This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly (well, more or less!) open post to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers. All the standard rules apply — no profanity, no sales pitches, no trolling, no rudeness, no paid propagandizing, no long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank — but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic.
With that said, have at it!
Just wanted to say thanks for all the comment moderation you’re doing these days to host constructive conversations on important topics- first Magic Mondays, then the Tuesday current events discussions, now the monthly open post.
I am finding it really helpful to tune in to these threads and I appreciate the work you put into them.
Given the high rates of male suicide and incarceration in the United States and the growing body count associated with random acts of violence perpetrated by male shooters in the United States (and now in the UK), can we please have the much needed discussion about the crisis in masculinity? I’m not talking about another feminist scolding, either.
I’ve been re-reading Bly’s “Iron John” and I am convinced that the arrogance of feminist “scholars” is partly to blame for the continued crisis we are witnessing. The men’s mysteries are real and must be acknowledges in the public space, academia, and paganism as largely neglected aspects of the individual and collective psyches.
Rather than vilifying men like Bly and Peterson, it is time for pagans to actually read their works and see how best we can work with young men to prevent further tragedy.
Yes, Ms. Dworkin, it is quite clear: Men need a spiritual space of our own!
Covid topic…from Zero Hedge
Spain is not France: Supreme Court against vaccine passports.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spains-supreme-court-rules-against-using-vaccine-passports-restrict-access-public
Chinese get cocky about COVIDs origins:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beijing-threatens-counterattack-if-white-house-report-covid-origins-blames-wuhan-lab
@jmg — was looking for some UFO info and came upon this https://denvergazette.com/news/local/more-astronauts-headed-to-the-moon-than-ever-before-nasa-boss-says/article_6e54c7f4-1723-53d8-8575-b2ad302925d6.html
And here I thought this was a no go 😉 I guess I have alot to learn
thx
Jerry
I’ve had an odd experience 2 or 3 times over the past couple weeks — a brief feeling of intense relief and comfort, accompanied by the words, “Oh, just get the vax. It’ll be okay.”
Now, I’m a nurse practitioner with 30+ years experience, plus one of those PhDs who won’t get the jab; after considerable research, I’m hard-set against it. So having a sudden thought like that really surprised me. It passed after a couple seconds, but I was left wondering where it came from.
Then I came across this: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Kkyvfzu2ys5t/
Clif High (opposed to vax) reports he had the same experience. What is most amazing is the number of comments saying that they had the same thing (feeling of relief, thought to just take the shot) happen!
Any similar experiences here? If so, what do you think is going on?
Antoinetta III
Sorry for not replying to your question on the tarot spread during the last open post. The 5 of wands, to me, meant struggles, but challenging ones.
Interestingly, all of my spreads for different towns read the same way, including the one where I live!
This all points to me needing to figure out something internally, first. Moving is secondary.
I hope that helps.
BB
Romanticization of America. We’re so media dominant here that normal people get washed out by all of the noise. I hope most foreigners don’t think we’re as bad as our TV shows! Even in the 1700s, the printing press was cranking out tons of pamphlets. Jefferson’s opponents accused him of being an hermaphrodite when he ran for President!
A lot of us just want to wash our hands of all that garbage, but it’s part of us. Also, we were a much better nation when we didn’t have megacities.
As for romaticization of Britain, I have the same notions as you. I loved watching “All Creatures Great and Small,” and when I told someone in England that, he rolled his eyes, totally embarrassed by the show.
Dear JMG,
the whole COVID-mess and my own thoughts about the future fill me with dread (and it’s not the virus I’m worried about – not at all). I have three small children and sometimes I’m sick of worry thinking about ours and their future. How do I deal with this crippling dread? Do you have any advice?
Mario
We need to create an Agrarian Economy with most food being grown regionally, instead of the ridiculous, wasteful trek of foods thousands of miles across the globe. New farmers ought to be subsidized and helped to grow organic food which local people actually eat.
Also, we need to plant millions/billions of trees to re-green and cool Earth, as well as provide shade for our homes, places to live for wildlife, and for food and beauty. Trees will be critical in absorbing pollution and greenhouse gases…….in other words, work with Nature instead of poisoning and destroying our natural world.
Need a break from reading about C19, Afghanistan, and other current debacles?
I know I do.
Not that you want to stick your head in the sand, I’m not recommending that. But they say music soothes the savage beast. & one of my abiding interests has been music and art history (I’m generally pretty happy reading a bio of a musician, artist or writer). My offering to that is my Radiophonic Laboratory series. Here is the latest, about the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor, 1961-1966, a very successful experiment in community DIY. Essay complete with embedded music from the festival. ONCE Upon a Time in Ann Arbor awaits…
http://www.sothismedias.com/home/once-upon-a-time-in-ann-arbor
.:. .:. .:.
In any case, I’m finding it helpful to try and limit how much I read about the news… even outside MSM, as per usual. Just trying to take things one day at a time. Read some books, listen to some music, do some yardwork, go for a walk. Be with my family. Alongside my spiritual practices, all of these are restorative antidotes to the madness of the day.
I hope everyone here is managing the national nightmare as best they can (whether a fellow American or abroad!)
I mentioned this on Green Wizards, but thought it worth mentioning here: there’s a story contest being held by Myrtle Media for SF stories celebrating innovation and warning against hesitancy and inaction. Specifically, they write:
I thought immediately of your (JMG’s) “cli-fi” story that adhered to the explicit guidelines but subverted the explicit assumptions. In this case, the implicit assumption is that innovation is Progress!, but the explicit requirement is only championing “action, curiosity, and conviction” against “stasis, incuriosity, and excessive hesistancy.”
So, say, a story where a fundamentalist religious movement (conviction) throws off (action) the bureaucracy and red-tape (incuriosity and stasis) of a high-tech but failing empire to embrace radical innovations (curiosity) like wind power, solar heating, organic agriculture, and maybe even gunpowder and training horses to pull carts — which are all banned by the empire’s regulatory bureaucracy as untested, unreliable, and just much too dangerous in comparison to unobtanium crystals and tech powered thereby — fits the explicit criteria.
Seems worth a look to the storytellers among us. The submission deadline is November 1st.
I have a family member who practices and is interested in the occult. I have one question about it and that could be unrelated but every time I tell them anything about my practices or plans i feel a loss of enthusiasm and blocking to whatever it is . I know they can get v negative and also they are always asking me for more information. Should I keep a boundary or it is possible its not something to do with them ?
The Athena Reader’s Club Subscription Library is now online!
https://www.patreon.com/athenareadersclub
The Athena Reader’s Club (ARC) was inspired by this blog post by JMG:
https://www.ecosophia.net/a-place-for-books/
There is a collection of 500 paper books and growing that continental US residents can check out for a $10 a month membership. Thanks to Ecosophia’s generous donors, including JMG, the collection is amazing. Tons of astrology books, rare and hard to find titles, a few Dion Fortune books, and of course plenty of books that make wokesters clutch their pearls and gnash their teeth.
For now it’s just an online library. Once I know my commercial lease situation for next year, I’ll know more about opening up a physical space.
I am delighted to take book donations. Please email me at ksteelestudio at G Mail dot com.
John, everyone–
Some energy industry news items:
We’ll take the power, but put the plant somewhere else
https://www.eenews.net/articles/fight-over-peaker-plants-poses-grid-climate-test/
Oops?
https://gizmodo.com/california-just-approved-5-temporary-gas-plants-as-drou-1847538224
Already counting those $
https://news.yahoo.com/nm-could-billions-federal-funding-140500113.html
I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article253576236.html
In the weeds, some jurisdictional turf-battles
https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/31554-naruc-supports-infrastructure-bill-but-raises-concerns/
Business as usual, in other words
https://energynews.us/2021/08/17/firstenergys-admissions-feed-critics-call-for-big-picture-regulatory-oversight-and-review/
As if we expected anything else?
https://georgiarecorder.com/2021/08/17/as-vogtles-costs-rise-changes-near-for-reviewing-projects-run-away-expenses/
Save the nukes!
https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/tribune/regional/byron-makes-final-push-with-massive-campaign-to-save-nuclear-plant/article_23c4555a-8a27-52ae-aebb-081c17b6f879.html
Truth in advertising
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/infrastructure-bill-contains-less-transmission-funding-than-advertised/
Clean isn’t the same as cheap
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/achieving-100-clean-energy-by-2050-in-arizona-could-be-costly-study-warns/605026/
Last night I was listening in on the virtual country commission meeting where imposing a new mask requirement county-wide was discussed. After much support from various county health officials etc. a member of the public was allowed to weigh in. She offered up the whole laundry list of why vaccines and masks are ineffective and in some cases harmful. None of it offbase or untrue, but unpopular in mainstream progressive thinking. At the end, the newest member of the country commission, a young woman of the AOC style political persuasions spoke up. She asked the chair what the proper way for her to point out lies by members of the public when they were speaking. The county lawyer pointed out that Oregon Law prohibits public testimony from being censored if that was the desire. The young commissioner seemed slightly taken back, but clarified herself. She didn’t want the public to be censored, just wanted the ability to point out when they deviated from the “official truth” and were therefore lying. So we have now reached the point where what is going on in social media is leaking in to the “bricks and mortar” public discourse. I have a feeling a very large reaction to this type of thinking is coming soon.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the escalating craziness surrounding vaccination and vaccine mandates. To me there are some very important questions for which neither the conventional nor the alternative narratives provide convincing answers.
Why is it that the world assumed from the beginning that a vaccine would be the savior to end the pandemic?
Why have all alternative therapies been suppressed and downplayed?
Why oh why are mandates and restrictions accelerating even as efficacy of the vaccines is obviously decreasing, serious risks are becoming apparent, and few of the supposed public health arguments hold water?
I’m not convinced that this can be adequately explained by a profit motive, or corporate capture, or governmental desire for control.
I had an insight recently that vaccination has come to fill the role of a sacrament within the religion of Progress, akin to baptism or the Eucharist within the Christian faith. It is a way of anointing the flesh with the essence of the faith, with confidence in human technology and progress to triumph over the evil past. It is a way of initiating our children at birth into the religion, of placing wards against harm upon them.
This framework helps to explain why the psychological importance of vaccines (and demonization those who refuse) has increased over time even as their medical significance (in terms of lives saved) has greatly declined since the days of smallpox and polio. It helps to explain why vaccine manufacturers are uniquely exempted from liability in our increasingly litigious society. It helps to explain why any research into potential harms from vaccines, or from over-vaccination of children, is discouraged, suppressed, and aggressively discredited.
Viewed through this lens, vaccine-induced harm is roughly analogous to abuse of children by Catholic priests. It is something that should not and must not happen, and so governments, doctors, and individual citizens alike go through great mental gymnastics to avoid seeing or acknowledging it.
Viewed through this lens, government vaccine mandates are roughly analogous to imposition of Christian or Islamic moral codes as law. They are an attempt to legislate belief, to declare that “we as a nation believe in Progress.”
The religion of Progress is under threat, and its believers are behaving in the belligerent and irrational ways typical of all religious believers facing a crisis of faith. And it seems likely that should vaccination as the central sacrament of the religion fall from grace, so too will the religion of Progress begin to lose its power as the dominant belief system in the industrialized world.
Slightly longer version of this idea at:
http://www.luterra.com/blog/?p=1335
How do you think that the recent Ingress chart that you posted on SubscribeStar will affect, or interrelate with, the Hypothesis about the future of Covid that you wrote about on your dreamwidth blog? Can you see connections between them? I was trying to find connections, but it seemed hazy to me just how those two posts related.
How do you explain what is happening when you know, at a great distance, that something high emotional is happening to someone (they are in a terrible argument, or they are dying), and later you have separate verification that this particular thing was indeed happening?
We have a new governor here in New York State the previous one having been removed by a fantastic intrigue, the intricacies of which I did not follow. The previous governor was about as corrupt as is Biden, or most politicians, but he did ban fracking and plastic grocery bags in our state. He also imposed a rent moratorium, in addition to the federal one. The new gov.’s attitude to looming evictions is we need to get that lovely federal money spent, which she has begun doing by a. hiring more PMC staffers, and b. spending on advertising. The private sector has to have its’ share. Meanwhile for us ordinary folks, fixed costs have risen sharply, leaving us with very little left to maintain ourselves and our own before we can even think about helping others. It is going to be a long, cold winter.
If our gracious host approves, I have been working on visual arts lately and have a new blog for my drawing and painting at kmgunnart.com
Just realized this doesn’t have the “dfr1973” autofilled, but I guess it’s time to appear under my actual name.
JMG,
what do you think is the human characteristic that correlates best with following the official narrative (including the injections)?
There is definitely fear of death, the gregarious instinct etc.
I wonder if it’s even deeper than that: maybe we have a replay of an old struggle – city vs village, agriculturalists vs pastoralists. It goes back to Gilgamesh (documented in writing) and we know from evolutionary biology that it is an important part of our brains.
Yes people have always been tribal but in cities people have learnt to fight for an abstraction instead of kin. We know that fear of death is a big part of all civilizations and not so much the hunter-gatherer cultures.
I noticed this in 2 very different countries, directly and indirectly. People that are true believers are rich and poor, mobsters or teachers. What connects them is they belong to the city – either living in a big city or wishing to do so and trying to mimic it in their town.
On the other hand, the anti-whatever seem to live their lives in small groups or alone, even if they live in big cities.
What do you think?
And if there is any merit to this, what does it portend for the future? Will this be a last gasp of the “unevolved” “backward” humans before the utopia of the great reset? Or the opposite, the collapse of the PMC class (the core of the cities) and a slow search for a different type of civilization, maybe closer to your Retrotopia?
Denis, Varun, Antoinetta, JMG, et alia–
Re the policy discussion form last week
I think Antoinetta’s observation near the end of the comment cycle re rigidity and dogmatism was accurate. I also think it is perhaps the result of a natural cycle of things. We have scriptures. Commentaries on those scriptures are written. Then come the interpretations of the commentaries on the scriptures. And then the notes on the interpretations of the commentaries on the scriptures. Layers accumulate and complexity increases and specialization develops. You get scribes who are experts on Brother Abulard’s observations on St. Jonathan’s commentary on the epistle of Jude.
On the other hand, some form of systematic interpretation of the scriptures is necessary for any organized religion to exist.
Likewise, law is necessary for a polity to exist. Those laws must be made manifest through the implementation of programs and policies. For those programs and policies to be fair and equitable, there must be process and procedure. (Note that process and procedure, I would argue, is a *necessary* though not *sufficient* condition for the existence of fairness and equity.) Those rules have to be developed, promulgated, and administered by someone.
Is there a way to mitigate the (natural) aggregation of complexity and administrative bloat? Can one develop a method of training administrators without producing clueless bureaucrats? Or is the cycle of slow build-up followed by radical reform in some ways inevitable?
@JMG,
Thank you for your reply this Magic Monday! I am assembling supplies so I can bind books through the winter, in case we have another lock-down, though hopefully we won’t. Obviously, I want to eventually find a book-binder who will let me pay them for private lessons, but that has been harder than one would think! And hopefully one day I will have my own machines, but for now, I’m working by hand, as I have for some three years in sewing my own journals.
Anyway, is there any book you’d like to see back out in the world, one that is legal for me to print and potentially reproduce, if I can wrangle it? It’ll make for good practice. Thank you.
Hello JMG,
Glad to be able to ask a question.
What do you see as the most likely scenario, impacts, and timeline with global warming?
I also left this same comment on the JMG’s covid discussion blog.
If you live in or near the Twin Cities of Minnesota and would be interested in being notified about a get-together (maybe in a park) in the next couple weeks to talk about the kinds of things JMG discusses on his blogs, let me know. The idea would be to replicate the basic rules of courtesy and respectful disagreement JMG maintains on his blogs and also, of course, be able to speak freely and have fun.
PJ
williammcgillis@gmail.com
Mr Greer,
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has introduced a bill – HR 4980 – which, if passed, would “Direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID–19,”
This bill would affect both domestic and foreign flights inside the USA. At present, most countries require a clear covid test before flying into them (whether vaccinated or unvaccinated I believe) which seems more reasonable, bearing in mind that the episode of “The Flight of the Texan Democrats” to Washington DC proved rather resoundingly that the vaccinated are extremely capable of efficiently spreading Covid.
This bill would therefore seem to be rather more aimed a coercing a bigger percentage of people to help fund the military/bio-chemical complex oligarchy which currently rules the USA, than ensuring the health and security of the nation – because I am sure the result of it will be the former rather than the latter. Frankly, I am even less in the mood to help them out than I was before, if it is possible, seeing quite how far they are willing to go.
However, it is very concerning to me. At present, my husband is telling me if the worse happens and we need to leave the country, then we can drive to Mexico and fly out from Mexico. But anyhow, in the meantime, here is a link to a petition against it. I am hoping that there will not be enough support for it to pass. Do you have any thoughts on the likelihood of it succeeding?
https://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-oppose-hr-4980?recruiter=8047871&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=554348a0-68f0-0130-dbd3-3c764e049c64
request for advice: my upstairs neighbor disturbs me more than I would like. initially she would move around furniture and walk around without shoes (it sounded like). this would happen as late at 4 a.m.
one night I lost my temper and started banging on the ceiling. since then, she has reduced her noise but, apart from some small noises caused by moving things, her footfalls cause vibrations which can wake me up. the vibrations bypass earplugs. I can feel them in my body.
my sleep schedule gets disturbed at her discretion. (she may have insomnia. or maybe she comes home from work. I just don’t know.) I have left her notes but she has now accused me (unjustifiablly) of harasssment. (she doesn’t acknowledge that she reduced the noise levels after I lost my temper.) the manager of the building had earlier said, “work it out between yourselves”, which I more or less did.
wondering how I can reduce the physical vibrations. I already have a noise machine.
@JMG
What, in your opinion, is the truth about crop circles? Is there indeed some occult dimension to it, or is it a really successful practical joke played by the militaries of some countries on their own citizens? I earlier believed that it was done by aliens, but now I think that some more down-to-earth hypothesis can explain it better. Could you point me to any reliable reference on the subject?
Long time reader here with an embarrassing question: How are green wizards supposed to hedge inflation/stagflation?
I feel like I should already know the answer and be ready for this national crisis, but I’m not sure I am. Traditional advice is to “buy gold” and then “make sure it’s physical gold” but that seems like a hassle – you gotta store it and then you gotta sell it to someone without it being stolen from you.
Maybe “buy commodities” is a useful answer? In the fUSSR liquor was a popular. Should I buy some of that? The cheap stuff can get you drunk and function as a disinfectant (and protect against food poisoning).
Maybe this is a more green wizard direction: I’m trying to think “productive assets” but if things are going down, what will actually be productive? I’m very good with bicycles. Should I be buying cheap ones and making a small stockpile (say a dozen)? Or just make sure I have all the necessary tools and some spare parts? Or a small stockpile of parts?
I’ve been becoming a bit of jack-of-all-repairs, but it’s not feasible to have stockpile parts for everything, so was this pursuit not as resilient as (maybe *also*) having a main trade?
Some of the more ordinary “collapse now” things I’ve got in order: no debt, eat well, ride a bike (no car), grains & beans on hand, clothesline, not-too-geographically-distributed friends. I’ve got a plot at a local community garden, but I’m in an apt in the city, so that’s a drop in the bucket :). Trying to make sense of some next steps if that makes sense. I recognized you can’t just buy resilience 😀
I realize tat I may be skirting a line here, but I’d like to make an observation regarding the social sorting that is occurring due to the unmentionable event. (My intention being to focus on the societal consequences rather than issues of treatment efficacy or side-effects.) I see more stories about “self-sorting”–people selecting their associations based on vaccination status–and of course the employer mandates (or lack thereof) will result in some similar behavior. All of this is increasing social pressure across our society and increasingly dividing us into mutually exclusive camps…something not at all good for the long-term cohesion of an already diverse nation-state. But the “thing” is merely a catalyst, not the cause. The causes are the underlying fissures that have existed more or less from the founding of the country. As I said to my wife last night, “[Unmentionable thing] is not the fault-line. It is a hammer striking the fault-line.” I suspect the tremors we are witnessing now are but a prelude to a dramatic resorting that will occur in the decades ahead. Holding the parts together means bridging divides; unfortunately few seem interested in that effort just now.
Do you consider yourself to be a shaman, or have you ever had any shamanic experiences?
Brother John,
I wanted to let you know of a long term effect your advice had on the present.
I bought my family’s old homestead and farm 4 years ago. The garden had been absolutely destroyed by the previous owner who tried to plow a kitchen garden with a tractor and ended up going too deep. It was left a clay pool about the color of a pine board. Trouble was it was in the perfect place. Anywhere else took it into the pastures or into a bad drainage situation.
So on your advice (via your long ago posts on composting) and begin trying to restore the soil via heavy duty composting. For 4 years now I’ve got the autumn leaves and chopped them up to sit over the winter. Come spring I add the chicken manure and grass clippings. My composter is a cubic yard and I usually get about 2/3 of it every fall to put in the garden. My first year I had to buy the compost and added a pickup load of horse manure. No chemical fertilize allowed at all.
The first couple years we noticed improvements but it was still a bit of a mess. This spring we noticed that the soil drained MUCH better and was pretty easy to work. My wife and I took our seedlings from the grow light to the garden in good shape and have been amazed at the production this season. Our tomatoes have given us about 10 gallons of thick sauce so far and still going strong. Our potato patch is loaded with big Kennebec roasters. The bean plants are loaded up. And my peppers are really looking good so far.
Wanted to give you a big thanks for sharing your knowledge and nudging this guy in the right direction. Between the orchard trees beginning to fill out, the grape arbor starting to fill in, and the numerous berry plants we’ve planted it is really starting to look like something to be proud of.
Will
A question for the commentariat:
Many of you are probably aware that I publish a magazine of short fiction touching on a lot of the themes talked about in JMG’s blogs past and present—New Maps, which our host is gracious enough to let me publicize in the sidebar here.
A few years ago in these comments, there was some impetus to start what would, I suppose, have been a sister magazine of nonfiction, tentatively Green Wizards magazine. That fizzled out—if I recall, because red tape proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.
I’m now wondering if it might be a good and useful idea to give more space in New Maps to nonfictional discussions of the times we live in—thus taking on some of the mission of that erstwhile project. To me at least, recent news makes me feel like the old age is more actively and quickly ending, right now, and we’re getting into the messy thick of the deindustrial age. While that age appeared to be mostly in the future, it made sense to me to mostly approach it through speculative fiction. Now that it’s getting to be more assertively all around us, it seems possibly a ripe time to make room for matter-of-factly working to make sense of the increasingly unfamiliar world around us. We have the excellent forum of this website to discuss these ideas, with a lot of very thought-provoking material from John Michael Greer—but I’ve seen that there are some really gifted writers in their own right among the commentariat here taking on the issues of our time in history, and if people here want to read it, I’d love to make space for these voices to get heard more.
So, more specifically, my question breaks down into a few parts, for anyone interested to answer:
—Would you be interested in a magazine that features nonfiction as well as fiction about the deindustrial age? (Or alternatively, do you think a potential nonfiction magazine shouldn’t get blended together with fiction?)
—If you’ve been writing nonfiction on these themes yourself, would you be interested in having your work published in such an outlet?
—If you’re a reader of New Maps, would you consider adding more nonfiction to be a change for the
better or for the otherwise? (I’ll also be asking this in the next issue’s Letters section where more readers will see it. I don’t want to make big changes until I know readers want them!)
Thank you all! I hope to be able to respond to anyone answering in today’s comments, but may run short of time, in which case I’ll get back as soon as I can.
John, Can’t believe this post has been up for 1.5 hours with no comment…..you are one of several bloggers I subscribe to, each of whom comes from a very different political/cultural/philosophical orientation, which is quite stimulating. Glen Greenwald’s latest post on the failure of governments to use cost-benefit analysis in developing policy on COVID is a completely logical challenge, but I think he misunderstands in some important ways why this is happening. (In my view while cost benefit analyses are only occasionally articulated, generally that thinking process guides most people in many decisions on a daily basis) One cynical answer is that the benefits to the government of their policy on COVID have nothing to do with COVID and everything to do with frantic attempts to maintain power, which I think might be part of your assessment. Here’s the link https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-bizarre-refusal-to-apply-cost?
My this weeks book recommendations:
– Joe Dispenza “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself”
Neurologist and esoteric writer Dispenza has written a lenghty book about how the subconscious mind is conditioned through a parallel step of the intellectual mind and the emotion stemming from the body.
His book is divided into three parts, first the workings of the brain from a scientific point of view, then the theory of reconditioning one’s subconscious, and lastly the meditation methods of doing so.
These methods will be known to many readers here.
Central point to make is that “positive thinking” as such cannot work, because it is merely thinking. The body and its emotional centers must go along. A purely mechanical repetition of a belief will not do. Many of you will know that from doing rituals…
His book is rather lengthy in its description, bordering on being tiring, but its good because a very detailed description is good for broad audiences and supports memory and understanding.
I have successfully applied his methods, or rather, my own modification. When I visualize my fears, anger etc (I am a visual and probably synaesthetic type) I imagine it dissolves through flooding it with light.
Central premise: its necessary to invest energy to change your mind and thinking. It’s not without effort.
While many aspects of reconditioning oneself were known to me before, this book has been an epiphany for me, putting many fragments of my knowledge and experience into a wholesome concept.
Dispenza is a little of the “thy will cometh true” positive thinking camp, New Thought which our host has discussed at length. I chose to distance myself a little from that, with that in mind it is a genial piece of advisory literature
– Machiavelli’s The Prince, translation by TIM PARKS.
I emphasize the translator because he is excellent. A third of this edition is Tim Parks’ foreword and its worth it!
He describes the context of Macchiavellis time and setting, and explains his method of translation.
Macchiavelli’s masterwork was an outrage because it was too honest; he describes powerplay and politics as is and not under the guise of a moral imperative. After his death Macchiavelli was much hated and reviled, which is ironically the reason why his masterpiece has been successfully preserved into our time.
The method of translation is critical, because language and meaning does change, and there are passages where small changes make a big difference.
An example: “I can not see any fault in Cesare Borgia’s rule”
Many translators will want to interpret this as a moral statement to prove Macchiavelli ruthless, but there’s good reason to assume that this statement has to be read as “in terms of strategy, Cesare Borgia has made no mistake”.
A very fine read.
– Dorothea Brande’s “Wake up and live”
Our hosts recommendation; its a very short book, a series of anecdotes describing how many of us will hamper our own success according to our own defintion, often out of fear of losing other people’s approval.
Is that worth it? A common question to ask oneself.
I found much truth in this.
In the end there’s a series of practical exercises to o, I would classify them as social experiences. Has to be said, doing those may have quite unpredictable consequences coming from your social environment, and not solely positive ones (as Dorothea Brande disclaims).
For example: for an hour a day at work or with friends and family, refrain from speaking and only answer in very short statements if asked.
You can imagine…
Well I won’t try that because in my present situation this is not a way to go.
It is quite a remarkable challenge for the daring.
Hello, JMG. I am currently reading The King In Orange. At the start of the second chapter you say that we have a set of acceptable narratives around any controversial topic. As I have observed in my own life, this is true. Can you speak to how this applies to supply shortages in stores? The narrative says there are gaps and wait times due to Covid and that certainly seems reasonable. But is it also possible that as we slide further into the Long Decent that we just won’t have as many options for everything from food to refrigerators? And we can’t be honest about that in the corporate media? And why can’t we?
Thank you.
I am in British Columbia, Canada and the Provincial authorities have mandated a Covid Passport to get into restaurants, concerts and similar. The funny thing is, we can still go to the grocery or hardware store of liqueur store because Covid 19 is not much transmitted in such areas.
They say this passport will be in effect until January 2022. I really cannot believe they will surrender this golden opportunity to bureaucratize the province. I believe the shots themselves will be mandated next. I am less than thrilled.
Maxine Rogers
Do you have any recommendations for creative writing exercises? I’d like to start writing fiction but don’t know where to start.
Thank you again Mr. Greer for your monthly q&a sessions.
I am particularly interested in revisiting an argument you made repeatedly over the last several years. After populist Trump was elected your view of America’s future turned far more hopeful. In several places you wrote that America had most likely avoided a descent into fascism and instead settled on some kind of democratic nationalism, which is of course a much better outcome then more authoritarian alternatives.
But recently there have been several dark developments including a disastrous fall in Afghanistan, mounting side effects from these experimental vaccines, the worst mundane astrological chart you ever forecast, categorically more server weather, and a battery of infrastructure collapse. Trump in particular seems to be loosing control of his own movement due to his support of the vaccines.
So… are you thinking about revising those earlier, more hopeful assertions? Can we stick with some sort of rule of law emphasis if Trump burns out due to vaccine support (maybe Desantis or the much more restrained Rand Paul could step in here). I totally understand if things are too chaotic at the moment to make such a shoot from the hip judgement, but I would be interested if you are still leaning more towards the happier perspective you ended with in the King in Orange and other written works.
Thanks!
@Viduraawakened: we know that people can make crop circles, even elaborate ones, via mundane means. the world does contain legitimate mysteries but that doesn’t count as one.
Hi,
I’m yet to start reading in the doctrine of high magic, so no experience in divination (though have attempted celtic cross a few times). But recently i decided – on a hunch in the middle of the night – to try and use my favorite Magic the Gathering deck as a divination tool. it’s a green (Life/nature) – black (corruption /death) deck.
I asked about what would happen if i decided NOT to take the vax (risk of losing job / reorienting to different occupation and my fate in general, and also the fate of my kids). I pretended to ask the question to a deceased loved one. I have to say what came up as a “result” somewhat rattled me.
The cards that came up, respectively, where: “No rest for the wicked” (black card that re-summons dead creatures), “Deranged Hermit” (Green Elf card, that can summon squirrels) and “Gaia’s cradle”.(green mana / energy card) …
It’s tempting to interpret this as an indication that NOT getting the vax is going to be a lonely hellish road as an outcast that might end up offering a good chance for my kids… but then again group pressure these days would have you think that anyway…
I tried to ask a similar question (VAX or no VAX) somewhere in May with Celtic cross and got:
Problem: Fearn
Crossing Problem : Saille
Core of problem: Quert
Past: Ohn
Help from above: Ailim
Near future: Ruis
one asking the question: Straif
Environment: Ngetal
Hopes and fears: Gort
Future: Huathe
What are the possible interpretations ?
I’m aware of JMG’s opinion on this issue and share very similar concerns, so this may very possibly be tainting this sort of thing.. Should i better try with smaller things first ?
Thanks for feedback !!
Nathanael Bonnell,
I was unaware that a Green Wizard’s magazine had been pitched before, but I always thought that it might be useful to have a Green Wizard’s Almanac. I never got serious enough to consider bringing one out myself, but I still think that would be the most useful format. An Almanac could be published anywhere from yearly to monthly depending on interest.
I don’t know if anyone here is interested in weather forecasting, but I’m sure a general astrological forecast could be helpful (perhaps JMG would be interested in publishing something like a quick digest version of the subscribestar/patreon posts?), and a page on basic planting by the stars and the relevant moon signs for the time period would be well received and traditional.
I’d be interested in both subscribing to and writing for such a project, as well as helping out in other ways if you needed it.
~Yucca glauca
Curt,
I’ve never read The Prince so cannot comment too much, but I’ve seen an interpretation that Macchiavelli was a republican and the book was intended to undermine the authority of the nobility as by portraying them as ruthless and coldly-rational. That they were powermongers was expected — that they did so not out of devotion to God and country but merely to their own advantage was the quiet part that Macchiavelli said out loud.
Seeing more references to Vaclav Havel writings on totalitarianism and mass psychosis recently.
His answer is to build and live parallel alternative social structures that reflect your truth and allow you to live and grow with dignity as a human being with like minded people until the time is right for the dominant structure to collapse from its own lies.
Thank you JMG for providing just such a place right here:)
Looking back at your Inauguration Chart, the Lunar Eclipse Chart, and the Cancer Ingress Chart, I get a little queasy. What’s happened (so far) is way more dramatic than what I expected reading them. The way the military let Kabul fall, the trapped Americans over there, and then at home the Covid data + vaccines and various rules around it, became a giant mess. Were you understating what the chart showed, perhaps in an attempt to not have us panic, or was my reading comprehension way off? I’m assuming if I understood astrology I would have known how bad some of these readings were.
It’s really been something! Everyday now I see a news story and I think “that must be the Babylon Bee” and its not. The one just now – “At least 24 students and the Cajon Valley Union School District and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad.” How can it be this bad?
You’ve mentioned a book called Modern Magic that includes a working to influence your younger self to take up magic earlier, or pass back some other helpful information. You also said you’ve done it with good effect. What was that like? How did you know it worked? The way we normally understand causality says even if it did work, it would overwrite your memory and the new one would be the only one you had ever known. Do you have two sets of memories or at least some awareness of what you changed? How much can you alter – for example if you correct a mistake that cost you teeth, are they suddenly back in your mouth?
@ Alex regarding hedging against inflation / stagflation
If the “real economy” is trending downwards, but there is an expansion of the money supply, then the price of productive assets will trend upwards.
This means that buying *any* productive asset (especially with borrowed money) will appreciate in value. Cheap credit unleashed by this administration is actually causing housing prices to explode in many places for this exact reason.
People who advise buying gold often do so from the perspective that the government will actually suddenly collapse or something of the sort.
If you have low bandwidth, instead of buying actual real estate, I recommend buying leveraged ETF’s that multiply the daily movements of the markets. If the government is using inflation to make the market look like it’s trending upwards, then a leveraged ETF will always out-perform the market until there is an actual crash. To guard against this possibility, you can just re-balance your assets to keep a fixed percentage in the the “risky” ETF (that takes advantage of inflation), and another fixed percentage in a “safe” form like cash (that loses out when there is inflation).
Gold or Bitcoins may temporarily gain value in the event of a recession as people think they are “safe”, but as these are non-productive assets, they won’t grow in value. If the recession drags on, they will lose value as people cash out to pay their rent, and no one will have extra cash around to bid up their value.
The main difference between stagflation and “normal” inflation is that stagflation is mainly due to increasing costs (e.g. man-hours) and “normal” inflation is just an expansion of the money supply.
With COVID and the long decline we have an increase in real costs of production. That’s why you see prices on stables like food going up. It’s not that commodities traders are bidding the prices up with the access to easy credit. It’s that the actual cost of production has increased.
What is a good hedge against this?
Some analysts point to the re-shoring that is taking place as China becomes an unstable place to do business, many industrial processes are relocating to the Southern US and Northern Mexico border as North America becomes more autarkic. One way to ride this wave may be to buy real-estate ETFs in the emerging cities along this corridor.
In general though, stagflation is bad news overall, and there is no real hedge. If costs are going up in one particular sector (like oil) it could be good to invest in energy efficiency or sustainable energy. But these are already subject to media hype and P/E ratios may be over-valued.
Another idea is just to plow money into productive assets now while costs are low (compared to the future). E.g. If you have a house, rental unit, or farm, you can renovate it or retrofit it now, so that it is more productive in the future.
DBL,
I don’t think it’s actually possible to avoid increasing complexity in a civilization ecosystem, without hard natural limits. The question is what do civilized people do when they’re faced with a system that is no longer responsive or even capable of responding to real world stimuli? The solution is that individuals start to break off and form support systems outside of the system, which is what I’m doing. I have no intention of waiting for the management class to get a clue and start organizing to protect my community, this covid disaster proved pretty successfully that they are no longer capable of functionally responding to real world emergencies.
Regards,
Varun
@Kimberly Steele: sounds a bit like the Seattle Metaphysical Library. I thought it had closed circa 2000, but apparently it hasn’t.
http://www.seattlemetaphysicallibrary.org/
@ Nathan Bonnell – I, for one, absolutely think that fiction and non-fiction can coexist in the same publication.
Good Archdruid Emiratus and fellow commentors:
Per JMG’s recommendation several weeks ago, I started reading Simon Schama’s Citizens. Flipping the pages and reading one at random has been an enlightening experience of bibliomancy at the current situation. A page in particular is very much worth writing about, as it relates to the lower half of the aristocracy, and the rather dire straits they were in at the eve of the revolution. The incomes of the lower 60% were, and especially the bottom 20% of the aristocracy lived in physical wretchedness that going into service of the military or the church was needed to scrape together with the meager rent from the lands they nominally were lords of to escape destitution. The King made certain positions, particularly in the military exclusively to the nobility as a kind of make work for this sub-class of the nobility, who tenaciously clung onto their titles of nobility as the only thing they had to distinguish themselves from the rabble, even while destitute of the signs of the nobility: a sword, a horse, and a dog.
Compare this to the current position of the the lower half and lowest quintile of the college educated salary class. The lowest part of the salary class, have salaries indistinguishable from those of the wage class around them, distinguished solely by the college and university degrees they clutch and hang onto (cue the story of the homeless yet still still teaching adjunct professors). Observe the metasizing of beaurocratic structures in order to accomodate the glut of the college educated (job requirements calling for college educated employees for jobs that have nothing to do with any knowledge received through college education), and the drumbeat of needing to have a the basic accoutrements of the salary class: a car, a college degree, and an endless mountain of debt.
The other part of interest is the thumbnail description of Louis XVI: “Nothing gave him [Louis XVI] more pleasure than mechanics and as much as possible he chose to live in a world of numbers rather than words, lists rather than utterances. Everything he valued was compulsively enumerated […] So that in July 1789 – the month his monarchy collapsed – we know more about his daily [hunting] kill than we do of his thoughts on the political events in Paris”. In the present situation, this description applies readily to more than one figure of public life, replace the phrase “world of numbers” with “metrics” “big data” and their associated buzzwords, and the distance between the Ancien Regimes of 1789 and that of 2021 vanishes completely.
@Viduraawakened #27
I suspect that the inspiration for crop circles and other mysterious marks is the long history of Neolithic agriculture and occupation. The crops grow differently over the remains of old drainage ditches and ring forts. Sometimes the differences are clearly visible, as the old ditches hold moisture and nutrients. The outline of a palisade that once enclosed animals thousands of years ago mysteriously reappears in a drought.
So ghostly, so cool, so unexplained that some clever Johnnies decided to make some and create a stir.
Raphanus
I think future historians will look back on these two years — ’20 and ’21, maybe even a bit of ’22 — as a period of mass delusion, like 1930s Germany, or witch-burning in the Middle Ages. They’ll wonder how such an educated population with all the information of the internet at their disposal could have acted like a flock of hypnotized sheep.
Hi John Michael,
Thank you for hosting.
re the pandemic there follows an esoteric protocol that I’m sure many of this commentariat can use, and a speculation.
1/ As a very long-time alternative healer I’ve seen many many people with immune viral related problems;
as far as Covid and vaccines go here are my energy pattern findings.
There is an off-body energy flow that runs 6 -36 inches off the body that is strongly linked (not exclusively) to immune problems. It starts at the right foot, runs up along the outside at the right side of the body, past the right shoulder, then the ear, over the top of the head and then sweeps down the left side to the left foot. Immune problems – especially viral one – show up as blockages in that flow.
Over the last year I’ve noticed that everyone who has either had Covid or any of the vaccines have major or minor blocks in that flow, largely dependent on how badly affected they are. This is the same as the effects of other viral problems in pre-covid days. (seems a long long way away now, doesn’t it.)
Oh – one exception, a client who had had 2 vaccinations but who had no blocks at all in that flow and reported having no reaction to the vaccines at all.
Anyway the point is that if you can perceive these blocks then anything the frees them up will really help; you can use herbs, colours, images, foods, mantras, yantras, incense, whatever. The energy field responds immediately, so even thought the body lags way behind you can figure out a program for your friend.
If you have the chops to free the blocks “by hand” always sort with last one on the left and work back up the left and do the right side last. It’s like clearing a gutter of leaves, you start at the far end so the water can run and clear its own path, as the energy will here. Doing it from the near end and pushing the whole lot through yourself is dumb, and exhausting; I should know – I did it that way for years 🙂
As to where this comes from – well I discovered it about 40 years ago and then found that the remarkable Randolph Stone, the founder of Polarity therapy, had worked it out – and dozens more – decades before. I would recommend anyone interested in energy anatomy to take a look at his 2 volumes collections on Polarity Therapy.
Of course usual caveats apply -IMHO, YMMV etc
2/ Speculation. on the causes of the current insanity.
Well leaving aside for the moment media indoctrination, mass psychosis and interference from other realms, it seems to me that what drives this (and the Woke insanity) the desperate hunger among so many of us to find something that matters, something that gives meaning and significance to people who are literally starving for it. Atomised, alienated from the world, empty of any “real” purpose; this is a gift; “What I do Matters! Mask, vaccine, isolation saves lives; I save lives.” No wonder they can’t, can’t give it up.
What do you think?
Best wishes
Lurksalong
I figured I should start writing about heathenry and magic if I want to write about heathenry and magic, so I’m writing about heathenry and magic on my dreamwidth blog, which you can find here: https://gullindagan.dreamwidth.org/
If anybody wants to let me know what they think magic is, please do so!
Oops
last line was meant to be
What do you think?
@maxinerogers: when the local government began Covid-19 lockdown, they kept hardware stores, groceries and liquor stores open while places like bookstores closed because food and hardware stories counted as essential. liquor stores also counted as essential because alcohols would get DTs and have emergenices otherwise. similar situation.
Victor Cypert @#2 I second your suggestion of a discussion of what you describe as a crisis of masculinity.
Me, as a working class woman, now in my 70s, the guys complaining have always made more money than me, been first in line for almost everything, demanded cultural conformity to norms many like me simply could and cannot now afford, and subjected us working class women to a never ending regime of public catcalling, hazing, not to mention intrigues behind our backs, demands for “perkiness”. Get my kids off to school, get myself to work by bus because I can’t afford a vehicle and no, I am not going to trade sex for rides, don’t even go there, having taken two pills of Dayquil because no way can I afford sick days, and you expect to see perky??? Not to mention being known as a weirdo because of not dating–to me, that is called responsibility when you have growing girls and need to set an example–and preferring books to mass culture such as TV.
I would like to hear some of the other sides, I am sure there are more than two, of this discussion. Please no links, between the garden, keeping my house clean–I do NOT employ a maid– a frayed wardrobe needing replaced by sewing machine, the amount of internet I now allow myself and my own reading program, my days are pretty much booked.
I parted company with organized feminism after the Steinem Takeover when it became apparent that the new and (not)improved feminism didn’t care about women like me.
A couple of observations which might be of interest: The young women of today, my granddaughter’s generation, are growing up with the expectation that they will have to make their own livings. They are not at all the “dolls” of a half century ago. Plain women, Nos. 1 & 2 on the infamous list, are by and large uninterested in being consolation prizes. The usual pattern is that, after perhaps a bit of youthful foolishness, one learns there are plenty of ways to find happiness and satisfaction in one’s life that don’t involve climbing into bed with people whom one hardly knows and usually, it turns out, has little in common.
Dylan, you’re most welcome.
Victor, now there’s a blast from the past. I read Robert Bly when Iron John first came out, and knew a fair number of what got wryly labeled the “you chant, I’ll drum” set in the years immediately thereafter. If you’re interested in men’s mysteries and a spiritual space set aside for men, have you considered Freemasonry? (Full disclosure: I’m a 32° Mason in good standing.) A lot of the reason why the movement Bly tried to start fell on its face is that they insisted on reinventing the wheel rather than making use of existing (unfashionable) traditions, and so made all the usual beginners’ mistakes.
Chuaquin, thanks for these.
Jerry, of course he said that. He’s angling for funding.
Elkriver, there’s a fascinating book out there, The Third Reich of Dreams by Charlotte Beradt. She was a psychoanalyst in Germany in the 1930s, and noticed how the Nazi movement infiltrated people’s dreams and stray thoughts — even those of people who were adamantly opposed to Hitler’s movement. This is one of the signs that something archetypal and transpersonal is at work. No, you shouldn’t follow those promptings, any more than the people in Beradt’s time should have!
Mario, that’s a challenge many people are facing right now. I’d encourage you to work on deepening your spiritual life, and to use journaling to vent the dread and help yourself face it.
Nancy, okay; what do you propose to do about it?
Justin, thanks for this.
Slithy Toves, funny. I’ll see if anything comes to mind, and I encourage others to do the same thing. (I’m still waiting to hear back from the Grist contest, btw: the last I heard, the announcement of who wins has been pushed back to sometime in September.)
Anonymous, it’s possible that they’re doing something. One thing to keep in mind, though — every successful writer I know has learned, sometimes the hard way, that telling other people about their projects is a great way to drain all the life out of them. Don’t mention your practices and plans to anyone, and see how that affects your enthusiasm.
Kimberly, huzzah! I’m delighted to hear this.
David BTL, many thanks for this!
Clay, now surprise me. A lot of people in the managerial class have reached the point of insisting that anyone who disagrees with their opinions must be censored. Still, it’s good to see that starting to get more visible!
Mark, that makes a great deal of sense. I think, though — in part because of comments like Elkriver’s above — that there may also be something transpersonal and archetypal moving through these events, taking the fanatic faith in progress as its vehicle.
Lydia, the time frames are different. The ingress only covers three months. The hypothesis has no fixed time frame for the endgame.
Anjuli, it’s a very common thing, and for good reason. The mind is not cooped up inside lumps of meat called human brains; there is a continuum of mind that bridges the space between one person and another, which is how things like telepathy work. There are ways you can develop the ability to tune into the continuum of mind, but I warn you — a lot of what you’ll perceive is pretty grubby.
Mary, I admit that if I were in New York State I’d be packing my bags to move somewhere else. (The same is true of California and a couple of other states.) I hope you can find a way to get through the mess ahead.
Kmgunnart, congratulations.
NomadicBeer, er, you’re asking someone with Aspergers syndrome to speculate on what’s going on inside other people’s thoughts and feelings? I have no idea.
CS2, oof. That’s a heck of a question, to which I don’t have any immediate answers. Anyone else?
Tony C, I covered that in quite a bit of detail for North America in my book Dark Age America, and in a fictionalized form in my novel Star’s Reach. The short form is that we’re in for a lot of disruption over the next few centuries but it’s not the end of the world.
Naomi, it’s hard to say. It depends on how much bribe money Big Pharma spends in Congress. My guess, though, is that it won’t get very far, because so many people are refusing the inadequately tested Covid shots that the airlines would lose a huge amount of money if it went through.
Ria, you might consider seeing if you can move to a top floor apartment somewhere.
Viduraawakened, it’s being done by human beings. Jim Schnabel’s book Round in Circles is a good lively discussion of the phenomenon.
Alex, if you’ve realized that you can’t buy resilience, you’re ahead of the game. There is no way you can store wealth for the long term, because “wealth” is a proxy for a share of economic production, and that’s beginning to contract, throwing everybody’s calculations for a loop. Hedge against economic turmoil by getting out of debt, reducing your expenses, learning to do things for yourself, and developing skills that will allow you to do things people will pay for — and remember that sooner or later all economic assets have an effective value of zero.
David BTL, I ain’t arguing. The sorting has been happening for a while now, but it’s accelerating.
Malcopian, no and no.
Bro. Will, delighted to hear this! Compost really is marvelous stuff.
Jerry, it had plenty of comments, I just had other things to do and so didn’t get around to putting them through. Remember that every comment here is moderated by me! Thanks for the Greenwald article. My guess is that something rather different is going on. What we’re seeing is the last frantic gasp of the religion of perpetual progress, and the people in power who are pushing inadequately tested experimental vaccines on everyone in such shrill terms are trying to stave off the collapse of the worldview that gives their lives a sense of meaning and purpose. They’re not being rational about it at all; “Trust science!” is a profession of faith, not a reasoned argument. If you’ve read the sociological classic When Prophecy Fails, you know exactly what’s going on here — the desperate attempt to prop up a failed belief system by doubling down on its most extreme claims.
Curt, thanks for this.
Wendy, your timing is good. I’ll be discussing this in quite some detail in next week’s post here.
Maxine, I wonder how this is going to affect the upcoming election. I’ve heard from other readers that they’re starting to see Peoples Party lawn signs in Burnaby South, which last I heard was an NDP stronghold…
Sam, don’t do exercises. Simply make yourself sit down for half an hour a day and write. Don’t let yourself edit while you’re writing — that’s how people get writer’s block. Simply write whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to be part of a story. (You can make it part of one later, if you want to.) Just let yourself write, and write, and write. In your other hours, read fiction you like, and notice how the author handles descriptions, dialogue, and the other ingredients of fiction; now and then read something really awful, and think through how you would improve it if you were the editor. Rinse, repeat, and you’ll be writing publishable stories after a few years. (Yes, it’ll take that long; it always does.) Above all else, though, keep on writing!
Stephen, as you know, I thought Trump would win reelection, and had he done so we would have made the turn I predicted. We’ve got Biden in the White House instead, fronting for the same managerial elite whose failures made the Trump phenomenon happen. My guess, given the way those failures have continued and accelerated, is that the Democrats are going to lose badly in 2022 and 2024, in which case democratic nationalism is still an option, but more authoritarian options are more possible than they were — and so is the nightmare of domestic insurgency or civil war. Which of those will happen? It’s impossible to say at this stage of events.
T.Y., never, but never, try to use divination to make a major life decision when you haven’t already gotten plenty of experience in using it in less important contexts. That’s like deciding that for your first driving lesson, you’re going to go out into rush hour traffic on the freeway and drive to California.
DenG, it’s useful advice. 😉
Denis, I try to be moderate in my predictions. (The inauguration chart was an exception — that chart was so bad that I didn’t try to sugarcoat it.) We are moving into a period of serious collective crisis and a lot of people are probably going to get hurt. I hope those kids and their parents can get out…
Yorkshire, such workings don’t actually alter the past. What they alter is how you remember and experience the past — which is at least as important as what actually happened.
Ighy, I need to reread Schama’s book! I have a mess of other books on the get-to list, but the parallels between our current situation and France in 1788 or so are very, very close…
Martin, hopefully those historians will realize just how bad our educational system was and just how much mass media and the internet did to amplify the resulting ignorance.
Lurksalong, many thanks for this! As for the roots of the current craziness, I think you’re definitely on to something.
Gullindagan, excellent. Of course you know my definition…
Lurksalong, no prob — I fixed it.
JMG,
If you’ll allow a shameless book promotion, my Jung-inspired analysis of corona entitled “The Devouring Mother: The Collective Unconscious in the Time of Corona” is now available to purchase. As the title suggests, the book posits that corona has been a psychic takeover of society by The Devouring Mother archetype. The analysis also covers the archetypal drivers for Trump and Brexit as well as Jordan Peterson and Greta Thunberg among other things. Interested readers can find more information here: https://simonsheridan.me/the-devouring-mother/
I want to comment on Robert Bly and the book Iron John that was mentioned earlier. This book has had an enormous impact on my life and I would recommend it to everyone, especially men.
Yes masculinity is a important issue today, I find that spending quality time with other men is the best way to address this issue. That can be hard though in todays culture. Strong bonds with men you can trust will be important in navigating the long descent.
This blog helps me keep my sanity, especially the comments, I know I’m not alone in the world. On another note there are more and more debunking elon musk vapour ware ponzi videos on YouTube and the number of views is going into the hundreds of thousands, that wasn’t the case last year. It feels like something big is going to break pretty shortly, if it isn’t tesla it will probably be some crypto scam like tether.
Thank you John for your relentless work, if it wasn’t for you and your readers I would feel pretty alone.
Sean from Walsall
As a more-or-less lurker on this group, I hate to make a big ask, but my family needs help. You may have heard the news about a 5-year-old boy shooting a 6-year-old boy. The 5-year-old is my grand-nephew. Obviously there is a great deal of trauma and guilt, and a whole heap of anger over what has been labeled “The Incident”.
Bottom line, we could use all the prayers/positive energy/thoughts or whatever you have. When we found out this happened, my first thought was that my wife and I have zero in the way of a religious community IRL. You guys are all we have.
Thanks to everyone in advance.
Ric
Have you read The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis, and if so, what did you think of it?
@ria23 Ah! Apartment living. When I lived in apartments, I always tried to be on the top floor. Of course that didn’t solve everything. For a while I had a downstairs neighbor who, every Friday, would celebrate the end of the work week with Kenny G, played loud. He’d also fire up his grill and the fumes would seep in through my doors and windows. He had an aging Mercedes diesel parked right under my sliding door. He’d give it a 30 minute warm up before driving off; more fumes seeping in. One weekend a visitor had all four tires slashed. He was suspected, but nothing could be proven. I guess you didn’t want to mess with that guy.
In a different apartment I lived above a med student. One weekend I heard disturbing noises coming up from her bedroom; very disturbing in fact. I considered calling 911 but didn’t. The following weekend, the same noises again, more animal than human with her shouting “get out! get out!” I wondered if she had a demon lover. One of my other female neighbors began avoiding me. In retrospect,I’m guessing she thought those sounds were coming from my apartment.
“Maxine, I wonder how this is going to affect the upcoming election. I’ve heard from other readers that they’re starting to see Peoples Party lawn signs in Burnaby South, which last I heard was an NDP stronghold…”
I’ve also seen them in Kanata, one of Ottawa’s richest suburbs and one of the areas most wedded to the status quo…..
Elkriver
Thank you for posting and posting that video. Yes, the same thing has happened to me recently, and like the video, it’s 100% goes against who I am. I literally moved 1000 miles, sold my home of 23 years, left my job taking an enormous pay-cut, and left friends and family to escape what was happening where I was living, much of that because of vaccine mandates and passports. Along with feelings of intense dread and fear and paranoia I have had the very, very strange feeling of having these same thoughts about the vaccine come into my mind, and they do not feel like me.
It’s getting harder and harder to live life pretending like everything is ok. But what does one do?
@CS2 #22
Boys First Book of Radio and Eletronics by Alfred Morgan
There is a pdf online somewhere
Mary B. # 57.
Non critical comment: Why are you doing life alone? Your self description sounds like an average person, two average persons can do the work of three average persons in many cases – marriage is not that much fun, but it is helpful.
Some of us can go it alone, it takes an incredible education, a great deal of luck and some upbringing with very good values, still two very competent people can again do the work of three very competent people, etc.
Feminism from most of what I see turned young women in to s…., and very unhappy one’s at that. The world of a man is brutal, finding a mate and then staying in the game; the game is not really fair, it is real.
Life just isn’t fair, it is what it is and reality rules.
Again, why alone? It sounds like a hard and lonely life.
I wonder if this one actually is posted, actually have met JMG x2,
Dennis L.
@Clay Dennis
So…she working under the assumption that anything which doesn’t fit
the official narrative must be a lie so she wants to call it out? What if
the ‘official truth’ is a lie too? What if everything everybody says on any
subject is a lie? Then she’ll be in the same fix as Norman the Android.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCiw0wD44U
Two things to share about the C19 vax
1st is a piece by Mike Rowe. I think we can all agree he’s not exactly of left-winger. https://m.facebook.com/116999698310182/posts/off-the-wall-heres-a-delightful-headline-followed-by-a-charming-article-written-/4564421360234638/
The second is a video (sorry this guy doesn’t do essays as far as I know) It’s part of the Blue Collar Logic series of videos. Dave, the man in the video, is a former liberal turned conservative.
https://www.google.com/search?q=blue+collar+logic+dave+morrison&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS704US704&oq=blue+collar+logic+dave&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j69i57j0i22i30l4.13187j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I leave it here. Decide for yourself.
\
Dear John, I have a question on the same vein of Victor Cypert.
As a younger dude, I found out being a Man was super hard. I had the pressure of media that being man = bad. Not only that, but I also felt a really big lack of models. I don’t recall knowing anyone I’d see as a balanced man. Most of them who have a stronger masculine energy are also in veery bad terms with their emotional side.
Recently, I’ve figured that having my back turned to the fact that I’m a Man has let a void in my identity that I want to fill. I’ve been praying to Hu, and meditating on the subject, and some progress has been made.
So, you’ve talked about freemasonry. I thought that you could only join through invitation? Do the practices there colide with the ones on your books? (I’ve been practicing with the DH for the last few months, but after a favorable tarot reading and omen I’ll be switching to CGD when that book arrives).
Also do you, or any of the comentariat recomend some myths that embody the balanced male archetype? Or know of any author writing/talking about that subject?
Thanks in advance!
Fox
@Maxine Rogers – remember it doesn’t go into effect until Sept. 13. They have three weeks to be hearing from the unions and businesses about the simple fact they can’t even *do* passport checks.
I don’t rule out the province doing something even stupider, but I also don’t think we’re going to get what they’re dribbling out their backsides right now either. Frankly I’m enjoying the suspense immensely, but only because I have savings and can remain solvent. If I was a small business owner, I might be getting political.
Notably, they are currently saying they aren’t going to give out hardcopy passes (though you can download your pass in case you don’t have wifi, so presumably you could print the screenshot). So, if you don’t have a smart phone, when you go to say, McDonald’s, you will be expected to use their phone to call the toll free number on the CDC website and provide your Health Card #, SIN and then they’ll give the staff the green light. It would be a shame if there was a significant overlap between the populations most likely to be vaccinated for their protection, and least likely to carry a phone with them. (And most likely to write letters and vote, or so I am told via letter to council, sometimes). 😉
Perhaps they’ll make sure it is a smooth operating interface like government is known for, too, and ask the good people at Phoenix if they’d like another government contract.
There has already been a Kamloops gym that has gone to the papers to say they won’t do it – it would be the last straw they can’t afford, they’re all hanging by threads. There is only one restaurant in my town still open more than five days a week; one closed for two weeks entirely. Solely due to staffing shortage. Retail of all kinds is the same. In addition to all the other reasons (have they said when they’ll roll back CERB?), they already had staff quit because they get threatened too much by antimaskers (old men yelling at teenage girls at their first summer job is always a nice look), and now they aren’t keen to be expected to do the job armed security guards usually do. Notably, this region has the highest vaccination rate in the province, which overall has 73% double vaccination – this will be a much more dangerous and impossible thing to demand businesses do in precisely the areas they’re trying to punish – the North and the Interior (specifically… the under thirty age demographic in Kamloops). Yesterday I drove from Victoria to Courtenay and back and there was not a single business we went to on the way that didn’t have a sign up to notify they were short staffed and subject to close at any time. Most didn’t have washrooms open, as they had no one to do the “enhanced” cleaning. Last time we had issues with access to public washrooms, municipalities had to use emergency operating centre budgets to install new ones to keep trucks flowing down the critical shipping routes and tradespeople able to build all them new affordable rentals in the NDP platform (and pandemic kitchen upgrades). Now, we can’t just throw up an EOC if the emergency hasn’t actually triggered the legal requirement, so if that should be a problem again, the public might be a smidge inconvenienced…
Ever-observant Archdruid, I wonder if you might comment briefly on the iconography of “needles into arms” that seems to be playing an ever-increasing role in popular press articles. At the beginning of Covid-19 vaccination, there were stories that showed specific named people being injected, using a single illustrative photograph. Now articles discussing vaccination topics have numerous unattributed photographs of the injection process, sometimes as many as four separate photographs in a single article! What’s going on here, from your points of view?
Thanks so much for your numerous contributions, and the lively discussions which you so ably moderate.
@Denis I have the same gratitude for all these pertinent posts and generous steady interactions, it is helping immensely even in these dark times. Thank you JMG !
Also yes @Mario I feel it often too regarding dread and the only thing I have resigned myself to is a slow plod and a narrowed ambition especially for this year.
I am hoping that predictions regarding an end next year to the covid hysteria are right but there is so much bubbling, war, poverty, food/fuel shortages that we may in a stark awakening and it is utterly unknown to me in my pretty cushioned thus far existence, in a non crisis culture.
@lurksalong
Do you have any data on single jab people? My understanding is that most people just get soreness at the jab site on the first shot, same as any injection. That would imply not much of a reaction, does your experience support that?
Thanks,
Tim
@ cypert – I quite agree with you about the need for men’s mysteries, coming-of-age ceremonies, and all the rest. The historical reason for feminist suspicion of all-male venues was the likelihood of them being the “real boardroom meeting” after the one with the women had ended. I do note that military service used to serve as the major ritual of passage, but wonder if boys of the PMC would serve, or rather, assume that college and career were far more important. This I ask as the grandmother of three boys.
@ ria 23
How much modification are you allowed to do to your apartment?
Soft, sound-absorbent fabric is going to be your friend. Heavy, lined drapes at every window, thick carpets with thick pads and rugs laid over top of them, upholstered high-back furniture with pillows, wall tapestries on every wall, bookcases crammed with books, and, if you can swing it: fabric stapled to walls and ceilings.
Yes, that’s over the top. That said, a minimalist, hard-edged decorating style with loads of shiny, reflective surfaces will make sound reverberate and echo. The more soft furnishings you have, the less sound will echo.
Your ceiling is going to be your weak point unless you can install a drop-ceiling with acoustic tile or drape it with yards and yards of cheap muslin.
In the end, you may have to move. Or your neighbor upstairs may have to move.
Good luck!
>getting out of debt, reducing your expenses, learning to do things for yourself, and developing skills that will allow you to do things people will pay for
Well, good to know I’m on the right track :). I suppose I can continue my jack-of-all-trades-ing. Each of those repair skills may be something people will pay for. I was just getting a little nervous b/c they’re largely dependent on getting replacement parts for things and supply chain disruptions are popping up left and right. I suppose my hedge is that I have many *different* repair skills. When one isn’t possible, another might be.
Secondly, having gotten out of debt, reduced my expenses and never bought a car… there are some $ piling up. So what to do with that? I will investigate the suggestions from some of the above commenters. One category is financial instruments. Another is a real estate for living on. The one is limited in applicability – the instruments are a gamble, so limited use no matter what they do. Real estate… doesn’t feel like something I’m in a place to *decide* on right now. My job does have the benefit of being remote, but friends & community aren’t and as a single 30-year-old buying real estate seems more rooted than I am right now. Will I miss the boat on a great deal if I buy in 5 years (say, with a partner in the picture)?
What else have we got, is my question?
And any suggestions are helpful here: a specific thing, a category, even “here’s the question you should ask yourself, Alex” 🙂
@ Alex #28
You’ve already got a good start! Learn to be flexible. Figure out work-arounds. Don’t be wedded to ‘this way and no other’.
The other skill set is learning to clearly distinguish between what you simply must have to stay alive and what you want. They’re quite different.
@ JMG
Re the Great Sorting
I would agree with you that it’s been going on for a while and is accelerating. I suspect we are at or near an inflection point the trajectory of this country.
@ Varun
Re administrators, necessary and otherwise
I have a feeling that I was falling into the old trap of seeking some kind of steady-state solution when the only real option is to adjust to the natural ebb and flow of circumstances.
Hi everyone! Since it’s open post, I want to remind everyone that we talk about gardening, sewing, cooking, canning, repairs, writing, mending, and a host of other resilient topics over at http://www.greenwizards.com/.
Feel free to join us. Who else is going to teach you how to turn your sheets?
I’ve been reading a couple of books this week that might interest other JMG readers.
Emily Hahn lived in Hong Kong when it was occupied by the Japanese during World War Two. I find we learn something valuable when we listen to her.
She wrote a book of short stories about this experience, called “Hong Kong Holiday” (a dreadful title.) In a chapter called “The Looters” she talks about coping with a gendarme who plans to take your electric heater. In “We Came Home” she describes going back to her apartment, and negotiating a mutually helpful partnership with other people who were camping there. In “A Good Investment” she talks about negotiating on the black market to find food for her baby. In “Major Told Me” she tells how she was separated from her baby for two days, and a volunteer located her daughter and reunited them.
If those stories sound interesting, you might try her book, “China to Me.” The first part discusses her writing projects and experiences in China, including a visit to Chungking under bombardment. I recommend starting at chapter 29. She stopped off in Hong Kong on her way back to the US and spent some time with Charles Boxer, a British officer. They decided to have a child together. Carola was born in October; the Japanese attacked Hong Kong on December 8. Boxer was wounded and then interned. Hahn continued to live independently in Hong Kong, keeping herself and her baby alive, bringing food parcels to Boxer and the other soldiers.
“Every five minutes brought a new alarm and at least once a day the alarm turned out to be genuine,” Hahn writes. “We lived in a state of suspended terror, and we learned to dread any knock on the door…. We didn’t have our war legs yet. We hadn’t learned to put off our worries until the moment came to grapple with them; it saves a lot of energy to do that.”
Hahn and the other women in the household gave English lessons to Japanese soldiers. They walked up steep Hong Kong streets, negotiating to buy food in local markets. She writes about a special New Year’s dinner for the household… they had cooked their last two chickens – then looters arrived, ransacked the house, threatened the women… stole things, but not everything.
