I hate it when I am taken advantage of for my natural gullibility. I have always had two warring sides housed within me: the blackhearted nihilist who wields freakishly bleak humor as a self-defense mechanism and my better, positive half. My lighter side is a gregarious, positive-biased sprite who believes in the inherent goodness within. She’s Pollyanna. She is also desperately naive. She does not see the writing on the wall until well after her dark counterpart.
I fell for the hope/change narrative when it got applied to Trump 2.0. Having lived through the Reagan years, I thought we would be repeating some key aspects of them, including a strong economy. That economy has yet to happen… depending on your class status. For the upper twenty percent stockholder class, everything is fine. They continue to enjoy spring ski vacations and international destination summers, all built on stock dividend money that has essentially been provided for them by Blackrock and other private equity firms. In other words, their comforts originate from the stolen, cannibalized, unearned wealth of the lower eighty percent. For the lower eighty percent, it’s a much different picture. We scramble to hold on in an environment that is financially, emotionally, and spiritually crushing and worsening all the time. We are in the Second Great Depression, where the jobs on Indeed and the like are imaginary, where kids are addicted to little handheld electrified boxes by the age of two, where breaking a leg or having a heart attack means becoming homeless/living out of your car even if you have insurance, and the game of musical chairs to stay afloat becomes faster and scarier every minute of every day. It’s both a wonderful and terrible time to be alive.
To be fair, Trump has made notable positive changes in his short time in office. He and Vance immediately provided real help and shelter for the victims of the Helene flood — a flood that was likely geoengineered by Blackrock to get at North Carolina’s lithium mines, but I digress — where Biden sat on his heels and let young families freeze to death in tents. Trump’s reversal of Woke/DEI initiatives has prevented the now and future transsing of many children and the irreversible mutilation of gender surgeries. Billions of American taxpayer dollars have been saved from being torched by USAID and its grist mill, though it is almost completely certain American taxpayers are not going to see any compensation for the staggering waste they were forced to fund. Illegal immigration has been curtailed for the most part and we are no longer hearing of marauding Venezuelans eating roasted cat on the balconies of commandeered buildings in Aurora, Colorado.
The looney Left’s pyrrhic victory is being broadcast for all to hear. “I told you so!” bellows the lib of TikTok, and her screech is almost glorious enough to raise the donkey/ass party from the dead. Almost, but not quite. Trump’s failure is not good for anyone, including them, because the hope that had begun to emerge out of the collective astral plane has turned to despair. They tend to be more easily victimized by the rampaging egregores and demons of depression, so we get to watch as those descend upon them without mercy. Any renewed faith will now die a quick death of continued gaslighting. “Nothing to see here” about medical malfeasance has morphed into the same about CIA/FBI/Mossad pedophilia. The collective astral was bad and now it gets worse. Nothing creates more collective astral pollution via unadulterated rage than gaslighting.
We are now being gaslighted (gaslit?) that Jeffrey Epstein was innocent as the driven snow. I guess Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison for no reason. I believe Jeffrey Epstein not only did not kill himself but is very much still alive. Trump sold my rantings to Palantir already so I might as well just be out with it. Jeffrey Epstein regularly hosted Hillary Frazzledrip Clinton at his 10,000 acre Zorro Ranch. I’m sure they did fun things there like play monopoly and roast s’mores and that is it.
With this most recent turn of events, the gates begin to yawn as Spenglerian caesars give way to other types of Spenglerian charismatic leaders who aren’t anywhere near as diplomatic or civilized as the ones we have known and loved. There has already been a groundswell of support for the idea of a bunch of disenfranchised manly men marching into to Haiti and taking the island by force. Trump’s failure and continued punishment and gaslighting of the middle class helped that world to materialize out of the more-Martial past. Ares will not be denied, and if soft leaders capitulate to pedophiles, it is only a matter of time before those leaders are swept away by barbarians who can and will sack Rome. Anyone who wishes for this catharsis because they have some limited gun training and a snarky attitude towards authority should probably stop obsessing over politics and get to the gun range when not learning to dry and store food, because not one of us are ready if it all goes to hell in fast mode. All that gold and silver you’ve stored in the walls is about to get your spouse and children brutally tortured and killed in front of your eyes if you get the Apocalypse you thought you wanted, so maybe take a cold shower the next time you get a hard on for it
Might as well relax because prepping is not easy when you are tired. The people are exhausted. So is the economy, trust, and morale. There will be no Morning in America. The fat lady has sung, and xe is a pedophile.
