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P R I M E C H A O S
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FOREWORD
This book is a state-of-the-art report on Chaos Magick. It is
written with an overview of magick which has grown out of many
years of practical work, in a variety of magickal groups and
orders, including the Pact of the IOT.
The author's creative and experimantal involvement with magick
shows in the originality of the material. Think of an influential
magickal book: how long ago was that picture of magick conceived?
Less than 50 years? Phil's book represents the nearest thing to
live magick I've seen in print. It contains work which is still
being tested. This is a window an the world of the working
magickian, a mysterious flask of distillate hauled from the
laboratories of the mind, still smoking suspiciously.
One of the great strengths of the book is the section on groups.
Chaos Magick has drawn most of its current incalculable influ-
ence from the work of groups. In a world where transaction has
replaced duty as an imperfect method of achieving social
coherence, it is astonishing that virtually nothing exists on
the practical dynamics of the non-religious magickal group.
What Liber Null did for the solo magician, this essay does for
the magickal group, in summarizing the results of years of
experience in such alliances.
Informed as it is by the spirit of postmodernism, the book
does not try to achieve closure. It does not present a system,
but supplies the reader with powerful strategic and magickal
tools for this stage of the Pandeamonaeon. The mood of the
book ist of being profoundly at home in the accelerating shift
and fragmantation of daily life. Connoissuers of late 20th
century demotic will be delighted by the thefts of phrase. As
we see fractal T-shirts, popular images from chaos, and chaos
sigils fired out of our TV screens, the reciprocal process is
occurring too, and magickal symbolism is growing out of fractal
shards of culture.
In opening up the magickal demensions of the work of Burroughs
and Gysin, Phil introduces to the experimental sorcerer two
particulary valuable ideas: the use of cut-up, the sliding
and dislocation of words, as a magickal technique, and the
concept of wordvirus, aka meme. As in pre-literate societies,
magick becomes the core of language, as we weave spells from
spelling. This pulls our magick into the heart of everyday
life, the Chaos of the Normal, which is where it belongs.
Dave Lee
W H Y C H A O S M A G I C K ?
There's basically two kinds of magick. There's puff's magick, and
git `ard Magick. Chaos is git `ard Magick.
Mick McMagus. Leeds, 1987
As our world changes, so too do our magick. Throughout history,
the way in which magick is described and understood changes, from
its beginnings in proto-shamanism, to the great 'Occult Revival'
at the turn of this century. Chaos Magick sets the pace for our
entry into the next century.
There have been revolutions in science, literature and art. Chaos
Magick is the first revolution in the field of Magick. Previous
(and many existing) magical philosophies have been rooted in a
connection to the past - be it the past of the ancestors, or in
historical (or romantic) tradition. Althrough much of what is
emerging as Chaos Magick builds on what has magically gone before
it stresses change, rather than continuity, as the only constant.
We live in a world that is rapidly changing, a world where the
application of high technology and media saturation enables us to
mix styles endlessly, where elements of the past present, and
possible futures are conjured up in most aspects of everyday life
from the clothes we wear, to the beliefs we adopt. While other
magical systems promise stability, an anchor into fixed time and
ordered universe neatly encapsulated into bite-size take-home
pieces, Chaos Magick moves with the fusion and fluidity of
modern life.
Chaos Magick began to surface in the late 70s as punk rock arose
to threaten the complancency of the establishment. Now we see
Chaos Theory move from an obscure branch of mathematics into an
accepted 'new' science. We have watched computer-generated
fractals become high fashion, the mandalas for a new generation.
Chaos has become fashionable. We do not reject modern culture,
we embrace it. So how is Chaos Magick different from the other
Magical Systems which are on special offer in the modern world ?
Firstly, Chaos Magick is a paradigm rather than a system in itself.
It is an approach or overall view, wherein each individual, ulti-
mately, creates his own magical psychocosm. Rather than 'following'
a path, the Chaos Magician weaves his own path out of individual
experiences, and what works best for him. The Chaos Magician has,
from the very beginnings, the option to be as eclectic as he
desires, selecting beliefs and techniques from any magical system,
indeed anything which ha believes will be useful - from the past,
present, or possible futures. From literature, art, science,
pseudoscience, technology or fantasy.
