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The Blood of the Earth by John Michael Greer
The Blood of the Earth: An Essay on Magic and Peak Oil
By John Michael Greer
178 pp., first edition hardcover. Scarlet Imprint – May 2012. $75.00. Also available in paperback for $24.95.
It was as an inquisitive young man during the 1970s that John Michael Greer—now an accomplished author and an indispensable source of wisdom on things both worldly and otherworldly—began to question the world around him. Raised in a suburban neighborhood near Seattle, Washington, he felt deeply unfulfilled by both the trappings of the suburban lifestyle and those of American intellectual life, for he plainly did not fit into either. He was a youth of uncommon intelligence, intensity, focus and creative ability, and he owed these gifts largely to an autism spectrum disorder that he’s had his whole life (and that he incidentally shares with the present reviewer) called Asperger’s syndrome.1 Like many with Asperger’s, Greer skipped the typical social life of an adolescent in favor of a search for truth and meaning. He read voraciously and widely, and over time amassed a broad and penetrating intellect.
His book The Blood of the Earth is, in many ways, a grand culmination of this intellectual journey. It draws on twin themes developed throughout Greer’s work—the regrettable fate of industrial civilization and the extraordinary potential of ceremonial magic—and relates them both in brilliant and myriad ways. Greer sees several key connections between the two. To begin with, they’re both fundamentally issues of mind and consciousness, rather than of material reality. The imminent resource shortages that our society faces are rooted not in the dwindling quantities of these resources left to be extracted, but in the thinking that people in wealthy nations have used to justify their lavish lifestyles. As for magic, its main purpose is not to make objects appear out of thin air, as in so many pop culture misrepresentations of magic, but rather to cause changes to one’s consciousness.
A few other similarities are well worth noting here. First, the general public is averse to both topics and is unable to accept their reality. There’s also the fact that both magic and the machinations of industrial society in its dying throes make use of incantations, spells and other magical rites. Indeed, Greer points out that the chants of “drill, baby, drill” coming from Sarah Palin and John McCain during the 2008 presidential race were quite literally an incantation, one whose purpose was much the same as that of incantations in occult magical practices: to soothe and to enchant rather than to effect change in the physical world. This parallel can be extended further, to the way in which all those who stand in thrall to technology and the idea of progress are immersed in a spell as powerful as anything a magician could create.
Greer describes the question of what magic is and what it does as being “a sufficiently vexed” one that an entire chapter is needed at the beginning of the book to address it. In this chapter, he clarifies that he’s not talking about stage magic or the kind depicted in light entertainments, but rather the occult practices of esoteric traditions. Focused on spiritual development, this type of magic is “the art and science of causing change in consciousness in accordance with will.”2 Thus, unlike the physical sciences, magic is not a means of directly manipulating matter and energy, so it isn’t capable of bringing about the technological leap that most people think will save our civilization from ruin. However, it can be used to change people’s perception of our crisis so that they can respond to it more intelligently.
Besides magic, another crucial concept that Greer defines at length is that of peak oil, which refers to the point at which conventional world oil production stops increasing and begins irreversibly declining. It’s now clear that this peak has already occurred—it happened in 2005, according to the best available data. It’s equally apparent, reasons Greer, that our society waited far too long to deal with the threat that peak oil poses. A report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2005, and now widely known as “the Hirsch report,” concluded that we would have had to anticipate the peak by two decades in order to avert serious economic impacts from it. Greer thus contends that our society faces a protracted period of steep decline, much like those of the Anasazi, Maya and other doomed civilizations that have waned through the ages because they overshot their resources.
Ever since the improvement of the steam engine in late 18th-century England helped spur the industrial revolution, machines have held a profound enchantment over us. Their power to transform the world has given us a misplaced sense of superiority and omnipotence, to use Greer’s terms, and has duped us into believing that we’re destined to forever progress to higher states. These mistaken perceptions keep us from seeing the blind alley down which they lead. For example, as fuel prices began to soar at the dawn of the millennium, economists maintained that the higher prices would create new supply and make unconventional energy sources more economical. That hasn’t happened, of course, and yet most people haven’t taken economists to task on this or any of their other false predictions on energy. Such questioning would cut to the core of our culture’s cherished “Myth of the Machine,” to quote the title of a classic Lewis Mumford book that Greer cites.