It’s a big club and you should thank heaven you ain’t in it
Pedophiles run the world. Maybe they always have. I spent a couple years in shock from about 2015-2017 when I began to understand that every last celebrity and politician was extremely likely to be embroiled in regular pedophilia and mutilation rituals of unimaginable depravity. I wrote an article about the subject that is behind a paywall, so please allow me to explain out here in the open.
The following is speculation for entertainment purposes only. It is hypothetical and not a bunch of allegations. I have gleaned this information from a talent that I have that is akin to remote viewing as well as deductive reasoning. As I always say, I could be wrong.
Anyone who reaches a certain level of fame, wealth, or influence is forced to assimilate into one or more pedophile elite cabals. Those who resist or who think they can stay at that level without joining have three choices:
Lose wealth and power and go back to being “average” (if you’re lucky)
Be physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually broken by elites via their rituals
Die
There are no additional choices. Someone like Trump, who had a great deal of money going in, still never had a chance. Ross Perot, the wildly popular independent who ran against unsuccessfully against Bill Clinton and then-incumbent George Bush in 1992, complained in a 60 Minutes interview that Republican operatives threatened to ruin his daughter’s wedding. I think they got to him, and I highly doubt the threats began or ended with his daughter’s nuptials.
Normie stuff does not satisfy a Wendigo
Actress and white monkey Jennifer Aniston has babbled on many occasions about pizza parties. Is she talking about Italian flatbreads or is she talking about something else entirely? Pizza is known pedophile code for little girls. Aniston’s wide eyed, unhinged stare combined with mostly-successful surgical attempts to look age twenty-eight in late middle age don’t exactly give her a trustworthy or sane vibe. Her constant rictus of a smile has a brittle edge. Perhaps she has become accustomed (addicted?) to certain elite practices. Does she patter on out of guilt or because she does truly enjoy pizza? Ick.
The Pollyanna in me refuses to believe celebrities or nouveau riche who get to a high level such as Aniston have any intention of becoming initiated as pedophiles. Most normal people do not know these clubs or practices exist, though there are plenty of normal enablers looking the other way when sketchy people are placed right in front of their eyes. As for the wannabe stars, sure, some may have been obliged to service Harvey Weinstein and his reeking mangina for a role, but that is as far as they suspected they would have to go. When they are inevitably drugged and wake up in a room full of ravenous Satanist sadists, it is not because they were informed that nightmare was part of the deal. The two main methods I believe elites use to capture populist upstarts, new captains of industry, rising entertainment stars, and illustrious influencers are:
Forcing them to witness and participate in the rape, murder, and cannibalization of children
Down-under mutilation branding
In order to “grab” the new kid on the block, they begin by drugging that person and/or a member of their family and forcing them to participate in the ritual violation of a child. They might drug the victim at a party as Sean Combs did on numerous occasion. They also might drug them at home. No place is safe and no person can be trusted. This ritual is repeated as many times as it takes: that is why it is called a ritual and not a one-off. Victims who see it enough times learn to associate and splinter into multiple personalities in order to deal with the trauma. Often the victim is raped and tortured alongside the baby or child or forced to inflict suffering. I believe Trump has been compromised in this way, alongside one or more of his children or grandchildren. I also believe something of this nature happened to Candace Owens, whose personality has now split in order to partition a collection of alters who perform functions of her ego. In other words, Trump, Owens, and other victims of this horrific practice may not be aware they have been tortured or forced to do hideous things to children. Disassociation is powerful and is often manipulated as a weapon, especially by shady governments.