Food was scarce. “The first thing I did was to grab the chance to buy two 28-pound tins of powdered milk…. I never stopped blessing the day I bought that milk, for it saw Carola through the whole show.” Hahn had gold jewelry, bought in earlier years. “I kept a jump ahead of destitution….when people get afraid of paper money they rush for gold and diamonds… it may look like gold to you, but it meant powdered milk to me, milk and baby shoes.”
I find that this book sticks in my mind. When I read about this young woman who learned how to survive under wartime occupation, I say to myself, I too will learn what I need to cope with the months/years ahead.
Reading this book, I also notice how much depends on luck, on circumstances, on human interactions, on making the best choices with imperfect information. It gives me hope that with the wide variety of practices we are all doing, we too will make good choices under difficult circumstances.
JMG Readers, what other books do you know that I could be reading? I’d like to read more stories from other times and places, more books that will show me me how people have coped with hard times in the past.
On similarity to previous revolutions:
I have been working my way through the Haitian revolution on Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast. The French mainland became concerned about their colony breaking away. In order to prevent this, they deliberately began a campaign to drive a wedge between the whites and free blacks in Haiti in order to prevent them from recognizing their mutual interests. Starting in 1763, racist laws came into effect: Certain professions were off limits to blacks, extra documentation was required to prove black citizens were free, various sumptuary laws came into effect. The laws, if I interpret the history correctly were successful in driving the groups apart, but not in preventing a revolution.
Struck me that this might be the reason “woke” culture was so widely accepted after the Occupy Wall Street movement was suppressed. By calculation or coincidence, this woke movement has been having the effect of driving a wedge between working class whites and pretty much everyone else.
Simon, glad to hear this!
Sean, you’re welcome and thank you.
Debricfrost, dear gods, how horrible. Positive energy en route.
Yorkshire, yes, I’ve read it. I thought it was pretty good.
Anonymoose, oof. Popcorn time!
Christopher, thanks for these.
Fox, there’s a fantastic amount of nonsense in circulation about Masonry. No, you don’t have to be recommended; you can ask a Mason, and if you don’t happen to know one, find your state or provincial Grand Lodge online and email them, and they’ll be happy to point you to a lodge. The requirements are that you have to be an adult male human being who believes in a Supreme Being. There are no practices as such — Masonry is primarily about ethics, though it has a spiritual basis. You’ll want to be able to attend lodge meetings once or twice a month. As for myths — well, how about most of them? Find books on mythology that were written before 1990 or so and you’ll find a very rich trove of stories covering the whole range of archetypes, male (there are many of these) as well as female (ditto).
Bryan, they’re trying to normalize the image so that getting injected with inadequately tested experimental drugs seems like an everyday thing. It’s typical cheap sorcery.
Alex, your next task as a jack of all trades is to learn how to kluge up replacements for parts you can’t get. As for the money, I don’t recommend real estate; these days it’s a financial instrument and is hugely inflated, and I’m far from sure it’s going to stay at its current high prices. Financial instruments that are highly liquid and very stable might be worth exploring, at least for the time being, with an eye toward real estate when you’re ready.
David BTL, I ain’t arguing.
BCV, excellent. Yes, exactly — the ascendancy of the current elite depends on keeping working class white people and working class people of color fighting each other, so they don’t recognize their common interests and unite against the elite.
Care to hypothesize approximately when we’ll reach the point where fossil fuels become too expensive to extract from the ground? Do you believe it’ll be a few decades or longer?
DBL,
One way around that is to remember is policy is paper work, and the more paper work you have to do, the more likely that the number of stakeholders will increase. Focus on actionable things, with the larger goal in mind, and you’ll get a lot more done. Yeah there’ll be unforseen consequences, but you’ll gain a reputation as a man who can get things done, as opposed to the useless hacks in corporate and government.
Regards,
Varun
JMG in your response to another comment here you said you’d avoid living in California or New York State. Does Massachusetts make that list? Upstate New York seems to have a good grasp on reality, or at least they’ve already slid down the chute of collapse. People in Massachusetts done don’t seem to have a clue that a lot of their New York neighbors don’t have things like hot water.
Dear Fox, If I may: if you want to examine some of the issues of masculinity from a mythic lens I cannot recommend Jungian psychoanalyst Marie-Louise von Franz’s _The Problem of the Puer Aeternus_ highly enough. This combines very well with her book _Individuation in Fairy Tales_. She does an amazing job of discursively opening up the myths and examining them in light of her vast clinical experience. As for myths of balanced masculinity, personally I’m quite found of the classical myths of Herakles.
Dennis L @68, Thank you for your kind inquiry. I am not alone, I have two grown daughters and three granddaughters. I am also, by temperament, one of the very small percentage of the population who does prefer a hermit like existence. I was married twice, one daughter each time. Marriage #1 was a complete disaster and I felt nothing but relief when it ended. My second husband died when our girl was 3 and the oldest was 12.
The short answer to why do so many single Moms go it alone is that marriage is expensive. The new husband might be a good person but that doesn’t mean he can bring in enough to even meet his own expenses and then there is also the hoard of extendeds, instant relatives who must now be included in everything. I was really not interested in new sister-in-law doing you’re just a culture vulture wannabe at me because my radio plays classical music. Bottom line, in the lower reaches of the working class, husbands, and boy friends even more so, are often an unaffordable luxury.
A society which wants to encourage marriage and family formation MUST, MUST provide an appropriate economic basis to sustain marriage, such as a full employment policy. AND, that goal must be ahead of, prioritized over, all other domestic policy considerations, like extra profits for selected industries.
I know life is for reals, mine always has been. My response to your last comments, not trying to be flip or start an argument, is that male fantasies are something I have never been able to afford.
Alex @ 38. Can you do small engine repair? If I buy one of those old time toasters with the sides that open, can you safely replace the worn out fabric covered cord? What about replacing the cord on an old time GE iron, supposing someone is lucky enough to even find one of those? Recondition an old mixer, including doing whatever it takes to make the wrong beaters which the antique dealer shoved into the mixer actually go in and out? If you look up you tubes and netflixes on repair, etc., you will see guys making good money right now on all kinds of refurbishment.
Can you sharpen knives, sewing scissors, garden tools? A do it yourselfers maker space, sharing the cost of equipment, could maybe become a guys hangout, somewhere to go while the wife is at quilting circle.
I’m growing rather worried that if the PPC wins the Canadian election, especially if it’s by a large enough margin to form the government, we could be looking at the sudden implosion of business as usual; I’m wondering if we’ll see something on the same scale as the aftermath of the victory of Solidarity in Poland’s 1989 election, even without worrying about a possible crisis from the vaccines.
@JMG
The archetypal underpinnings of religions are interesting to consider. My main feeling in this time is that Progress is no different than any other major religion despite claims to the contrary, so perhaps it has its own gods as well as its own priests and sacraments.
I wonder if this is an emergent epiphenomenon that arises as a result of mass belief in human consciousness, whether it has attracted non-human entities (i.e. gods) with their own agendas, or whether the entire phenomenon is being driven by outside influence. I’d probably vote for option #2.
I also can report once having a sudden feeling that I ought to get vaccinated and that it would bring relief. Thankfully my wife, who is herself vaccinated, reminded me that my sudden desire made no sense in light of what I had been saying for the last 12 months.
Since empire building and the carnage it leaves behind is so evident and in the news right now and has been mentioned in the discussion, I thought people might enjoy the following poem. Feedback welcome. Quick note to JMG – I am following through on your suggestion and encouragement to find a small publisher for my work as it seems to be too ‘out of the box’ for the regular folks. Thx! Ps. I’m looking for an illustrator with a terrific sense of humour. If anyone knows somebody that might be interested in this and work like it, please let me know. Any leads for publishing would be a help too. Thanks!
A Titanic Cruise on the Straight of Hormuz By Anna Lussenburg
A ship full of sea rats on a military cruise
had work to do on the Straight of Hormuz.
Their singular mission was to toil
and safeguard the flow of oil.
Said rat Admiral Early, to his general staff,
“It’ll all become clear if you look at this graph.
For underneath their nearby soil,
there lies a ton of our own oil.”
“That oil is what keeps our rat wheel turning
and our economic engine burning.
Whether we’re talking state or county,
that oil is mother nature’s bounty.”
Early huffed, “Everything will be just fine
as long as those other rats just toe the line.
Our job is to ensure those taps keep flowing,
so our GDP can keep on growing.
A bright rat popped up at his side.
“Sir, I maybe young and unqualified,
but this hard line approach, won’t it cause friction?
Wouldn’t it be better to stop our oil addiction?”
“If renewables could save the day,
we western rats could lead the way.
We could try love, instead of war
and start doing with less, instead of more.
“What?” huffed Early, “Our non negotiable lifestyle is just that,
an American dream for every rat.
Solar panels, wind towers, look good to be sure.
But to say they’re enough? That would be premature.”
“Take a look, there’s nothing around
that doesn’t use oil that comes out of the ground.
Then observe how this straight narrows here.
It’s possible our oil may not get clear.”
“This straight, where our oil is forced to go
has too many threats to its continued flow.
Any moment, those other rats could,
squeeze the flow to our neighborhood.”
“And I don’t know about you, but I sure feel squeezed
and this situation makes me none too pleased.
For if our oil output falls,
those rats will have us by the balls.”
“And that for us means decisive action
to facilitate our oil extraction.
And because our freedom knows no bounds,
we might just need these missile rounds.”
“Merde!” said one French rat, “If this situation is reality,
have you thought of the legality?
Despite our French, ‘Esprit De Corps,’
we rats would rather make love than war.
A British rat added, “It’s true in the days of old,
our empire grew by being bold.
We may have seized resources here or there,
but every empire starts somewhere.
“Surely,” one rat added, “renewables will save the day
so let’s live and let live in a zen kind of way.
With love and good feelings flowing,
there’s no one out there that needs overthrowing.”
Early said, “Some rats may not think our urban sprawl,
justifies what must be done at all.
But I believe, I surely do,
that spreading democracy will see us through.”
Said an Indian rat, “They’re off their trolley.
I seriously can’t believe this folly.
Do they not know there are other rats who,
have a completely different point of view.”
I’ve heard those rats stayed glued in place,
staring at their radar interface,
trying to control the flow of oil,
to keep their economy on the boil.
And what happened next, no one really knows,
except that lines of communication froze.
Ideologies hardened and ties were frayed
and military profiteers were paid.
It’s just the rats couldn’t see they float,
together on one gigantic boat
and by trying not to be outdone,
they changed the fate of everyone.
Curious if anyone has seen odd behavior from vaccinated family members at all.
Took my 2 yo to urgent care yesterday as she was having trouble breathing. As I was rushing her to the door, my wife decided to repark the car, in a largely empty parking lot, because it was just over the lines. I was just floored that she did that when our child was clearly struggling and just seemed inappropriate and out of character. She’s also complained of being constantly tired and seemed foggy.
When we walked in receptionist offered us an appointment in an hour. We had to push hard to get someone to look at at her immediately. Apparently they’ve moved to giving appointments as they were getting to the point of people waiting 3+ hours when they just had a walk in system. I’ve been there 6-8 times over last 6 years and never waited more than 25 minutes. What is going on where the urgent care is so overwhelmed???
My daughter has RSV and doctor said it’s raging now. That’s a whole different covid topic re lockdowns.
@Debricfrost may G*d take you into his loving arms and bring you all peace and comfort. Praying for you all and thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.
How do those with mental health difficulties such as ADD/ADHD deal with the issue of Burnout/hyperfixations while studying the Occult?
From my experience, I know it’s to keep plugging along and go through a structured and methodical approach which has helped because I personally need more of it plus my temperment and performance without the use of schedule 2 stimulants has greatly improved within the last month, although I still am an impulsive fool of 23. However I cant afford or at least don’t want to let this study and spiritual journey fall through especially nowadays with the quagmire of a world we live in today in regards to Government, Climate change, and Covid-19.
I agree with Nancy Oden. Climate change worries me more than anything else. We are planting more trees on our lawn near our house and are ceding a large chunk of our lawn away from our house to the surrounding forest.
We used to support a local land trust but they selectively harvest lumber so instead we now support a land trust further from our home that manages all their preserves as wilderness. Every tree will be needed in the fight against climate change.
Noteworthy and wise Archdruid, you replied to my query about the proliferation of injection photos and graphics in news articles by saying “… they’re trying to normalize the image…” Well, I kinda think they’re overdoing it, as I’ve noticed in myself more and more revulsion in seeing such images, to the point where I take a scrap of paper and obscure the images while reading past them.
Whatever happened to all those people I knew when growing up that were deathly afraid of needles? Does the news media think they can just bludgeon us all with creepy photos and desensitize us? That’s NOT how allergies work, but quite the opposite!
Their sorcery may be cheap, but it’s turning my stomach. Bleah.
@CS2 A simple way to bind books is to get one of the Comb Binding Machines and instead of using the combs to bind your books, you can sew them through the holes the machine makes, use a thick paper for the cover and glue a thick piece of paper over the spine to cover up the stitching, if this makes sense. This gives a very strong binding. Here is a link of the machine I am talking about: https://smile.amazon.com/MAKEASY-Binding-Machine-Bindings-Scrapbook/dp/B07N2HC76V/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=spiral+binding+machine&qid=1629930459&sr=8-5
Will curses, spells and archetypes moving in the depths have an effect in someone practicing a daily banishing, meditation and prayer?
@teresa from hershey: thanks for the suggestions! I already have the book-liined shelving at least. I wouldn’t have thought of the rest.
@Elkriver #5:
A couple of weeks ago I had a vivid dream. I heard a fluttering of wings above my head. A hummingbird-like being rose up beyond the ceiling and disappeared into the sky.
A voice said clearly, “You will die by morning.”
I felt no fear; in fact, I felt relieved and calm. A deep peace came over me.
I asked what would happen to my dog. The voice answered, “Someone will come for him. You need not worry.”
(Obviously the prediction was incorrect. I am still here.)
This has nothing to do with getting vaccinated specifically, but I think it does have to do with the presence of energies, forces, beings…whatever you want to call them…that are trying to communicate with us, working to calm the fears we are all feeling in these uncertain times. I’m trying my best to be receptive to those forces.
Lurksalong, Thank you for sharing that. I might buy those volumes you mentioned.
JMG, Is there a specific energetic anatomy system the Golden Dawn uses? I know about the Middle Pillar obviously, but I’m wondering about a complete system of energetic anatomy? I’m thinking about looking into the Polarity Therapy energetic anatomy.
Victor, Mary Bennet, et al. re: feminism and the crisis of masculinity
I think a lot of what’s gone on in the last few decades becomes explicable if you think of feminism as having been subverted — Steinam’s CIA connections are relevant here — into a way of (a) keeping lower-salary class women loyal to the salary class and (b) letting upper-class men get laid with as many women as possible.
Consider the way salary-class feminist moralizing (i) provides savvy, educated men with an opportunity to virtue signal while (ii) demoralizing men who aren’t in on the game, and (iii) dissuading women from relationships with those who fail to send the right signals. And when one of those savvy, educated men get called out for their predations? Just proof that we need to moralize harder…
(Compare the results of religious moralistic rhetoric around drugs and sex when the Religious Right had the upper hand in the culture war.)
In any case, I don’t think I’ll get too much, if any, pushback here for suggesting that really addressing class could revolutionize feminism for the better.
JMG, what are your thoughts on the IPCC’s semi-recent announcement of “code red” for humanity due to climate change? I’ll admit that I was sent into a minor panic at the news, especially the announcement (though it’s been known for a while) that “some trends are irreversible.” That part reminded me of an interesting — not particularly well thought-out, but interesting — video I had seen on geoengineering; that is, the practice of pumping chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere to negate the effects of the other chemicals we stupidly pumped into Earth’s atmosphere. I’ll put the link to it here, and I’m eager to see your thoughts on it; to me, it seems like something that the political will to do will not be found anytime soon, and that would have terrible unforeseen consequences if it was actually put into action. At least the video outright admits that geoengineering is our nuclear option…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSu5sXmsur4
Random economic data point: lumber prices which climbed 400% from late 2020 through June have just crashed back to 2020 levels.
It feels really strange to spend 4x less for the same items than a month ago.
“What we’re seeing is the last frantic gasp of the religion of perpetual progress, and the people in power who are pushing inadequately tested experimental vaccines on everyone in such shrill terms are trying to stave off the collapse of the worldview that gives their lives a sense of meaning and purpose.”
No wonder I was never even slightly tempted to get the jab. I remember not believing in the religion of progress as a schoolgirl in the 1980s. Do you think if enough people are injured and / or die from these serums we might finally see the death of the religion of progress? If so, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth around the globe. If not, governments will give Elon Musk even more money so we can all move to Mars.
Joshua, there isn’t a single point in time where that happens. It varies along a long complex curve depending on the fine details of extraction cost vs. price once extracted. There are already some oil wells shut in because they’re uneconomical to pump at current prices, so we’re on that curve already…
Austin, I wouldn’t live in Massachusetts if I was paid to do so, but that was already true a long time ago.
Mollari, I’d be astounded if that happens — though we’ll see. My hope is that they’ll win enough seats to cause the defenders of the status quo to panic, and back down.
Mark, as I see it — and of course I discussed this at length back on the old blog — the religion of progress differs from overtly theological religions because its promises have to be fulfilled in this world rather than the next. That’s what killed Communism — too many people realized that all those grand promises were never going to come true — and it’s killing Progressivism too. I suspect that something else is pushing the vaccine issue. My worry is that it’s something that wants a sharp drop in population…
Anna, thanks for this!
Copper, make yourself get plenty of rest, and do things that relax you — I spend hours reading favorite novels for that purpose, but your mileage may vary. That balances out the strain of the practices.
Peter, okay, you’ve earned the right to an opinion on the subject, since you’re actually doing something about it.
Bryan, that doesn’t surprise me at all. One of the problems with cheap sorcery is that the people who do it have no sense of when to stop.
Augusto, they’ll have much less effect.
Youngelephant, nope. The western world lost its systems of energetic anatomy at the end of the Renaissance — one of many things erased by the scientific revolution — and the work of reinventing it really didn’t get started until the 20th century. I don’t know a thing about Polarity Therapy but it might be worth a look.
Ethan, they’ve been doing that for a couple of decades now. It’s a great way to get more funding to climate scientists. As for the video, er, I’ll pass — there’s nothing I find less interesting than watching little colored shapes jerking around on a glass screen.
Mark, it’ll be interesting to see if real estate follows.
Bridge, yes, I do. I think we may be about to see the religion of progress go through the same downfall that hit the religion of Marxism in 1989-1991.
Hi John Michael,
Am I correct in believing that you have deviated from your usual essay writing patterns because you have some immediate concerns? If it means anything to you, I too share immediate concerns. When so much energy is being directed at one particular topic, I always become immediately curious as to what exactly is going on over there where nobody is pointing. What can I say, it is a personal failing. 😉
For a bit of a laugh I had a Joe Kennedy shoe shine moment the other day. Seriously, it was weird. The story goes that I was in a cafe picking up their coffee waste in the big smoke (I have an exception for this, just in case busy bodies were alarmed). I was having a lovely chat with an older lady just about life the universe and everything. Then she said to me (and we weren’t discussing the health subject which dares not be named): “things would be OK if it weren’t for those awful party goers”. Hmm.
For those who don’t know, the party goers she was referring too were most likely the Orthodox Jewish engagement party folks, whom were flouting the law and the media appear to have thrown under the bus. Why those folks took video footage and released it onto the interweb is an astounding act of stupidity which I really can’t get my head around. The fines were in the order of $350,000 which is candidly an expensive engagement party. Anyway, that was weird, but I kid you not, each day the articles were run about their stupidity, the media also ran articles about Neo-Nazi groups.
To take the rhetoric to that level suggests to me that we must be near an inflection point. And I have an idea about what storm clouds are building on the horizon – and some of us in the US and Australia might not like it.
Cheers
Chris
@ Nancy Oden #8 – I am fortunate in that I am able to buy (in the neighborhood) locally grown/raised produce, dairy and meat. Mostly organic. Pricey (but occasionally on par with or even cheaper than supermarket prices), but will do what I can as long as and to the extent that I am able to do so. I end up wasting less because I am forced to think about each purchase.
@ Nathanael Bonnell #32 – re: fiction and non-fiction in the same magazine: “Analog Science Fiction and Fact” has been around since the 1930s. Also, including non-fiction in ‘New Maps’ could spur new ideas for the fiction, as well spurring innovation in real life.
@Mark L. 15:
I value your numerous contributions to the Covid-19 discussion here and on the other blog. However, I am surprised by your first two questions (I will leave discussion of the others to the rest of the commentariat). In fact, I have been surprised by many previous comments on these blogs in that direction.
As a layman, I know of no viral infections that are routinely treated by pharmacological agents. The viral infections I know about are either left untreated (i.e. only symptomatic treatment), e.g. common cold or Dengue, or the are prevented by vaccination (polio, diphtheria etc.). Measles or pertussis can fall in either category. The one half-exception I know of is rabies, where an antiserum is given after the suspected infection.
The antivirals I know about have strong side effects and are therefore only used in specific circumstances. My daughter was given Tamiflu as a newborn because she was in mortal danger from a lung infection, but I knew and know Tamiflu can be quite dangerous. HIV has no cure and is therefore treated with anti-retrovirals, but these have very disagreeable side effects, to say the least. They are given preventively only to very high risk groups.
Now I do believe that one’s immune system can be boosted. I have taken Echinacea in the past when I thought a cold was coming, and I take vitamin supplements now, just in case. But I don’t think such agents reduce the chance of infection by more than a few percent, and more importantly, I don’t think a country can base its public health response on propagating the use of such immunostimulants in the face of an acute epidemic.
So, all this makes it seem absolutely natural to me to try and combat a new virus through vaccination, and I wouldn’t expect any pharmacological treatment to be both safe and effective until very good studies convince me of the opposite.
Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that vaccination will be both effective and safe, and it doesn’t imply vaccine mandates or any of the other bizarre policy decisions of the last 18 months.
https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/2021/08/16/farewell-to-bourgeois-kings/
Carl Schmitt, quoted by the author:
“In the history of political ideas, there are epochs of great energy and times becalmed, times of motionless status quo. Thus the epoch of monarchy is at an end when a sense of the principle of kingship, of honor, has been lost, if bourgeois kings appear who seek to prove their usefulness and utility instead of their devotion and honor.”
From the article:
“Nikita Khrushchev’s claims that the Soviet model would ”bury” the west represented the communists themselves becoming properly ”bourgeois”, in Schmitt’s terms. As it turned out, it didn’t take too long for them to disappear, either. Once your only promise to your citizenry becomes that you’ll give them more blue jeans than the Americans, you will live and then die by those blue jeans.”
Canada’s election has devolved into a fight about two issues, health care and housing. Unless established interests are made to lose out, there is no credible way any of the big three parties are going to manage to supply those particular styles of blue jeans.
UPDATE:
i’ve already gotten attacked here in the mission by the gentrifiers just for dancing, and i am still so shaken by the hell i got from the handful of people who were historically against censorship in art and writing here in SF (you’d NEVER believe it in a zillion years), i realized i’m not ready to go outside with JUST the armbands alone: i must go tits out in all of this so that i seem too fanatical to casually mess with.
so here’s my new outside shirt i will wear to go along with the armbands/facemask. you can see the covid pom poms to the side, but i didn’t realize that i’ve got the framed Robert Crumb postcard in the upper right background.
the people who were most disgusted with me are connected to him as if Angel Food McSpade was a harmless and cute mis-step for my “friends.”
you all, Papa G knew how we’d be dangerously tweaking these people with ridicule that backs up onto them. afraid ANGRY people are dangerous so don’t be casual with these taunts. practice and test out and practice your responses and reactions as surely as if you were a freedom rider trying to not punch back because that takes it to a whole other level:
http://erikalopez.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/LIVE-FREE-OR-DIE-shirt-back-scaled.jpg
JMG- Do you think any of these vote audits will turn out to be anything meaningful? I keep hearing about the Arizona audit…Any day now. Big news coming out soon. Next week. No, not this week, next week. Soon, just you wait….Ad nauseum.
It’s starting to remind me of last summer when we kept hearing the exact same thing about Bill Barr’s AG office. Barr was supposed to be working on something big. Coming out soon. John Durham’s gonna drop a bombshell. Any day now. Before the end of the summer. No, in October. No, before the election…..
I’m getting the feeling this too will turn out to be a big nothingburger all over again.
Also, I want to join with others and say a big thank you for all the comment moderation you’ve been doing these past few days, going on weeks.
“Anjuli, it’s a very common thing, and for good reason. The mind is not cooped up inside lumps of meat called human brains; there is a continuum of mind that bridges the space between one person and another, which is how things like telepathy work. There are ways you can develop the ability to tune into the continuum of mind, but I warn you — a lot of what you’ll perceive is pretty grubby.”
For someone interested in this, what would you recommend?
So, I found this on BBC today
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-58071592
Its an extremely poignant, well written article by an Afghan journalist, Bilal Sarwary, describing his entire experience of the Afghan War, from 2001 till now. I highly recommend everybody click that link and read it, and not just the part I’m about to excerpt.
That said, one of the things that really stood out to me was Sarwary’s description of the assassination-by-drone program that Bush and Obama ran in Afghanistan. Sarwary writes:
A little bit of personal background here: through my completed undergraduate studies and half-complete graduate degree, I took a series of courses that would have trained me to work in international policy-making-at the State Department, say, or perhaps an NGO. During this time-which roughly coincided with the first Obama administration-I followed everything that I could about America’s Middle East policy and the War on Terrorism.
What Sarwary talked about above-the fact that our program to assassinate terrorists by drone-fired missile routinely made mistakes, such as blowing away wedding parties and killing scores of innocent people based on incorrect information that there was a terrorist there, was well known. I read multiple blog posts and policy articles in the early 2010’s discussing this problem. But the discussions were all…clinical. Emotionless. We have a consistent pattern of bombing Afghan wedding parties. This makes the Afghans not like us. Here’s some possible ways we might address this. By the way, absolutely none of our suggestions involve immediately cancelling the assassination-by-drone program, profusely apologizing to the Afghan people, paying compensation to next of kin, and then asking ourselves what the eff we thought we were doing.
There wasn’t even any attempt to justify it, or brush it aside, or bombastically proclaim that one dead al-Qaeda leader was worth ten wedding parties. Just…indifference. As if the fact that our government was routinely bombing innocent people, murdering scores of them by the pop, was somehow not important. And lest I sound superior, the shear messed-upness of this never occurred to me at the time. I just read the articles, read something else interesting, then went to class the next day. It was not until I read Sarwary’s article today, and compared the emotional, horrified way he described the drone bombings to all the dry policy discussions about mistargeted drone strikes I read years ago, that I realized just how utterly awful the things we were doing were.
What is wrong with us? How did we, as a country, become so horrifyingly callous?
(@JMG)
Religions which make promises about the physical world rather than the hereafter inevitably have shorter lifespans, but I’m not sure they’re of a fundamentally different nature. I would be interested to read a theological analysis of Communism and Progress (and perhaps other similar religions), complete with their respective visions of heaven/utopia, sacred texts, sacraments, priests, saints, core beliefs, moral codes, etc. It seems to me that they actually map pretty well with traditional religions and involve the same parts of the human psyche, and it is telling both that Communism and Progress strongly discourage (or even prohibit) their adherents from believing in more traditional religions, and that those with a strong belief in a traditional religion are much less enamored with Progress.
I’d also be curious to hear more about *what* exactly you suspect may be getting involved in the current situation with a goal of population reduction, though I recognize that you walk a fine line between occultism and rational thought, and you may not wish to elaborate on insights from divination for which there is as yet no obvious rational explanation.
Thanks for creating this space, here and on your other blog!
Mark
@NomadicBeer
It could be as simple as population density = disease. The denser a population is, the greater the risk of disease tearing through the population. So on some level it makes more sense for city people to be afraid of contagious disease, than for country folks.
Now if they could just realize this, and stop trying to impose urban disease-control rituals on the rest of us…
Hi JMG,
I’ve found myself a bit surprised by Officialdom’s latest activities, regarding the mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Specifically, I expected the hammer of jab mandates to have fallen harder and wider by now, especially with the FDA approval this week. Anecdotally, I am employed by a massive corporation based in Canada, which draws the bulk of its revenue from the Canadian and U.S. Federal governments (generating a large volume of generous PMC-level salaries for its employees in the process), and the company position remains unchanged: “your vaccination status is private, please do not disclose it”.
Major media outlets are openly admitting that large portions of those hospitalized with the illness are fully vaccinated, and the WHO is urging caution against wide adoption of boosters (as is being pursued in Israel). Though you here phrases such as “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” just as often it seems like official outlets are shifting blame to the unpredictability of new variants, or the relaxation of distancing and masking protocols in the wake of mass vaccinations.
Three possibilities immediately come to mind:
1.) I’m expecting the big hammer of jab mandates too early but, oh boy, they are a’comin’.
2.) The ruling class has judged, as James Howard Kunstler has written lately, that pushing too hard with vaccine mandates could pull the pin on a national grenade, and they see no choice but to press forward with caution.
3.) The ruling class earnestly wants to drop the hammer, but they’re executing it with the same level of competence that they managed the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Do you see any of the above as likely, or perhaps there’s an angle I’m not considering?
Thanks!
Hmm, good to know that it’s much less though too bad it’s not nil, I should be careful regarding who I make angry then.
Re: energetic anatomy. Lost as in burned or an equivalent? How would one be reconstructed? I wonder if such systems get implemented from above the planes downward or the other way around. If the former, then it would be at least theoretically possible for a reconstruction, no?
“My worry is that the vaccine is being pushed for a reason that wants a sharp drop in population.”
Jmg what would your guess be as to how the vaccine will be fatal? Sterility, or just outright get us compromising the immune system like you said in the other log at dreamwidth?
You think the first batch of vaccine will be like the shower? The second batch delta variant has chamber?
@Alex I have studied this tough problem of inflation. One effective way is to offer a service in demand, or have a business where you cam adjust the price as prices rises. Not necessarily easy to do, yet it can be built over time.
Mary Bennett and Alex:
When we lived in Pennsylvania there was a small store in Tannersville where you could take lamps and light fixtures of any vintage to be repaired, including replacing the fabric covered cord. Most surprisingly is that the owner was at least in her 70s the last time we were there several years ago. As far as I can tell from a quick online search she’s still running the store, but is looks like she’s got another employee now.
I am the proud owner of my late mother-in-law’s dry iron, probably from the 1950s. You would have to pry it from my cold, dead, hands. It gets much hotter than the new irons (more synthetics in clothing nowadays that can be damaged by high heat) which is wonderful for pressing seams cleanly while sewing. My husband has replaced the cord at least twice that I can remember and the last time he did so I bought an extra replacement cord, figuring that at some point they won’t be available anymore.
My husband fixes pretty much everything around here; he learned a lot of it as a kid by taking things apart, often his mother’s small appliances. I heard a lot of stories about that. As he got older he graduated to more complicated things. Maybe you would do well to scour yard sales and second-hand stores for old things that you can disassemble and rebuild. I think that years ago this kind of activity was a good deal more common for children than it is these days.
Debricfrost:
My husband and I will include you in our daily prayers.
Since masculinity is one of the themes of this Open Post, an strange synchronicity brought a novel called Summer of the Red Wolf to the informal giveaway table in my apartment building’s lobby tonight. Written exactly 50 years ago by Morris L. West, a contemporary of my father, it is a very masculine book without the least taint of “prick-lit” about it. It’s richly human, and all the women in it are well-rounded people in their own right, instead of the cardboard characters Dion Fortune noted about the genre (along with its mirror-image, chick-lit, with its cardboard men.) The heart of it is a frenemy/brother/rival relationship between a writer sick of or with civilization, and a Scots islander who has adopted an outlaw identity from a bitter boyhood, and the writer’s old friend with (of course) a secret. The inner lives of these men was extremely moving, and the magic of those islands, compelling.
BTW, I’ve taken from it what I want, and it’s up to be shared.
Pat
P.S. and off topic: I have started deleting any posts I get on my email lists about COVID, and am skipping those on blogs, because I think everybody’s said everything that can possibly be said at this point, and everybody who posts has already made up their minds. Including, of course, me. Just FYI.
JMG,
Any clue as to what that something might be in terms of pushing for a sharp drop in population? Barring an Oryx & Crake type situation (I highly recommend that book if you haven’t read it already, it’s Margaret Atwood’s best work in my opinion and the most chuckle inducing apocalypse scenario I’ve ever read), I can’t see any group of human beings actively planning a population reduction in such a manner.
RE: New Maps – the first thought I had is it might be fun to seek fiction/ non-fiction like a fiction section and then a low/ no tech article maybe in themes. I think it’s Lapham’s that does that. What ever publication— they pick a theme like “Sleep” and then have a variety of things that touch on the theme. So say like the theme could be “hay boxes” – so maybe the fiction could include stories where a “hay box” is at least part of the scenery. And then maybe an article about building and using a hay box (one of the first Archdruid Reports essays I read was on hay boxes”. And may be some recipes and perhaps some old literature that referenced a hay box, you know something from the hay day of hay boxes…. And maybe an essay with a hay box as a metaphor…. Of course that’s a lot of editing. But suffice to say I think Green Wizardry stuff along with fiction would be a good idea. BTW. I like this issue’s cover art by Nathan Peltier
It’s interesting to hear of people’s thoughts of “Just get the vax and it’ll be okay”, who generally are not of that mindset. For what it’s worth, I haven’t gotten any thoughts like that, the thought of getting it has been completely repulsive to me the whole time, although I did have one strange dream where in the dream, I believed that I had gotten the vaccines, that somehow I’d already done it, and I spent some time worrying about consequences but mostly just wondering how I’d ever made that decision. I was glad when I woke up and realized that it was just a dream and no, I hadn’t gotten it.
I’m wondering if those getting those intrusive thoughts tend to be in areas where the vaccine is being pushed the hardest? When I visited family in June, it was the first time I’d been outside my region since before COVID, also travelling from a generally red area where COVID restrictions had generally been pretty mild to a blue area where they had, until about a month before I was there, been pretty harsh. I always notice the subtle differences between places, I think it relates to the inner planes, I don’t know exactly which, but I’ve always noticed the changes in the energies from one place to another, both on the micro level but also more broadly between regions. What I noticed recently is that the difference seems to have grown, become more dramatic, since I last made that trip. Maybe it’s just a change in my perception, so I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed such a change? My trip was from Missouri to Minnesota, for what it’s worth. I’m curious if anyone else has noticed those sorts of changes?
JMG, To your understanding, does that mean Renaissance figures like Paracelsus and Ficino had a complete system of western energetic anatomy to work with? If so, why didn’t it survive in their writings or in those of their contemporaries?
Good morning. I was hoping to ask about funerary rites and ceremonies.
Last week it was my grandfather’s funeral, and was conducted in an Anglican/secular style. While it was tastefully carried out, as someone who has made some baby steps along the Druid path, I feel there was a hollowness to it.
Any advice on what I could do as a solo ceremony to mark the passing of those close to me?
Hey hey hey, everyone cool it with the trash talk about Massachusetts! I live there! Actually though, I’m fine with trash talk about MA as long as you understand that where I live in far Western MA is quite different, more like southern VT. I live in relatively poor, rural MA, and it’s really quite lovely other than the seasonal infestation of what we locals refer to as “second home people” or, more insultingly, “New Yorkers”.
Out here there are pretty much two parallel cultures that coexist without much interaction, the mostly blue collar locals and an upper strata of NPR tote bag liberals. If I stopped talking to some of my neurotic PMC friends, I could live life entirely in the the world of the locals. We go to different stores, different restaurants, different entertainment spots, etc…. This weekend I’m going to my favorite event of the summer, the Cummington fair, wooo! It’s all livestock, tractor and draft horse pulls, lumberjack contests, crafts competitions, and it’s pretty much entirely free of rich liberals and New Yorkers. Maybe it smells too much like manure.
We members of the working class have been pretty much ignoring the covid panic since it started, and generally seem to be doing fine. The lumber yard I go to has a sarcastic sign up about how every year for the last 30 there has been a panic about something that was going to kill us all. The working class out here is quite busy, and quite uninterested in big city nonsense like the covid panic. Some wear masks, most don’t, and life goes on.
In any case, where I’m going with this is that even parts of wealthy uptight liberal MA are much more mellow and small town lower case c conservative and have at least partially collapsed already.
Hi JMG,
Regarding your replies saying, “This is one of the signs that something archetypal and transpersonal is at work,” I keep thinking the phrase, “an assault long planned.” I don’t know what/who the archetypes might be, or what their schwerpunkt is, but all this craziness seems to be coordinated in some ways outside of what humans can do. What do you think?
Does anyone know where to get good data on how many people have been vaccinated in Canada?
Dear Erika,
If I may, I so admire what you’re doing and am so grateful that you are so fiercely yourself! Thank you for sharing the work that you’re doing, thank you for doing the work — in all seriousness I find it inspirational.
Very best wishes,
Violet
Something’s been bothering me of late, but I think I might have an answer now: why did Communism fail earlier, comparatively speaking, than Progress? In terms of how much our reigning ideology has been discredited, I’d say we are well past the point where Communism had imploded, but Progress keeps going strongly. What/s occurred to me is that Communism and Progress both fill the same emotional need, one which no alternative on offer does: the promise of a better future.
Communism collapsed relatively early and relatively gently (an established religion failing is always a world class mess, but the Eastern Block didn’t experience the sort of catastrophe that often happens) because the intelligentsia in the Eastern Block were exposed to Western Culture and were able to buy into the ideology of Progress as defined here; and this gave them an alternative option which filled a crucial emotional need. This ideology then filtered down to others, and so by the time Communism failed, there were already plenty of people who bought into the Western myth of Progress.
There is no alternative, and so when Progress fails an awful lot of people are going to find a major emotional need unfilled: there is no better future, and that is a terrible thing to face if the present is truly wretched; and “truly wretched” describes the present for an awful lot of people right now. (An aside, this also explains why Progressives become ever more fervorant as things got worse: the need for a better future is stronger the worse the present)
Put together, all this means that when Progress collapses, the results will be a lot more traumatic than the fall of Communism.
,
JMG,
I’m assuming you’re a relatively active ham operator based on your comments regarding our shared hobby.
Given that “whom the gods would destroy they first make mad” or in our case bat**** crazy…..how long do you think we have until we hear our fearless leaders wanting “universal background” checks for amateur radios or the “Canadian Bacon” loophole? It seems to be the only form of communication that they can’t effectively control at present and my understanding is that they were highly restricted in the combloc countries and in some cases, still are.
Along those lines, are you seeing an increase in new hams in Rhode Island? In OK, it’s always been a popular form of communication because of our crazy spring weather but I’m curious about the scene in the northeast since I have friends and family up that way.
Lastly, what kind of HF radio did Mr Carr use to communicate with home in Retrotopia?
Any plans for a green wizards HF net if the internet goes down?
I’m hoping my Yaesu FT101 makes it another 50 years, even if its with my grandkids.
Just a brief note to elicit a cocked eyebrow and wry chuckle–it certainly did as much for me–this past Sunday I ventured into the big book store chain near me, Books-a-Million, and what did I find over by the Occult–*ahem*–sorry, “Body, Mind, Spirit” section? Two copies of The King In Orange, of all things. It looks as though you are somehow getting the scary ideas into the mainstream venues, after all. 😉
I do have to say that particular store is unusually well stocked, as big chain book shops go, as it also happened to have Dana O’Driscoll’s new book Sacred Actions–which came home with me (The King already having been preordered back when it was published a few months back).
Chris, it’s more that my muse is an opinionated lady and what I write about each week is a matter of what inspires me. That said, yes, I think we’re close to an inflection point.
Graeme, that’s pretty much what the corporate media has been saying all along, so I’m not surprised to see it repeated. I’d encourage you to look at several things. First, when you say that the vaccines are less dangerous than the disease, have you looked into reports in the VAERS system, which show that initial harmful side effects from Covid vaccines are around 100 times more common than equivalent side effects from all other vaccines put together? Second, have you read any of the scientific papers that show that previous attempts to create vaccines for coronaviruses have had to be scrapped because of antibiotic-dependent enhancement (ADE), and were you aware that the current Covid vaccines were not tested for this risk? Third, when you say that lockdowns work, have you compared caseloads in states and nations that did not do lockdowns with those that did?
Erika, good. Very good. Satire is serious business.
Blue Sun, I don’t expect them to make any significant difference, no.
Anonymous, there’s an extensive literature on the subject. Look up books on parapsychology from the 1960s and 1970s, when you could still study that without getting stomped by the pseudoskeptics, for a good starting place.
Tolkienguy, it’s certainly no surprise to me. It was when I watched supposedly antiwar Democrats ignore Obama’s war crimes in the Middle East that I realized that the left in the US had sold out completely.
Mark, of course secular religions have the same structure as theological religions — both are human social forms, responding to human needs and expectations. The difference I was trying to point out is a more specific matter, of course. It’s a very important one — a religion with connections to actual deities can do things that religions that just have self-manufactured thoughtforms cannot. (How many miraculous healings have been credited to Marxism?) As for what may be pushing for population reduction, I’m not sure. I’m simply noting which way our collective madness seems to be moving.
Balowulf, my take is that your third option is closest to what’s actually happening, but it’s complicated by the fact that taking the vaccines and shouting “Trust science!” has become a pledge of faith for believers in the religion of progress, not a reasoned choice.
Augusto, I haven’t pursued the subject in detail. I know that there are medieval European texts that show points for medical treatment that look very much like acupuncture points, and scraps of other lore, but you’d have to talk to someone who’d researched medieval and Renaissance medical literature in detail.
Austinofoz, I don’t know. One possibility is that the vaccines will do what other coronavirus vaccines have so often done and produce severe antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), triggering cytokine storms and fatal lung inflamation in a very large number of people. Another is that the microclots generated by the spike protein in the vaccines will cause heart attacks, strokes, and other blood vessel blockages, which can very readily be fatal. Another is that the immune system weakness that’s been reported in some cases will turn out to be a serious long-term problem. Or it might be something else. All I have so far is a very bad feeling about all this.
Dennis, I didn’t say it was anything human.
Youngelephant, good question. I’ve read that Paracelsus had quite a bit of energetic knowledge, but I haven’t studied his works in detail. As for why it didn’t survive, it might have; how much of Paracelsus have you read? 😉
Russell, that’s not something I’ve looked into at all. Anyone else?
Squirrel, oh, the people of Massachusetts are fine. (Well, outside of Boston, at least.) The problem is your state government.
Bird, that’s normal when we’re dealing with the other-than-human. They don’t have our short attention span. I’m reminded of the unicorn’s advice to Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn: “You must never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention.”
Anonymous, that’s my guess also. I’ve been trying to offer an alternative that includes the recognition that the future is not going to be better, but of course it’s not very popular.
BobinOK, actually, I haven’t had the time to do much on the air recently — not enough hours in the day. The ham scene in Rhode Island is lively, but what I’ve seen of it is mostly obsessed with contests. Carr was communicating with home using a Brazilian radio — the brand doesn’t exist yet, but it’ll be very popular after 2050 or so among governments as well as higher-end amateur users. As for a green wizards HF net, that’s one of the things I’ve left to others to take care of if they feel inspired to do so!
Moi_Drui, good heavens. Okay, that’s worth knowing. I’ll be sure to tell Dana that her book is getting into circulation!
For those looking for investment opportunities, I suggest hitting up your local estate sales and pawnshops for the older American made tools, ie Craftsman, SK, Easco etc… They aren’t made this good anymore thanks to lower quality steel and other cost cutting measures. My sockets and wrenches from the 80s and 90s will outlast my grandchildren long after I’m gone if given proper care.
Also, how to books will be invaluable in the future and are pennies now. At a recent estate sale, I picked up the whole set of Time Life home improvement books (25 or so) for $20. About 12 or so contain information that I am relatively unfamiliar with such as the best way to level a dirt pad and working wood completely by hand (no electricity) so they will pay for themselves the first time I actually use the knowledge they contain. For the topics I am familiar with, those books can become loaners or part of a future library. My library is full of such finds, including classical literature that we have a duty to preserve.
Wealth is more than just accumulating the currency of the nation and knowing your way around a toolbox is an easy way to make yourself welcome in any community.
@ Graeme Bushell
The key point missing from your list is evolution. RNA viruses mutate incredibly fast. Unless you can get to herd immunity quickly or produce a vaccine which achieves herd immunity (which you can’t), anything you do is just changing the selection pressures on the virus. In the normal course of events, the selection pressure on viruses are towards the weaker mutations for the simple reason that stronger mutations kill the host and therefore don’t spread. Weaker mutations where the host is asymptomatic or mildly ill is exactly what you want because they also provide cross immunity against any stronger mutations that pop up later. That’s why all other respiratory viruses eventually turn into relatively harmless cold and flu viruses with seasonal variation as stronger mutations pop up now and then before returning to the mean (yes, even the Spanish flu).
That’s what sars-cov-2 would have done and maybe still will do. Except, we changed the selection pressures on it by locking down and vaccinating. All we did was slow the spread and encourage mutations. Let’s pretend the vaccines do somehow work to prevent serious illness. All that achieves is to select for the stronger mutations. Those stronger mutations would have otherwise killed the host but now they don’t because of the vaccine. So, the vaccinated become vectors for stronger mutations of the virus which then pose a risk to the unvaccinated. Ok, so let’s vaccinate everybody to protect them from the stronger mutations, right? But who in their right mind would want to vaccinate a whole population with a technology that has no long term testing especially when there are known risks like ADE? Whatever happened to not putting all your eggs in one basket. Even if it somehow “worked”, you now have a population that has to take a booster shot every six months because otherwise they will be unprotected against the stronger mutations of the virus that you have encouraged.
That doesn’t even get into the direct side effects of the vaccines or the social, economic and political ramifications of the measures. When the smoke has cleared, I think corona will go down as the greatest peacetime failure of government policy certainly in the post war period and maybe even longer than that. At best, everything thing we did will be for nothing. At worst, well, you can fill in the blanks.
@John Michael Greer
What’s your thoughts on the existence of the Proto-Totalitarian State of Qin?
One review states:
The book describes a government system that was developed and implemented by emperor Qin Shihuang and his Prime Minister LI Si in 211 BC. Qin Shihuang was the emperor that conquered all other states that ended the Warring States Period that lasted from 401 – 221 BC. The emperor would not have succeeded with his victories without applying the Legalist system Legalism is not only a theory, it was implemented.
The purpose of the legalist system was to make the state as powerful as possible with at its head a king or emperor that had absolute power. The emperor decide what had to be done and could not be challenged by any person or group. The emperor used the law to tell the people what to do and think. Nobody could refuse what the law specified and nobody was allowed to question or criticize any law the emperor had issued. The emperor decided when and how to change laws. It was not the “role of law”, it was ruling with laws.
To achieve absolute adherence severe punishments were applied. Nobody could question a verdict nobody could issue a pardon. This also required a “thought police”, the “universal mutual surveillance system.” Families were organized in groups of five ten. Each member had to report if anybody was acting or expressing opinions forbidden by law. A person that did not report suspicious behavior was punished the same the person that had broken the law.
The country was divided in 64 provinces (“commanderies”) each with a civil servant as its head, chosen and appointed by the emperor. In principle anybody could become a member of the civil service after passing a civil service examination. The civil servants were promoted on a basis of performance and without regard family relations or wealth. This system was very effective and still functions to day
After the emperor’s death, the dynasty collapsed. The first emperor of the next dynasty,
Goazu of Han was a legalist. He replaced the legalist teachings with Confucianism, which was reinforced by a successor Emperor Wu of Han. The author writes about this change as follows ” Legalist tenets exerted an enduring and overriding influence on China’s imperial institutions and political practices,,,,. The function of Confucianism as a tool…as a rhetoric ploy for policy justification has proven to be effective.”. “This feature of the Chinese imperial political tradition is referred to by most, if not by all, Chinese scholars as wairu neifa (outside Confucian, inside Legalist).” The two Han emperors certainly did not act in according with Confucian concepts.
Mao Zedong admired Qin Shihuang and strongly opposed Confucianism. Mao said: “Emperor Qin Shihuang buried only 460 Confucian scholars alive (page 129). We burned 46.000 Confucian scholars. I think that he killed too few Confucians… Those Confucian scholars were indeed counterrevolutionaries.”
Deng Xiaoping after succeeding Mao changed direction. Deng Xiaoping worked for Sun Yat – sen known as the father of modern China. Sun Yat – sen considered “Universal Love’ very important a concept, advocated by another Chinese Scholar of the warring states period, Mo Tzu. Deng increased freedom and with his policy of “Open Up and Reform” reduced legalistic influences, traces are still left.
The experience with legalism shows that it is necessary that even though breaking laws needs punishment, excessive punishment leads to instability. The administration of provinces by competent civil servants rather than by nobles or aristocrats had become standard practice.
This is an important book if you want to understand the history of China and the merits and the risks of centralizing power without restraints in one leader.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563247798/qid=1076429348/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8537935-9240666?v=glance&s=books
In addition there is extremely draconian punishments against any form of rebellion. Often involves punishing every last one of the loved ones of the rebels.
“From the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) Dynasties onward, the extent to which those within the family were exterminated was increased. Under the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368 – 98), those committing rebellion and treason were punished by having their parents, grandparents, brethren (by birth, as well as “sworn brothers”), children, grandchildren, those living with the criminal regardless of surname, uncles and the children of brethren put to death, as well as death themselves by slow slicing or lingchi.[15][16] The number of sentences during the Ming were higher than that of the Tang,[17][18] due to the policy of “showing mercy beneath the sword” (Chinese: 刀下留情), while females were given the choice to become slaves rather than to be killed. A rare case was Fang Xiaoru (1357–1402), whose students and friends were also executed as the 10th family by the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402 — 1424), the only case where “ten exterminations” was officially sentenced and carried out. The punishment by family extermination during the Qing Dynasty was a direct imitation of the regulation under the Ming.[19]”
https://infogalactic.com/info/Nine_familial_exterminations
It goes to show Totalitarianism can exist in a large pre-industrial society. But the surveillance was to be done by people in the same family and group. And involves quite a lot of terror that is far in excess of the French revolution.
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to live with the overwhelming bleak grey tyranny that has befallen Melbourne. Today is day 207 of something very close to house arrest.
re: feminism and the crisis of masculinity
Whether feminine or masculine, liberation comes about through going beyond self, somehow, and I’m grateful to a woman for once, a long time ago, helped me to do just that, and also introduced me to a couple of old Tibetan guys, one with a huge following, one with a tiny following. Both were men of integrity, monks. Then there is the epic story of the Iron Bridge builder, TangTong Gyalpo who in the 14th CE diverted iron ore which would have been made into weapons of war, into a total of 58 iron chain link suspension bridges around the Himilayan region. Also, a monk.
Im not a monk, but I have never been a father. My father never bowed to anyone. Neither did my mother. OTOH hubris was not their problem. They had a happy home, so rare ……
I could be a monk, but not in a monastery. I’d get kicked out in the first week. Now I’m a grumpy geezer who don’t take no **** from people who don’t listen to what I have to say. Which is basically, No, No, and No. Occasionally “I’ll see what I can do” which is also No but nicer.
BTW I love everybody, but from a distance. Probably should never have read the Kinsey Report, freakout! On top of that the biggest Fauchies back in the day are now running the world, as far as they can see. In brief, I don’t see the crisis in masculinity as being very important. I’m thinking about riding around towns in Vermont on my motorcycle, with my tinfoil covered helmet, cowboy boots, red leather jacket, sunglasses, mask and a white flag on a stick. On the eleventh of September. Someone please stop me.
When people from NYC ask me what Im doing, I could say, “Im in this Shakespearian movie, you want to play along?” Im Uncle Sam” Get it?”
Oh Yeah, the New Yorker running an essay called “Pond Scum” about Thoreau in 2015? 2017? No, this is a crisis in individuality. Conformity is demanded, hive mind, groupthink, in techy drag. Henry would be red flagged today, a misogynist, a domestic terror.
One thing I know, he didn’t work for the CIA. You can’t say that about everybody.
I’d be interested to hear how those of you in the northeastern part of North America who spend time outside deal with ticks especially as a vector for Lyme disease. We have ticks in the western part of course, but they seem more manageable and somewhat less intensely numerous.
(I’ll reply here, but if either of you want to continue this discussion let’s move it over to covid-land on JMG’s other blog.)
@Matthias
Re: my first question
It’s not so much that I found it odd that there was a hope for a vaccine, which of course would be true. It’s that from the first days of the pandemic and lockdowns, there was an assumption that there *would* be an effective vaccine if we could wait 12-18 months. That struck me as the same sort of wishful progress-thinking as claims that we will have fusion power in 20 years, or energy too cheap to meter in the not-so-distant future. Such a timeline would be reasonable for a vaccine against a new strain of the flu, but we have *never* created a release-ready vaccine against an entirely novel virus that quickly, and a number of viruses (including HIV and RSV) have resisted our efforts to create an effective vaccine for decades.
So there was an expectation created in the populace that greatly increased the odds that vaccines would be released without adequate testing regarding long-term safety and effectiveness, and also a great deal of undeserved trust/faith placed in the products once they were released.
Re: alternative treatments
Your reasoning may help to explain in part why so much energy was directed toward vaccine development vs. treatments, but it seems to me there is more to it. Part of it may be profit (which would also explain the use of remdesivir despite minimal benefit), but I think part of it is also the near-sacred status that vaccines have in the religion of Progress. Simon S. would frame this as fulfilling the script of “the Plague Story” which I think is another useful way of thinking about it.
This site has been criticized as it is purely an aggregator with no filters for study quality, but clearly there have been many, many investigations of potential early treatments for Covid-19, with quite a few showing strong replicable effects. So it is odd to me that e.g. proxalutamide did not qualify for its own Operation Warp Speed and massive investment after showing 86% effectiveness, but is instead plodding along through pilot studies at one research hospital in Brazil.
https://c19early.com/
@Graeme
I don’t think you’re too far from the median ideas of folks in this community, though perhaps the folks with views further to the edges are more vocal. I’m less convinced that masks make a meaningful difference, and I don’t think lockdowns work unless they are very strict, applied when case levels are very low, and coupled with massive testing and contact tracing. With the virus becoming endemic I think we are past the point when lockdowns make any sense from a cost/benefit analysis perspective, and Australia and New Zealand have gotten themselves into a pickle with their success so far given that they don’t really have an exit strategy if the vaccines don’t block infection. As for the vaccines, I’m convinced that injuries and deaths are much more common than those official numbers, and I’m also concerned that effectiveness against severe illness will start to decline soon and that we may very well see negative efficacy (antibody-dependent enhancement or original antigenic sin) when faced with the next round of variants.
Hi JMG,
I can’t thank you enough for your blog, teachings and books. You truly are outstanding.
I’ve been practicing 20m of meditation a day for nearly 12 months now – but only recently switched to discursive meditation over the last couple of months. I find I’m a lot more grounded in my body and hold it in a much more relaxed state thanks to all the practice sitting in the relaxed upright posture. However, over the last few months I’ve been experiencing increasing energy? disturbances in my body, particularly in my throat and heart space (and every now and again my stomach). Whenever I sit to meditate the muscles in my neck start visibly pulsating and there is a building sensation in my throat – there is also sometimes a completely involuntary clicking in my throat. While the energy in my heart feels like a blisfully painful sensation. In my stomach it tends to be rumbling, a sinking feeling and pain. At first I just let it all be, assuming that it might pass and not thinking anything of it. However, I am now feeling these sensations throughout my daily life outside of meditation and they seem to be becoming more obtrusive. I wondering if you could give any insight into what these might be and how best to approach the situation.
Thanks,
Novice meditator
Newbie Gardeners, Mary Bennett #89 and Dennis L #68. Your comment on sharpening pointy things, set off a chain of thought. This last weekend, I attended a demonstration of sharpening garden tools, kitchen knives and scissors. How did I make it to 72 and not know this stuff?
I live in government senior housing, but every Tuesday morning, the Master Gardeners show up. They’re the one’s who did the demonstration. Who are the Master Gardeners?
https://mastergardener.extension.org/about-us-2/
Now, being a national organization, some of the local chapters might be pretty lame. Your mileage may vary. But our group are lovely people, just full of useful information. Unfortunately, probably due to You Know What, attendance was kind of sparse. Four Master Gardeners (including the presenter), someone’s five year old grand daughter …. and me. Bowling alone?
A couple of interesting things, were mentioned. Back in Ye Old Times, people traveled the country, making a living sharpening things. And, at one of our local farmer’s markets, a guy sets up every week to sharpen stuff. Drop off your dull, do your shopping, pick up your sharpened tools. Lew
@Slithy Toves
“Macchiavelli was a republican and the book was intended to undermine the authority of the nobility …. ”
Yes exactly, as Tim Parks mentions in his foreword as well:
Advising to pretense in religiosity was Macchiavelli’s biggest outrage. He certainly does so, although interestingly enough some of the very few seemingly moral statements in this translation of Macchiavelli do ultimately pay respect to god.
Macchiavelli kind of says something along the lines – if I remember correctly – that god is pretty much infallible and good, but humans are not.
He then delves, towards then end of the book especially, into very interesting ruminations about human nature.
As to Macchiavelli being republican: his work “The Prince” was more or less an application for office to an adolescent noble who was just put into power. As Tim Parks speculates, this young noble probably wasn’t very interested i being literate, and the shockingly direct advice of Macchiavelli was barely a good idea for an application to office. But at the time Macchiavelli was living in exile, nobody cared!
As to being Republican: Macchiavelli also discusses advantages and disadvantages of different forms of government and gives recommendations.
He recommends how to deal with the nobility – they have a bigger foresight and capacity of scheming than the rest of the populace, thus more dangerous, however the rest of the populace is more numerous, and needs to be pacified.
If I remember correctly, his advice is to pacify the populace and gain their support, all the while parking the nobility in a parliament to make them somewhat more ineffective.
Matthias Gralle #110, first-generation anti-HIV drugs had a terrible reputation but it seems things have changed since then: https://www.scarleteen.com/article/sexual_health/the_real_deal_on_hiv_prep_and_pep.
As far as miraculous cures attributed to Marxism, in every modern revolution hospitals have emptied as working class patients suddenly recovered and left to join in. The hospitals then immediately filled back up with distraught members of the ruling class. 😉
The point about invented secular religions imitating those which do have a connection with the Divine is very well made!
One thinks of those ludicrous Soviet stories about ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin just popping up to lend a hand in a difficult situation or mend something, puffing on his pipe – faint echoes of the Virgin Mary in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, or even the appearances of Khidr, the ‘Hidden Guide’, in Sufi tales.
I would call the secular atheist inventions ‘self-sterilising’ rather than having potential life, like a real seed.
Since last March we have seen the marketing of medical professionals and researchers as secular saints, too; the vaccines as ‘miraculous’ and so on…..
Or as the Sufi saying has it:
‘False gold exists because there is such a thing as real gold.’
I find this worth bearing in mind when the level of official and corporate lies gets overwhelming, and the sense of betrayal by so many complicit ‘scientists’ gets too much.
@team10tim, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll create a document and make a list. If you find the pdf, pop it over to me, and I’ll go take a look.
@Clark, thanks for the link to the comb-binding machine. I’ve worked with one of those machines before!
I’ve been hand-sewing coptic stitch books for a few years, but doing it by hand results in a rather thick book. This winter, I’m going to switch threads and try kettle stitching, so I’ll still be folding signatures and puncturing with an awl.
@All,
I am taking suggestions for a book that is legal for me to print and reproduce, as something to tinker with over the winter as I figure out a home book-binding setup. Preferably something beautiful, like old poetry or myths, or occult philosophy that you’d like to see back out in the world. One example I’m going to look into is Lang’s Fairy Books, if they’re out of copyright. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
In addition to chuaquin and the Covid lab leak.
I think the most interesting part about the lab leak idea is that, if it is true, it is the best possible scenario for how it came about. If Covid is genuinely the result of wet-market conditions or industrial farming – that is a much more grim situation. That means, it has happened once and the odds of it happening again are much more likely over the next few decades.
The lab leak idea however does seem to hold a lot of water. Seeing the folks involved in the investigation of the origins, they all talk in a manner that is very VERY strongly hinting that it is the case. They just don’t want to spell it out probably for fear of backlash. You know the kind, committed “suicide” by shooting themselves in the back 5 times.
JMG, are you familiar with Steph Young and Dan Mitchell? They cite you in their book Desolating Spirits.
@ Mark L, and @ Matthias Gralle. I am a trained TCM (traditional chinese medicine) acupuncturist, and also an avid LAY reader of the medical literature.
One of the things that our professors emphasised to us when I was being trained was that they found it extremely strange that Western medicine seems to have so little interest in treating early infectious conditions. (In TCM terms these often come under the heading of “wind cold invasions” and/or “wind heat invasions”) because there is a very long history in TCM of early treatment for such conditions, expressly with the purpose of preventing later complications.
In fact the TCM literature is full of clinical case studies and other medical notes arising from the significant number of Chinese TCM clinics and hospitals (or mixed TCM and western medicine clinics and hospitals) where this tradition is being put to use in tailoring early treatments for Covid, drawing on existing practices and deep theoretical roots.
I would also note that Dr Peter McCullough (although getting pilloried) published one of the few extant papers on the necessary therapeutic principles for early treatment of Covid here – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32771461/ The fact is that I have watched a large number of doctors from many parts of the world, describe their protocols for providing early treatment for their own patients, all of which succeed in preventing later complications from developing. Please note that what is important is their descriptions of examining their patients, determining correct treatment principles, applying their treatment, and then following up to see how the patient is responding, adjusting treatment if necessary, and so on. That is to say, their descriptions of their clinical process is as or more important than what specific products they made use of.
I would like to add that this subject of early treatment often gets “hung” or “sidetracked” into discussions of pro or anti a *product” (eg Ivermectin or hydroxycloroquin).** Whereas, it seems to me that the central point is that a practitioner of ANY therapeutic art, using whatever tools they themselves are trained in and know how to use, CAN make a significant impact in the course of a viral illness if they intervene early, apply treatment principles correctly, and continue following up the patient, their specific responses to both illness and treatment.
Dr McCullough’s team has estimated that early treatment of Covid can reduce hospitalisation by 85%, and I am not certain how they derived this estimate. However, I do know that we in the TCM community have always preferred to treat infectious diseases as early as possible in order to prevent their disease course from gravely worsening. I have been most saddened by the absolute disappearance of the primary care sector in Ireland, throughout this health crisis. The Irish treatment strategy consist of “don’t go to the doctor in person, ring and get a covid test arranged, then stay home, stay away from everyone, if you can’t breathe, ring for an ambulance.” To me, this is medical negligence of the highest order. Especially if 85% of those ambulance trips could have been avoided.
** It is my personal belief that this product-centring “sidetrack” effectively buys all parties (whether arguing for/against a vaccine, or arguing for/against ivermectin, say) a ticket straight into the product marketing debating arena (my product performs 89% better than your product”) that so-called “evidence-based medicine” brought” into medical literature.
Sadly, this arena where manufacturers and merchants endlessly debate the merits, or lack thereof, of *products*, has the effect of eclipsing and effacing “patient-based medicine” which is what clinical practice actually entails. What counts more in clinical practice than the selection of ANY specific product, is the care and attention that only a trained and clinically experienced human being can provide, and that only person to person.
JMG:
Regarding John Dee’s drawing this MM, the translation of his Monas Hieroglyphica, and similar geometric references in Levi’s Doctrine, how does one extrapolate meaning from the symbols? For instance, the first Theorem in the MH is “It is by the straight line and the circle that the first and most simple example and representation of all things may be demonstrated, whether such things be either non-existent or merely hidden under Nature’s veils.”
What knowledge would one require to understand what the straight line and the circle represent, and how they come to represent all things? If not knowledge, what manner of mind or thinking would be necessary to unlock their meaning? I ask because my basic modern education leaves me at a loss.
Dear Ecosophians,
For anybody who finds that life is getting them down, if you don’t know this Eric Idle song, it puts things into perspective — and has a very pertinent last couple of lines.
I find it hilarious, but YMMV as they say …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvwH8Qij0JY
@Wendy 35 — you made a typo which made my day, referring to the “Long Decent”. That is now what it’s called in my head, and makes me feel rather more optimistic! Thank you!
There’s something in Narcissus and Goldmund I don’t understand. Why does hearing Goldmund’s story shake Narcissus so badly? He wonders if that is a better way to live. But if he’d tried to do it himself he’d have been acting against his own nature and living a lie – which he specifically steered Goldmund away from doing.
Dear JMG,
Regarding Boston — In its defense it’s worth mentioning that mayor Kim Janey has been, to my knowledge, the only major metropolitan mayor to forcefully speak out against “vaccine passports.” She walked back some of her stronger metaphors but she is still against them. I am hoping to visit Boston this autumn and happily spend money to support local businesses!
