Chaos Magic

[KaleidoskopicVision]

I'm going to give you all a quick introduction to my favorite brand of occultism/philosophy/magic/whatever you want to call it. Chaos magic is better defined by saying what it is not. It is not a religion, a creed, a belief system or a preordained set of instructions of any kind. Aside from the meta belief that beliefs are merely tools and are by no means an end in themselves unless you so choose for them to be, it makes no attempt to discern right and wrong or any sort of moral relativity whatsoever. There are no lightworkers, no evildoers, no enlightened beings in chaos magic. The word chaos, is seen by many to be synonymous with disorder and anarchy, but in the context of chaos magic, it is hardly so. Instead, it refers to the more classical definition of chaos, that of shapeless, formless void. Primordial chaos. This primordial chaos is hard to pin a solid definition on. It supposedly means all things are made of this primal chaos, but that primal chaos is shapeless and void of all things. It's quite the paradoxical idea, which is why it fits so well with the name for the brand of occultism called chaos magic. chaos magic does not assert that all things are primal chaos. Again, it does not assert much beyond beliefs being tools. Rather, the name association fits the nature of the practice. Most of the time.

I like the concept because it is freedom inducing. When one's beliefs become tools, they cease to become one's overlords. A belief in a God could be a tool to feel protected and loved. A belief that oneself is morbidly obese could be the fire under your ass to get you to exercise. As soon as the belief no longer works for you, there is absolutely no need to hold on to things like faith and anorexia. You simply drop the belief and choose a new set of tools. Or don't. It's your choice.

Now you might be saying to yourself "this sounds really familiar, don't many personal development or LOA advocates say the same thing?" well yes and no. Yes, many PD gurus are much like chaos magicians, but they are usually missing an important element. The second part of chaos magic, that of magic. Magic is seen by many to be the stuff of fairy tales. Harry Potter, or Jack's magic beans. However, by occult terminology, magic is a way of using the will to cause an effect that defies logical progression, or skips around it conveniently. LOA would be 'magic' to some people whose logic does not accept belief creating reality. It's still very magical to people who do acknowledge its inherent logic. The mind has very old biases that usually take more than one lifetime to completely rewire. Occultism usually incorporates ritual in order to utilize magic. In most branches of occultism, ritual comes in very specific forms with set in stone guidelines. Usually wards and banishments are performed to prevent the magician from becoming possessed or otherwise harmed by the ritual. Neophytes often have to read difficult tomes and memorize the basic protocols for rituals before they are accepted into the upper ranks of any coven or secret society. Upon reaching the level of the adept, they are usually informed that the purportedly set in stone rules of the rituals are more like guidelines designed to prevent someone from getting hurt (someone, or more specifically, to keep the hierarchy intact and protected from particularly crafty neophytes who desire power). The inherent power in any magical ritual lies in what is known as psychodrama.

Psychodrama, much like the dramas of a theater, is an elaborate play designed to place the actors in a specific psychic state so that this mental energy can be harnessed and directed by the will during the ritual. Rituals are plays and the magician(s) are actors and actresses. And just as a particularly good play has a deep impact on the audience, so does the magic ritual have a deep impact on all those intended to be on the receiving end of ritual magic. Their presence is unimportant, as thoughtforms have a life of their own. As soon as the ritual is over, the magicians will end their play by removing themselves from their 'character' and going about their daily lives. The chaos magician adapts the power of ritual to whatever purpose they so choose, adding as much creativity and inventiveness as possible. Chaos magic is poetry. You could say William Shakespeare was an accomplished chaos magician.

Chaos magic can get very creative. A chaos magician endeavoring to create an atmosphere of mischief may invoke the spirits of Bugs Bunny and Loki simultaneously, making offerings of carrot juice and chanting aloud one liners inside a magical circle in the shape of something raunchy, while festooning the space with silly string. The emphasis here is on the power of ritual to charge a situation and greatly empower the will. It's one thing to say "I am going to change my beliefs to x to make y happen" and quite another to make an elaborate play based around x and y. If you were raised Catholic for example and still have many subconscious impressions on your psyche, it may help to dress up as a bishop, complete with staff, to give yourself an extra aura of power during a ritual. This works even better if you're invoking Satan to do your bidding at the same time. The lunacy, sense of eating forbidden fruit and the whole over the top nature will definitely impact your psyche. If you weren't raised with a religion with elaborate ceremonial magic, perhaps you have a favorite childhood superhero? The point is to get so creative, so obscene, so insane but with a clear intention and relevant ritual elements so that there is a deep and powerful impact on your psyche.

