Does the West Have a Magical Metaphysics? | John Michael Greer

Rune Soup

Gordon White

Magic, Occult, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Paranormal, Ufo, Spirituality

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ringing in the new year with a banger!

John Michael Greer returns to the show to explore

Whether we can say if 'western' magic has a discernable metaphysics.
What those might be.

Seeing as AI did such a good job of giving us a definition of metaphysics (which you will get in the show), here's what she thinks the episode is about:

"The dialogue emphasizes the importance of directionality, the existence of intelligent non-human beings, and the overarching themes that unify magical practices across cultures. In this conversation, Gordon White delves into the complexities of historical knowledge, the concept of polarity in cosmology, and the nuances of sex magic. He discusses the limitations of historical records, the significance of polarity as a universal principle, and the often-misunderstood relationship between sexuality and magic. White also challenges cultural assumptions about elitism in esoteric practices and highlights the contributions of lesser-known figures like Pascal Beverly Randolph to the field of magic. The discussion culminates in a reflection on the meaningfulness of the cosmos and the interplay of energy in our experiences."

Honestly? Pretty good.

Show Notes

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This week, we welcome back to the show for the first episode of the year,
0:20.1	the one, the only, except no substitutes.
0:24.1	John Michael Greer, how are you doing, sir?
0:26.5	Doing very well today, thank you.
0:28.8	Thank you very much for your time as ever.
0:31.7	And as ever, as we were just talking before I hit record, whenever John brings out some books, they send me off
0:40.6	on some side quests. And he does have a couple of new books out from Aon at the moment,
0:45.9	the philosophy and practice of polarity magic, the secret wisdom of sex, and the Earth
0:51.7	Mysteries workbook, which is a one-year course in the enchantment of the
0:56.2	land.
0:57.1	So, yeah, I thought last time you were on, we had a really good discussion about the tools
1:04.0	of the magician.
1:04.6	And I wanted to take, I guess I wanted to table a similarly, like, deceptively complex, open question, or like, begged question.
1:17.4	Does the West have a magical metaphysics?
1:22.6	So let's start there.
1:23.5	What do you think?
1:24.3	We can start with that.
1:26.0	And I'm going to start by, before I actually answer the question, I'm going to
1:30.9	weas a lot of it in two different ways.
1:33.2	The first weasel answer is that it has rather more than one.
1:39.0	We have actually a very broad range of Western magical metaphysics, which have not yet really consolidated
1:45.8	into a single system. There was a coherent Western magical metaphysics as late as the Renaissance.
	...

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