The glib reassurances uttered by economists and other pundits represent a form of magic known as thaumaturgy. This type of magic plays on people’s non-rational, primal drives in order to gain control over them. Greer observes that soft drink companies make very effective use of thaumaturgy in persuading us to pay money for carbonated corn syrup beverages that are bad for our health. He also shows how thaumaturgic principles are at work in advertisers’ efforts to portray automobile dependence as freedom, and the solitary act of watching TV alone at home as a form of community involvement. Similarly outlandish distortions of the truth are to be found in the prevailing views about our energy future pedaled by the press, politicians and energy industry leaders. And yet, most people uncritically accept these, too, as fact. Thus, Greer insists that anyone who hopes to prepare for the actual future ahead must work to undo the effects of these thaumaturgic spells.
The antithesis of thaumaturgy is theurgy, or “divine work.” Theurgy’s purpose is to purge the mind and will of the biological drives and social reactions that thaumaturgy seeks to exploit. In contrast to the latter’s stealthy manipulation of the masses, theurgy works on an individual level and cannot be passively received, but must be mastered through long training and hard work. Himself a practicing mage, Greer well knows the pains involved in this process. He believes that for those willing to undertake the necessary discipline, it is as viable a means of purifying one’s reason and will as it was during the ancient Greek period in which it originated—yet it’s hardly the only means.
The Blood of the Earth discusses in detail the habits of mind that we must overcome if we are to earnestly face the future. Chief among these is the tendency to think in binaries, or in pairs of opposites with no middle ground in between. Greer traces this impulse to our primate ancestors, who had to quickly distinguish between food/non-food, predator/non-predator, etc. It was an instinct well suited to conditions at that time, but it’s since become a hindrance in attempts to make sense of our future. For instance, when asked how they see the world energy situation unfolding in coming years, most people envision either a continuation of business as usual or a cataclysmic collapse, in spite of the vast range of conceivable scenarios in between. The remedy for binary thinking, says Greer, is to make a conscious effort to think of additional possibilities whenever faced with a binary.
Due to his well-founded conviction that we face a predicament rather than a problem with a solution, Greer offers no hope of solutions. Instead, he shares his thoughts on some intelligent, proactive measures that can be taken to better prepare oneself for the inevitable decline of the industrial world. He stresses that we must, above all, curtail our exposure to the “manufactured popular pseudoculture” that tells us what to think and what to do. An excellent first step in this direction is to throw away the TV, since, true to the term “programming,” it plays a huge role in administering mind control. Just as important as shunning pop culture is filling the resulting void with something worthwhile, be it classic literature, music or the arts. When in doubt about what to choose, advises Greer, a good rule is to pick something old enough that it is in no way a product of today’s collective thinking.
In order to be effective, of course, this freeing of the mind must be accompanied by action. And Greer suggests three main lines of action: learning one thing, giving up one thing and saving one thing. When choosing something to learn, it’s wise to pick a practical skill like gardening or soap-making, since the demand for such necessities will far outlast the present-day market economy’s ability to supply them. As for things to give up, one excellent choice is the car. As fuel becomes ever scarcer, cars will become a tremendous burden and the ability to get around on foot will be hugely advantageous. Lastly, saving one thing refers to choosing a cultural legacy to preserve for posterity. There is much of our culture that will be lost forever if no one takes up this last task, due to the impermanence of today’s electronic media and books printed on high-acid paper.
Greer’s studies into magical practice give him a fascinating perspective on the crisis of modern civilization. He first got started in magic during his teens, drawn by the lure of a world that is, in his words, “much bigger, much stranger, much less rigidly defined than we’re told by the propagandists of modern science and the materialist worldview.”3 He went on to follow a druid path as well, eventually attaining his current, lofty title of Grand Archdruid of the Grand Grove of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. He also has long had a sweet tooth for science fiction and fantasy literature (something that makes him more than okay in my book) and a talent for bringing it to bear in his scholarship. It will be a real treat to see what he comes up with for his next book—and we won’t have long to wait, given his prodigious output.
1 John Michael Greer, interview with Karagan Griffith, “Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth – with John Michael Greer,” Witchtalk, Apr. 24, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SybRgLgCr68 (accessed July 24, 2013); Greer, interview with Imagicka, “The New Encyclopedia of the Occult: TWPT Talks to John Michael Greer,” The Wiccan/Pagan Times, Mar. 1, 2004, http://redroom.com/member/john-michael-greer/press/the-new-encyclopedia-of-the-occult-twpt-talks-to-john-michael-greer (accessed July 20, 2013); Greer, “John Michael Greer – Detroit Community Lecture – ‘Not The Future We Ordered’,” YouTube video of lecture given at the Detroit Masonic Temple in Detroit, MI, on Apr. 20, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDSTK3a_q9k (accessed Aug. 19, 2013).
