Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a contemporary magical practice. It was initially developed in England the 1970s, drawing heavily from the philosophy of artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare.[1] Often referred to as "success magic" or "results-based magic", chaos magic emphasizes the attainment of objective results over the symbolic, ritualistic, theological or otherwise ornamental aspects of other occult traditions.[2]
Chaos magic has been described as a union of traditional occult techniques and applied postmodernism[3] – particularly a postmodernist skepticism concerning the existence or knowability of objective truth – and chaos magicians subsequently treat belief as a tool, often creating their own idiosyncratic magical systems.[3] As a consequence, chaos magic is both highly variable and highly eclectic in practice, frequently borrowing from other magical traditions, religious movements, pop culture and various strands of philosophy.[3]
Early leading figures include Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin.[2]
Terminology
The earliest chaos magic texts refer only to magic or "the magical art" in general – often claiming to state principles universal to magic, as opposed to a new specific style or tradition – and describe their innovations as efforts to rid magic of superstitious and religious ideas.[4][5]
The word chaos was first used in connection with magic by Peter J. Carroll in Liber Null & Psychonaut (1978), where it is described as "the 'thing' responsible for the origin and continued action of events."[4] Carroll goes on to say that "It could as well be called 'God' or 'Tao', but the name 'Chaos' is virtually meaningless and free from the anthropomorphic ideas of religion."[4]
Beliefs and General Principles
Results-Based Magic
Other magical traditions like Wicca, Qabalah or the Golden Dawn system combine techniques for bringing about change with "beliefs, attitudes, a conceptual model of the universe (if not several), a moral ethic, and a few other things besides."[6] Chaos magic grew out of the desire to strip away all of these extraneous elements, leaving behind only the techniques for effecting change; hence the emphasis is on actually doing things – i.e., experimenting with different techniques, rather than memorising complex rules, symbols and correspondences – and then retaining those techniques that produce results.[6][7]
This "pick'n'mix/D.I.Y" approach means that the working practices of different chaos magicians often look drastically different, with many authors explicitly encouraging readers to invent their own magical style.[8][9][10]
Belief as a Tool
The central defining tenet of chaos magic is arguably the "meta-belief" that "belief is a tool for achieving effects".[11] In chaos magic, complex symbol systems like Qabalah, the Enochian system, astrology or the I Ching are treated as maps or "symbolic and linguistic constructs" that can be manipulated to achieve certain ends but that have no absolute or objective truth value in themselves[6] – a position referred to by religious scholar Hugh Urban as a "rejection of all fixed models of reality",[12] and often summarised with the phrase "nothing is true everything is permitted".[13][11]
Many commentators have traced this position to the influence of postmodernism on contemporary occultism.[12][13] Another influence comes from the magical system of Austin Osman Spare, who believed that belief itself was a form of "psychic energy" that became locked up in rigid belief structures, and that could be released by breaking down those structures. This "free belief" could then be directed towards new aims.[14]
Other researchers[15] have highlighted the influence of occultist Aleister Crowley, who wrote of the occult:
In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.[16]
Magical Paradigm Shifting
The logical extension of using belief as a tool is the practice of the magical paradigm shift (also referred to as "belief-shifting" or "metaprogramming").[6] The word "paradigm" here refers to a particular world-view – "a particular lifestyle or belief system" encompassing a "personal web of beliefs and attitudes".[8] The aim is to utilise whichever model of the world is best for attaining the desired results in a given moment, by switching between multiple (often contradictory) worldviews.[6]
Carroll suggests assigning different worldviews to the sides of a die, and then inhabiting a particular random paradigm for a set length of time (a week, a month, a year, etc.), depending on which number is rolled. For example, 1 might be paganism, 2 might be monotheism, 3 might be atheism, and so on.[4] While the individual is working within a given paradigm, he or she believes in it fully, to the extent of ignoring all other worldviews.[6]
Phil Hine has stated that the primary task here is "to thoroughly decondition" the aspiring magician from "the mesh of beliefs, attitudes and fictions about self, society, and the world" that his or her ego associates with:
Our ego is a fiction of stable self-hood which maintains itself by perpetuating the distinctions of "what I am/what I am not, what I like/what I don't like", beliefs about ones politics, religion, gender preference, degree of free will, race, subculture etc all help maintain a stable sense of self.[6]
By practicing belief-shifting, the chaos magician aims to "widen the cracks in our consensual reality", thereby becoming "less attached to our beliefs and egofictions" and "thus able to discard or modify them when appropriate".[6]
Kia and Chaos
Within the magical system of Austin Osman Spare, magic was thought to operate by using symbols to communicate desire to something Spare termed "Kia" (a sort of universal mind, of which individual human consciousnesses are aspects) via the "passage" of the unconscious – hence the need for complex systems of symbolism. Provided there was enough "free belief" to feed them, these desires would then grow, unconsciously, into "obsessions", which would culminate in magical results occurring in reality.[14][17]
Peter J. Carroll inherited this model from Spare, but used the term "Kia" to refer to the consciousness of the individual: "the elusive 'I' which confers self-awareness".[4] The more general universal force, of which Kia is an aspect, Carroll termed "Chaos". In his own words:
Chaos... is the force which has caused life to evolve itself out of dust, and is currently most concentratedly manifest in the human life force, or Kia, where it is the source of consciousness... To the extent that the Kia can become one with Chaos it can extend its will and perception into the universe to accomplish magic.[4]
Later chaos magicians have stressed that this basic operating process can be explained in multiple different ways, from within different paradigms. For example:
- Within a spirit model, the job of a shaman is to communicate his intentions to his spirit helpers, who then work magic on his behalf.
