it in some ways but meditating on it it’s illustrated some things that have weighed on me.
I had another question but reading it today I had an experience, one that I remember having had before that I wanted to ask about. I’m at the point before Achilles rejoins the fight and I was feeling the kind of feeling you get before something unpleasant when I just paused to think and for some reason my thoughts went to the idea that the gods were they so petty as in the Iliad were cast out by the Christian God and how amusing it was to me.
Almost instantly I felt something of regret followed by a feeling on my face like having been in the sun for just a little to long. I’ve had this feeling before in similar circumstances which makes me wonder. Part of me just thinks it’s more a personal distaste for disrespecting any sort of god, but I was also wondering if there may be some old connection to them that may cause it and since it’s open post I may as well ask your opinion.
Another question outside of my Iliad questions, do you suppose getting eye surgery would impede learning magic in anyway? I have terrible vision I was thinking about getting corrected and I know about the rings of light, but was wondering about spiritual effects.
I have noticed in your earlier commentaries on the economy you seemed VERY critical of the metrics being used to measure the health of the economy, whether that be the DOW Jones Industrial Average, the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, or just about any other piece of data given by mainstream media to support a strong economy. Now that Trump is in office and supporting tariffs and limits to immigration you have become much more optimistic about economics. With that said, I was wondering what you now think about the metrics used. Do you think the data being given is more trustworthy now? Or is there a particular minority view economist(s) whose data you trust more? I’m personally trying to get a sense of whether we should be expecting a recession any year now, or whether we have entered an extended period of stagflation that could last decades the way it has in Japan and Australia. Any light you could shed on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
Yes, a pragmatically-based moral realism is basically what I’m getting at. Every moral judgment is of the form, “Doing X is better than Y because it leads to Z.” What I would add to that is that the choice of Z is not wholly arbitrary: perhaps Z depends on valuing W, and W on valuing V, but at some point you’re going run into a value that any sane person would hold.
As for the fact-value dichotomy, to expand on what I said in my response to Onething, the fact-value dichotomy strikes me as relying on a misplaced concreteness in regard to the border between the two categories. When evaluating composers, the border is probably quite sharp: whether Beethoven is better than Bach is down to taste. On the flip side you have justice, where the border seems quite blurry: it would be more than a little odd to say that whether something is just or not, or whether justice is desirable or not, is debatable in the way that Beethoven vs. Bach is.
Musk’s new pickup resembles a Delorean, does it not? I wonder, was it deliberate? Perhaps the Delorean pickup will become a collector’s item, maybe star in a movie or two.
Minervaphilos, good. Keep meditating on it, and practicing!
Pip61, my take at this point is that the Tories will end up with a solid majority, and that Scottish independence will follow within two years. Still, we’ll see!
Honyocker, you’re most welcome, and thanks for both of these.
Packshaud, I don’t know — I haven’t read it. Wilson’s usually pretty good, though, so it’s worth trying.
David BTL, if it follows the usual pattern, no, nobody’s going to talk about the real issues. It’ll all be “Orange Man Bad!” versus “MAGA, baby!” in public; meanwhile the end of US hegemony will proceed apace.
Tude, thank you! I don’t invent my characters, I meet them, and they generally come with their backstories already in place. I’m not an orphan — as far as I know, both my birth parents are still alive — but the sense of isolation, of being cut off from the ordinary ties of family, is one that I know for other reasons, and it’s probably not accidental that so many of my viewpoint characters have lost one or both parents.
Dtroxelten, net energy calculations are fiendishly complex and there’s a lot of room for fudging. That’s why I tend to use the less fiddly measure of economic profitability as a good proxy for net energy profit. Nuclear power is always a massive subsidy dumpster — no nation on Earth has been able to establish or maintain a nuclear power industry without massive subsidies. Yes, I know that other energy resources also get subsidies; the difference is that with petroleum, say, the subsidies add to already substantial profits; with nuclear power, the subsidies just barely make things break even. Show me a nuclear power technology that offers decent returns on investment and I’ll be willing to consider the claim that that technology yields noticeable net energy.
Steve, it’s 6th house as a healing modality.
Phutatorius, fascinating. Do you happen to know if Melville was reading Cabalistic literature? You’re right that Ch. 103 reads like a parody of the Iggeret ha-Qodesh, the classic Cabalistic account of the symbolic measurements of the body of God.
Brian, delighted to hear it! I’ll check it out.
David BTL, I’ve heard some good things about it and a lot less good. All things considered, it’s not an organization I’d recommend.
MichaelV, you’re welcome — and thank you for the link. Interesting. As for Brexit, yes, it’s very much the UK’s equivalent of MAGA, and fielding exactly the same sort of reactions weirdly detached from reality…
David, they’re completely compatible, but I don’t know that I’d recommend trying to do both at once unless you have no other calls on your time! If you’re working your way through the DMH, great — finish that, and then begin integrating the Dolmen Arch work into your practices.