Stay healthy Archdruid, and esteemed guests too!
If the vaxxed are believers in the religion of progress then Fauci is the pope.
Except that Fauci is now admitting that ADE could be a problem – see short clip. It’s funny how they are making all these admissions, (like covid can still be caught and transmitted by the vaxxed) after people are double jabbed? It’s almost like he’s not infallible…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtkeRJZnCHs&list=PLf4gED9YX_dek9e4p4oFq64wtYN5UN62j&index=1
What particularly alarms me, is children being jabbed. It’s one thing for an adult to make a bad decision, but kids have no way of knowing what they are consenting to. This is close to home as my 13 yo niece is now jabbed. My only hope is that an antidote can be made available, but I fear you can’t really be “unvaccinated” when it’s gene therapy. This has turned into a horror show. Thanks for providing a forum where we can voice our fears without being patronised by the “Trust Science” types.
Would you say that one of the dynamics playing out right now is people who are uncomfortable having to relate to people who have differing opinions to their own? I’ve seen this come up here over the past year several times and over on Dreamwidth too that people are upset that people who follow you disagree.
People express anger or disappointment or try to do that weird thing of smoothing over differences and making peace. We really don’t know how to live in community with other people, do we? Our school training really does have us wanting to be dominated with a clear set of rules and those who disagree expelled or shamed into submission.
Thank you for allowing a range of opinions and viewpoints and not being a cult leader 🙂 We’ve all got to get used to a lot of discomfort in the immediate future don’t we? It’s clear that there is no one in charge to do anything useful at this point in regards to Covid, economy, etc. It’s looks like everyday people doing their best for others around them is what is making things work to any degree.
Hello John and fellow Ecosophians,
This is a subject that have always been present in my mind and life in one way or another, but it seems to be a sensitive topic for most Western people, though I’m sure followers of this blog are not as touchy as those in other platforms and social circles.
The thing is, I’m interested in the karmic and spiritual relation between the Semitic people and those of Indo-European (Aryan) origins, it’s a very complex and fascinating topic to me. The whole idea of global brotherhood is a noble idea, especially when it’s executed moderately without stripping the races of their own sovereignty. I’m especially interested in the Celtic and Ancient Iranians. I vaguely remember Dion Fortune mentioning some stuff about this particular topic, but it seems to be heavily influenced by her Christian beliefs, that Aryans are the “spiritual” Israelites, while the Semites are the physical ones and that sort of thing. And something about the conflict on Christ being an echo of an earlier Atlantean conflict if I remember correctly.
There’s also a strange quote in a anthropological paper by some fella called J. W. Jackson on the Aryans and Semites. Though the paper is naturally tinted by the typical prejudices of its time, I find the general premise interesting. It basically claim that the high-castes of both the Semites and Aryans at one point will comingle to produce a new race. Here’s part of the quote:
“Now, the indications as to the future are, that the especially constituent elements of the next great Semitico-Aryan baptism will be between the two purest of the remaining divisions of either race; namely, the Arabs and the Celts (of Gaul and Britain), with just such a proportion of Hebraic and Hellenic, and perhaps we may add Italic and Syrian, influences as will suffice for cement between the two extremes.”
You can find the paper in the following link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3025042.pdf
What are your thoughts?
Aziz
How are green wizards supposed to hedge inflation/stagflation?
Because they own physical things, in the physical world and not abstractions, they should already be very well insulated. Because they are ecological, they do not have high inputs and outputs, and should not need to commerce much. Gold is a physical, real thing, and so are inner tubes. Knowledge is not a physical thing, but other people have to have money to buy it from you.
Men talking about men things is gay and unmanly. That’s the first rule of men things. Men don’t need to talk about themselves because men are first movers and act upon the world of outside things, and that’s more than enough work for anyone to bear already. If you want to navel-gaze, that act of work-focus away from self-focus immediately ties you into far deeper things that speak for themselves, not the coiffed cocktail discussions of mind.
Clay is very difficult, but you can amend as you seem to have done, broadfork to break up the created pan, plant deep crops like daikon, or as more common now, use deep tine machines instead of the plow, which does not bring the subsoil to the surface. Bringing up the ‘new’ soil can help add nutrients, but as you see, hardly worth it for the other problems it creates, and better left to deep roots to bring up wisely.
The cost-benefit of Greenwald IS being done. The poor pay all costs, the rich gain all money. As we’ve seen from the free Wall Street stimulus, Amazon, and that Bezos made enough money to pay every employee $100,000 JUST SINCE THE OUTBREAK. You get $1k income a year if you’re lucky. If they give you guff like Glenn does, you lockdown their whole town and put them in one of Australia/Canada’s new quarantine camps. What’s not to like? It’s all going perfectly as far as I can tell, if they didn’t like it, the wealthy powers weren’t benefiting, you’d hear the screaming and it would stop overnight.
I have heard the best way to write a good story is to start with a good story. I guess he’s saying: what more needs to be done then? No need to gild the lily.
Noise is a function of resistance: people sleep on a train, a bus station or Army C-130. Fighting it keeps you awake. Why fight it? It IS. There are sleep aids to relax such as Ollie melatonin, “Pure Sleep” herbs, or “muscle-ezze”(mainly valerian). But that’s not going to help if you fight, resist, and are offended by the noise in the first place. Forgive and accept it. “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.” That “silence” is yours, not the world’s. For “whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God…And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” I know people who say instead “I can’t. The world has to change for me.” That’s not a recipe for either peace OR sleep, ever again.
“How did we, as a country, become so horrifyingly callous?” Not to fear: we are equally or more callous to each other. It’s a function of mentalism: living exclusively within our own minds and egos, bred from the earliest time, and reinforced with attacks and personal betrayals if you dare become human expressing or supporting emotion. Mostly adults attacking children when they still have emotions to hurt. In short, a nation of sociopaths, engineered from birth. Stop humoring the engineers.
David by the lake re: policy In regards to your questions, my stance is every federal and state department and agency should be eliminated in the following manner:
*all government employees immediately terminated and paid their pensions which they apparently find valuable, with a signed agreement that they can never work for the government or any corporation. They can start up a small business anywhere they like.
*all government departments which write and enforce policies razed to the ground. Parks put in their place with the zoning changed that a building can never be put there again.
*legislation passed that no government department, agency, etc ever created again for the purpose of regulating and enforcing how citizens interact with one another.
Policy is enforced or used by the government willy nilly with endless court cases around it. Corporations profit from much of it. It is awful and an abomination to freedom.
Our ancestors ran daily life at the county level and this seems like the way forward to me. Counties by law largely can not enact sweeping policies in my state.
@Elkriver: #5 “— a brief feeling of intense relief and comfort, accompanied by the words, “Oh, just get the vax. It’ll be okay.””
&@JMG….
….this sounds like something the playbook of the Radiance! (scary)
I have a question to our gracious host as well as anyone else who would care to help. I am going to be starting a new agricultural job as an apple picker. I am getting paid according to the amount of apple crates I manage to pick each day, and from my experience, a lot of it has to do with one’s intent, so I am reaching out asking for help in that department.
With that said, I’d like to be as productive as possible, adding to the abundance of apples available to my society, as well as earning a good wage for myself. I’d like to know if anyone has any recommendations as to anything I could do in order to achieve my goal, natural magic, meditations, or otherwise.
Anonymous Squirrel #130:
Ditto for deep blue Vermont. The NPR tote bag liberals (I love that description!) are almost uniformly from very liberal, comfortable-to-wealthy enclaves in blue states: CT, MA, NY, NJ. Many of them are what used to be called ‘summer people’, although they’re almost as likely to be ‘ski people’ now. Would be nicer if they stayed that way, but too many have made VT their full-time home, which means they can vote here – and vote they do! – the same way they did in NYC or Boston. It is possible to live fully and wonderfully while avoiding the most obnoxious of the flatlanders even in Vermont by frequenting the places they usually stay away from, and those smelling of manure are always a good bet.
Oh, and thanks for the tip about the Cummington fair! Don’t know if we’ll be able to get away for it this time, but I’ll mark it on the calendar for next year.
JMG:
Ditto for the Vermont legislature and governor. Idiots all, and not even useful ones.
Hi John Michael,
I’ve become recently concerned with some unusual international events and penned a possible prediction for the very near future: Ghosts of Christmas Future.
We live in interesting times, that’s for sure.
Cheers
Chris
@Victor:
I read Iron John about a decade or so ago. I felt the “call” in the book to be sincere, but I didn’t really care for the book. Yet, I felt the need of what he was writing about. It’s still there.
One of the few places I like to go on the internet anymore is artofmanliness.com. I’m sure you’re probably already well aware of it. Brett McKay it’s editor and main writer has done a lot in the many articles there to help rescue, restore, redeem the state of masculinity in today’s world. The articles there helped me a lot in a way that Bly’s didn’t.
I found ham radio, while accepting of woman of course, to be a good “male space” in general. One of the weekly net’s I get on is a great time to “hang out with the guys”. Of course there is a girl or two on there sometimes, but it is a definite male vibe.
The more extreme ends of the underground music scene are also spaces conducive to maleness: whether its electronic music geeks, metal heads, or punkers… but as those tend to be co-opted by the larger culture. Music in a way was a safe space to be dangerous as a guy when other dangers were taken out of life.
Just finding those opportunities to get together with your guy friends and family and do stuff together and bring others into that fold is a start. I’ve seen a lot of good men damaged by the current culture and without direction. Video games, porn, drugs are their life. It’s sad.
I think, as JHK pointed towards in his quartet of World Made By Hand novels, as industrial civ unravels the need for men to be as men will become apparent. Since it is unraveling now… well, I suppose we just do what we can as individuals and try to help other men in our lives as we can. I personally don’t have time for a drum circle ala Bly, but if one my guy friends wants to go out on a day hike with me, or help me put up a different antenna, as my cousin offered on the ham net last night, that’s great. Working and doing things together seems to be the way to go… and getting that intergenerational aspect seems key, which is where fraternities and organizations or clubs could come in. (Mason’s have the Demolay’s still for instance.)
Peterson, I haven’t read, I perused him though. What I find to be fascinating, is how other Jungians have vilified him. That in itself was a big turn off to me, of some people whose work I’d had some respect for.
…anyway… just some thoughts!
John–
Ethics question. You have repeatedly warned against performing magic on someone without their knowledge/permission–even, as I recall, if it is intended to be helpful. Is prayer acceptable?
I find myself in a quandary. A few days ago, I overheard portions of a managerial conversation that I shouldn’t have. The door was closed, but the speaker-phone volume was high enough that I could make make out portions of that speaker’s part of the discussion. The office in question is right by my cubicle, where I was working. It became clear that the subject of the conversation was a coworker–I was able to make an educated guess as to who–and the person on the phone was our labor attorney. The conversation had to do with performance issues, issues around potential termination, and the fact that the employee in question is in a protected class. (She’s pregnant.)
Later, I did let the senior manager involved know that she needs to be aware of her speaker phone volume and assured her that I would not reveal anything I knew. (Which I wasn’t supposed to know anyway.) She was very appreciative that I told her of that.
My quandary is that the employee in question is a friend, a young woman (this is her first child) who has been with us for many years–first as a student worker, then as a college intern, and for the past few years as a full-time employee. I’d like to do something to help her situation–if her manager and senior manager are checking in with the labor attorney, I can only assume the situation is grave–but I cannot “get permission” because I’m not supposed to know what I know in the first place. If I cannot do any workings on her behalf, can I lift her up in my prayers without ethical concerns?
Feeling Jung in Afghanistan
Okay, in my first comment here this week, I mentioned the need to take breaks from reading stories about C19 and the Afghanistan debacle. I’d been getting a bit consumed by it all the past few weeks, reading through the comments on the new open posts on JMGs other blog has really been good. But also I need to focus on other things too. Anyway, it’s all still be on my mind.
I’d had the luck to meet the late poet and Jungian therapist and jazz lover Paul Pines back when I was a regular part of a local poetry club. He and I corresponded a bit and he was very generous with giving me some feedback about my own poems. One of the things I really liked about Paul, and that set him apart from most other contemporary poets, was that he wasn’t afraid of magic and myth and mysticism.
He got cancer just a few years after I met him and passed away not long after his diagnosis. The last book he published, and was writing while he was sick, was called Trolling with the Fisher King. It’s an amazing series of essays that are part Jungian discursive reflection on the myths of the Fisher King ala Wolfram von Eschenbach, and also his own dreams and experiences. One of the things he touches on in tracing the archetype of the Fisher Kind is thoughts about America’s time in the middle east since the Gulf War, and how that might relate to unhealed wounds of how the Anglos have related to the part of the world that go all the way back to the Crusades.
With the recent events, his thoughts about these matters have come back to my mind. I’ll be revisiting the book. Others here who are lovers of Jung might also be interested.
He originally put these essays up on some online magazines, and the four that formed the core of the book are still up, indexed in order here, for those who want to give them a read:
http://www.paulpines.com/trolling-with-the-fisher-king
The book is also still available from Chiron Publications:
http://www.paulpines.com/trolling-with-the-fisher-king
.:.
@Moi_Drui & @JMG:
I also happened to pick up a copy of Sacred Actions at a bookstore I never would have thought to see it in! I was delighted to be able to purchase it from a brick and mortar!
It’s a cool synchronicity to see the male mysteries discussed here. I have been increasingly interested in this topic for the past year, and as a result have become involved in a group of men who are hosting male mystery rites here in Britain. I attended my first event in the spring, and found it enormously rewarding, so while I’m sure that there is much more to grow and develop in this area, I suspect that many of the rookie mistakes of the Iron John generation have been corrected.
Interesting to see our host referring to Masonry as a living male mystery tradition. It has occurred to me, as the brotherhood has deepened within this merry band of men I have connected to, that it could form the basis of a Masonic-style mutual aid network as times get harsher and tighter.
I am certainly intrigued by Masonry, and have considered joining over the years. With this in mind, JMG, I would be really interested to hear a bit more about what you believe the rookie-mistakes of the Iron John movement were, in case this might be useful for the group in which I am involved.
Hi John, in the light of recent events I would be interested in your thoughts on the concept of the Mandate of heaven. One can make a good argument that for something like two hundred years the Mandate of heaven was bestowed upon the English speaking world, but, now not so much. Indeed is there an opposite pole operating which explains why everything the West has tried this century has unfailingly gone wrong?
Mike
JMG said: “My worry is that it’s something that wants a sharp drop in population…”
I have to say that I appreciate your ability to actually change your mind. I am not ironic, I really think it’s something incredibly rare.
I tend to stubbornly hold on to a worldview and then suddenly hit a moment of crisis. It’s painful and it takes a while to clarify my mind to incorporate a new idea. This happened to me last year and it lead to a lot of anger and frustration, that I still feel.
On the other hand I think you started much closer to the “business as usual” end of the spectrum and slowly accumulated data and updated your view until you reach this scary possibility.
I hope you will write a post about your current thinking or at least about how to learn at the fundamental level of paradigms.
JMG and methylethyl, about city vs village.
I am not trying to guess what people are thinking, I am just trying to find a pattern in history. I don’t think the population density is the difference – after all most american cities are less dense than traditional villages.
I think that at some point in prehistory, a certain “civilized” mindset won and destroyed the competition (see Cain vs Abel).
People in cities have to repress certain strong instincts that limits tribes to less than 150 people. That requires a lot of rewiring in the brain. I think JMG touched on similar issues when he talked about “flight into abstraction”.
Even the ability of people to deny reality seems to be much greater in the city. That’s why I mentioned fear of death. I know a lot of people in the countryside and I have seen some dying and not one of them was actually scared. On the other hand, normal young city people seemed constantly terrified, even before covid. In fact I am one of them and I can only relax in a natural environment surrounded by friends and family.
I will try to think and meditate more on this and maybe I can find a better way to express it.
@Mark L #145 I’m far from convinced of anything, but fortunately, I don’t have to make any decisions, apart from whether to wear a face covering in the supermarket, etc. – they are non-mandatory even indoors (apart from hospitals, etc.), but the British government advice for England (it is a devolved matter for Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland) is somewhat ambiguous, perhaps deliberately so. I will probably be taking a vitamin D supplement this winter, but will not be taking the worming tablets. I will also be watching the booster program in the US and especially Israel, but there is currently a fair bit of pushback against a general booster program in the UK, for various reasons. (I am not following the Dreamwidth blogs, incidentally.)
@David BTL #170 From a (non-evangelical) Christian ethic, what I would do in a similar situation is simply to pray that the situation as a whole is resolved in the best way possible – that includes yourself, your friend, your managers, etc.
Greetings JMG and all,
Well, it looks like I may have to get a shot, to attend the memorial of a dear old friend who is actively dying from cancer. Being there is important enough to me to do this.
I’m a healthy, 53 y.o. female and am considering the J & J. What I’m wondering is if anyone out there has any protocols/rituals/anything I can do to mitigate any potential harm from the shot. I know Peter Khan complained of mental fog, plus there are potential blood clots. Preventative measures for those? Someone on the MM open post mentioned the possibility of fasting. And on Kimberley Steele’s commentary, I saw mentioned a Canadian First Nations clinic where people prayed and burned sage when getting the shots…
Seeing my friend dying of nothing related to Covid reminds me how important it is to see our loved ones and not let these Covid divisions keep people separated. People on both sides need to let go of fear and hatred, distance and mask if it makes everyone feel better and just be present with loved ones. As others have mentioned here, you never know when someone’s time is up.
Just threw the cornbread in the solar oven, another hot and sunny day here in New England!.
Be well all,
Ellen
Dear JMG and commentariat:
I have begun practicing divination with the Ogham fews. It occurred to me that I don’t know the proper etiquette for dealing with oracles. Is there one?
I asked the Ogham what the proper etiquette is and got Coll reversed, Ioho upright, Mór upright for the left, middle and right rays respectively. My amateur interpretation is that I lack the insight into that knowledge, that there are long-established practices, and that the oracle is a new influence from which I will learn.
This is only my second divination and I recognise that I’m not equipped to ask the question at this stage, yet it felt wrong to just put away the cards afterwards with a mumbled ‘thank you’. Am I right to feel more is in order, and if so, what would that appreciation look like?
Thanks to Elkriver for that post – I had the same experience.
I also noticed something weird when I visited the CDC website for some data. I was looking up information on excess deaths by state to do some comparisons (while I don’t entirely trust the “case” data based on flawed tests, I figure excess deaths are a little harder to monkey with). After I was done looking at graphs – graphs that showed that states with stricter covid protocols didn’t seem to be doing worse on the whole than states with few or no restrictions, mind you! – I wound up leaving the website with a feeling or absolute terror that we really were in the middle of a deadly pandemic and that I should get vaccinated asap and wear a mask at all times or I was likely to die.
I was nervous all day, until I went out with friends for dinner (no masks, only some of them vaxxed), had some food and wine, looked around, and thought, what nonsense. I’m at low risk and suspect I already had covid last year anyway. No worries.
But it really felt like, for lack of a better phrase, a spell had been cast. And I’ve had the same intrusive “oh just get vaxxed, it’ll be fine, and you can fit in again!” thoughts pop into my head.
It wasn’t this way last year….it feels like it’s gotten worse, actually.
@ Graeme Bushell
I know you do not want an argument. So I will just point out that I have been unable to find a factual basis for this statement.
“…if you get covid, reduce your chance of… death by about 90%”
It has taken me time to locate at least one official source, disease, hospitalisations and deaths are actually shown by vaccination status. It is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investigation-of-novel-sars-cov-2-variant-variant-of-concern-20201201.
In the latest available technical report (number 21, published 20th August 2021) – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1012644/Technical_Briefing_21.pdf – you can consult Table 5, starting on page 22, examining all surveilled Delta cases in England, between 1st Feb and 15th August, by vaccination status, to see figures that contradict your premise.
From this table, I extract the following figures:
Cases- 386,735, of which 73,372 (19%) are fully vaccinated and 183,133 (47%) are fully unvaccinated.
Overnight hospital admissions – 7,285, of which 2,204 (30%) are fully vaccinated and 4033 (55%) are fully unvaccinated.
Deaths – 1189, of which 679 (57%) are fully vaccinated and 390 (32%) are fully unvaccinated.
(There are various shades of partially vaccinated or unknown vaccination statuses which make up the missing percents – you’ll find them from perusing the table)
There is something counter-intuitive in that switch between your odds of being hospitalised (greater if fully unvaccinated) and your odds of dying (greater if fully vaccinated). Although the Delta variant is not proving to be very lethal overall, those deaths that are ascribed to it are most certainly HIGHER in the fully vaccinated group.
I would certainly love to have many more clinical details than those that are available here in order to understand this.
But these being some of the few unvarnished figures that are available to me, as a layperson, to verify the reputed benefits of vaccination for myself, and it reads to me as though IF you get sick after vaccination, your chances of dying are higher, rather than lower.
I urge you to check these figures for yourself, and make up your own mind accordingly.
Dear JMG I ‘am trying to get a book published in English. It is about a young female Swedish med-student, who is actually the Norse deity Hnossa, Goddess of sensuality and desire. Now Hnossa has come to Midgard to help the humans see their foolishness about a pandemic, and to bring back desires in their heart so they can heal. Do you know any good publishing houses that would be interested in such a story? Please write me back Kind regards Martin Grandaunet
Every time I go to buy food, I pass the Brooklyn apartment of H. P. Lovecraft. I know this from a friend that gives Lovecraft themed tours. She surmised that the place could be haunted. To me, the only thing haunting the place was all the traffic making its way to the BQE.
Through the night, through the blood and into the morning. I was told that that was symbolism behind the current flag of Germany. Rather romantic considering the past but I liked it and see us at the early stages of night. Monday felt very dark indeed.
Germany lost WWII, fascism won. The late great George Carlin. I often think about that and it makes sense of what would otherwise be unthinkable in free societies, the nazi practice of forcibly injecting people with experimental medicine. To see it across governments makes it clear just how much fascism won. I don’t see conspiracy, just a logical conclusion to George Carlin’s statement.
**IF** there were to be a conspiracy, I pictured the direct line to Cthulhu within the corridors of power… we never hear his voice, just the lackey.
‘Yes sir, it’s all going according to plan, a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it for a virus so deadly you have to take a test to know if you have it. The suckers have bought in, we just have to starve out the rest.’
That statement about the second time as farce seems appropriate. My end of 2016 divination of these times was a king rat in the hen house. I was hopeful about Trump but saw the aftermath in that image. Seeing it and living through it are two completely different things. Will the nazi rats sink to making buying groceries a vaccination condition? Seems we’re getting very close to that type of inflection point.
What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens.
I kept thinking about Benjamin Disraeli’s observation above in terms of all future projections. So many people I don’t want to lose took that stupid shot. I don’t want them gone but my wants mean nothing. The pattern I see forming is COVID cripples being done in by something other than COVID. The flu mankind forget… don’t know and the thoughts make me sick. Either way I’m not sure at all what the future will bring but you’re online forums have been an oasis in the madness. Thank you.
@ Nico Boyo (@boyo_nico) says:
#46
RE: ETFs
Nico,
With all due respect, this sounds perilously close to investment advice and while that may not be quite as problematic as doling out medical advice without a license, there are reasons that people are legally obligated to pass and maintain a license to dispense financial advice.
As to your suggestion, I could not disagree more and I’m happy to explain to you and anyone tempted to invest in leveraged ETFs why that’s more likely to land you in the poorhouse than to provide a stable growth in wealth over time.
1. Leveraged ETFs suffer from “leakage.”
Leakage refers to the fact that leveraged ETFs cannot do what they are attempting to do simply because of the transactions costs associated with a leveraged investment strategy. By definition, taking on leverage requires some type of fee and those fees guarantee that the 3x-leveraged funds will never produce 3x the investors money. They will however guarantee that when the market is down that investors will see 3x the loss! Just go to your favorite investment graphing site and map the return on a leveraged fund with it’s underlying index over any time period more than a couple of days if you would like visual proof of concept.
2. Daily returns do not average out to solid long-term returns.
As you mentioned in the initial post, the leveraged ETFs do not set out to accomplish long-term, leveraged gains, but “daily” leveraged returns. So if the market is up 50% of the trading days in the year and down the other half, the gains/losses DO NOT cancel out. A simple example demonstrates how leverage hurts when the market is down much more than leverage works for the investor on up days.
Say you invest $1000 in a 2x leveraged S&P500 ETF. If the first day is up 10%, but down the next day by 10% you may think you would still have a $1000 in your account. $1000 x 10% = $100, so you’d have $1100 in your account after the first day. $1100 x 10% = $110, so you’d have $990 after two days of “investing” in this product.
ETFs can be a useful component of any individual investor’s (or institutional investor’s for that matter) portfolio, but leveraged ETFs should be reserved for speculative purposes only IMHO. At a minimum, anyone considering these products should do a bit of research before considering their use.
(AFghanistan) Next challenge: tactical withdrawal.
https://www.snafu-solomon.com/2021/08/the-world-now-knows-what-noncombatant.html
It’s going to be difficult and dangerous…
@CS2 – re: bookbinding mentors – You may very well be already aware of these folks, but the Guild of Bookworkers has some interesting looking resources, including a page of folks offering various kinds of training here: https://guildofbookworkers.org/content/study-opportunities.
Hey JMG others probably have sent this but just in case ‘The Saker’ references you and “your brilliant” ‘Twilights Last Gleaming’ at Unz Review https://www.unz.com/tsaker/will-afghanistan-turn-out-to-be-us-imperialisms-last-gleaming/?email=daily
Just ran across this CNBC article titled “The ‘Great Resignation’ is likely to continue, as 55% of Americans anticipate looking for a new job”:
JMG, you’ve speculated that the delay of wage-class folk going back into the workforce is because their jobs suck. Looks like that’s spreading to the lower end of the salary class.
I thought this quote from Charles Huge Smith would be appropriate for todays scarcity in oil and how it came about. Here’s the link: https://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug21/keynes-inflation8-21.html
Here’s the problem with the Keynesian economic order: it stopped the gold watch in 1932 when the world’s supply of oil and other resources could still be viewed as semi-infinite: supply was just waiting for more demand as a signal to increase. If demand increased, supply would always magically increase in parallel.
In this magical kingdom of Keynes, any scarcity / shortage would be transitory for two reasons: 1) stuff was basically infinite; there was always some new source to mine, drill, extract, etc., and 2) there is always a substitute for whatever is temporarily scarce: if the beef supply can’t be ramped up to meet demand, then people can buy a substitute, which is presumed to be in unlimited supply.
In 1932, the world was still awash in oil, and hydrocarbons and minerals seemed abundant beyond measure. The human population was growing but nowhere near utilizing the planet’s agricultural and fresh water supplies. Everything was essentially infinite; scarcities were transitory or localized.
Set the gold watch for 2021 and none of these conditions apply. The human populace has roughly quadrupled from 2 billion to 8 billion, the energy consumed per capita in developed nations has skyrocketed, resources are limited by depletion and costs of extraction, and as a result, scarcities are not transitory, they’re permanent.
@JMG @Xabier
Thanks for your thoughts re: secular religions. Yes, it makes sense that the important distinction between ultimately short-lived secular religions and theosophical religions is a genuine connection to the Divine.
Although, from this perspective, theosophical religions can perhaps become effectively secular if they focus too much on priests or popes as supposed messengers of the Divine and on obedience to sacred texts, as opposed to actively cultivating a personal relationship with the Divine. Certainly this has been my experience with many American Christians who are also firm believers in Progress.
The question then becomes: what will the Progress-ites believe when their religion implodes? Will they flee to theosophical religions, or perhaps to a new secular religion with a new suite of false hopes and promises? Or might it be possible to establish a personal relationship with the Divine outside of an organized religious framework?
I suppose this question is at the center of “Ecosophia: Toward an Ecological Spirituality” and perhaps I am a bit obtuse for not making these connections sooner.
I’m still working (slowly) toward my “Grieving the End of Progress” book, and one of the holes I still need to fill is to begin to build a vision of life after Progress, complete with an embrace of Divine mystery to replace the failed promises of our dominant secular religion.
I feel that I have a Divine connection for myself, and that my college and grad school years were an exercise in trying on Progress as an alternative, finding it lacking, and then returning to my roots. But my childhood was pretty unique in a modern sense, and so my own story is perhaps not relatable to many.
Justin Patrick Moore #169 regarding Jungians vilifying Jordan Peterson:
“[Jung] used to deplore the tendency of too many of his pupils to make dogma of [his] concepts and once in exasperation remarked: ‘Thank God, I’m Jung, and not a Jungian.’ ” Jung: A Biography by Barbara Hannah.
Good day JMG.
I have a question about cooperation in American culture.
I love Americans for different reasons, for instance because they value liberty,
for their entrepreneurial spirit, and for their willingness to talk about the elephant in the room
(more so than in other cultures that I have been in).
One weakness I see is the lack of cooperation , and the preference for the great individual. It is good sometimes and I think cooperation will be valuable in the years to come. For instance the Japanese are very good at working together
My question is where are there elements of cooperation in American culture, other than in business, which I think is not enough?
Hi JMG and All
As someone has pointed out here in Spain the Supreme Tribunal has fobidden the Covid Pass or any other similar “schemes”, in particular they say the authorities cannot use this because “there are no sufficient scientific evidences that sustain that people Covid vaccinated cannot transmit the virus, and there are many studies that claim the opposite”, so for the judges the authorities have no basis to support the limitation of freedom of any group of citizens due to “sanitary crisis” or “national crisis”.
To limit freedom you need to have overwhelming reasons to do so, it could not be “easy” for the state, because, you know…..1984.
The central and regional authorities are furious, “we are the shame of the developed world, all the developed countries are puting in place the Covid pass because it works”, and other lies.
The funny side is that the political party who alleged against the Covid passport mandates has been Vox, which the other arties are saying is a far right group, “they are fascist, pure evil Francoists”. We are in very strange times indeed….
Our constitution is very strong, it was born after 40 years of Franco’s rule and there are many mechanisms in place to avoid the government and regional authorities to limit the freedom of the people, so in this case I can say it is working better than I expected. In fact the Constitutional Tribunal has declared “illegal” the complete lockdown of March-April 2020 in Spain, and the authorities cannot do again, they have to change our constitution to make it again.
Cheers
David
@NomadicBeer #175
This doesn’t actually strike me as JMG changing his mind. The overarching hypothesis here is that we will not see a fast crash of civilization as a direct result of ecological overshoot. That doesn’t preclude major disruptions as a result of black swan events or human hubris. If we do see a rapid reduction in population over a short time period, the effect will actually be to ease the resource constraints for survivors and thereby lessen the downward slope of the Long Descent.
On having the thought, “oh, just get vaccinated, you’ll be fine”:
Seems like it’s a test of the courage of your convictions.
The three pillars of Zen practice:
Great faith.
Great doubt.
Great determination.
(Yep, another one of those ternaries.)
Dear Justin Patrick Moore, if I may regarding Jungians vilifying Jordan Peterson:
I’ve spent many hours studying Jordan Peterson’s work and many more hours studying Jungian theory. From my perspective, Jordan Peterson doesn’t really teach Jungian theory in a coherent way. For instance, I’ve seen Peterson discuss logos but never eros. In addition, Peterson doesn’t to my knowledge discuss the contrasexual aspects of the psyche, and Peterson’s moralism lacks the incredible amoral vision of Jung with his emphasis on enantiodromia. Basically, from what I’ve seen, Peterson sanitizes Jung of everything that might offend middle of the road conservatives or Classical Liberals. That said, it’s been some years since I stopped paying much attention to what he says. Also, I admire Peterson and his work and found it helpful to study and think on, but nonetheless I found that Peterson doesn’t discuss a very Jungian theoretical model.
“He ran,” the unicorn said. “You must never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention.” Her voice was gentle, and without pity. “Never run,” she said. “Walk slowly, and pretend to be thinking of something else. Sing a song, say a poem, do your tricks, but walk slowly and she may not follow. Walk very slowly, magician.”
JMG, you mentioned this quote to Bird and I realized I haven’t read the book. I’m rectifying that now. You comments section is always an excellent source of titles for my reading list.
Dear Ellen for all heavens sake please do not take that nasty jab if you still are here is a good protocol from you, may Eir watch over you… Vitamine D and Vitamine C in high doeses not pills sun and food natual food, Nebulized hydrogen Perioxide 0.1%, Zinc, NAC (N-acetyl Cysteine), eliminate all vetable seed oil, daily sauna infrared sauna even better if you have, time restricted eating, organic food seek to avoid dirty dozen…. May Hnossa grant your desire. Kind regards from the North..
Does anyone have an opinion or wise counsel on spotted lanternflies?
They’re big, everywhere, slow-moving, and are, in Pennsylvania, the newest ecological scourge. They are an annoyance, no question.
However, it reminds me very much of the Gypsy Moth scourge that was going to devour every tree between the Atlantic and the Mississippi and then…. they didn’t. Did birds start eating them?
For the moment, I’m not netting my trees. I do step on them when they’re right in front of me on the sidewalk. That said, my yard is heavily overgrown and I see the lanternflies most on trees standing isolated in a lawn.
Info, the Qin dynasty fell apart very fast, because totalitarianism is an expensive luxury when you don’t have fossil fuels to pick up part of the slack. The common or garden variety authoritarian state of later imperial China, which was far less intrusive, was a typical compromise between the desire for control on the part of elites and the reality of limited resources, and wasn’t that different from other monarchies; attempted rebellion would get very large numbers of people exterminated anywhere you care to look. (Ask the Scots about Culloden sometime.)
Synthase, my take is to ramp up my spiritual practices and use the solitude that way, but your mileage may vary.
Novice, this is potentially serious. Please stop meditating at once and arrange to see a competent acupuncturist or Ayurvedic physician; it’s possible that your previous form of meditation did things to your energy body that clash with discursive meditation, and you need to take steps to deal with the imbalance.
Yorkshire, okay, point noted!
Xabier, good heavens. I hadn’t heard about the Stalin stories.
Michael, that’s a good point.
Your Kittenship, no, I’m not.
Eldritch, Dee assumes that you’ve already got a background in sacred geometry. If you want to get what he’s saying, I recommend Miranda Lundy’s fine little book Sacred Geometry for starters, followed by Robert Lawlor’s equally fine Sacred Geometry: Principles and Practice,
Yorkshire, what a fine theme for meditation!
Plateaux, good heavens. I wasn’t aware of that. My opinion of Boston has just improved noticeably.
Bridge, I know. I’m very worried about the long-term consequences of this.
Denis, that’s a lot of it. The difficulty is that so many people have a very fragile sense of self these days, and they identify with their opinions to the extent that being proved wrong feels like annihilation to them. Getting used to the fact that as human beings, we really don’t know that much, is a necessary skill these days.
Aziz, I tend to roll my eyes any time anybody claims that this or that ethnic group is “pure” in any sense. I’ll take my paternal ancestors from Scotland as examples. What we know about prehistoric Scotland suggests that a very ancient population of unknown ethnicity was overlaid first by a people related to today’s Berbers, whose language left traces in all the later Celtic languages; then by an assortment of Celtic-speaking tribes, some dark-haired and some light-haired; then by Germanic peoples, first the Saxons and then the Norse. The result is a fine genetic mishmash. At that, it’s less of a mishmash than most of the other Celtic peoples — keep in mind that Wales, for example, was the place where refugees from Roman Britain ended up, which meant that it got ethnic groups from all over the Empire. The only “pure” ethnic groups are a few little hunter-gatherer groups in very isolated areas. The rest of us are mutts.
Deadnotsleeping, well, what kind of magic do you know how to do?
Chris, that seems very plausible to me! Thanks for this.
David BTL, that’s a tough one, but the rule still stands. Don’t do anything spiritual for someone unless you have their consent.
Luke, the problems in what I saw of the Iron John scene back in the 1990s were pretty diverse, but two really stand out. First of all, it was very self-indulgent. A lot of guys in it were basically looking for an audience who would watch admiringly while they moaned and wailed and sobbed about whatever it was that was fashionable to be upset about at any given point, proving that they were Good People blah blah blah. I heard a lot of talk about doing emotional work, and most of it seemed to come from guys who had the emotional maturity of five-year-olds and had zero interest in changing that fact. The second was that it was wide open to grifters and con artists of all kinds, who figured out how to play the game and cash in on it. Since (as usual in such movements) it was unacceptable to question the good faith of even the most egregious scamsters, a lot of abuses took place. So a lot of men got involved, and those with any sense of self-preservation ended up bailing out. (A lot of the grifters I knew went from there into the Neopagan scene, for what it’s worth, and I ended up writing a song about them: “The Neopagan Drama Boy Blues.”)
Mike, I don’t find it a useful concept. For two and a half centuries, from 1700 to 1950, the English-speaking peoples dominated the planet because they were tough, ruthless, and better at weeding out incompetent leaders and promoting the talented than their rivals were. As usually happens, success then went to their heads, they became decadent, and down they went. Heaven didn’t have anything to do with it.
NomadicBeer, I’m not a great fan of Oliver Cromwell, but he had one great moment. In the middle of a debate in Parliament where everyone was holding forth as though they alone knew the unvarnished truth, he got up and said, “Gentlemen, by the bowels of Christ, conceive that you may be mistaken.” It’s good advice; I encourage everyone to stop at least once a day and ask themselves, “Okay, but what if I’m wrong?”
Ellen, that’s just it. We don’t know. Nobody knows.
Piglet, different diviners work out different approaches. If you pay attention to your feelings and notice what feels right, the oracle itself will guide you.
Martin, hmm! No, not off hand, but if you look for small publishers that produce books for the Heathen community you should be able to find one.
Jeff, er, that word “fascism” that you’re using — I do not think it means what you think it means…
Chuaquin, yep. And it’s going to get even more so.
DenG, the Saker’s one of the few people who’s reviewed TLG, and yes, I know he likes it — he also understands it, which is rarer.
Slithy Toves, I wonder if the people who engineered the lockdowns as a sales gimmick for the vaccine realized that the result would be that millions of Americans would realize just how much their lives suck…
Jon, that’s an excellent point.
Mark, it’s a massive question. I tried to address it in my book After Progress but there’s still a lot more to be said.
Tony, there really aren’t, except in some subcultures. We’re a very individualistic culture and we don’t cooperate all that well.
DFC, huzzah for the Supreme Tribunal! I wish we had a high court with that kind of guts.
Graeme (offlist), that is to say, you’re just going to keep on rehashing a set of canned talking points. Please just go away.
@ Denis, Varun, et al.–
Re policy, administration, and the necessities thereof
Denis, I can certainly empathize with the rhetoric of your position. However, as I argued earlier, some degree of administration is required for a functional polity to exist. There is a baby in that there bathwater!
Is your state going to have environmental laws? Those have to be administered and enforced. Statute does not (and should not) get into the operational details. There’s a reason that a legislature creates expert agencies and/or departments within the executive branch and delegates certain authority to those agencies. Departments of transportation, for example, to manage public roadways. Public service commissions for the regulation of utility rates and conditions of service, as another. And, as given by my first example, environmental protection agencies, as still another. Someone has to administer the intent of the law, develop operational rules and regulations, and make the thing work. Asking a legislature to do this is a recipe for disaster–legislators have neither the time nor the expertise to dive that far into the weeds. Given how we regularly witness the inability of some legislatures to tie their shoes properly, are these to folks you want making sure your drinking water is safe?
At the federal level, we have the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that was crated to manage and allocate radio bandwidth. Despite my experience with a certain degree of bone-headedness with its staff, FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) serves a vital role in managing interstate transmission tariffs and other regulatory oversight.
I served for ten years on my local plan commission (seven years as a citizen member, three years as the city council representative) which deals with zoning matters. We were largely, though not exclusively advisory, but we were the “expert body” whose recommendations council took into account when making final decisions on things like conditional use permits or changes to relevant municipal code. (The year before I got on council, we spent a total of ten months (between the plan commission, council, and the necessary public hearings) hashing out an effective approach to urban chickens. The process was tedious, but it worked and the resulting ordinance and policy was a workable compromise.)
Now, I agree with you to the extent that there is a considerable amount of bureaucratic bloat that can (and needs to) be done away with. However, some amount of administration is required. What constitutes “enough” and what constitutes “excessive” is a subjective assessment, however, and there are grey zones within which reasonable people can disagree. This is true with pretty much everything.
I served on the plan commission and ran for council because I wanted to have a role in shaping the policies shaping my community. Among other things, I felt a certain duty as a citizen to take part in its governance. There is a part of me that really enjoyed it, too. Had I had a better handle on the emotional energies involved in being on council, I’d probably have run for re-election. As it was, I didn’t so I didn’t.
Again, somebody has to do these things. How do we best prepare and train those people? How do we keep the (natural) expansion of bureaucracy in check?
JMG, I admittedly have not read any Paracelsus. Thanks for the hint. Ever since I took an interest in spagyrics I’ve seen his name everywhere; even in none spagyric sources (Jung, Levi) . I looked into his bibliography awhile back to see what might interest me and couldn’t find a meaningful entry point. I’ll do some more investigating but am open to recommendations! 🙂
I’ve always been interested in near death experiences and one aspect in particular – descriptions of some sort of heavenly music. I recently made a post on Reddit about this asking if anyone who’s experienced an NDE knew of any particular musicians or composers who come closest to what they heard, and here are some of the responses I got –
“Steve Roach had a NDE after crashing his motorcycle. He then dedicated his life to recreating the music that he heard in that “between” state. Very soothing ambient music.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nf65WXGUTmZtFZzsN6YJvcNBVi3gDwjQE”
“In the book The Afterlife of Billy Fingers, the author made reference to this piece of music.
The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius
https://youtu.be/HjyLWoJvtME
(Sibelius: The Swan Of Tuonela, Op. 22, No. 2)”
To reinforce the spell like impulse to get vaccinated, I felt it too! As my not advanced but solid science formation and experience totally stopped me from entertaining the thought of participating in a clinical essay of this therapy without being sick for many months, in the last two weeks and without peer pressure – when asked about it I answer that the matter is settled period – I started to doubt my resolve to avoid those “vaccines”. I asked geomancy three times already, in three weeks and the readings have been consistent: No, you will have a nasty transitory reaction to it, and no benefits at all. Thank you geomancy! Where did the impulse to doubt my resolve came from? It was very strong and very unlike myself to doubt my assessment without any reason. Banishing may be an habit to incorporate in my routine…
“I’ve had an odd experience 2 or 3 times over the past couple weeks — a brief feeling of intense relief and comfort, accompanied by the words, “Oh, just get the vax. It’ll be okay.””
The steady drumbeat of the propaganda machine is wearing all us holdouts down. If the wild conspiracy theories were right, the TPTB would be doing exactly what they are doing now, getting rid of the “control group” so they can blame the side effects (or true purpose, pick your theory) on anything other than the vaccine.
The actions taken are not consistent with the actual threat, and then they wonder why conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen.
And for the record, I am not anti-vax. I was in the Navy, and got lots of shots. My parents made sure I had my polio shots, and I keep my tetanus boosters up to date since I live in the country and work in the dirt at lot. I am, however, anti COVID vaccine, at least for me. If I was over 80 or diabetic, that would be different.
Back over the Christmas holidays of 2019, RWA (Romance Writers of America) began its self-immolation project. It made the national news! Some of you may recall my commenting about it. How dare someone write a book when they are not of the identical culture/race/gender etc of the heroine, especially one that dealt with messy historical facts.
Here’s an update. The pandemic shutdowns did still further damage. The forums were vicious. It didn’t matter what the leadership did; it was never good enough. The membership hemorrhaged away. RWA lost buckets of money and goodwill.
Fast-forward to what’s looking like the coup de grace for the group.
RWA renamed the Rita award the Vivian, to remove all taints of the past. The very first winner in the religious/spiritual category was a western with the hero having participating in one of the Indian Wars massacres (Wounded Knee, IIRC). Real, Actual History, in other words. Not having read the book I’ve no idea what kind of redemptive arc the hero underwent, other than he had one because that’s how this category works. I don’t have an issue with a western man in the 1880’s involved in fighting and killing Indians because that’s what happened out on the plains. Indians killed plenty of people too.
Well. The winner was announced (Karen Witemeyer and At Love’s Command https://www.amazon.com/At-Loves-Command-Hangers-Horsemen/dp/076423207X ) and much of the membership went up in flames again. How dare she write about such a dreadful thing. Worse, she implied that the hero wasn’t the worst sort of evil, an utterly unredeemable bloodthirsty slaughterer of innocents.
RWA’s leadership cowered, withdrew the award, and here we are today. Hemorrhaging still more members. At its peak, RWA had almost 15,000 members. As of July 2021, the group is down to about 3,500 members. They are, according to a member of our local chapter who listened to the town hall online, losing 100 + members a month. Most people are letting their membership lapse, folding their tent, and quietly disappearing.
Apparently, RWA can’t decide if it’s a writer’s organization or a social justice organization. Since they can’t be both, they’re neither and they’ll dissolve in lawsuits and bankruptcy court (the organization also owes $800,000 +).
It’s a pity. They’re deep into the circular firing squad phase and I expect them to be dead within a year or two.
maxinerogers,
I wasn’t much thrilled by the vaccine passport either, not least because there are neither religious exemptions nor exemptions for those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons, yet all children under twelve are exempted automatically. Discriminatory much? And it uses smartphones, and they haven’t explained what the process for people who don’t have smartphones will be, apart from that there will be one.
I think the exemption for retail is because buying food etc is essential to life and they couldn’t ban people from that. I emailed my MLA about the problems I saw, she defended it. I didn’t find her reasoning sufficient to deny people who cannot get the vaccine for medical reasons access to all social events until at least the end of January, and likely a lot longer.
I recently saw a couple of sentences that was a spectacular example of cognitive dissonance. Can’t remember the details, but it was something like ‘vaccine effectiveness looks like it may decrease with time and we will therefore probably need booster shots. We must all get the vaccine to defeat covid.”
I got the vaccine when offered it, but I am getting less and less impressed with what is going on around me.
JMG,
Are there any Gods/archetypal forces that you’re aware of that would be seeking population reduction? I originally intended to avoid getting the jab until mid-Fall so I could see the effects of the vaccine on the larger population first, but ended up succumbing to peer/family pressure and got it earlier than intended. With everyone going on, I have a looming sense of dread that won’t go away.
John–
Re my ethical dilemma
Thank you for that advice. Yes, it is a hard situation.
As I considered the incident, it occurred to me that there was a certain synchronicity involved as well. I have been having some “career path” conversations recently with my supervisor. We are a small utility, so upward mobility is limited. I’ve spent two decades in the role of non-management technical expert, but have another ten to fifteen years left before I’m ready to retire. My next potential step up would be to a department manager, for which there may be opportunity in coming years. While I wouldn’t want to go any higher (we have two more levels above department manager), our department heads are hands-on enough that I’d still be able to do some “fun” work (analysis and modeling…lots and lots of math) while at the same time having greater input to the strategic decision-making at the utilities. I believe that I was being shown/reminded that there are some less-than-fun aspects to being a manager and that having to discipline or fire people, even good people you like, comes with the job.
Mr. Greer,
Given the tenor of the news of the day, as well as the tone of individuals posting here who were off-listed, I am wondering about something I’ll call the technocratic turn . By technocratic turn I mean a point where “sophisticated” business or government agents claim they can make x happen without y. You know the claims: we can have empire without occupation, we can have free trade without poverty, we can lockdown and turn on the cash machine without inflation etc. Most of us here are like-minded so I don’t need to beat the deceased horse with examples.
Culturally, though, I wonder where we Americans can date the technocratic turn here. Some of my friends date it between when the Federal Government renamed the War Department the Defense Department and the Vietnam War. Personally, I would date it sometime around the introduction of Diet Coke and the Food Pyramid which were introduced almost 10 years apart exactly. I date it there because it signaled the time where the government, in lock step with major food corporations, proposed to the American people that we can have treats without calories and lead healthy lives eating mainly processed corn. I also note in passing that it is rare that you see a cultural huckster extraordinaire (e.g. Bezos, Buffet, Musk, or, especially, Gates) without a can of Diet Coke or some variation at the ready while they wax homicidal at conferences and speeches.
Thoughts?
-Anonymous Millennial.
David BTL,
I had a similar situation a couple years back. I had a new mother that I was friends with that was struggling at work. I did not have any special information, but the writing was on the wall pretty clearly. In this case, there was an attitude that just was unrealistic at our level of performance — that she would get significant training and not have to figure out the technical part of her job on her own. I would say you don’t have any ethical obligation to warn your friend about what is going on with management. My take is that if it has gotten to the point that you describe, the situation is unsalvageable. Management has made up its mind and is just getting legal cover. She will likely move on to getting a job that is a better fit, although she may be in for a period of difficulty. In the end, she is an adult and responsible for her own performance. Protect yourself first, especially if you have wife or kids or family that depend on your income.
Dear JMG,
I just finished The King In Orange. Great book. I liked it very much. You’ve covered a lot of that ground before, but it was nice to have it kind of coalesced in one place.
Toward the end you mention a transition from “there is only one way” toward more of an “everyone’s path is different” way. I see that happening.
I first saw it hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, where there is a common phrase: “Hike Your Own Hike” (or HYOH if you’re blogging). For example, some hikers are super ultra-light and cut the handles off their toothbrushes, and some want to carry a cast-iron skillet for cooking. It’s like, “hey man, doesn’t work for me, but if it works for you, that’s all that matters. Hike your own hike (and I’ll hike mine, thanks for the advice).
I’m starting to see a similar phrase in the front country. It’s, “You Do You”. Again, an admission and expression that we each have our own ways of getting through life that work for us, but maybe not someone else.
Both of these are used as conversation stoppers when it seems likely neither party is going to change their mind, similar to “agree to disagree”. But whereas I think “agree to disagree” really means “you’re wrong and I’m right, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore”, I think “you do you” and HYOH have no judgement on the receiving party. It comes across to me more like, “you’re right, but what’s right for you isn’t right for me”.
You also talked in the TKIO about how when the chattering class doesn’t get people to do what they want they “coerce, browbeat, and bully” the proles to get what they want. I’m guessing you did your final edit before the “vaccine” madness, or you would have thrown that in as a contemporary Prime Example of the phenomenon.
Dear JMG & Commentariat,
I guess I would like to introduce myself because I would like to be a more frequent participant of this wonderful forum where adults can discuss things that matter, and socialize a little. I’ve been a regular reader, and infrequent poster (i.e., lurker) since forever. I already feel like I know many of you as friends.
As to my username, my totem animal is the Long-Tailed Weasel. When my friends found out about that they started calling me “Slinky Weasel”. That got shortened to “Slinky” pretty quick. Then to just “Slink”. I kind of like it.
I used to post under my real name, but when I made the post where I admitted to working for the US Forest Service, I thought I should go anonymous. Not sure exactly why. It does feel safer though, and I like the name Slink, so….
@Mark L: thanks for your explanation. Yes, I do agree that it was weird to hang expectations so high with regard to vaccines.
@Scotlyn: thanks for your viewpoint, too. I agree that a lot of the screening by symptoms and the symptomatic treatment should take place in primary care outposts, as well as the contact tracing. Brazil has a marvellously capillary system of health outposts with care workers who go to peoples’ homes, and these have been completely sidelined.
For me, we can end this discussion here in order not to take over the open post.
@ CS2 #150. You can safely assume anything printed prior to 1920 in the U.S. is out of copyright. Copyright gets weird, strange, and the rules vary from country to country, but they tend to be clear if you take the time to study.
There’s literally tons of great material out there.
Look for The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More Ninth Edition by Stephen Fishman J.D.. It’s a NOLO handbook; they tend to be quite good. This will answer all basic questions. Check your library for a copy.
I wish there were a way to reply directly to comments on your webpages. Reply to Sam #37
Sam #37 says:
August 25, 2021 at 1:56 pm
Do you have any recommendations for creative writing exercises? I’d like to start writing fiction but don’t know where to start.
Write! Love words and precision in using them. And write! I am not an author, but I believe I know the secret of writing and writing well … you must Write! Write for yourself and those who come after. Write to record these times for future times. Write!
@ Graeme
You left one very important factor off your list — there is a huge difference in the risk of hospitalization and death from C19, depending on who you are. More than half the dead are over 80 years old. Most of the remainder are obese and/or diabetic. If you are not in those categories it’s hardly worse than the flu. But the authorities have ignored that and treated us as if every one of us is in deadly danger. As to why they did that, I won’t speculate here.
Two predictions:
– The pandemic will end when everyone, vaxxed and unvaxxed, has been infected.
– The vaxdemic will end with Fauci being lynched for his part in the gain of function research that kicked the whole thing off.
@ Nathanael Bonnell #32:
I am a reader of the New Maps Magazine and would consider adding nonfiction a change for the better as long as it´s not at the expense of shortening the fictional part. Would there be more pages to read? I, for one, would be willing to pay more for bulkier editions.
greetings
Frank
@Goldenhawk: That’s hilarious!
@Violet: Gotcha! I guess, I was looking at the way some commenters on Peterson seemed to be disturbed just by the fact that he is using Jung; & using it in a way that the PMC doesn’t really approve of. After all, it might be nice to see a Jungian therapist, but its out of the wage range of most blue collar people. (I looked into Jungian therapy… around here it seems very expensive. Probably even more in a bigger city where the cost of living is already higher.)
& Peterson seems to have disenfranchised men as his main audience. Those who might have made good livings in blue collar work… (if there was much of such to speak of).
I’ve skimmed some Peterson, and listened to an interview with him or two. I appreciate that he encourages people to read the classics and look at myths. Other stuff, like his ten rules for life, seem way too cut and dry (but then I haven’t read it, so I’m quite possibly wrong!)
My own Jung reading has been in Dribs and Drabs and picking up This and That from my other readings. I’d like to spend some concerted time on his writings.
Incredible, but true, JMG. I heard one of the ludicrous Stalin-pops-up-and-saves-the day-stories from a former diplomat who was posted to Moscow in the 1940’s.
I suppose all the heroic workers, snipers, pilots, etc were also secular ‘saints’, too (with at least some basis in fact).
But I see that Dr Fauci is being given much the same treatment, by the BBC no less.
I accidentally caught part of a Radio 4 programme called ‘Profile’, in which a US work colleague, asked to describe his private character, actually broke down, overcome by emotion, as she described his benevolence and saintliness – ‘He even talks to the janitors, he’s so caring about everyone…’ etc.
Saint Anthony of the Vaccine, save us, we beseech thee!
Dear JMG and community wait until you see the illustrations, pictures, drawings and the philosphy this deity, Hnossa has in mind to help cure this bloody thing. Hnossa has decided that enough is enough, time to make the people shift focus, she will reintroduce you to Dr Ernest Grafenbergs theories, and Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone energy, this will certainly heal any injection injuries, and those poor lads coming home from Afgahinstan they will certainly prefer this deity from any bearded God with hammer and lightening… What do you think..? Kind regards
Nathanael Bonnell #32 says:
August 25, 2021 at 1:33 pm
Reply:
“New Maps” leaves too many questions open to me. In particular, who owns the rights to my writings. I have no problem in allowing “New Maps” considerable latitude … but I want to hold the final rights to my efforts, in my own hands … or those of my heirs.
The ‘contest’ at Myrtle Media where: “By sending us your story, you affirm that no one else has the exclusive rights to it and that if your story is chosen as a top submission, Myriel Media has full rights to republish it here or in any other medium.”
… seems less than enticing to this undiscovered writer.
Jeremy Grimm
@Novice I have been a serious meditator for 15 years. I would suggest you replace formal meditation with the practice of the 6 Paramis in your daily life: 1*Generosity (material, emotional, mental) 2*Ethics 3*Patience 4*Energy 5*concentration 6*Wisdom .
If you want to continue to meditate, I would look for a local group with an experienced teacher and seek their advice / meditate with them. Most meditation practices were meant to be done with the guidance of a good teacher and group.
Erika Lopez,
I love your shirt. Bravo. If SF drives you crazy, New Hampshire will take you in.
I remember an old saying. To paraphrase: Yesterday’s rebels are today’s status quo.
All the best.
A few news from today regarding your hypothesis. The blame game continues, but this time, trying to cover it up with why it might be impossible to actually know, which makes me think that stage is getting over, meanwhile the American funding of dangerous research is questioned. So, perhaps we are in some stage between 9 and 10 and the media-induced mind control is getting the preparations ready for the next stage…
https://theconversation.com/why-it-will-soon-be-too-late-to-find-out-where-the-covid-19-virus-originated-166743
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/a-science-in-the-shadows/
As an aside, how do you do that? You seem to have an ability that reads beyond the charade and what people think they are doing, it’s not even their conscious intentions that you are good at figuring out, but what moves behind that in the depths… By reading from your work I seem to be getting a grasp on it just by mimesis, but I wonder if something in particular helped you develop that skill.
@Nathanael and Yucca
I, for one, think a Green Wizard’s Almanac would be great fun, and I’d contribute and promote on my podcast. If you don’t end up doing one, I may!
@Elkriver (#5) and everyone else who has had a similar experience:
Putting together various random pieces of information I have heard from a variety of IT people over the last 20 years, I’m pretty certain that a technology is possible which could broadcast a strong subaudible message (for example, “Oh, just get the vax. It’ll be okay”) throughout any area defined by a shared wireless network.
The experiences you have all reported make me think that someone — our military? our intelligence services? some “services for hire” company like Blackwater? — has actually developed such a technology, and has finally begun to deploy it within the US to push an agenda.
Most people are fairly suggestible, and many of them unconsciously use autosuggestion to create pleasant worldviews for themselves to inhabit. Because of this, such a technology would have quite powerful political and commercial uses as well as military ones.
One of the things that led me to stop watching TV some 35 years ago was a very strong suspicion that TV channels had quietly resumed airing advertisements incorporating very subtle subliminal suggestions. How much further will such a technology have advanced from the mid-1980s down to the present? And maybe throwing one’s TV out the window will not be enough any longer to protect oneself and one’s family against such a technology of suggestion …
I’m looking forward to hearing what further pieces of this “jigsaw puzzle” our commentators may be able to put in place.
Re: not even bribery making a place worth living in. The universe’s sense of humor isn’t lost on me – I finally might have gotten my husband to at least theoretically consider leaving CA and he thinks Ithaca, NY, would be a good candidate. right along with New Haven, CT. Why yes, academia does generate Stockholm syndrome in its victims and only fancy college towns will make acceptable living environments…. sigh). I suppose if I can get us out of CA, at least NY won’t dry up and burn to death, so tradeoffs, right? [and hence my tick question]
Re: what Beekeeper in VT said about buying an extra cable for her iron.
I had a similar thought recently and sent my dad’s analog/windup stopwatch in for repair. My reasoning was that I currently have access to a repairman (who is in his 60s and doesn’t seem to be training a replacement), parts (I imagine such parts will be early in being dropped of the catalog of what industrial civ produces when even industrial civ is no longer being produced), and cash. Someone down the line might be glad to have a stopwatch that relies on neither batteries nor computer parts and repairing one is not going to become any easier or cheaper as we proceed.
Nathanael Bonnell #32 says:
August 25, 2021 at 1:33 pm
Reply:
“New Maps” leaves too many questions open to me. In particular, who owns the rights to my writings. I have no problem in allowing “New Maps” considerable latitude … but I want to hold the final rights to my efforts, in my own hands … or those of my heirs.
The ‘contest’ that Myrtle Slithy Toves … Myriel Media … points to August 25, 2021 at 12:28 pm where: “By sending us your story, you affirm that no one else has the exclusive rights to it and that if your story is chosen as a top submission, Myriel Media has full rights to republish it here or in any other medium.”
… seems less than enticing to this undiscovered writer.
Great conversation from a friend: she stated hospitalizations from COVID are going up fastest among the unvaxxed; what is it people can’t understand about that?
Her mom consoled her by stating the US is fast becoming a nation where opinion counts for more than science. My response: if the COVID vaxx didn’t work, hospitalization numbers between the vaxxed and unvaxxed would be equal. They aren’t.
I’ve always gone by the Mussolini definition, the unholy marriage of corporate and state power, hence the government calling on companies to do its mandate dirty work. I know it’s a much banded about name. What is your definition?
Here is a version that seems to be outside the the paywall:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-science-in-the-shadows/ar-AANLOZ0
Goldenhawk,
That is a great quote from Jung! I can imagine the desperation of many teachers that way. I sometimes think that is why occultism seems to only point to places and even attempt at shoving off the clueless by always making an emphasis on making YOU think and see for yourself rather than prechewing realities and then handing them down to people that are not ready for them. That is one big drawback of the prophetic religions for example, its message can be extremely powerful but if you don’t know how to take it in, it can be extremely unbalanced and dogmatism is one of those things. How can one even begin the quest of understanding if one becomes so identified with the ideologies the mind is able to grasp? That to me sounds like chopping of the flaps of a rocket to display them somewhere visible. Doesn’t Jung have much to say about that too?
Just to follow-up since I screwed up the math in my example (Post #182 in reply to Nico)…
In my example I mentioned a 2x leveraged ETF, so a 10% up day in the underlying index would result in $1200 and a subsequent 10% down day would bring you down to $960.
I also failed to mention that “leakage” is not solely due to transactions costs, but also because these funds tend to use futures contracts and other derivative financial instruments to attempt to meet their targeted goals. The expenses related to these contracts could be considered transactions costs, but beyond the direct cost of using them there are numerous problems with their performance not necessarily matching stated expectations.
temporary reality #142:
I have lived most of my life in rural northeastern America. I know there are ticks aplenty, because we are warned of that all the time by state officials, but in my personal experience I seldom see them and have only pulled one tick off myself in the last couple of years and one off my husband in the same period of time.
That said, I do try to remember to spray repellent before I go outside, especially on my socks and shoes, although I’m less than conscientious about it. During black fly season I use repellent all over myself because the little demons take both flesh and blood and they are relentless.
Our cats are not allowed outside (coyotes and foxes) so they don’t bring any home. I assume the chickens just eat them.
I came across this Angela Nagle essay that offers some very good insights into current events: https://angelanagle.substack.com/p/did-populism-start-a-21st-century
I was particularly taken with this passage:
“The values, teachings and institutions of today’s secular clerisy were formed in the mid twentieth century to provide a strong moral framework of good and evil that would be conducive to the needs of the ruling class of Pax Americana. The fundamental moral principles in today’s clerisy, which we treat as a new phenomenon, were already settled in all the secular clerical institutions by the early 1970s – feminism, youth culture, globalization, identity politics, multiculturalism, sexual freedom, the technocratic application of science as the solution to social ills and so on. The clerisy’s role ever since has been to teach the public that these were superior values to the systems of all other existing and past forms of society.”
@SquirrellyJen,
Yes, I know of them, thank you! I am iffy on crossing international borders during covid; it feels like the rules could change at any moment. But if I can’t convince someone to teach me locally in the months ahead, I will eventually pursue one of their instructors within easy train-distance.
This is for Jon Goddard, since you were interested, last week, in RF shielding materials. The knit RF shielding cap I mentioned seems to attenuate RF by about 2/3rds, according to my broadband RF meter. I ought to know what that is in decibels, but I don’t. At over $50, it’s not all that impressive for the price, but it does work to some extent — and it doesn’t even look like a tin-foil cap!. I just took delivery on an RF blocking fabric that appears to be a better value. It’s available on the “big river.” as “Tatuo EMF shielding fabric” and you get a 79 x 42.5 inch sheet for $15.99. I checked it with my meter and yes it does attenuate RF but I haven’t gotten a good idea of by how much yet. But for the price, it’s easy to get some and experiment with it.
Thanks for the recommended books on sacred geometry. Suddenly it makes a lot of sense to start there!
Thanks also for your advice on how best to approach the oracle. I trust it will be patient while I bumble my way to good form.
Any update on the Weird of Hali cookbook? Hungry readers want to know!
Debicfrost
That is absolutely horrible. I’ll pray for you and your family.
@Chuaquin #3
Who knows where COVID came from?
I had a fever, extreme fatigue, muscle pain and a cough, though very little nasal or throat symptoms. I lost my sense of taste and smell. I had three days in bed and was mostly better by the end of the week. The cough went on for a month (a coughing fit every few minutes) until I went to the GP, who proscribed something and it went away. Very little of my sense of smell has come back, though taste is normal. These are the classic symptoms of non acute COVID, the problem is that I had them in the last week of August 2019, long before the outbreak in China! Maybe just a co-incidence? However I work in a sixth form college in England, we have a cohort of fifty Chinese students. I work in the science department (a technician) where most of the Chinese students study, it does not take much narrative writing to suggest that a student picked up and passed on the virus I had either to a relative that returned to china soon after the start of term, or themselves returned to china at half term, either to Wuhan or sat next to some one on the aircraft who went on to Wuhan, and visited a certain wet market! Remember that the earlier versions of the virus were harder to catch, so would spread more slowly, and the age cohort in the college is 16-18 year olds, so would show little or no symptoms. Yes, narrative writing is fun! I spent the summer holidays on the small holding apart from the odd shopping trip, so met few people, therefore I blame it on the English bats flitting over the long grass in the orchard. Counter narrative there was no mass outbreak of COVID in my college or town until it travelled here from China.
