Collapse, the Occult, and Other Strange Musings: An Author's Introduction

[joelcaris]

When I first started this Dreamwidth account four years ago, my world was a very different place. At that time, I was editing and publishing the deindustrial science fiction quarterly Into the Ruins, a magazine that as of last year has ceased publication but had a good four year run. I was still settling into my return to the city after moving back to Portland, Oregon from my rural home on the northern Oregon coast. I was about to get married; I was still wondering if my transition from farming to working a nonprofit office job was the best choice; and I was barely writing. At that point my interest in the occult was still vague and had not yet rooted itself in specific practices and I had yet to discover all the things I could be—which is probably the same thing I will be thinking about myself four years from now.

The rest of the world, as well, was a very different place, from politics to culture to the pace of decline and collapse. We’ve come a long way in four years.

I always meant to use this account but I never quite got around to it. This is despite the fact that, while four years ago my writing was sporadic, over the past year or so I have gotten myself to the point where I write most days. The output of that writing, though, has not gone into this journal. Rather, it has gone into stories and essays published elsewhere and, most of all, into my author website at joelcaris.com. I publish quite a bit there, from stories to essays to regular blog posts, as well as other content, and I use the site as well to point my readers in the direction of my publications elsewhere. I have been growing the site over the past year and am growing increasingly pleased with its direction.

Still, there’s plenty to talk about. I have long been interested in issues of social decline and collapse, peak oil, climate change, ecosystems, the natural world, living lightly, farming, gardening, and more. Over the past year-plus I have started to become more interested in the occult, religion, and personal practices rooted in both, as well as myth and mystery. I am a believer in the strangeness of the world and find a certain kind of awe in that. I also am in the midst of personal changes and suspect those might accelerate in the coming years.

Much of this snakes its way into my blog posts and other writings over on my official website, but I can imagine there’s a place for something more. As such, I am going to experiment with actually using this journal in the coming weeks and months and seeing if I can’t get a bit more involved in the community here, both as a writer and conversational participant. I know plenty of fascinating people who write and converse here, including authors I published in my years running Into the Ruins. I would love to be a part of this community.

I am not yet sure the exact parameters of what I will bring to the table. Partly I will simply use this as a place to flag new blog posts, new stories, new essays, and other writings of mine. I also probably will use it on occasion to resurface old writings I enjoyed; I have, after all, been blogging for a long time. But I also would like to post more original content here, from shorter works of fiction to occasional musings and rumblings, and onward to discussion of books and other writings. I do not always get around to doing that on my author website and this could be an appropriate venue for it.

So I hope you will stick around and see what I have to say. In the meantime, I’m going to jump right in by directing those of you who may not already be following me to some of my writings available for free reading.

I’ll start with a story of mine that I posted last year on my site, “The Face of the Deep.” It’s a story of loss and grief and is woven through with themes of the occult and the mysterious workings of the world. This story was inspired by some of my reading of the occult, and the germ of the idea—as well as the title of the story—came from Dion Fortune’s quotation of the bible at the opening of one of her chapters in The Cosmic Doctrine. Some of you may have already read this story; for those of you who haven’t, I hope you enjoy it. And of course, please don’t hesitate to drop your thoughts in the comments section below, good, bad or otherwise.

I won’t leave you with just that, though. For those of you more interested in the decline and collapse of civilization (and who isn’t, of course?), well, let me direct you to one of my more recent blog posts, “Power Down.” Having recently navigated an offshot of the nasty winter weather that hit the U.S. recently, and having suffered three extended power outages over the course of five days due to it, I had some thoughts on fragility, resiliency, and a sense of recommitment to insulating myself from the consequences of our ongoing national failures. Perhaps some of the rest of you have felt the same recently. Give the entry a read and feel free to let me know what you think either at the blog or here in the comments.

And with that, I’ll wrap up this introductory post. But I’ll plan to say more later, so I hope you’ll consider subscribing and adding me to your circle. I would love to have some conversations here and in these strange times, it really helps to have others who recognize just how strange these times are.

Comments

[kylec]

Thanks, Joel. Reading your Power Down essay, I realize I'm quite vulnerable both to losing power and having an excessive energy lifestyle. California turns off the power every time the wind blows now, and though it hasn't hit me yet, it could. Are there any resources you know of for people looking to become more power resilient? Maybe things like lists of high-consumption areas and low-tech solutions? Or did you just piece it together a little at a time?

If there isn't one, a nice reference guide to downscaling power and having clever backups in place seems like a good project for someone.

[joelcaris]

Hi Kyle,

That's a good question. Honestly, it has been a years-long process, with a lot of observation and thinking and awareness, coupled with reading and research and good friends interested in the same. It could be interesting to do a few posts on this, though. I am not an expert and would not be able to write out comprehensively about all the issues involved, but I do think I could give some good thoughts and pointers for those who are early in the journey of trying to become more resilient.

Let me think on this. In the meantime, I have found some good resources on the prepping website The Prepared and JMG has lots of good info in his book Green Wizardry if you haven't already read that. But let me mull if I might be able to write up a few blog posts with pointers. I would probably put it on my author website but if I do, I'll definitely post about it here, as well.

[kylec]

Thanks, would love to read it.