John Michael Greer 's items

'Try!' | John Michael Greer

July 15, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- One of the things that makes the magical history of America so, well, magical is the number of astonishing individuals who have played a central role in it. Even amon ...

The Power of the Mind | John Michael Greer

July 1, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- While Andrew Jackson Davis was attracting huge crowds with his discourses in trance, and the Fox sisters were listening to tapping noises, another important 19th-centu ...

A Prophet and a Loss | John Michael Greer

June 17, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- A word or two about history before we proceed. Two weeks ago, in response to my discussion of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, I fielded the inevitable comment fro ...

In the Company of Angels | John Michael Greer

June 3, 2020 (EcoSphia.net) -- So far in our exploration of the hidden history of American magic, we’ve talked mostly about people whose place in this nation’s history has been forgotten -- or, to be ...

The Flame and the Crucible | John Michael Greer

Alchemist May 20, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- Our journey through the hidden history of American occultism has focused so far entirely on traditions brought here from elsewhere -- the German Rosicrucian ...

The Arts Of The Cunning Folk | John Michael Greer

May 6, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- Two weeks ago we talked about the way that Bakongo spirituality made its way to the American colonies along with enslaved Africans from the Congo basin. Once here, it a ...

On the Far Side of Silence | John Michael Greer

April 29, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- Over the last few months I’ve been discussing the forgotten (or, rather, systematically ignored) history of American occultism, partly because it’s interesting in it ...

In The Footsteps Of High John | John Michael Greer

April 15, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- Two weeks ago, while winding up the story of the colonial Rhode Island astrologer Joseph Stafford, I noted that the kind of occultism practiced by Stafford and Johan ...

The Astrologer of Narragansett Bay | John Michael Greer

Johannes Kelpius, painted by Christopher WittApril 1, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- A month ago, I recounted the story of Johannes Kelpius, the German occultist who crossed the Atlantic in 1694 with his fe ...

A Magic Republic | John Michael Greer

March 4, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- Have you ever noticed that in America, magic is always mixed up in the popular imagination with premodern Europe? That’s not just an affectation of the Neopagan movem ...

Toward the Next America | John Michael Greer

The U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City. Ricardo630 | Wikimedia CommonsFeb. 19, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- When I mentioned in a post two weeks ago that America was heading into a new phase of its history ...