The revolutionary impact of Chaos Magick was that it emphasized
practical experience. What matters is hands-on experience - rather
than accommodating second-hand beliefs or long lists of corres-
pondences. There are no Chaos teachers, 'holy' books or traditions
that dictate belief an behaviour. The Chaos Magician is free to
act first, and choose his questions ans answers later. It is the
Chaos Magician rather than some guru or teacher, who is respon-
sible for development, experience, creativity, and the results of
his actions.
Magick has always been a way of creating islands of order out of
what Austin Spare called 'the chaos of the normal'. As society
became more complex, it seems that 'magical' realities became
increasingly abstract and relatively simplistic. The otherworld
of tribal shaman is a fair reflection of his everyday world,
whereas the 'innerworld' of the twentiethcentury Cabbalist bears
little resemblance to consensus reality, as he ascends Jacob's
Ladder away from the Earth into cosmic abstract spaces. the
general view of Chaos Magick is that any islands of order we
create are at best temporary enclaves; that belief itself is a
tool, rather than a set of limitations that can quickly become a
stagnant dogma. Thus a Chaos Magician may choose to adopt a
Cabbalistic belief-system as a temporary measure, just as he may
given enough time, determination and effort redesign his personal
belief which govern any aspect of his behaviour or attitudes.
"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted" is one of the
few Chaos slogans. No wonder that some occultists react to Chaos
Magicians as through they are militant anarchists.
As we move towards the twenty-first century, a number of concepts
which, until fairly recently (and from certain belief-system
remain so), appeared stable and understood have been called into
question. Pete Carroll, in his seminal work Liber Null (the
premier grimoire of Chaos Magick so far), described the 'death'
of these concepts as - the Death of Spirituality, the Death of
Superstition, the Death of Identity, the Death of Belief, and the
Death of Ideology. These concepts are no longer fixed and rigid,
and reality becomesa playground for those with the will to enjoy
and make it so. One of the immediate concerns to be voiced about
Chaos Magick was an implied lack of an ethical basis. Most other
occult systems have clearly-stated (sometimes over-stated) ethical
stances concerning what the practitioner must not do. The Chaos
paradigm rejects the necessity of this attitude and instead tends
towards the view that personal morality grows from within - that
is, it up to each individual to define and uphold his own ethical
standards, rather than them being imposed by some outward agency.
Having said this, Chaos Magick is generally pro-life and pro-
freedom of expression. Magick tends to be portrayed as being
separate or beyond our everyday existence. Chaos Magick, howerver
supports the proposition that magick works best when it is
responsive to our life situations. The Chaos approach is that of
becoming more flexibel and adaptive to the world through which
we move, to take a wide-angle, rather than one-directional view
of the world, and to seek and embrace new possibilities. To find
the most appropriate position and perspective to act from, and
than act decisively. Magick becomes not so much what we 'do', but
the 'way' we live.
This book is but one viewpoint into the Choas Perspective. Magick
stagnates when it becomes trapped into set formulations and pro-
cedures. Look beyond what you 'know'to be magick, and go further.
Enjoy.
- Phil Hine, January 1993.
P A R T O N E
A C H I E V A B L E R E A L I T Y
One of the first questions that a non-magician asks the practitioner
of magick is Why do you do it ? A number of answers may be offered.
One may speak of a desire to unterstand the universe, of finding a
way of 'spiritual' living, a means to personal transformation, self-
evolution - of course, much depends on the belief-system that has
been adopted. Spiritual Living implies the belief that there is
something about life which isn't 'spiritual'; Personal Trans-
foramtion keeps things nicely psychological; and Self-Evolution has
a Darwinian ring to it. For now through, let's cast the net fairly
broadly and answer that Magick is a set of techniques and appoaches
that can be used to extend the limits of Achievable Reality.
In the Chaos paradigm, the emphasis is placed on realizing magick
work into Consensus Reality. Success is not measured through context
dependent 'spititual' grades, nor by a slow, imperceptible plodding
along a course which was laid down by someone else, but by visible
results by which the magician demonstates to himself that he can
do things which, a short time ago, never entered his mind as
possibilities. Some Chaos Magicians tend to the view that Magick is
a means of adapting oneself to one's environment. Through Magick,
one can redesign oneself, enabeling greater freedom of movemnt
within the environment and, where necessary, seek to adapt and
redesign the environment to allow a greater degree of posibilities.
Adopting this stance requires the ability to evaluat one's
circumstances without recourse to the safety-net of delusions
which aspiring magi often weave about themselves. Gone too, are the
cosmic cop-out clauses which, on the one hand, allow a magician to
believe that if a spell 'worked' it's because he is a good magician
but if it didin't, it's because the tides/karma/fates weren't
'right'. The responsibility for the failure or success implies a
greater responsibility than failure, as successful magicks lead to
change, and change is not generally easy to cope with.
GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD
The very act of doing magick itself threatens the magicans
established limit of Achievable Reality, even if one is
practising the entry-level BodyMind Exercises, Mind Control
and simple Sorceries which are available through the plethora
of magical workbooks (Chaos or otherwise) now available.
Probably the most formidable opponent the magician will
encounter is his own inertia, or resistance to change.
Embarking on any training or work schedule automatically
invokes this demon, and magicians may be surprised time and
time again at the ingenuity 'it' shows in manufacturing
excuse which justify the delaying of a practice 'until
tomorrow'. The demon of Inertia is the Guardian of the
Threshold of Achievable Reality, and the only way to over-
come it is through determination, effort and sheer bloody-
mindedness: themselves useful qualities for the would-be
magician.
BASIC PROCEDURE
One may consider magick to be an art, science, or somewhere
inbetween, but it remains true that before one assumes the
pose of being a magical Dali or Heisenberg, some basic
procedures must be established. Just because Chaos Magick
semms to imply that all the 'rules' of other magical systems
can be cast aside, doesn't mean that there is a total absence
of self-discipline. Well begun is half done, and establishing
basic procedures of practice go a long way in moving back the
borders of Achievable Reality.
STAGES OF LEARNING
When learning any new skill, there are three key stages which
it is well to be awere of. Firstly, there is the initial
stage of practice which if fulled be high levels of enthus-
iasm and motivation, and so the results of learning are
fairly immediate. So far, so good. However, at some point in
the practice, one enters a 'dry' stage - the Guardian of the
Threshold has caught on to what is happening and suddenly,
the practice becomes BORING. Out come the
excueses and delaying tactics. This is the 'hump` experienced by
students and people on long training courses, and is the point
where many people give up. This is the time when one has to conquer
the Guardian by being equal to its wiles. Once this stage has
passed, one frinds that the effort that was being diverted into
resisting the practice is available for further progression; that
there is now little effort involved in the practice, and its
benefits may be reaped. A great deal of early learning follows
these stages, and learining magical skills is similar, exept that
one is not only establishing new patterns, but changing
established patterns.
TIME SCHEDULING
Learning new skills requires time - a commodity that one often not
willing to redistribute and which not everybody has to the same
degree. Many magical workbooks insist that set exercises be
diligently performed at the same hour each day. This is fine, if
one's lifestyle allows such rigorous structuring of personal time,
but others find it near-impossible. When setting a Time Schedule,
it is essential to be realistic. Making up unrealistic schedule
often means the one is unlikely to stick to it, which ultimately
strengthens the Guardian of one's Achievable Reality. A Time
Schedule should be difficult, but not impossible, lest one sets
oneself up for failure at the beginning.
THE MAGICAL DIARY
Keeping a Magical Diary of practice, ideas, weird experiences, and
dreams is essential. It becomes not only a record of work done,
but also a depository of ideas and insights arising out of one's
magical work. It is also a valuable tool for self-assessment. Just
as it is all too easy for aspiring magicians to see themself as
the best thing since Solomon's wand, so too is it easy to deny
that one has made any progress at all. When there is no guru,
teacher or master to give support, then there remains only oneself.
The Magical Diary is the place where strenghts and weaknesses are
acknowledged, and changes over time effort can be discerned.
MAGICK WORKS
Magick, like sexual intercourse, needs to be experienced to be
fully understood. Similary, the fist few times that one tries it,
it might not live up to preconceived expectations. It might even
be a dismal failure, but that shouldn't put you off forever,
right? However, the Guardian lurks in a corner of the psyche,
armed with justifications, rationalizations, excuses - all the
embedded cultural programming which says that magick is super-
stition, fantasy, and something that can't 'really' happen. The
fact that much of what passes for Consensus Reality is based on
superstition, fantasy and things which defy rational explanation
is neither here nor there. To overcome the Guardian, the would-
be magician has to prove to himself that MAGICK WORKS, and the
only way to do this is by trying it out. Proving that Magick
Works, even in a small way, begins the process of pushing back
the boundaries of Achievable Reality. Suddenly, nothing is as
clear-cut as it formerly seemed. Keep 'doing' Magick for long
enough and it becomes an embedded part of personal reality - as
familiar as the sky, earth, and buildings seen every day. At this
point one ceases to believe in magick as something 'seperate'
from the rest of one's familiar world. Rather, the world is
becoming magical.