Gnosis is an almost invaluable concept in any form of ritual magic and its power shouldn't be passed up by any chaos magician. Gnosis is a state of consciousness where one becomes 'God conscious'. It's an experience that can happen during deep meditation, during an overwhelming experience, during a psychedelic trip or... during a particularly effective ritual. Gnosis is so powerful because your discursive mind stops rambling on and on. For a few moments you become something more than your day to day identity. The impact is immediate and very real. My favorite techniques for inducing gnosis are meditation and 'juggler's meditation' which is the fine art of multitasking to the point of total cognitive collapse, if just for a second. During orgasm is another surefire way to experience gnosis, but for obvious reasons this isn't always the most convenient way to charge a ritual. Though when it is appropriate, sex magic is usually the strongest sort of ritual magic. Western Goetic magic is an example of this and many chaos magicians use Goetic techniques while skipping over the boring parts, like banishing rituals and salutations to the four archangels. Tantra is of course another great example of sex magic.

I know my explanation of chaos magic was very irregular, jumbled and totally nonlinear but first of all it isn't easy to explain chaos magic in a linear fashion and second of all the somewhat garbled explanation may actually better explain the essence of what I'm talking about. If you're interested by the subject, I recommend the book Liber Null, one of the first 'official' chaos magic texts. I also recommend any work by Robert Anton Wilson, though they may not explicitly pertain to chaos magic, aside from the Discordian stuff.

I notice a big thing on nearly everyone's mind here is cash. So I've decided this would also be a good thread to have people come up with zany ideas for money magic. Make up the most ridiculous, inspiring, ludicrous, embarrassing and totally self recreating ritual you can think of for invoking the desire for serious cash flow. I'll bet you my hat (and I am very fond of this hat) that the ritual will work a hundred times better than any old affirmation ever would.

Happy acting!

[theuprising]

you shouldn't call it chaos magic, its rather unsavory. How about the "unmanifested" magic (since I think that's what you are trying to describe by chaos, the Power of Now described God as the unmanifested, all possibilities that weren't the ones happening. You can hear it in silences between words, you can hear it right now in the dog barking in the distance. What dog you ask?).

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by theuprising

you shouldn't call it chaos magic, its rather unsavory. How about the "unmanifested" magic (since I think that's what you are trying to describe by chaos, the Power of Now described God as the unmanifested, all possibilities that weren't the ones happening. You can hear it in silences between words, you can hear it right now in the dog barking in the distance. What dog you ask?).

Did you ever consider that the title is meant to be unsavory? We're far too coddled in modern society. The term serves to shake us out of our secure little comfort zones. Unmanifested magic is way too weak of a name. Chaos magic is just pregnant with imagery and feeling. Magic doesn't work unless you can step outside of yourself for the moment. After all, it's meant to change something in your self confined little world. You need to be one of the Gods for the time being and not just in theory, but in spirit and if possible, appearance.

Edit: But if you feel that unmanifested magic is a better term, then use it, because it will probably work better for you. Whatever feels more potent to you, whatever works, is what chaos magic is about. So call it whatever you want.

[OlderWiser]

Chaos is beautiful. Fractal art is based DIRECTLY on chaos theory mathematics.

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by OlderWiser

Chaos is beautiful. Fractal art is based DIRECTLY on chaos theory mathematics.

See folks? Chaos doesn't have to rampage through the countryside, depreciate property values, raping our churches, burning our women. It can be a beautiful art form!

[KaleidoskopicVision]

And not to mention chaos mathematics are found everywhere in nature. Even clouds and geological formations.

[OlderWiser]

Yes. And the weather is based in chaos, as well. Lots of things are.

Chaos is nothing to be afraid of. It's just the opposite of ordered. It's the unordered molecules and matter and energies, without shape, without having been ordered into "something".

And now, I'm sorry, but I MUST do this (my pineal gland is tingling). Hail Eris!

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by OlderWiser

Yes. And the weather is based in chaos, as well. Lots of things are.

Chaos is nothing to be afraid of. It's just the opposite of ordered. It's the unordered molecules and matter and energies, without shape, without having been ordered into "something".

And now, I'm sorry, but I MUST do this (my pineal gland is tingling). Hail Eris!