The sadists-in-chief who orchestrate the vile levers of power always leave their mark. From what I can tell, they brand the private parts of their victims. They permanently mar parts of celebrities, politicians, and people of influence that nobody will ever see: labia, penises, the inside of the anus. They damage these parts as much as possible so the victim will always think of them when pooping, peeing, or having sex. They want to inflict pain that has been done to them — most of the ritual satanist types who do this were either born into incest/abuse cults or became abusers in the way I suspect Jennifer Aniston may have become an abuser. They want to spread their disease.
In a future essay, I will be discussing what I believe we should do about this predicament. There will be no Fall of the Cabal, in short. There will always be normies who want to believe in innocent celebrities and decent politicians, and no shortage to the power that faith will provide. We can, however, do something about it and as you probably already know, it is going to involve turning inward and shutting them out.
I look forward to your comments. I'm glad to be back.
Been pondering silly things today. First, I am entertaining the idea that I need to spend a day deep cleaning the apartment. The youngest is bringing over the hardware from the house (carpet cleaner) and I need to steel myself for an extended work period where I will sweep and mop and vacuum and dust and clean the carpet and wipe everything down. I suppose that this makes you think that I currently abide in a hovel, which isn't true, but it just means that I want to bring the base state back to zero. Then I can spend another year becoming less than tidy.
But in my dotage, this will take planning and steeling myself for the effort. When I was still living in my parents home long ago, this kind of thing happened weekly. The three children got up early, poured huge bowls of sugar laden cereal, dumped 2% on the mess and ate in front of the TV watching the Saturday Loony tunes, mighty mouse and when George of the Jungle came on, we started mentally preparing for our mother to finish her coffee and go all Simon Legree on our asses. Four humans in a 1200 sq/ft house can accomplish quite a bit when three of them are living in fear. (Note: Except for this period every week, our mother was a very kind and loving person).
So, while waiting for the younger to bring the required equipment, I suppose that I will spend time coming up with a mental list of what needs to be done,
(Formatting Note)
I am thinking that Diary Entries from here on in will be written in e-mail and posted as such, I will use Google docs and add a picture for the Essays.
One of the issues that I think that we have come to internalize and allow to become pathological is the simplistic idea that anyone in the past that did anything that is now considered “evil” is totally bad and all of the positive accomplishments along with the bad shit is painted with the ugly brush.
I find it most entertaining and somewhat disheartening to watch this in action. It is like being in the Catholic Church during the days of my youth. You can go to school, get good grades, be on the football team, help out in the food pantry, visit your grandmother and generally be a model citizen. But eat a snickers bar in the grocery store and “forget” to pay for it and you are certainly going to hell.
I am coming to the conclusion that the expectations of the past are out of line with the reality that the past had to come to grips with. Choices are offered to different cohorts and the decisions made in the long ago that benefited the majority at that particular time have consequences that come to fruition in the present.
I think that we have gone far enough along the spectrum of blaming the past. We have been sold the idea that people can be perfect and the world can hold hands into the bright shiny future. I sense that the people doing the most complaining are the folks that were birthed by those who most benefited from the decisions of the past.
I'm back from break! It was very refreshing and productive and looking forward to reading for you all.
I am happy to read your Ogham free of charge -- that's how I hone my divination skills. Please limit your reading request to four or fewer Ogham cards: though this can take many forms, here are some common ones (all of them are basically combos of 4 cards):
-a single three card reading for the week or month and a one-off, one card reading
-four questions about four separate items that require one answer (card) per item -a one card reading to answer a specific question and a three card for a more nuanced question -Two separate readings, two cards a piece exploring the positives and negatives of two different choices
I am happy to do Ogham readings confidentially via email -- just email me at k steele studio at gmail during the allotted time/before deadline. I cannot answer health questions. If you have a question about health or another sensitive, private matter, provide a bunch of non-identifying information and the Ogham will be able to figure it out even if I don't. I'm serious... the Ogham actually tend to "know" things without me being privy to what is going on.
Please note I take time off during Solstices and Equinoxes for Druid stuff and because sometimes I simply need a break.
My next planned break is from October 23 - November 6.
I take reading requests from whenever this post goes up on Friday night until 8pm US Central Time Saturday.
For a more in depth look into how I read and interpret the Ogham's symbols, please visit my website druidogham.wordpress.com.