- Within an energy model, a magician directs his own "Ki" or "Ch'i" towards specific aims.
- Within a psychological model, a magician uses symbols to program his unconscious to work towards his goals.
- Within an information model, a magician transmits information to an underlying matrix or field in order to produce specific effects.[6][18]
The gnostic state
A concept introduced by Peter Carroll is the gnostic state, also referred to as gnosis. This is defined as an altered state of consciousness that in his magic theory is necessary for working most forms of magic.[4] This is a departure from older concepts which described energies, spirits or symbolic acts as the source of magical powers. The concept has an ancestor in the Buddhist concept of Samadhi, made popular in western occultism by Aleister Crowley and further explored by Austin Osman Spare.
The gnostic state is achieved when a person's mind is focused on only one point, thought, or goal and all other thoughts are thrust out. Practitioners of chaos magic each develop their own ways of reaching this state. All such methods hinge on the belief that a simple thought or direction experienced during the gnostic state and then forgotten quickly afterwards bypasses the "psychic censor" (faculties averse to the magical manipulation of reality) and is sent to the subconscious, rather than the conscious mind, where it can be enacted through means unknown to the conscious mind. Three main types of gnosis are described:[19]
- Inhibitory gnosis is a form of deep meditation into a trance state of mind. This type of gnosis uses slow and regular breathing techniques, absent thought processes, progressive muscle relaxation, self-induction and self-hypnosis techniques. Means employed may also include fasting, sleeplessness, sensory deprivation and hypnotic or trance-inducing drugs.
- Ecstatic gnosis describes a mindlessness reached through intense arousal. It is aimed to be reached through sexual excitation, intense emotions, flagellation, dance, drumming, chanting, sensory overload, hyperventilation and the use of disinhibitory or hallucinogenic drugs.
- Indifferent vacuity was described by Phil Hine and Jan Fries as a third method. Here the intended spell is cast parenthetically, so it does not raise much thought to suppress.[20]
According to this belief, specific rituals, meditations and other elements of more traditional forms of magic are not to be understood as valuable by themselves, but only as gnosis-inducing techniques.
History
Origins and creation
Chaos magic was first formulated in West Yorkshire, England in the 1970s.[21] A meeting between Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin in Deptford in 1976 has been claimed as the point of emergence of chaos magic,[22] and in 1978 Carroll and Sherwin founded the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT),[21] a chaos magic organization. Liber Null (1978) by Peter J. Carroll further developed this new, experimental perspective on magic. This book and Carroll's Psychonaut (1981) remain important sources as are Sherwin's early books, The Book of Results (1978), the first book dedicated to the subject of sigilisation and The Theatre of Magick (1981) in which Chaos as a separate discipline was first mentioned.
Influences
Aleister Crowley has marginal yet early and ongoing influence for his deconstructionalism of magic which Spare followed through with concerning spellcraft, explicitly sigilization, yet also for his emphasis on finding a common language for practitioners of different traditions which subsequent generations have elaborated on via chaos magic.
Visionary artist and mystic Austin Osman Spare, who was briefly a member of Aleister Crowley's A∴A∴ but later broke with them to work independently,[23] is largely the source of chaos magical theory and practice. Specifically, Spare developed the use of sigils and the use of gnosis to empower these. Most basic sigil work recapitulates Spare's technique, including the construction of a phrase detailing the magical intent, the elimination of duplicate letters, and the artistic recombination of the remaining letters to form the sigil. Although Spare died before chaos magick emerged, many consider him to be the father of chaos magic because of his repudiation of traditional magical systems in favor of a technique based on gnosis.
