When I first encountered Jordan Peterson, I believed I had found someone who was able to pick up Joseph Campbell’s baton and turn some of the stories Campbell unearthed/highlighted in his studies into applicable advice.

I applauded his bloody-mindedness in opposing Canada’s bill C-60, mistaking it for a general resistance to our current SJW-tinged politically correct atmosphere in the Anglophone world.

I followed his doings and watched/listened to a lot of his lectures. Some of them had some real nuggets of truth in them, but then some quite didn’t hit the mark on my own understanding of things – such as his Bible lecture series.

I bought 12 Rules for Life and lapped it up, but still something wasn’t quite right, something I couldn’t put my finger on. But most of the advice, on its surface, was fairly pedestrian, and would appear to be a good starting point for those who might be truly lost.

(I must admit, his rule about petting cats just didn’t strike me as being altogether wise and might belie some hidden psychosis in the man. Okay, I am biased against cats, but, then there was the bit about taking pills, and inviting a crazy person to live with his young family, and then, and then…)

I had bought and was poised to read Maps of Meaning when I accidentally came across Vox Day’s critiques of JBP.

I had already read SJWs Always Lie and SJWs Always Double Down, but was unaware that Vox Day maintained a long-running blog. And in his blog, he pointed to Peterson’s involvement with Agenda 21-style UN work.

I followed the links and, yes, it was true. Which immediately got my spidey sense tingling.

And Vox Day has managed to point out what it was that wasn’t quite right.

As someone who had dabbled in the occult in my misspent youth, I was very familiar with some of the teachings of Alistair Crowley, and Vox Day has managed to point to the Crowleyan/Blavatskyist subtext of some of the 12 Rules. Once that filter was placed upon Peterson’s work, it became very clear to me that underneath the unassuming prairie golly-gee-whizness of Peterson’s delivery, there possibly lurks something darker.

Read the book for the details. Well worth it.

My only critique is the prodigious use of comments from JBP’s fanboys and ex-fanboys, but Vox Day defends this decision well in one of his recent blog posts.

I never did get around to reading Maps of Meaning.