As for long COVID, I have had ME for 42 years, so how would I know? Though it got no worse afterwards.
Best regards, keep safe and well.
Philip
@deadnotsleeping – the job you will be taking up is one that is paid by “piece work”. I have no advice to offer, but just to say that piece work may require a certain philosophy of work, and if you capture and embody that philosophy, you may do very well.
My husband has spent many of his years as a pieceworker in the fish filleting industry. By vocation and inclination, he is FIRST and foremost, a farmer. But both of these require a work ethic that is entirely unlike the ethic practised by the 9-to-5 worker paid by the clock, and it is absolutely true to say that he has never been a useful “employee” in the ordinary sense of the word.
The clock worker is paid on “clock time” so the work ethic lends itself to various stratagems based on passing the time, making the most of the coffee and lunch breaks, and if it is a desk job, there may also be a genuine need for simple boredom killing pastimes while the hours at your station drag by.
As a farmer, my husband needs no external clock, because the rhythm of the work itself guides the activities of each day. During the intensive times of the year (lambing, harvest, haymaking, etc), he gets up early, works all day, eats, and falls into bed. But there are LOTS of other times in the year where he walks about in no special hurry, observes, tweaks a bit here, adjusts a bit there, fixes something, takes a long nap, has a long conversation over plenty of drinks with friends, and that kind of thing. That is to say, short bursts of work, interspersed with plenty of slow paced “foostering”…
Now, when he goes in to do a filleting job (these are odd jobs, not every day jobs) – he will be looking at a tonne or two of fish to fillet, and his idea is get in, get at it, and get finished as quick as possible to get back to LIFE. He might get stuck in at 8am – keeping the head down, and keeping at it while the other lads go for their coffee and go for their lunch, he might finish the lot by 2 or 3pm, at which point LIFE awaits. In those 5 hours he might have made as much as 12 or 14 hours by the clock for the other lads.
The thing is, though, piece work is ideal for casual, sporadic work, but is not generally a good arrangement for someone who is permanently employed, because that intensive “throw everything at it” style is a “sprint” whereas a full time job is a “marathon”. A sprinter can run very fast, but not for too long. A piece worker can do extraordinary amounts of work in a very short time, but, again, not for long. It is one of the worst features of (say) the Amazon style of working – they hire for marathons, but expect everyone to sprint all day every day.
If you can sprint, you can do very well at piece work, but be wary of being taken on for a marathon while being expected to sprint.
Best, Scotlyn
“Getting used to the fact that as human beings, we really don’t know that much, is a necessary skill these days.”
So what you’re saying is we need to rely on a higher power(s) and perhaps recognize the world is a more magical place than we knew 😉
Ellen –
“Well, it looks like I may have to get a shot, to attend the memorial of a dear old friend who is actively dying from cancer. Being there is important enough to me to do this.
I don’t know where you are, but is there any chance you could substitute wearing a mask and a showing negative covid test for a vax card?
If it’s a public venue in someplace like NYC, then maybe not. But if this just the arbitrary rules of whoever is holding the memorial, they might accept a mask and negative test. I know of at least one place that wanted everybody vaxxed but after pushback conceded to accept masking and testing in lieu of proof of vax. Might be worth asking.
– Ellen (who goes by El here to avoid confusion with another Ellen from a while back)
Hi JMG and others!
His color photographs are magnificent, mostly of Russian Empire before the revolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky
@ maxinerogers and ria23 –
My understanding is that another reason liquor stores were kept open was because it was believed that allowing people to buy booze would help keep them at home and more compliant, whereas closing the stores would lead to more pushback, and to people sneaking out in search of street-corner liquor dealers and 21st-century speakeasies, and everything that come with that.
Remember what happened during Prohibition?
They didn’t want a replay.
Nancy Ogden #8 – Where I live (near Washington DC), we have a local farmer’s market which requires that everything be grown locally. So, we’ll have to get our oranges and bananas elsewhere. I pay $5/doz for big brown eggs, $10/lb. for beef, $1/head for garlic, and $1/ear for sweet corn, but it also means that I have a weekly opportunity to hang out with like-minded folks and listen to the folk musicians. One of the “farmers” is cultivating 0.1 acres! It’s just the space around their semi-urban home, but they work it intensively, and cover their table with fresh produce for sale. I’m subsidizing local food production, and hope that you find a way to do so also.
ria23 – Re: your noisy neighbor. I used to live a block away from a volunteer fire station. The siren would go off at any time of day or night. When I heard it the first time, I lay awake for a long time, thinking “some families home is burning. I hope everyone is safe!” The second time, I thought “some drunk probably ran into a tree. Not my problem.” That was the last time it actually bothered me. Guests would say, over breakfast, “Does that siren go off very often?” To which I would reply “What siren?”
We hear things that we care about. If you can stop caring about your neighbor’s (routine) noises, and just realize that she’s going about her regular business and it has nothing to do with you, you may discover that it fades from your consciousness. Like magic.
Dear JMG and commentariat,
If I may, I have gotten strange and uncharacteristic impulses to get the covid vaccine as well, very similar to those reported by others. Since I spent about two decades suicidal and also pretty much lost my mind for several years, I have quite extensive practice sifting which impulses are obviously destructive and which are coming from a benign source. These promptings are so obviously toxic, wrong, and pathological they have never enticed me. They also seem very obviously tricksy, playing on feelings, and strike me as having no good intent.
Personally I think these widespread impulses have less to do with propaganda than many seem to think: rather I speculate that there is an active presence behind the impulsion for people to get vaccinated, in addition to propaganda and participation mystique. As for as I can tell, the presence behind the vaccine impulsion simply wants a lot of people to die in a hurry. From a sense of feeling tone, the impulse for the covid-vaccines strikes me as remarkably similar to the impulsion I once felt for suicide: an effervescent feeling, light, airy, bright, urgent, relaxed, passionate and irresponsible.
Youngelephant, look in the bibliographies of the spagyric books you like best!
Elodie, my take is that banishing is essential for mental health these days.
Teresa, I’m sorry to hear this. I still think someone needs to found a rival organization and make dragging politics into the organization cause for instant expulsion.
Dennis, there’s one that occurs to me, not least because I wrote about him not that long ago. I wonder if this is Kek’s way of doing what the Chansters asked him to do. After all, if he looked in their minds he would have seen the memories of the Ebola-chan stunt…
David BTL, that may indeed be part of what was going on.
Millennial, I would date the technocratic turn to 1945. In the wake of the Second World War, which we won in large part because of superior management of resources, the managerial elite was in the ascendant and the rest followed in due time.
Slink, thank you. I’ve also seen “you be you” becoming more popular, and I’m glad of it — since the road not taken is my route of choice, life is always easier for me when people are less obsessed with making everyone else think, say, and do the same things.
Xabier, that just makes me sick.
Martin, er, did you see my earlier response?
Augusto, thanks for the data points. As for how I make my predictions, I’m pretty sure it’s simply that history has taught me that human beings will repeat the same mistakes over and over again…
Jenxyz, are you sure they’re being reported accurately?
JeffBKLYN, you’ll find my discussion here, here, and here.
Phil K, the mere fact that Nagle knows the word “clerisy” and can use it appropriately makes me all the more eager to read her essay. Thank you!
Piglet, you’re most welcome.
Florida, I’m waiting for word. I’ve already corrected the page proofs so it should be a matter of days.
Denis, gosh. What made you think that? 😉
Sim, thanks for this.
Violet, and thanks for this also. That’s fascinating…
@ Teresa from Hershey re: Gypsy moths
Gypsy moth outbreaks still occur from time to time but one reason
they didn’t become the scourge predicted was Nature taking a hand
in controlling things.
https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/disturbance/invasive_species/gm/control_management/fungal_disease/
Apparently attempts to introduce the fungus just took a while as the
fungus adapted itself to local conditions and finally began doing its job.
Boy scouts are a good control too. My late mother like telling
about a major GM infestation in southern New Hampshire when she
was a girl (in the early nineteen thirties). They were everywhere and the
sound of chewing was audible 24/7. Their habit of spinning down on a thread
and dangling there made walking down the sidewalk an adventure. Finally the Boy Scouts were
tapped for assistance in controlling them. They were offered a nickel
for every nest they brought in. They made thousands of dollars and
countless nests were burned. Next year nary
a GM tent nest was to be seen and it was years before they became a
nuisance again but never to the extent predicted. I believe it’s been
pointed out here in a previous posting that nature does make adjustments
with or without the help of the boy scouts.
Looks like you’re making the rounds JMG! A review of Twilight’s Last Gleaming over at unz.com.
https://www.unz.com/tsaker/book-review-twilights-last-gleaming-by-j-m-greer/
JMG,
I looked for a recent update on the Weird of Hali RPG, and perchance I missed it. The last official update seemed to be December 2019, but once again I could be wrong. Just an interested old one. Don’t mind the slime trail.
Thas was related to WWI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War
Quite a bloody war, in a country of 3,1 million back then.
Id like post that just in case someone finds the topic interesting.
@Teresa from Hershey,
Thanks very much! That’s quite specific and helpful.
@jed1571
While I completely agree with your views about the risks of ETFs and in particular of using leverage, I don’t think there is any problem at all with giving investment advice here, even if it is very specific in nature.
In the US (and I think roughly similar in most Western countries), there are regulations on people giving investment advice *for compensation*, and where they do it *as a business*. While the definitions of those things have grey areas and there can be regulatory overreach, I very much doubt that anonymous uncompensated conversation on a discussion forum can amount to regulated investment advice..
@JMG — Thanks for the reference to The Third Reich of Dreams by Charlotte Beradt. Finally found a pdf on archive.org; looks very promising. Interestingly, it’s also available in hardback, starting at $2500 and going on up to Saturn. Those who have a hardback own an item that is presently more valuable than an ounce of gold!
@ Tude #66 — Thanks for the confirmation! I suspect this “internal programming”, from whatever source, is going on more than we realize. It sounds like you have done the wise things in moving toward solitude and a more-natural setting. We can only do as much as we can do; the rest is in other hands.
@ ria23
I highly recommend getting sound-blocking headphones to solve your problem. Best purchase I made in the last 5 years easily. They work the same as earplugs but they don’t irritate your ears.
Esteemed Archdruid,
You wrote in a response to Denis (#44) that the inauguration chart was so bad that you didn’t try to sugarcoat it.
It seems that the recent Kabul airport attack that killed 12 U.S. service members and injured at least fifteen others, just illustrated how bad the inauguration chart really is. And it deals Biden another major setback. Abroad and at home.
I’m afraid you are indeed right when you wrote in response to Denis that lot of people are probably going to get hurt. That’s a bitter pill to swallow and it means worst is still to come.
May the gods be with us. All of us.
– Spork –
Tony C,
I find our neighbours and our church friends, in our area, (maybe, as it is classed as The South, it is one of the sub cultures Mr Greer is talking about) prepared to go to great lengths to assist us, if needed. Perhaps they act as individuals in the first place, but it certainly involves a group community attitude.
So, for example, cooperation was very apparent during an ice storm a few years ago, with several men in the neighbourhood, joining together with chain saws to cut up a fallen tree. And my husband has stopped to help a lady with a car issue before on the side of the road – and then been joined in the task by another stranger. And we have been helped ourselves in similar ways, for example, a passing stranger whom we didn’t know even lending my husband a tool once when our car broke down, and telling him to leave it some bushes and they will come back and collect it when they pass that way in another hour, because they couldn’t stay to help.
And my own church is very community minded, with plenty of group events happening. They band together to do various good deeds and potlucks and prison visitations and everybody looks out for the little kiddies at church events. I also know of friends, in secular groups in my nearest city, banding together to pick up litter on certain days. And of course there are many charitable ventures such as Habitat for Humanity where people will volunteer to get together to help build houses for others in need. And for a final example of cooperation, in the aftermath of tornados, people driving to an area which has been destroyed or damaged by a tornado to do a group tidy up, when they have no direct connection with those affected.
I would, however, say that, perhaps a perceived difference. from my point of view, between the UK and the US, is that the cooperation efforts in the US are more “bottom up” rather than “top down” and perhaps rather more based on perceived shared values and more localized in nature, than in the UK.
I’ve been looking into the Plutonian Era to try to get a sense of how it will end, and have had a very, truly horrible thought I can’t shake. One of the hallmarks of the Plutonian Era was that for a brief moment of time it was possible to crystalize what were for most of human history impossible dreams into physical reality: things like people walking on the moon; fresh strawberries in winter; the ability to travel the world cheaply and easily; the ability to speak to someone on the other side of the world; miracle cures for disease (ex: antibiotics); and a world without smallpox.
Given that it seems like all of the impossible dreams are ending, this seems to suggest that as the Plutonian Era fades away, smallpox will make a resurgence. Given that the US has samples, I can’t help but worry that if there are major disruptions this winter on the scale some here are predicting, one consequence will be that smallpox escapes; and if it doesn’t happen there, that it will at some point between now and 2036…..
Shew, this is going to be pretty much buried by this point — but I was contemplating about making a post like PJ (#24)s only substitute Twin Cities MN for the south side of the Atlanta metro.
I’ve been craving some kind of connection with actual physical people who are actually somewhat close to me, and since the shale winds seem to be blowing harder and harder with each passing week lately, it’s beginning to seem somewhat critical. I’ve been looking into Fraternal organizations for the sake of the old-school “community insurance”, but the only one in town is the local Freemason lodge which meets at a time that absolutely does not work with my schedule. I have a lot of family history with Oddfellows (namely, my late great-grandfather was one, and when he died the Oddfellows orphanage in Goldsboro NC took my grandfather and his siblings in), but there’s not a lodge for them around here.
Thing is, I know it’s probably too picky to specifically say “does anyone in or around Fayette county GA want to try and meet up at a park” — but given the likely rising of gas prices and future difficulties of traveling too far, I really do want to try and find people at pretty close proximity who totally understand the predicaments we’re in and don’t want to simply parrot the standard groupthink narratives so prevalent these days. Otherwise I’d just say “anyone in metro Atlanta?”, but I’m sorry — most of what falls into that category is just impractically far for me.
If anybody is actually somewhat close to me and wants to meet up at a park or something (I’ve got kiddos, and you know how they need to burn off energy), by all means reach out. Who knows, with any luck this could actually work and be a thing. As much as I see people mentioning Ecosophian potlucks on here, this needs to be a thing.
catfish (dot) deity (at) gmail (dot) com if anyone out there is reading this.
Chiming in with my “get the vaccine” impulse… when mine occurred, it was as if my vision got out of focus (not cloudy, just blurry). The part that really creeped me out was that the thought was in first person (the idea didn’t feel like it was coming externally, like someone saying ‘you should get the vaccine’, it was ‘I should’). (But I haven’t and I won’t. But it was a weird and creepy sensation.)
It happened when I was not at home (which I have as well-warded as I know how to do with natural magic). I do the SOP every day. I do a cold-rinse at the end of every shower and a hoo-doo bath once a week. And I wear a red salt/nail amulet. Any other suggestions on what to do to keep such things out of our heads?
(And thank you to everyone who has shared a similar experience… makes me feel like I didn’t have a mental break. 🙂 )
I thought this response to the labour shortage might be of interest.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-im-one-of-the-service-workers-who-left-the-restaurant-industry-during/?utm_campaign=sophi-pop&utm_medium=post&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0ma-kKCPVyJN43K4BHQU4heI3Q-0YxHEleT4Y2n2y9ry_uCXShh6K52VY
@Deadnotsleeping,
I have only picked apples for fun, but we used a tool with a long handle and a wire mesh basket, which made it much faster and easier to pick apples without having to move the ladder as frequently. We folded a few bandanas at the bottom of the basket, to keep the apples from bruising. If you do a internet search for “fruit tree picker”, you should be able to find one.
Also, if you are going to be on a ladder a lot, get shoes with good stiff support, so you don’t kill your feet.
And don’t forget to thank the trees as you pick their apples!
I think Kek makes sense for another reason: he’s the god of primordial chaos, both the “raiser up of the light” and the “raiser up of the night”: in a sense the Long Descent is his domain.
Another god who would make sense is Loki, who also seems to be particularly active lately. That especially makes sense if this all comes to the head by next spring, since by that point COVID-19 will have been around through three winters (2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2020), corresponding to the three years of the Fimbulwinter.
Now, I’m not suggesting we’re looking at a literal Ragnarok (indeed, I very much hope Odin, Thor, and the others are back for the long haul), but I am suggesting those of us who worship the Aesir may want to get on good terms with Baldur…
Yucca glauca #42 – An almanac, interesting idea. This feels like it might
make more sense as a standalone project, but on the other hand it could be
neat to have a few pages of almanac information at the beginning of each
year of publication. I’ll run this through the Letters section in October
and see what readers think.
Ben #49 – A vote tallied, thank you!
PatriciaT #109 – I really need to get my hands on some Analog. I
got as close as trying my favorite sci-fi bookstore in Minneapolis, only
to find out they’d been burned down in riots since I was last there…
I’ll check some more venues. I agree that nonfiction could lead to
interesting new fiction, and real-life work.
Candace #125 – I really like the idea of themed issues, but I currently
just don’t get enough submissions to pick only ones that hew to a
particular theme. I’m trying to get a “deindustrial magical realism” issue
put together, for instance—with “magic” given a definition more like
what’s used around Ecosophia than what’s used in the culture at large—but
still need several stories to make it come together. (Hey writers—send
me deindustrial stories with magic in them!) Tying the stories and
essays together, though, is an idea I hope to accomplish—a story combined
with a how-to is something I’ve actually already proposed with one story,
though that didn’t end up panning out.
Frank #215 – Duly noted; you’re not the first reader to say so, either, so
I’ll plan not to skimp on stories. I’ll toss the idea of a thicker edition
out to the Letters page in October—it probably would mean raising
subscription prices so I’ll approach the idea with caution, but I’m not
writing it off.
Jeremy Grimm #219 – The contract I use leaves the rights of the story with
the author; all I get is exclusive publishing rights for a fixed period.
Myriel’s terms sound a bit sketchy to me too.
Isaac #223 – Noted, thank you! If it sounds like this is something readers
would like in New Maps I’ll be in touch with you and Yucca both.
It has been touched on by others here already, But the parallels between Germany in the 1930s and America in the 2020s are getting a bit uncomfortable. For example, some of the measures currently being discussed, and which have been actually implemented in some cases, are to ban the unvaccinated from:
-media
-sports stadiums
-the armed forces
-high level executive positions
-teaching
These are all some of the very first measures initially used against the Jews in the 1930s in Germany. It is almost as if some elements of American society are actually copying the Nazi playbook.
I used to ask myself how historically could an educated, sophisticated, civilized majority group be so persuaded that a minority group was so dangerous that they would essentially ban them from all aspects of civil life and discourse?
Well, now I know. It’s when that majority population feels threatened in some way by the existence of that dangerous minority group. But, in particular, the rulers of the State, on some level, feel threatened by that group, and, as a result, they constantly push a propaganda narrative which feeds into the perception of the panicked and fearful majority group that the existence of the dangerous minority group is part of “THE PROBLEM” and it keeps escalating to the point of the FINAL SOLUTION… or in other words the final sacrifice of the individual, and minority rights on the altar of the ideal of healing society and solving “the problem”.
The story in the Tanach of the two goats sent into the wilderness – the one scapegoat to wander in the wilderness, and the other to be sacrificed, for the sins of the people, (for the purpose of achieving reconciliation with God), is very much playing on my mind here. Human beings seem to have coded within them a reflex urge for the blood of sacrificial victims for the common good in times of national distress.
And it doesn’t matter how much people scream that its totally different. It’s quite obviously not that much different. Even the groups which are affected are not that much different. Bloomberg did some research which indicated that many of the areas which have the lowest rate of vaccinations in New York are Orthodox Jewish areas and poor African American areas (the equivalent of Germany’s Roma in the 1930s?) and in other locations, we see a majority of conservative religious groups and classical liberals refusing the vaccine – the very same groups which probably ended up first in whatever concentration camps of whatever era of State intolerance and public turmoil, you would like to name. To my mind, it is very worrying and I am thankful to be able to let off steam on the subject in this blog.
Anyhow, if anybody is interested, Gail Tverberg has done a very good balanced analysis, to my mind, this month in her blog of some of the issues relating to the vaccine.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/08/05/covid-19-vaccines-dont-really-work-as-hoped/
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I had forgotten about that series. Putting that dirty ‘F’ word aside, my point was that there is a tyranny in this country I have never thought probable. If we are Weimar America at this point, then I take it it’s a good thing, we’re not completely gone yet.
It’s just occurred to me that if some malevolent entity wanted to create as much death as possible, there’s a really nasty way to do it which fits all of the data: discredit the idea of taking drastic measures to deal with a major disease outbreak; eliminate the ability for the media to persuade people to alter behaviours at all to reduce risk of spread of disease; and discredit vaccines, and then make an accident happen in the Atlanta CDC lab where they keep smallpox.
I really hope this doesn’t happen….
So, following up on my last comment, there’s one (run-on) sentence in particular in the first paragraph of this article that’s unnerving in light of the old Norse myths:
“For the second consecutive year, activity was well below average, with only nine major quakes, it was also the first year since 2016 with no magnitude 8.0+ earthquakes.”
JMG (in answer to DavidBTL) says: Don’t do anything spiritual for someone unless you have their consent.
I understand this when it concerns an individual, but what about groups? We’ve discussed praying for and performing rituals for the nation, as an example, so what makes this different? The nation consists of millions of individuals, all who would be affected by any prayers and/or workings, many of whom have far different beliefs and desires from those performing said prayers and/or workings. Are we dealing more with the egregore than with the individual?
Re: magic. If I have understood your writings correctly, magic is everywhere, being practiced by people whether they know it or not. An example would be advertising, though I doubt they think of it as working magic (do they?), the ad agencies work to bamboozle us into buying things we don’t need and probably don’t really want half the time. So this is true for everyone in the human race? So the atheist, the skeptic, the fundamentalist Christian, the fundamentalist Moslem, the modernist, the traditionalist, etc., all are unknowingly doing magic? No wonder the world is a dangerous place!
Joy Marie
This may be of particular interest to Scotlyn. An interesting read.
Chinese Medicine and Complex Systems Dynamics
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780444520760500237
@Augusto #230:
Yes, Jung has a lot to say about that. The importance of following one’s inner instincts, the dangers of collectives, and the invisible, ungraspable nature of what he called individuation are themes that run throughout his work.
As a counterbalance to the speculation of my last two comments, and to the general tenor of dread and terror in these parts, I feel it worth mentioning that, as far as I can tell, in any realistic future scenario — even the 33% mortality ADE scenario — an awful lot of people are still going to survive: many, many more, in fact, than the Earth can carry long-term. The Long Descent isn’t getting canceled.
Thank you. Do you have any preferred books about spectacular failures in history? If they are similar to our current situation only better.
Ellen,
Everyone I know has gotten jab, myself included. I have no idea about the safety of these vaccines, but I took a roll of the cosmic dice to make my loved ones feel more secure. It’s a whatever issue for me, either something goes horribly wrong or it doesn’t. Best I can do it pray and continue my morning SoP.
I have no encouragement to give on either side of this, whatever your choice, may the gods look kindly upon you.
Regards,
Varun
Temporaryreality (no. 255), I lived in Ithaca for a year, 30 years ago, and liked it, It’s a beautiful area. Of course winter lasts half the year there, so people who are prone to seasonal depression should maybe pick another place!
Robert Mathiesen (no. 224), there’s no reason to think that subliminal suggestion actually works. Advertisers seem to know this–there is nothing “subliminal” about most forms of advertising!
Novice Meditator,
Definitely follow JMG’s advice about contacting a good traditional doctor but if I may add some comments.
May I ask if you’ve had bad diet and poor exercise for the past years before intensive meditation? I only ask because I definitely did and I have had the same or very similar effects you mention, the palpitations on the skin and muscle and the pressure on some parts of the body, even headaches and shaking of the limbs as if in a jolt which I attribute to bad etheric-body health, the body of subtle energy that surrounds you. A traditional doctor would be able to help you better but something you can do is incorporate aerobic exercise, stretching before and after with some full body stretching routine and adding fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet, specially sprouts, and of course, good sleep. If you happen to be able to get Ashgourd (winter melon), ashgourd juice is the most energetically (pranic, etheric, etc.. )fulfilling thing you can consume. Avoid coffee, coffee makes your energies very jittery instead of flowing freely and of course, avoid all sorts of processed food too.
If you get the OK from the doctor, try meditating 5 minutes a day for a while instead of 20. If for some reason you start overheating (if you are a woman you might have experienced this during your period for example) apply castor oil in the soft spot behind your ears where the skull curves, on the pit of the throat, and the point where you ribs meet.
This is not medical advice, but that is what has helped me.
Right from the get go, I’ve felt uneasy. The whole covid narrative seems the work of madmen. They want to kill alot of people, they always did, and now they’re doing it. I pray to Christ I’m wrong. Just curious how you see it, how you feel it. The things that are coming, yes? How do you prepare for the unconceivable, the horror. losing all the people you’d tried to convince they’re being lied tp, only to be laughed at.
The Salvation Army church I attend has mens nights on occasion (they also have lady’s nights), as well as a men’s bible study and a women’s bible study. Though they aren’t terribly doctrinaire about it – the women’s bible study had a man who came, may still come, to it for years.
If you’re into reptiles, astronomy or dart frogs, all those tend to skew pretty heavily male. You’ll find some women there too, but they do skew male.
@ Lark #155 – I love that Monty Python sketch and song. Thanks for posting the link. For those that can’t abide video, here’s the lyrics. Thanks to a Mr. Camino, for posting them.
Lyrics:
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you’ve had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It’s a hundred thousand light-years side to side
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick
But out by us it’s just three thousand light-years wide
We’re thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point
We go ’round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth”
Kind of puts everything in perspective. 🙂 Lew
Tamanous, that was the Saker’s review from 2017 — is it getting attention again?
Chad[well], I’m still waiting to hear from the publisher. Last I heard there was going to be a Kickstarter in June, but that didn’t happen.
Elkriver, I’m glad to hear it’s on archive.org!
Spork, I’m sorry to say I expect things to get much worse than that.
Anonymous, dear gods, I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Randomacts, it’s really troubling to me that those magical protections didn’t keep your thoughts clear. I’m not at all sure what to say.
Elaine, thanks for this. I wonder if the elites who decided to do the shutdowns realized that people would use the time off to think about their lives…
Slithy Toves, or Vidar…
Naomi, that’s a valid concern. Thanks for this.
JeffBKLYN, you might want to read up on the Palmer Raids sometime. This is nothing new.
Anonymoose, I’m not sure it fits the data all that well. The odd thing about the current situation is that so many people are voluntarily taking an inadequately tested experimental drug of a type that’s known to cause fatal reactions, and being prompted to do so by a malign “inner voice.” A lot of people are falling into line with this; if a being wanted to cause dieoff, a coronavirus mutation that just happens to set off lethal ADE would be the simplest way to go about it.
Slithy, well, there’s that!
Joy Marie, if it’s a group you belong to, you have the right to do magic on its behalf. As for advertising, don’t think that the sorcerers who practice that evade the karmic blowback.
Augusto, Charles Fair’s From the Jaws of Victory and Galbraith’s The Great Crash 1929 are among my favorites.
Dennis, I’ve been the voice in the wilderness, being laughed at by those I’m trying to help, for decades now. It’s not the easiest job in the world but I’m used to it — and there are people who listen.
Thank you all who responded to my vaccine query.
Well tonight, I finally went to a meeting of a local group that is standing up to the current craziness and my resolve to not yet get a shot was strengthened. We came home feeling rededicated to what our gut is telling us, elated to know we are not alone locally and heartened to know things are being done to fight the health care, workplace mandates, etc. Our parallel society is emerging!
And once more, thank you again, JMG, and all the commentators here and on MM, for the civil conversations regarding this situation. Because of it, I was able to follow and understand what everyone was talking about.
As for my friend, we are thinking of driving down in spring to Maryland to see her family when they have been through the worst of their grieving, and skipping the memorial. They will be planting a grove on their land in her memory and we will add some trees. And perhaps by then some of this hoopla will have faded, or so one can hope!
Ellen
@Slithy Toves re: #271 –
My understanding of Norse mythology is limited – would the implication be that a notable, sustained worldwide reduction in earthquakes be that Loki has escaped his bonds and Ragnarok is therefore upon us?
Unvaccinated people being turned away from some medical clinics. It isn’t supposed to be happening, but it is apparently a thing:
https://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/boy-13-turned-away-from-b-c-walk-in-clinic-because-he-isn-t-vaccinated-1.24353748
Anonymoose, for many years the CDC has been saying the U.S.’s smallpox is stored in Atlanta. I always figured that was to mislead any crazy people who might want to get hold of some smallpox, that the smallpox is actually stored in several obscure sites in BFE, moved around periodically, and anything in Atlanta is decoys. If they really are storing smallpox in the middle of a crowded, largely ungoverned city of people with no immunity, well, then we’re all [unDruidly word]ed.
Violet, I hope you are no longer suicidal. My life would be poorer without your thoughtful contributions to our little community, and I bet I’m not the only one.
Re subliminal advertising—does anyone remember Wilson Bryan Key?
JMG,
I came across it when looking over at Lewrockwell.com today. I believe it was on the sidebar of interesting articles.
JMG,
Have you read Jung’s Aion? Would be interested to know your thoughts on it. If we are coming to the end of the era of the Antichrist, it seems to me it would look a whole lot like what we are experiencing right now.
RandomActsOfKarma,
Two suggestions, if I may:
#1: I’ve found that drawing and carrying a hexafoil on my person has helped me with intrusive thoughts and feelings that seem malign in origin. (Credit to Violet Capra for this. Also note that if using paper and ink, they can wear out pretty quickly. I’ve had days when I’ve replaced them twice. Also, I get better results with envelopes than copier paper. )
#2: If you have a pantheon, you might try praying to whichever god or goddess governs magic and see if they’re willing to help: you’re experiencing a change in your consciousness that is attempting to weaken/override your will.
Brendhelm,
That’s certainly my concern. It’d be interested to look at the data for Northern Europe specifically, since I’d expect the most drastic effects to occur in the countries where the myths were born. If I’m right — I hope not! — we could see that part of the world come utterly unglued next year.
Another thought that’s occurred to me: Portland as micro-Ragnarok.
Matt Taibbi’s TK News has two videos out recently on how, despite a lack of mainstream coverage, the violence between left-wing and right-wing protesters in Portland never really ended, and it’s no longer confined to unarmed melee, paintball guns, and fireworks. The conflict on Sunday at a right-wing “Patriot”/”Summer of Love” rally involved gunfire.
Moreover, that rally had no clear agenda: both it and the counter-protest were more or less entirely a pretense to get in a fight. As is stated in one of the videos, the only thing everyone is clear on out there is who their enemies are.
Now, the myth of Ragnarok is not native to American soil, so I don’t expect Portland to play that role for the country as a whole. However, what makes me think of it as a micro-Ragnarok is the forces that the two sides seem to be channeling: the far-right, of course, have a taste for Heathen symbolism, and we’ve now seen multiple examples of the far-left invoking Aztec demons. The fact that these alignments are almost certainly insincere in the vast majority of cases only makes them better conduits.
If this is correct, then it seems to me that we can expect the Right to visibly lose in Portland, but the Left’s victory will prove Pyrrhic: I’d expect a mass exodus (if it hasn’t already started) leaving the city as husk of its former self for some time. The end of the myth, though, holds out some hope that it will eventually recover.
@Robert Mathiesen (#224) I wouldn’t be surprised that such tech exists or has been deployed. The challenge here, of course, is how it could be done world wide (comments from Australia, South America, Europe, US, and Asia on the Bitchute OP).
Certainly, the general public’s understanding of the current status of all manner of tech is likely a couple decades behind the .gov’s actual capabilities — which might include the ability to project subliminal/subaudient “ideas” directly from computer websites. The comment from EL above, incongruously becoming terrified of the virus after perusing the CDC website for data, suggests that “something” from the internet link reached her subconsciously….even though the data she was reading didn’t support such an emotional response.
Worse yet, to me, is the possibility that these intrusive “thoughts” carry or compel or heighten emotional responses. While feeling a sense of release and relief might be pleasant for a while, could the same tech/system/method also induce, say, anger? Or murderous rage?
No answers on my end, just more questions!
JMG, I am startled by the number of people who, on this blog, report these unaccountable, malign, urges to go ahead and get the Covax.
In my experience, I have come across people who not only took the covax, but are moralistic evangelists. When I mention the unknown longterm risks of the vaccines, they retort “there have been over 600,000 covid deaths, there has been 30% rates of post-acute ‘long covid’ and/or lung scarring… for starters!”. Without disputing the truth of these assertions, I pointed out the unknown long term vaccine risk (“there are 2 sides of a ledger you know, and when one side is unknown…”), that gets disregarded, and the talking points repeated (including, oddly, how important it is not to confuse my ‘opinion’ with ‘science’, I’ve heard this one more than once..). And don’t even try to discuss the definition of a covid death, a covid ‘case’, or the false positive rate of the RT-PCR test…
The vehemence I’ve encountered is just bizarre. And I mean Bizarre as in spooky, like, not of this world, leaving me with the shakes…
JMG, in your novels, you have passages where characters experience unaccountable urges to disregard risk and expose themselves to danger (e.g. Owen Merrill in Weird of Hali, Innsmouth). The above reported urges remind me forcefully of these passages. Or my former colleagues evangelizing for the covax reminds of the character Shelby (from your same novel). Holy smokes JMG, in your novels, I took those scenes as straight magical fiction, nothing to do with real life. And having read Weird of Hali, real life is all the more surreal.
Did you really intend to anticipate this stuff? What’s behind it in real life?
JMG, FWIW, I’ve maintained a near daily banishing ritual and Middle Pillar Exercise for several years now, and haven’t felt the faintest glimmerings of an urge to get the covax. I would no sooner get “the jab” than I would play Russian Roulette, and I’m continually astonished that everyone else does not feel the same way. I surrendered my medical practice, and career basically, without the least hesitation or regret, rather than submit. I feel as if I was given the choice not to board the cattle car …
Any thoughts on the identity of the entity that might want to cause a die-off, and how we might counter it? I gather you don’t suspect the WEF crowd…
—Lunar Apprentice
Has anyone ever seen a marketing campaign like this? The full court press in all aspects of life that everyone must be injected, increasingly shrill in its desperation. And given what we’ve seen and all the red flags that have been ignored, it’s become more or less impossible to presume non-sinister reasons motivating it.
David BTL #200, for both training people and controlling bureaucracy, the books you want are Systems Thinking in the Public Sector by John Seddon, Responsibility and Public Services by Richard Davis, and ‘Good and Bad Help’ https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/good_and_bad_help_0.pdf. Also look into human factors and crew resource management. There’s a lot of books on that as it manifests differently in more controlled environments like flight decks and operating theatres than on scuba dives, in burning buildings, and on the battlefield. I don’t know if they’ve done one for smoke-filled back rooms. 🙂 Follow those principles and the bureaucrats won’t have much to do.
Also re subliminal advertising: Check out The Hidden Persuaders, by Vance Packard.
Antoinetta III
John,
I think that’s what the guy meant in one way or another, that we are all mixed but maybe he has a different approach to how that happens. Purity to me goes beyond the physical aspect of race, it rather means the natural nobility of every sub-race that is partly reflected in the physical aspect but most importantly in the mental and spiritual, that’s how I believe natural leaders and kings come forth. What I find worthy of pondering is how that could be incorporated into our modern and democratic cultures, we should not lose sense of that and mold it with the times.
Leaving that aside, I’m more interested in the peculiar relation and animosity between the Semitic and Aryan through the times, it’s a theme I could meditate on as well but I have to find the proper link to do so. The only thing that comes to mind now is the historic struggle of the Hebrews with the monarchies of the world, you could nest a lot of things with that thread alone.
I think it’s crucial at this point of time to work on national healing to elevate the brotherhood of humanity. People nowadays are focusing on what divide than unite.
Aziz
Alex – I’m (also) not enthusiastic about ETFs (of any kind), since their value essentially depends on maintaining the strict Rule of Law in the financial markets. I also would not consider holding precious metals, because in the event that the Rule of Law fails in your neighborhood, they become a dangerous liability, rather than an asset.
What I like, in the financial sphere, is US Government Inflation-Indexed debt: TIPS and I-bonds. While they both depend on the government to follow through with its promises, and both are dependent on somewhat shaky definitions of “inflation” (as defined by the government that has to pay more interest when it recognizes higher inflation), both give you minimum risk of default, and automatic adjustments of value due to inflation. I won’t try to explain the details here, but the treasurydirect.gov web site has lots of information on both. I-bonds, at the moment, are paying 3.54% annual interest, and sales have jumped ten-fold in the last six months. (For obvious reasons, IMO.) If you haven’t heard of them, it may be because no financial advisor collects a commission for recommending them. You buy them, on-line, directly from the Treasury, and can only sell them back to the Treasury. There’s no secondary market for I-bonds, so no incentive to pump them.
Perhaps better than financial assets, though, are physical assets and/or upgrades: if you own property, you can put solar panels on the top, and make sure that the insulation is good throughout. If you don’t own property, at least you can add insulating curtains or blinds, to minimize your use of heating and cooling energy. Get the kitchen equipment you need to cook for yourself, including economy-oriented cookbooks and nutritional information. Maybe home sewing will make a resurgence? (Every estate sale I visit seems to have at least one sewing machine tucked away somewhere.) Cottage industry will never compete economically against the Chinese textile industry, but a pair of jeans with patches sewn over the holes will keep you just as warm, and last as long as a new pair. Learn to do alterations, and you might get by modifying the clothing of a hungry neighborhood “tightening its belts”.
@Naomi 268:
I won’t comment on the general Nazi comparison.
Just one detail: the groups persecuted first and foremost by Hitler’s regime, well before the Jews even, were communists, socialists and social democrats, right after the Reichstag burnt in 1933. Certain groups of Christians were persecuted much later and in much smaller number, because rather few Christians opposed the regime outright. I don’t know of any “Classical” liberals who opposed the Nazi regime for ideological (as opposed to religious) reasons.
@Slithy Toves,
Thank you very much for the hexafoil suggestion. I will be making one today! Is it like the salt/nail amulet, that needs to be discarded after a while?
And, yes, I have been praying to my pantheon daily (and being intentional about asking them to protect me from whatever that was). It is working… I’ve only had the one episode.
Thank you!
@JMG: I have had some success with what I believe can be called candle magic, but I mainly focus on meditation. I thought this situation may be a good time to learn, as I have a concrete thing I am trying to achieve.
@Slink: I’ve noticed that one of my daughters -a millennial- is using the “You Do You” phrase. I like that too!
It seems very appropriate for this land mass of North America as JMG has discussed here on previous occasions.
Could I trouble you to recommend a good starter book on spagyrics?
John, et alia–
Re vaccinations, mandates, and the Great Sorting
My wife suggested to me the other night that one (greater) purpose of the imposition of the mandates may be to motivate people for whom western medicine (and/or scientism) no longer serves to establish alternative networks and systems. More broadly, I would add, this could apply to associations and society in general. That is, we may be seeing a critical mass of people sufficient to kick-start the development of a parallel society (or societies) increasingly independent of “official” structures. Given the trajectory of the American Imperium, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Perhaps I’m just a softie with a nostalgic affection for our history, wanting to reform rather than abandon “the system,” but it is looking more and more like the writing is on the wall. The coming decades will let us know.
Deadnotsleeping #164, the last few days we’ve harvested a huge weight from our plum tree. It can’t get enough of that sweet, sweet hoodoo bath water and produces bountifully in return. So I have some ideas about gathering fruit. As someone else mentioned, the fruit pickers with a telescopic pole, toothed ring and bag, are necessary for getting the highest fruit.
For the mid-level there’s a far better option. A reach extender is a pole about three feet long, with a handle and trigger on one end that closes jaws on the other end. It’s much easier to use at lower levels where the fruit picker would be too long. It’s far easier to get a grip on the fruit, it can fit in narrower gaps between branches and twigs, and pick an individual fruit from a bunch. You can also effortlessly place the harvest in a box without being tempted to drop or throw it, or wrangling them out of a bag. Ideally get two – one to pull the branch down and the other to grab. When harvesting a heavily laden branch, start from as high as you can. As the branch gets lighter it’ll rise and if you started from the bottom, the top ones may recede out of reach. 🙂
A quick note since I realized a comment I made last night could be taken as me bemoaning that more people won’t be dying of whatever ends up happening: that was not what I meant. I’m still very much hoping that JMG’s hypothesis is either wrong or not nearly as bad as we fear, for my own sake as well as everyone else’s.
My comment was merely pointing out that “neither Progress nor Apocalypse” should continue to be a guiding principle in thinking about the future.
I think the reason my comment made sense in my head is that — as I mentioned on Green Wizards in my intro post — I find the Long Descent scenario a relief compared to my former fears of a climate apocalypse, or progressing into an inescapable dystopia. So “the Long Descent is not getting canceled” is a comforting thought to me right now.
Re investing and investments
I’ve lost track of who all was involved in this discussion, but I’ll toss in my perspective. I’m looking at my savings and “retirement” funds (not that I intend to stop working, though at some point not full-time and not necessarily in a formal arrangement) not so much as an aircraft to keep me aloft, but rather as a parachute to slow my descent. That is, I invest conservatively and accept the fact that to a certain degree that inflation will eat away at my purchasing power. So long as I maintain *enough* of that purchasing power, however, I’m good. It is on me to manage my concept of “enough” to conform to the realities we face.
Hi John Michael,
Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. I enjoy the form of narrative and try to work in a nice cadence.
It was not lost on me that your most recently deposed administration was initially making overtures to the Russians, before of course the opposition and media appear to have lost their minds and began what looks to me like a constant noisesome yammering. From a position of hindsight, it would have been a brilliant move.
If it means anything, I have this vague notion that even after the dust settles, that lot might not be able to give up their tool. The thing is though, sometimes accepting loss with good grace can promote growth.
Mate, I’m doing my best to wait this one out.
Cheers
Chris
@Deadnotsleeping
I have done both agricultural and factory piece work and it takes a particular person with a particular mindset to succeed. My experience is that speed and precision in the work requires first and foremost physical ability. Not everyone has the coordination and stamina to do repetitive physical work all day without flagging, most people’s lives haven’t prepared them for this sort of work. If you haven’t done work like this before, you almost certainly will go through an adjustment period where your body will hurt, you will not produce nearly what more experienced workers do, and it will suck.
The second important thing is efficiency of motion, which is what will in large part determine your productivity and longevity. Think hard about this as you work. Is there a way you can move your hands less, and along a shorter path? Can you keep your tools/basket/work closer to your hands and body? Can you relax any part of your body that isn’t absolutely essential to the work you are doing? Are you holding your breath and tensing anything? Singing really can help with the breath thing, even if just humming to yourself. Many successful berry pickers I’ve met hum and talk to themselves/others.
The third key is your mental state. Do not dwell on anything other than the immediate task. If you start thinking about the immensity of your task, it will feel harder. If you focus on your hurting feet/arms/back, the work will drag. Find something you like about your work to think about even if it’s hot/raining/painful. If I’m feeling tired and grumpy, I like to look at the horizon, the birds, the insects, the color of the leaves, the animal tracks, the clouds, and enjoy the feeling of a breeze on my face. I find the best days in the field I reach a sort of meditative state where I’m paying attention in a distant way to the work, but where my mind is mostly just taking in the environment without getting stuck on any one thing.
Physical work can be quite satisfying even when it isn’t particularly fun, as long as you are prepared to stick with it through the learning period.
Hi John
Would be interested in your astrological forecast work on how this Covid pandemic will evolve over the next 12 months.
From your other website, I understand that you are predicting that ADE, which is already happening will grow and worsen, until it becomes a very serious issue around October/November 2021, leading to significant deaths among the vaccinated(?) and peaking in May 2022.
Is that correct? Do you have any advice for those like myself who remain unvaccinated? Should we avoid the vaccinated and prepare for lockdowns in a few months.
It strikes me that your prediction, if I understand it correctly, matches what happened last year. Lockdowns across the developed world in November onwards, with things only really improving from May 2021 onwards.
Anonymous –
I certainly hope and pray that smallpox never gets out.
But even if that doesn’t come to pass, one of my concerns is that if these covid vaccines backfire, it could turn people against all vaccines, and we could see a resurgence of nasty stuff like diphtheria or people dying of tetanus because they’ve stopped believing anything the medical industry has to say. (I suspect that’s already started to happen on some level with childhood immunizations – one of the unintended consequences of the ever-expanding, more-is-always-better vaccine schedules is that it increases the number of kids who have bad reactions or get vaccine injuries, and then parents turn against all vaccines. And then you hear the story of the kid who died horribly of rabies after a racoon bite….)
But of course, bringing up this issue makes ME the “anti-vaxxer”.
Thank you Patient Observer for your comments re climate change.
I can see that there are many variables, and nobody knows anything for sure. There does seem to be “evidence” on both sides, that yes CO2 emissions are a problem because they contribute to global warming; … and no CO2 emissions are not a problem because they don’t.
I got into one debate with a scientist and he just kept affirming that climate change was natural (of course it is) and so therefore AGW couldn’t be a thing — which I think is unscientific of him for all sorts of reasons.
I understand that it’s on the people who hypothesise AGW to “prove” it (don’t know if my terms are strictly correct) from a scientific etiquette POV — but from a human being angle in the real world it seems fair enough to feel alarmed and agitate for change if AGW looks like it is triggering fast and dangerous warming. Obviously once it has been totally “proved” by actually having happened, it’ll be too late to stop contributing to it.
I agree with what you say about dogma; and also about change being needed regardless of AGW or no; also, I would say that often people argue about back and forth about climate change while the environment continues to be degraded at the rate of knots. People just want to win an argument — I’m not interested in that. What I would like is to understand is whether once all the smoke and mirrors and politics and invested interests etc etc are cleared away, am I right in thinking that:
The AGW hypothesis (that people’s activity is contributing to quick and dangerous global warming, and that if they were to act differently, like Green Wizards, perhaps, then the warming might slow down) is perfectly likely but unproven
(It is not clear to me what would “prove” the above thesis)
The anti-AGWers maintain that there is no evidence of the above, and have lots of variables and conflicting data to show that AGW is nonsense — yet they cannot be 100% sure that it is.
Most anti-AGWs (not all) are happy to say that global warming is happening at this time, but it’s just normal variation. Furthermore, the rapidity of the warming has happened many times in history (but I have read plenty of experts saying that it’s never happened so fast).
Am I right? that we are sort of stuck in the middle, here? That AGW is perfectly plausible, yet impossible to prove? That nobody can say 100% that AGW is NOT a thing?
Please let me know. I really want to understand (with my limited layman’s ability).
My confusion really is that I’ve seen loads of graphs showing that warming is happening fast, and others showing that it’s not happening at all; these graphs are circulated by people on either side of the debate. How can I possibly know what’s real? Presumably the graphs are not fabrications, but the way they are used is a head-fry. …
I do know that none of this is really relevant to JMG and the group; their way of life would not change one whit whether or not AGW is or isn’t a thing.
If anyone else would like to comment on this, please do so. I am happy to give it all up but feel I’d like to get it straight in my head in some way.
Thank you!!
PS Lew, thank you for the M. Python lyrics. Eric Idle is funny! I also love the song at the end of Life of Brian with the wonderful pithy comment at the end:
‘You know, you come from nothing, you’re going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!”
PS @Patient Observer, “CO2 has a role in global warming but seems greatly exaggerated per a lecture I saw on YouTube given by a scientist with impressive credentials. IIRC, he claimed a doubling of CO2 levels would have a negligible impact on global warming and presented charts showing the diminishing impact of CO2 as its concentration increases. I will look for the lecture and post a link.” — yes please, and how interesting.
Yet why would anti-AGWs take this more seriously than the research that doesn’t say this, or says the opposite? Is there something I’m missing, or is it just tribalism, belief systems, funding, politics, etc etc? Thank you
Interesting to see this in the mainstream media:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-27/previous-covid-prevents-delta-infection-better-than-pfizer-shot
Headline says it all.
JMG,
A minor request/suggestion, if you permit. When replying to comments on this platform, would you mind referring to the post number in addition to the name of the poster? For example, “Mike #85” rather than “Mike”. This would allow the commentariat to more easily find the post that you are replying to, since it often happens that a poster’s name is very similar to a common word and therefore not easy to search.
One thing is worrying me about the coronavirus pandemic: What happens if the coronavirus becomes endemic? The way the governments of Western countries have reacted to the pandemic seem to me to be economically, socially and culturally extremely damaging, and, at lesat partly, unsustainable. I can imagine that some countries may slowly adapt to the new reality, but I’m curious what might happen if the vaccines show themselves to be mostly useless, including booster shots? How would a country like Australia cope with the inability to get rid of the coronavirus even with extreme lockdowns? Even if the coronavirus has gotten rid of in one country, it can quite easily be reintroduced. And what then?
Here is a link to the most recent covid data from the UK.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1012644/Technical_Briefing_21.pdf
Short version the vaccines are starting to look better. About the same death rate for vaccinated and unvaccinated if you are under 50. For the over 50 the vaccinated are doing about 3X better.
Younger than 50 – vaccinated 40,544 unvaccinated 178,240
Deaths 27 72
Death rate 0.067% 0.04%
Older than 50 Vaccinated 32,828 unvaccinated 4,891
Deaths 652 318
Death Rate 1.99% 6.5%
This was a quick look at the data, feel free to look a lot closer and see what i missed.
please remember this quote from Yeats if you are upset by this round of data (more data out in a couple of weeks)
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
@team10tim
No; in my experience 1 jab or two shows up with minor or major blocks according to the reaction intensity.
@75 youngelephant
You’re welcome. I no longer have the books, but as I recall full of descriptions and diagrams of physical and energetic flows drawn fro Osteopathy, Chiropracty, western occultism and a lot from the Idian texts and teaching of occult anatomy. His spiritual teachers were induen and he spent his last few years there I believe
Straws in the wind: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-some-socially-liberal-gen-z-voters-arent-leaving-the-gop/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Do you think any of these vote audits will turn out to be anything meaningful? I keep hearing about the Arizona audit…Any day now. Big news coming out soon. Next week. No, not this week, next week. Soon, just you wait….Ad nauseum.
It’s starting to remind me of last summer when we kept hearing the exact same thing about Bill Barr’s AG office. Barr was supposed to be working on something big. Coming out soon. John Durham’s gonna drop a bombshell. Any day now. Before the end of the summer. No, in October. No, before the election…..
Well, the blogger whom I see doing this consistently is James Howard Kunstler at his CFN blog, and I have to say, it really does (along with his never-ending foaming at the mouth about “Drag Queen Story Hour”) do an awful lot to make me take him with a very large grain of salt. And don’t even get me started on his comment-section these days, which I don’t even let myself scroll down far enough to be able to see anymore.
Dear Lady Cutekitten, many thanks for the kind words! The suicidal ideation I struggled with from the age of 6 or so faded away between the years of about 2014-2015 even with some really big ups and downs since that time.
Sadly, everyone being locked up at home and forbidden to go anywhere means I get less solitude, not more.
Jon Goddard- thanks for the compliment. James saw it first and told me of it last night.
—
VIOLET! you’re the superfreak daughter i would’ve wanted to have! one of the fights i’ve been having on this side in Real Life is one of my earlier teachers from inside the SF underground is enraged that i’m apparently exposing magic secrets, and i’m teaching him what NOT to do. James helps me shake it off because he’d brought me back to life when i was also suicidal after my career and life and remedial dreams went tits up.
but as i was feeling more alone than ever, and thinking about whether i would respond to him, i went online to keep up on here, and saw your comment to me yesterday morning –RIGHT before i went out into the world and YOU re-inspired ME to go out in full regalia with cool swagger.
i’d been nausea and twisted up with stage fright.
and your comment was like Paul Bunyan’s giant hammer re-fibrillating my HEART back to life when i was faltering alone over here.
—
so what happened is …NOTHING. nothing violent like i’d feared, but lots of ice cold side eyes in trader joe’s, which i can handle like nada. and i got two toots of a horn outside on the street, but that’s it. the outside gym was empty as i seem to be the only unvaxxed person using their little outside side gym at least at that hour.
—
later today i have a date with someone i met a couple of weeks ago when i was on my way to getting yarn for the covid pom poms. i’ve spent the last two weeks cc’ing him on all my writing rants to the people on my secret made up mailing list for when i’m on a heated creative jag. he answers me and is still showing up later.
others have turned tail from a fraction of what i threw at him but now that things are poppin’, i’ve no TIME to waste anymore on being cute and adorable. best to twist my head around and spew pea soup NOW, so we can relax and get to the good stuff.
—
but VIOLET, thanks for underlining why i do this. i had some young women who wanted me to teach them things and now i get why the Freemasons and Papa G insist you START with a believe in the divine: once you have your God to follow, all else falls in line regarding your decisions. and my girls… i’m afraid they had different gods than me. i’d teach them things that turned into cheap hexes, like Kimberly Steele was also talking about.
they used my advices to manipulate or try and get MORE men more options more ..THINGS. without giving anything UP.
so a lot of the older artists and wild guys here are all about keeping SECRETS. my argument with them is: SCREW THE “SECRETS”; NO ONE EVEN KNOWS ANY OTHER WAY EXISTS ANYMORE AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE EVEN LOOKING AT WHEN THEY SEE IT.
the imagination is dead out there.
and i learned that the secrets were actually in the WORK. i can show you all sorts of mumbo jumbo but the work is in the …COMPOST, right?
so VIOLET, thank you for being able to USE the secrets of the work and how i do mine, to do your own. whew. i’m beyond exposing myself for the exhibitionistic titillations anymore. i’m impressing– no, terrifying– 3rd graders, and i cannot care about them, except as things to not bump into or let eat me alive.
i got the idea back from watching Papa G show all these secrets.
they go over many people’s heads and they play with this stuff like lincoln logs, while others are sweating screaming and swinging.
so i’m glad it’s working for you, Violet. you have no idea. i had no children but anyone who can use me IS my child now, so thank you for not letting me die wasting all …THIS.
everything on a screen is all MONTAGE; we’ve forgotten the process and musculature of stepping up to doubt, terror, nausea, and our muscles to fight back on this stuff is hella flabby or emaciated. and why the world is where it’s at now.
so i’m gonna switch my energies to manifesting The Love of a Lifetime now. when James and i stopped being lovers, he gave me the good-bye sex gift that inoculated me against inferior love. i cannot accept anything less than all he’s given me; it made me understand the wedding traditions of the Father giving away the Daughter. a father’s love will ultimately protect his daughter with her own predilections for being treated like a queen, goddess. in a good way. not in the now times way of “DO ME! GIVE ME!” but “Thank you! -and how may i make YOU the god i deserve to be loved BY?”
This is Papa G and Mama G love. you can tell.
—
anyhow, THIS is the new underground i’d been waiting for. i thought it’d be like what was here in san francisco BEFORE. nope. they’re all pussies now. artists are (dismissive wave of hand).
i love watching it emerge HERE. and Kimberly Steele– you are hella bad ass. we’re long lost sisters. when i read your hexing “i don’t do that anymore” story about the mentally retarded guy the office guys messed with and he answered that when they said he obsessively masturbates… “i don’t do that anymore.”
i loved that. no. i don’t do cheap hexes anymore, either.
—
so Violet or anyone who follows in my general “make trouble” direction, you wanna try and lead with calmness. you’ve all seen folks who wear contentious tshirts and their energy is ready for a FIGHT. just begging someone to give them hell.
NO! like someone else wrote on here or the dreamwidth– he was confusing people by saying he wouldn’t wanna get any “vax” that trump backed, and they’re confused and babble. yes– i’m trying to go for “confuse-a-cat,” too. so when i’m happy and singing and saying hello (even inside with a mask on), and they see i’m a colored woman with silver hair wearing grade school bright colors who can physically defend myself, they’re confused and jam up.
the third way… the unexpected response. delivered with peace.
so i’m on to focus on this new Love Affair of a Lifetime and am going to make him some cookies before i meet him. i may even bow before him on my knees if he shows up, and promise to do right by him and his Father.
this man can take it.
you’d think you’re vulnerable and asking to be a sex worker when you do such a thing before a New Man, but it’s the opposite. the man who only knows the Old Games will freak out and disappear. good. saves you TIME.
the man who doesn’t blink and looks you dead in the eyes gets what you’re offering. i’ve done this with platonic or gay men at the gym and they get it the same.
i’ve no time for casual anythings anymore.
and THIS is how i’m also gonna know who’s the proverbial or literal FBI informant. once you’re like this, you can smell fakers ten miles away and this saves time.
and i’m never weak. this at least 5X Leo is hardly weak, even when i’m a total pussy.
(besos!)
Kill it, Violet. / and suicidal tendencies are almost a pre-requisite for being a true bad ass. just turn it towards your gods. and then have FUN. you’ll wonder why you didn’t commit a social suicide EARLIER.
you drop instantly into the 5D. dying as you are as you were is a most necessary component to a glorious Living Suicide. when you don’t care how you look or what anyone says or thinks because…”well, i was gonna be dead and gone ANYHOW…”
pull YOUR zip tie. what’ve you to LOSE? we’re not exactly flying now. maybe that’s why…
this is why it’s audaciously humble.
x
@skyrider #319
Adverse reactions and potential ADE concerns aside, the most significant known issue with the vaccines to date is that immunity fades much more rapidly than anticipated, and much more rapidly than immunity following natural infection.
In Israel they are finding 40% antibody decline per month in vaccinated people vs. 4% monthly decline in those who were naturally infected.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262111v1.full
The UK is still in the “happy valley” of maximum vaccine efficacy since they carried out mass vaccination 3-4 months later than Israel. Israel led the world in vaccination, and so they have become the canary to watch in terms of unanticipated problems.
It was always assumed that boosters would be necessary, but not every 5-6 months, and lacking any long-term clinical trials we have no idea what the efficacy and adverse impacts of the boosters will be.
(This seemed important enough to post here, but again I encourage those interested in covid/vaccine discussion to move over to https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/143726.html)
JMG,
It was my understanding that you believe that the God the Chans summoned was the local North American entity known as the Changer and not necessarily the ancient Egyptian Kek. Is my understanding wrong there?
Also, is there any ritual magic we can do to try to influence the entity to avert mass death? It all seems dependent on the virus mutating in a certain way, and that seems like something an entity could influence.
If I may interject a personal concern, some health issues I have been having turned out to be pancreatic cancer. I welcome any prayers or workings people here wish to do, for successful treatment, followed by a few years of (slightly, please!) faster progress with the karmic issues I feel I have largely evaded in this life. Thanks!
I’m getting the standard course of treatment; I just had my first chemo infusion, out of 18 proposed, and will probably get radiation in a couple of months. Surgery will happen if I qualify for it, which will require the tumor to shrink. It’s not metastatic or proliferating locally, but it is big, pressing on four surrounding structures. One is a major vein intersection. My surgeon is a bit of a cowgirl (I did say ‘surgeon”, right?), so she is willing to operate if there is a millimeter or three of empty space between the veins and the tumor, and that space is sterilized by the radiation, with any wandering cancer cells apoptotic or dead.
When I took my first phase of retirement in Cuenca, Ecuador, my weekly coffee group of expats was the Grumpy Gringos. Our rule about mentioning health complaints was, “For new or changed information, you have the floor for three minutes. Otherwise, please keep it to yourself.” In that spirit, I will skip other grisly details, and just mention things that tie in loosely to other topics mentioned here.
Several of my scan and test results were reported in Grays. This turns out not to be a universal quantity, but one that has a local definition for each medical specialty, easing communication slightly within the village while keeping other specialists and patients from knowing what you’re talking about without looking it up. Retrogressive Progress in technical communication!
I know little about modern radiation oncology. Forty years ago, though, the US was still pretending to have a Civil Defense program, and I got certified as a Radiological Monitor, so I have a superficial knowledge of nuclear war fighting. It turned out that we are talking about the same dosage domain. The sensible radiologist mentioned that the total radiation used will be close to 50 Grays. After a short Web search for what that means in this domain, i found out; a Gray coming out of a Linac machine is a Sievert! 50 Grays is 5000 Rads. Only a few cubic inches will be heavily affected, but if that were whole body exposure to nuclear fallout, it would be eight lethal doses. The acceptable risk for an oncologist is 5% chance of the failure of an affected organ or structure within five years of treatment. This can be done, if the affected organs are the ones that were not surgically removed, and only a few of the multiple beams passed through, for example, my liver. I can still expect a localized case of moderate radiation sickness, although they don’t call it that these days. I guess this isn’t really part of the Long Descent; I seem to see an alchemist in a pointy hat telling a patient, “No, Cuthbert, you don’t need to know all the details. Trust the Natural Philosophy, and swallow your dose!”
Alex Berenson is pointing out that the Israeli data shows natural immunity to be 13x better than any jab….Regarding our Potemkin nation, JMG, what do you think will go down after the complete chaos of the Kabul evacuation and the US military casualties from the (CIA funded) ISIS bomber? Jim Kunstler and others think that Biden will be replaced in a short period of time, but I can’t see anyone wanting Kemala running anything….
The cluelessness of the elites continues apace! A group calling themselves ACK Residents Against Turbines has sued to stop a wind turbine development south of Nantucket, ostensibly to protect the endangered right whale. Of course, they’re all in favor of renewable energy, just not THIS renewable energy, which by an odd coincidence will be within view of their expensive summer homes on Nantucket.
The supreme irony is that they named themselves ACK for the airport on Nantucket, where they all jet in to enjoy those summer homes.
For those following BC’s vaccine passport plans:
“Earlier this week, the BC Civil Liberties Association described it as “arbitrary and illegal.”
Laura Track, a lawyer with the B.C. Human Rights Clinic, told CKNW’s Mike Smyth Show she believes the program could be vulnerable to a legal challenge.
“A legal challenge by someone who simply objects to vaccinations or doesn’t want to get vaccinated? I think the prospect of the success of that sort of legal challenge is low,” she said.
“But the fact that this policy will apply across the board to people with disabilities and other legitimate reasons for being unable to get vaccinated, in my mind, does make it vulnerable to a legal challenge — and I expect that we will see one brought forward.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/8144762/bc-businsses-vaccine-passport/
Legal processes can move slowly, but the threat of them can move very quickly with enough public backing…
(Also, the Sunnyside Café people are very cool humans, and Esquimalt generally has the best network of creative actually effective people in the region – the Farmers Market, the Shi Shi Collective, this cafe, all the new brick and mortar herbalists [we stole from Boston and Colorado] all the same folks. Move there if you can.)
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association have also set stringent requirements for legality that might also trigger walking back or legal challenge: https://ccla.org/vaccine-passport-faq/
“It is imperative that any implementation be demonstrably and verifiably privacy protective, secure, and single purpose (public health only). Such programs must consider the potentially discriminatory impacts, and consequently should come into effect only after every resident has had equitable, meaningful access to vaccination opportunities in the neighbourhood they live or work in, and access to vaccine education or information, should they wish it, in the language they understand. Governments should be able to demonstrate the efforts they have made to ensure every person has had such meaningful access, including those who data suggests are most likely to struggle accessing a vaccination site which includes but is not limited to those who are disabled or housebound.
Systems should not be digital only, which would increase inequality risks. Every tool should be assessed by the relevant privacy commissioner and the results of that assessment should be public. No digital tool should facilitate individual tracking. The use of such tools should be time-limited with published end-dates, and their impacts should be subject to iterative, publicly accessible human rights review assessments.”
Good luck with that, BC!
How to retire successfully.
My father always said have these in place and you’ll do better.
Decent health (exercise, diet, sleep, etc.)
Paid-for house (that you maintain carefully)
No debt
Some money in the bank
Late-model car (that you maintain carefully)
Family, friends, decent relationships with neighbors.
After that, be flexible!
@skyrider #319 Do the death rates just pertain to patients with confirmed cases, in which case the overall population mortality would probably be lower among the vaxxed (i.e. fewer getting CV in the first place)?
I would also recommend the weekly vaccine surveillance report, if you’re interested, which does some consolidated analysis of vaccine efficacy, so far as the data permits: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1013553/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_34.pdf
(There’s also a general Covid and Flu report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1013593/Weekly_Flu_and_COVID-19_report_w34.pdf)
@teresa Your dad is wise. My dad had similar values. He always stressed that if you couldn’t pay cash for something, you shouldn’t buy it. I’ve followed that advice all my life, and recommend it to all who can.