Teehee, first time I've seen someone say that on these forums

[Wax Frog]

I have used, or attempted to use, chaos magic my whole life - I just didn't know it had a name. To clarify, I never had any exposure to any magickal systems - indeed the whole subject was downright spooky to me, lumped in with Satanism and the like. Instead, thanks to an indifferent father and gentle mom, and being rather a loner, I had the opportunity to work with my own imagination. That imagination, a vivid and inventive one, provided me with a whole mess of rituals, the most notable and developed being my habit, starting as a teen with model kits, of exchanging 'energy' with my creations, using them almost like batteries, and also chanting to myself in a 'language' I made up over time, whenever I felt the need.

In the vein of the former practice, I will soon be posting a thread of my own devoted to a 'servitor' creation experiment I wish to share...

[Melchior]

You mean hail Khaos?

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by Melchior

You mean hail Khaos?

Blasphemy!

[rei]

sounds like working with Lady Nada. (Lady Master Nada)

despite the warm-fuzzy description, she is representative of the primordial womb, pregnant with potential, raw power waiting to be molded. she is also the one who is consulted if the karmic board can't make a decision about a being's request to have his or her (its) karma altered.

nada=nothing/void, seems quite similar to me... karma connects us to the pregnant void of potential. a void of potential isn't orderly because it hasn't been shaped into anything... it's formless, limitless.

interesting thread, KV.

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by Wax Frog

I have used, or attempted to use, chaos magic my whole life - I just didn't know it had a name. To clarify, I never had any exposure to any magickal systems - indeed the whole subject was downright spooky to me, lumped in with Satanism and the like. Instead, thanks to an indifferent father and gentle mom, and being rather a loner, I had the opportunity to work with my own imagination. That imagination, a vivid and inventive one, provided me with a whole mess of rituals, the most notable and developed being my habit, starting as a teen with model kits, of exchanging 'energy' with my creations, using them almost like batteries, and also chanting to myself in a 'language' I made up over time, whenever I felt the need.

In the vein of the former practice, I will soon be posting a thread of my own devoted to a 'servitor' creation experiment I wish to share...

Wax's servitor thread will certainly be intriguing. He's been keeping me filled in on the whole creation process and so far it's been very successful

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by rei

sounds like working with Lady Nada.

??? (sorry, couldnt' resist)

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by KaleidoskopicVision

Wax's servitor thread will certainly be intriguing. He's been keeping me filled in on the whole creation process and so far it's been very successful

Any help/suggestions I can get for the trance end of things (aside from ingesting weird herbs and the like ) will be much appreciated...

[Michael Chui]

Obligatory:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[rei]

Originally Posted by Wax Frog

??? (sorry, couldnt' resist)

talk about chaos and disorder

apology not accepted! Nada may like Gaga for all i know
maybe Gaga likes Nada, can't tell with that dang poker face...

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by rei

apology not accepted! Nada may like Gaga for all i know maybe Gaga likes Nada, can't tell with that dang poker face...

I merely seek the forgiveness of those who may have been caused undue pain by my punnery ...

[rei]

Originally Posted by Wax Frog

I merely seek the forgiveness of those who may have been caused undue pain by my punnery ...

get thee to a punnery at once!

(note: we have here an experiential demonstration of chaos magic )

[blossom]

This thread has induced tingling in me

I've been drawn to chaos magick in the past and this has sparked inspiration in me to get creative with it again. I usually just like to work without any props which I find unnecessary when just mind, emotions and will are all that is really needed, and they are all within. I find that to be just as succesful, if not more, than in a ritual context...it is fun to play dress ups though and really play the part. Haven't done this in a while. Thanks KV

[OlderWiser]

Originally Posted by rei

talk about chaos and disorder

apology not accepted! Nada may like Gaga for all i know
maybe Gaga likes Nada, can't tell with that dang poker face...

Hail Eris, indeed.

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by rei

(note: we have here an experiential demonstration of chaos magic )

Actually, per what KV posted, maybe I should try using humor as a manifesting tool!

[OlderWiser]

Originally Posted by Wax Frog

Actually, per what KV posted, maybe I should try using humor as a manifesting tool!

In all seriousness (word play intended), if you have a strong sense of humour and playfulness, then YES, you should use that. Use the tools with which you are most adept. Writing, drawing, singing, dancing, playfulness, whatever you're good at doing and like doing, do that, with the intention of creating reality with those tools.

[Wax Frog]

Originally Posted by OlderWiser

Use the tools with which you are most adept.

As I said, stay tuned for my 'servitor' thread I've always been intensely visual, and so am pouring heaps of energy into creating my picture...