John Michael Greer

Last updated
John Michael Greer
Born1962 (age 6263)
Occupations
  • Writer
  • blogger

John Michael Greer (born 1962) is an American writer and druid who writes on religious, environmentalist, and occult topics.

Contents

Early life and education

Greer was born in Bremerton, Washington and was raised in the Seattle area. He is an initiate in Freemasonry and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. [1]

Writing

In a 2005 abstract, called How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse, he wrote an ecological model of collapse in which production fails to meet maintenance requirements for existing capital. [2] Philosopher of science Jerome Ravetz summarized Greer's theory in his 2006 book chapter, titled "When Communication Fails: A Study of Failures of Global Systems." [3] Ravetz wrote:

A simple but powerful model of 'catabolic collapse', a self-reinforcing cycle of contraction converting most capital to waste, has been produced by John Michael Greer (Greer 2005). His activity in the 'contemporary nature spirituality movement' in Oregon has not prevented him from producing a model in the best economic style. His key variables are resources, capital, waste and production; crisis occurs when production fails to meet maintenance requirements for existing capital. The continuing degradation of the infrastructure, particularly in the USA, provides evidence for his approach. He claims that he can account for key features of historical collapse, and suggests parallels between successional processes in non-human ecosystems and collapse phenomena in human societies. [3]

In The King in Orange (2021), Greer analyses the contemporary American political landscape through class analysis and occult practices. Focusing on the election and opposition to Donald Trump as president of the United States, Greer predicts a continuing combination of magic and politics from the various class factions of the country. He criticised the public magical workings of liberal occultists, arguing that political magic should be kept secret to prevent opposing magicians from tampering with the working. [4]

Greer has written many novels, including a series of eleven fantasy novels based on the worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos entitled "The Weird of Hali". [5]

Reception

Writing in The Futurist magazine, Rick Docksai declared that Greer's book The Ecotechnic Future is "as realistic a portrayal of the end of civilization as one is likely to find." [6] It was also positively reviewed in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries [7] and was recommended in the industry journal Energy Policy . [8] The International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability referred to his book The Wealth of Nature as "challeng[ing] the paradigms that underlie the complex system of wealth distribution we know as economics." [9]

His book The New Encyclopedia of the Occult was selected as a reference text in 2005 by American Libraries [10] and noted by Booklist [11] and Publishers Weekly . [12]

Works

Spirituality and the occult

Economics and politics

Fiction

The Weird of Hali series

Anthologies edited

Notes

  1. "John Michael Greer". aeonbooks.co.uk. 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  2. Greer, John Michael. "How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse" (PDF). Ecoshock. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  3. 1 2 Ravetz, Jerome (2006). "Chapter 1: When Communication Fails: A Study of Failures of Global Systems". In Pereira, Angela (ed.). Interfaces Between Science and Society. Greenleaf Publishing. ISBN   978-1-874719-97-7.
  4. Clifton, Chas S. (2021). "John Michael Greer, The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2021). 202 pp. $16.99 (paper)". The Pomegranate . 23 (1–2): 244–248. doi: 10.1558/pome.22319 .
  5. "The Weird of Hali: Kingsport". www.foundershousepublishing.com. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  6. Docksai, Rick. "Is industrial civilization doomed?" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine The Futurist Mar.-Apr. 2010: 58+. Academic OneFile. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
  7. Conant, F. P., Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries . Aug 2010, Vol. 47 Issue 12, p2370
  8. Friedrichs, Jörg (August 2010). "Global energy crunch: How different parts of the world would react to a peak oil scenario". Energy Policy . 38 (8): 4562–4569. Bibcode:2010EnPol..38.4562F. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.04.011.
  9. Avery, William Alexander; Francis, Charles (22 May 2013). "The wealth of nature: economics as if survival mattered". International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. 12 (1): 89–91. doi:10.1080/14735903.2013.796766. S2CID   153857265.
  10. Dean, Katharine. "Reference That Rocks!!" American Libraries . May2005, Vol. 36 Issue 5, p37-40.
  11. "The New Encyclopedia of the Occult. (review)". Booklist. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  12. "The New Encyclopedia of the Occult.(Book Review)". Publishers Weekly. 250 (35): 1. Sep 2003. Retrieved 8 December 2013.

Further reading