Dear JMG and the community… the Norse deities are tired of the people of Midgard giving each other poison…. she has given me permission to write a a letter… I hope you will help me perfect this, it was written in with affection….
Why the Coovid-19 vaccines presents a higher threat to public health, than the virus itself, and why their continued use is a criminal act.
“A vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it, for a virus so deadly you have to take a test to know if you have it.”-
Since their introduction onto the market worldwide the Sars2-Covid-19 vaccines have proven without any doubt to be an affront and abomination to medicine, public health and the medical profession. I will prove without any reasonable doubt that these so called “vaccines” poses a much bigger threat to public health than the original virus itself. The First line in the Hippocratic Oath is: First do no harm.
To All healthcare providers and practitioners doctors, nurses, etc you have a responsibility, you have taken an oath; your Hippocratic Oath ;which you have sworn on, the first thing you promised was: First do no harm.
Any healthcare provider or practitioner who administer or help facilitate one of the Sars-Covid-19 vaccines after reading or listening to this is a therefore to be considered a criminal, a poisioner, and can be charged with crimes against humanity on the same ranks as someone who worked in the concentration camps during world war two, was charged at Nuremberg trials after the war. Saying “I was only following orders or I did not look into the side effects of these drugs,” will not be nothing more than a pathetic excuse.
Normally we say one vaccine one side effect, but these experimental injections used to mitigate the Coronavirus-19 pandemic have proven to have several different types of side effects and injuries. Let me explain briefly: Besides DEATH which is a well documented “adverse reaction”. Here are some other mechanisms of injury these “vaccines” causes:
1. They cause vascular damage, the spike protein these “vaccines” are built upon causes rips through the endothelial lining of the blood vessles. This causes things like bleeding, from irregular menstrual periods seen in women, haematomas, to more serious Cardiovascular disorders, such as myocarditis and periarditis, this leads in the worst case to heart failure.
2. Neurological damage: The spike proteins move through the human body if and when they cross the blood brain barrier they start causing neurological problems, things like simple shakings, to rapid advanced Alzheimers disease to the worst case scenario of Mad Cow disease or Kreutzfeld Jacobs disease.
3. Anaphylactic shocks: These are often the people that die or get hospitalised very shortly (within 24-48 hours) after the injection has been administrated. There are a couple of highly suspect and unethical practices regarding this. PEG (Polyethanyl-Glycol/Polyethanul-Sorbate) are in all of the injections. The administrators of the injections often do not have the patient’s medical records when administering the shots, and many of the participants in the human clinincal trial do not know that they have an allergy to this substance. The doses administered have not been adjusted for the participants height,weight, gender or age, this is of course wrong.
4. Autoimmune disorders: The sars2covid-19 injections causes the body attack its own immune system causing Autoimmune reactions.
And there are many more mechanisms of injury, but I will stop here My point has been proven.
I will provide the medical literature that backs up my statement. A medication that causes more harm than benefit is totally worthless, and I will ask all medical professionals after reading or listening to this, stop administering Sars2-Covid19 injections immediately, let them die in the storage rooms and fridges and let us get on with life.
Sincerely Chiropractor Martin Grandaunet
1. Johns Hopkins scientist: “A medical certainty” Pfizer vaccine caused death of Florida doctor (January 3, 2021)
2. Sara Stickles: 28-year-old has brain aneurysm, dead five days after second Pfizer mRNA shot (February 12, 2021)
3. 01/04/21, Iceland: 3 deaths after receiving Covid19 vaccine in Iceland
4. 01/05/21, Mexico: 32-year-old Mexican doctor suffers seizures and is paralyzed after receiving the Pfizer experimental vaccine
5. 01/06/21, Norway: Norway investigating death of two people who received Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
6. 01/08/21, Norway: 82-year-old resident at Sola nursing home dies one day after being vaccinated against COVID-19
7. 01/14/21, USA: Woman suffers whole body convulsions after taking experimental Moderna COVID-19 vaccin
8. 01/15/21, Germany: Paul Ehrlich Institute: 7 people have died in connection with vaccination as of
9. 01/16/21, Norway: Scandal in Norway’s nursing homes: 23 deaths after Covid vaccinations
10. FDA investigates allergic reactions to Pfizer COVID vaccine after more healthcare workers hospitalized (December 21, 2020)
11. Professor and molecular genetics expert Dolores Cahill expects autoimmune reactions to result from the mRNA injections “months later,” stating that “this gene therapy…is setting up an autoimmune disease chronically.”
12. Are we on the verge of a “super-epidemic” of autoimmune diseases? (February 19, 2021)
13. Eight unborn babies dead soon after their mothers received COVID-19 vaccine (as of January 22, 2021)
14. Sara Beltrán Ponce: Wisconsin resident doctor has miscarriage days after COVID “vaccine” (February 7, 2021)
15. Metro healthcare worker describes severe allergic reaction to COVID-19 vaccine (January 14, 2021)
16. Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID-19 vaccines worsening clinical disease.
RandomActsOfKarma,
You’re very welcome. I’ve found the hexafoil does need to be replaced, and I suspect the rule is the same as sigils: how often depends on the material. I’ve only had ink and paper to make them with, and ordinary paper only holds a magical charge for a day or two, which matches my experience.
If you can find or make one out of an appropriate metal, that should last quite a while.
I hope that helps!
@skyrider #319: If I am reading the linked report correctly, the number of deaths that you are reporting are totals from January to mid-August. If that is the case, then deaths for vaccinated and unvaccinated can’t be compared because in January just about everyone was unvaccinated and so the pool of people who could die was larger. And you can’t do it by number of cases because most people who had COVID never knew they had it, i.e., they weren’t counted. So comparing the two numbers of deaths is like saying, well out of a population of a million of unvaccinated people, 50 died and out of a population of 200 vaccinated people, 10 died — since 50 is bigger than 10, then not being vaccinated must be riskier. Did I misread this?
I think there is an entity behind the voice whispering in peoples’ ears to get the MRNA shots. I am unvaxxed and a staunch refuser of masks and vaccines, I run a 4,000 person group online called Speakeasy Illinois dedicated to fighting masks and vaccine mandates. Take the following information with many grains of salt. Perhaps it was a figment of my formerly-atheist imagination. I suppose I’ll find out some day but it won’t be today.
Whatever it is, it came to me the other day. I think it believed it could pierce my armor. It tried to trick me into believing I would consent to letting it in when I was drifting off to sleep or otherwise not in complete control of my consciousness. I told it “that’s not the way it works, at least not in my case” and it went away. Its main argument is that it is easier to get the shot than not to get it.
In my mind’s eye, it was a little gray slip of a thing, like a cartoon Mephistopheles made of smoke.
It hates humans. It is extremely malevolent.
Lydia #334, how are you supposed to buy a house with cash? Should only gangsters and rock stars own their own homes?
JMG, ah of course. Thank you.
Augusto, Where did you see the info about coffee making your energy jittery? I cut back from 6 cups a day to 3 a couple weeks ago, and have been intuiting for the last week that I need to cut the rest out. I need to procure some strong tea first though.
Pygmycory, no surprises there.
Tamanous, interesting! I’m glad to hear that it’s getting some attention there.
Simon, I’ve read it, but not for a long time. To some extent I think his analysis of the two fishes is spot on, but as I see it, we left the Piscean era at the end of the 19th century and the Uranian influence of Aquarius is rising pretty quickly now.
Slithy, Ragnarok, or Armageddon? Most Piscean faiths have this idea of the final battle between good and evil, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that trickled down into absurdity in this form.
Apprentice, I’ve encountered the evangelists, and I’ve also encountered people who, when I say I haven’t been vaccinated, do the sort of mental Blue Screen of Death reaction I used to see mostly in schizophrenics: a blank look and then some utterance meant to redefine what I just said in terms that they can fit inside their worldview. It’s very troubling. As for what to do, since I don’t think what’s going on has a human origin, there’s not much we can do.
Loren, sure. The marketing campaign against the Trump presidency was very similar; so was the marketing campaign to support the invasion of Iraq.
Aziz, interesting.
Deadnotsleeping, you can certainly construct a candle working for the present case; done repeatedly with maximum concentration, you may be able to accomplish something.
Jbucks, I’m going to recommend three of them and a free correspondence course. The books are The Alchemist’s Handbook by Frater Albertus, The Path of Alchemy by Mark Stavish, and Spagyrics by Manfred Julius. The course is Jean Dubuis’ course on herbal alchemy, which (along with his other courses) were placed into the public domain in his will, and can be downloaded (a href=”http://www.portaelucis.fr/GB/html/publications.htm”>here.
David BTL, hmm! I could see that.
Chris, so am I.
Forecasting, no, that’s not a prediction, it’s a hypothesis. If it turns out to be correct, we’ll see a steady rise in deaths among the vaccinated due to ADE (or other vaccine-enhanced diseases) over the months to come, with a peak probably sometime early next year. I don’t think it’s necessary to avoid the vaccinated in general — just those who get abusive to those of us who haven’t gotten the shots — but preparing for lockdowns and general panic in the months ahead is probably a good idea.
Jed, thanks for this. That’s got to be a disappointment to the sales department at Pfizer!
AC, I’ll consider it, but I tend to be very set in my ways.
Booklover, that’s part of the problem. There’s no exit strategy from the lockdowns, since it’s impossible to eradicate the virus.
Skyrider, I’d find this more comforting if there hadn’t been so many shenanigans around covid statistics already.
Patricia, interesting. Thanks for this.
Synthase, ouch. Okay, that’s got to be hard.
Dennis, (1) that was a speculation, and (2) if a god has decided to do something there’s precisely nothing that human beings can do to change that.
John, ouch! Positive energy en route.
Peter, well, of course. They’re supposed to get all the benefits, and everyone else is supposed to carry all the costs.
Martin, thanks for this.
Dear JMG, and commenters who have reported feeling sudden impulses ordering them to “Take the vaccine”: As a fellow occult practitioner, albeit of a different system from India, here is my take on this (I am not great in articulating this in technical terms, so please bear with me). I have studied about, as well as experienced the influence of external entities that can compel people to do/not do something. Generally, when this happens, it never ends well for the person under the influence. They can become angry, violent, depressed or completely fixated on something.
Here’s the interesting part: The person under influence does not realize that they are behaving abnormally, until after they have done whatever the external entity wanted them to do. Then they will be like, “What was I thinking when I did this?”. People around them who are aware of these things can spot this behavior, and do a ritual to drive away the bad influence calm them down.
The very fact that you (the commenters who reported the “impulse”) were able to recognize this impulse and identify it (however vaguely) tells me a good news and a bad news. The bad news first: Something dark and dreadful is loose out there looking to create mischief — not necessarily death, even maim at a large scale will suffice. I don’t know whether it is a product of a human spell, or one of those beings of nature which is merely playing it’s part at the allotted time. Since the astrological charts show a bad situation, it s more likely to be the latter. And if the impulse becomes stronger and persistent, you may feel more irritable, and may want to lash out against anything.
Now the good news (at least as it seems to me) is you have spotted this “thing” trying to infiltrate your mind. It is like the difference between getting hit on the head from behind in a dark street, and seeing an attacker rushing at you from the front in broad daylight. Your survival is not guaranteed in either scenario, but your chances are much better in the latter.
I have just one suggestion to add to JMG’s advice on dealing with this: Stay clear of trouble for some time till the impulse fades away. Avoid company of the vaxxers and any debate/discussion with them on the vax. Be extra careful at places where mask brawls are likely — supermarkets, pharmacies, parks, beaches, bars, hardware stores, liquor stores, etc. I am not saying avoid them completely. Just sense the vibe and be ready to get away quickly if things escalate.
That’s all I wanted to say. May God be with you all and keep you safe.
Anon. collapsenik
To the replies: to 319
I posted the link to the UK’s update 21 which is substantially different form update 20.
Update 20 has been referenced more than a few times and showed about a 6 fold difference in mortality between the unvaccinated and the vaccinated (in favor of the unvaccinated).
The more recent data (from the same organization) shows that difference has disappeared.
It seem that the data can change pretty quickly, and the reality of situation is not known.
I take this as tentatively good news and hopefully the vaccines will not kill most of my friends and family. But it is still to early to know.
I am personally unvaccinated.
I consulted the I Ching about what i should do and got this:
Present hexagram 43 – Resolve
Future Hexagram 40 – Deliverance
And hey that was clear enough for a nube like me to understand.
Archdruid and company,
I have an odd question. If you’ve done any divination about the vaccine issue and pandemic, and have gotten static in response, what’s the flavor of the static you’ve received?
Like everytime I’ve tried, I get back the feeling like I’m an intern in defense department and there’s a closed door meeting between my superiors. Something big is clearly going on, but I have no idea what because it is way above my station.
Regards,
Varun
I’d like to hear your thoughts regarding the Long Descent as you described it in your book, and the recent headlines about Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launching people in to suborbital space (at astronomical costs). Seems like a wildly successful advertisement for the myth of Progress doesn’t it?
JMG,
Kek is very Aquarian is he not?
JMG,
Armageddon works, too. In that case, the mayor or governor should at some point finally order the police to crack down on the situation and restore order. Although, if it’s Armageddon, there ought to be an Antichrist figure… or maybe that’s the mayor, given his role in facilitating the situation.
Hmm…
Hi JMG,
I had a couple questions in regards to your inauguration chart and your most recent ingress chart.
Do you have any speculation on where we stand in the course of events in your inauguration chart? It seems like we are maybe around Sun conjunct Saturn, but I was curious if you had a specific interpretation.
You are predicting likely incapacitation or possible death for Biden for the upcoming Libra Ingress. Certainly, Biden does not seem to be in good shape or up to handling the current set of crises, let alone additional ones that may be coming down the pike. If we are still relatively early in the inauguration chart, though, that still leaves quite a lot to get through if Biden’s presidency could be ending within a few months.
That brings me to my next question, though. If Biden becomes incapacitated but does not die, and Harris takes over the presidency, does the chart end there or does it not end until he dies? Could some of the indications in the chart unfold while Biden is incapacitated and Harris is acting president, as he would still technically be president until either his death or the completion of his term?
Finally, if Harris becomes acting president but has not technically succeeded Biden yet, would you be able to cast a chart for the time of her assumption of duties, or would you only be able to continue to use Biden’s chart until his actual death/resignation/end of term? I don’t know if it could be a situation like an eclipse chart or overlapping ingress where the newer one modifies the older?
Of course, it may be that there are not clear answers to these questions given the rarity of such events to test against! Thanks for any thoughts you have, though.
Thanks very much for the book titles on spagyrics along with the correspondence course! Do you think that all of these are compatible with the DMH type of magic?
John P Evans, my husband had a rare cancer. What he actually died from was infection which took over a compromised immune system. I was able to obtain a preparation called Hoxey, Gaia herbs used to sell it, which he said made him feel better while taking chemo and radiation, and the Drs. did say his tumors had stopped growing. Please do not take anything I type here as trying to interfere in your personal medical decisions, but while you are under treatment, you might want also to research ways to enhance your immunity to things like ordinary colds. Most of those whom I have heard of having success with herbal and similar medications have used those along with their prescribed treatments.
Bibliomancy Again with Citizens:
This time, I opened Schama’s book somewhere in the latter half, and it being close to the end, I kept reading through to the bibliography.
Great streams of blood poured out of the opened page as the war in the Vendee reached its conclusion. The massacres that occurred after the defeat of the Vendeean forces were small enough to elicit tragedy at the first spurts of blood, but also large enough to drown in a red iron numb flood of statistics.
What archetype, bloody as Germanic Wotan was going through France at this time?
Schama repeats in his narrative over and over and over again the adjectives of Romantic and Romanticism. If Ceres is the planet associated with Romanticism and the Romantics, then is this planet, supposedly ruling over Virgo, the malefic distaff to Mercurial Virgo?
The Genocide Spiral is evident in the terror in Vendee, Marseilles Nantes and other blood soaked regions. The rhetoric of impurity, of purging down to the last man woman and child, the emphasis on women as sources of anti-revolutionary pollution.
Back in Paris in the spring of 1794, the killings began to take the form of the circular firing squad. Many strange names, strange from opening the book so late in the narrative, appear and disappear like mayflies. A name would pop up, and I would look it up, only to find that the person it refers to died but a few weeks after they had sent some other mayfly name to the guillotine. Those who were accusing and sentencing to the guillotine with murderous aplomb were in turn accused and guillotined by those who were later themselves treated the same. It was surprise to see some name that outlived 1794-95, often living well past Napoleon’s era.
Robespierre’s downfall, began after Danton’s and Desmoulins’ shielding influences were guillotined, and Robespierre, unrestrained, started to make his best Jim Jones impression with the 20 Prairial’s cult pageant of the Supreme Being. Thereafter, the survivors of the purges of the various factions guillotined edged round and around Robespierre until he and the other Jacobins could be killed off, first Robespierre’s closest circle, then the rest of the Jacobins. The Guillotine, engine of blood, being churned through their ranks.
Returning to the present, I have a question about the symbols of the French Revolution.
What portion of the American political classes are versed in the French Revolution and its symbols? Who keeps trying to put [insert group, but lately African Americans] in the role of the Sans-Culottes? The French Red Phrygian caps make an uncanny resemblance to the red MAGA hats, is there any wonder that anyone versed in the French Revolution wouldn’t soil themselves at the sight? It was mighty odd to see the passage “Her four year old son Humbert understood enough of what had been happening in France to know that the family was running away because men in red hats wanted to kill his father.” appear as if it were a parody of the various hysterical tweets and articles after the 2016 election. The notion of verbal violence that pops up over and over again in social justice circles makes a certain amount of sense with an eye towards the Terror’s newspaper, the Père Duchesne, but in these latter days Twitter and the rest of the press ilk may well be a mass of screaming Père Duchesnes, all seeking to dehumanize this or that faction of another.
The book ends, ex-Bibliography and index, on the babbling insanity of Theroigne de Mericourt, who after getting her skull bashed in during interfactional fighting, became a basket case, a museum piece of revolutionary slogans, a revolution that looped through beginning middle and end, returning back where it began, now drained of so many lives.
Matthias,
I’ll revise the definition of the group I called classical liberals to “humanitarians” instead. I believe that Oscar Schindler was one such, as was Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese ambassaor, and probably many countless of dissidents whose names we will not know, but who, in their own way, opposed Hitler and other totalitarian regimes through the ages – and who were also at times targeted in turn, when their activities and views were exposed. Possibly also the German commander Rommel? I expect many in this group here might fall within that definition also, as would Jordan Petersen.
The Communist and Marxist groups in Germany in the 1930s were, however, for the most part, emphatically NOT innocent bystanders. They were committed to overthrowing the Democratic State of the Weimar Republic by violent means and blood letting – and they were seen as the enemy by the German people – and rightly so. We are talking about the same type of people who overthrew the Duma in Russia in 1900s – the only democratic parliament Russia ever had before then.
They were and are the secular equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition frankly, in my opinion. And the Taliban and Isis are blood brothers to them. And I suspect many of the members of BLM and Antifa fall into the same category too. I do not class them as victims and scapegoats, but as criminals, and their police records often reveal them to be such – even before they adopt their chosen ideologies.
No doubt there were many young idealistic innocents among them too. I don’t doubt it, but I suspect an equal if not greater number of that group bear their own special responsibility for some of the fear and unholy behaviour and chaos which subsequently lit Germany on fire. The fact they also perished in those flames does not exonerate them from their intentions to do exactly the same thing if they had ever obtained power. It’s been of course a propaganda victory for the Left subsequently. They conveniently ignore the bloodshed which follow other communist take-overs in the world as surely as winter follows summer.
So, on the basis that they would have been as bad for Germany as Hitler, sorry I don’t think I am inclined to refer to that group as victims, nor generally as opponents of totalitarian regimes. They just prefer THEIR own brand of totalitarianism, and they lost that particular battle and that opportunity in that time and place to impose it on people, and have harped on about it ever since.
I especially enjoyed Mr Greer’s earlier posts on fascism which are very pertinent to some of this discussion and which I read for the first time last night. They deserve wider circulation.
@ Lunar Apprentice #295
The desire to expose oneself to danger has taken on a weird form that I have heard several times in relation to the vax which is people saying something like “I’ve taken way too many street drugs to worry about some little vaccine”. What’s doubly weird about that is that these are people who normally think of themselves as rebels and outsiders and yet they are happy to acquiesce in this case. These were also younger people who statistically had no more to fear from the virus than any other cold or flu.
Another version of this I’ve seen is: “So, the anti-vaxxers don’t want to take part in an experiment? They don’t realise they’re the control group.”
The danger aspect seems to be an enticement to such people.
In regards to the impulse to just get the vaxx, I wonder if it has something to do with the egregore or group soul of the surrounding populace. I note, for instance, that Violet and Kimberly live in metropolitan/blue areas. I live out in the country, and people around here are pretty mixed, but lean towards not vaxxing, and I have not had any such intrusions.
Booklover at 318:
The virus has basically become endemic. It has many animal hosts, dogs and cats carry it now, bats (regardless of whether they were the origin) carry it, at least in China, and probably everywhere soon. If bats carry can carry it, then it’s pretty certain to become endemic in rodents…
(There’s a recent story from Australia about putting a rescue dog down over this.)
If there is an animal reservoir for a virus, especially in common or domestic animals, the virus has become endemic and that’s that.
Any attempt to eradicate the virus futile to the point of quixotic. To whatever extent it makes sense to vaccinate against C-19, it should be targeted to those at risk for hospitalization or dying, and who should be able to tolerate the vaccine; basically over 65’s with hazardous co-morbidities who aren’t too frail.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/hps-earnings-beat-estimates-will-implement-vaccine-mandate-for-return-to-office/ar-AANMNw2
Hewlett Packard now introducing mandatory vaccinations. My brother, who is unvaccinated, and works for them in the UK, thinks it will be a matter of months before he is out of a job, as they have now asked everybody who is in the same department as him to produce a copy of their vaccination certificate.
JMG,
To follow up on AC’s request, you don’t need to append the number of the post you to which you are replying to every response, but if you could do it for the first response in every batch, that would help immensely in getting back to the conversation after a period of time has passed.
Or not. You do you! 🙂
This I say reluctantly, because most likely it will be misunderstood and also because I am afraid and worried, so please take my words as the words of a man that doesn’t care to be thought as crazy but which is genuinely worried about the outcome of our current conundrum.
About stray thoughts incentivizing the vaccine, this popped up on my screen today. I can’t but think about a gorgeously animated movie I saw when I was a kid The Prince of Egypt where the scenes of the plague are shown and the ones that would be spared would cover their entrances in a way for the Angel of Death to know who they are. In the movie, I don’t know if this is historical fact, Ramses II and Moses are brothers and their relationship is torn because of Ramses’ desire for power and Moses wish for their people to be freed after his revelation in the burning bush. Now this is not the Age of Pisces, I am just speculating here but if material rejection was meant to attune you to the spiritual back then, then it would also make sense for a plague to be a plague of nature back then. Now we are in the age of Aquarius which is an Air sign, and thus governing the mind so it would make sense that a plague would be brought in the mental spheres and such consequences manifest in a different kind of plague, which would be brought by the insane.
You see, it’s hard for me to say these things JMG and commentariat, I grew up with dreams of Science but having seen that true Science and it’s principles have been beaten out of a position of respect and its institutions gutted in the name of appearances and power I turned to Levi’s definition of true Science. So, I am not a man of blind faith though I definitely am a passionate man, nor am I a man of dogmatism for I am a man of experiment but understanding the language of myth and religious history and what passes to be extreme ethics before the eyes of chronocentrism I am afraid to say, it does seem like greater powers are behind this, and such powers want the infidels destroyed, and those who have destroyed and ignored the needs of the Earth and her ever lasting giving, and those who have claimed for power through arrogance, mischief and greed and those who have poisoned the ways of nature, and those who have abused of their kin for their own benefit and those who follow them. A vaccine will not safe anyone but merely fulfill the intentions of such greater powers, blinded by their misplaced sense of entitlement and ill advice in the pressure of panic, for what is the use of a position of power if it succumbs to the breeze of trouble?
The only historical parallel I know is narrated on the Bible so it is only but natural to cite it. Note that I didn’t look for quotes on the plague, but rather I looked for “Warnings against Evil in the Bible”
2 Peter 3:17
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things which the Lord hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.
Isaiah 31:2
Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster
And does not retract His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers
And against the help of the workers of iniquity.
Micah 2:1
Woe to those who scheme iniquity,
Who work out evil on their beds!
When morning comes, they do it,
For it is in the power of their hands.
Leviticus 20:23
Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.
Romans 7:13
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
A couple fragments from the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJleW4TCQM0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2R07EbLjSU
Collapsenik, thanks for this. That seems quite reasonable to me.
Varun, I haven’t gotten static, but then the only divinations I’ve done have been astrological. They’ve consistently downplayed the whole thing as a nothingburger. I have no idea how to interpret that.
Joshua, successful? Not at all. A couple of billionaire kleptocrats staged expensive stunts to pretend to be going to space. Neither of them got into orbit — they both stopped at what is often called “near space” — and accomplished nothing except for burnishing their already very shiny egos. No doubt true believers in the myth oohed and aahed, but I know a lot of people who are by no means Luddites whose response to the whole thing was a resounding “Meh.”
Logan, we don’t know yet. We don’t have enough experience with him.
Slithy Toves, I’m pretty sure the mayor is the antichrist figure, since he’s been enabling the rioters for years now.
Jack, my working guess is that the Sun square Moon stood for the January 6th business at the Capitol and the Sun conjunct Saturn was the debacle in Afghanistan, while the Sun square Mars and Sun square Uranus are still to come. That’s just a guess, however. Since those latter aspects are very close together, the events corresponding to them could happen bang-bang, one right after the other. As for the rest, those are good questions to which I hope to learn the answers as we proceed.
Jbucks, very much so. I practiced spagyrics systematically while I was developing the DMH system.
“Varun, I haven’t gotten static, but then the only divinations I’ve done have been astrological. They’ve consistently downplayed the whole thing as a nothingburger. I have no idea how to interpret that.”
I know you typically discount Pluto, but my general experience has been that while you can get away with ignoring him almost all of the time, he does seem to be seriously implicated in the ongoing insanity around the coronavirus and the vaccine, and horary astrology which includes him is far more accurate on this topic (and oddly, almost exclusively this topic). I’m not at all sure why, but it does seem to be the case.
JMG
In your reply to Varun you wrote “I haven’t gotten static, but then the only divinations I’ve done have been astrological. They’ve consistently downplayed the whole thing as a nothingburger. I have no idea how to interpret that.”
Did your astrological divinations include Pluto?
JMG: T
This may be of interest. There is a summary, and a link to the paper. In brief, the study finds that “all cause mortality” is significantly higher in people vaccinated with one of the 3 Covid vaccines than in those unvaccinated:
New study finds:
“Results prove that none of the vaccines provide a health benefit and all pivotal trials show a statically significant increase in “all cause severe morbidity” in the vaccinated group compared to the placebo group.”
“Three COVID-19 vaccines in the US have been released for sale by the FDA under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) based on a clinical trial design employing a surrogate primary endpoint for health, severe infections with COVID-19. This clinical trial design has been proven dangerously misleading. Many fields of medicine, oncology
for example, have abandoned the use of disease specific endpoints for the primary endpoint of pivotal clinical trials (cancer deaths for example) and have adopted “all cause mortality or morbidity” as the proper scientific endpoint of a clinical trial. Pivotal clinical trial data from the 3 marketed COVID-19 vaccines was reanalyzed using “all cause severe morbidity”, a scientific measure of health, as the primary endpoint. “All cause severe morbidity” in the treatment group and control group was calculated by adding all severe events reported in the clinical trials. Severe events included both severe infections with COVID-19 and all other severe adverse events in the treatment arm and control arm respectively. This analysis gives reduction in severe COVID-19 infections
the same weight as adverse events of equivalent severity. Results prove that none of the vaccines provide a health benefit and all pivotal trials show a statically significant increase in “all cause severe morbidity” in the vaccinated group compared to the placebo group. The Moderna immunized group suffered 3,042 more severe events than the control group (p=0.00001). The Pfizer data was grossly incomplete but data provided showed the vaccination group suffered 90 more severe events than the control group (p=0.000014), when only including “unsolicited”
adverse events. The Janssen immunized group suffered 264 more severe events than the control group (p=0.00001). These findings contrast the manufacturers’ inappropriate surrogate endpoints: Janssen claims that their vaccine prevents 6 cases of severe COVD-19 requiring medical attention out of 19,630 immunized; Pfizer claims their vaccine prevents 8 cases of severe COVID-19 out of 21,720 immunized; Moderna claims its vaccine prevents 30 cases of severe COVID-19 out of 15,210 immunized. Based on this data it is all but a certainty that mass COVID-19 immunization is hurting the health of the population in general. Scientific principles dictate that the mass immunization with COVID-19 vaccines must be halted immediately because we face a looming vaccine
induced public health catastrophe.”
https://www.scivisionpub.com/pdfs/us-covid19-vaccines-proven-to-cause-more-harm-than-good-based-on-pivotal-clinical-trial-data-analyzed-using-the-proper-scientific–1811.pdf
The video linked below is an entertaining and provocative examination of totalitarianism relevant to the Covid crisis. It is worth watching in its entirety..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09maaUaRT4M
@Graeme Just wanted to let you know you’re not the only member of this community who feels this way. I choose to use my feelings towards this dynamic as a personal thrust block in a few ways.
First, it’s given me some fruitful meditation topics. I find the discussion of vaccine + karma fascinating. Many here believe that those who are vaxed are carrying a large chunk of negative karma from the religion of progress. At first brush my thought is on the karma of spreading COVID to others when choosing to be unvaccinated. But then I begin expanding this to other viruses. What Karma do I have by choosing to go into the office when I have the common cold? What karma do I have by choosing not to get a yearly flu shot? This has actually really helped hone my intuition on what karma is.
I also use it to think on my heterodox views on both the pandemic, and on our society in general. I’m very “blue team” myself, but find myself nodding my head along with many criticisms expressed here. I am “woke” in my behaviors and attitudes, yet definitely see far too many people in my social circle who seem to treat it like a religion, and think that that attitude ultimately hurts the cause. The evidence I have seen suggests vaccines do more good than harm, but I still chose which brand I got based on a form of vaccine hesitancy. Just because the evidence suggests vaccines do more good, I do have fears about some of the policy measures being discussed (in particular I think the focus should be on antibodies rather than the vaccine. If you’ve had COVID, I may have some judgments of the choices you made if the vaccine was readily available, but I can’t deny you now have antibodies.)
One thing I agree with everyone here on is something is adding a “charge” to this issue. Something beyond the normal (and tragic) divisions that social media is exacerbating in our society. I remember reading in some blog post somewhere life feels like “the end of a Kurt Vonnegut novel,” and that’s the closest I could get to explaining where we are.
@clay Dennis
Your experience with fact checkers resonates with what I mentioned above.
It reminds me of something I’ve been thinking through for a while. The facts that are being established are too high level, and this is the core reason why so many people interpret it as “the party line.”
I look at this through the lens of non-violent communication. Part of its philosophy is being clear about what is an observation, and what is a thought (aka judgment) or feeling. Observations refer only to the most basic of facts. In the context of discussions involving science, something like “the results of this paper were…”
The facts being established by fact checkers are usually higher level conclusions drawn from these observations, which in NVC language would make them thoughts or judgments. Thoughts and judgments are totally fine to have and to express obviously, but it’s “violent” to force another person to accept them as facts if they don’t agree with you.
@ CLR – thank you for the link. Also thank you to whoever it was that posted the https://sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net/ link to a prior comment thread, which allowed me to open it.
“…the only divinations I’ve done have been astrological. They’ve consistently downplayed the whole thing as a nothingburger. I have no idea how to interpret that.”
Okay, so this is not a field I know much about at all, but just throwing this out there…
Could there be confusion happening between the pandemic vs. the pandemic response?
I vaguely remember an astrological post from late 2019 or early 2020 for a period ending on May 2, 2020 saying something or other in the chart could be associated with plagues. And we promptly got a variety of plague. I remember the May 2 date, because once the covid thing started, I wondered if it would end around May 2 when the prediction period ended, and then that was also the day the governor re-opened the parks, and I thought, ah, good, things are re-opening and the plague will start petering out now, just as predicted.
But that’s the PANDEMIC part. Could the irrational pandemic RESPONSE be a whole other thing that doesn’t get “picked up” on a reading about the actual pandemic/plague?
Like I said, not something I know much about, just guessing.
More general question: anyone here interested in Hellenistic astrology? I’ve been reading and greatly enjoying Brennan’s “Hellenistic Astrology” and I plan to pick up Demetra George’s more technical handbook soon as well. Seems like a real revival is taking place, all within the last decade! Curious on everyone’s thoughts about the topic, how you feel it compares to modern astrological techniques, and so forth.
We have naturally been focused on the impact of the C19/vaccine/progress-ideology tumult on life in the West and the disturbing rise of coercion and censorship there.
While coercion and censorship are pretty much standard operating procedure in the People’s Republic of China, it is noteworthy that similar dramas are unrolling there, with doctors and teachers who question the narrative being pressured to retract their remarks.
You might wish to look through the following report:
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/08/pandemic-control-strategy-a-subject-for-debate-and-debate-suppression/
It ends with a joke that has been scrubbed from Chinese social media:
Posted everywhere: “If you refuse the vaccine and cause an outbreak, you will be held strictly accountable!”
Response: “So if I take the vaccine and still get infected, who can I hold accountable?”
Ighy, you ask “What portion of the American political classes are versed in the French Revolution and its symbols”? One might as well ask what portion of the American political classes knows anything at all about history. The American political class (APC) doesn’t do history. Or geography, especially geography. It does talking points. Which change by the day, if not the hour. The chief qualification for membership in the APC is being a moral weathervane. The days when West Virginia Senator Byrd used to quote Roman historians during his speeches to the Senate is, alas, long gone.
Naomi @ 352, your post set off two red flags for me. Let me emphasize this is a purely personal reaction. I speak for no one else. I do tend to be rather suspicious of those who, with the best of intentions, think they can designate the good people and the bad people. You think Jordan Peterson is a “humanitarian”, if I rightly understand you. I think he is a clever grifter, there are plenty of those in academia, who found a lucrative gig. I think he appeals to folks who want to be told what is right and wrong, who want that distinction to be comfortable, and who want not to have to think about the matter very much. I think such folks would be well advised to visit different churches until they find the one which appeals to them. Most pastors and priests have spent years learning about just such perplexities as tend to confuse us, nor, typically, does their study end when they leave seminary. They are far more qualified to advise on such matters than is any academic grifter cum social critic.
Then there is the matter of historical analogies and moral equivalencies. I am afraid that whenever I read or hear of moral equivalencies I begin to wonder what it is that someone is trying to sell me. Appeal to the terrors of the Third Reich wasn’t enough to keep us in Afghanistan, so now the theme is to bring up the Spanish Inquisition? (The Albigensian Crusade might be a better choice, but then that was quite clearly carried out by the expanding imperialistic Capetian monarchy under religious guise, so maybe we don’t really want to go there.) Perhaps Tamerlane is waiting in the wings to take up the task of scaring the h*** out of the American people?
Taliban and ISIS are not at all the same thing. Taliban do seem to be Afghan patriots. I might not think much of their program, but it’s not my country. I do agree that ISIS seems to be very like Antifa, in that both, IMHO, keeping in mind that is an impression, I am no expert here, are bought and paid for. During the demonstrations which followed on the murder of George Floyd, Antifa had to be brought in because it became impossible to describe peaceful, multi-racial, lawfully organized exercises of First Amendment rights as ‘riots’. Pepe Escobar has an excellent column up at the Unz Review about ISIS-K. Interestingly, he doesn’t think that the CIA is behind this particular group. The CIA is trying to revive the Northern Alliance, which, IMO, ain’t gonna happen.
@skyrider #343 – as you can see from my comment at #179, I have interpreted the death figures from the UK gov’s Delta surveillance technical report number 21 differently from the way you have. That is to say, it still looks to me as though the fully vaccinated are dying at a much greater rate than the fully unvaccinated. even though their case & hospitalisation rates are lower. What have you seen in that report that I missed?
Say it ain’t so-oh-oh!
Own a Tesla? You’re probably doing more harm to the environment than if you drove a gas-guzzling SUV
“Well, let’s picture the stereotypical Tesla buyer, he of the marketing literature: a virtuous and healthful middle-aged man who scoffs at the climate destruction wrought by the ignorant, climate-denying Trump voter, the sort of voter who’ll drive a gas-guzzling pickup to a rally to hear the former president mock global warming. What our Tesla buyer doesn’t know, though, is that of the two, he’s the one doing more harm to the climate.
That’s because while the typical pickup driver has an income that hovers around the median, the typical Tesla owner has an income twice the average – and the strongest predictor of a person’s carbon emissions isn’t what he buys, but what he spends.”
A couple of strands here have interwoven in my mind…
Balowulf, in regards to your question of why the elites seem so halfhearted in their response… I think the ‘divide and conquer’ dynamic between races that BCV pointed out is not the only one in play. I’ve long seen the only real difference between right and left political parties as being about whether the state should be like a mother or a father, so a man vs woman dynamic. Consider – the two have exchanged positions on any number of issues, and any attempt by either ‘the right’ or ‘the left’ to articulate a single guiding philosophy shows glaring exceptions. But look at whether the state they envision feels more like a father or a mother, and what separates them becomes clear. What role a father or mother plays in a household changes, and what role the political right and the political left want the state to play changes with them.
I think ultimately, the ‘right vs left’ dichotomy is a marketing campaign that got out of hand. Selling yourself as a good mother or good father – appealing to the very basic instincts formed in childhood that we look to the state for in moments of weakness – is an obvious marketing tactic with perhaps the broadest appeal to the public’s unconscious desires. But at some point, it became clear that painting your opposition as a bad father or mother, and appealing to primal fears or resentments learned in childhood, could do the job even better. Regarding the crisis of masculinity Victor brought up, I think that’s a huge part of it. Politics becoming marketing, becoming a war between man and woman. As an aside, Mary, you asked what things looked like from the ‘other side’. To that I’d say that in a war between sexes, it’s easy to see why women, particularly of your generation, would have at times felt helpless. But you weren’t helpless in how you acted towards your sons, and an actual belief in the ‘war of the sexes’ on the part of the mothers of your generation has probably had a large impact on the challenges the men of my generation now face.
It might seem that the parallel between acrimonious political and gender relations has nothing to do with the confused covid response. But as I see it, the same way critical race theory drove an effective wedge between members of the working class after Occupy Wall Street, the right vs left and man vs woman dichotomy has driven a wedge between members of the ruling class. Back when politicians still crossed the aisle, they might have tried to appear as or even embody a virtuous father or mother, but they recognized that the state needed to take on both roles. That’s not really the case any more – both sides these days spend all their time calling for divorce and arguing they should get sole custody. ‘Left vs Right’ looks like a marketing campaign that’s taken on a life of its own, and it’s hitting the marketers first. And I think the Covid response question is becoming a fracture point. Consider the ‘masks’ question – masks probably help the medical part of the deep state slightly while inconveniencing the law enforcement part. Because these portions of the deep state have such strong gender divisions, they naturally align with the right vs left division, and the sides are past the point of talking to one another. Here in Canada, even the mainstream press is reporting that this election is breaking down along gender lines to a noteworthy degree https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/conservatives-surging-with-male-voters-nanos-data-1.5563675.
Essentially, I think in the incoherent covid response we’re seeing a heating up of the low-grade political conflict we’ve been living through for the last few decades.
I would like to second AC’s request at 317. It is only three or four extra keystrokes, and saves a lot of searching around, so I don’t understand why you are resistant to the idea.
Antoinetta III
Response to Mary Bennett at 350, too much information for that nice lady, and probably not of general interest:
Thanks for your suggestion! I am actually a fan of nutritional supplements, but the first symptom of my issue was the result of the tumor squeezing shut both my pancreatic duct and the (bigger, stronger, and a bit further away) common biliary duct. So I couldn’t digest much, and my bile backed up in my liver, Dead red blood cells got their hemoglobin converted to bilirubin, but that could not go down the tube as bile, so my gall bladder swelled up, and bilirubin got released into my bloodstream because it had to go somewhere. That was my diagnostic event; I dragged myself in for an annual checkup with a dermatologist, and she looked at me and blurted, “You’re yellow!” Living alone in a dark apartment, I hadn’t noticed my jaundice, but within a few days, I was in the Moffitt Cancer Center waiting for a plastic stent up my biliary tract. Normal bilirubin is 1, mine was 24. It’s down to 3.3 now, but one of the first medical suggestions was to suspend all supplements for a while “because your liver has been very beaten up, and needs a rest. All of them need processing there.” i was taking 39 of them a day, and they are creeping back one at a time as I see a need or a doctor recommends them.
Another reason for giving conventional medicine a chance is that the cancer is conventional, confirmed by biopsies to be a regular adenocarcinoma, stage 1B (big and growing, but not yet trying to colonize.) An almost identical tumor killed my father in 2009, but he self-diagnosed a few months later, and the surgeon looking at the CAT scan said, “Sorry, this is clearly not resectable.” My surgeon’s first look said “Probably resectable”, but the Tumor Board negotiated her down to “Marginally resectable; surgery not recommended at this time.” My dad was a radiation oncologist himself, so he took one for the team and got a series of radiation treatments, with the expected results at his stage (none.) I am hoping to work my way up to surgery, even though the standard operation is very radical (look up the Whipple Protocol if you like medical horror.) That will leave me with more severe diabetes than I had when I weighed twice as much, taking pancreatic digestive enzyme pills at the start of every meal, and eating small meals. I don’t like that, but I have a sense of unfinished business, and this treatment path would leave me, by my best guess, with an 80% chance of living another 3 to 7 years, If I depend on just chemo and radiation, more like 1 or 2.
I think it’s a public service to present individual anecdotes as you did! A website owner has to be more careful, but for us, we just need to make it clear that this was my experience, your mileage may vary, and do consider standard medical advice. My individual anecdote has to do with those pancreatic enzyme substitutes. There are many sources for these enzymes; some of them will work well for each person, some not so well. The standard medical recommendations center around enzymes extracted by chopping up pig pancreases, which were the first proven to work, and still do sort-of work for most people. Among the many other preparations resulting in an enzyme that can be called “lipase” (the most important one, needed to digest fats) are much cheaper ones from vegetable sources, like the Vital Nutrients pills I’m taking, which work better for me (but, I read by the reviews on the Big Muddy River Of No Returns, not for everybody.) For an uninsured person, the price difference was $1000 a month for annoying the pigs, $75 for doing something to plantains that sounded vaguely spagyric. I hope nobody here needs this advice; the best pancreatic enzymes for you are your own.
The “evidence-based medicine” people so love to smugly say, “The plural of anecdote is not research.” I like to say that any anecdote that contradicts officially approved research is a lead for investigation, and if you have several, you might have a new hypothesis to knock down! Back in the day, many a discovery started when a scientist, working on a small budget or possibly on his own dime, said, “Hmmm…that’s funny.”
JMG,
I’m immersed in “The Well of Galabes” now. Thanks for putting them up. What a treat.
I had my annual astrological forecast today. It looks like the next six months are going to be a wild ride, whether I like it or not. I wonder if anyone else sees the same in their personal charts?
Phutatorius
Thanks for the info on the hat and the shielding fabric. I appreciate it.
JMG, yes, one could say that we are in the Mother of All Predicaments, so to speak. On thing that came to mind about this is that it may be the thing that finishes off the Religion of Progress for many people and at the same time the last remnants of credibility which Western governments have had until now.
@elkriver #5, #66, #256, #294
There is no question in my mind that this is a pivotal and highly spiritually charged moment in human history. It is this, rather than some nefarious emanation from .gov techies, that I believe underlies your feelings of unease. Something within you (or without you?) knows that your actions during this time will be crucial, putting you into a state of high alert.
My interpretation: Your relief at the thought of “Just get the vax, it’ll be OK” is your subconscious recognition of the path of least resistance. Right now, there is enormous social pressure to conform to and support the official narrative. Those who don’t may well eventually find themselves in internment camps. Yet you know deep down that, in addition to the risks, there is evil at work here. And succumbing to this pressure would be to give up something important to yourself and perhaps vital to humanity.
I was once a distance runner. I had “butterflies” before literally every race I ran. The butterflies were there because the true challenge of such races is the ability to endure pain. I could easily have banished those butterflies by ducking out of the race, but what would have become of me had I done that?
There is a great evil at work here. Deep down, you know that it is coming and that you will have to face it. It would be so easy to “Just get the vax, it’ll be OK”, but doing so against your better judgment is just hiding from that evil, ultimately allowing it to prevail.
@Naomi:
On the whole, I think comparison with the Nazi time should be used sparingly, and is a bit overused nowadays. But I don’t want to enter into the merits of the comparison of today’s situation with that period, only to correct one historical detail.
By the way, I am Christian, the son of a pastor, and I don’t say it lightly that few Christians actively opposed the regime, among them quite certainly most of my older family members (my father wrote a fictionalized account of his family ca. 1939-1955, unfortunately only available in German, one major theme of which is the naiveté of his parents). More may have opposed it in their thoughts, which is hard to tell. However, the approval ratings of Hitler in plebiscits were very high, and many people quite openly lauded him. Bonhoeffer, Niemöller and others were the exceptions, not the rule. At university, I was in a students’ association which had been the only one in the whole university of Tübingen that preferred to dissolve itself instead of entering the Nazi umbrella organization, and still there were several active supporters of the regime among them.
Some Christians, some conservative thinkers and some military men did actively conspire in 1944, associating with social democrats in the planning of July 20th, 1944. That does not change the fact that communists, socialists and social democrats were the great majority of the persecuted opposition.
I don’t disagree with you that the Communists wanted to install their own flavor of dictatorship. However, the Social Democratic Party had been the mainstay of the democratic republic from 1919 to 1930, together with liberals and Catholics. The liberal and Catholic members of Parliament voted, without exception, for the law that enabled Hitler to legislate on his own without the Parliament. The Social Democrats, without exception, voted against it – that is, those that hadn’t already been jailed.
Decent people can be found on the left and on the right.
Apologies if this has already been talked about. I think the increasing madness or separation from reality in dealing with Covid is because there is no clean solution. There is nothing guaranteed to Save them, but only actions that will make it more or less likely to do so.
For now, because the virus, because of its wide prevalence and the botched attempts at management, will almost certainly mutate into lively new variations of misery and death, and what the likely Then add the lying, incompetence, and plain goofiness of much of medical, scientific, governmental, social and religious elites and people do not know who or what to believe.
Add the bonus tribalism, nurtured by the ruing class for their benefit, with doing something is not right because it might save lives, but because it is what the Right Tribe does. Then there is the hollowing out of much of the government and medical establishment, also for the elites’ benefit. The various institutions of society cannot do anything out of routine differently, because their ability to do so has been eliminated over the past forty years.
So three vaccines, each with their own virtues and vices, two of them experimental. All of them are only partially effective although “The System” is acting like it is a cure all while ignoring breakthroughs. A sick joke of a “healthcare” denial system. A collapsing economy in which the essential workers are denounced for not continuing to work horrible jobs at starvation wages while being exposed to Covid without any real healthcare. Tactics like mask wearing, vaccinations, and medications like ivermectin might, reduce the chances, but there is no cure and if you are wrong maybe you or your loved ones die. All this while one is denounced for doing or not any particular by mobs of True Believers.
I grew up believing and seeing the government acting in natural disasters or reading about how the various
infectious diseases were conquered in parents and grandparents times.There are almost certainly effective ways to mitigate the suffering and death, but we all can see that the government is not really interested in that.
Is there any wonder why people are losing their minds? People hold on to any beliefs that will make the current fun times more bearable.
Anonymous, fair enough. I’ve seen so many false predictions based on Pluto at this point that I tend to discount his influence, and that may be an overgeneralization.
Goldenhawk, no.
Lydia, many thanks for this. I hadn’t realized that the vaccine studies excluded morbidity and mortality other than Covid infection from consideration — that’s a form of scientific fraud that’s even more troubling than most. (By the way, I had a much easier time accessing the article via this link.
Observer, thanks for this.
El, yes, that’s doubtless involved, but the pandemic response should show up as well. It’s quite possible that I’m simply missing the relevant signs, of course.
Simpolism, I’ve heard bits and scraps about the Hellenistic revival, but never went any further.
Gray Hat, thanks for this — and especially for the joke.
Pixelated, yep. Look into the energy and resource costs to manufacture electric cars — it’s not a pretty sight.
Jon, mine looks pretty quiet, but then I live a comfortably secluded life.
Booklover, that’s a real possibility.
JBird, that’s a plausible analysis — thank you.
I’d like to tone down the sentiment of my previous comment, that is said and done, but I would like to say that it’s probably just me getting a little panicked at a difficult time personally and generally and became a little fatalist about the situation.
A few thoughts on the future of the religion of progress:
Considering Progress has thrown so much into the COVID narrative, it’s increasingly likely to have a major setback in the near future. I doubt it will be gone completely though, considering how ingrained it is to so many. It all depends on what happens from here on out with COVID and the vaccines. A scenario as extreme as JMG’s hypothesis on the other blog might really lead to a “hard crash” for Progress and an end to it being a major force in everyday life and politics, even if a certain amount of believers remain. I only think that likely if China is also impacted hard. In a scenario where China comes out relatively unscathed, I imagine the true believers in Progress would attach themselves to the CCP’s version of progress, and say the west failed not because progress itself failed but because it true Progress requires a totalitarian state like China. They have gone pretty far in that direction anyway so I can imagine in a scenario where China is the global superpower, the remnants of the devotees of Progress in the west becoming useful idiots for Beijing’s hegemony. Even if they were significantly outnumbered by those who didn’t have any faith in Progress left, they could still have a lot of power and influence if they had Chinese backing, and it might lead to an era of conflicts in the west between CCP-backed authoritarians and homegrown populists who have generally rejected Progress.
More broadly, in any sort of scenario that involves faith in Progress declining significantly but no hard crash, I wonder if there will end up being a segmented society where believers in Progress and non-believers are increasingly separate. There’s already a certain amount of this going on just due to class differences, but I’m talking about something more extreme. The vaccine mandates may be the start of this, the vaxxed and unvaxxed being increasingly separated, but for now I think most of the devout Progressives are still of the mind that they can bring the world back to their side. A change that I’m wondering if we’ll see soon is one similar to what’s been happening in many Christian Conservative circles. I’ve heard from some with connections in those circles that Calvinism has been increasing in popularity. Calvinism is the next step for those who realize they’ve lost the culture war and that they can’t force the country to bend to their will still have a feeling of superiority, that their way is the best way. It’s led me to think if we’ll have an equivalent to Calvinism pop up in the world of Progress if they get to the point where it’s clear they can’t get the world to bow to the high priests of Progress anymore.
I am imagining a scenario with COVID that’s not as extreme as JMG’s hypothesis but still rough. COVID waves keep on coming through, vaccines sometimes provide temporary protection but each additional booster provides less protection and more side effects, new variants cause a certain amount of ADE but nothing with over a 5% mortality rate, and still mostly in those already in poor health. More and more people are done with the COVID narrative and the religion of Progress in general, but the faithful still find enough reason to believe. PMC enclaves and some blue states have done more and more to exclude the unvaxxed, but the pushback has grown. After the Republicans win big in the 2022 midterms, the tone changes. Articles in PMC publications start to spread the message that since the deplorables are irredeemable and too numerous to overpower, those faithful to Progress need to retreat to their own enclaves and save themselves, wall themselves off from the masses. It could take the tone that progress to the stars is still possible if the faithful stick together and leave the deplorables to the unpleasant fate that surely awaits them when cut off from the “expertise” of the faithful. Meanwhile, in reality the world inside the walls with the faithful becomes increasingly authoritarian and unbearable to anyone except the true believers, while the world outside those walls can breathe a sigh of relief.
Maybe that last bit is just wishful thinking, it’s hard to imagine a scenario though where the waning of the religion of Progress doesn’t end up causing a lot of carnage, whether it’s all at once in a hard crash or over time as they try to hold onto power by any means necessary. A movement among Progressives to focus on their own people more is the most benign scenario I can think of right now.
What does ‘positive energy of root’ mean?
@Naomi @John Michael Greer
What I notice is that the Totalitarianism of the SS in Germany is learned from the Bolshevik example of the Cheka and then what Stalin developed into Gulags which is copied by Nazi’s with the Death Camps.
Despite wearing different colors they are the same tyranny. Only I suspect the Soviet Union had far better PR in the West especially among the left-leaning types.
The clash between Nazi’s and Soviets is a Villain vs Villain showdown at the top levels of power with many relatively innocent people underneath being caught up in the struggle.
And both have their nostalgia by the people remaining afterwards which clouds their view that neither side is good but both are evil.
Sorry, that should have read: most Christians did not actively oppose the regime, among them quite certainly most of my older family members.
This morning, a Marine corps officer went online and expressed his disappointment over the lack of accountability at the top military leadership for the Afghan exit mess. He was promptly relieved of his duties, and might face court-martial. He knew the consequences of speaking out, and spoke anyway.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Qie2oZKW0&t=6s
An article on this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/27/us-marines-stuart-scheller-video
The most interesting thing was the reaction I found in the /r/Military subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/pcwsio/usmc_battalion_commander_who_made_viral_video/
The response from the commenters (whom I presume are mostly serving/retired members of the military) was interesting. Most of them are supportive of his feelings, while some criticised him not for what he said, but the way he did it — speaking out openly against the top brass while in uniform.
I got big TLG vibes while seeing this — like the General speaking up to expose the President. The crisis of authority and legitimacy is becoming impossible to ignore for more and more people.
I feel like I’ve reached a decision point for me personally, I don’t want any of the Covid vaccines. I feel for me personally (I completely understand others making choices appropriate to their circumstances) the choice to get one would represent surrendering my will and morality to untrustworthy pharmaceutical companies and their corrupt practices.
Augusto (no . 348): “In the movie [Prince of Egypt], I don’t know if this is historical fact, Ramses II and Moses are brothers…”
The Pharoah of the exodus is not named in the biblical narrative, although Exodus 1:1 mentions the cities or granaries of “Pithom and Rameses.” The association with Ramses II was made by the Charleton Heston movie “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which features a number of similar scenes to “Prince of Egypt” (e.g. the chariot race) despite the animators for the latter having been discouraged from re-watching the former in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening. (Going by memory here–this was from an interview.)
Many, probably most historians view Moses and the Exodus as mythical. See “Did the Exodus Happen?”, ch. 2 of Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, “The Bible Unearthed” (Touchstone, 2001). Finkelstein and Silberman argue that the Book of Exodus reflects the political situation of its 7th to 6th c. BC composition, and contains many anachronisms if we approach it with a more traditional dating (of six centuries earlier) in mind. As for the real-life model for the Pharoah of the Exodus, they suggest that the biblical character is a reflection of Necho II, who contended with King Josiah.
Many people approach the Old Testament through the stories of Genesis and Exodus, and assume these to represent the core of the OT. In fact these stories seem intended as background–setting the scene, as it were–for the more historically-grounded accounts of Kings and Chronicles. Moreover, the editors of the biblical text from Genesis through Kings seem to have lived close to this time, possibly during or after the Babylonian Exile. For a good book on this, see Donald Harmon Akenson’s “Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds” (Harcourt Brace, 1998).
To Erika, thanks so much for the mention. I like your shirt & the covid pom poms. I tend to notice random things….You’re a really good designer! Totally agree with the shirt’s message as well. The brave person only dies once, but the coward dies a thousand deaths.
To JMG and Varun: I’ve done a couple of Ogham divinations on the vaxxed and unvaxxed. Commenters on my blog did divinations too and they were eerily similar. (The comments of the unvaxxed article have my contemporaries chiming in with their divination results.) Now of course my Ogham could be wrong, but I have had no trouble with the clarity of their messages in these two readings, and they’ve been reinforced by the similar divinations of others.
Fate of the Vaxxed: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/40640.html
Fate of the Unvaxxed: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/41470.html
Overall, our divinations have almost uniformly agreed that the vaxxed lose control of the narrative in late October. The unvaxxed retain the most precious thing, their health, and this becomes a strength that surmounts daunting obstacles. In the end, divinations predict it will be up to the unvaxxed to act with compassion and charity not to judge the vaxxed too harshly. My Ogham predict the majority of the vaxxed will be in deep doo doo by late October. 🙁
Hey jmg
I have been reading about the calendar system of the maya, and I was struck by their tzolkin or “day-sign” system because they apparently predicted what your personality would be like based on what date with in the tzolkin calendar you were born, just like our zodiac sign system.
It struck me simply because the fact that a culture with little contact with the west nonetheless independently believed that when you are born influenced your personality, and developed ways of predicting this is a big hint that the materialist idea that astrology is a delusion is quite suspect.
My question is wether you have ever been acquainted with the Maya’s “astrology “?
Partly in response to what Violet said here about impulses and the topic of the Age of Aquarius on her blog, using the idea that we are in an age of mirroring, or reflection, I do wonder how much influence that has on the decisions people are making regarding lifestyle, politics, and covid-19, and their response to that situation.
Many times, when we look in the mirror and cannot handle what we see, the average person would try to do something about it. In the previous age, a lot of people demanded acceptance by everyone else for what said person saw in the mirror. A natural first reaction if people don’t agree is to double down, and in large part, I see that happening with a lot of folks. A lot of nice people actually, really nice people, who think the society and world we live in is the best, refuse to see the reality in front of them: that things aren’t as good as they were. Thus, they have to insist to have faith in the system that was. This probably would be considered the shadow by Jung, which would also be a type of reflection, at least in my opinion.
How much might the Age of Aquarius be about dealing with our own shadow, the consequences of our actions from a previous age? Metaphorically, Trump was elected because people lost confidence in our system of government and wanted a change. A lot of people couldn’t handle this, because frankly he was too much like them, and then Biden happened. Covid-19 was released, most likely because of too much arrogance in our abilities with science, and now governments are doubling down on getting the vaccine. There are a few parallels there, namely, how many people are going to double down on the status quo, and get Biden, ie: a sniveling, drooling, bumbling invalid leader.
Only time will tell.. I guess we still have time to decide which reflection we will see and pass on.
Dear JGM, thank you, I’ll look into that. I found that here are a few masonic lodges in my city, I’ll get in touch with them.
@Violet, thank you so much for your recommendation. I’m reading “The problem of the Puer Aeternus”, and I’m finding it fascinating both fascinating and disturbing, it’s really making me think. Is there any telling of he myth of Herackles that you recommend? Or are the different versions similar enough?
Kind wishes,
Fox
@Synthase #140
I feel so bad for you guys in Australia; almost unbelievable what is happening there in the major cities.
In my country we went though a similar thing last year but ‘only’ for about three months.
Below I describe my journey with the emotions surrounding these times and hopefully some of the information might help you.
During these times I have lost many things and I was grieving for all of them. Grief is best acknowledged and experienced than pushed away in denial. Denial can serve its purposes of course but as soon as one is able to face your losses, it may be more helpful in the long run to do so.
I was grieving for the loss of freedom, hope, belief in others, and how I saw my place in the world. I recently heard a psychologist on the radio say we use our imagination to carve out a place for ourselves in the world. Trauma (and I think most of us suffer from some sort of trauma these days) erases those imaginations and one has to re-imagine a new place for yourself. This is a very difficult and exhausting thing to do. Although I never fit the standard idea of a citizen in our society, my new place in the world is that of a dissident, a second-class citizen, although in this case second doesn’t mean worse – it means authentic and more or less able to face the realities of life, to see through the masquerade.
My ties with my language community (which is very small and endangered – about 6 million people in the world) I have severed because its media are drones, following the hive mind and censoring alternative view points. This was very difficult for me.
Losing one’s sense of place in the world is very destabilising and requires taking extra care of oneself and realising that emotions or happenings that were tolerable in the past can now push you over an edge. At one stage I really felt that I was losing my mind and just had to wait for that to pass. One’s mind has an uncanny ability to adjust to new circumstances if one doesn’t put too many obstacles in its way.
On a more practical note: I put a lot of hard physical work into DIY projects during our house arrest. That made me feel useful and also spent so that I had less time and energy to agonise about the future.
Many of us are used to receiving entertainment from outside – films, television, books, other people. I’m starting to find out how much my imagination has to offer me, and no one can alienate me from that.
I wish you strength to face these almost inexplicable times.
Thanks again for the info about spagyrics. May I also ask which of those books makes sense to start with?
An unrelated question. I am thinking some more about archetypes, and I wonder if I’m reading too much into the current fiasco in Afghanistan by attributing an archetype to it. Years ago, I read William Dalrymple’s book The Return of a King about the failed invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by the British in 1839. Two years later, a large British army fled Afghanistan, routed and basically slaughtered by poorly equipped Afghan tribal armies.
In today’s Unherd, Dalrymple discusses the parallels between then and now, which are quite striking.
What interested me most, however, was the mythic quality of the realistic paintings of the 1839-1842 wars that were featured in the article. Under one of the paintings is the caption ‘“The last stand of the survivors of Her Majesty’s 44th Foot at Gandamak” by William Barnes Wollen, portraying a stand made by soldiers of the 44th Foot on a hill outside Gandamak during the retreat from Kabul in 1842. As late as 2010, the bones of the dead still covered the hillside.’
Throughout the article, the tone is historical and but with elements of the mythic – one does not invade Afghanistan, and Blair foolishly ignored this lesson.
Another factor: I only dimly remember the book itself because it was so long ago when I read it, but I do remember reading about how the mountainous landscape of Afghanistan, with its harsh and changeable weather, makes it hard to rule by any other form than essentially tribal leadership.
So I see two things in the example of Afghanistan, but I wonder if I’m going too far with these: 1) that there is a certain spirit of the Afghan landscape and 2) that it connects to a certain archetype which resists any attempt at governing it other than tribal leadership. Also that 3) there is an archetype of the routed army, as also seen in the comparisons to Saigon. Am I way off base?
I have on my stack of to-read books John Michell’s The View over Atlantis because I’m told it discusses the energies inherent in certain landscapes, thus my interest in the example of Afghanistan.
HI JMG and everyone,
if anyone needs to convince someone who thinks fusion is the future´s energy source that it just ain´t so, here is a link to a documentary by journalist Steven Krivit of ´New Energy Times´. In it he shows how the world´s leading fusion scientists deliberately deceived the public and governments in many countries about what fusion has (in terms of generating power) achieved and is likely to achieve with their current pet project ´ITER´ in order to syphon off $65 billion of public money:
http://news.newenergytimes.net/iter/
Just another example of how scientists squander their last bit of credibility.
greetings
Frank
@JMG, re: pandemic divinations, there is one possibility I would raise: I’ve gotten the sense that both the pandemic and the vaccines are associated with Pluto (among other things, whenever the subject comes up I’ve gotten a strong sense of hot, murky confusion off of everyone who’s cared strongly about the vaccines, and this applies every bit as much to the fervent opponents as it does to the fervent supporters), and Pluto is among other things the planet of hype…
@Goldenhawk: I will admit, I am moderately concerned that you report the entity in your dream was specifically hummingbird-like. I am aware of one and exactly one uh, deity associated with hummingbirds (for a given value of deity – people worshipped an entity answering to the name, anyways): Huitzilopochtli. Not exactly a figure whose appearance in dreams I would consider a promising sign, no. Especially not these days – I’ve been getting the sense lately that there may be deeper currents to the attempt to revive worship of the Aztec pantheon than I had thought. (A thrust block for rising powers, possibly?)
Speaking of which, a question for everyone: I remember a few comments in this space a few years back about people reporting experiences about a Christ who was married to Death. Has anybody seen/heard/etc. anything about that more recently?
Considering the ongoing conversation about “just get the vax,” I thought some of you might appreciate this article about the haze/trance of our society. (Apparently, we are some of the ones who woke up or never went to the theater in the first place.) And the author even references William Blake. 🙂
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/08/jon-rappoport/covid-madness-and-mass-conformity-vs-the-life-force/
@simpolism,
I can’t quite say I was interested in Hellenistic astrology, because I didn’t even know it was a thing until I read your post. I found Brennan’s website… it looks very interesting. I have added it to my list of things to study when I have more time. 🙂 If you find more good resources as you continue your studies, please post them, so I can add them to my folder. Thanks!
John, everyone–
This just popped up on the finance page:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/what-the-metaverse-is-and-why-it-matters-to-you-090642725.html
The article’s got everything: inevitability, Progress, fear of being “left behind”, not to mention escapism. Sigh.
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Hi John Michael,
The precautionary principle is not a bad idea to employ when a fog descends upon the land.
