The Blood of the Earth
An Essay on Magic & Peak Oil
by John Michael Greer
Industrial culture is in collapse. There is no infinite growth on a finite planet and oil, our most critical resource, has passed peak. We have entered a period of radical flux, and magic must respond to the world in which it operates, or it is nothing but empty escapism. The Blood of the Earth: An Essay on Magic & Peak Oil is a challenging and radical book. It fuses deep ecology and hard physical science with an adept’s understanding of magic. It is a smart, articulate and devastating piece of writing. You could call it a polemic. You could call it a prophetic work. We believe it is essential reading for the modern magician.
Magic, like peak oil, is the voice our civilisation has failed to heed. John Michael Greer argues passionately that the answers to our darkening age are to be found in the practice of magic, provided we understand what it can and cannot do. He gives a lucid explanation of how magic works and crucially, where it does not. His vision of the future covers the dangers of political thaumaturgy and the threats of new dictatorships in an increasingly unstable world. Neither does he shy away from a critique of the mind control antics of the black magicians of the advertising industry. Cautionary examples of UFO cults, mysterious assassinations and fake science are all grist for his mill. Whilst attacking the failures of scientific materialism and the empty technological utopias he does not spare the New Age.
Instead he presents a tour de force of occult philosophy covering Neoplatonism, theurgy, ritual magic, and thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Giordano Bruno, Joséphin Péladan and Rudolph Steiner. He presents the highly practical mental training methods of magic for countering the tyranny of dualistic thinking. Clearly written and accessible, The Blood of the Earth is part of the fusion of deep ecology and deep paganism we continue to champion, and is equally relevant to heathen, druid, magician and witch. By reading this book you will have a far clearer understanding of the unfolding future. More than that, it will give you clear and direct strategies to break free of the mind forg’d manacles.
____________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
Introduction
Magical Thinking
Pluto’s Republic
Strange Bright Banners
A Lesson in Practical Magic
The Myth of the Machine
Begin It Now
____________________________________________________________
Paperback Edition
184 pages. Sewn paperback, printed on 90 gsm paper.
____________________________________________________________
About the Author
John Michael Greer is a leading writer in the peak oil movement, an accomplished Hermeticist and prolific writer. He has written more than 70 books which focus on the overlaps between ecology, spirituality, and the future of industrial society. An initiate in a variety of Hermetic, Masonic, and Druidic lineages, he served for twelve years as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and currently heads the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn. His blog Ecosophia is essential reading for the ecologically-minded who are aware of the ongoing collapse of our industrial culture. He lives in East Providence, Rhode Island.