Following Spare's death, magicians continued to experiment outside of traditional magical orders. In addition to Spare's work, this experimentation was the result of many factors, including the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s, the wide publication of information on magic by magicians such as Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie, the influence of Discordianism and Robert Anton Wilson, and the popularizing of magic by Wicca and Satanism.
See also
References
- ^ Chryssides, George. Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements
- ^ a b Drury, Nevill. The Watkins Dictionary of Magic
- ^ a b c Clarke, Peter. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements
- ^ a b c d e f g Carroll, Peter J. Liber Null & Psychonaut
- ^ Sherwin, Ray. The Book of Results
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hine, Phil. Condensed Chaos
- ^ White, Gordon. Pieces of Eight
- ^ a b Hine, Phil. Prime Chaos
- ^ Fries, Jan. Seidways
- ^ Hawkins, Jaq D. Understanding Chaos Magic
- ^ a b Carroll, Peter J. Liber Kaos
- ^ a b Urban, Hugh. Magia Sexualis
- ^ a b Carr-Gomm, Philip & Heygate, Richard. The Book of English Magic
- ^ a b Spare, Austin Osman. The Book of Pleasure
- ^ Metzger, Richard. Book of Lies
- ^ Crowley, Aleister. Book 4
- ^ Baker, Phil. Austin Osman Spare
- ^ Frater U.'.D.'.. Models of Magics
- ^ Vitimus, Andrieh (2009). Hands-on Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation Through the Ovayki Current. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-1508-7.
- ^ Fries, Jan (1992). Visual Magick: A Handbook of Freestyle Shamanism. Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 1-869928-57-1.
- ^ a b Hine, Phil (1995). Condensed Chaos. New Falcon Publications. ISBN 1-56184-117-X.
- ^ Hawkins, Jaq D. (1994). Understanding Chaos Magic. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 978-1898307938.
- ^ Knowles, George. Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956)
- Chryssides, George (2012). Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810861947.
- Drury, Nevill (2011). The Watkins Dictionary of Magic: Over 3000 Entries on the World of Magical Formulas, Secret Symbols and the Occult. Duncan Baird Publishers. ISBN 9781780283623.
- Clarke, Peter (2004). Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Routledge. ISBN 9781134499700.
- White, Gordon (2016). Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments.
- Hine, Phil (2009). Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic. Original Falcon Press. ISBN 9781935150664.
- Carroll, Peter J. (1992). Liber Kaos. Weiser Books. ISBN 9780877287421.
- Urban, Hugh (2006). Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520932883.
- Carr-Gomm, Philip & Heygate, Richard (2010). The Book of English Magic. The Overlook Press. ISBN 9781590207604.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Spare, Austin Osman (2013). The Book of Pleasure: The Psychology of Ecstasy. Lulu Press. ISBN 9781105502996.
- Metzger, Richard (2003). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 9780971394278.
- Carroll, Peter J. (1987). Liber Null & Psychonaut. Weiser Books. ISBN 9781609255299.
- Sherwin, Ray (1992). The Book of Results. Revelations 23 Press. ISBN 9781874171003.
- Hine, Phil (1998). Prime Chaos: Adventures in Chaos Magic. New Falcon Publications. ISBN 9781609255299.
- Fries, Jan (1997). Seidways. Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 1-869928-36-9.
- Hawkins, Jaq D. (1996). Understanding Chaos Magic. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1-898307-93-8.
- Baker, Phil (2011). Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London's Lost Artist. Strange Attractor. ISBN 9781907222016.
- Frater U.'.D.'. (1991). "Models of Magic". Chaos Matrix. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
Further reading
- Carroll, Peter J. (1987). Liber Null & Psychonaut. Samuel Weiser. pp. 228ff. ISBN 978-0877286394.
- Hawkins, Jaq D. (2003). Understanding Chaos Magic. Cappall Bann Publishing. pp. 118ff. ISBN 978-1898307938.
- Clarke, Peter Bernard (2006). Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Psychology Press. pp. 105ff. ISBN 978-0-415-26707-6.
- Dukes, Ramsey (2002). SSOTBME Revised: An Essay on Magic. ISBN 0-904311-08-2.
- Drury, Neville (2011). Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic. Oxford University Press. pp. 251ff. ISBN 978-0-19-975099-3.
- Louv, Jason (2005). Generation Hex. Disinfo. ISBN 978-1-932-85720-7
- Morris, Brian (2006). Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 303ff. ISBN 978-0-521-85241-8.
- Spare, Austin Osman. Ethos. ISBN 1-872189-28-8.