Its hard to believe that it was over eight years ago that John Michael Greer posted these words to open our site:

"One of the things the soon-to-be-deindustrializing world most needs just now is green wizards. By this I mean individuals who are willing to take on the responsibility to learn, practice, and thoroughly master a set of unpopular but valuable skills – the skills of the old appropriate tech movement – and share them with their neighbors when the day comes that their neighbors are willing to learn. This is not a subject where armchair theorizing counts for much – as every wizard’s apprentice learns sooner rather than later, what you really know is measured by what you’ve actually done – and it’s probably not going to earn anyone a living any time soon, either, though it can help almost anyone make whatever living they earn go a great deal further than it might otherwise go. Nor, again, will it prevent the unraveling of the industrial age and the coming of a harsh new world; what it can do, if enough people seize the opportunity, is make the rough road to that new world more bearable than it will otherwise be." JMG

In that time we have had some ups but many downs, and changes of leadership here and periods where the lights nearly went out. Now though we are ready to turn a new page on the idea of educating people in what will come in the near Future to us all, whether some want it or not, as well as teaching the skills and knowledge they will need to navigate, prosper and succeed in the Long Descent of our failing industrial civilization.

Here are some of the changes and new features we have to help you on your journey. First though, some information about the site...

FIRST - COMMENTS ON OUR URL BEING "NOT SECURE"

If you look at the top of the web page, in the URL box, you may see the words "Not secure". This is because in 2018 most browsers began requiring websites to implement HTTPS as an added security measure. The theme I am using for this site has, according to the tech people at my web hosting service, a single line of incorrect code, a Google font, which is encoded as http not https. I have been unable to get in touch with the original developer by email to have him correct it. That means I either have to find someone who understand Durpal coding and have them do it OR learn the language myself. (HINT at a Job if you can do this, Contact me.)

The old site and forum has a few months left on its annual web hosting, which is over two hundred dollars and I've made the decision to spend my time transferring the posts from there to here first. Because the original forum was set up using a very early version of Durpal (the forum software), I am unable to simple download all of the posts as a file and upload them here. Instead I have to manual copy/paste each thread and comment into a new thread here. Yes it sucks but there is too much great information there not to save it.

Now being "Not secure" doesn't mean you are going to be hacked, or your personal information somehow stolen off your personal computer by logging in here. There is way too many bigger fish in the Internet for hackers to go after than some small green living website. The worst that could happen is your user name, email and password from this site would be copied. An important practice is to not use the same password here, that you use on places like your credit card company or bank. Getting that line of code fixed and a SSL cert for this site is the number 2 priority after getting the forum comments moved.

Until that happens (about 3-4 months) you just have to decide if you trust us...

SECOND - YOU PROBABLY GOT AN EMAIL FROM US RECENTLY

One of the things I have to do, when I move those threads and comments is create an id for every person who posted on the old site. When I do, I use the user name and email of record for that person. The system here allow me to have an email sent to that address, notifying you that I have done that, and giving you a way to recover the account and request a new password.

You can chose to simply create a new id. In that case you won't be able to edit any of your older posts under the original name.

Either way, recovering your old id and password, or getting a new id, if you have any questions or problems PLEASE email me. My name is David Trammel and my email greenwizarddtrammel at gmail dot com.

---

OK, now for the cool new features here.

NEW FORUMS

As before, the Forums are the heart of the Green Wizard site. It is where we share our knowledge and learn.

You can see the new forum via any of the links to the right of this post, most predominately, the big banner at the top of the sidebar that says "VISIT THE NEW GREEN WIZARDS FORUM".

Or just click this link - http://greenwizards.com/forum

The new software here has allowed me to greatly expand on the number of forums. The old software had me locked into a preset number and I had to double up on some topics which didn't quite go together. Now each of the Green Wizard topics or as we call them "The Circles" has its own forum and is grouped with similar subjects. Why call them Circles? Check the introduction about that by clicking the center link above this post (or click this link)

"Introducing The Circles"

Its our hope that over time we can develop a curriculum of sorts, that can be made into a more hands-on, sequel to the original "Green Wizardry" by John Michael Greer.

(Notice that many of those forums, don't have many posts yet. That will change.)

WRITER'S RESOURCES

The old ADR and the new Ecosophia Community has a huge writers bench, aka "there's a lot of you all!", and its our belief that a core principle of Green Wizardry is that of the importance of storytelling as a way to teach. Sometimes the teacher needs to be taught as well, so we have a forum just to help you write better. I know there are several people among us who have had training and I am hoping their will step up and share their knowledge. Characterization, Plot, Tempo and dozens of other facets of the Art of Writing will be discussed, all of which we hope will make your stories better and help you get published.

The second forum for writers is one where you can post your own story, asking for comments, critique or even editing help.

The third of the Story forums, "Billy and the Old Man", I will explain in another blog post, once I get a bit more written about it...

"THE LIBRARY OF GRIMOIRES"

When you have a huge forum of information, its sometimes helpful to consolidate that knowledge into useful collections. Medieval wizards did this, and called their books "Grimoires". We will try and establish a common format for entries in this forum, and then once we have significant posts, put them together into pdfs for download (updated as needed).

The first one we will work on is the "Book of Plants" and I'm putting out a request that everyone send us pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. If you have something in the ground or in a pot this Spring, please take pictures as it grows.

MEETING LOCAL GREEN WIZARDS

At the bottom of the forums, you'll find the "Community" section. One of the things we would like to promote is the establishment of local groups of people who discuss and practice Green Wizardry. By Summer we should have a variety if resources we can send out (free copies of Greer's book, pamphlets and business cards, to help you organize in your community.

---

All of that new stuff is just in the Forums! Besides a great place to interact and discuss, we now have a front page of blogs and articles.

NEW BLOG POSTS

I will be posting a blog on the first and third Wednesdays of the month to coincidence with Greer's Ecosophia postings. I'd love to be able to post every week but with real life and work, I'd rather commit small and perhaps post the occasional added pot then let people down.

BUT...

Want to add your voice to the Green Wizard community? Feel that you have something to say? We here want to throw things open to the Community and say if you have an article or series on a subject you are knowledgeable on, then we will post it here. Do you know something about an old skill that everyone needs to relearn? Do you know how to build a helpful piece of tech, and can provide a detailed "How To"? Then get in touch with me, and let's make it happen.

---

So look around the site, kick the tires and look under the hood. Lets get busy and make 2019 the Year of Green Wizards.