I am currently trying to minimize my use of PayPal. If you'd like to make a donation, I would be grateful if you did it here:
The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing.
One of my continuing struggles in life (one I will probably die struggling with) is the desire to structure everything in a rationalist and materialist manner. I have a sneaking hunch that the world doesn’t work that way and I know definitely that people are for the most part not so much rational as self-absorbed (which, to be honest, is pretty rational).
So let’s begin with the simple fact that individuals of any type or flavor will attempt to impose their personal point of view/ideology on the world around them. I tend to think that this is “human nature”. Most folks just want to be seen as the “smartest guy in the room” and the only way to do that in a social setting is to brag to a socially acceptable degree.
I suppose that my struggles with the long form is that in order to do so truthfully, I have to address the flaws in my thinking. I tend to think that the process will be to write, then put it away for a while, then re-read and correct flaws, then repeat the process until I get sick of it and then publish.
The nature of my subject matter will change. I suppose that I will need to change the structure of the blogs. I am thinking that my writing needs to be in two different forms: “Diary” entries will be marked as such in the title and be short, maybe a quick bitch about stupid shit or an anecdote relating to something that I find amusing. The big pieces (the ones that are so difficult to regularly pen will be labelled “Essay”.
But these rubrics are fraught with the importance I put on them. Diary entries are almost by definition a form of an essay. There doesn’t seem to be a clear definition of essay, and I think that my proposed labelling will merely signal how much time I put into the piece. I have a hunch that, taken as a whole, the quick diary pieces will be as revealing as the essays when judged by their content.
So today is a true essay, I am attempting to come up with an answer to a question that I have been skirting around for nearly two decades. I seem to have an unreasonable need to write almost every day, and to place said writing out there in the hopes that others will occasionally read it. I don’t really track the number of people who see it, as I am somewhat unwilling to go to the effort of modifying my site to maintain statistics. Most of the time the simple act of posting scratches the weird writing itch.
I suppose that I don’t write to convince anyone but myself. I was listening to a podcast the other day and the subject of “Quietism” came up and I was drawn to it.
Mostly, I am coming to believe that this discussion is somewhat akin to angels dancing on the head of a pin. I am beginning to wonder if the subject can be answered in a universal sense and I am more and more drawn to the protestant reformation as an example where both sides of the discussion are merely folks trying to make their description of a personal and internal phenomenon an across the board mandate for “how people perceive the world”.
I am attempting to figure out how my mind works, not to impose that particular straight jacket on a description of how all human’s minds work, but just as an understanding of how I get from the real world “experience” to the decisions that stem from those data points.
What I find difficult to bear is the tendency of folks who look into this kind of thing to attempt to create “laws” for the multitudes when at best they can only attempt a documentation of a model that exists solely inside their bodies (I’ll discuss the effects of non-cranial inputs to “thought” in another essay).
Philosophers argue all the time and during all ages. It is kind of normal. The key to it is to not take their points of view all that seriously and try to see what you can distill from their thoughts that allow you to structure your mental model (good artists borrow, great artists steal). But as soon as you start pushing off your personal views as universal truth, you are becoming religious.
Overall, philosophy and religion are two sides of the same coin. What is happening with both is the universal need to think that you are “right”. This is the path that I am trying hard to steer clear of (albeit unsuccessfully). Always in the back of my thoughts is the annoyed, self-important, and unwelcome thought that people who don’t understand what I am trying to say are stupid. I work hard at squelching this, but it is an ongoing battle.
So my essays will continue to be “attempts”. I will continue to put in digressions not quite appropriate to the core thesis, but that is how my mind works. I will continue to use crude language interspersed with technicalia because that is how my mind works as well.
Please don’t expect epiphanies, because I sure don’t. When I write something down here, it is because I know that I don’t really understand it and ossifying my thinking in words lets me return later to try and continue in the ongoing, and ultimately unsuccessful attempt for understanding.
(final weird digression: Since I recently finished Harry Potter, I really wish that I could invent or buy a “pensieve”. It would be great to accurately document your past thoughts without the years wearing down the edges to make you forget the places you were wrong. I know that folk around here sneer at ‘Arry Potter, but it is at it’s core a well-written escapist fantasy and those are pretty thin on the ground.)