T H E D Y N A M I C S O F S O R C E R Y
Orthodox magical systems make a distinction between 'Low' Magick
(Sorcery) which is concerned with bringing about change in one's
immediate circumstances, and 'High' Magick which in concernd with
'Spititual' Evolution. The Chaos Paradigm generally rejects this
distinction, as it implies a philosophy which rejects the
physical world as being somehow inferior to a 'spirituality'
which is somehow above the world. Also, this distinction is not
an accurate reflection of magical experience.
Being able to see the results of Sorcery workings (even in small
ways) shift the boundray of Achievable Reality and successfully
embeds the fact that magick works. It also raises one's
confidence in both personal abilities and the techniques them-
self, and leads to a more expansive outlook.
Also, success with Sorcery techniques requires that one develop
the ability to assess self-performance, and critically examine
desires, which in self leads to change. Bringing about direct
changes in the world necessitates that the magician pay close
attention to what he is about. Sorcery, with its emphasis on
pragmatic techniques and observable results, directs attention
to the world as it is experienced, rather than some simplistic
idea that has hitherto been accepted as 'real'. Reality is more
complex than many people generally like to think.
The dynamics of socery are fairly simple, and there is a wide
variety of techniques available. Also it's not difficult to
devise personal techniques which are unique to oneself. The
application of Sorcery, too, is very wide.
1. INTENTION
Most acts of Sorcery begin with the Statemant of Intent. This is
a simple declaration of what one is about to do, and for what
final purpose. Since vague intentions tend to give rise to, at
best, vague results, the magician should formulate a Statament
of Intent which is as precise as possible, without
becoming overly verbose. Two techniques which may be of assistance
here are:
(I) DIVINATION SYSTEMS
The surface desire for change may well not be the best point from
which to work. This is where Divnation Systems such as Tarot,
I Ching, Runes, Astrology, or self-created systems can be brought
in. For example, a Sorcerer is desirous of obtaining employment
- 'getting a job' is desire. However, using a divination system to
examine the components of the situation, he finds that a key
element which 'blocks' his desire is lack of confidence. so he
performs a working where improving self-confidence is the main
focus of the Enchantment.
Divination system can also be used when examining a situation
which involves other people. It may occasionally be useful to
examine one's motives for intervening in a situation involving
other people, and also looking for 'hidden' factors which may be
immediately apparent.
(II) COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING
There is often a good deal of difference between what we think we
'ought' to be doing, and what can realistically be achieved. This
difference is often a contributing factor to work and life
stresses. Magicians often have high ideals, but may sometimes find
that it is difficult to bring those ideals down to earth. It can
be useful, in this regard, to take an overall intention and break
it down into smaller stages, each of which is more readily
realised than the overall objective. Rather than trying for a
sudden 'push' of Achievable Reality threshold, it may by more
realistic to attempt this in stages.
SORCERY EVENT SERIES
A Sorcery Event Series (S.E.S.) is a series of linked Sorcery
operations. A long-term goal is broken down into smaller, related
steps. As one results manifests, the momentum of success carries
the magician into the next working in the
series. This sets up a condition where each single event concluded
in the series, increases the probability of the overall intent
manifesting. The S.E.S. is a particularly useful tactic for work-
ing with establishing long-term projects. The effect can be
likened to setting up a line of dominoes, and then pushing the
first domino into its neighbour.
2. PROBABILITY PATHWAYS
Contrary to popular opinion, magical results do not pop up out of
thin air, and it does help enormously, with Sorcery workings if
there is a 'pathway' through which the desired result can manifest.
This can also be examined in terms of probabilities. A Sorcerer
who performs a ritual to ensure that he passes an exam, but who
does not any revison or cramming, is not creating a situation where
there is a reasonable probability that he will pass with flying
colours. If he does study, however, the probability of success is
likely to be higher. Sorcery does seem to achieve the best results
when the probability factor is at least fractionally higher than
zero. To take another example, when planning workings for
financial gain, it is useful to have a number of projects on the
go, any of which many results in increased funds - and hence the
sorcery working is more likely to yield some kind of positive
result.