Hey, I learned today of another interesting aspect to the story I penned. The recent ocean stoush which more or less amounted to much ado about nothing, over the much desired island just off the east coast of the land of stuff, also caused the same effect on the flow of stuff to your country (and ours). Thanks to the person who brought this fact to my attention – you know who you are! 😉 I’ll be curious to see what the next thing turns out to be. Mate, they are softening us up, but it is us who will land the hard blows – onto ourselves of course.
For some reason I thought that we were smarter than making ourselves vulnerable to this? Guess we’re not the only smart kids in the global lunchroom.
Cheers
Chris
Hi JMG
I am wondering if Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller just put his hand up as a future candidate for President of the United States of America (or part thereof).
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/27/marine-us-fatalities-afghanistan-506999
I’ve been struggling with wanting to express a thought on why the COVID discussions as to whether to vax or not seems so decisive. Even on this list.
This morning it came to me this way (which I had not seen expressly stated yet here or elsewhere) – that the decision to get the vaccine represents an irreversible decision.
Unlike many other decisions in life, which are reversible or at least able to be modified (although now still part of history), once you get the jab, there is no going back, regardless of what the particular outcomes will be for each individual. Either way one’s body has now been modified. That makes it a very personal decision with potentially long-term implications.
It was bothering me how polarized the vax question has become, including on this list. The same people, here and elsewhere, including in the media, are holding to their personal viewpoints, with many repeatedly reposting their views (as if they need to continually reinforce their decision, let alone possibly sway others).
For me, I took the first jab back in March, with the follow-up in April, and remain personally comfortable with that decision. But I can see why others wouldn’t, and I believe it is the irreversible nature of the choice as being a significant factor, whether the basis to decline is based on medical studies, political or religious beliefs, or just wanting the retain the personal choice.
At @ 384 I find Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia described as “Despite wearing different colors they are the same tyranny”
That is a nice rhetorical trick. Big sweeping statement using emotionally charged words, e.g. ‘tyranny’ vs. the far more accurate dictatorship supported by one party rule, which can’t be challenged unless one happens to be a certified expert in the field. The correct term is ‘totalitarianism’, a word which pretty accurately sums up the reality of life in a state in which the ruling party claims the right to extend its’ tentacles into every aspect of citizens’ lives, but which does lack that certain emotional oomph.
As for the two states being “the same tyranny”: going by what I do know, the USSR sent a lot of people to gulags but had no Final Solution. The Bolshevik version of Communism was aggressively atheist and materialist. There seems to have been none of the mystical occult which underpinned the Nazi regime. And, whatever its other sins, the USSR didn’t start a world war, not in 1914 or in 1939. One can reasonably blame Great Britain or Germany or maybe both for the first and Germany for the second, but not Russia.
Furthermore, Communism had, in the middle 20th century, a great appeal around the world. We tend to forget that now. Nazism seems to have had little or no appeal outside Germany.
Hello JMG, in your opinion is spiritual advancement possible in the manner espoused by Rudolf Steiner? It seems like an early version of New Age wishfulfilment to me. Thank you.
@David by the Lake I’m really confused by your stance after all that has happened over the past few years. You must not have been hit personally yet by the events that have occurred and the callousness of the bureaucrats. I’m not providing examples of what has happened to us to keep a distance between my identity and these posting, suffice it to say that I am completely unable to run my business and now have to consider shutting down after waiting this long for things to return to normal. If there were not bureaucrats in our state capital trying to micromanage every interaction between people and every building’s occupants, I’d still have a business. Our state legislature is unable to reign in or stop the policy makers from issuing more and more policy, it just doesn’t stop.
Many people just numb themselves and go through this weird dance of denial and friendly reasoning assuming policy makers mean well. At this point I look at it as constant rape. Yes, I said rape. The policy makers just force themselves on people, without any consent from the people. They don’t even use lubricant anymore! There’s no pretense of how things will be better for everyone if we follow their policies.
Perhaps something will occur in your world that you could see my position. I lived in yours for all my life and can’t do it anymore. I used to just go along and figure with just some changes things would be better. If my rapists just weren’t so harsh, it they could just use some lube! But see, once one realizes it’s not consensual and it likely never was, there’s no going back.
I’ve been meditating on Fortune’s Magical Battle of Britain and considering its implications for America. The following image keeps occurring to me, and divination suggests that it may be worth sharing here.
In my mind I keep seeing the spirits of the subcultures that actually compose the American tapestry– especially the regional cultures, but also ethnic cultures like those of the blacks, Irish, Jews, WASPs, and so on– all of them, with no exceptions based on prejudice– and state cultures. These spirits are kept in an underground prison whose gate is guarded by a fearsome and tyrannical female figure representing the present medico-managerial tyranny. In my vision, I see Columbia come and throw down the demon, break the gate, and free the spirits of the American subcultures. As they spread through the land, each subdivision of the American people is free to become itself again and live according it its own values, without hating one another or attempting to force its values onto one another. Berkeley can be Berkeley and West Virginia West Virginia. Apaches don’t have to pretend to be WASPs to be successful or respected, and neither do WASPs have to worship indigenous people, but can be proud of their own heritage. Even as Fortune enjoined her followers to meditate on a regenerated Germany rising up in strength and greatness, so do the spirits of the American subcultures go forth to heal their particular people, and, freed from the bureaucratic tyranny which attempts to reduce all differences to choices of consumer goods, the nation as a whole rises up again, in strength and greatness.
@Lark #314 #315
I appreciate your open-minded approach to this emotionally charged topic.
First, here is the link to that YouTube video referred to earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA1zUW4uOSw&t=907s
Per the video linked above, additional CO2 will not increase its blocking of infrared radiation – saturation has been achieved. so even a doubling of the level does not have a significant effect.
The point is that CO2’s directs contribution to global warming (to whatever degree it is actually happening) is negligible. This is a rather robust conclusion as CO2’s greenhouse characteristics are known to high precision.
Here is link to a PDF confirming that atmospheric temperature measurements do not support climate change models and that there is enormous pressure to dismiss such data:
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/SY/SY00/20160202/104399/HHRG-114-SY00-Wstate-ChristyJ-20160202.pdf
The key concept is that Earth’s infrared radiation to space originates in the upper atmosphere and that rate of radiation (a function of air temperatures) remains far lower than the AGW models assume. That fact is hard to explain away.
It could be argued that the minuscule contribution to greenhouse warming from the measured increase in CO2 levels somehow triggers other mechanism(s) that have a bigger effect. Perhaps cloud cover is reduced or somehow decreasing ocean pH drives climate change. However, the main point is that CO2 is not the smoking gun.
The above is sufficient for me to conclude that the AGW hypothesis may have validity but it is likely not driven by an increase in CO2 from human activity. Climate variability is an entirely separate topic and, to my mind, is much more relevant. The increasing droughts in the western US is a good example.
So, what/who to believe? My working hypothesis of Western civilization (perhaps others but I have no relevant experience to draw upon), is that the vast majority of people have ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNIFICANCE to those who rule us. If millions of us need to suffer and die to advance their pleasure or power, not a problem at all. We exist only to serve their needs. Of course, it not quite that black and white as “good” people pop up here or there but are quickly marginalized.
The fact that AGW is heavily promoted by our true rulers (will not go any further on that topic) want us to believe in the need for radical change in our living standards and a drastic reduction in our freedoms. We will have that future simply because our economy is broken and our population is largely rendered brain-dead through drugs, porn, gambling and addition to material stuff we do not need. The main point is that a brain-dead population is easier to rule.
The Covid crisis is another gambit by our rulers to achieve the same. Please check out the video link in my post #363 for how we are manipulated by fear and confusion.
I often wonder if our rulers use “magic” or non-physical energies to influence us. My personal conclusion is yes, they do. Again, a personal conclusion, is the the best defense is to forego the ego, the need to be seen as “right”, the need to play to an unseen audience.
An earlier post mentioned random thoughts that would pop into our consciousness such as “just take the jab”. Could it be that such thoughts are the resultant vector of all of the propaganda we are surrounded by? Or, non-physical influences? I don’t know but I suspect both are in play.
@Elkriver #5
That is an interesting observation. Please read my most recent post above (at least the last paragraph) where I reference such experiences.
Kashtan, I don’t expect the religion of Progress to clutch its chest and fall over dead all at once. One way or another, there will be people a couple of centuries from now clinging to the fantasy of Man’s Destiny in Space et al., looking back on the twentieth century with nostalgia and dreaming of the day when rockets will go zooming off to the moon again. The question is purely a matter of the balance of power, and I think you’re quite right that the thing to watch for is a withdrawal of believers in Progress to their own enclaves. When that happens, they’ve lost their grip on power.
Info, as a matter of historical fact, Italian Fascism and German National Socialism both plagiarized everything that wasn’t nailed down from Russian Communism, so you’re not wrong.
Collapsenik, I read about that this morning. I’m sure the officer knew perfectly well that he’d be cashiered, and so the fact that he did it anyway shows that the crisis of confidence is rapidly reaching critical mass.
Kimberly, many thanks for this.
J.L.Mc12, there are four major world traditions of astrology — the Arabic-Western version, the Indian version, the Chinese version, and the Mesoamerican version — and all of them appear to have been independently invented. Yes, that’s a big hint that the materialists are smoking their shorts. I don’t know much about Mayan astrology, because Western astrology is more than enough to keep me busy!
Prizm, this seems very plausible to me!
Jbucks, I’d start with Mark Stavish’s book. As for the spirit of the land, very much so. Alexander the Great couldn’t conquer Afghanistan, so forget about anybody else…
Frank, thanks for this. I’ve bookmarked it and will read it in the near future.
Username, duly noted!
Karma, I’m pretty sure the author of the essay is a Rosicrucian — the term “vital life force” is common in some Rosicrucian lineages — so it’s not surprising he quotes Blake!
David BTL, well, of course! They’ve got to maintain the pretense of progress…
Chris, I’m pretty sure at this point that the leaders of our two countries have lost track completely of the minor little point that reality is not whatever they say it is.
Darren, that possibility has occurred to me as well.
Kevin, that makes a great deal of sense.
Mary, er, were you aware that Stalin’s regime killed considerably more people than Hitler’s? Read up on the Ukranian Holodomor sometime before you insist that there was no Soviet “Final Solution.”
J Menadue, Steiner’s system is problematic in some ways, because he was part of the generation of Western occultists who didn’t recognize the limits of the visionary senses, and so overstressed their use. It was in the generation after his time that people realized that when Steiner (and so many others) thought they were tapping into the Akashic records, they were simply accessing the astral plane and treating its phantasmagoria as truth: ergo, all the wildly inaccurate prehistory et al. His exercises and practices are useful, but they need to be combined with regular discursive meditation, a less gullible attitude toward visionary experiences, and certain other modes of practice to be really effective.
Steve, I like that. Thank you for passing it on.
Danil, as I said, the metaphor works just fine whether or not the original villages were real. Perhaps a hundred years from now people will use the term “Afghanistan government” instead. As for the rest, revolutions are a complicated matter and can be interpreted in a variety of ways…
Naomi and others – I am a lawyer in the UK.
Employer vaccine mandates are almost certainly illegal in the UK under current law. That is why the government had to pass a law to enable vaccine mandates in (only) the care home sector. Even asking for vaccine status is “processing special category [medical] data” under the Data Protection Act and it is almost certain that HP does not have a legally justifiable reason to do that.
That is why UK employers have so far (mostly) stayed away from vaccine mandates so far (although far more are asking for vaccine status). Although I have seen a few US based employers with UK offices start to require them.
In practice however, in the current climate, the data protection regulator (the ICO) is unlikely to go after them – although they are risking a fine of 4% of their global turnover, and employment law unfair dismissal cases (such as for people dismissed for refusing to get a vaccine) are not going to be heard by the courts for at least 2-3 years, so there is not much in the way of effective remedies, even more so when the culture is so pro vaccine and the unvaccinated are being smeared.
But it IS illegal.
@pretentious_username:
Thank you for your comment on my dream about the hummingbird-like creature. The Aztec connection is very interesting.
Reading about Huitzilopochtli, a solar deity, I see that he may be represented both as a hummingbird and an eagle. The eagle is associated in the Greek pantheon with Zeus, a notorious flinger of lightning bolts. Huitzilopochtli’s weapon was a fire serpent which he used as a spear thrower.
Like many, if not all, solar deities, he symbolizes the death/rebirth cycle.
“His winged hummingbird helmet was the one item that consistently defined him as Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, in artistic renderings.” (Wikipedia)
Hermes also wears a winged helmet. He loaned it to Perseus, along with winged sandals, to help him slay the Gorgon. Athena’s mirrored shield was also bestowed on the hero, symbolizing reflection as a weapon in the confrontation with the shadow. After decapitating the monster, Perseus retrieved her head and carried it with him (assimilating the shadow), later using it to turn old king Polydactes (defiler of Perseus’ mother, Danae) into stone.
But I digress.
As I mentioned, the feeling-tone of this dream was one of calm reassurance. I felt uplifted and encouraged by it. There was no mention of vaccines. In that context, I interpret this dream as in a more positive light, while acknowledging that, like all symbols, there is considerable ambiguity in its meaning.
A few days after that dream, I was walking in a field near my house. I looked up and noticed a strange bird hovering above a gnarled live oak tree. This bird was about 5 inches long and its wings whirred rapidly like a hummingbird. But it was much bigger than any hummingbird I’ve ever seen. I watched it hover, then dart up and away very quickly…impossibly fast, it seemed to me, like the movements people report seeing in connection with UFO sightings. Lightning fast.
The feeling tone of this encounter was distinctly weird, confounding, and unsettling. I wondered if it could have been some kind of experimental drone. (I live not too far from a military base.)
So there’s that.
@ Denis
Re policymakers and policy
I’m hardly arguing for the status quo. Unrestrained and unaccountable bureaucrats are not acceptable in my view and I firmly believe in limited government. What I *am* saying is that *some* administration is necessary to have a functional polity, so “burning it all down” is just as poor a choice as the present state. If you want roads, you need a road maintenance department somewhere. If you want utilities, you need a utility department somewhere. Should an administration be able to lock everyone inside their homes? Of course not. I’ll be voting for Tony Evers’ opponent next fall almost exclusively b/c of his executive orders (thankfully overturned by the state supreme court later) during the height of the pandemic last year. It’s all about balance of power and appropriate limits to power, things about which hardly any two people agree.
@pretentious_username I wouldn’t paint Hummingbird with quite such a unified brush. (I have been accused on numerous occasions of being aligned with, if not actually, the living incarnation of evil – poor career choices! – but the time someone told me to continue to practice hummingbird medicine wasn’t one.
In Coast Salish lore, Hummingbird is a messenger of hope and traveller of great distances, symbolizing devotion, agility and joy. Because of the dedication ceremonies for a new totem pole for one woman, she is now explicitly associated with the courage to turn around and face injustice, and specifically with restorative justice. If Goldenhawk dreamt of Hummingbird, that would be a great gift, here.
Hummingbird’s totemic position and original and new fables are told here: https://www.sfu.ca/brc/imeshMobileApp/imesh-art-walk-/liz-elliot-pole.html
Any of y’all in NOLA? There’s a big hurricane (Ida) headed for New Orleans– landfall tomorrow. They’re saying maybe Cat4 when it reaches land, and NOLA is not issuing evac orders??? Does anyone else have better information? What I’m hearing around town is that the evac orders are not happening because they haven’t upgraded the roads out of town like they were supposed to, and they don’t want to clog the routes (translation: they want to give the important people a chance to get out, before the poor people panic and block up all the roads).
If you wanted a distraction from the plague and our sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, probably couldn’t ask for a better one than a rehash of Katrina…
I sympathize with the commenters who have been hearing voices urging them to do something they know they don’t want to do. Just in the past few days I’ve heard a voice suggesting, at various times, that I purchase unnecessary hair products, replace my creaky but reliable 16-year-old car, redo all the floors in my house, and lose some weight. I’m pretty sure this is due to an entity that became attached to me during a powerful ritual I participated in during the mid 1990s.
To be honest I usually give in, but when that’s not an option, has anyone tried answering back? That sometimes works.
In reply to kashtan up at 382, Progress does not need to crash hard. It probably will, but it doesn’t have to. Avoiding the crash only requires that society realize that the age of ever greater centralization is over, and that diminishing returns has set in on nearly everything. Increasing complexity isn’t improving things very much, but it is making things less reliable.
And getting the Left and PMC to let go of power is probably a fantasy, although maybe not completely hopeless. They did get the government out of the regulating marriage business.
Info #384, Germans learned modern totalitarianism from committing the Namibian Genocide 1904-07. That created the culture that could, in turn, treat Belgians so brutally in WW1, form the Friekorps and ruthlessly crush their own people, become the core of Nazism and commit mass slaughter. They’d done it all before. In an unusual twist of history, there was an officer in Namibia whose diary is a major historical source for what went on there. He was also the man who recruited Hitler to infiltrate the far right.
What kind of souls become members of senile elites? How many previous human lives do you think they’ve had? They don’t seem to be doing a good job of looking outward, inward, or upward. 🙂
I work in Boston at the same institution that the current director of the CDC came from for nearly 3 decades. I don’t know what the numbers are that are declining the mRNA serum because it is probably few. Most of my coworkers have spread the word that I will absolutely decline the shot. A few people actively support me though they have or will get it. A surprisingly large number have shunned me. I sense mild hostility in a couple. The pressure being in a large famous liberal Northeast institution is immense. Today a couple of coworkers have asked me to change my mind again. They don’t understand my mindset because I don’t waste my time explaining myself to them. One said I don’t know what your reading but I (her) just follow the science. Like a mantra maybe. At piece with how this shakes out. An odd thought is if they don’t fire me I now feel like I’m in bed with the devil. Like an abused spouse who goes back and eventually gets killed.
In the early 90s Wayne Dyer and Ernest Holmes turned my self destructive path into a great success story helping critically ill infants, kids, and adults. Work and exotic spirituality of the kind popularized in this Eastern city liberal environment occupied my midlife. How fitting I should find and lean on the beautiful Western traditions offered here by JMG as they fall under attack by these same people and find my way back to Ernest Holmes to build the next phase of my life from. Wheels keep turning:)
JMG
Please consider including Pluto influence in your projections; he’s been brought up too many times (by that I mean often) in comments, IM(very)HO. If I recall correctly Pluto has not been relevant to you personally but perhaps his influence is still relevant to the times we’re experiancing; he is down but (perhaps) not out quite yet.
As for the fleeting prompt mentioned by some here to, “oh, just get the “jab” and be done with it, is “Get thee behind me….”
Mary Bennett (#403) wrote:
“Furthermore, Communism had, in the middle 20th century, a great appeal around the world. We tend to forget that now. Nazism seems to have had little or no appeal outside Germany.”
I think this is not true. Rather, people outside of Germany who once found Naziism very appealing at the time, wished to bury that embarrassing aspect of their past once WW2 was over, and largely succeeded in doing so. Naziism had enormous appeal among many Americans during the 1930s and earliest 1940s, according to people I have known who were there and would speak frankly with me..
My father (1911-1970) was an engineer with a high security clearance who worked on military weapons design in the 1930s-1950s (on the highly classified Norden Bombsight project), and thereafter in the aerospace industry. He made a point of telling me at some length, when I was about to head off to college, not to trust what my US History courses would (he assumed) tell us about WW2. In his own interactions with other engineers and with the military brass, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, about one-third of all the people he dealt with very much wanted the US to enter the war on the side of the Nazis and to smash the Allied Powers forever. (Another third wanted the US to stay neutral, and the final third wanted us to enter the war on the side of the Allies, as FDR personally wanted.)
The attack on Pearl Harbor, my father said, completely changed this picture, almost overnight: after that, most of the US wanted revenge on the Axis, and the fate of Naziism was sealed. Americans who had supported Nazi ideology, he said, became acutely embarrassed of their support (especially after the full scope of Nazi brutality became far more widely known after the Allied victory), and tried to deny that they had ever wantedf the US to support the Nazis.
But he thought it had been a very close thing that the US might have allied with the Nazis, and that he and his family would have ended up living under a Nazi-influenced US government in a Nazi-dominated trans-Atlantic world.
He was a second-generation Danish-American, very proud of the Danish resistance to the Nazis, but also very much on the side of the one-third that wanted the US to stay out of WW2 entirely. And he always thought that racial theories and eugenic “science” were a mountain of stinking hooey. So he visibly shuddered telling me what a very close thing it had been until Pearl Harbor, and how very many Americans thought the Nazis were doing the right thing.
(Of course, his friends and acquaintances were engineers and military men, so his sample was not necessarily representative of the entire population of the US. That said, I am certain these people *were* representative of the sorts of Americans with whom he dealt every day.)
As for Nazi atrocities vs. Communist atrocities, they seem to me to be cut from the same cloth, and to be equally horrific. To be sure, certain classes and groups of people fared better under the one regime than under the other–more or less in equal numbers on each side; so if you belonged to such a clsss or group, it was obvious which side had your back and which did not.
But each was cut from the same totalitarian and utopian cloth, and thus merits (IMHO) equal condemnation.
@RandomActsOfKarma #397
Yes, we are the Woke ones! 🙂
@Anonymous Collapsenik #386 and @Darren #401
I saw that, it was pretty daring of him to speak up like that.
Stuart Scheller is a suitably German name for the future Supreme Leader of America. 🙂
It is also a suitable name for somebody who speaks up:
Scheller Name Meaning
German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a noisy person or one with a loud voice, from an inflected form of Middle High German schel ‘noisy’, ‘loud’.
Previous open posts had shortages reports but it looks like we’re settling in with the fact that shortages are now “A Thing” in the US and are feeling less compelled to report on them.
I know this was mentioned last month or the month before, but in case anyone missed it, this subreddit is a good place to get a sense of what’s going on logistically and materially: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shortages/
I don’t have a reddit account so I won’t be posting this there, but one industry-wide shortage I’m aware of that hasn’t been reported on reddit is that of a wide array paper products: https://ccgcreates.com/ccgs-update-on-the-paper-industry-and-supply-shortages/
JMG (and Chad[well], who asked) – perhaps this is why the WOH game is stalled, especially if any coated paper (or, I’ve heard, cardstock) is called for.
A friend recommended The Neurotic Personality of Our Time by Karen Horney. Her premise is anxiety and how individuals adapt to it causes many neurotic behaviors. First published in 1937 the things she describes as rare are commonplace now.
This particular passage on mother’s behavior really dovetails nicely with some of you theories that Covid hysteria is covering for something else –
“ Whenever we meet such a vigorous defense of irrational attitudes we may be sure that the attitude defended has important functions for the individual. Instead of feeling a helpless prey to her emotions, such a mother feels she can actively do something about the situation. Instead of recognizing a weakness she feels entirely rational and justified. Instead of seeing and accepting a challenge to change something within herself she can go on shifting the responsibility to the outside world and thereby escape facing her own motivations. Of course she has to pay the price for these momentary advantages by never getting rid of her worries. Particularly do the children have to pay the price.
But she does not realize that, and in the last analysis she does not want to realize it, because deep down she clings to the delusion that she can change nothing within herself and yet manage to have all the benefits that would ensue from a change.
The same principle holds true for all tendencies to believe that anxiety is a rational fear, whatever its content may be: fear of childbirth, of diseases, of errors in diet, of catastrophes, of impoverishment.”
Every page drops a truth bomb about people today and how damaging our ways of being are to ourselves and others. The need to dominate and control everything and everyone was seen as particularly neurotic. This is the default behavior today along with learned helplessness.
Once people get in the loop of neurotic behavior, nothing can be done to stop it in casual interactions (for instance co-workers). It’s truly who they are. Trained therapists, journaling, mentally healthy people as models, and being around others who set up emotional boundaries all seem to help over time.
Karen Horney wrote several books and now I’m very intrigued for more descriptions of what was normal and abnormal behavior almost 100 years ago!
#291 Slithytoves
I’ve heard from someone that laminating ink-drawn talismans can make it last for years if treated well.
@ Synthase
Just saw your original message about what to do in Melbourne. One thing you could do is join us at the Melbourne Green Wizards Association. We meet a couple of times a month; online until the madness ends but we normally meet in person. Would be good to see a new face – https://wormlamp.com/gwam/
Funny. Lots of pressure being applied to Jab and I barely feel it. It passes right through me. 2005 ‘The Oil Drum’ is warning about peal oil. Some writers and sites were predicting lights out by 2013. I posted recently about the uselessness of a bug out cabin only because I read it on Charles Hugh Smith’s website back then. Him, JMG, and others were more reasonable voices then. Seems like yesterday. By 2007 I had food, a local fresh deep water source at my father-in-laws, and a commitment to stay put and be part of the solution. Can I say funny again? Never imagined I was going to be part of this solution spring up here:)
Feeling: Grateful, Confident, Open
This is what we build against. DenG
ZeroHedge
Chicago Judge Strips Mother Of Parental Rights For Being Unvaccinated
SATURDAY, AUG 28, 2021 – 04:00 PM
A few weeks ago, we shared the story of a 21-year-old man from Ohio who, after being arrested for fentanyl possession, was legally required by the judge overseeing his case to get vaccinated as a condition of his probation.
Now, in a terrifying glimpse of what might be in store for parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids, a judge in Cook County Illinois (which includes Chicago and some of the surrounding area) has taken away the parental rights of a woman due to her refusal to get vaccinated.
In what all parties agree is a very unusual and perhaps unprecedented step, a judge at Chicago’s Daley Center has stripped Rebecca Firlit of custody due to her refusal to get vaccinated.
“I miss my son more than anything. It’s been very difficult. I haven’t seen him since Aug. 10,” Firlit told a local Fox affiliate station in an interview.
That’s the day Firlit appeared in court via Zoom, accompanied by her ex-husband, for a child support hearing involving her 11-year-old son. The two have been divorced for seven years and share custody and parenting time. Out of the blue, Cook County Judge James Shapiro asked her whether she had been vaccinated. Firlit told Shapiro she didn’t get vaccinated because she has had bad reactions to vaccines in the past.
Shapiro then ordered that Firlit be prevented from spending parenting time with her son until she gets vaccinated. Over the past two weeks, Firlit has been able to talk to her son on the phone and through video calls, but has been unable to see him in person.
“I think that it’s wrong. I think that it’s dividing families. And I think it’s not in my son’s best interest to be away from his mother,” Firlit said.
Firlit is now appealing the court order, saying the judge has no authority to take away her parenting rights over her vaccination status.
“It had nothing to do with what we were talking about. He was placing his views on me. And taking my son away from me,” Firlit said.
Her attorney, Annette Fernholz, claimed the judge has overstepped his authority.
“In this case you have a judge, without any matter before him regarding the parenting time with the child deciding ‘Oh, you’re not vaccinated. You don’t get to see your child until you are vaccinated.’ That kind of exceeds his jurisdiction,” Fernholz said.
As she explained, the judge is acting completely on his own: Firlit’s former husband didn’t bring the issue before the court.
“You have to understand the father did not even bring this issue before the court. So it’s the judge on his own and making this decision that you can’t see your child until you’re vaccinated,” Fernholz added.
However, the attorney representing Firlit’s ex-husband, Jeffrey Leving, says they were also surprised by the judge’s decision, but they support the ruling saying that given the pandemic, the child should be protected from an unvaccinated mother.
“There are children who have died because of COVID. I think every child should be safe. And I agree that the mother should be vaccinated,” Leving said.
Since the start of the pandemic, fewer than 400 children in the US have died from COVID. In every case, the child had some kind of co-morbidity that dramatically complicated the situation.
The judge didn’t respond to a request for comment. But it’s worth noting that judges have broad authority, and this likely won’t be the first time an American judge brings vaccination issues up during cases where it’s not exactly relevant.
@David BTL re: your coworker
Are there practical things you can do for her? Like, make sure that you have each other’s contact info in case she gets laid off, and needs a job reference? Does she have enough social support when the baby comes? Are you married? Is this something your wife might be willing to sign up for, if she needs someone to help out around the house, or check in on her postpartum? (it might be weird for a dude to volunteer). If she’s religious, it’d probably be OK to appeal to her deity or appropriate saints for her wellbeing and that of the child.
@Temporaryreality re: #423:
A local bookstore was apparently running low on plastic bags, of all things.
Hi Walt,
What kind of ritual was it? Does it normally last 20-25 years?
>Chicago Judge Strips Mother Of Parental Rights For Being Unvaccinated
This touches on a broader question of mine these days – Is it possible to still raise a healthy sane child (especially a boy) in the U.S.? If not – where?
My thinking on that Ultimatum – your health (get the jab) or your job. If you get the jab, you lose your health and they will fire you although it may take them a few months to get around to it. They’ll call you into a conference room, put on a pseudocompassionate expression and start with “Your performance hasn’t been great recently, we know you’ve been having health problems but..”
If you don’t, you keep your health such as it is, and they fire you immediately.
I’d keep my health and not worry about getting fired. They’re going to fire you either way.
JM,
What do you think of solar power? Is there any PV system you can recommend? Interested in just a small system for a deep freeze and window A/C for hurricane season. Thanks.
@ Temporaryreality #423
I’ll comment on shortages because you mentioned coated paper. Mysteriously, half & half and other dairy products sold in waxed paper cartons have vanished. It can’t be that the cows are gone.
Cows can provide all the milk we’d ever want but if there are no cartons to put it in, there’s no half & half, light cream, or heavy cream at the grocers’.
I’m seeing plenty of shortages in Hershey so I’m cramming my pantry full.
I’d be interested to know more about the failed vaccines for other coronaviruses (presumably SARS and MERS) due to antibody-dependent enhancement, and also of any current evidence of this in vaccinated people. All I seem to come across when Googling it is a bunch of articles denying that this has occurred with the current COVID vaccines, along with some articles by vaccine skeptics arguing that this is likely, but without much in the way of current data that this is starting to occur. Either way, if this does occur, we should see evidence soon in the form of worsening outcomes in the vaccinated caused by inappropriate immune responses, rather than simply the declining effectiveness of the vaccine over time due to the waning of immune response and the evolution of variants. Time will tell…
I think we can rule out the idea that either many of the global elite or the scientists involved in vaccine research believe that the vaccines are riskier than COVID itself based on the fact that the vast majority have gotten the vaccine themselves, often quite publicly. If this all does go sideways, it will be due to a risk like ADE that has so far been dismissed as unlikely by the medical establishment.
That said, I’m also quite convinced that they are well aware that these are markedly riskier than most vaccines. It’s just that they believe the number of lives saved will exceed the number of deaths from vaccine reactions by something like two orders of magnitude. And of course they also believe that the public are incapable of dealing with things like relative risk, so they think they have to push the idea that they’re as safe as ordinary vaccines when this is demonstrably not the case – thereby causing their credibility to fall even further. I don’t know why so many media/political/scientific elites seem to think this sort of thing does anything but convince people to be even more skeptical of anything they say.
I do have a question for you and other COVID vaccine skeptics: if COVID were far deadlier, with an infection fatality rate in the 30+% range rather than c. 0.5%, would you consider a rushed vaccine program of this type to be appropriate? Is there some rough tipping point past which you’d think risky vaccines acceptable to slow down a seriously deadly disease rather than just a moderately severe one?
Pixelated @ 413
I hail from the PNW, not of salish extraction (having transplanted I and mine some years ago, from the crazy maw of the island colloquially known as Califonia) ..however, I have made a conscious effort to plant flora that attract hummingsaurs. They find us humans agreeable, and grateful I think, for the forage offered .. and that I keep the neighborhood felines at bay whenever possible. It’s such an honor and joyous experience to know that I have their full trust as an equal, as they flit to and fro .. as much as is possible between disparate genera. This goes for all the other neodinosaus as well that call our small speck of earth their sanctuary, year .. after year.
They are most definitely an auspicious sign in my book!
@Pixelated:
I was delighted to read about Coast Salish hummingbird lore and totem pole. Thank you!
Pronouncing Hyperborean: How do you pronounce words like “aqqat” and “djai”?
Mary Bennett (no. 403), Robert Mathiesen (no, 421), I think we have to distinguish between the NSDAP in particular, and right-wing or “fascist” (in the broad sense, not strictly Italian) movements in general. The NSDAP were German nationalists. This appealed to many Germans, but not so much to other people. Germany was allied with countries like Italy and Japan, which promoted their own homegrown hyper-nationalisms. There were pro-Nazi organizations and social movements in other countries, like the Silver Shirts in the USA (founded by occultist William Dudley Pelley), which got suppressed once the war started, and were unpopular anyway; or the anti-interventionist (and often racist, although that was hardly unusual for the time) America First Committee, which disbanded itself.
On the other hand, what are the key features of Nazism that make it so notorious? A one-party state? A dictator? A militaristic spirit that calls for the invasion of surrounding countries for Lebensraum? Racism and anti-Semitism? A willingness to commit mass murder or genocide to further these goals? Plenty of countries have some or all of these characteristics, adapted to local prejudices to be sure. Moreover, the US has shown itself willing to ally with any number of malodorous regimes out of sheer Realpolitik, when it is not committing abuses itself. If I wanted an alternate history in which the US supported Nazi Germany, I wouldn’t involve people like Pelley, or even the (second) KKK (which declined in the 1930s anyway, and didn’t like Germans), It would be enough to make small changes to the mainstream political parties and their candidates. Nonintervention would have been an easier sell than pro-German intervention, of course. (There were trade and investment ties.)
@Slithy
Didn’t we have an 8+ down near the South Sandwich Islands recently, though? That entire fault zone just opened up, and everything along it has been rattling ever since.
Correction to no. 388: Exodus 1:11 (not 1:1).
Hi John Michael,
Very true. There is an old adage about how crazy people make sane people, crazy. 🙂
Do you have any advice as to how to navigate your life when faced with this situation?
One of the things that annoys me about the sort of centralised control which gets exercised in our society (and which is unquietly slipping away) is that every time you move a little bit to the side or away, the system seeks to draw you back in. It is never satisfied and doesn’t know when its had enough, sad to say. Oh well, we can only but do our best.
Cheers
Chris
Re: Elkriver , the intrusive thought, and the possibility of subliminal messaging:
That is fascinating. I have not experienced anything of that sort, and I’m extremely curious if anybody has compared notes about where they were, and what they were doing, when the thought came to them. Has it got any correlation to urban vs. rural locations? Did it happen at home or while out and about? Were people using a phone or computer at the time? Were they near a television? Does the incidence map onto anything like wireless hubs or broadcast towers? Does it happen to people in countries where the dominant language is not English? And does it happen in other languages?
Inquiring minds want to know…
@AC
I find that tracking JMG’s replies to individual commenters is quite easy if you open up a separate tab for the replies, and zigzag back and forth. He does answer them in chronological order 🙂
For other ongoing threads, such as the discussion started by Elkriver, or the extremely informative chat about piecework, the Ctrl+F feature is very handy! It will pop up a little search box, where you can search for any particular word, phrase, or combination of letters, such as a username, and you can jump around to all the places where it turns up on the page, neatly highlighted for you.
@JMG re: the omnipresent marketing push:
I see what you mean, and the run-up to “Operation Iraqi Liberation” was indeed the first thing I thought of as a comparable. But it wasn’t so complete. You could talk to musicians, or academics, or whoever, and not hear about it. The Trump stuff was equally shrill and insistent, but also wasn’t so comprehensively everywhere — if my wife wasn’t an obsessive Guardian reader who regularly fumes about whatever they tell her to fume about, I could have routinely gone months without hearing Donald Trump’s name.
But now? If I try to watch a sporting event, they’re pushing the “vaccine”. In workplaces, they’re pushing their employees in that direction, even if they haven’t decided to mandate it yet. Any public event or function now wrings their hands over who should be allowed in. Enthusiast groups are full of chatter about whether the unclean should be allowed to participate. Casual conversation quickly leads there as well (and that’s in a very red Mountain West state), every building I enter has signage expressing their desire to get me to participate in the experiment, etc. I just don’t recall anything coming from every angle like this before.
Interesting times…
For JMG:
In reference to your comment on Steiner, re: think what he saw visually was all true but just stuff on the astral plane.
Was this also what Joseph Smith was accessing, or something else. Joseph Smith had a spiritual background, I know. LDS puts alot of stock on dreams, true dreams I believe even now. I just wonder, I feel there was a truth, a very real spiritual impulse which made it such a movement. On the other hand, when I have tried to read the book of Mormon, I find it impossible to read, not well written like the Bible. I have joked with a few people that, well, this is what happens when truths are revealed to someone who is not very literate. Bad writing, and realy it should be quite a story there, more compelling to read. Anyway, something happened to him, he saw and experienced, but on what plane
@ pyrrhus (329)
but, but Twitter just banned Mr Berenson permanently, so what he said CAN’T BE TRUE!!!
/sarc off
Crazy times we are in
Jerry
@Goldenhawk, you’re welcome! I saw your second comment after I wrote that, and I’m actually struck by the similarity in the symbols.
@polecat, they are lovely curious little birds for company, aren’t they; when I used to wear a visi-vest for work outside they always used to come investigate, and hover for what seemed like ages right in front of our faces going back and forth and peeping imperiously – trying to figure out what manner of flower we were, I guess.
The US military failed spectacularly in a war game simulating a war with China over Taiwan last fall.
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-failed-miserably-in-war-game-changing-warfighting-strategy-2021-7
More than a few shades of Twilight’s Last Gleaming here!
At least it sounds like somebody may have realized they need to change strategy. Whether they’ll actually succeed in doing so in the right direction is another matter.
Regular old white bond paper has disappeared around here, except CVS had some, 250 sheets for $10. Even at CVS, that’s expensive.
In yet another example of how brittle government legitimacy has become a marine Lt. Col. was relieved of command for publicly asking for some accountability from senior military “leaders”.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3559465/who-marine-lieutenant-colonel-stuart-scheller/
How effective is your military organization if you cannot tolerate asking questions that should be apparent to any playground tactician? Draining the faith and initiative of your officers is a recipe for disaster; the Afghanistan fiasco has exposed a buffet of rot.
@ JMG and your response to Graeme. Just a few notes.
Yes, previous Coronavirus vaccines have been stopped because of ADE, but to compared those experiments to the current virus is not 100% accurate. I say this because firstly a corona virus is named as such simply because of its visual appearance – whether it is related to another virus or not. It is strange that it is the definition that has been pushed so hard over the last year and a half. I guess for most folks it is marketing rather than a proper technical term. Secondly the previous attempts on MERS/SARS produced ADE because they where targeting very different infection modes. If anything, we got very lucky with C19 that those pathways could be avoided in trying to neutralize it. Note I say trying. 😀
ADE was one of the very first things the current vaccine developers where trying to avoid, they specifically avoided known paths that are likely to trigger ADE down the line. That is one thing they did learn from the previous MERS/SARS vaccine failures. In that sense, good job to the folks working on these things. At least they learnt from previous mistakes, lets see what new ones they made this time however.
BUT that is what kind of worries me. There was a sense of hubris of thinking “we have already countered that, so no need to check for it”. It is the things we aren’t paying attention to that end up whacking us the hardest. I really hope for everyone involved that the whole ADE thing turns out to a dud and that we get lucky in avoiding it but I suspect it will be out of pure luck rather than through forward thinking design. But if it does rear its ugly head, it is going to get bad really quickly.
As for the lockdowns thing, I don’t know what was said at first but I will go off your comment. Lock downs can work in stopping the spread of the virus. That is true. Here in Victoria, Australia we are now in lockdown No. 6! We have got it to zero 5 times before. But it is such an incredibly blunt and damaging tool to use. It destroys the economy and lively hoods long the way. And long term the best it can do is merely leave an entire population as potential fuel for the next wave. It is like how preventing wild fires simply leave more fuel for the next wild fire. Eventually it just amplifies the impact when it finally hits. It cannot stop it forever just merely prolong the calm before the storm, if you will.
Personally speaking, as it was pointed out “you do you” – that has been my motto in life for a very long time. There is a lot of proposed on both sides of the vax argument that I personally don’t entirely agree with. Like what you (JMG) have been saying about the vax. I talk to folks/good friends that work in the immunology field, I trust them, and no, they would not agree with everything you are saying. That’s cool, at least you can argue your points and actually provide a cohesive argument for your side. It is when I hear nothing but parroted points or hear the most absurd concepts that I don’t really appreciate.
I really anticipate to see how the next 12-18 months go. With luck your fears won’t manifest themselves, I just worry that they will…
@Lady Cutekitten, the ritual involved some gold rings and a cake. It certainly can remain effective for 20-25 years and longer, given two necessities: resilience, and paying attention.
@Bei Dawei (#440):
You are talking about such things as pollitical parties, other sorts of organiztions, and social movements. But all these things–even social movements–are very very poor reflections of popular sentiments, of the sympathies and attitudes of the man or woman on the street and in the workplace; and those are what I was talking about in my post. It is they which shape the course of history in ways that are easy for a scholar to miss.
What appealed to my father’s acquaintances were the Nazi embrace of American theories of eugenics, the Nazi focus on large-scale technological projects in the American manner (die Autobahnen, usw.; but also the death-camps, which made use of American gas technology), and generally their emphasis on cleaning up the messiness of unregulated nature.
Historians do like the sort of things you have mentioned, of course, because they are far easier to document and deal with. Poor historians may even limit their scholarly imagination to what can be massively documented. Alas!
I dont think our gracious host should do any extra typing and it seems rude to ask. This is a very valuable set of blogs and comment section all provided to us commentariet and lurkers like me for free, all work and expense being done by our host and you want him to do more work ? It is very easy to open 2 windows and read comments and replys at the same time, not to mention that all comments are time stamped, so when this gets messed up, as happens to me on occasion when reloading one of the pages to see if comments are updated, I can find the correct place again looking at time stamps very quickly
Yorkshire, I don’t know. The Lords of Karma keep on turning down my request for an interview. 😉
DenG, now there’s a grand old name from the annals of New Thought!
JeffinWA, as I noted above, I’ve found that including Pluto in predictions is a very good way to make bad predictions!
Temporaryreality, yep. I’m pretty sure it won’t get better, either. The Asian grocery where I went shopping today was out of plastic shopping bags, among other things…
Denis, hmm! When I have room on my reading list I’ll want to take that in.
Jack, you’ll want to talk with someone who has experience with current PV systems, which I don’t.
Patricia M, they’re designed to be difficult to pronounce! (It’s a way of stressing the difference between Old Hyperborean and English.) The letter “a” is always as in “ah”; the double Q is a guttural sound, but unvoiced; djai rhymes with “why” and “spry,” and the initial sound is like the “dg” in “badge.”
Chris, the only thing that reliably works for me is to back away from the crazy people and spend more time by myself, or in the company of others less crazed.
Loren, okay, that’s a valid point. I don’t see as much of that here in Rhode Island; we’re back in mask territory again, at least in some indoor settings, but I haven’t seen anything like as much vaccine propaganda.
Mntnmom, I’m sure Smith experienced something real, but I’m not sure on what plane. Certainly what he got in terms of the ancient history of America doesn’t correspond to the evidence of archeology.
Pygmycory, I heard about that. I hope somebody in the Pentagon is paying attention.
Jo Robear, the child who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes probably got a spanking, too.
Michael, researchers don’t know why coronavirus vaccines cause ADE — they have no idea what the general mechanism is — so insisting that the current vaccines are free from it strikes me as handwaving. I’d encourage you to check out just how many hundreds of other pharmaceuticals have been dumped on the market with glowing claims about their safety, only to be withdrawn in embarrassment a few months or years later when they turned out to have ghastly health consequences — including consequences the pharma companies said they wouldn’t have, by the way. Since several other pathways by which the vaccines can cause serious harm, including death, have now been reported in medical journals, I’m going to stick to my guns: the pharmaceutical industry these days is so corrupt, and so effectively shielded from the consequences of its actions, that I don’t intend to risk my health by taking this latest heavily marketed and poorly tested product.
Grebulocities #436 Try DuckDuckGo, you’ll get better results. Google sold whatever soul they had a few decades ago…new motto is Be The Evil. As to your point about a possible 30% morbiditiy scenario and vaccines, its precisly C-19’s lack of mobidity that makes the vaccines and lockdowns so frustrating.
Owen #432 Try small towns far away from deep blue cities. I have a 3 year old grandson that is all boy. He lives in a town that doesn’t even have a stop light, its a good place for him to grow up strong, independent and resourceful, which he will need to be as time goes on. His school teacherrs will the farmers and ranchers wives that all know his dad.
Methylethyl #414 Y’all be careful down there, praying for you guys Hope you have a ham radio, a shotgun and some canned goods. Those who did, seemed to be fine during Katrina. Yeppers, sounds like corruption got you again.
JMG, thank you for providing such a great forum and such interesting responses. Don’t know how you keep up with these open posts.
Bob
Is this an appropriate place to request for prayers to my smooth return to the united states? This has got me really stressed. I do not want to get vaccinated but the mandates are coming strong. I just need to cross the border (as I am mexican I should say that this will be done legally!) in order to be exempt from it. I’ve already arranged for things with my employer. If anyone feels compelled to I am asking for a smooth paperwork for my visa renewal and transition without affecting my work status back into the US.
Thank you all in advance.
Bei Dawei, Thank you for the historical checkup! I think I will review some of the sources you mention. I love that movie, it’s before animation became sickly cutesy with big eyes and bubble heads and before dumping huge amounts of money to it was a thing. Even though the movie doesn’t show blood, I don’t think it is for children however, teenagers maybe. Though probably these days they’ve seen worse. That time frame is the one I am basing my studies right now because in my art education I discovered that I am really good at live-model drawing but I suck at illustration and it strikes me as something very useful to loosen the hand and do more creative work which is one of the reasons what I started studying art in the first place!
On Pluto: I’d like to see an ongoing discussion.
Back in 2019, when I first looked at the chart for the Great Mutation Conjunction, and some of the 2020 ingresses leading into it, I saw Pluto right in the mix, thought UH-OH! Just for my own private consumption, I delineated the charts with the (old) standard interpretations for Pluto, and they haven’t been too far off the mark.
Yet, like JMG, I, too, noticed that some strong transiting aspects of Pluto to my natal luminaries that “should” have been big news, but passed without incident. And on the other hand, I have noticed that Pluto oppositions to Jupiter and Pluto (separate occasions) have both coincided with getting very deeply into areas of knowledge that powerfully changed my understanding of reality.
So I begin to wonder if Pluto is somehow selective about what it devastates.
You can count on a mundane chart to apply to people whose reactions to unpleasant realities has been to ignore them until they are just too big and bad to ignore. The USA in Afghanistan is a case in point. A Pluto aspect applying to such a situation could then act like those forces of Nature whose role is to eliminate the unfit, while sparing that which functions adequately.
Anybody else got informed opinions?
Regarding stores being out of plastic shopping bags:
Here’s an opportunity to make a simple lifestyle choice: cultivate the habit of bringing your own re-usable cloth bags or recycled plastic bags.
An astrological question occurred to me today, while I was thinking about the Libra Ingress chart you posted:
So while you discount Pluto’s effect on a chart, do you still consider him to rule Scorpio? And if not, does the rulership revert back to Mars? I expect the answer will be “time will tell,” but I just got to wondering about the effect of Mars on the Libra Ingress
JMG, just a quick thought: if you’re right about the influence of the Age of Aquarius on the forms appropriate to worship, it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “thoughts and prayers.”
Jeffrey Pikul,
Hmm. That’s interesting. I admit I’m not terribly familiar with the details of laminating paper: doesn’t it usually use plastic? I’d expect covering a talisman in plastic to render it useless.
JMG, do you have any experience with this?
methylethyl,
Thanks for this; I didn’t look at 2021 data. I’m sorry to hear that for those affected.
For everyone, remember that using ancient religious texts to predict future events doesn’t have a very good track record!
@Grebulocities
To my knowledge the SARS and MERS vaccines never made it to human trials, so the ADE and related failures occurred in animals. You can follow the references in the following paragraph (link to full article below) for the original sources.
—————-
ADE has been observed in multiple SARS-CoV-1 animal models. In a mouse model, attempts to create vaccines for SARS-CoV-1 lead to pulmonary immunopathology upon challenge with SARS-CoV-1 (75, 76); these vaccines included inactivated whole viruses, inactivated viruses with adjuvant, and a recombinant DNA spike (S) protein vaccine in a virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine. Severe pneumonia was observed in mice vaccinated with nucleocapsid protein after challenge with SARS-CoV-1 (77). Enhanced hepatitis was observed in a ferret model with a vaccine with recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (rMVA) expressing the SARS-CoV-1 Spike protein (78). ADE was observed for rhesus macaques with SARS-CoV-1 vaccine (79). SARS-CoV-1 ADE is mediated by spike protein antibodies (80). Antibodies to the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein can mediate viral entry via Fc receptor-expressing cells in a dose-dependent manner (54). Jaume et al. (34) point out the potential pitfalls associated with immunizations against SARS-CoV-1 Spike protein due to Fc mediate infection of immune cells. This leads to the prediction that new attempts to create either SARS-CoV-1 vaccines, MERS-CoV vaccines (81), or SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have potentially higher risks for inducing ADE in humans facilitated by antibody infection of phagocytic immune cells. This potential ADE risk is independent of the vaccine technology (82) or targeting strategy selected due to predicted phagocytic immune cell infections upon antibody uptake.
—————–
Two Different Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) Risks for SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943455/
I have not seen anything yet in the vaccine rollout that is convincing evidence of ADE; my initial concerns were more about the high rate of adverse effects and the savior mentality surrounding the vaccine rollout that was guaranteed to obfuscate any unbiased attempt at risk assessment – and unexpectedly rapid waning of vaccine immunity (40% antibody decline per month) and the unknown risks of proposed frequent boosters are now added to those concerns.
That said, these two papers that came out recently lead me to believe efforts to avoid ADE may not have been entirely successful, and that ADE may begin to appear once the Delta variant picks up a few more antibody-escape mutations.
Infection-enhancing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies recognize both the original Wuhan/D614G strain and Delta variants. A potential risk for mass vaccination?
https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(21)00392-3/fulltext
The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.457114v1
In response to your last question: It’s not clear-cut for me, and it would depend on the fatality rate, local/regional prevalence, and our ability to prevent spread using other measures. Above a 5% personal risk of death/disability I think I would definitely opt for a rushed vaccine. But the messaging is also important. The way in which these vaccines were rolled out with expert assurances and coercive tactics following what seemed to be a massive fear campaign to make people overestimate the risk posed by the disease – with vaccination as the only possible solution – was very off-putting. Had it been approached with humility, asking if people would be willing to take part in an experiment that could save lives, while acknowledging the unknown risks, I would have been much more amenable to the idea.
If you haven’t seen this JMG, this study in NATURE has it that ⅓ of the US population had the virus by the end of 2020. The narrative is coming down…
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08-americans-covid–1.html
Hello!
This corner of the internet has been my salvation during these lock downs. Thank you so much JMG and all here.
I’m entirely new to the occult, but would like to seriously pursue a spiritual path. I’ve become completely disenfranchised with materialism and feel this deep pull towards ‘something more’ – a combination of recent events and years of medical mistreatment of a chronic illness.
I was wondering if anyone could recommend books for me to start with – I’m looking to get a sense of the different spiritual pathways out there and the one that so I can hopefully gain a sense of the one that feels right for me to commit to.
Side note, I wonder if part of the COVID hysteria is people being jolted into the realisation that those in charge aren’t at all that wise, which opens up a whole heap of fear and helplessness. Up until now it was easy to repress this observation because it’s been hard for most to see how decisions at the top influence their lives. But now the decisions are directly impacting people’s day to day activities. When it becomes clear that those in charge aren’t all that wise the future starts to look bleak!
@ JMG, sorry if my original comment seemed accusatory at all. It was not meant like that in any fashion. More just some additional background on how we got here. It will be fascinating to see all the nonsense from these companies laid out in full in years to come -The initials folks that made these things with good intentions only to have it completely corrupted and turned into a means of great pain as. As they say, hell is filled with good deeds.
I’m not insisting that the current vaccines are free from ADE, all I know is they tried to avoid the previous paths that have led to ADE. That said there are possibly a thousand paths that can lead to ADE. Just because they avoid 3 doesn’t mean the other 997 aren’t viable. I have said it many times. IF they manage the avoid the worst case scenario, it will have been out of pure luck rather than a job well done. Anyone could handwave these problems away, it doesn’t change the reality of it in any way.
As for the pharmaceuticals being with drawn. I could accuse you of working for big pharma saying it is only hundreds. 😛 I’m guessing it would be hundreds this year alone, only done very quietly.
I say stick to your guns! The industry is corrupt and being shielded. I do wonder how big of stuff up they need to make to finally get some major blows on them. There would be no greater joy in this world than to see the entire industry go belly up over their own arrogance – I hope it happens soon and that there are few innocent casualties.
Something that you might know about however is similar to the folks above that are talking about having a passing thought of “get the jab, everything will be fine”. When ever it comes to talking about covid, I get a real deep existential dread on the whole thing. I do not want to talk about it, I am sick and tired of it, it just makes me ill having to focus on it. Would you have any idea what that is?
I bring this up because it is only on your blogs that I even venture into the dark void of this topic. I just trust you and the readers enough to do it I guess. Other than that I don’t want to talk about it one bit more, it just wrecks me.
YoungElephant, regarding coffee. I get it from my own experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I think my etheric body was too weak and my practices started moving energy too fast. I had an etheric injury or rather an etheric sprain or it getting tight not long ago in my head so I would spend a lot of time with my eyes closed looking at the energy moving in my body and making it flow through the damaged area because it felt stuck in a spot, or rather as if one of the energy channels had weakened like a sprained muscle or when the digestive tract would slow down and hurt when food passing. So I would relax the area with my mind and try to make it move off the spot which caused relief immediately.
When I drank coffee in the morning that spot would hurt a lot because my energies would go up in a jitter and flow faster and erratic causing pressure in that channel for which it couldn’t handle. It felt as if I had lost control of them because of the coffee and I couldn’t tell them to go out of the stuck spot. Just like how you loose control of your emotions and get anxious and jittery when drinking too much coffee. Tea also had this effect of rushing my energies and loosing control of them but without the jitter, though I had not a chance to experiment to see if this would help to move them out of the spot without hurting to prove my hypothesis. But I definitely think it had something to do with poor etheric strength at the beginning when I started. I started doing breathing exercises and physical exercise and it got better fast.
@Robert Mathiesen #421
Not only was there support for Nazism outside of Germany, it’s amazing what sorts of people supported it. I had a dear friend in the Fuji Faith, now departed, fading in the mind like our dear President, but very proud of his internationalism. He always sat by me and talked to me in broken English. He’d been thoroughly modern, one of the first train conductors in Gotenba City by Mt. Fuji. I didn’t realize how thoroughly Alzheimers had him its grip until one day when he beamed at me and said, “Isn’t Hitler the greatest?” I guess I controlled my wince pretty well, because his smile didn’t fade.
In Shinto I’ve told that senile dementia is a gift from the gods, the better with which for them to communicate with us. That window into those years was valuable beyond words.
@Darkest Yorkshire
“Info #384, Germans learned modern totalitarianism from committing the Namibian Genocide 1904-07. That created the culture that could, in turn, treat Belgians so brutally in WW1, form the Friekorps and ruthlessly crush their own people, become the core of Nazism and commit mass slaughter. They’d done it all before. In an unusual twist of history, there was an officer in Namibia whose diary is a major historical source for what went on there. He was also the man who recruited Hitler to infiltrate the far right.”
Interesting. And it seems Villains likes to learn from each other. The Bolsheviks may have also learned from those same strands to crush their enemies.
The Bolsheviks killed all the non-Bolshevik Left they could in their country. Then Stalin killed them afterwards.
methylethyl – Re: evacuation orders for hurricane Ida, I heard them mentioned on the NPR news Friday afternoon (not in any detail, but I live in Maryland, so the details wouldn’t matter here). Now, early Sunday morning, the Weather Channel web site has a long list of areas to be evacuated.
———————
-A mandatory evacuation was issued Saturday for all residents in Assumption Parish.
-All of St. Charles Parish’s 52,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate by 5 p.m. Saturday.
-Areas of New Orleans outside of the levee system, including the communities of Lake Catherine, Irish Bayou and Venetian Isles, were ordered to evacuate Friday. The rest of Orleans Parish is under a voluntary evacuation.
-Areas outside of the levees in Jefferson Parish, including Grand Isle, Jean Lafitte, Lower Lafitte and Crown Point are under a mandatory evacuation order. Areas inside of levees are under a voluntary evacuation. Shelters are set to open Saturday at noon in Lafourche Parish…
———————–
If you’re in an affected area, and haven’t heard these orders, you may need to access different news sources. My prayers will include you, this morning. It’s going to be bad.
It’s been 16 years, TO THE DAY, since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Make of that what you will. We’ll see whether the Biden administration can handle it any better than the Bush team did.
JMG – you mentioned on Dreamwidth how the US empire did not have a John Dee figure to guide its growth, which is why it has proven such a failure.
I would also recommend a read of Sean McMeekin’s mind-blowing “Stalin’s War”, which goes into detail about just how penetrated FDR’s government was with Soviet agents – it was absolutely loused out with them. It was Amercian lend-lease that basically turned the USSR into a military powerhouse, and certainly not any of Stalin’s five year plans. I suspect parasitic communist infiltration (nowadays of course enacted by the Chinese) has been a debilitating factor in US governance ever since.
Interestingly, the only Allied leader who smelled a rat was Charles De Gaulle, which goes a long way to explain the mutual antipathy between himself and the US.
I mentioned to a friend today that a number of people commenting here have reported sudden impulses to go get the vax with the sense they would feel better despite being completely opposed to the idea. To me it sounds like possible subliminal messaging, and I would not put that past the Powers-That-Be (whatever they happen to be) at this time. This seems to be so crucial to their plans. My friend noted it could be more than subliminal visual: there has been research into the use of electromagnetic radiation (of which visual is but one sliver of the spectrum) to affect moods, alter perceptions and even put ideas into people’s heads. I don’t pay that much attention to this side of the issue, so I lack references, and it is apt to be classified anyway. Nonetheless, I experienced a rather crude form of this in Russia. Every time I had the chance to visit the main hotel in one of the major Siberian cities, I would get so sleepy I could barely stand. Once I was required by the authorities to stay there four days, and I was able to sleep 20 hours a day, unless they had taken me out for questioning. I am quite sensitive to EMFs so my reaction may have been more extreme than most people’s. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if fields known to relax and promote sleep were being used there. The Soviets did quite a bit of research into that sort of thing.
@Patient Observer, Lark, if I may:
I wouldn’t put too much store in the computer models of future warming. On the one hand, like all models they are imperfect. Christy’s congressional testimony in the link you gave has some good arguments for not trusting the models too much, though on the other hand Christy has had to correct his satellite data several times (as he says himself), and always upwards. More important, in my opinion, is that the highest IPCC model (8.5 degrees) is clearly impossible because fossil fuels are becoming more difficult to extract, and even the second highest model (4.5 degrees) seems unlikely, for the same reason.
The findings on climate change that I find most convincing are those that show that our current temperatures are higher than at any point in a certain stretch of the past. The simplest one is the opening of the Northwest passage. Since at least 1508 (Sebastian Cabot), European, especially English, expeditions have tried to sail through what is now the Canadian Arctic, but during centuries had no success. Amundsen first managed to get through by ship in 1906, but his tiny ship was iced in during the winter, so the trip wouldn’t have been commercially viable. The ships of the Larsen expedition in the 1940s and of all later expeditions until 1969 were fortified against the ice. Since the 1980s, the number of ships making the Northwest Passage has exploded, and it is now used for both bulk transport and tourist cruises. I take this to prove that the northernmost part of North America is now warmer than at any point since 1508.
A study I find even more interesting is also from the Canadian Arctic. Plants recently exposed after the retreat of small, flat glaciers on Baffin Island show that temperatures are now warmer there than at any point in the lat > 40 000 years. In that region, the hypsithermal (or Mid Holocene Optimum) that JMG talked about two weeks ago was very pronounced, yet the study shows that is is now warmer there than in the hypsithermal, and it can be deduced that it is now warmer there than at any point since the last interglacial, about 117 000 years ago. By the way, they show that the IPCC models are too cautious for Baffin Island.
In the spirit of “non-violent communication” proposed above (thanks Jack at #364!), I would like to clearly separate the data (above) from my own interpretation of them (below).
The sun influences climate in many ways – I am just reading Piélou’s “After the Ice Age” recommended several times by JMG, which gives an excellent account. None of the known solar mechanisms (including the more speculative ones given by Patient Observer’s references last week) seem to explain why the temperatures have been rising so fast over the last 100 years, faster than at any point in the last 10 000 years. Piélou, based only on solar effects, thought a new ice age was coming.
There are almost certainly lots of missing pieces in our understanding of CO2, water vapour, deforesting and climate change, and the models are certainly imperfect. Still, man-made changes seem to be the most parsimonious explanation for the recent fast changes.
Since fossil fuels are running out anyway, it seems to me that the most successful places on Earth will be those that reduce their dependence on them as fast as possible (in my opinion mostly be reducing consumption, not by substitution) and that prepare for the coming climate change.
@Grebulocities,
re: your question about whether I would consider a rushed vaccine program appropriate for a virus with a higher infection fatality rate
I have absolutely no issues with the Right-to-Try legislation that allows terminally ill patients to bypass FDA restrictions for experimental medicines (that was approved during the last administration). If people are aware of the risks and choose to make that decision for themselves, I think they should have the right to try whatever medicine they want, vaccine or otherwise.
Note: people are AWARE of risks/data and make a CHOICE.
With COVID, I don’t trust their calculated infection fatality rates. I don’t trust the vaccine reaction numbers reported in VAERS. I don’t trust them saying that treatments (like HCQ, Ivermectin, etc) don’t work. And they are doing everything possibly (where I’m at, anyway), to coerce people to take the vaccine, rather than it being by choice.
So, no, I will not voluntarily take this vaccine. I don’t care what the infection fatality rate is for whatever Greek-letter variant comes down the road.
@methylethyl,
You had asked about the location of the ‘instrusive thought’. Here’s the details for my experience, if you want to collect the data and look for trends:
1. urban (by my state, anyway. City population of 131,000, which for my state is big. For others, I realize it is not.)
2. while I was in my car, stopped at a stop light, no one else in the car with me
3. no phone being use, no TV, no computer, no radio playing (I did have a cell phone in the car with me, just not using it at the time.)
4. no visible cell tower (though most of this part of town has been switched to 5G and I was definitely where I could get a cell signal)
5. English-speaking country
6. possibly relevant detail… the intersection I was stopped at had a nation-wide (I think) chain pharmacy on the corner, with a marquee advertising “FREE COVID SHOTS”. (But they’ve had that sign up for ages now, it seems.)
If others post their details and you figure out some trends, please share!!!
JMG and Temporaryreality:
The shortages just keep coming – McDonald’s is running out of paper bags and plastic straws. In other countries it’s Mickey D’s menu items that are in short supply, including milkshakes.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/mcdonalds-reportedly-faces-a-paper-bag-shortage-080921.html
https://www.eatthis.com/news-mcdonalds-has-run-out-of-milkshakes-in-these-places/
I haven’t noticed a plastic bag shortage around here, because Vermont recently instituted a ban on single-use plastic bags and we all now have to remember to bring bags or boxes with us to the stores. I guess that frees up those bags for everyone else. 😉
Probably more to the commentariat…
I am not sure if was on here or on Dreamwidth but I remember someone talking about doing eye exercises that improve your vision and giving a web link… which I neglected to copy into my file of things to eventually get to.
I went to find it again but failed – does anyone know where I can find it or re-post the link.
@Grebulocities #436: You asked an interesting questions — what would it take, in terms of the severity of the disease, to be convinced an experimental vaccine would be a good idea? My answer is that there is not a disease, no matter how painful or deadly, that would cause me to take an unproven medication from anyone in our pharmaceutical or medical industry. I haven’t seen a doctor personally for over 40 years (and I am healthier for it) but if I ever did see one, I wouldn’t trust anything they said. I would listen, sure, but then I would go and do my own research, weigh the risks, and make my own decision. The minute the medical industry starts to push something, I quickly back away. I watched the medical industry kill both my mother and my grandmother because they trusted and said “fix me.” The minute you show up at a doctor’s office and say some form of “fix me,” they get a gleam in their eye and sharpen their knives. And plan their next BMW purchase. I am not anti-vax. I am current on my tetanus shots and my children were vaccinated with the usual childhood stuff — but on my schedule and only with the vaccines that I thought were reasonable and effective — MMR, DPT and polio. Those vaccines have their problems, but they have had many years of use and I could weigh the risks. They made sense. NOTHING experimental makes sense from our pharmaceutical industry. And most of what is not experimental doesn’t make sense either. So the real answer to your question is that they have lost my trust and will not get it back….
Curious to learn more details about your critique of MA as a place to live…please don’t hold back!😉 Thanks for another great open post.
