This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly open post to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers. All the standard rules apply (no profanity, no sales pitches, no trolling, no rudeness, no paid propagandizing, no long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank, no endless rehashes of questions I’ve already answered) but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic — with two exceptions.
First, there’s a dedicated (more or less) open post on my Dreamwidth journal on the ongoing virus panic and related issues, so anything Covid-themed should go there instead.
Second, I’ve had various people try to launch discussions about AIs — that is to say, large language models (LLMs) and the utilities they power — on this and my other forums. The initial statements and their followup comments always end up reading as though they were written by LLMs — that is, long strings of words superficially resembling meaningful sentences but not actually communicating anything. That’s neither useful nor entertaining. Thus I’ve decided to ban further discussion of this latest wet dream of the lumpen-internetariat here.
With that said, have at it!
Peculiar query: does the word ‘hydroposopias’ have meaning in astrological practice?
Blow back from weather magic.
For my Grey School of Wizardry thesis, I am devising a weather oracle. I have been reading up on weather and weather magic. Most of which discuss the seriousness of weather magic.
Recently, I heard of a Magic Resistance working that promoted blizzards for Trump’s Swearing In, etc. We got an ice storm and sub-freezing temperatures. His Swearing In went indoors. So I think the working did work to some extent.
However, the news today speaks of a blizzard in New Orleans, snow in Miami and other places South. Is this their working gone awry? Regular weather magic that has repercussions? Or the raspberry jam principle? Or is there other blow back to be expected?
Recently I’ve been reading the works of Byung-Chul Han, a contemporary Korean-born German philosopher that I have found insightful. He covers an extremely wide range of topics, but his most well known work is called The Burnout Society, where he outlines how we have shifted from a Disciplinary Society where people “should” towards an Achievement Society where people “can” and that this shift in turn shifted exploitation internally. For example people feel that they fall short and it is there fault alone, that they are able to do anything and fall short, and that they are always trying to exceed themselves resulting in burnout and depression. A Disciplinary society is characterized by factories, schools, prisons, hospitals, etc and an Achievement society by officer towers, gyms, coworking places, self-help, etc. A disciplinary society creates madmen and criminals whereas an achievement society creates depressives and losers.
In his works, he discusses how in the past there was a Moral society too, where people bore suffering and felt gratification perceived as God through difficult situations, then that shifted to gratification through a sense of duty, and now through our digital technologies we have a self-referential approach that makes gratification difficult for people to experience resulting in the rise in neuroses.
If you feel this is sound, I am wondering what your thoughts are on these kind of paradigm shifts in how gratification appears for people? Or if there are other relations which come to mind for what people unconsciously strive towards?
Personally, I see this everywhere, including my self upon reflection where there is a pressure to make better use of time, to always be doing something, to always be progressing and moving forward to who knows where which resulted in an absence of lingering and contemplation in favour of multitasking and hyperactive overconsumption. I mind my mind obese and in turn became a hyperpassive conduit for digital trash.
Thankfully, through influences such as yourself I’ve been able to step out of this circular process.
Hi everybody,
I’ve got three offers today:
1. For everybody who is interested in the Modern Order of Essenes, I’m going to offer a free online course leading all the way up to the Apprentice attunement, and potentially further. We’ll start in February, and you can find all the details here:
https://thehiddenthings.com/modern-order-of-essenes-online-course
This course is suitable for beginners, but also for people who already started with the MOE before and then stopped for some reason, or for practitioners who’d like to repeat certain things. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have here or over on my site. 🙂
2. For those of you who aren’t even sure what the Modern Order of Essenes is 😉 the short answer is: “A system of spiritual healing”. Since this short answre is rather non-descriptive, I’ve written a longer answer which goes a bit more into details:
https://thehiddenthings.com/what-is-the-modern-order-of-essenes
3. And finally, for everybody: I perform a formal blessing each Wednesday in which I bless all the pepole who signed up for it. The signup for the then-current week can always be found here:
https://thehiddenthings.com/categories/weekly-blessings
Since these blessings are great practice for me, I’m very grateful to everybody who signs up, now or in the future.
….
JMG, thanks a lot for hosting the Open Post again. I’m looking forward to this month’s discussion topics. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say certain recent political events might show up in the comments… 😀
Milkyway
JMG and commentariat,
Thank you for all your influence on my thinking and beliefs.
This past November, I presented at Kopernik Observatory, a local astronomy observatory. The title of the talk was “Astronomy, Mythology and the Keeping of Time” alternatively, “The Seven Gods of the Sky.” I tell two Norse stories, about Loki’s children and the theft of Thor’s hammer, and weave those together with astronomical ideas and our ways of telling time. JMG and this community has helped me refine this talk over time, giving me good ideas to explore. If this sounds interesting, you can check it out at…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANVMnlzu3l0&t=633s
Where to start?
These are behind a paywall, but Brett and Kate McKay of Art of Manliness have started a new substack, which I recommend to people here, who are willing to pay these writers. The substack is called Dying Breed and two articles so far are excellent. People who were already fans of AoM (and I know some are here) will find much to enjoy.
The first is What Nietzsche’s Typewriter Brain Can Tell Us About Twitter Brain
https://www.dyingbreed.net/p/what-nietzsches-typewriter-brain
Very McLuhanesque… in my book, that’s usually a good thing.
The second is: A New Kind of Monasticism
https://www.dyingbreed.net/p/a-new-kind-of-monasticism-an-introduction
This one is a bit protestant for my taste. It’s about Bonhoeffer… I know there are a lot of Christians here though and y’all may like it. I liked the article and I’m not a Christian. In fact, I may send a printed version of this through the mail to some people I know who are getting caught up in the Christian end of the second religiosity.
Still a lot to contemplate in it for those of us who are seeking out the dimensions of whatever comes next… and again it may be helpful to those who are in the second religiosity.
Hi JMG,
I was anticipating you’d announce a topic poll for the 5th Wednesday of January. Just an oversight? Thanks for all your amazing work.
Jim W
Strda221, good question; since I’m not especially knowledgeable about Hellenistic astrology and that certainly looks like a technical term in Greek, I don’t happen to know. Anyone else?
Neptunesdolphins, the atmosphere is a complex, unstable phenomenon; one of the downsides of weather magic is that it can set off cascades of unintended consequences across a hemisphere or more. The irony is that the snow and subfreezing temperatures seem to have crippled the protest marches against the inauguration — they were very poorly attended — and didn’t slow down the opening rounds of Trump’s presidency at all.
Dabilahro, that’s a fascinating idea. I’ll probably have to read Han’s book before I can offer any meaningful response to it, though — it’s potentially a very rich theme that will require careful reflection.
Milkyway, well, we’ll see!
Physics Teacher, delighted to hear it. Anything that helps people reclaim the mythic dimension of human experience is a plus.
Bofur, where to start with what?
MOLF, thanks for this.
Jim, it’s already decided — I announced it on the first post of this month, and the winning topic was the occult dimensions of Carl Jung’s thought. I normally call for votes at the beginning of the month so I have time for research.
If Heather who has a brother Patrick who seemed to be in the last days of his life a few months ago happens to read this: I’ve taken your entry off of the prayer list. Is Patrick still with us? If he isn’t, I hope that his passing was peaceful.