In the Mesopotamian Wheel of the Year, from mid-June to mid-September, the confluence of An (the heavens), Ki (the earth) and Kur (the Underworld) (Note 1) (Note 2) occurs. During this time, the Dead wander freely among the living. Fires are lit to guide Them to their families, where the Dead stay for a brief time.
In Sumer, the month is called Ne-izi-gar, the month of braziers and torches. During Ne-izi-gar, the Festival of Ghosts” (Ne-izi-gar ezem-gidim-ma-ke-ne) occurs as the Dead (Note 3) eat a ceremonial meal with their families. How the festival came to be is written in the “Death of Gilgamesh ” — “without him, no light would be lit.” The Benevolent Dead have to follow a special passage from the dark Netherworld to the land of the living. For these Dead to find their way to their families, the people light braziers and torches to guide Them.
As the moon wanes until it disappears completely (The Day of the Disappearance of the Moon), malevolent spirits come out. Because this is a perilous time for the living, the Maqlu ritual (the Burning) is conducted. First, offerings are made to the Gods of Fire, Nusku and Girra, at night. Then at dawn, people recite the following, “Evil demon, to your steppe” or “Get out evil rabisu! Come in, good rabisu!” Afterwards, they encircle the entrance of their homes with flour paste.” (Note 4)
Since the Dead do not sever their ties to the living, the Sumerians regard death as a transition from being human to that of a gidim (spirit). (Note 5) After dying, the gidim is reunited with their dead relatives, and assigned a place in the Netherworld. Funeral rites ensure the gidim’s integration into that world. Offerings of food and water are made since the Netherworld have little of either for nourishment. If they do not receive this, then the gidim will become vicious and haunt the living.
Notes:
Note 1. The Mesopotamian Netherworld was neither a place of punishment or reward. It was the Great City where the Dead, who received proper rituals, went.
Note 2. The Netherworld is known by many names – arali, irkalla, kukku, ekur, kigal, and ganzir. Kur means “the land of no return.” Arallu (Akkadian) (or Ganzer (Sumerian)) was the Great City (iri-gal) of the Dead.
Note 3. The regular Dead had to cross a steppe infested by demons, pass over the Khuber River (of the Underworld), go down a staircase, and be admitted through the Seven Gates. Then they could reside in the Great City of the Dead. During the Ne-izi-gar, They journeyed back the same way.
Note 4. Flour in Babylon is used for protecting entrances.
Note 5. The gidim (or etemmu (Akkadian)) is associated with the corpse. After death, the gidim still retained hunger and thirst.
John Michael Greer (ecosophia) wrote2025-07-1108:29 am
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.
Rule #1: this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #2: this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #3: please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about. Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.
Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.
I've been studying the Egyptian mysteries of Isis, Osiris, and Horos; I have no idea where they came from, though it seems noteworthy that they are illustrated in the stars, focusing on the heliacal rising and setting of various constellations along the galactic plane. Many of the other mysteries we know about—Innana/Ishtar and Dumuzid, Astarte and Baal, Aphrodite and Adonis, the Eleusinian mysteries, the Dionusian mysteries, the Apolline mysteries, the house of Oikles and some other parts of the Thebaian myth (like Oidipous), the house of Tantalos, the house of Danaus, Atalante, and (I think, though I have not studied it carefully yet) the Argonautica—all seem to derive from these Egyptian mysteries, as they share the same structure and tell the same story.
While I haven't dug very deeply into them, there seem to also have been the Mesopotamian mysteries of Gilgamesh and Enkidu; I also have no idea where they came from, though it seems noteworthy that they are also illustrated in the stars, focusing (as far as I can tell) on the movement of the planets along the constellations of the ecliptic plane. Some others of the mysteries, most notably Herakles, seem to derive from these Mesopotamian mysteries, as they share the same structure and tell the same story.