Jim W
@Patient Observer, #407,
like our host, I think a lot can be learned from history, and not just the history of the human race and its endeavours, but from the history of planet earth as well. I´m currently reading a book by Peter Brannon that was recommended by a commenter here (sorry I forgot your Name/Username) recently: it´s called ´The Ends Of The World´ and it is about the big mass extinctions that happened in earth´s very distant past, the most recent being the one that wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
Palaeontological evidence shows an undeniable link between CO2 and climate, and most of those mass extinctions are associated with swings in CO2 and hence the climate (in both directions, warmer and colder). Quote from the book:´´…lots of things control the climate, like solar intensity, surface reflectivity, and ocean circulation to name a few. But, ceteris paribus, as carbon dioxide goes, so goes the climate. This, it should be noted, has been an uncontroversial tenet of geoscience for more than a century.´´
More than a century, so going well back before the time when science got beholden to financial and political interests.
As for the video you linked here: The guy doing the speech is an American physicist who has specialized in the study of atomic physics, optics and spectroscopy, so in my opinion he is about as qualified to talk about climate change as the carpenter that sometimes does repairs on my roof.
I know I won´t convince you and it is not my intention to do so, but I wanted to show everyone else here that your point of view is not the one that most people who engage professionally with the topic have, but is indeed quite the opposite.
greetings
Frank
Alex – in the fUSSR, liquour was a commodity that many people knew how to make (I’ve heard about their methods from several relatives) – some produced alcohol that was safe to drink, some less so, but people would queue up in front of their houses anyway. I saw that with my own eyes on my grandmother’s street. And I had to carry one half-naked and comatose neighbour inside on her return from the hospital, because the hospital driver wouldn’t do it. Passed-out drunkards sleeping on streets or on the porches of houses (because the wife wouldn’t let them in) were a common sight.
All this to say: please consider learning skills instead – and maybe skills that serve humanity better. Over there, everyone knew how to do a lot of everything, and social cohesion and solidarity were huge.
@Mary,
I’d like to recommend an interesting interview with Afon Bekmurzov, a Russian poet who survived the gulag. The full interview is here:
https://orthochristian.com/138187.html
He differs greatly with your opinion that the Soviet regime was atheist, and not involved in any of that occult/religious stuff. The whole interview is fascinating, but here’s the relevant section:
“—During my interrogation I saw a book describing medieval torture on my investigator’s table.
I struggled to find the inner logic in the conduct of the Bolsheviks for a long time. Having done away with their open and potential opponents, the Bolsheviks proceeded to shoot and imprison millions of people who had nothing against the Soviet regime. I came to the conclusion about the religious and mystical nature of Bolshevism. Murders had ritual significance—they were human sacrifices. The cult of false icons, images (and later monuments) of the Soviet leaders, to whom people went to worship, was established. The writings of the “founders” of the doctrine replaced the Scriptures. The leaders themselves became the “deities” for people. Their appearance caused purely religious ecstasy. In fact, they were “priests,” a narrow circle of initiates. All the attributes of a pagan religion were present.
Lenin’s mummy in the center of the capital is a semblance of holy relics. They placed it in the “mausoleum,” or rather a ziggurat, modelled on the pagan temples of ancient Mesopotamia.
The very idea of a “bright (Communist) future” was adopted from Christianity. The nation sinned, believing the false prophets, succumbing to the devil’s temptation—to build “Paradise on earth” without God. But there can’t be Paradise without God! [The slogan] “He who is not with us is against us” is a pitiful parody of the Gospel by a former seminarian. “He who doesn’t work, neither shall he eat” is a direct plagiarism from St. Paul’s epistle.
It’s hard to say to what extent the Bolsheviks understood what they were doing, but I have no doubts about the fact that Russia was at the mercy of infernal, demonic powers for seventy years.”
Also, as JMG pointed out, please do yourself a favor and read up on holodomor. Then you’ll at least know what people are talking about, when they make comparisons between the USSR’s atrocities and the holocaust. Whether you agree or not is your own business, but it’d be good to know the case, so that you could address it.
Yesterday had an interesting conversation with my bjj class member. He has been gone for several months because of shortness of breath.
Half jokingly he said it was from the jab, he was trying not to look like a crazy antivaccer.
It was serious enough that he was prescribed medication.
I wonder how many people like him are out there, having a serious reaction to the vaccine, but not serious enough to be reported.
@David by the lake I never stated to “burn it all down.” So let me summarize what I said – You asked for recommendations on how to make good policy. My position is there is no such thing as good policy because when it is dictated from state capitals or D.C. forces itself on citizens without their consent. All government departments and agencies which write and enforce policy should have its employees retire and the buildings taken down and parks put in their place. No destruction, no burning, no violence. I’m calling for peaceably ending the insanity and cruelty that is modern policy making.
Let people locally have the discussions and work together to set their own standards. I realize this is terribly inconvenient for national and international corporations to not have universal policies they have written and handed to bureaucrats to execute, but I’m sure they can adapt.
I hope you start a blog on how you are creating local policies that truly help people and not harm them. It would be interesting to see how it works leaving the state and federal structure in place and working alongside it.
A question to all the vaccinated – if you had known back in January 2021 that governments, corporations, and your employers would require you to get the vaccine, would you still have chosen to get vaccinated? Now that it is a question of forcing you to vaccinate against Covid vs. a voluntary choice, does that change how you feel about your decision?
@ methylethyl
Re my coworker
I’m very constrained in that I “don’t know” what I overheard, so I can’t act on it in any visible manner. It’s confidential personnel material that I’m not allowed to know in the first place.
As it stands, though, she isn’t going to be summarily fired–they’d have to go through a performance improvement plan first (one of the bits I overheard). I’ve worked with her for years, including helping her through some young adult stuff (she calls me her “work dad”), which is why I wanted to try to do something, even if “off-stage”.
As for support, she’s married (her husband’s good man and a professional mechanic) and she’s a local girl, with lots of family around. She’d not be lacking in support for the baby.
I’m hoping that this is not beyond the point of no return–I’m thinking that it isn’t, but perhaps it is close–and that whatever performance issue is involved can get turned around. She’d always struck me as a bright, capable young woman, if working still to gain self-confidence in some areas.
BXN #410,
Thank you so much for your response to my post about my brother being asked to produce proof of vaccination. I have copied and pasted your entire message to him.
Has anyone else heard anything about a trucking strike in the works this week? The rumor has crossed my path, but I’m not sure if it’s serious.
@BobinOK
Don’t worry, we’re not actually in LA, but still out in the edge of this storm. I expect we’ll lose power this evening, but nothing major. We’ll be fine. I’m just looking at the hurricane map right now and holding my breath for NOLA.
Loren at #446:
Here in the SF Bay Area, the constant hard-sell pushing of the vaccine and paranoia about the virus is over the top. In the past week alone, I have received two messages from the city health department and my local clinic exhorting me to make an appointment to get jabbed. One of these also asked me to “talk to family and friends who have taken the shots to reassure yourself how safe it is….”
Meanwhile, San Francisco has mandated that NO enclosed venues may admit customers without proof of vaccination. Fortunately, from a practical level, this is essentially unenforceable, and the vast majority of businesses are in fact not attempting to enforce it.
But overall, yes, its even more pervasive than the Trump Derangement Syndrome mania of the past several years; something I didn’t think could be possible.
Goldenhawks at #462:
So far, no plastic bag shortages here in SF. What I do is save the bags as I get them, then after several weeks when I have accumulated a few dozen, I bundle them up and take them back to the corner store across the street. They are glad enough to reuse them, as, of course they have to pay for the bags they give out.
Antoinetta III
Dear Erika,
Many thanks for the lovely response! I’m delighted to read that my earlier comment was helpful on your end. That’s very sad to read that the imagination is dead out where you live. It’s interesting and significant to think on the connection you draw between the death of imagination and evil magic. It seems to me that a major part of the magical of western occultism works precisely to align the living body and its personality with the imagination so that the imagination can descend into form. To do this, I can only imagine that one must be totally oneself, that is, the personality and body must align themselves with their source of imagination. When this occurs, a person becomes a totally distinct character because _they are themselves_ both in the sense of the above of their eternal soul and the mortal portions who can then act in the world through the medium of the imagination. To be truly oneself and not someone else, and to be oneself willfully in the world seems to me one of goals of western occultism. It is a great magical act to become oneself through the powers of imagination and will!
Personally I likewise feel nervousness and fear in my own tentative steps towards the goal of being myself and being myself in the world! It’s always so tempting to either hide or ape someone else! That said, when I manage to be myself and be myself in the world I feel so alive that it seems so much worthier than hiding or imitating anyone in which I feel so stifled, sluggish, and disassociated. I can very much relate to the fear and apprehension you write of, and also the amazing power and living soul force of living my own life, as my own self, that is at least, when I manage to do so fully, which is more than I once managed but still far less than I would like.
Very best wishes,
Violet
@SlithyToves
No worries! There are no official residents of the South Sandwich Islands, as far as I know. Anybody living there is pretty much a researcher or military– so effects on people have been extremely limited. Ditto for the other two 8-range quakes recently: Aleutian islands, and… somewhere in the Pacific. So, well-situated for doing very little damage. (yes, I am just the sort of geek who regularly checks in on the USGS quake map, just for funsies)
@Lathechuck
Ok, I’m glad they issued some evac orders. I think they are trusting way too much to the levees, and I pray they hold. At the very least, it looks like this one won’t come in on high tide like Katrina did. Personally, though, I think every city official who had anything to do with the rather late evac orders, and the shelter-in-place, should be padlocked in a one-story house in the 9th ward for the duration of the storm. Since they’re so confident about the levees. It’d be like the old-school cathedral architects having to stand under the ceiling vaults when the wooden building supports were removed.
It does seem an inauspicious anniversary, but at the same time… it’s the right time of year for storms to start pinging the northern stretch of the Gulf Coast. The usual pattern.
We are far enough down the coast and far enough above sea level that we will only get a little wind and rain, maybe lose power for a while. We’ve got water and no-cook food for a few days, a full tank of gas, and brought all the potted plants in, so we’re fine. But I’m deeply concerned for folks in SE Louisiana, NOLA, and Jackson, MS. They all look like they’ll take a beating in this one. We were forced out of a previous house by Michael 3 years ago, and we’ve already been through what they’re looking at now (my old town is *still* in the process of demolishing wrecked buildings, replacing roofs, and rebuilding things that were destroyed)… it’s no fun.
@RandomActsofKarma
Thanks for indulging my curiosity!
The more I see of the VAX/NO-VAX debate, the more I see it as a clear binary with no middle ground. Does anyone have any ideas about a third way? Someone up above said they had taken the first round of jabs but would reconsider regarding the boosters. That’s about where I am right now, but it falls short of being a solution to the binary.
If you could recommend one book, fiction or non-fiction, that could offer a fundamental paradigm shift (the literary equivalent of taking the “red pill”) to its reader that would alter their view of the way the world works (versus how they think the world works) what book would that be?
Dear Fox,
Glad you’re finding von Franz’s book worthwhile! I read a lot about Herakles growing up and don’t remember what myths or what sources. Euripides’ _Alcestis_ is largely about Herakles and I remember it being a very good and funny read when I read it last year. Probably any good collection of Greek myth will have the stories of his twelve labors and his monster slayings. In addition, if a person is of a polytheist persuasion, one might also pray to Herakles and specifically for issues regarding masculinity, and for living one’s masculinity. In the ancient world his name was invoked by all to avert evil in a similar way people will exclaim “Jesus Christ!” today.
Specifically, one might find the Orphic Hymn to Herakles interesting to think on or recite as a description of how Herakles acts as a god, or as a prayer to him as a god. I’ve included the Thomas Taylor translation of this text below:
TO HERCULES.
The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE.
HEAR, pow’rful, Hercules untam’d and strong,
To whom vast hands, and mighty works belong,
Almighty Titan, prudent and benign,
Of various forms, eternal and divine,
Father of Time, the theme of gen’ral praise,
Ineffable, ador’d in various ways.
Magnanimous, in divination skill’d
And in the athletic labours of the field.
‘Tis thine strong archer, all things to devour,
Supreme, all-helping, all-producing pow’r;
To thee mankind as their deliv’rer pray,
Whose arm can chase the savage tribes away:
Uweary’d, earth’s best blossom, offspring fair,
To whom calm peace, and peaceful works are dear.
Self-born, with primogenial fires you shine,
And various names and strength of heart are thine.
Thy mighty head supports the morning light,
And bears untam’d, the silent gloomy night;
From east to west endu’d with strength divine,
Twelve glorious labours to absolve is thine;
Supremely skill’d, thou reign’st in heav’n’s abodes,
Thyself a God amid’st th’ immortal Gods.
With arms unshaken, infinite, divine,
Come, blessed pow’r, and to our rites incline;
The mitigations of disease convey,
And drive disasterous maladies away.
Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm,
Dismiss thy darts and noxious fate disarm.
You can not make this stuff up: The chief chaplain at Harvard is an avowed atheist. The other chaplains are pleased because they think he’ll be an impartial administrator. Courtesy of the New York Times.
From the University of Florida hospital, via Carol Mathews, MD, whom I consider a trusted source: UF Hospital has suspended all optional surgeries because the ICU is full of COVID patients. According to her, they are all down with the Delta strain, half of them are under 45, and they were all unvaccinated. Make of that what you will.
And – my first unreasoning impulse on reading the newspaper headline “Biden promises further airstrikes” was “OMG, he took the bait!” Again, make of that what you will. An article in the September ’21 Smithsonian showed Taliban-controlled territory 2001-on. Total in 2001, minimal in 2002, and steadily climbing thereafter. Imaginary dialog, “We’re doing all the right things and matters are getting worse. Guess we’d better double down on doing what we’re doing.”
Speaking of which, I remember a video about the Dust Bowl I watched back in the day. It seems there were two Dust Bowls: the first one with the rise in the price of wheat during WWI, with the results everybody knows about; and when the price of wheat rose again around WWII, a second one when farmers went back to the same old practices. Some of them the same farmers who’d been caught short the first time. That video should be widely circulated everywhere west of the 100th Meridian, especially to farmers and agribiz executives.
Sammy, the best adult primer on Christianity is Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, and it’s ALWAYS in print. Very easy to get.
If you haven’t seen Jeff Master’s latest blog post, you might want to take a look at it. Hurricane Ida is aiming at all the industrial infrastructure in SE Louisiana. My prayers to all of you who are/will be directly affected by her.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/topic/eye-on-the-storm/
Info #471, something I found out just yesterday. In the 1980s former Spanish Francoists went to Latin America as consultants to the military regimes there. They had learned if fascism ends quickly the leaders end up dead (Germany and Italy) or doing long prison terms (Greece and Portugal). Spain had the first negotiated transition to democracy. They advised the juntas how to drag the process out and extort concessions like immunity from prosecution. I’m pretty sure by the time the 1990s rolled around, Apartheid South Africa had also taken note. Truth and Reconcilliation became part of dictators’ retirement plans.
Matthias Gralle,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims gives a good a breakdown as to the individual groups which Hitler persecuted. I am not really interested in discussing that particular subject further, as it drags the main thrust of my post into the weeds of virtue signaling.
However, your statement that “communists, socialists and social democrats were the great majority of the persecuted opposition” uses the language of martyrdom for them, and I am not prepared to follow you there.
HItler didn’t “persecute” any of those groups because they were “good”, (and that goes for the right wing political groups too which got his attention), but, because they were his political opponents and he was in a power struggle with them.
I don’t see, however, many non-Jewish communists and social democrats/socialists of that era in Germany making ethical statements about the evils of anti semitism, nor do I see many of them on the Jewish website Yad Vashem, which celebrates those who saved Jewish victims of the Holocaust. There are, however, plenty of Christians and, what I would class, for want of a better name, humanitarians, who did end up in the concentration camps for what I would consider purely altruistic and ethical reasons.
The Communists of that era were Stalinist by belief preference and mostly controlled and funded by the Comintern in Moscow. Suffice to say they were formed from the same cloth as the Nazis.
https://www.outono.net/elentir/2020/08/24/the-impressive-numbers-of-german-communists-who-joined-the-nazi-party/.
The Social Democrat party, (“The Marxists Lite”) which formed governments throughout the inter war years either on their own or in coalition with others, were massively instrumental in Hitler’s rise to power. My accusations against them are:
1. They did not stamp out rising anti-semitism, nor seek to direct the nation into a self-reflective, self- critical path. (Probably because the SPD members of parliament had themselves voted 96–14 to support the war and they had subsequently ejected all those who were anti it)
(https://www.livescience.com/64096-einstein-letter-warns-anti-semitism.html, written approximately a decade before Hitler rose to power).
2. They used free lance militia groups to carry out political assassinations themselves and they did not successfully protect the German people from political terror or political assassinations . To quote ” in this extremely violent era of civil disobedience. These politically organized militias made the streets a battlefield, while the powerless police and government seemed to only look on helplessly.”
http://www.loeser.us/flags/germany_note_11.html.
3. They added to the huge inflationary pressures of that time with further social welfare programs which Germany could not afford, and they presided over the complete collapse of the currency, when they would have been far better concentrating on restoring law and order.
https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/blog/p/1920s-hyperinflation-in/283
4. They presided over the social and moral collapse of the German people and did nothing to either prevent or reverse it, or restore social conventions which might have acted as a restorative to German morale.
https://historycollection.com/17-reasons-why-germanys-weimar-republic-was-a-party-lovers-paradise/5/
(read the above link at your own risk – frankly it is disturbing)
5. Their opposition to Hitler appears to be have based more on self-interest than ethical reasons. I quote: from Wikipedia. “After the passing of the Enabling Act Sg Act, dozens of SPD deputies were arrested, and several more fled into exile. Most of the leadership settled in Prague. Those that remained tried their best to appease the Nazis. On 19 May, the few SPD deputies who had not been jailed or fled into exile voted in favour of Hitler’s foreign policy statement, in which he declared his willingness to renounce all offensive weapons if other countries followed suit. They also publicly distanced themselves from their brethren abroad who condemned Hitler’s tactic ” Not that it helped them much, obviously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany
The end result of decades of Social Democrat involvement in German politics was – Hitler – so whilst, of course, individuals of a left wing persuasion may -or may not – be “good” (in common with all humanity), the Social Democrat Party of the pre- War years was absolutely emphatically bad for Germany – and, as it turned out, the rest of the world too.
Once again I feel there are a lot of similarities between what is happening now in America and what happened back then in Nazi Germany, before Hitler rose to power.
For my part, I am leaving the topic here.
#2 & #60: Men definitely need their own spaces, just as women need their own spaces. But men have to be the ones to help themselves, not wait for society to do it for them. Just like women created the first domestic abuse shelters to help other women, men need do it themselves. We also need more positive role models for men.
#12: I would be interested in donating books to your library.
#44: Who in the world thought Afghanistan was a good place for a summer trip?
#57 & #103: Third wave feminism, aka liberal feminism, is all about “I Choose My CHOICE!”, the religion of Wokeness, and insisting that prostitution is empowering. Third-wave is definitely not for most women!
#62 & #328: Prayers for you and your family.
#68: Being alone is better than being with the wrong person, especially for a woman.
#74, #277, & #402: I am not seeing much COVID hysteria where I am (New Jersey). Nobody’s really panicking. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country. Pretty much everyone I know is vaccinated. The way I see it, if you want the vaccine, get it; and if not, don’t get it. It’s your life and your body.
#83: If members of the working class of all races realized they have more in common with each other than with the wealthy of their own particular racial group, it would be a threat to the power of the wealthy. Therefore wedges have to be driven between people of various races, religions, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Divide and conquer, as they say. Wokeness and its Oppression Olympics is feeding into that.
#110: Agreed – vaccination is typical for most viruses, not antivirals. (I speak from experience, having been exposed to rabies a few years back, and even with my pre-exposure shots in vet school I had a month of post-exposure treatment as well…booster vaccines as well as rabies antiserum.) Sometimes we do find a medication that has unexpected effects against non-related conditions, though, like the antibiotic metronidazole being very good for treating diarrhea of multiple causes. I am wondering what the proposed mechanism for ivermectin (a dewormer) supposedly helping with a viral infection is.
#113: They have been beating that dead horse for ages. If there was something to be found, they would have found it by now.
#115: The banality of evil.
#120, #124, & #281: I can’t see the Powers That Be ever wanting a sharp drop in population. Fewer people means fewer potential workers, fewer people desperate to take low wage jobs. The lower the population, the more money the workers can demand for their work.
#159: I too am thankful that this is a place where multiple points of view can be heard. I don’t want or need to live in an echo chamber.
#211: I loved The King In Orange. It was a great book and I’ve been recommending it to my friends.
#215: I am very concerned with the hate directed at Dr. Fauci. It seems totally irrational to me.
#270: Agreed, but also throw in “spread disinformation worldwide via social media.”
#282: I’m a woman and I’ve loved astronomy since I was a little kid. We exist! 🙂
#403: I’ve seen Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia compared to the Daleks and the Cybermen or Borg, respectively. The Nazis were all about ethnic purity, and the Soviets about assimilating everyone into their system.
#423, #430, & #435: In the veterinary field, there are a number of medications that are either running low or on backorder; prescription diets too. And we actually ran out of microscope slides at my hospital last week!
@ AustralianDreamer,
This is the link to eye exercises I use: https://lady-magazine.com/beauty-woman/eye-exercises-procedure-norbekova-improve-vision-at-home.html (I think I got it from a Dreamwidth comment, but I am not sure.)
Violet comment #248
I completely concur, I had the same exact feeling when I had that voice pop into my head. There may be a pretty mask and slick words, but there is death beneath them. Made me feel like heading straight for a shower. I’m considering taking further precautions.
Re eye exercises: Google “Bates method”. I used to do them as a schoolboy. I can’t say my vision improved, but it hasn’t got much worse, and it’s now 60 years later.
Incidentally, I still have a pair of glasses from William Bates of Clapham Junction, purchased 50 years ago. I’d still be using them if the plastic frame hadn’t snapped.
JMG
Have you considered that this is a group effort ? I mean if had dung thrown at my lawn, my air and environment polluted ( that astral gunk is affecting more than just people) by bunch an ants who are shameless and unapologetic about it and act superior to you wouldn’t want them gone? You wouldn’t tolerate this from your own children let along from ants . Also look at who is affected the most arrogant, unspiritual , disconnected with god complex whom think they can command gods and spirits like they are their own wage McDonald’s slaves whom they can bark orders at except they are entities that can squish them like ants . I would take a stock at people who are spiritual or in general decent human beings vs the run of the mill petty tyrants and the karens how they fare both physically and mentally and if they felt compelled to get the vaccine.
Personal report from Norway :both me and my bf are basically unaffected . My bf is full blown ateist not a single spiritual bone in him and yet he doesn’t feel the need to take the vaccine . He is easy man to make him happy and doesn’t go out of his way to make people miserable unless he absolutely has to . Some of his wannabe pmc friends the good people ( tm) were more than compelled to take the vaccine even now when every day there is news coming out that boosters are needed or it doesn’t work.
Key distinction i must put in me and bf were shamelessly into orange man good camp, all of the people i seen that are compelled were in orange man bad camp.
Me on the other hand who suffers from mental instability due to being human antenna is reading this comments and goes what are you all talking about the past 8-9 months has been rainbows and sunshines. Btw i have zero spiritual practice on top of that i am pregnant.
I have few hypothesis why are you experiencing this:
Its only local and it affects just usa . Scandinavian countries have been through it without much drama with minimal lockdowns .
Its a group effort the pmc class were protected by astral influences limiting how much blowback they experience from spreading misery and this polluting the astral plane, that and shamelessly disrespecting the spirits. It seems now is the right time to unleash gods wrath on them. You mentioned dana i assume it’s the spirit you mostly cooperate and they probably protect you from the worst. I have inherited from my grandma something similar except i am his messenger . When i got pregnant i felt like i can’t sense the future anymore and all of a sudden everything is rainbows and sunshines its either that or in an year this will all blow over . Mostly because the worst of the madness, bloodlust and general misery i felt it November / December i am usually 6-12 months ahead than most. It didn’t made sense then but it made sense now. So i am guessing the spirits shield the ones who are harmless or their proteges while throwing the rest to their death .
I mean think about it if you wanted population reduction now all you needed to do is have few volcanoes erupt but that meant the worst offenders will probably live. Also look at the first country who went for alternative treatments that actually work instead of vaccines india. They have basically absolute respect towards their local spirits and gods compared to the average westerners.
Now why for some people experience problems even with various protections in place :
No spirit to protect them.
Astral transits I would recommend to check their natal charts : mine were almost peachy , my bfs were mixed bag but mostly positive . At the end of the day you can’t go against universe will and laws even with all the spiritual and magical effort you can muster.
We are full throttle in the aquarius age , JMG you mentioned something around the start of pisces age the voices of the gods felt silent in local temples. At least my dating showed it when you mentioned certain greek philosopher. You hypothesized that it was because of the civilization effect and made people having less imagination and mysticism or something similar .
Have you considered that with every age the rules and laws of magic, contacting gods and which entities are in play are changing too with the ages? This is why we can’t hear the gods anymore because the rules have changed and we are using old rulebooks? This applies to magic and rituals and therefore the gods, spirits and everyone else,the good people tm have enraged are coming out full speed ahead knowing that we still haven’t figured out the new rules and pick off the ones they want?
Sorry for the mess of text. I am horrible writer plus English is my second language.
PS : if you think this is just my madness ( which in all honesty might be) about spirits i come from the third world country, with no any useful knowledge or skills or degrees nor money i managed to get myself in Norway and get proper treatment for the issues caused by being human antenna and made it manageable all thanks to that guy that dragged me kicking and screaming to where i am now .
I can share more stories if anyone is interested.
@Elkriver
I was out of town or would have posted this sooner.
Elkriver said:
This description immediately reminded me of the description of mind spells used by the “Radiance” in Greer’s Weird of Hali series. The person has a sudden unbidden thought that seems to direct them to do something. It is couched in rationality and often tries to speak to a desire to remain a part of the world that we are told is real. A sort of “here there be monsters, why not do what you need to return to the world of safety and sanity.”
If I had the time I would try to dig an actual quote out of one of the books. JMG does a great job of portraying both the subtlety and the power of this voice.
AV
A perfect illustration of the ubiquity of this incredible push to inject every person on the planet (apparently it’s very crucial to being ready for a hurricane):
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/features/hurricanepreparedness/index.html
“Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are far more likely to die or to end up in severe or critical condition if they are vitamin D-deficient, Israeli researchers have found. In a study conducted in a Galilee hospital, 26 percent of vitamin D-deficient coronavirus patients died, while among other patients the figure was at 3%. “This is a very, very significant discrepancy, which represents a big clue that starting the disease with very low vitamin D leads to increased mortality and more severity,” Dr. Amir Bashkin, endocrinologist and part of the research team, told The Times of Israel. For much of the pandemic, many scientists have suggested that the so-called sunshine vitamin may help people fight the disease. The new study represents one of the most compelling pieces of supporting research yet.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/1-in-4-hospitalized-covid-patients-who-lack-vitamin-d-die-israeli-study.
There will be plenty of sun for the next month, but I may want to stock up for winter.
@Slithy Toves,
Re: hexafoils
I am not a metal worker, but I can do basic chain mail. I found a pattern that looks tolerably close to a hexafoil, called ‘helm chain flower’. Made one today and will try it out and see how it works. 🙂 !!!
@Naomi, I wonder what party, political organization, church or other group you consider to have effectively resisted the Nazi seizure of power or to have spoken out in public against antisemitism before 1945. I don’t know of any such group and therefore find it strange to single out the democratic left for criticism. However, it seems in fact fruitless to continue discussing this subject.
Flynn, yes, me too.
But I’d noticed that that my local astronomy club meeting was about 90% + men, so I mentioned it.
Darkest Yorkshire @ 417, now that is most interesting and is information I hadn’t known before. Thank you. I have a book, Der Fuehrer; Hitler’s Rise to Power, which was first published in German, I believe, when Hitler was still alive. What I have is an English translation pub. in 1944. Heiden was highly unimpressed by Hitler, seems to have considered him stupid as well as evil. He does mention AH as having been recruited by German military. Do you know anything of Mr. Heiden? He had earlier written and published A History of National Socialism.
Robert Matthiesen @ 421, that post was also highly interesting. Never let it be said there is nothing to be learned from anecdote. I know about Wall Street support for the Nazis, and a bit about Allen Dulles running his own pro-German foreign policy out of Switzerland, I think I have that right, but I had no idea there was anything like sympathy for the Nazis from as much as a third of the
American public.
Hi JMG. I was curious about the issue of self defense. If indeed things decline significantly, there will likely be fewer resources to keep law and order from lone criminals or gangs. You don’t strike me as the “hunker down in a bunker with a machine gun” type, but what do you think individuals should do in such situations? Create loose neighborhood watch/defense groups like farmers do now in South Africa? Get a firearm? (Controversial, because many people with guns end up being shot in domestic disputes or suiciding themselves) Do you personally take any actions in the area of self defense? -Thanks
Joshua (no. 496), Ted Turner sponsored a one-time contest to produce just such a book. The winner was Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael.”
Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat (no. 499), I have never understood why Protestants like C.S. Lewis. To me he comes across as shrill and theologically uninformed. (The “liar, lunatic, or Lord” trichotomy, for instance.)
methylethyl (no. 484), religious studies scholars are comfortable wih the idea of a “civil religion” encompassing public rituals, national mythology and the like. (The USA has one too, of course.) Every society that we know anything about (including the Soviets) seems to have rituals, laws and customs, a cosmology, and group identity, but not all of them combine these together into an explicit “religion.” There are many borderline religious phenomena (like fortune telling) with one or more of these features.
@ Phutatorius
The foundation of the vax/no vax binary went up in smoke the second we knew the “vaccine” doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus.
The enormous middle ground that is being ignored is to allow the medical system to do its job of treating disease using whatever prophylactics and treatments actually work based on real life experience. Of course, doctors who did that and came up with treatments were actively suppressed while the “vaccines” were rushed to market.
Our culture demands heroes to sweep in and save the day like a cheesy 80s action movie and that is the role our all-knowing public health bureaucrats and politicians have desperately wanted to fill. But every Good Guy needs a Bad Guy and thus the unvaxxed have unwittingly been thrust into that role.
I share Mister Nobody’s frustration with James Howard Kunstler’s commentary of late. To me he seems a bit naive, hoping that our current crop of leaders will have their comeuppance for various crimes and misdemeanors. But I’m inclined to think that the fix is in on everything so having long discussions about it is pointless. I wish Mr. Kunstler would spend more time discussing how current events vindicate his “Long Emergency” theory.
In that vein, just for fun, I decided to do my own estimate of when fossil fuels will run out. So I looked at various sources on the internet and at the data in the 2021 World Almanac and Book of Facts. I took some data points off of a global fossil fuel consumption graph at http://www.ourworldindata.org and put it in a spreadsheet. An exponential fit seemed good. The equation I got was global fossil fuel consumption in terawatt-hours = 3.8344×10-19*exp(0.02692*year). So our global fossil fuel usage is not going down; it’s accelerating. Using this equation and the data on fossil fuel reserves in the 2021 World Almanac and Book of Facts, the date I got for all of the fossil fuels being expended was 2060. I suppose the actual date will be further out because once fuel shortages begin to appear there will be a greater effort at fuel conservation (I hope).
This calculation assumes that there will be no change in global consumption patterns and that we will be depleting our complete endowment of fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal). One thing that I think will happen is that as people have a clearer idea of what’s happening they will (in their desperation) increase the use of coal as an energy source of last resort. So environmental pollution will gradually increase until all of the fossil fuels are gone; then pollution will decrease as the pollution source will be gone.
Although renewable energy will have an effect on things, I share Mr. Kunstler’s pessimistic view that it won’t be nearly enough to maintain a life style that is in any way close to the one we currently have. But fossil fuels will continue to be our Plan B until we simply burn them all up.
Another unsettling calculation I made this month was the rate of food prices increase. I’d recorded a set of food prices in May 2021 and in August 2021 and calculated a rate of increase. I got an annual rate of food prices increase of approximately 40%. Yikes! I’m not sure you could call this inflation since that’s a monetary term. My method was to take the lowest visible price for any of the items on the list. So if it was on sale, that’s the price I used. I also did two calculations. One was the total cost of the list of items. The other was a cost per ounce of the items. This second calculation was a work around for products that got hit with the grocery shrink ray (i.e. when the package size or contents is reduced but the price remains the same). But I actually discovered that the shrink ray wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the discount supermarket (FoodMaxx) that I was shopping at was reducing the number of sizes of some products. For example, I took the price of a 26 ounce jar of JIF peanut butter in May but that size was no long available in August so I had to use the price on the 40 ounce jar.
Augusto, prayers en route. Regarding coffee – Interesting. I experience something similar cyclically with a kind of roving/looping tension in the body and in the aura. I think it’s due to freeing my diaphragm/air pipe in my practices and then having the tension and associated energy come back online throughout the day. I experimented with no coffee til 2pm until I caved today due to feeling a bit tired. In the morning my energy was feeling rather nice and then the looping came back about 45 mins after I caved; I suppose it was the coffee. I’ll continue to cut back. The looping occurs cyclically during the day and then there are greater cycles where I don’t experience it all for weeks. After each greater cycle it gets easier to deal with.
I know this is late in the comment cycle, but it took me this long to figure out how to phrase this as a question rather than a novel….
Now that our government has become totalitarian (I, at least, can think of very little in a person’s life that the State has not claimed the right to regulate since 2020); and since it’s becoming more and more authoritarian in enforcing that totalitarianism (and perhaps even extralegally authoritarian: in the past few weeks three popular antivax talk radio hosts have died of Covid, repenting of their thoughtcrime; and today an otherwise healthy 30-year-old organizer of multiple anti-lockdown protests also died of Covid, having unsuccessfully tried to treat himself with Ivermectin- dying on the same day that the CDC tells folks, Don’t take Ivermectin)…
Well, what are the chances that the Washington-Establishment/Big-Tech Axis has become the National Progressive American People’s Party, just without Fred Halliot? The Great Unpersoning seems a little too organized and extreme to actually be about a respiratory virus.
Many thanks for the work you do here, and all the effort that goes into it.
-Khadir
For some reason, this song keeps coming to mind as I watch the flustered clucks unfolding in Afghanistan, Louisiana and America’s hospitals amidst Sleepy Joe’s incompetent flailing. Seems like the perfect theme song for the American Empire in its decline-and-fall phase…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz1Ih2gBbfU
Augusto (np. 460), I loved that movie too! It wasn’t perfect (the comic-relief camel was probably a mistake), and the music was very Broadway, but I loved the Egyptian art-style “nightmare” sequence / infanticide reveal, and the “In Heaven’s Eyes” musical sequence.
Regarding the question about a rushed vaccine –
My answer is that, as always, I would do a risk-benfeit analysis as best I could with the available info.
If I were at high risk for catching and dying from a disease, I might very well roll the dice with a rushed vaccine, and bet on an unknown long-term vaccine risk: vs. the known high disease risk. I even think that for some people at very high risk for coviid, rolling the dice with these vaccines might be a reasonable choice.
But I am not at high risk of dying from covid, so for me, the current choice is between low risk from disease and unknown long-term risk from vaccine. Under these circumstances, I am not interested in rolling the dice on the vaccine. .
As others have stated, another part of the problem here is the lack of any acknowledgement of relative risk. The powers that be seem determined to just shove a one-size-fits-all rushed vaccine solution down out throats, while censoring any sort of risk-benefit discussion, in the context of vaccine makers with no liability. Not exactly something that inspires confidence in the product.
This is a Green Wizardry-type question for anyone who has knowledge. I’ve been reading about “High Thermal Mass” as a building technique to reduce/eliminate the need to use powered heating and cooling (https://www.thenaturalhome.com/passivesolar/), and I had a notion about how it might be made more useful for cooling in hot environments. I’m no engineer, and so far some quick searching hasn’t turned anything up, so I’d appreciate if anyone could point me in the direction of anything that might have been tried about the following.
“High Thermal Mass” building uses materials like concrete that take a long time to heat up. The idea is that during hot days, they’ll stay cool longer, and then at night radiate out the heat they absorbed. This is especially well suited to desert and mountain environments where you get big swings in temperature daily, but less useful in hot, humid climates where the nights aren’t that cool. I’m wondering if sinking some of the concrete deeper into the ground might provide a heat sink effect – as the sun warms up the concrete, the ground is pulling that heat out of it.
As I said, I’d appreciate it much if anyone can point me to anything that might help me work out how feasible this is as a concept.
Even the comics are in on it. This week’s Doonesbury strip features an animated COVID virus seeking unvaccinated victims at a Trump rally.
It seems to me from this blog and the dreamwidth site that we need a third category re vaccinations: pro-vaccine, anti-vaxers and vax-regreters (those who got it and wish they hadn’t).
Matt Taibbi’s most recent posting on taibbi.substack.com rests the blame for the Afghanistan fiasco squarely on the shoulders of both the Democrats and Republicans. He points out that military contractors and suppliers are major campaign contributors and that any attempt to reform the Pentagon or devise a less war based foreign policy are impossible so long as that is the case. He calls for a third party–asserting that “the entire American government has become a factory for producing open-ended conflicts, and voters no longer have any political mechanism for slowing them.” Most of Taibbi’s columns are for subscribers only, though he writes sharable ones occasionally.
Does anyone have any comment on the possible parole of Sirhan Sirhan, convicted assassin of Robert Kennedy? Two of Kennedy’s children appeared at the hearing on his behalf and the Los Angeles District Attorney refrained from sending anyone to argue the case against parole. Rather strange. It is my understanding that the decision has to be confirmed by the full Parole Board and that the Governor could overturn it. The latter is unlikely, since Gov. Newsom is very liberal.
Rita
@ JMG and others:
Being curious on someones comment, I looked up what a hexafoil is, and what my search engine is showing me is a geometric division of the circle done with a compass and leaving drawn in the arcs within the circle, like 6 petals. So, one of the earlier exercises that is done in Waldorf 5th grade geometry, is that correct ? The whole circle and the line sounds pretty familiar too.
But, 5th grade is geometry, alot of geometrical drawings and divisions and coloring in and science thread is botany. Botany is from the whole to the parts, so the tree branches arcs that reach up to the air and roots symetrically arc into the ground is that indication. The rose vs the lilly ( geometric 5 division, petals 5 or multiples of 5; geometric 6 division, petals of 6 multiples ( which sometimes look like 3) )
Hi John Michael,
Thanks for the advice, and I’m already doing those as well as other things. 😉
Had an interesting thought this morning. The Arthurian tales have taught me much about the world and the forces and cycles that move among us. The interesting thought was that down here, we’re much like Roman Britain was back in the final days of the Roman Empire – far removed from the centre of power and yet still providing troops and wealth right up to the end before descending into chaos. Isn’t it odd how cycles repeat themselves?
You asked me the hard question a week or so back, and after much consideration I believe that based on the facts on the ground and just how crazy it is down here, they may be gripped by fear.
Cheers
Chris
BobinOK, I don’t own a television, so I have plenty of free time!
Augusto, positive energies en route.
KKA, discuss away!
Cliff, I treat Scorpio as ruled by Mars. Each dwarf planet has its own sub-rulership, however — Pluto has that relationship to Scorpio, Ceres to Virgo, and I suspect Eris will turn out to be the sub-ruler of Libra, but we’ll see.
Slithy Toves, it does indeed. As for laminating talismans, no, I’ve never tried it.
Augusto, thanks for this!
Sammy, well, if you’re interested in Druidry, my book The Druidry Handbook is a good basic introduction. Beyond that, well, other people will doubtless post guides to their faiths! As for the Covid hysteria, you may well have a point there.
Michael, do you happen to know if anybody has a listing of all the pharmaceuticals that have been approved by the FDA and then had to be withdrawn because they caused sickness and death? That would be worth having. As for the Covid thing, I’m pretty sure that there’s something occult at work here — the mindless dread of something that isn’t much more dangerous than the flu, and the way that so many people influenced by that fear are frantically eager to give up their freedom and believe whatever the corporate establishment tells them, are both decidedly spooky.
Logan, I’ll put it on the list of things to look for when I have some spare time!
Beekeeper, thanks for the heads up!
Jim, I don’t really have one. I looked into it when my wife and I decided to leave Maryland, and between the high state taxes and the very intrusive state government, we decided against it.
Phutatorius, why not “get it if you want to”?
Joshua, I’ve never encountered a book that can do that.
Patricia M, many thanks for the data points.
SLClaire, thanks for this!
Emily, have I considered that what is a group effort?
Kel, I don’t talk about that, for obvious reasons!
Rationality, that assumes that the only constraint on fossil fuel use is total available reserves. Rate of extraction is at least as important, and runs into hard limits first, since depleting fields produce less fuel per unit time.
Khadir, you might want to reread my posts on fascism and the future, where I discuss at rather some detail this common confusion between a failing, corrupt, and somewhat authoritarian government and actual fascism.
Galen, now that’s a blast from the past!
Chris, I’m just finishing edits on a book that has a lot to do with the Arthurian legends, and yes, the similarities are hard to miss…
@JMG #529: I’ve been told that I always hedge my bets. I’d sure like to find a way to do it in this case!
@Matthias Gralle #475
Thank you for your response and here is mine. You said:
“I wouldn’t put too much store in the computer models of future warming.”
We agree but everyone else is hit over the head with the “computer models” with their dire predictions. Politicians and the MSM love love charts and pretty pictures taken out of context and most people seem to buy in.
I am agnostic regarding the severity and longevity of AGM. My main point is the role of CO2. If the Happer video is accurate in its statement that CO2 is already at saturation regarding further greenhouse warming, then CO2 can be removed from further discussion. Given his credentials as an atomic physicist with a great deal of experience with atmospheric gases and their interactions with radiation, I have little choice but to accept his data. Until someone else shows an error in his analysis in this regard he is the man and game over for CO2 as the villain.
Your argument about the ice conditions of the Northwest Passage based on ship navigation is tenuous as naval architecture has advanced enormously over the past few centuries. There certainly must be more objective evidence than that.
Regarding Baffin Island, that is interesting yet climate variability and perhaps more importantly shifting ocean currents can cause prolonged localized temperature changes. These are offered as alternative hypotheses to a conclusion of global climate change.
Regarding solar effects, they are indeed unlikely to fully account for short term climate change although the Maunder Minimum stick out like a sore thumb. Much remains to be discovered in this area. Personally, I think that the solar effects are long-term drivers that can enhance or reduce the impact of other variables.
As for what we should do, my preference is to move away from fossil fuels as fast as possible while moving to a truly sustainable economy based on closed-cycle nuclear energy, hydro power and geothermal where conditions are favorable. OTEC may have potential as well. Let’s not condemn billions to short and painful lives which seems to be the preferred solution offered by our rulers.
Frank from Germany #482
Thank you for your comments. Regarding the quote from the Brannon book, there is a correlation between CO2 and climate but my understanding is that CO2 level is a lagging indicator. Besides, we are still stuck with hard data that CO2 levels are at saturation as far as greenhouse warming goes.
I do take exception with your comments about the qualifications of the presenter in the video. His understanding of the interaction between gases and radiation (infrared in particular ) is hard to question and is core to his thesis.
I have no argument with your last point that most scientists are on board with the AGW movement. Science is driven by several factors with winning grants, being published and taking position to gain academic visibility/acceptance are the principle ones (based in part on personal experience). Also, remember that 99% of scientists may think that people who post on this web site are bat-sh!t crazy. So, I am skeptical of scientific claims that dovetail too nicely with where the money is at or what is academically safe.
Just as a clarifying comment, it is natural for me to ascribe both to magical/nonphysical beliefs and to advancing technology. My concern is how technology has been used for exploitation. The same arguments can be made for most religions or any other system of thought.
@Jeff #525
Using thermal mass is a common strategy used in natural building and appropriate tech. Different environments call for different uses though. In the PNW or England where temperatures are relatively mild (well maybe not any more) high mass cob cottages make sense. In the northeast, you need to insulate the mass, or you end up baking in the summer and freezing in the winter. The passive solar concept uses thermal mass in a way where the mass is insulated, and in the winter the sun hits the mass directly, but in the summer it hits and insulated roof. Look up “rocket mass heaters” for another way that mass is used.
Archdruid and Kim,
Thank you for sharing your divination. I think I’m beginning to understand what’s going on, although I still don’t have enough evidence to share.
Regards,
Varun
Joshua- “Lies My Teacher Told Me”, by James Loewen, will explain American History to you in a way that will elevate your critical thinking skills and help you apply them to other issues.
“The Great Crash, 1929”, by J. K. Galbraith, will help you cut through the nonsense surrounding macro economic affairs, and once you realize how enthusiastically clueless so many people were back then, you can see patterns repeating to the present.
@Darkest Yorkshire
“Info #471, something I found out just yesterday. In the 1980s former Spanish Francoists went to Latin America as consultants to the military regimes there. They had learned if fascism ends quickly the leaders end up dead (Germany and Italy) or doing long prison terms (Greece and Portugal). Spain had the first negotiated transition to democracy. They advised the juntas how to drag the process out and extort concessions like immunity from prosecution. I’m pretty sure by the time the 1990s rolled around, Apartheid South Africa had also taken note. Truth and Reconcilliation became part of dictators’ retirement plans.”
Allende the Communist before Pinochet was a monster himself too.
And the Spanish revolutionaries before Franco were pretty bad themselves too.
So its back to both sides being villains again. No side good.
Rita #526 – Love your categorization of Vaxxed, Unvaxxed, RegretfulVaxxed!:) I see a TM a T-shirt making you some money in your future honey.
For JFK insight I recommend a Massachusetts native Edward Curtin who knew the Kennedys and ran in that circle. I can’t vouch for facts but he is good and sincere.
http://edwardcurtin.com/
EL #524:
I think you have your head on straight as far as risk analysis goes. As for me, I am in my mid 60’s and I have a number of serious health issues, making me one of the most vulnerable demographics in case I get COVID. Thus, my risk analysis has led me to go ahead and get the Pfizer jab, despite my misgivings about it.
The point is, that each of us needs to do our own risk analysis. Like JMG and everyone else, I resist being stampeded around by orchestrated mob hysteria, like so many head of spooked cattle.
Bei Dawei, The music in spanish is completely different, which is the language I’ve always watched it in and I do like most of the songs. I don’t think I want to see it in english because of the Broadway music. That scene you mention is my brother’s favorite, he mentioned it just yesterday or the day before when we rewatched it, the animation is gorgeous. My favorite one is when Moses goes fetch a lost lamb and finds the burning bush in a cave with expansive waves and the voice says “take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground”. I don’t know what is it but religious experiences like that that gets me emotional, I’ve always wondered why.
Oh and the festivity when they welcome him for saving the patriarchs daughter, I find that very happy and cheerful when the camera turns to the sky above the fire and they start dancing. I’ve always been shy to dance but I love the scene of it.
I am genuinely curious. Can someone please explain why you think disappearance or banning of plastic bags is a problem? Me, I think the things are inconvenient and Gawdawfull ugly, and I truly do. not. care. if someone else wants to think not using them is a kind of virtue signaling. OTOH, I can find lots of things to do with brown paper bags. The plastic bags always seem to split at the most inopportune times. You cannot sit one on the ground and put things in it, because the sides won’t stand up. Cloth bags of any convenient size can easily be made, out of any fabric one might have on hand, or, a trip to any 2nd hand store will net you a selection of appropriate receptacles. In general, I do not mourn the demise of single use plastic, including water bottles. I gather it is necessary for hospitals and clinics, but in daily life I would like to see most of it disappear tomorrow. Mind, I don’t consider yogurt containers single use, and I have fond memories of the white cardboard cartons in which cottage cheese used to be packed.
It may seem like each bag incorporates only the tiniest amount of petroleum, but I have worked in a factory where plastic containers and bags were made. I can tell you that the manufacturing, not to mention transportation, uses massive amounts of energy.
A couple of people have posted criticisms of James Howard Kunstler.
#1 – JHK is a gay New York Jewish writer. This gives his criticism of anything liberal immense credibility.
#2 – JHK speaks truth to the neoliberal Bill Clinton salary class neoestablishment.
#3 – JHK is a writer 1st, and a damn good one at that, who entertains to attract our attention. Posting twice a week is over years is a lot but admittedly doesn’t compare to JMG.
#4 – I’ve come to the conclusion that his conclusions coincide with my fantasy outcomes and should be taken with with a grain of salt, or as JMG would say – you mileage and I would add, your experience) may vary:) His statements of process and facts remain true.
Everyone – Don’t be distracted by minutia details. Don’t fight the power. Don’t argue the details. Relax. Breathe. Engage your practice. Open yourself.
JMG put up an image I can’t get out of my mind. I don’t know why but it is hauntingly and intriguingly beautiful. https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/142391.html . He says it depicts the process of prayer. If you haven’t seen it please check it out it is beautiful https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/142391.html
I work at Walensky’s old employer. Its a business. She’s a slut. I’ve come to understand and not to say the name of the business I work until I’m fired as I’ve come to appreciate and respect the importance of invoking a word that may be heard by forces unseen. I had 2 ECMO, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation patients Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. One of them spent two days telling me he didn’t want to live any more. The other patients wife expressed a desire to end the last 2 years of suffering now. This place is becoming ever more surreal.
AustralianDreamer
Here is the link to the eye improvement site that I bookmarked:
https://endmyopia.org/
@Jeff Russell #525 – Check out the adobe buildings of the Southwest, which act exactly as you have described. Pueblo architecture and Spanish Colonial – the traditional buildings, not the frame-and-stucco ones that mimic those styles.
Have any of you been following the story of Stuart Scheller? He is the Marine lieutenant colonel who resigned in disgust after being relieved of command because he publicly called out the military leadership for their gross dereliction of duty in Afghanistan. In his most recent video, Colonel Scheller said
“I don’t need a single dollar. I just need every single person that’s willing to go back outside the wire every single day to wear a blue collar, and just go into work every single day and feed their families,” he said. “Those are the people that I need. Follow me and we will bring the whole f****** system down.”
The thing that has to be remembered is that there are a huge number of people in the armed forces, officers and enlisted alike, not mention millions of veterans, who agree with Colonel Scheller and share his assessment of the situation but thus far have kept quiet. If that changes, we could very well see the tanks and tumbrils start rolling in a hurry. There is already widespread anger in the ranks over the Obama and Biden administration’s relentless efforts to politicize the military and turn it into a tool of Woke politics.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/stuart-scheller-resigns-commission-after-being-relieved-of-command-for-afghanistan-remarks/ar-AANSwAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj4RHa0G1Bk
Sonkitten has just informed me that Hurricane Ida is down 2 categories, at Category 2 right now. Good news for Louisiana.
When I was a kid I made hexafoils all the time with my Spirograph.
@JMG “do you happen to know if anybody has a listing of all the pharmaceuticals that have been approved by the FDA and then had to be withdrawn because they caused sickness and death? That would be worth having. ”
I cannot find one but that sounds like a wonderful project that I may just embark on.
It can also be very helpful to those not in the US. A lot of drugs that get approved and then pulled by the FDA tend to continue to be sold overseas despite the companies knowing very well of the nasty side effects.
I suspect Eris will turn out to be the sub-ruler of Libra, but we’ll see.
Intriguing and possibly worrying, as a person with a lot of Libra in his chart. Do you have any thoughts on what Eris’ role in the cosmic ecosystem might be?
@jeff russell
Look at earthships for design ideas that make great use of thermal mass. Also, older passive house designs that partially earth sheltered, so north side of house bermed into earth. Etc…
Yes, bring it up in Green Wizards, I will respond there and others.
Beekeeper in Vermont – oh, biting flies. 🙁 So totally out of my realm of experience. Sounds unpleasant!
Phutatorius re: 3rd option, maybe “wait and see”/precautionary approach?
Patricia Mathews – is your source willing to comment on those patients’ co-morbidities (esp. obesity and diabetes), and whether or not the hospital is counting as unvaccinated those who are only partially vaccinated? And is Delta confirmed (I know some places don’t test for variant)? It’s interesting that the Florida cases seem quite different from those in Israel and I wonder what in the world is going on!
Well, the blogger whom I see doing this consistently is James Howard Kunstler at his CFN blog, and I have to say, it really does (along with his never-ending foaming at the mouth about “Drag Queen Story Hour”) do an awful lot to make me take him with a very large grain of salt.
I’ll second this. I began reading Kunstler to get an unabashed refutation of what MSNBC was blaring in my parents’ living room, so as to maintain my sanity.
But pretty quick, I began noticing Kunstler’s political predictions never pan out. He was sure Hillary Clinton would swoop in to take the nomination. He was sure that courts would overturn Biden’s election. He was sure that Biden would be replaced six weeks into his term. Now he’s sure that Arizona will deliver proof of Democratic malfeasance.
I still read CFN, but it’d be nice if he stopped and looked around and fessed up that his predictions tend to be off the mark. A little self awareness is not too much to ask, I think.
Also he foams at the mouth a bit on the subject of race.
Another classic rock-n-roll song that keeps coming to mind these days…
PS – This is the unofficial anthem of US Navy nuclear submarine crews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LTT0xwdfw
@Sammy – If you are interested in any flavor of Germanic polytheism, I would recommend A Modern Guide to Heathenry by Galina Krasskova. There are a lot of different books for slightly different flavors of Germanic polytheism, but this one is a fairly comprehensive and even-handed overview that discusses some of the different strains, while giving a good, solid baseline of knowledge and specific practices.
Lady CuteKitten’s recommendation for Mere Christianity is great if you are interested in Christianity. If you prefer video/audio, Jordan Peterson’s lectures on the book of Genesis (his “Biblical Series”) presents a view of the first book of the Old Testament (with some callouts to other parts of the Bible) that is very compelling for folks of a materialist bent who would like to find some value in spiritual writings.
If you prefer the classics, I find Seneca the most approachable of the Stoics – more ethical than spiritual, but he will still help with guidance on what it means to live a good, meaningful life, and to cope with the chaos and crumminess you can’t control in the world around you. I’m starting to poke around the Neoplatonists, but don’t have much depth. The site “Hellenic Faith” (https://hellenicfaith.com/) seems like an in-depth and fantastic introduction to late Greco-Roman polytheism.
Another approach you might consider is to read some mythology from various cultures. These won’t give you spiritual practices directly, but if you find a mythology that speaks to you, it’s often easy these days to find sources on related spiritual practices. The Prose Edda is likely the best starting place for Norse myth, Edith Hamilton’s Greek Myth is the classic work in English on the subject, though I’ve heard that Stephen Fry’s Mythos is a lovely, more recent, retelling. The Mabinogion is fantastic if you are interested in Celtic/Druidical lore (including Arthurian legend). Beyond that, a search for “[culture] mythology book” will likely find you plenty of options, though I’ve found it a bit harder to find good popular overviews of Chinese and Japanese mythology.
@Patient Observer, #531
Thanks for your response. According to geoscientists, CO2 is not a lagging indicator, and of course they have looked at the possibility that it might be. Furthermore I find it very strange that you seem to think that William Happer, someone who spent a significant part of his career in politics, doesn´t have ulterior motives, while everyone in the (quite poorly funded) fields of geoscience and palaeontology has. I still think Happer isn´t qualified enough to lecture about climate – as the quote from the book mentions, there are many factors controlling the climate, and being knowledgable about one of them doesn´t make one an expert on climate. As for CO2 saturation: it is far from fact that there is such a thing, and I think you will be hard pressed to find anyone else agreeing with it.
greetings
Frank
@JMG #529 That’s not bad advice; but I reread those essays just today (I wanted to make sure I got the name of the party right!); and I’ve reread them a couple of times over the years, as well as recommended them to friends (when I would try to convince them that No, Bush was not a fascist; Obama was not a Communist; Trump was not a dictator), as a very useful primer on how a totalitarian government might *realistically* arise in America. But I think I muddied my question up with the reference, since there are important differences between what Fred Halliot got up to and what’s happened since 2020. Maybe I can be clearer.
During the Lockdowns (a prison term; something no civil authority in America can impose) our governors and mayors began to rule by decree; and their decrees touched almost every aspect of life. Niqab became mandatory. Grandma had to die alone in the nursing home. This business could stay open, but that business had to close. A decree went out that churches had to close; and I saw more than one elected official hold press conferences where they solemnly assured the public that you could worship God just as well from your home, alone (and they were pretty strict in enforcing this theological pronouncement; folks got arrested for trying to open their churches, or even for holding worship services at home- something I do, incidentally, so this was of great interest to me). I won’t beat the point to death: but that looked like totalitarianism to me.
When the lockdowns were lifted, it was always phrased as *permission*; that we were being given a privilege that could be revoked if we couldn’t behave, or if our rulers just thought a new situation warranted it.
And now comes the Great Unpersoning. The government, the media, and the mob are very much marching in lockstep. People losing jobs and children because they refused experimental gene therapy. People being denied medical care for the same reason. I met a kinsman of mine today who had been adamantly against being a guinea pig, or letting his children be guinea pigs. But his wife desperately needed a medical procedure; and the physician refused to perform it unless the wife, *and*everyone*in*the*household*, had been vaxxed. This authoritarianism isn’t nearly as harsh as it could be, but it’s definitely authoritarianism.
So my question is this: does America’s political establishment walk away from unchecked power, or do we go back to rule by decree come flu season? How harsh does the vaxx mandate get. (My hypothesis is that it’ll largely depend on how much friction the establishment gets from the enlisted men and women in the military; but I also suspect most will cave.) You’ve got a good track record for scoping out the broad direction America will go, so I’d be very interested to hear any thoughts you have on this.
I hope this was a little clearer. But apologies for leaving a novel in your comment section!
@ Jeff Russel (#525)
I looked into Insulated Concrete Form construction years ago. The concrete has a lot of thermal mass. This is an established building technique.
Underfloor heating frequently incorporates thermal mass.
I have seen on the internet panels with cells of Glauber’s salt that can be incorporated into walls. The heat of fusion of the Glauber’s salt creates a lot of thermal mass.
I would guess the 3D printed homes have a lot of thermal mass, being made primarily of a form of concrete.
JMG,
one of the things you predicted (I think in the dreamwidth conversation) was that the MSM will switch to ignoring the virus/vax once the bad reactions are undeniable.
Maybe I see too much into it but I noticed some articles (in BBC, DailyMail and other british MSM) that are going that directions. There is the article about native immunity, another one that compares the causes of death and concludes that we worry too much and so on.
Since it’s hard to believe that these are cracks in the Matrix, I wonder if this is the beginning of a new campaign to erase the last year and a half so nobody can mention the ADE and vax in the same sentence.
On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the TPTB have multiple PR campaigns going on at the same time and they will go with the one that is most successful. So, if people are still eager for more restrictions on freedom and blaming the innocent they will continue with that. If not, there is plenty of controlled opposition that can take things in a new direction (see XR and other “greens”).
The good news here – in a twisted way – is that people really have the power to choose their fate. If enough people stop buying into the “boosters forever and China style control” narrative, it will go away.
So in a very real sense, most countries get the reality that they want. Yes, their choices are restricted (we will never go back to infinite growth) but there is no denying that Australia, Canada etc do support their own slavery.
Now instead of worrying of poor people suffering, I know that most of them get exactly what they wanted and who am I to decide what’s best for them?
@Phutatorius, #495
I think the middle ground here is simply not to be hostile or condescending towards anyone because of their choice in this matter. I have taken the jab because I´m an active member of a local Jazz Club, and the covid regulation where I live is: public venues who welcome anyone other than fully vaccinated or fully recovered people have to adhere to distancing regulations which require providing 20 square metres of space per person. If our club did that, we would be able to let in only 20 people to a gig, and that includes bar- and box office staff and the band. In other words, the club would have to remain closed, which it has been for more than a year now. I emphatically do not agree with these rules, but a jazz club is not a political organisation and it doesn´t make them. So I chose to take the (in my opinion not negligible) risk of side effects, ADE and so on because my work in the club and being able to enjoy live music is more important to me than the chance I´m taking.
greetings
Frank
Hi John
1) What is the best way to buy your books in Australia? I don’t think “BookShop” delivers here and I would like to purchase your original trio of practical magic books (LRM, POW & COP)… just for starters!
****
On a different subject, but first a quick back story – way back when I began reading the ADR, I fairly shortly thereafter concluded that your writings were the most wholistic, lucid, succinct, balanced and sensible utterances out there in the ‘webosphere’… bar none.
So, when you alluded to the fact of your having Aspergers, it occurred to me that I might have the same condition – not for the first time, but reinforced by the fact that you consistently made so much darn common-sense, whilst addressing the issues regarding the human condition (political, cultural and spiritual) that I found most relevant and interesting.
I am around your age, and was completing a music-education degree a few years ago – with a minor in researching ‘Special Education’ and ASD’s in particular.* I found myself emotionally overwhelmed for a while when I realised how perfectly I fit the Aspie profile, according to the literature I encountered (my father reading as significantly autistic also). My suspicions then became a certainty.
I always knew I had severe social problems, but thought it was mainly a lack of self-esteem due to having been born with some facial disfigurement and experiencing the subsequent childhood/ adolescent persecution and bullying that usually accompanies this.
Now I finally know that the reason I’ve always felt so different is because, well actually, I am, and the reason why most people seem strange and inscrutable to me, is because, they just are (as I must seem to them in certain ways, no doubt). This has been of great comfort to me and helps make sense of a significantly unorthodox life approach. Unfortunately, up until recently, I’ve wasted a lot of energy trying to “fit in.”
2) So my question is – when and how did you come by your (assumed) self diagnosis?
* When I asked my professor what was behind the documented explosion in ASD’s, he said “we don’t know”, but what he really seemed to be saying was “don’t even ask”….he also advised me against self-diagnosis….mm, hmm.
****
Regarding the global flustered-cluck that is the ‘Rona hysteria – I would like to share with readers a dream I had not long after this whole thing started in 2020, and well before the vax issue was mentioned in the mainstream press.
Don’t want to scare y’all…but my subconscious awareness seems to have made up it’s mind pretty early on as to what’s happening and where it appears to be going…symbolically at least.
Greetings to my fellow Ozzies from the ‘fortress’ city of Perth, Western Australia. .
Many, many thanks to JMG and commentariate, for the virtual port in quite the societal s*** storm.
May the Gods watch over us all
Tony_A
Patient Observer #531
I’d say that the example of Venus shows that the more CO2, the hotter the planet. But let’s concede Happer’s assertion that more CO2 won’t lead to more warming.
The problem is that satellite measurements of Earth’s radiation budget show that we are already, at current CO2 levels, receiving more radiant energy from the sun than we are radiating away into space, therefore we are heating up. As Earth heats up, it will radiate away more heat, until the heat radiated away equals the heat incoming, at which point the temperature will stabilize.
If Happer is correct (which I doubt), adding more CO2 won’t change the final stable temperature, but it will prolong the period of time Earth stays at an elevated temperature, since CO2 levels have to come down to allow more heat to radiate away from the Earth’s surface and bring us back to our accustomed climate conditions.
Mary Bennett #539:
I have no doubt that we’ll all find a substitute for those ubiquitous plastic bags if they disappear; we managed for all those years before they existed.
Right now at our house we use them to get rid of dirty cat litter and I save the ones I get when shopping in other states so I can pack cartons of eggs into them since we sell a lot of eggs off our farm. Our observation: people will remember to bring reusable bags to the grocery store, but not to a farm.
Some time ago several researchers looked into what people do when the plastic bags are disallowed by law and discovered, to no great surprise, that stores reported sales of other, often heavier, plastic bags increased. One can therefore assume that these shopping bags filled other needs and were not actually single-use; people were using them at least once more after they got them. I actually found a whole bunch of articles about this when I looked in DuckDuckGo, here’s one of them that includes some hard numbers:
https://reason.com/2019/04/11/california-plastic-bag-bans-spur-120-per/
Silicon Guy #510 re: Vitamin D. When I had my VA physical this summer, my doc ran blood labs. My Vitamin D coming in at 29 mg/dl. The explication on the lab report states that “>=20 generally considered adequate for bone and overall health in healthy individuals.” I had stopped supplementing for the summer, as I am outdoors quite a bit and have the farmer’s tan to show for it, but she strongly encouraged me to supplement my Vitamin D intake year round.
Hi Michael Gray,
Yup, it is crazy as, and I too get sick of the never ending talk. The thing which causes me alarm is that the health subject which dare not be named is being discussed as ‘the’ topic, when it is but ‘a’ topic. Mate, we just appear to have lost a two decade long war, why are the talking heads not discussing that abysmal failure and asking the hard questions? I don’t know whether it is a mania or hysteria or an or what?
It wasn’t that long ago when the ‘war of waste’ was a thing, but who cares about take away coffee cups nowadays?