2 Greer has cited this definition of magic by Dion Fortune numerous times in his writings, as he finds it to be among the most apt and useful.
3 Greer, interview with Ian Punnett, “Coast to Coast AM – Monster Lore – Main Show,” YouTube upload of show originally aired on Coast to Coast AM on Oct. 22, 2005, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0xAdTDvoEg (uploaded Jun 7, 2013; accessed July 14, 2013).
27 Comments on "The Blood of the Earth by John Michael Greer"
Mike on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 7:31 pm
An awesome mind, he’s even convinced me to have a dable in druidry. Luckily you can actually be an atheist druid so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Even if you don’t believe in magic, the way he explains and sets things out leads you to understand why rituals and “magic” work as a way of simply focussing the mind on the task at hand. Druidic meditation for instance is the complete opposite of far eastern mediation. In Druidic meditation you have to spend the time sitting quietly and thinking about how to solve a problem you have set for yourself (like peak oil, climate change etc.) rather than just sitting thinking of nothing.
GregT on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 8:00 pm
“He stresses that we must, above all, curtail our exposure to the “manufactured popular pseudoculture” that tells us what to think and what to do. An excellent first step in this direction is to throw away the TV, since, true to the term “programming,” it plays a huge role in administering mind control.”
I couldn’t agree more. I stopped watching the idiot box 30 years ago. Every time I am around someone that is watching it, I see nothing but blatantly obvious indoctrination, propaganda, and consumerist advertising. IMHO, It is the most insidious invention that mankind has ever created. Yes, even more insidious than automobiles, fiat currencies, and nuclear fission.
actioncjackson on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 8:09 pm
“Yes, we can! Yes, we can!…”
mike on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 8:19 pm
TV is laughable. I never watch it, when I come into a room and all those slack jawed faces are dimly lit by the pulsating light of the boob tube I am genuinely concerned. For anyone who hasn’t done it, try watching someone watching TV, it will scare you shitless to see how utterly brain dead and mentally vunerable they are at that moment.
PrestonSturges on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 8:25 pm
USA! USA! USA!
LT on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 9:27 pm
“In Druidic meditation you have to spend the time sitting quietly and thinking about how to solve a problem you have set for yourself (like peak oil, climate change etc.) rather than just sitting thinking of nothing.”
>> Obviously, this is not “meditation” as commonly understood. Rather, it’s just a contemplation/concentration at one or two things. It’s hardly called a meditation.
“Just sitting thinking of nothing” is just a relaxing or resting mode at best. It’s hardly called “meditation” either.
Only those who have swum in water without physical aid of any kind know the meaning of “swimming”.
mike on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 10:14 pm
LT, meditation carries differing meanings within differing contexts. Druidic meditation is simply different. It’s still meditation if one chooses to call it as such. Did you get your last sentence out of a Chinese fortune cookie?
LT on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 11:37 pm
“Did you get your last sentence out of a Chinese fortune cookie?”
>> In the 80’s when I still lived in the Bay Area, I used to crack Chinese fortune cookie for fun at the end of the meals. But only one or two out of ten cracked cookies had something interesting to read. The rest were just crabs. So, I stopped bothering with those cookie ever since.
The last sentence in my previous comment I rephrased it from one of Patriarch Bodhidharma’s saying. His original saying sounds something like this: “Only those who drink the water in that cup will know what its taste is like.” (I don’t remember the exact phrase, only know the meaning of what he meant.”
P/S: According to your explanation of the word “meditation”, I think the word has lost either its meaning or its usefulness. In other words, it has become “vague” when one needs to speak of real “meditation” in the Buddhist tradition.
Terrance Stuart on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 12:08 am
The Western world recognizes three forms of consciousness, waking, sleeping an dreaming. Meditation is only a tool and there are different brands, but none have anything to do with thinking or problem solving.
Rather a successful mediator will minimally, and I minimally reach a state of consciousness where they will experience their being (the source of their thoughts). This being is not shut off in a distinct fashion from universal consciousness.
In that state many ideas percolate after the meditation is completed. Some are not worth a damn, but others are worthy of pursuit. Other states include the ability to spontaneously act correctly while in motion, not in Lotus.
Thus the correct statement should have been, we be therefor eon occasion we think, versus Descartes’ limited view of humanity tat has us thinking and therefore being.
Will this get us more energy? We do not need more energy, there is more than we can handle, it merely needs to be transmogrified economically into a useable form.