It's interesting to me that we see a lot of crossover and interaction between these two mysteries: for example, Gilgamesh spurning Ishtar (noting that Taurus, the Bull of Heaven, marks the intersection of the ecliptic and galactic planes just as it marks the intersection of the two myths), Herakles besieging Thebai, Jason taking Herakles on his voyage, etc. I have no idea if these indicate two parts of one greater story, or if they indicate the priority of one set of mysteries over the other, or if they simply show conflict between the different mystery schools.
I suppose that the mysteries are simply a mystery.
Occasionally, at long intervals, we see that an individual takes up the mysteries and sets out to retell them in their own way. "Homer" gave us perhaps the classic version of them in the Odyssey. Virgil retold an explicitly civic Roman version of them in the Aeneid. Apuleius retold an explicitly Platonist version of them in Cupid and Psyche. I haven't yet read it myself, but I'm told that Dante has retold a Christian-Neoplatonist version of them in the Divine Comedy. Within their various contexts, these are praiseworthy works, worthy of respect and ripe for contemplation.
My daughter and I recently finished reading Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, which follows in the same tradition, telling an explicitly Western-occult-revival version of the mysteries. I don't know who Ende studied under, but he certainly mastered at least the Lesser Mysteries, as he has missed nothing and provides worthy commentary and color on each point. One could do far worse than spending a year meditating one's way through it.
It's also, of course, an engaging narrative: my daughter—who, of course, has not studied the mysteries at all—loved it. If you haven't read it (and especially if you've seen the film, which is to the book as lead is to gold), I highly recommend it. It's worthy of your time.
Oh! I can't believe I missed this, it seems so obvious in hindsight.
In Porphurios's Life of Plotinos (§10), he writes that Plotinos's head student, Amelios, φιλοθύτου γεγονότος "grew ritualistic" and took to frequenting the temples on holy days and once invited his teacher along to the feasts of the gods. Plotinos answered him,
It is necessary for them to come to me, not I to them.
(Translation mine.)
Amelios, Porphurios, and the rest of the students were apparently so flabbergasted by this that they couldn't bring themselves to ask what he meant.
Now, a lot of people have theories about this. Dodds (The Parmenides of Plato and the Origin of the Neoplatonic "One") figures Plotinos wasn't religious and was just trying to get Amelios to stop pestering him. Armstrong (footnote to his translation) figures that Plotinos considered that only daimons of the lower order go round the temples (as places of blood sacrifice) and thus were beneath him (intent, as he was, on the highest). Three years ago (almost to the day!) I myself made the similar case that Plotinos was after something greater than the mundane gods.
Looking at it again, I think it's much simpler than that (and think Plotinos was much humbler than Porphurios is making him out to be). Plotinos saw no point in going because the experience of divinity is a gift. There is no way a mortal can hope to chase and seize the god; the only way is for the god to look kindly on the mortal. So what would be the point in attending the sacrifices or observing the rituals? The best one can do is to patiently purify and prepare themselves in the hope the god chooses to illumine their efforts.
They call the whole circle of heaven Zeus [e.g. Ahura-Mazda], and to him they offer sacrifice on the highest peaks of the mountains; they sacrifice also to the sun and moon and earth and fire and water and winds. These are the only gods to whom they have ever sacrificed from the beginning.
Of course we see Empedokles's four roots there. There's just one problem: Empeokles was contemporaneous with Herodotos, writing about the same time as him. (They both lived in what is now Italy, but in different regions: Empedokles in Sicily, and Herodotos in what is now Calabria.)
So here we have another source referencing the same doctrine at the same time as Empedokles. This is another argument in favor of my hypothesis that the four roots did not originate with him, but that he learned them from the Pythagoreans, who learned them from Pythagoras. Where did Pythagoras get them? I had made the case that he got them from the Egyptian mysteries on the basis of deific and symbolic associations, and that's plausible, but then—assuming Herodotos isn't misleading us—it suggests that the Egyptians similarly influenced the Zoroastrians.
On the other hand, Pythagoras is said to have studied with just about everyone (including the Persian magi, though how he had time for it after spending 20 years in Egypt is anyone's guess), and so it's possible that the Greek doctrine of the roots came from the Persians. But then it's a remarkable coincidence that these line up so nicely with the Egyptian teachings which apparently predate Zoroastrianism (or even Mazdaism) by at least a millennium.