3. TIMING
Timing is an important yet often underrated factor in practical
magick. A good example of how timing can critically affect the
outcome of a working is that of Healing. If a client has a long-
term, progressive may be more successful at an early rather than
a late stage in the course of the illness. Complex life
situations can be examined for the purposes of Sorcery as
unfolding event series. In the early stages of a developing
situation, there may be more fluidity and flexibility than at a
later stage, where it is less easy to influence probable out-
comes. Events which can be perceived are macroscopic changes
which have been brought about by
the unseen interaction of microscopic fluctuations. In other words
an avalanche can be seem, but not the very small factors which
brought it about. Developing strategies that allow the
identification of small changes, and then influencing them so
that they lead to change which fulfils the cordinations of one's
statement of intent, can therefore be useful for Sorcery working.
In other words, learn to 'nudge' a situation at the right moment.
Paying close attention to what is happening in a given situation
is useful, and using Divination systems can also help here.
SORCERY OPERATIONS - BASIC PROCEDURE
Once a Statement of Intent has been formulated, and any other
relevant factors taken into account, the next general step in
any Sorcery operation is to move into a Free Area. In orthodox
magical systems, this tends to involve ritual procedures for
setting up a magical Circle, making any psychological adjustments
for magical work, or assuming particular postures. In the Chaos
Paradigm, a Free Area is any space which has been redefined as a
zone where normal Consencus Reality is suspended, and Magical
Reality is operant. Thus a Free Area may refer to a previously-
prepared Temple, a space in which ritual is to be performed, or
a state of Consciousness.
Within the Free Area, the magician uses any offered technique/
trick deemed appropriate to clear his awareness of anything but
the impending magical act. This can range from full ritual
procedure - performing a Banishing ritual, setting up an altar,
ect.,to merely closing one's eyes and concentrating. The
techniques used to define a Free Area often depend upon:
I) Circumstances
II) Available Time
III) Necessity
IV) Individual Perference
Following the defination of, and entry into the Free Area, the
next stage is to move towards a stage of consciousness known in
condition of one-pointed consciousness wherein awareness is emptied
of all save object of concentration; where will is given both
intentionality and vector. The main routs to Gnosis are threefold:
Excitatory - anything which stills the BodyMind, such as passive
meditation, slow chanting, hypnotic agents, or slow breathing; and
Indifferent Vacuity - a state of no-mind, or Non-Interest/Disinterest
where the object of desire flickers briefly in a mind emptied of
all content - no emotional attachment to the desire.
Upon entering the 'peak' of Gnosis, the desire in its chosen
repredentative from - a sigil, for example - is projected forth,
towards its target or into the void of the multiverse. It is then
banished from awareness, that is to say forgotten.
Following projection of the desire, the Free Area is closed using
any preferred method, such as manic laughter, a Banishing Ritual,
or a hand gesture. The Magician then moves onward, having set up
the conditions whereby his desire will manifest accordingly.
It should be noted that a key to Sorcery is that, on completion
of a working, it should be considered - at least on a magical
level - to be finished with, and nothing more in the way of
magical work needs to be done. The deep certainty that one's
Sorcery will yield the desired result will only come through
continued practice, effort, and refinement of technique, but it is
not unusal for advanced practitioners to claim a 'succes' rate
with the kind of magick of around 80-90%.
The above description of General Sorcery working, from a three-
hour group ritual involving prolonged dancing, druming and
chanting, to an act of 'Empty-Handed' magick which can be
performed anywhere, and need only last a few seconds. In general,
magicians tend to proceed from the former to the latter type of
working. As one continually shifts the boundary of Achievable
Reality, the definations of 'what' constitutes a magical action
tend to become fairly fluid. At
the beginning of magical practice, it is usual to perceive magical
operations as being 'seperate' to everyday experience. Later how-
ever, acts of magick becomes a part of everyday experience, as
one makes the transition between inhabiting a Consensus Reality
which is gradulally widening to admit the possibilities of magick
to creating a personal Magical Reality - a Psychocosm.
E V O L V I N G A P S Y C H O C O S M
In becoming familiar with magical ideas, reading books, learning
symbol systems and correspondences, one comes to learn the 'game
rule' of magick. Like any other game, the rules define the frame-
work of the activity. For a game to be wortwhile, its rules must
be flexible, open to different interpretation, and allow for
different needs and situations. Involvement with magical practice
shows that the game rule of Consensus Reality are more flexible,
and have more loopholes than one may originally through.