Maurice, congratulations; I hope your religion brings you as much joy and meaning as mine brings to me. As for the Second Religiosity, granted; I give it six months before one of the loud angry atheists publicly announces that he’s found Jesus.
Katsmama, good heavens. I had no idea. Do you happen to know which Rosicrucian order that was? (There are lots of them.)
Confused, it certainly happens, as any tribal shaman can tell you. Are you having problems with something of the kind?
Degringolade, thank you! As for fan fiction — hmm. I’ll have to think about that, as the Haliverse and its characters are very close to my heart — and of course I’m not quite done writing in that universe yet; The Nyogtha Variations is in press, but there are two more novels to write before I have things wrapped up. But I’ll consider it. Question to the commentariat — is this something that would be of interest to others?
A retired BND* agent explains why he believes the House Democrats will vote to censure Trump rather than push for Articles of Impeachment.
* BND is the German counterpart of the CIA.
Graeme, ha! I have the best readers…
James, I didn’t have that consciously in mind — I was actually riffing off Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, in which the good guys are The Light and the bad guys are The Dark — no Gnostic dualism there, no sirree! But it’s not a bad fit to the Brights.
Mr. Hubbs, the Iliad’s a very challenging tale, and I think that’s precisely why the Greeks made it so central to their culture and their religious thought. It has the same spirit you see in Greek tragedy; the gods are what they are, they do what they do, and you don’t have to like it but you have to deal with it. You may have some kind of past connection to that way of thinking about the gods; a fair number of people around these days do. As for eye surgery, I know of no reason to think that it would interfere with magical training.
Stephen, the economic metrics we have suck. I discussed that in quite a bit of detail at one point in my blogging, when I was working on the blog posts that became my book The Wealth of Nature ; I haven’t continued to harp on the point, as I thought I’d made it tolerably well. Sucky as they are, the metrics we have are what we have, I know of no reason to think that they’ve become markedly less honest since Trump took office than they were beforehand, and when they shift significantly — for example, the large increase in unskilled and semiskilled jobs and the decrease in joblessness among minority communities since 2017 — my take is that there’s some fire underneath the smoke.
With regard to the risk of recession, the problem as I see it is that the economy is shifting in ways that make hash of most current models. As money flows back into the working class and the flyover states, a lot of high-end retail is losing its shorts, and so are a lot of other things that depend on having lots of excess cash in the hands of the comfortable classes. So you can have all the signs of a recession in New York City and all the signs of expansion in Omaha. Making predictions in such a fog is a real challenge!
James, fair enough. I’d say in response that some values appear to be personal, some are cultural, and some are innate to our species. In each case those values have been adopted because they produce good results, for some value of the word “good;” the question is whether a given value was adopted by me in the course of my life, by my culture in the course of its history, or by my species in the course of its evolution. With regard to justice, though, however straightforward it may seem in the abstract, in actual application it’s often very much on the Beethoven vs. Bach level; for example, the idea of justice sketched out by Plato in The Republic would be rejected by most people in our culture as profoundly unjust. Recognizing it as a value judgment about which people can honestly disagree — one person saying “x is just” and another saying “no, x is unjust” — makes it easier to deal productively with questions of justice than insisting that one account of justice is objectively true and anyone who disagrees with it simply hasn’t studied the matter, as so often happens these days!
Jacurutu, that’s a real possibility, as impeachment is playing very poorly in the swing states.
With regards to the Cybertruck, I saw an interesting discussion on SNAFU recently. One of the guys pointed out that traditionally, truck drivers have tended to be politically incorrect, often defiantly so. By contrast, he noted that Tesla customers tend to be almost without exception to be politically correct.
So the Cybertruck could be seen in part as another signaling mechanism for affluent urban liberals to show they aren’t among those evilly evil Deplorables they so love to hate.
Meet Scherie Murray, a black woman and Jamaican immigrant who is running against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes.
She is a former Obama supporter who is now backing Trump. She argues that Trump has done far more for African Americans than Obama ever did, especially when it comes to prison sentencing reform. She also points out that Trump is pushing for an even more ambitious sentencing reform bill that would help ex-cons who have served their time to reintegrate back into society.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan, times they are a-changing…
@Justin Patrick Moore.
Hi again…totally not a stalker (I promise, I’m a nearly 50 year old extremely happily married person living a boring life of work, work, work and gardening…) but needed to post yet again and say thank you for “The Hills and the Rivers”. You really are a great source of amazing music I’d never find. Have you ever posted a list of your favorites somewhere? Anyway, Thank you!
And @JMG I have to say, so many of your regulars have sent me in directions that have enriched my life so much in so many ways. This space really is one of those special places in our cyber-world .
Happy