Alternatively, it could be that the four roots were generally current in the spiritual milieu of the time, and Empedokles was simply the first to write it down. (This wouldn't be too surprising, since Empedokles was expelled from the Pythagoreans for doing so, meaning that it was a secret teaching.)
Whichever of the cases is true, I think we can be reasonably confident that the teaching didn't originate with Empedokles.
Degringolade (degringolade) wrote2025-07-0808:08 am
(Homemade naan, beer, and tzatziki, I did buy the cucumber and tomato)
This post is a riff on a question I asked during the Archdruid’s weekly Q&A
I’ll do it myself dad.
I briefly enjoyed the time period when raising my sons when these words became commonplace.
But I am thinking more and more that during this time in my last adolescence (retirement) that I am thinking the same thing. So my question as follows is:
How do I keep any non-corporeal entity (beneficial, hostile, or neutral) out of my business?
I can’t say as I have ever had a significant experience of this type, and more and more, listening and reading about such experiences, I can’t think that it would be all that pleasant. Judging from the experiences described in this forum, I am pretty sure I can be quite happy continuing that lack.
So lately I have been practicing the “sphere of protection” with an addendum in my brain that adds “this means you”. Is there anything else that you can recommend to let me continue keeping this kind of thing at arms length so that I can continue my dotage without?
(for other forum participants, please continue your path and report on results when it moves you, I find it fascinating and I do believe your narratives, but I am opting out)
I suppose that this is an odd thing to ask in such a forum, but I think that I am coming to the point in my life when I am skeptical just about everything and just want to be at peace with the grab-bag of good and bad that the world that I can sense offers me. I suppose that the period that I am living in is truly my second adolescence, I don’t really have anywhere to go or anything to do and overall I am really beginning to appreciate this.
I think a lot of the time, when people get all “spiritual”, they are doing it in an odd “mirror world” of the academic community, especially in my age cohort. It seems to me that they are cramming for a test at the end of the quarter.
I suppose I do tend toward thinking that there is a soul that powers the individual. I am ambivalent about whether it is immortal (obviously I am hoping that it lasts beyond this “mortal coil” but I also realize that there is no proof, either negative or positive for this supposition).
Pascal’s Wager posits:
Pascal's Wager, in simple terms, is an argument suggesting that it's a better bet to believe in God than not to, even if you can't be certain God exists. The logic is that the potential reward of believing (eternal happiness) far outweighs the potential loss (a changed lifestyle) if God doesn't exist. Conversely, the potential loss of not believing (eternal damnation) is infinite, while the potential gain (if God doesn't exist) is finite
In decisions under risk, the agent assigns subjective probabilities to the various states of the world. Assume that the states of the world are independent of what the agent does. A figure of merit called the expected utility, or the expectation of a given action can be calculated by a simple formula: for each state, multiply the utility that the action produces in that state by the state’s probability; then, add these numbers. According to decision theory, rationality requires you to perform the action of maximum expected utility (if there is one).
Pascal’s wager is kind of a red herring. He conflates soul, heaven/hell, and the christian god and then slants the bet so that losing is infinite. This is bullshit. No one knows.
But I am working on restating the “bet”. It is harder than it seems at first blush. I am trying to remove the ideas of “heaven and hell” and get over the idea that “good” and “evil” and “justice” have any real meaning outside of personal preference. I am spending time working through Leibnitz’s “Best of all possible worlds” and I am thinking there is some merit there. I am also giving Spinoza another go. I didn’t really understand last time, maybe I can figure it out this time.
All of this rotates openly around me, being the imperfect and dwindling being of an uncertain mix of the corporeal and incorporeal is trying to isolate “me” and my place (if any) in the grand scheme.
Damn hard thing to do and it gets people pissed off when you talk about it.
John Michael Greer (ecosophia) wrote2025-07-0809:01 am
We are now approaching the end of the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health are anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; public health authorities government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; and the story continues to unfold.
So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:
1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.
2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.
4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.
5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.
6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.
Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kimberlysteele) wrote2025-07-13 04:52 pm
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! T
We are now approaching the end of the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted