In the Presence of the Arch Druid (ooooo)

This weekend we hosted John Michael Greer in our home. I had arranged for him to give a presentation at my UU church, and a local metaphysical book store had piggybacked a book signing event onto it. So we picked him up at the Amtrak station on Saturday, had a full day of events, then a late dinner and conversation at home before retiring, then more talk and a visit to the George Washington Masonic Memorial before I took him back to catch the train home.

John Michael is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, which represents a very different kind of Druidry than ADF. He's also a consummate polymath, the author of books on the occult, on Druidry, on energy and economics, and on a variety of paranormal topics such as Atlantis and UFOs. His latest is Apocalypse Not: Everything You Know About 2012, Nostradamus and the Rapture Is Wrong
, which takes a lighthearted look at failed end-of-the-world predictions.

We found him to be warm, friendly and -- as his writing suggests -- fiercely intelligent and opinionated. He was once a member of ADF, but left a year or two after he took over the leadership of AODA, largely because he lacked the time to do right by both organizations. But I also sense he doesn't care much for some things about ADF, which is too bad. I am a member of ADF and probably will join AODA at some point, because I see some value in both approaches. I hope there's not true bad blood between the leaders.

In any case, we parted on warmly good terms with mutual invitations for future visits, and I am quite sure we'll see him again. I look forward to that.