February 19, 2021   |   2 comments

John Michael Greer discusses his book The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power.

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Magic and politics seem like unlikely bedfellows, but in The King in Orange, Greer reveals the unmentionable realities that spawned the unexpected presidential victory of an elderly real-estate mogul turned reality-TV star and which continue to drive the deepening divide that is now the defining characteristic of American society. Greer convincingly shows how two competing schools of magic were led to contend for the presidency in 2016 and details the magical war that took place behind the scenes of the campaign. The author shows that the main contenders in this war were the status quo state, deploying the manipulative, subliminal techniques of modern advertising, and an older, deeper, and less reasonable form of magic – the magic of the excluded – which was employed by chaos magicians and alt-right internet wizards whose desires led the assault against the world we knew.

Examining in detail the magical actions of Trump’s opponents, Greer discusses how the magic of the privileged has functioned to keep the comfortable classes from being able to respond effectively to the populist challenge and why the ‘Magic Resistance’, which tried to turn magic against Trump, has failed. Showing how the political and magical landscape of American society has now permanently changed, Greer reveals that understanding the coming of the King in Orange will be a crucial step in making sense of the world for a long time to come.

Previous interviews with John Michael Greer

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