It’s an amazing novel….I read this many years ago and the fact that it was wrote by a very young woman absolutely blew me away! It’s brilliant….I was suspicious of the clear Rousseauian nod that humans are inherently good (naively emphasised by the creature in his “state of nature”), but ultimately a superb book…..

I first read this book decades ago at age nineteen, the same age at which Mary Shelley wrote it, and it has always stayed with me as both a special experience and something other than the grim warning about the dangers of scientific hubris it was purported to be. You've articulated that sense very well. It *is* a beautiful novel, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone mention that. I've seen more than a few people dismiss it for having been "written by a teenage girl", which I'd contend means a lot less when you examine Mary's unusual and extraordinary background coupled with the fact that being nineteen in Europe in 1816 was a rather different experience than such is the case today. Thank you for this review and for the reliable excellence of Hermitix.

I’m glad to hear you’re feeling well, James.

What’s your disagreement with the TAG argument? The Bible tells us that lack of faith is not the result of a logical argument but a choice.

I love JMG he takes all the Wu wu nonsense out of these concepts. Eat the meat spit out the bones, approach. I think he is probably the most well read occultist alive today

Another wonderful interview! Thanks so much for making these available for us. And I have to say that JMG was in rare form, especially when discussing what it’s like to work in a magical lodge. I was baptised as an adult into the Roman Catholic Church, and I could hear in JMG’s voice something like my own experiences with power and divine forces that I enjoyed at church during my Catholic days. It’s certainly one thing to spend a catechumenal year learning about things like doctrines and dogmas and theology and philosophy; and it’s another thing entirely to experience an initiatory ritual and connect with a powerful force beyond yourself. Although I have since left the Catholic Church as I no longer agree with her dogmas, I have never for a second doubted the many spiritual encounters I experienced during the sacraments or during adoration. It’s fascinating to me that those kinds of spiritual experiences are available even to people who simply do the work of learning a system of magic and of putting it into practice in their own lives, even in their own home or back garden. Anyhow, thank you again for this wonderful interview!

“Desire is the Desire of The Other” -Lacan

Great chat! Thank you, Hermetix and John.

JMG!

New JMG!? Right on. I often recommend the eco-technic future book to my AI circle friends, but my favourite is the Celtic golden dawn system he invented. He's so cool.

JMG, nice!

Love to JMG. He suffered a terrible loss this last year. Its inspiring to see him continue his work.

Very interesting

Always love to hear from JMG!

JMG! 🧙🏻‍♂️👌

Does your "mood change" have anything to do with coming into more money or being financially safe now?

"Reverence for all life" could easily include a preventive / proactive use of contraception. If we carefully limit humans' reckless overbreeding, there would be enough resources for all humans and the environment would not have undergone the catastrophic degradation that we're now facing.

Great conversation. This is the first Hermetix podcast I've listened to in the past >6 months.

Does she have something perpetually caught in her throat?

Does James take book recommendations?

So great conversation. Thanks so much

Very disappointing on so many levels.

I really enjoyed your review, I liked that it is more philosophical and literature based and removed from the insufferable modern zeitgeist. I’ll definitely keep watching.

wonderful conversation and orientation to reality, reminding us of the magic inherent in the human experience/connection to nature/reality and possibly/hopefully reconnecting with that spirit and wonder

Can you square the DA worldview (monkey god, unself, Barry Long’s be here now “god” etc) with the Christian God/Jesus? Feels like accepting DA “unself” view is a gateway to abandoning Christianity besides acknowledging that Jesus “got it” in someway and was in touch with something greater. Or if you’re not sure and want to hedge your bets for salvation, keep with some form Christianity lite. Do you still have or see a need for faith, Christian faith or otherwise?

John Michael Greer might be a good writer when it comes to magic, but UFO is way over his head. The works of Jacques Vallee and Rchard Dolan are superior in scope and research.

Wow, didn't realize Fink has such a cool voice

humanity as a geological factor (->anthropocene) is already mentioned in "der arbeiter" ... but yes expanded upon in "zeitmauer" "weltstaat" etc of the cold war era

Many congratulations, well deserved!

He was correct about the Zionist central banking conspiracy by the way

Congratulations! It was an absolute pleasure to be on the podcast!

45:24 like Zizek says, “No. I am not that!” Our freedom and power is in cancellation, tearing apart, distancing ourselves from identity.

44:00 “there’s kind of a notion of mastery that Freud thought he had through his incredible intellect.” Julie Reshe talks about how Freud became depressed in his later work with the discovery of death drive.

The vegan section was filled with fallacies with many of the points since proven false. Check Debug your brain or liftingveganlogic.

Congratulations on hitting 20k dude. Cheers.

The "only real names" rule is very based

Congrats on the 20k there is nothing like this channel out there, keep doing what you are doing man!

Got really excited when I thought you were gonna do an ep on Jonathan Livingston Seagull 😢😂

Hell yes - back to the Shire! Sorry I missed this, but I was on the toilet after an ill-fated dinner of Mexican.

Had never heard of Ozamu before listening to your review, and intriguing it was. I've long enjoyed Murakami but never really ever read anything of his countrymen before or since. The character feels like an exaggerated version of himself, veering from sad to buffoon clown as he bumbles his drunkard way from incident to incident. It sometimes had a freewheeling beatnik feel to it too, like a more jaded Kerouac, very much colored by the culture in Japan at the time.

Nice review. It's a wonderful book. The only downside to your review is that you, like me, have read some/all of his other stuff and so it's probably already preaching to the converted. It'd be interesting to get the thoughts of someone who hadn't already been introduced to his books. The fire sermon is definitely accessible, but it's a book that I'm tentative about sharing with others in case they're either "not ready" to engage with it, or by sharing it with them sort of peer pressures them into feeling that they should like it before they've even turned a page. I came to Darren's work organically (I think), and so was very much in the frame of mind to be taken in by his writing. That was 33 myths, many years ago now, and I've bought most of his books since.

excellent as always

There was an ancient philosopher, Hegesias of Cyrene, who also wrote a book arguing for suicide. It was so persuasive that he was banned from speaking in Alexandria. Cioran, as well, and "The City of Dreadful Night" by James Thomson. The closest modern parallel to Hegesias is probably Phillip Mainlander, who pioneered the 'death of god' philosophy before Nietzsche, and followed it to its logical conclusion.

The shade cast on Dalkey Archive is intriguing

I wonder if Todd has listened to the Bruce Fink interview by Hermitix, and what his thoughts might be on Fink's comments re the limits of analysis? I tend to agree with Fink as, if TM is right, there would be little point to analysis at all in a clinical sense.

Wow, I don’t think Bruce does many interviews

Why remove the interviews with Allen? Those were good as I recall. Why did he want them removed, and why did you feel obligated to remove them?

Great review, look forward to reading this. Shame your chats with DA are no longer there....

Interesting thinker and very enjoyable constructive discussion.

A dialogue between a jungian and lacanian would be great to see.