GregT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 1:00 am
We live in a natural world, that took millions of years to reach a biological equilibrium. We are part of that equilibrium, but we act like we are not.
There always has been the correct amount of energy from the sun, to maintain that crucial ecological balance. We have upset that balance by introducing back into the environment in less than 300 years, half of the CO2 that it took the Earth millions of years to sequester.
The consequences of our actions are only starting to appear, but most of us are still ignoring them. If we do not pay attention, the consequences will get much worse, to the point that we will no longer exist on this planet.
We are not in control of the Earth, the Earth is in control of us, we are insignificant in the whole big scheme of things. If we do not get our acts together, and stop pretending that our economies are all that matter, the Earth will teach us a very serious lesson.
Unfortunately, there may very well be, no one left to remember it.
LT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 1:49 am
“The Western world recognizes three forms of consciousness, waking, sleeping an dreaming. Meditation is only a tool and there are different brands, but none have anything to do with thinking or problem solving.”
>> Unfortunately, it is exactly our [human beings] thinking (bad thinking) that help created and put us in the present situation: Environmental damages, global warming, wars, etc…
Jerry McManus on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 4:47 am
Greer is obviously in it for the self-aggrandizement. How much more obvious could it be? The only reason he is so intent on advertising his brand of “magic” is because it conveniently sets the stage for him to magically appear as, drum roll please…, a wizard!
What a twit.
Anyone with a shred of curiosity and even the most rudimentary reading skills could do much, MUCH better spending even just a few minutes exploring the many and varied threads of mystical traditions that have run through all of the worlds religions for thousands of years.
Mysticism, for those who have forgotten, is the idea that in a universe where everything is one we all have an intrinsic connection to god, which we are all capable of directly experiencing in our own way.
No fatuous wizards required.
BillT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 6:46 am
Jealous Jerry? That he is intelligent … and you only know the popular definition of ‘wizard’ as used on TV.
Definition of WIZARD: archaic : a wise man : sage
Also: a very clever or skillful person (Merriam Webster)
That pretty much describes him and his works.
BTW: Have you never ‘meditated’ on a problem? I have and so has most of the people on this earth. It’s when you shut out all distractions and concentrate on the problem/subject totally. Nothing new about this definition except the difficulty in shutting out everything. ( Do you turn your cell phone off when you think? )
Mike on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 11:03 am
As BillT accurately points out here, some people don’t know their definitions very well.
A wizard is not harry potter, a wizard is that bloke down the road that can fix anything up with a blowtorch and some bubblegum.
Western meditation is much different from eastern meditation. Neither is better (I practice both) The eastern method is excellent for clearing your mind and energising you and the western is excellent for solving real world problems. Have you ever come up with your best ideas just before you fell asleep? well that is closer to western Druidic meditation
As for Jerry McManus, you are in my opinion missing out on one of the greatest thinking minds of the 21st century by dismissing this man as a fatuous wizard. But that is your loss.
dashster on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 11:34 am
I said it before but it bear repeating – for all his good stuff, I have never seen him make a peep about population growth. Is eternal progress really a myth but eternal population growth isn’t?
mike on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 12:46 pm
I’m not sure what you have read of JMG dashster but he is quite consistent with his thoughts on population. Like many other people in the peak oil movement he thinks there will be a huge population decline, the only difference being he thinks (based off vast historical research) it will take centuries rather than weeks. I happen to agree with him.
Matt Charles on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 3:03 pm
Those who claim to not be a ‘fan’ of the famous device called a television is obviously missing the bigger picture. If you don’t watch tv, then why do you have a computer? Why have a smartphone? In my opinion, the computer is merely a offspring of the television. It grabs you & makes you unaware of your surroundings, very similar to tv. i.e. “Brain dead”.
As for Greer, I’m fascinated by the level of intellect he possess, I’m just honored to be able to read his work and also his findings about beings, the industrial world and “magic”. Those of you who embark on dismissing or discrediting his work, should be ashamed of yourself.
dashster on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 3:28 pm
“Like many other people in the peak oil movement he thinks there will be a huge population decline”
Does he ever advocate stopping immigration? Current US census projects call for the US to gain 100 million people by 2060-2065. Our birth rate is at replacement level. All the growth comes from immigrants and their offspring. If Greer thinks that things are gonna get rough, I would think that he would advocate stopping immigration in the US and family planning around the world.
dashster on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 3:29 pm
I should add that I read his book about the “Myth of Eternal Progress” and I don’t recall one word on population growth.