Sometimes fundamentals get broken (how’s long, vulnerable and complicated supply lines working for you? 🙂 ) and societies don’t know how to deal with the mess, and their ideology doesn’t have the tools to cope with that circumstance. And this is what you get. It’s utterly bonkers and also outside my experience. Fortunately you seem like a quick study. 🙂 Time to get learnin’, mate!
You need to banish some things and you might be in the right place to learn that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi John Michael,
With a topic like that you can on a sale down here. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi John Michael,
With a topic like that you can count on a sale down here. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Mary Bennett #514, I hadn’t heard of Konrad Heiden. According to Wikipedia he also discovered who had really written The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. On the quetion of whether Hitler was stupid, I’m reminded of the quote from his famous biographer Ian Kershaw – ‘The man did, after all, write a book’. I suspect he had some combination of personality disorders that made him dysfunctional, regardless of what intelligence he may have had.
Jeff Russell #525, I’ve never worked with thermal mass but from what I’ve read I have some thoughts. Passive solar works by letting light in through big windows on the south side (or north in the southern hemisphere). It requires some kind of shade in the summer or you’d be sitting in a greenhouse. The shade has to be retractable, like an awning, or in winter when the light is dim and you need the most of it, it’ll be partially blocked. The north side of the house usually has tiny windows to keep the heat in, and personally I think natural light is more important – especially on the shaded side. The problem of using the ground as a heat sink is firstly you want to keep the heat out to begin with, not let it in like with passive solar. Secondly heat wants to rise and won’t conduct downwards much. There are systems that circulate air or liquid in pipes through the cooler ground though. I think a better option could be an absorbtion chiller air conditioner, primarily powered by solar thermal. More moving parts, but you get real temperature control and the waste heat can be dumped into a hot water tank and used too.
Info #535, how was Salvador Allende a monster? Everything I’ve read suggests he was too soft for the job he took on. Like with the lorry strike. The way South American politics work is if someone challenges you like that, you don’t just repond with clever use of communication technology (no matter how fascinating Eden Medina made that project in Cybernetic Revolutionaries). What you do is send in some tough hombres to take care of business. I saw an interview with a KGB officer who said after this show of weakness they knew he was done for and pulled their agents out of the country. Not saying the KGB in any way had the Chilean revolution’s best interests at heart, but the fact they didn’t even regard Allende as a useful idiot anymore, speaks volumes.
@Galen what do you think the chess board means in front of that Marine? I’m not a chess player, but I know white moves first and I see white moved twice, and black once.
Interesting that Colonel Scheller is not being subjected to Soviet-style psychiatrization:
https://twitter.com/paulmcleary/status/1432124076689088514
Re: darkness of the whole covid thing
I think this comes from the realization that the tapestry of human history is weaving a maelstrom, and that it is highly likely that a great many threads will be lost be lost leaving a tear in the fabric of existence that will take some time to heal.
In a way this seems to be the inevitable conflict between two great fears, with a virus of historically-minor consequence as the catalyst. On one side we have a fear of death, and a desire to make society rigidly safer and to enforce conformity in favor of safety. On the other side we have a fear of being controlled, which contrives a malicious, conspiratorial evil enemy. The greater the fear, the greater the polarization, and so every uncertainty (treatment drugs, masks, vaccines, etc.) rapidly becomes a new flashpoint with no middle ground.
@Phutatorius
It’s true that there is not much room for a middle ground on a personal level here. “Half-vaccinated” might be a thing, but more or less one either receives the treatment or chooses not to. That sort of “either-or” binary of personal choice is quite rare.
On a societal scale, there is plenty of room for middle ground. The most obvious would be to acknowledge the 1000-fold difference in risk across the human population based on age and illness, and to recommend vaccination for the higher-risk groups while acknowledging that the risk/benefit assessment for lower risk groups remains uncertain.
Pennsylvania voters in May limited the governor’s ability to declare emergencies and make universal mandates like happened in 2020 by adding two constitutional amendments. https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2021/05/pa-voters-say-yes-to-restricting-governors-powers-during-emergencies.html
Since then it looks like the following things have happened –
Dept of Ed made only recommendations, not mandates, regarding masking, vaccinations, and other measures in regard to Covid. Stated it was up to each school district to make own rules and there would be no long arm of Harrisburg to do it. In my county of 20 school districts, half have gone mask mandates, half not.
Dept of Health has made no mandates and is simply collecting and disseminating data on cases, hospitalization, and deaths. We don’t have data on vaccination along with hospitalization, cases, and deaths. Not sure if its being collected or not. Many of their reports ended in June 2021 when the emergency measures expired and couldn’t be renewed.
County governments in larger counties with their own department of health have taken over with mandates. This means driving 20 miles away into the next county has masks mandated all the way down to 2 year olds in daycares. Where I live, maybe 20% wear masks in stores. Despite the constant hysteria in the news, the number of masks has gone down over the summer. Philadelphia is fully masked everywhere indoors and out.
State colleges and community colleges do not have vaccine mandates and require masks in class only. Most private colleges have vaccine mandates for students, staff, and visitors. Many academic libraries and archives have very limited access and the rules are shifting to vaccinated only and this rule change will end my research business.
Despite the varying mandates, the Covid numbers have only been rising slowly. It’s hard to tell with hospitalizations and deaths if it is “with Covid” or “from Covid”. A perpetual issue! I’m thankful for some relief from the insanity of restrictions, rules, and punishments from last year. It felt like a lot of effort for little positive results.
I still expect this fall and winter to be the pandemic we were told we were having before – full hospitals, not enough medical staff, lots of people suffering losses. Pray I am wrong.
Mary Bennett (#514) says: I have a book, Der Fuehrer; Hitler’s Rise to Power, which was first published in German, I believe, when Hitler was still alive. What I have is an English translation pub. in 1944.
I have that book too! Bought it years ago from a thrift shop for 50 cents. It’s been a long time since I read it, though.
As for the idea (I don’t remember who brought it up first) that one third of the U.S. public supported fascism, one third was against it and one third neutral: that sounds like what I’ve heard was true about the populace during the American Revolution. One third supported the plan for a new country, one third was faithful to Britain, and one third was neutral. Does this seem to be a typical division of the American public? I haven’t seen any figures, but are roughly one third Democrat-liberal (or leans that way), one third Republican-conservative (or leans that way), and one third neutral-third party-independent? I don’t just mean those who vote, but including the non-voters.
Joy Marie
@Galen Diettinger well they sure said the quiet part out loud, didn’t they?
Whatever happened to when they danced to disco in the navy?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nmGuy0jievs
Found this report published last month on problems with the FDA’s accelerated drug approval process. Of course, they stress that ” the accelerated pathway is still useful and can be truly beneficial to patients.” I find the following quote quite revealing: “There are some instances where the companies really do seem to be taking advantage of the accelerated approval pathway and are using it in a way that makes it harder to get at the truth about whether these products really are safe and effective.” Note that they do not mention anything about the Covid shot.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210731/FDAs-accelerated-drug-approval-process-plagued-by-missing-efficacy-data-and-questionable-evidence.aspx
Interesting that they put this out when many are questioning the safety of the Covid shot.
Joy Marie
Eldritch Piglet @177: your Ogham reading mentioned long-established practices, which reminded me that their invention is attributed to the God Ogma. Prayer to Him for wisdom or inspiration before a reading and thanks afterwards would be unlikely to go amiss, if you are of a polytheistic bent at all.
FYI: Excellent Decline & Fall resource.
https://acoup.blog/2021/07/30/collections-the-queens-latin-or-who-were-the-romans-part-v-saving-and-losing-an-empire/
@temporaryreality #548 – those were among the first questions I asked Carol, and she said she didn’t know. (She’s over in Psychiatry.) She did point our the relative youth of the current victims, and quite understands my concern over whether Delta was picking the low-hanging fruit or not. Since the place I live is full of such low-hanging fruit as you describe. Sorry – I – and she – just don’t have that kind of data yet. But yes, Delta is confirmed. As for “Why Florida?
All I can answer is that in Gainesville, the Vax Wars are raging.
@Jeff Russell #551 – I find Seneca to have a strong flavor of management-meeting moralizing, and find Epictetus, with his street-level bluntness, a lot more accessible. A matter of taste.
@Tony A. #557 on “From now I finally know… to “wasted a lot of energy trying to fit in…” Amen, brother, sing it again, and try discovering that when you’re around 60… and then your sister casually outs you to the MIND Institute in Sacramento while you’re still processing it! [A gay friend of mine pointed out that most closet doors are made of one-way glass: you think they’re opaque, but everybody can see through them.] Anyway, good on you, mate!
Dear lord i apologize for my terrible penmanship .
Jmg i am talking about the whole malevolent voice / entities whispering in the ears of the pmc class to take and push an experimental drug to the populance in attempt to reduce the population quickly or what i call it spirits telling you to ” get off my lawn ” .
It is a group effort not one entity but several look up the countries who are now searching for WHO officials heads, for lying to them about ivemectin as a viable treatment and vaccines – india and their spiritual practices vs the people who push and demand everyone to get their vaccines their spiritual practices and general emotional state . If truly malevolent entity wanted just population reduction they wouldn’t be going after the least fertile demographics on this planet the western salary class. Look at who is resisting and who isn’t their emotional state , their spiritual practices and their attitudes toward God or gods and which class they usually belong to .
Just sit down for a moment and think what happens when these good people tm are gone ? How much misery they inflict and radiating various negative emotions around them. My first thought about the whole vaccine debacle was thank goodness i will not have to dance like a monkey on a rope daily around these people because they are going to be gone , consequences be damned. And i am sure millions of people will have the same reaction when it happens pity it will be also their loved ones somewhere there .
@Joshua #496 – For me it was “The Genealogy of Morality” by Nietzsche. But that was when I was a young college student just emerging from a “Born-Again Christian” environment. It might seem a bit obvious to me now.
P.S. On New Maps – add fact articles and I’ll see about subscribing despite limited shelf space.
JMG and Yougelephant, thank you both for your positive energy. I do appreciate it much.
Youngelephant, if you do cut back from coffee I recommend you don’t do it in a rush, that will make it harder for your body to adapt and for your mind to accept the withdrawal of it. At least that is what happened to me. There is a ginger spice mix called Sukku Banam, or Sukku Coffee which I drink a lot and has a heavier taste than tea, more similar to coffee. So whenever I crave for a hot drink, I get a cup. I do still drink coffee a few times a month, but not everyday anymore. Once I began to be aware of my energies I didn’t like how it felt and they could never be at ease, even though the effect of the mind I didn’t feel, my energies would be rushing and jumping.
Here is a recipe:
https://www.kannammacooks.com/sukku-coffee-recipe-sukku-malli-kaapi-recipe/
Some places also offer ready made mixes with different blends of spices I particularly like Isha’s mix which if interested you can get at their online store, I saw a few other options in Amazon too. Add a little bit of honey and it’s delicious.
My Dear VIOLET-
this is ALL for you:
i’m going to re-print most of what you said because it’s so important to acknowledge the process of cracking up and out of the super-imposed and self-imposed shells:
“That’s very sad to read that the imagination is dead out where you live. It’s interesting and significant to think on the connection you draw between the death of imagination and evil magic.”
but dear Violet, the imagination is dead not just here in san francisco, this now-totalitarian town, but world-wide. that’s why we’re in this predicament. Levi said that the imagination is a reflection of the SOUL. and it seems our souls are dead.
“It seems to me that a major part of the magical of western occultism works precisely to align the living body and its personality with the imagination so that the imagination can descend into form. To do this, I can only imagine that one must be totally oneself, that is, the personality and body must align themselves with their source of imagination. When this occurs, a person becomes a totally distinct character because _they are themselves_ both in the sense of the above of their eternal soul and the mortal portions who can then act in the world through the medium of the imagination. To be truly oneself and not someone else, and to be oneself willfully in the world seems to me one of goals of western occultism. It is a great magical act to become oneself through the powers of imagination and will!
“Personally I likewise feel nervousness and fear in my own tentative steps towards the goal of being myself and being myself in the world! It’s always so tempting to either hide or ape someone else! That said, when I manage to be myself and be myself in the world I feel so alive that it seems so much worthier than hiding or imitating anyone in which I feel so stifled, sluggish, and disassociated. I can very much relate to the fear and apprehension you write of, and also the amazing power and living soul force of living my own life, as my own self, that is at least, when I manage to do so fully, which is more than I once managed but still far less than I would like.”
this is why i try to share the process of letting go and the vertigo or terror of “dying” as you were. you feel skinless and like you’re dying because you ARE… although i think it’s the ego. not sure. this is Papa G territory.
it’s also why he talks about the OSA work i think, being good at deflecting the ego trap that can happen when you do this kinda deep work. you feel above and get uppity about being above one’s own humanity, and this is where people seem to get stuck and go for the okey doke in becoming a leader before it’s time, and they become dependent upon blowing people’s minds AND always being ahead and above.
which then immediately keeps you BELOW.
that was my date: he was so blown away by meeting me, someone who’s not easily spooked by intensity, and i saw him falter from his shtick and i remembered: this is why i want someone older than me in all and any ways.
i worry as i saw him preen his game because this is a ripe time for hucksters charlatans and false prophets. the innerwebs are lousy with people who’ve never actually DONE anything in the world but thought a lot of stuff.
so i won’t be lovers with this man, he is too young, and therefore uninteresting to me. BUT i can befriend him and it’s enough finding someone who gets enough of you so’s you can get over the constant need to prove defend or explain yourself and get to work.
just befriending him has pushed ME forward in my writings, thoughts, beliefs, and i’ve pitched a radio show to our local radio station because we talked for almost 6 hours straight and intense… but i caught an old guy pretending to read his book for over 3 hours, just LISTENING to us talk.
and i realized i’ve had this happen so many times in public, maybe i should share this on the radio– how to have deep open curious conversations, by actually having them in public now?
we odd balls, “special ones” as my new friend said, we come up feeling lonely afraid awkward defiant, but we can get arrogant and impinge our own progress by forgetting to NOT KNOW or be open awkward embarrassed unsure…. and still maintain our integrity.
i’m here at this lesson. the more i think i know, the more i realize how myopic i am and only work my tiny little backyard plot and miss the whole shmigeggy.
that’s why i want YOU or anyone who’s got the same set of reactions i tend to have, to learn and riff off of me, and go beyond because as the tarot reminds us– you can only pull off so much in one lifetime and it’s nice to have a long trajectory of practice or thought to be a tiny part of.
i said to my new friend that i didn’t think we were so “special” after all. that we’re more natural and the Regular People are the different ones even though they rule and run the world now.
i am here on Papa G’s site because he is the only one i know of who believes we’ve actually got a chance to undermine the status quo, and he’s the best coach because he sends us back out to do it our way.
no, he’s the anti-guru.
these cynical Now Times need an anti-guru. / i think an anti-guru is harder to crucify. i hope so, anyhow. we’ll see… i worry about the little bitter bureaucrat with free time and too much jealousy who lights upon his name and deeds.
but he’s doing jujitsu of some kind so far. i’m surprised he’s still HERE.
(smile)
x
Building an alternative society within by Hardscrabble Farmer. The link includes a Free Bonus Video! of ‘Waiting for the World to Change’. Rush to get yours now:) DenG
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/08/30/stop-waiting/#more-247630
Stop Waiting
My youngest son and I have been collaborating on a form of homeschooling that involves a great deal more than simple assignments and projects. We work together daily around the farm and spend much of that time in rapt discussion about the books we are reading, or films we watch, and talk in depth about the ideas that concern him.
Most of it is Socratic in nature for I had always learned best by being challenged to formulate my own understanding of the world rather than as a passive receptacle of random facts. This past month we have been exploring the writings of Thoreau and trying to integrate understand his philosophical examination of self-reliance as it relates to our own lifestyle.
He sees the connections and understands the radical nature of his decision to walk away from society- one in ascendance rather than decline- but cannot fully see the similarity to his place in the world. So we select certain passages and try to find examples of those ideas in our daily life. While I wrote the following essay, the quotes that accompany it were chosen by him to accompany each passage. I’d give him an A.
For over thirty years I have been trying to keep up with the slow and steady fall of the American Empire. I have gone through the various Kubler-Ross stages of loss and grief and found myself not only coming to an acceptance of our current reality, but finding a way through to the other side. There has been, until recently, an overwhelming sense of hopelessness that permeated the American zeitgeist, a defeatist submission to the never ending slide from our independent heritage into a mommy dearest tyranny that never lets up.
For most of my adult life I struggled with things that were impossible to comprehend much less tackle. And so I became resigned to living in a state of perpetual frustration, unable to articulate my desire to actually do something about it until we quit waiting for the world to change.
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..” ― Thoreau, Henry David
We chose to withdraw into a neo-agrarian lifestyle tied to not only the land, but a kind of intentional self-reliance that demanded our constant atention and focus. While I have never stopped paying attention to the outrages of a culture headed towards the rocks, it no longer concerned me as it had in the past. I came to discover that the path towards collapse was not something that could be avoided, but was inexorable. Farming uncovered a set of fundamental truths about our purpose and the inexorable ebb and flow of life.
Order and chaos are the human equivalent of growth and decay, each dependent upon the other in order to maintain a balance in a closed system of both time and place. What is happening isn’t the result of mistakes and incompetence, but the natural result of a social order that has outlived it’s youthful vigor and fallen into a senescent torpor. We are where we are not because of anything we have done or failed to do, but because it was inevitable. There is, in this knowledge, a wonderful optimism and hope for the future.
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Lately there has been a shift from the perpetual fury of doom porn posts and abject resignation towards something intentional. Some of my favorite writers have come to the conclusion that the only path left is to step aside and let it all burn rather than to fight for a system that no longer has much left that is worth perpetuating. The phraseology is almost identical, that it is time build something new, to find a way to create a new reality that reflects the values and beliefs of traditional America in a post-American landscape.
They acknowledge that the decay has become so entrenched that there no longer exists a path back to whatever it was that we fondly recall about the American experience of the last century and that the only sensible move is to find a place- and other like-minded people- where the foundations can laid for a brand new start.
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” ― Henry David Thoreau
When we bought the farm almost 15 years ago we had a sense of what was coming. In fact we made our move more out of instinct than deliberation, without any real knowledge of what kind of work or skills sets it would entail, but with complete confidence that we could find a way to make it work for us as a family, to pull up roots in our ancestoral hometown in order to find a better life. I have written about those experiences, both the successes as well as the failures, and in as much detail and candor as I could manage at http://www.hardscrabblefarmer.com.
We have opened our farm and our lives to hundreds of strangers from all across the country and communicated with hundreds more in writing from all over the globe. We discovered that there are far more people interested in finding similar solutions to the problems they are facing than we ever imagined. They understood our decision to go Galt and retreat from the post-modern world while keeping an eye on it’s slouching path towards Gomorrah and shared their dreams to somehow, someday do the same.
As each year has passed and our experience has led us to the conclusion that we were both prescient and exceedingly fortunate to have acted when we did, it has also made us ask the next logical question; what’s next? We have a established a successful farming operation that works well in both a challenging climate and a difficult terrain. We have built the soils, bred up flocks and herds that have adapted ideally to the conditions of the ground- land race animals that are both hardy and nourishing, living natural lives and learned enough to be able to share our abilities with others in a meaningful way.
We’ve established a deep connection to the community, made friendships with like-minded members of the local community, raised our children in an environment that gave them an opportunity to experience freedom as well as responsibility, and turn a good marriage into an epic one. We’ve weathered storms and experienced losses with the same attitude as we have our achievements and successes and learned to adopt a stoic frame regardless of the vagaries and uncertainties of life and circumstance.
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” ― Henry David Thoreau
And now we have reached a point in our life where we have choices to make, about our future, and about the role we play in sharing what we have done with others. As we head into the back forty of our lives and our children take the stage in the generational shift that has existed for as long as we have existed as a species it becomes apparent that we have something more to offer than just words on a screen.
I have tried to be a positive force regardless of the influences of the outside world, pointing other people towards a peaceful future built on realistic expectations. I have never tried to hide the difficulty and loss that is inextricably linked to a life lived in lockstep with nature, nor underplay the costs associated with stepping back from modernity. It wasn’t until recently that it became clear that it would lead us to the next step and hopefully present an opportunity for others to do something similar.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…” ― Henry David Thoreau
And so we’ve developed a simple plan. In the next year we will subdivide several lots in order to make them available to those interested in becoming neighbors to a family farm. This would not only allow us to continue to do what we have grown to love without wearing ourselves out into old age but to offer a chance for those who have decided to move on into the next stage of their own lives, in close proximity to a working farm, high above the banks of a dying Empire. We’d love to be able to encourage and teach anyone interested in a similar lifestyle, share our connections and skills and begin to build a safety net for the future.
Before we begin the process, however, we wanted to gauge the reaction of those who have known us longest through the stories we’ve told and the visits they’ve made to our land to see if this makes the same kind of sense to them that it does to us. As the final act plays out in the urban centers of the Western World the seeds for the future are being planted in the fertile soil created by that decay and while no one could possibly know the future, it is something worth preparing for today.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Khadir and JMG,
I have to say I fully agree with Khadir here and it’s hard to imagine how can anyone not call this totalitarianism.
The govt not only entered our churches but bedrooms and bodies too. That is basically the definition of totalitarianism, together with the thought control through censorship.
You could say that the majority supports this extreme removal of freedoms but that was true for Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia too. Were they not totalitarian?
Another defense might be that the punishments are still relatively mild. Well, the jews just had to wear a badge – big deal, right?
Please, can someone explain to me why not call things are they are?
Jeff Russell – Before you make a big investment in thermal mass, consider investing a similar amount of volume in thermal insulation. Do an analysis with the fluffy stuff, before you commit to the heavy stuff. In my mid-Atlantic climate, the cool basement walls tend to develop condensation in the summer, and the basement tends to be uncomfortably cool (~60F) during the winter. “Super-insulation” is a term that you can search on, and gives you a lot more architectural options than one level set into a south-facing slope (or heap of dirt to the north).
Thermodynamically, it takes an awful lot of thermal mass to manage heat from season to season, but if you want to do that, I think it’s probably better to use a geothermal heat pump with a well-insulated living space.
Jeff Russell #525. As was mentioned above by Yorkshire in #563, the term you are looking for is passive solar.
Basically you need a big heat sink and a way to heat it in the winter and cool it in the summer. From what I’ve read, a captured or framed in pile of rocks under a skylight works wonders if its in the center of a house. In the winter, open the skylight so the rocks can warm due to sunlight and in the summer force cooler air from a basement or vent at night to cool. This apparently goes a long way to leveling out any temperature extremes. Always wanted to try this and in my shop, I may do so. Always seemed like a very primitive form of heat pump but with bonus AC. I read an article about this a few years back about someone who built this into their house and apparently it was 70 in winter and 80 in the summer with no electricity use at all. Sorry I don’t have a link, you’ll have to quack it (evil search engine shall not be named, so duckduckgo=quack!).
JMG, we cut the cord about 15 years ago but old movies are our gulty pleasure. 🙂 We do our best to limit screen time to about 4 hours a week though. Reading the King in Orange now, about halfway through. For someone with zero occult knowledge, its absolutely fascinating to read how this worked on a practical level. Thank you for writing this one so even a laymen like myself can recognize when similar magic is at work.
I just got a phone call soliciting me to join a lawsuit against the makers of Zantac, so I have begun the pharmaceutical Wall of Shame in a Google Sheet.
If you have proposed additions, Email me, and I will add you to the list of editors. Two rules: the pharmaceutical has to be withdrawn from use after regulatory approval: and please include a news source or Wikipedia article for the information. There are three tabs: for the US, the EU, and others (Canada, NZ, India, etc.).
peter dot g dot vanerp at gmail
Lets see how long it lasts before it’s taken for violating G’ standards…
@ yorkshire and jeff Russell
About passive solar and heat transfer. This realy would be a good topic for over on Green Wizards so it is easier to access
In reply to what Yorkshire said :
heat does not just rise or favorate going up. There are 3 types of heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation.
Radiative heat transfer is how the sun gets heat here, the heat is transfered with out any contact, you are standing out in the sun on a cold day and the sun shining on you makes you warm and the air is still cold. All mass radiates out heat energy, including us, including the sun, the wood stove. Most house heat up and down is transferred via radiative heat transfer. This is why you can have a “cool roof” something that is a barrier to radiative heat transfer, and have the house stay much cooler in the summer.
Conduction happens with direct contact, so you grab a metal spoon in the pot of soup. You sit on a seat in the car, etc….
Convection is what you were thinking of, so convection currents in a flowing medium like air or water will quickly draw heat away. Like a fan on your hot skin, or air currents above the wood stove. SO in air, yes, the hot air molecules rise, or air currents are formed that tend to rise. Hot water will rise and stratify in your hot water heater. But this does not apply to radiative and conductive heat transfer, those go in all directions. So a thermal mass works differently.
The earth is such a large mass that it stays, basically, at an even temperature so that is the advantage of earth sheltered. Or living in caves, etc…. we would like it warmer, but we wont freeze. I was just in one of our caves open to the public in historical gold country in the foothills of California. It was so very hot outside, and the cave was nice and cool. And we saw where the gold miners lived there few a few winters, the snow so deep, below freezing outside, and the cave kept them safe. When we use alot of earth connected mass, or earth berm, or paritally bury a home, it is not as stable as the cave, but we bring important aspects of that year round temperature stability. I have an added on, small, about 11×8 foot half circle added to the end of a room in my house built out of thick earth walls, by hand by us. 18″ maybe thick ? This room very seperate from the rest of the building, it is its own studio living space. With just that part, that percentage being thick mass, this space is so much more comfortable than hte main house. Takes very little to heat it up in the winter, and stays much cooler in the summer. And, no, there is no insulation on that wall. It is not catching passive solar either. The thickness of the wall and its earth connection at the bottom does it all
Re: differing levels of covid concern around the country
One thing to keep in mind is that infection levels in the northeast are still low relative to last winter and last year, while here in the northwest this wave is our strongest yet by a factor of two, and the first time that our healthcare system has been strained. That’s really messing with people’s heads especially given the high expectations for the vaccines.
@Chris
“subject which dare not be named is being discussed as ‘the’ topic, when it is but ‘a’ topic”
You reminded me of the very short story ‘Ship of fools’ by Ted Kaczynski
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ship-of-fools
Yet again he proves that he had some good points at times. Shame about the actions.
Like you said it is but a topic, that it is completely dominating the narrative of everyone around us is just exhausting.
Speaking of the virus that will not be named. One of the best analysis of the biological situation I have seen has come from Stephen Harrod Buhner. His work on a herbalist solution to these issues is just wild in how much detail he has gone into in countering the potential issues.
Look under the Medicine/Herbs/Healing section of his site to see what I mean.
https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/articles/
He wrote a wonderful book about 20 yearsback, ‘The lost language of plants’. It has been described as “The silent spring of the pharmaceutical industry. I encourage everyone to give it a go. I can also perk up Mr Greers ears with it, yes it goes into shamanic roots as a path back to sanity
temporaryreality:
We had never experienced Black Flies when we lived in Pennsylvania, although I’ve heard they exist there, too, so what a surprise our first spring in Vermont! The saying is that they’re at their peak from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, and in our experience that’s reasonably accurate. The darn things are much smaller than your regular old house fly and the bites are IMO worse than mosquitoes, because the itch lasts longer and then there’s the missing bit of flesh to take into account. I used to be wary of DEET and tried to avoid it, but now in the spring I start to stockpile it as soon as it’s on the store shelves. We use it lavishly.
According to the wildlife people in Montpelier, mosquitoes need stagnant water to reproduce, but Black Flies need clear, running water, which we have in abundance around here after snow melt in the spring so the timing makes sense.
This part of the country is absolutely beautiful (I may be just a little biased), but like everywhere else it comes with its problems. On the bright side, when we bought our house in Vermont the realtor told us we didn’t really need a termite inspection because the winters are too cold for termites. Since then I’ve heard that’s not entirely true, but still true enough.
If you do relocate to this part of the country and find yourselves in/near Windsor County, Vermont, come on over for a visit!
How to move from one state to another?
Dear John Michael Greer,
You’ve moved from one state to another multiple times. What advice would you give to a young person looking to uproot themselves distances of a couple hundred miles or more, and move across state lines? What expenses/savings reserve should they have upfront? In my own instance, my life fits quite comfortably in the trunk of a Toyota Corolla. (It’d be nice to save my desk and a small table I built but I realize that may not be possible.)
What if they have to make the move and a job may not be waiting for them where they end up? What do you do if you have skill sets but can’t prove that you have them? Everyone wants to see a woodworking certificate, contractors license, etc. A portfolio with pictures of things you’ve built, foundations you’ve laid, doesn’t seem to cut it…..
Sincerely,
Wagon Train
PS… I get the feeling you’re going to tell me build another table and desk……..
I thought I would pass this information on, given the bookish tendencies of the commentariat. Beers Bookstore in Sacramento, California has just announced the acquisition of the library of Dr. Henry Allison, professor emeritus at U. Calif. San Diego, described as one of the greatest English language experts on Kant. This is over 70 boxes of works on Kant, Nietzsche, Hume and others, ancient and modern. Works in English, French and German. I have no connection with Beers other than as a customer (bought my first tarot deck there in 1966), just thought this might be an opportunity for those wishing to expand their libraries.
Rita
@Flynn #503
I am very concerned with the hate directed at Dr. Fauci. It seems totally irrational to me.
He actively promoted & financed gain-of-function research in Wuhan and the administration refuses to release un-redacted communications with his associates involved in that research. He provided relevant data to vax producers prior to the outbreak. He’s deliberately denigrated and suppressed effective alternative treatments. I could go on.
Fauci will be lucky if he’s not eventually considered the successor to Mengele.
This isn’t about ADE but an opinion piece about aging and telomere shortening from aspects of the virus and potentially the vaccine. I wish I still remembered more of my French but I think automated translation still gets the point across.
https://www.francesoir.fr/opinions-tribunes/le-sars-cov2-accelererait-lage-biologique
Dear Frank from Germany,
I can speak only to paleontology, my father’s field. One needs no great financial incentive to keep paleontologists within the approved boundaries at this time: first, one must get a PhD in the field, and then, one must out-compete one’s peers for a rare paleontology position. My father’s last protege is in his early forties and teaching middle school-that is, eleven to fourteen year olds-hoping that someday he will be lucky enough to get a job in his field. My father is still honored by paleontologists around the world, even though no longer mentally able to work, if you follow the field you are quite likely familiar with his work, and maybe with the little mammal named for him, and yet there aren’t enough jobs for even his last protege, who is hard working, likable, invited to join into publishing research in spite of being not employed in the field, and not the slightest bit controversal, to get one.
I would be not at all surprised to hear that other sciences are similar: there is a glut of qualified PhDs, and those hiring can be certain to select only those who are perfect matches in all ways, and even so will leave some out.
A Modest Third Way Proposal – JMG, you noted “Michael, researchers don’t know why coronavirus vaccines cause ADE — they have no idea what the general mechanism is — so insisting that the current vaccines are free from it strikes me as handwaving. ” Michael astutely responded that yes (and I had this thought dawn on me too), there are apparently not just multiple, but yet probably not either infinite, but certainly myriad ways that ADE can develop. Per comment 465 (Mark L, a measured and informed commenter on this stuff), for example, “This potential ADE risk is independent of the vaccine technology (82) or targeting strategy selected due to predicted phagocytic immune cell infections upon antibody uptake.” (article cited). ADE is moreover (if Dr. Robert Malone is halfway right), merely one aspect of the overall problem of “viral replication” or mutation. So the vaccine bets the farm not only that the virus can’t defeat and turn around the spike protein marker method, but that it (the virus) has no other ways to circumvent the issue indirectly by going another route into some other form of ADE or broader replication strategy. Since we don’t know the general mechanism, but merely how well it has historically operated, we can assume it has a wide spectrum of options. I will also point out that by head-locking or priming the immune system into one “super weapon” approach to immunity, we may have eroded our capacity to approach the virus and its mutations (a specialty of coronaviruses) at the level of the sub-conscious as expressed in the highly intelligent but fragile synergistic defenses we have evolved to deal with just such a threat. I will also further point out that the more effective in the short run the vaccine is (and it is effective, highly, in the 3-6 month range), the longer the time range and the more stealthy the approach which ADE would assume (and the more data the virus gets). The virus, after all, is successful, and doesn’t have to hurry up just because people have suddenly gotten vaguely apprehensive grasp of the term “ADE”. The ball is now in its court, & the next mutation will have exposure to the vaccine. Apparently a variant of concern (Colombian origin) killed 7 of 21 infected & fully vaxxed patients in a Belgian nursing home. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/seven-die-after-outbreak-colombian-variant-covid-19-belgian-nursing-home-2021-08-06/ Granted they were octogenarians not in the best of health. B.1.621 strain, not yet assigned a Greek letter. We all need to pray for a creative and safe ending to the dead end they chased with “zero Covid” and “100% vax”, before it is really, really worse. Since we have a real life experiment in front of us, maybe holding what we’ve got and gathering data, for the next 2 years, and crunching numbers (do only Israel and Britain keep good medical records?) may be a better project than vaccination pushes and lockdowns. Let’s try treating it on the back end with Ivermectin and other stuff, and on the front with improved physical well being. How about that for a third way?
About the “one third of Americans supported the Nazis before World War Two:”
One thing to keep in mind is that much of The US was German. German as in “I speak a real language, not that Sloppy English” German, German as in “Christianity as Martin Luther intended it” German, complete with the language. English was first declared The Official Language in Iowa, a state that was 40% German speaking, in 1918; when that declaration was rescinded the schools were still required to use English as the main language. Prohibition was, in part, an anti-German movement.
It took Hitler declaring war on The US in support of Japan to shut down Nazi support. German may have loved The Fatherland and supported the movement their Fatherland adopted as their own – but not when it declared war on them, as Hitler did on December 8, 1941.
Sister Crow @571: Thank you for that! I will learn about Ogma and pray for wisdom in the manner you suggest.
I suppose I am of a polytheistic bent. A tenet of my childhood ‘religion’, if you can call it that, was ‘there are no gods, we are the gods!’, but I always felt drawn to Roman and Greek mythology and Celtic history, and generally found an interest in the many deities of other cultures (India, the Americas, Japan), so perhaps the seeds of polytheism have always been there.
@Darkest Yorkshire
Alright I think I was overgeneralizing(although I still stand by my statement of the Spanish Revolutionaries) and I cannot compare him to Stalin. However I did some more research and the radical that would have been just as bad is “Clodomiro Almeyda” who advocated the murder of millions to bring in the socialist revolution.
While Allende who is in charge is bad for the following reason.
He destroyed the economy through price controls and other forms of centralized control of the economy.
Likewise there was the violent takeover of Industries that is the result of his wrecking of the economy.
This results in shortages of food and massive inflation.
Allende also utilized torture and murder whilst his party is in power against political opponents. The usual secret police and vigilantes. People who had their farms confiscated had their landowners and their families murdered:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/oQQhyD6e9sM/
That whilst not as extreme as Pol Pot is still pretty bad.
This results in a revolt by the people and the Parliament who called for armed forces intervention. And the Armed forces made Pinochet their leader to implement the Coup.
This documentary was banned from youtube but retained on Bitchute:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/KRRwRsHl9HfJ/
@Jeff Russel and Sammy,
For a good overview of Japanese mythology, there is the first book of the Kojiki trilogy dating from the 8th century. I don’t have any good links to it, but here is an interesting introduction: https://www.kankou-shimane.com/en/japanesemythology/kojiki/
@ Phutatorius – regarding the Vax/No Vax binary (in so much as you are talking about the simple, individual, and personal choice as to what to do) the ternary is obviously a pro-choice position on the matter.
A position based on regarding adults as full, responsible adults who are both free to choose, and free to accept the consequences of whatever they chose, and leave it at that.
There are many other aspects of the issue that need discussing, but the issue of personal choice is the one that interests me the least (as in, other than my own choice, nobody else’s choice is any of my business), and the one that everyone around me seems to be hung up on.
Other aspects that WE (as opposed to *I*) need to discuss relate to the kinds of laws under which we share polities together, the kinds of medical care that will be of most benefit, whether bureaucrats deciding “one-fits-all” kinds of policies for everyone else can ever be a good idea, and etc.
There is also, of course, a desire (which I share) to expand the pool of specific information available to HELP people make their choices, especially when this pool appears to be unaccountably channeled in one specific direction.
I think most of my contributions on the issue in this forum have been aimed at this last. I heartily believe that you are an adult and that what you choose to do is none of my business. But I also do hope that you are able to access the best possible information while considering and weighing things up for yourself. With this in mind, I have several times linked to factual information sources of the less easy to find sort.
Whatever you decide, best wishes to you! You are entirely the disposer of your own life, and your own body! And that goes to everyone here. May all your goings and doings be blessed, and may each of us find ourselves best placed to make whatever decisions we must, balancing the greatest number of personally essential factors, over the next few difficult years.
@ Simon S
“The enormous middle ground that is being ignored is to allow the medical system to do its job of treating disease using whatever prophylactics and treatments actually work based on real life experience”
Hear! hear!
What I wondered out loud to myself today was – would we even notice if doctors were replaced with algorithms?
That is to say, doctors who prefer to be the patient-centred clinicians they were trained to be, instead of technicians administering whatever the algorithm dictates, they are hired to be, are mostly either:
1) deliberately retiring early or re-training for other employment
2) getting burnt out and dropping out
3) wholly uccumbing and numbing themselves to be technicians devoid of professional autonomy
4) sticking around and fighting hard for their professional autonomy and their patients, and taking flack from various bureaucratic quarters
5) straddling the fence with the head down, saying one thing and doing another
This destruction of clinical autonomy and flexibility has been underway for a large number of years, although the current crisis has speeded it up enormously.
But, what if the powers that be just decided it was easier all around to replace all the doctors with algorithms?
5)
JMG and Emily @507
I think Emily is talking about the creation of the current human sphere pandemic pandemonium. I kind of link it to your last reply over on Magic Monday talking about ‘hate’ not being a facilitator of magic. Of course it can be, if used affirmatively to thrust away from the thing you hate. In this case an increasing number of people (and associated) were understanding the current situation on planet Earth was unsustainable for the species, and a lot of life in its current form. I can think of two times when I caught myself really feeling ‘this has to change’ just before Sars CoV-2 hit – once when caught in yet another huge line of traffic going nowhere in my town while I was on my cycle, the other at a festival, supposedly getting away from the ills of modern society, while enduring the noise and smell of a large diesel generator 50 yards from where we were camped helping light up several fields. So wasteful – what are we doing? Of course these kinds of affirmation in their generality offer little clarity, hence the ‘Milton’esque feel right now ‘in medias res’.
Meanwhile, the freakout over the California recall has proceeded to the next stage of grief, bargaining: “California Will Be Fine If Larry Elder Becomes Governor”
https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/california-will-be-fine-if-larry-elder-replaces-gavin-newsom-in-recall
I found this at RT this morning, to be filed under What the @@#$%? or maybe When will they ever learn?
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/533484-us-conference-dismantling-global-hindutva-neoliberal/
Can someone help with the back story here? What, exactly, is ‘hindutva’?
Conference organizers denounce ‘hindutva’ as, I guess, a new iteration of fascism, which, they claim, Indian activists, or political philosophers, or someone, has borrowed or copied from the fascists of yesteryear in Eastern Europe. Excuse me, did not those very fascists lose to the armies of capitalism and communism? Why would any 21atC movement want to copy a losing, and hated worldwide, philosophy. I understand that the upper 1% of 1% worldwide might think fascism is a good idea, although totalitarian control can get very expensive very fast, but is not ‘hindutva’ something of a popular movement? Does not it claim to revive Hindu religion and traditions? IDK, I am asking.
What is this all about? My first reaction was to wonder if this is a Chinese psi-op to persuade Americans to turn away from an important alliance. My second was to think that not even the neo-cons can be insane enough to want us to quarrel with India.
OTOH, I am not feeling sorry for American Hindus. The Constitution says Congress shall pass no law…respecting religion; it doesn’t say I have to particularly like someone else’s faith. If I were to live overseas somewhere, I would consider I have no right to expect that I or my Americanness would be well liked.
I ought also to have added, why on earth do these folks from Stanford, et al, think taking down a popular movement in a country on the other side of the earth is in any way their business? This is the internationalist upper parts of the PMC, I guess, and these people are not benign. Nation states are irrelevant, don’t you know.
Someone forgot to tell the Taliban that nations are now irrelevant.
Thinking about the deity currently in play, I think one aspect of it is a love of contradicting authority figures and making them look stupid. It’s probably why Biden’s description of “what won’t happen” in Afghanistan was too on the nose given what did happen, and I’m concerned that the same element may be in play with the vaccines.
@Peter @584 have you seen this site already? https://www.recallreport.org
Funny story – I was placed on ranitidine for years – around ages 17 to 20, but I had to wean myself off it, though they said I would have to take it forever. From the age of 15 to 22 I felt nauseated to some degree every second of the day; I had an elaborate classification system of how imminent throwing up was, whether I could eat at all, or move, etc. I couldn’t eat in front of other people at all except under specific circumstances that should have made it glaringly obvious to any doctor it was all in my head (I did not realize physical illness could be in one’s head). They said it was because I have a sliding hiatus hernia, but 10% of all humans do, and it’s not a problem.
(Interestingly a friend’s husband was just told he can’t be a pilot anymore because he has a hole in his heart, but 10% of the population have that, too, with no ill effects. My friend Dara was still fit for military service. His bad having a panic attack one day because they’d just had a baby, just bought a house, and the pandemic shut the airport down and he was terrified of not being able to provide for his family. At least, his wife thinks that seemed obvious. The hospital found the hole and decided it must actually be a heart problem. But I digress.)
Anyway, so after I progressed from constant nausea to dizziness and shaking and the feeling that my blood sugar was always too low, and spent an unspecified number of days and nights rocking in a corner singing Sloop John B to myself (there are dark corners of one’s own mind one should never encounter – like discovering you know the words to Beach Boys songs) I went to a walk-in clinic saying I thought there was something wrong with my thyroid. The elderly doctor laughed – it could have been construed as patronizing, but I found it calming – and told me that I was just having the world’s most endurance panic attack. He gave me six ativan and said to use it sparingly to break the cycle. I only ever took one. I just replayed the conversation over and over:
“There’s nothing wrong with your body.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my body?”
“There never has been anything wrong with your body.”
“There… It’s all in my head?”
“All in your head.”
So then I started to feel better, because I couldn’t control my thyroid, but I could control my mind. Except then I made the tactical error of telling the doctor at my next annual that I still struggled, a bit, you know, and he prescribed me Zoloft.
https://www.recallreport.org/dangerous-drugs-products/zoloft/
Fortunately, I developed serotonin syndrome right away on the lowest dose, and weaned myself off of it on a schedule I made up because my doctor would no longer take my panicky calls. I hallucinated that if I turned my head too fast, it would burst into a thousand pieces each with a distinct personality. Which I thought might be a bad sign, and I’d wanted his opinion on whether it would be better to stop the drug, or if that would make it worse, now. I had to put paper towels over my keyboard at work to sop up the sweat from my hands. I’d just started a career, in a new city, living by myself with no friends around, in what turned out to be the most dangerous apartment building in Victoria – cabs would not drop women off there for fear of being robbed at knifepoint by their pimps, as I later learned, after being robbed a couple times myself. You know, the doctor never asked me any of that.
I thought it was interesting who made both those drugs. Do you think they cause birth defects even if you stopped taking them before you got pregnant? It would be really a shame if they caused lasting damage in the women who took them – but how would you prove it?
@Peter 584 – sorry, this is fun research…
Look at that list of potential cancers, lots of those organs don’t have anything to do with the digestive system.
https://www.drugwatch.com/zantac/does-zantac-cause-cancer/
Bladder cancer, at least I know I don’t have, because I was screened for that after I developed ‘interstitial cystitis’ that manifested as a seeming permanent bladder infection that lasted for a year. The specialist said he saw it a lot in young women, now, no idea why, but that it usually clears up after they had children. Fortunately mine cleared up much earlier after he told me never to go to a doctor again, because he checked my charts, and while they’d tested for bacteria, they’d kept giving me antibiotics without waiting to get the test results back; which is that I’d never had an infection at all. Five negative results in a row. He actually gave me pain killers, and once the antibiotics stopped, the problem just went away.
Cervical, I’ll let y’all know in December when my test results get back from the biopsy redo in November. Results in May were inconclusive.
Phutatorius, my approach has been to avoid the vaccines and focus on alternative healing methods that have a proven track record against novel respiratory pathogens. The history of the Spanish flu is especially educational in that respect.
Galen, watch what happens with Scheller. He may be our Fred Halliot.
Michael, a good well-documented website along these lines would be good to have.
Cliff, we don’t know yet. Astrology is an empirical science, and so the only way to find out what effect a newly discovered object has is to do lots of charts and see what difference the new object makes.
Khadir, such things have happened before quite often in American history. You might want to look into the 1919 Palmer raids and the suspension of civil liberties during the Second World War, just for starters. This is the way that elites in the US always react when they’re frightened. The thing that sets the current situation apart from other examples is that it’s being done over a background of accelerating incompetence and system failure — and that mix of attempted repression and increasing dysfunction is normally what happens before governments fall.
NomadicBeer, another possibility to consider is that the elites are freaking out and different factions within the far-from-united governing classes are now turning to different narratives in an attempt to pass the buck and shore up their own positions.
Tony, I don’t know what the best source for my books down under is — if any of my Australian readers have suggestions, I’d welcome them. As for Aspergers, I also recognized myself in the symptom profile, did a bunch of intensive reading, and then found someone who would run tests — this was in the mid-1990s, when you had a lot of different specialties trying to deal with AS and other autism spectrum disorders. The person who tested me was a psychologist, and my formal diagnosis was “adult residual Aspergers” — meaning my brain has done a lot of rerouting and I’ve also learned coping mechanisms.
Your dream for some reason didn’t come through, by the way. You might try posting it as plain text.
Patricia M, thanks for this!
Emily, many thanks for the clarification! That’s harsh, but I can understand the feeling.
DenG, good advice. Many thanks for this.
NomadicBeer, no, it’s authoritarianism. Totalitarianism is a different thing, and involves requiring that everything in society be reshaped down to the fine details to fit a detailed political or religious ideology. We don’t have that at present, though the shriekfest about “trust science!” is a definite step in that direction.
Peter, thank you! Once you have a decent collection, consider doing a Kickstarter to fund a website with a paid provider (I can recommend one if you don’t know one) and then put up a website with a tip jar. You might just find yourself with a second career.
Wagon Train, it’s much easier than most people think, and it’s especially easy now when the labor shortage is so serious and every business in sight has a help wanted sign. Take whatever job you can get to cover the cost of minimal accommodations, and then start making connections and see what you can find. If you post where you’re going on a future open post, and there are readers of mine there, they’ll quite probably help you out.
Rita, thanks for this!
CLR, interesting.
Celadon, I wonder whether those fully vaxed people in the nursing home suffered ADE…
Jay, thanks for this. That’s been on my mind as well.
Collapsenik, ha! Thank you for this.
Dennis, that suggests a trickster deity. Hmm.
@Tony_A –
You said: “Regarding the global flustered-cluck that is the ‘Rona hysteria – I would like to share with readers a dream I had not long after this whole thing started in 2020, and well before the vax issue was mentioned in the mainstream press.
Don’t want to scare y’all…but my subconscious awareness seems to have made up it’s mind pretty early on as to what’s happening and where it appears to be going…symbolically at least.”
I wonder whether you forgot to put in the dream which you promised to share with us. Or whether you decided last minute that you did not want to scare us, so, better not.
Still, I, for one, was left with my curiosity. I would love to hear that dream!
Time magazine on Stuart Scheller
“The baby boomers’ turn is over,” said Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller in a video this past Friday. “I demand accountability, at all levels. If we don’t get it, I’m bringing it.” His post, which quickly went viral, was in response to the previous day’s suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and over 150 Afghans. In his nearly five-minute-long post, Scheller laments the Biden Administration’s handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and calls out senior military leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Commandant of the Marine Corps General David Berger, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down, and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.’” But Scheller’s remarks go one step further than a simple demand for accountability. He goes onto quote Thomas Jefferson who said, “every generation needs a revolution.”
https://time.com/6093906/us-military-afghanistan-withdrawal/
That certainly sounds to me like a call for revolution. Considering how much anger there is in the military and in flyover country, if Scheller doesn’t play the role of Fred Halliot, there is a very good chance someone else will.
William Lind in one of his recent blog posts, echoed this, saying
All this mess and more, including an overextended foreign policy, armed services that usually lose, institutions that require vast inputs for very small outputs and ever-looser and more valueless money are classic signs of the end of a dynasty. In our case, the dynasty is a Washington-Wall Street-Hollywood oligarchy coupled to a vastly more powerful federal government than the one envisioned in our Constitution. What will replace it I do not know, but it will not be cultural Marxism. We are waiting either for our Augustus or our Hitler.
https://www.traditionalright.com/the-fall-of-a-dynasty/
Malcome Kyeyune on the failure of the liberal PMC:
It is not just that the elite class is incompetent – even kings could be incompetent without undermining belief in monarchy as a system – it is that they are so grossly, spectacularly incompetent that they walk around among us as living rebuttals of meritocracy itself. It is that their application of managerial logic to whatever field they get their grubby mitts on – from homelessness in California to industrial policy to running a war – makes that thing ten times more expensive and a hundred times more dysfunctional. To make the situation worse, the current elites seem almost serene in their willful destruction of the very fields they rely on for legitimacy. When the ”experts” go out of their way to write public letters about how covid supposedly only infects people who hold demonstrations in support of ”structural white supremacy”, while saying that Black Lives Matter demonstrations pose no risk of spreading the virus further, this amounts to the farmer gleefully salting his own fields to make sure nothing can grow there in the future. How can anyone expect the putative peasants of our social order to ”trust the science”, when the elites themselves are going out of their way, against all reason and the tenets of basic self-preservation, to make such a belief completely impossible even for those who really, genuinely, still want to believe?
The managerial class increasingly appears as a sort of funhouse mirror inversion of the doomed russian nobility of the late tsarist era; they no longer know how to run a country and only seem to parasitize on the body politic while giving almost nothing of value in return. In tsarist Russia, the nobility proved increasingly incapable of winning Russia’s wars or running its ministries, making their legitimating narratives proclaiming them to possess some natural-born right and capacity for rulership increasingly impossible to believe in. In modern America, it is the meritocrats who now openly lack any merit or ability to rule, quickly undermining the ability of the average person to believe in the very foundational claims behind the managerial order. And by what right does the collective of non-divine kings rule? To borrow from Schmitt: by the same right as the collective of stupid and ignorant technocrats. In other words, by virtue of simply not having been replaced yet. Nothing more.
https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/2021/08/16/farewell-to-bourgeois-kings/
Finally, I am reminded of a quote from Eric Hoffer in his classic treatise “The True Believer”
The persuasiveness of the intellectual demagogue lies not so much in convincing people of the vileness of the established order as in demonstrating its helpless incompetence”
And boy oh boy did we just get a brilliant demonstration of the “helpless incompetence” of the PMC and what might as well be called its Reign of Error! At this point, I think it’s not a question of if, but of how and when the current regime falls.
@ Scotlyn
Here in Australia, GPs have been refusing to see patients with flu-like symptoms, including small children, during our ongoing corona debacle. Parents trying to get treatment for a child with a runny nose or cough have been told to go to hospital where they must wait hours. Meanwhile, doctors sit at home doing online consultations and getting paid the same amount. This has angered a hell of a lot of people. What doctors don’t seem to realise is that Big Tech desperately wants to replace them with “AI” and losing the good will of their customers will make that process a lot easier.
Sorry to be so relentless with the posts, but hop, skip and a jump to street drugs – it’s International Overdose Awareness Day for that public health emergency BC declared in 2016 (at least since we have annual comparison data since that other one started. It’s not a contest, tho). Proper epidemiology is so important to keep up to date to really understand what’s going on, so it’s good BC is doing that .
“Individuals between the ages of 19 and 59 have the highest overdose rates. Considering the age and sex breakdown of overdose events in BC, over the most recent year of data, over 40% of all events are in 19-39 year old males and an additonal almost 25% are in males 40-59 years. Some differences exist between the health authorites in the distribution of overdose events by age and sex which
can be explored in this interactive report.”
I’m taking a pool on whether Saint Bonnie Henry will cry on TV, or if it was just that one time that warranted it. The first bet you get to make is which side has the longer odds.
It’s weird, though, thinking about it… I don’t think that Alberta has declared a health emergency about street drug overdoses. They are probably just too flat out with all the other issues, what with the syphilis outbreak pygmycory pointed out earlier, on top of everything else. Interestingly, to me, anyway, Edmonton has a particular problem with this:
“Almost half the cases were in Edmonton, which had about three times as many as were reported in Calgary. In fact, Edmonton has one of the highest syphilis rates in Canada.”
They don’t elaborate in this article, but,
“There is also a significant link between methamphetamine and sexually transmitted infections.”
…rings a little bell for me. In fact, if I place the locations with many of the severe outbreaks on say, Google maps, an interesting pattern emerges between proximity to oil and gas fields – and particularly the oil sands – and the closest proximate large population centre where fly-in or drive in workers may live. We didn’t call it Fort Crack (that’s Fort McMurray for the non-initiated) for no reason. (It’s a double entendre; you should see the listings in the back of the phone book).
It may just be noise, though, since the oil sands are like, really big. When you fly over them in a helicopter at 200 kph, it still takes an hour and a half, enough that eventually you get used to that sulphur smell. I had a workmate who insisted on listening to Old Crow Medicine Show do Methamphetamine and Wagon Wheel on a loop when we were doing an air quality study up there; until the rest of the crew was threatening to jump out of the helicopter before we landed because they just couldn’t get back in the truck and hear it one more time. But I didn’t mind; I bought the live album when it came out.
It is a little weird that Calgary has a lower drug and disease problem than Edmonton, given it is slightly larger by population, and more connected to other large cities in Canada. And if it was linkage to oil and gas, one would think it would show up there. But then, I guess it’s hard to transmit The Great Imitator through all them empty office towers. And maybe it has something to do with who sat in those towers, versus where the in-the-field consultants, contractors and workers sat.
Wagon Train,
May I ask where you plan on moving? I’ve been told the same info as JMG, that the labor shortages are very high right now and you should find something wherever you go. Your first job might not be fun, but it need not last very long.
@Denis #565,
You had mentioned Scheller’s chess board… you weren’t the only one who noticed:
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/lt-col-stuart-scheller-secret-message-on-chess-board/
@Scotlyn.#599
I disagree that there is a ternary choice. Unless you can produce proof that you have complied and received the experimental substance for the “greater good,” you are the enemy, and God help you if you are caught faking it. I recall the 2016 election also being a binary choice in a similar way: unless you declared that you’d voted for Hillary, a whole lot of people took it to mean you’d voted for Trump (i.e., Putin). There was a very clear dividing line. I recall after 2001, Bush saying “You are either with us or against us.” And before that, any detectable blacks in your family history made you black.
We all know what it signifies: the first step towards rationalizing lynching, bombing and other violence.
As Rice Farmer used to conclude, Have a Nice Day!
Mary Bennett (no. 603): “What, exactly, is ‘hindutva’?”
Populist or right-wing Hindu nationalism, which holds that India is (or ought to be) a Hindu state (as opposed to a secular state, as its constitution says, and non-Hindus generally prefer).The ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Dal (“Indian People’s Party”), is widely viewed as supporting hindutva. The Vishva Hindu Parishad is a well-known hindutva-promoting organization that provides social services to its members, and agitates against religious conversions away from Hinduism; in 1992 it led a mob to destroy the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.
Bei Dawei, thank you for that explanation. Members of this movement might believe that both Islam and Christianity are conqueror’s religions, but what about Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and the Parsees (I hope it is allowed to use that word)? Did not the Parsees arrive in India as refugees?
What is your opinion of the notion that members of the Hindutva movement were inspired by European fascism? I can’t really say with any authority, but I would be inclined to doubt it. One would think that present day Indians could find plenty of inspiration from their own extraordinarily rich history.
And then I am completely puzzled as to why a group of Western academics, who apparently have nothing better to do, think they need to discuss and plan for the destruction of a movement which, so far as I know, has done no harm to any Western country or citizen.
Hi John Michael,
For your interest and information for tomorrow’s essay: Australia Post, with 500 staff in COVID isolation, will pause parcel pick-up from e-commerce retailers in locked down states for four days.
The break directly affects e-commerce as distinct from other operations. Mate, I dunno.
Cheers
Chris
JMG,
A few more thoughts on the trickster deity possibly in play. In addition to enjoying making experts look foolish, it seems to also enjoy making conspiracy theorists seem correct. It also loves memes. Think January 6th and the QAnon Shaman and how that day confirmed in the minds of many on the left that Trump was indeed the authoritarian trying to overthrow the government they feared. Think Afghanistan and how the exact thing Biden said wouldn’t happen happened faster than literally anyone in power imagined, and how that was followed up with a ton of memes of Taliban wearing U.S. equipment.
Since this is Open Post – and I have been using The Daily Stoic for meditation topics – today’s seemed to the point in a way Seneca – and the commentator – never intended. Seneca was saying (and it may have been taken out of context) that a rational soul can arrange its own affairs so that Fortune can’t touch it; and then Seneca, like many another admiring Roman author, cited Cato the Younger as the prime example of a disciplined Rational Soul. The combination turned my meditation into “consider the source – and the example – and make up your own mind as to what’s going on here,” rather than on the saying itself.
Seneca has never sounded more like a high-level disher-out of maxims for managers than in this one. In fact, he comes perilously close to “We make our own reality.” And if you read Plutarch, which I know Our Archdruid has, the rational disciplined soul Seneca ascribes to Cato seemed to me to be far more rooted in his neurology than anything else. Because the Cato described by Plutarch has the most flaming case of Asperger’s I’ve ever seen, which made me chuckle. No, Seneca, he lived that way because he liked it, and it suited him perfectly.
Not that this keeps him, or anyone, from adopting a perfectly good philosophy and living up to it, or cultivating the discipline involved, or even from going deep into it, but it does look like “fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly,” and Cato gotta take cold swims in the Tiber and and wrap himself in last week’s toga and consider it being dressed and bring an unbending honesty to everything he did. I don’t think he could ever falsify a fact or something he considered to be the truth any more than he could flirt with a lady or crack a joke.
I’m laughing because I actually have a soft spot in my heart for the old hard-drinking rockbound conservative proto-Puritan. And that “Consider the source – and the example cited” made a much richer meditation than cliches about overriding Lady Luck by an act of will.
@ JMG & Scotlyn
Don’t know why that didn’t come through….as spooky as the dream :0
Thankfully, I know enough about dreams being symbolic ‘n’all…mostly…that it didn’t scare me witless…much
Here it is:
I am led to an open field full of people, in rows and on their knees, with their hands tied behind their backs, as are mine. There are ‘solders’ walking around with rifles which have a strange cloth attachment slung under the barrels – kind of like an old fashion VACume bag. A soldier approaches me and signals me to kneel. He places the barrel of the gun at the back of my head. I close my eyes and say “I DO NOT consent” >
Thats all folks….
JMG, about the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism.
I would have disagreed with you but your previous answer to me clarified things. The fact that we have elites that are not unified and are scared (even panicking) makes this probably a transient state – so they won’t have time to complete the transition to totalitarianism.
But I do believe if the trend continues, the societal transformation can happen much faster than the communists managed to reshape their societies in Eastern Europe for example.
So I really do hope you are correct and what we see are the thrashings of the old order collapsing, not the sadistic reshaping of the world in the image of an extremist progressivism.
For those people that still cannot see how much things have changed in a year, here is a comparison with Ceausescu’s regime (considered the most totalitarian of the European states):
– Romania never had lockdowns under Ceausescu. They had curfew only a couple of days during the beginning of regime collapse.
– The commies never required ideological conformity or proof to go to the hospital, school or public transit. On the contrary, hospital care was free (though corrupt, people paying bribes)
– While the small businesses were completely destroyed and private property very limited, farmers’ markets were never closed.
– Churches stayed open, despite the abusive atheism of the official dogma
– Private automobiles were sometimes limited to certain days(to save gas) but in general people could travel anywhere in the country.
– Finally, they did have “green” countries (eastern bloc) and “red” (capitalist countries). People could travel to the first and not the others.
– Even though the propaganda kept attacking capitalism and the bourgeoisie, there were never calls to kill the “enemies of the people”. Instead they were “reeducated” in work camps – sometimes they were let go to the west to stop them causing troubles.
If you compare the above with Australia, Germany or Canada it’s hard to say who would win.
At this point the only advantage the capitalists have is economic freedom (choosing between Pepsi and Coke) and how long will that last?
Scratch what I said about PA not doing state-wide mandates. Apparently the policy makers in the capitol decided they didn’t like how local people were making decisions, so the governor just issued an emergency mask mandate for schools which starts in a week. Yep, its that much of an emergency that responding to it can happen in 7 days.
More shades of Fred Halliot from Lt. Col. Scheller: in his latest social media update, he states plainly that, over the next few months, he expects to be court martialed, found guilty, and to do jail time–something which he is looking forward to as “…a valuable opportunity to read, write, and contemplate.” Sounds like A Struggle for the Soul of America might not be too far off.
Just a note to all who responded to my request for prayers/healing. I am eternally grateful to you all. Obviously, things are still a bit raw, but it is getting better.
@info (even though too late for this week)
You’ve got it from the horse’s mouth, that is from Allende’s worst enemy:
“Allende’s “model effect can be insidious,” Kissinger warned: “The example of a successful elected Marxist government in Chile would surely have an impact on—and even precedent value for—other parts of the world, especially in Italy; the imitative spread of similar phenomena elsewhere would in turn significantly affect the world balance and our own position in it.”
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-11-06/allende-inauguration-50th-anniversary
Further:”The directive authorized U.S. officials to collaborate with other governments in the region, notably Brazil and Argentina, to coordinate efforts against Allende; to quietly block multilateral bank loans to Chile and terminate U.S. export credits and loans; enlist U.S. corporations to leave Chile; and manipulate the international market value of Chile’s main export, copper, to further hurt the Chilean economy. The CIA was authorized to prepare related action plans for future implementation. The directive contained no mention of any effort to preserve Chile’s democratic institutions or to work toward Allende’s electoral defeat in 1976.”
Elkriver,
I hope I’m not too late – yes!
(JMG: So sorry for the duplicate! – I hit “enter” by mistake. Also, thank you so much for hosting this and for all the wisdom you share.)
Elkriver –
I hope I’m not too late, but yes! I felt a brief (maybe one minute?) but disorienting tug to get the jab and everything would be okay. It felt like waking up from a dream that takes reflection to realize it was a sort of nightmare, the kind that leaves you feeling “off” for a good chunk of the day, but not the kind where you wake up in a sweat and feel immediate relief. I thought maybe it had something to do with reading the mainstream news, something I only do to keep up with the propaganda. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they are pushing the whole “the unvaccinated are the most at risk for all the bad things!!!!” message 24/7, after all. But I’m not sure that my looking at the MSM explains everything; my approach to the MSM has been the same for some time and I never once had that feeling until the past month or so. This seemed different. Seems I might be right. Thank you for sharing your story and that video.
@Matthias Graile
It’s a matter of both sides being composed of villains. Is what it is proven by our exchanges here.
Not a single good side. Not even Allende in truth.
Mary Bennett (no. 617), some hindutva proponents consider Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism to be part of Hinduism. (Indian family law groups them together, since Buddhists etc. have no independent family law codes of their own, as Islam does.) On the other hand, when Ambedkar led masses of low-caste Hindus to convert to Buddhism, there were protests, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Parsees are Indian Zoroastrians, mostly living in Bombay. The community has been there for more than a thousand years. The traditional account is that their ancestors fled the Muslim conquests, and many did, but others came as traders.
Hindutva organizations have global networks, and have an impact on India / Pakistan relations. There have been Nazis who supported hindutva (like Savitri Devi Mukherji–despite the name, she was actually Greek); as well as hindutva leaders like MS Golwalkar who supported German Nazism and/or Italian fascism (partly out of opposition to the British, and partly out of shared views on “blood” and nationalism). Some groups continue to cultivate ties with European right-wing groups, yes.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0031322X.2020.1759861
Hi,
In a 2010 blog post, you mentioned a 190 page, 8 MB collection of files at http://www.greenwizardsradio.org/Master%20Conserver.pdf. The website is inaccessible. Are the files available elsewhere?
I feel a mix of anxiety and excitement while reading your content. You describe problems I can sense but not explain. I’m privileged to be sheltered from collapse for now, but I live my “normal” life haunted by the feeling that my material world shouldn’t exist.
Thank you. I enjoy your work.