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Today’s guest on the show is no other than widely read author, blogger, occultist, and former Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, John Michael Greer.
We start engaging in a highly entertaining conversation with what it was like growing up in an American suburb in the 1960s/1970s when John Michael developed a sense for everything that appeared to be weird and labelled ‘rejected knowledge’. From his early childhood on the question that drove him through his entire life might be summed up with ‘What’s behind it?’. Indeed, what lies behind society and media that manipulated people then and still do in many different ways now?
John Michael’s love for rejected or forbidden knowledge, the things people didn’t like to talk about led him to the world of occultism in his teen years and again his motivating question was what was going on within these circles.
Engaging with groups happened at a later stage as John Michael preferred to work as a solitary practitioner from early on. After meeting his first teacher in 1991 however he got involved with lodge life in orders such as ‘The Grange’ and the freemasons and also ‘The independent Order of the Odd Fellows’. In 1994 he joined the Ancient Order of Druids in America and found himself running it within a pretty short amount of time.
In the interview John Michael allows some insights into his two most important spiritual practices in his life and how they tie in together with the ideal of being at service.
The author John Michael has written so many different things that it is actually not easy to spot the patterns at first glance. His non-fictional works on occultism might be most known to the public. However, there is so much more to talk about, such as his immense knowledge on sustainability and the peak oil movement, published in several books as well as on his blog Ecosophia.net, his amazing work in the field of translating occult classics making them accessible for modern practitioners and also his novels on a strange Lovecraftian world where the monsters are the good guys.
Upcoming projects of writing non-fiction and fiction and recently republished books such as a new edition of ‘Inside a Magical Lodge’ will be something we discuss as well as the philosophical question what role magic plays within this world. Enjoy this episode!