Mike on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 4:27 pm
I doubt he has much of an opinion on immigration to be honest. Just because the US census project calls for the US to gain 100 million people by 2060-2065 doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. In fact he suggests that the world population will have already fallen by several billion by that point anyway. I don’t think you are quite grasping the effects of peak oil, population growth is the opposite of what you’re going to be worries about. There really are bigger problems than immigration to point your energy towards. Indeed, you might be thankful that there are a few hundred hard working immigrants who still know how to work the soil around you in 20 years.
Mike on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 8:29 pm
Personally I find computers vastly different to TV. The internet is just a modern version of the book. It is an interactive technology that allows you to look for any info you could possibly imagine at the click of a button, possibly the greatest invention humans have ever come up with….and most of them use it to post pictures of themselves and pictures of cats doing hilarious things. If there was one thing I could save from civilisation it would be all the text from the internet. The videos and images and music are superfluous, the text is certainly not. In fact this has just inspired me to download wikipedia onto multiple DVDs. I know it’s not 100% accurate but it’s better than nothing.
LT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 10:10 pm
“the western is excellent for solving real world problems.”
>> In the aspect of science, medicine, & technologies, sure, it solved and invented many modern medicine, airplane, nuclear energy, nuclear weapon, chemical weapon, modern submarine, modern aircraft carrier, biological weapon, textiles, TV, satellites, fashion clothes, spacecrafts, telephone, computer, internet,…Compared to 200 years ago, it is truly a great leap forward, great marvels. But remember, except for a few exceptions, most of these are the results of a collective works: several generation of scientists have laid down the path/foundations for future scientists to continue on.
Now, in the aspect of social science, politics, economics, as examples, it apparently has not yet helped solve the unemployment problem in Southern Europe and some in N.A. although most of the best learning institutions are in Europe and N.A.
To widen the gap between the rich and the poor is relatively easy. I guess it doesn’t require PhDs in order to be able to do it. But in the opposite, to narrow this gap, or to solve the current unemployment problem may not be that easy. This problem is still unsolved as of today.
Now if we go further:
When did the world start to have problems?
Has the world originally created with problems? Or,
Is it our human “nature” to see something “undesirable” as “problems”?
What should a perfect world look like?
Even more fundamental: Are human beings “purposefully” created imperfect? If yes, then what a perfect human being should look like?
P/S: I ask readers to forgive me for being astray away for a moment. Thank you.
dashster on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 11:06 pm
“There really are bigger problems than immigration to point your energy towards.”
I don’t think you can have it both ways. You – and Greer – can’t talk about things being so bad in the future that billions die; and then say that immigration is not a worry and that I will be lucky to have hard-working immigrants around me. Who is gonna die in the US – me or the immigrants?
BillT on Wed, 21st Aug 2013 1:51 am
dashter,immigration is only part of the
‘great leveling’ going on all over the world. Get used to it. As things begin to disappear, we will ALL be on the same level. It is only your pet peeve, not mine or that of 6+ billion other people on this planet. Climate change and the end of cheap energy is going to impact your world a lot more and harder than a few million new residents in the US.
mike on Wed, 21st Aug 2013 6:13 am
Dasher, who knows who is going to perish. It certainly wont be anything to do with colour or creed though. In all likelihood once the US dollar is no longer the reserve currency (who knows when but it will happen) immigrants will flee the US like rats on a sinking ship. This will leave America without much of a workforce to do life sustaining jobs like harvesting food in a system built entirely around oil powered long distance delivery systems. I’d be more worried about how you’re going to be treated as an immigrant in another country. Can you imagine how unwelcome US citizens will be in virtually every other country in the World within the next 20 years? The vitriol towards them is already incredibly high and pushing higher every day. My advice is unlearn you accent and learn some Mexican or Portuguese
dashster on Thu, 22nd Aug 2013 12:19 pm
“Climate change and the end of cheap energy is going to impact your world a lot more and harder than a few million new residents in the US.”
Why talk about the yearly rate? It will be a 100 million people. If we won’t be able to support another 100 million people than it’s time to man up and start advocating a stoppage of immigration. Trying to rationalize it down to “a few million” just doesn’t cut it.
dashster on Thu, 22nd Aug 2013 12:21 pm
“he vitriol towards them is already incredibly high and pushing higher every day.”
Which countries hate America besides the ones in the Muslim world where we go and routinely kill people? There is no great animosity towards America unless they are all keeping quiet for now because the we are the world’s bully. But with a military larger than what the rest of the world has – we are gonna remain the world’s bully. Feel sorry for the other countries because we won’t be starving if they have food.