John Michael Greer's First Book Paths of Wisdom 1996 Lecture One Tree of Life

Today we begin a group reading of John Michael Greer's first published book, which you may be surprised to learn was not about Peak Oil or the decline of industrial civilization but was instead solely about the topic of Magic and, in particular, the Hermetic Cabal Tradition. The two are not unrelated, however, for you can only really understand Greer's critique of the Mythology of Progress is you take into account the way that Progress is literally a magical symbol and therefore presupposes a much larger range of categories of thought than the Cartesian dichotomy of mind and matter would allow.
This is a part of the School of Forbidden Texts; remember, you can join us there too for the extremely low price of just 2 dollars per month:
Patreon: www.patreon.com/chadahaag
SubscribeStar: www.subscribestar.com/chad-a-...
Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes alone.

[@GrendelFromDC]

a truly Haagian delight.

[@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329]

Thanks a lot, I have been meaning to cover this text for about 2 years now and am glad to finally be getting the discussion going now, a lot more to be said on this, video 2 over chapters 2-6 will be released in just a few days.

[@pathkeepers]

This is great man, thanks

[@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329]

Thanks, this is a really important text to work through, I look forward to covering more of it soon

[@arnavjindal3062]

As usual great content Chad

[@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329]

Thanks a lot, I have been meaning to cover this text for a long time now, looking forward to video 2 over chapters 2 through 6 to be released in just a few days.

[@torinmccabe]

Chad, you rightly point out how the reality of fossil fuel and the concept of peak oil shape our modern world. And I also remember you talking about the cyclic view of hunter gatherer / farmer people who must adapt to the cyclical seasons. How does the Christian concept of Heaven and the end times fit in. It seems like the notion of "progress" has existed in some form for a long time in Europe.

[@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329]

Thanks for the question, I think that John Michael Greer himself usually interprets the End Times prophecy as yet another instance of the same Apocalypse Meme that was first invented by Zarathustra and consistently gets recycled even by people with no formal religious ideology (just consider Ray Kurzweil's claim of a Singularity that is just around the corner and that will replace this fallen world of human limitation with a virtual heaven of endless pleasure.) My own view on the End Times however is not quite as simple as that, in that I see the End Times prediction as fitting more into the Hermetic realization that this material world is just the manifestation which appears as an end result of deeper spiritual processes of creation. The End Times for me simply acknowledges that the veil could be pulled back to have those deeper spiritual factors revealed for what they are, though I admit my own interpretation is pretty unconventional

[@quest_onchannel54]

I'm happy to have a book review from you on the cabala. I love your work.. My question is whether modernity's progress rests entirely on oil, given the recent developments in U f o studies. They appear to break the laws of Physics apparently with some kind of zero point energy. Hence peak oil may not be the only way that material progress has been achieved.

[@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329]

Thanks a lot for the question. I won't dare to say that petroleum is the only thing that has caused progress to occur, for it's not just the extra energy from fossil fuels that led to the rise of Modern Technology because in addition to that, humans had to have the kind of attitude towards the world that reduced the universe to one giant machine which could be manipulated into doing what was demanded of it through finding out what laws dictate its functioning. This may sound like the only way that the universe could be viewed today but it's really not a coincidence to say that the Ancient Greeks might not have created modern technology even with the excess of free energy because their concern was, at least for Plato etc., more for the contemplation of Truth in itself than the manipulation of Nature as a machine.

[@quest_onchannel54]

@@chadahaagphilosophychannel7329the machine metaphor then may collapse when they become so realistic it is impossible to tell artificial from natural.