Book Review - Mystery Teachings From the Living Earth

Blessings Darlings!

I won another book from Weiser/Red Wheel books that I was already planning on buying.  This time it was John Michael Greer's Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth.  I am a happy Fern.  I have been a JMG fan for about a decade now, having 'met' him on the Order of the White Oak e-mail list, then reading his books, reading his weekly blog here on Blogspot , and meeting him for the first time at the Between The Worlds conference in Delaware in 2008.  Yes, I'm a JMG fangirl, even as I disagree with him on any number of things.

So I CONSUMED this short book when it arrived.  The environmental themes are familiar to those of us who read his blog - but while his his blog is about environmental and fuel energy changes happening around us and how to adjust to them, his book is not on on those changes. 

What JMG does in this book is explain the teachings of mystery schools (he is a member of several and has studied others) in the language of the environment.  Now, a whole lot of neopagans describe their religions as "Earth" or "Nature" religions, but this book in unique in demonstrating the teachings using a meadow and all the many and varied ecological systems in it to flesh out the teachings.

Keeping the tradition of having 7 laws he traces wholeness, flow, balance, limits, cause and effect, the Planes, and evolution thru' nature.  Then he examines the spiritual ecology of Magic, Initiation, and History.  Along the way he patiently explains why the mysteries have to be explained differently for different audiences, clears out misconceptions embodied in the idea that the individual and the individual alone creates their own reality, and perhaps most importantly points out that simple is not the same as easy.

That last point is one to remember as you read the book.  The truths explained in it are simple, but not particularly easy to fully understand.  Some of them could have used more explanation and details, in my never humble opinion.  Heck, I had to have the Chubby Hubby remind me of the difference in energy creation (via nuclear power) vs energy stored and released (via coal) .... which was an interesting conversation in the Urgent Care Clinic while waiting to get antibiotics for the CH's abscessed tooth.

I totally recommend the book, but for those who are new to environmental systems theory and/or the teachings of mystery schools .... you may need to read it, do more research and study, and then read it again to get the most out of it.  I'm certainly going to have to read it more than once myself.

Frondly, Fern

The Strawberry in the Jello

Kay's death reminded me that, back in the day, a friend and I had a conversation about reincarnation on a yahoo group. Here's my main contributions to that conversation. Well, it was really a discussion of 'what service initiation actually provides', but most of the conversation was about what it provides the soul/spirit after death...

Re: Initiation as a Public Service?

--- In paganpath@yahoogroups.com, Daimon2@... wrote:
>
>>> So my first two questions are:
>
> 1. What do people think happens after death, both to initiates and
> non-initiates?<<

Dang Imps and their Questions! I don't 'know'. The Celtic
Reconstructionist part of me says we all reincarnate - that makes us
Celts brave in battle, a 'screw you and the horse you rode in on'
attitude towards death. It isn't seen as the end of anything except
pain.

However, if you look at reincarnation as a form of recycling: a tree
dies, rots, the atoms/compounds feed other trees. The 'same' tree
does not reincarnate, its atoms spread out to many other trees.
Perhaps the 'atoms' of the soul flow back into the Great Unincarnated
and mix with all the others there. Then a cup full of 'atoms' from
the greater mix get poured into one incarnation or another.

Or perhaps that is what happens to the 'common' soul - it ends up 'in
common', as one, with the rest. Initiation might act as a unifying
power on the soul, holding it together to act as one, not as if it
has 'individual atoms' or 'quantum units of power' in it. An
initiated soul would still get poured into the common mix, but hold
together in it - a strawberry in the jello of soul atoms! - and go
intact into a next incarnation.

>>> 2. How long do you think a soul lingers prior to reincarnation
if
> reincarnation occurs, or is it in a non-temporal state so that it
doesn't matter?<<

Dunno. I don't think it's immediate. I think that there is
some 'aging' or 'resting' done between incarnations, but can't back
my view up with anything.

>
>>> My third question is then, supposing existence is a roulette
game, and non-initiates cease to exist, or the material of their souls are
recycled into new souls prior to reincarnating, would it then be a public service to
provide as many open opportunities for people to become initiates of the
mysteries, what would be the ways to do this, and what ethical and spiritual
questions would it raise? <<


Who said incarnation is a good thing? We Westerners, who have
oppressed others effectively enough to be the top 1% of the worlds
population, who have enough to eat, homes, computer access, clothes,
are VERY happy to reincarnate. But out East, the Hindus and
Buddhists feel that incarnating SUCKS. That we are CONDEMNED to be
bound to the Wheel of Rebirth. Their whole bloody GOAL is non-
existance, in a way. Nirvana/Samsara is opting OUT of the game.

Initiation, if it lead to reincarnation instead of oblivion, would be
the ultimate self inflicted injury. Initiators would be seen as
enslaving souls.

So there.

Fern