Developing a magical Psychocosm is slow process, as one pathers
momentum in magical practice, shifting from the 'beginner's mind'
of having read a few books and probably having set up
preconceptions as to what magick is 'about', to beginning to
practice magical techniques in earnest. One of the strengths of
Chaos paradigm is that experience is stresses over pre-
experiential beliefs. Do it first then consider which beliefs
and concepts seem to be most appropriate, in the light of
personal experience.
In modern culture, there are hundreds of magical paradigms
available, with more being discovered, recovered and invented
every year. Beginners in magick often adopt a paradigm which
reflects their core self-beliefs and ideas, or, as is some-
times the case, the first system that is encountered or made
accessible. Since few people get anything from an approach they
are not even remotely interested in, it is usually best to
choose a magical system that is attactive, for whatever reasons.
ENGLAMOURMENT
All magical paradigms have their attendant glamours, and these may
be changed as a paradigm develops. The earliest editions of Liber
Null, for example, did not mentation the term Chaos. Early on in
its development, Chaos Magick required the glamour of being some-
how 'sinister' or 'Satanic' which, while inaccurate, has doubtless
drawn quite a few people to become interested in it. Some magical
systems have strong quasi-religious overtones, and for
practitioners of these systems, the glamours can become faiths.
Elements of glamour include not only beliefs and concepts, but
styles of writing, narrative content, images, overall presentation
buzz-words, and occasionally the participation of charismatic
figureheads. Often, the attractiveness of a glamour for an indi-
vidual reflects personal tastes in literature, music, or other
fashions. For Chaos Magicians, the power of glamour becomes yet
another technique to be unterstood and utitized. For example,
successfully weaving the glamour of being a shaman will signi-
ficantly alter other people's reaction to the magician, as would
successfully weaving the glamour of being a Satanist. Indeed, it
is possible for a magician who is adept in the projection of
glamours to be perceived as both (by different sets of people),
when in fact neither glamour is particularly true.
PARADIGM SHIFTS
A well-documented feature of post-traumatic reaction is the
tendency amongst some individuals to shift towards major lifestyle
changes. Witness, for example, the number of people who embrace
religion following bereavement, accidents, or over-use of
hallucinogenic agents.
A core technique in Chaos Magick practice is the conscious attempt
to make periodic Paradigm Shifts. The aim here is to loosen one's
personal web of beliefs and attitudes; to gain an Ego-complex that
is adaptive to new situations and attitudes. Shifting into a new
paradigm or world-view is instructive, not only in terms of
empathy - understanding another persons' outlook on life - but also
by bringing about
a deliberate change which occurs across different strata of one's
life, the magician undergoes a process of egofracturing and
remoulding.
It should be understood that making a paradigm shift is not easy.
It is not merely a matter of deciding one day to be a hedonist,
and the next, a medieval ascetic. Merely playing around with
beliefs and attitudes in the safety of one's own handspace is
little more than mental masturbation. Paradigm Shifts are rarely
effective unless they are enacted fully within Consensus Reality.
Thus it is one thing to convince oneselfe of being a Born-Again
Christian, another to convince family and peers that such is the
case, and another thing still to convince other Born-Again
Christians. Entering any particular paradigm as an ego-
deconstructive exercises implies a stance of total involvement
and embtace of any associated beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours.
This process takes time. It takes time to establish oneself
comfortably within a particular paradigm; time to exerience
Consensus Reality totally within that worldview, and time to
withdraw from that paradigm and evaluate the experience. Some
paradigm are easier to enter and leave than other. It is
relatively easy, for example, to shift from being a fanatical
follower of a religion to a fanatical exponent of a magical
system. All that a person has changed, in this example, is the
surface content of the beliefs. The embedded patterns of
behaviour and attitude have remained intact, and it is these
'embedded' befiefs and behaviours which are at the root of the
more conscious responses to situations and life-changes.
The sense of being a uniaue individual - the Ego - is maintained
by a pattern which basically makes a divide between what it 'is'
and what which it is 'not'. An individuals' attitudes beliefs
and allegiance to various ideologies and social groups reinforce
the sense of selfhood, against the projected other. These
structures are very much responsible for maintaining one's
preception of the way things 'are' - the embedded perception of
consensus reality, echoed back through all aspects of one's life,
so that there is little sense of
reality being fragile or unstable (exept at times of stress).
One's worldview literally becomes the World - embedded and
reinforce, so that its limitations and parameters are experienced
unreflexively, as self-evident 'truths'. The first stage of
moving into a Paradigm Shift is made when one begins to question
the validity of these self-evident truths - to begin to experience
Consensus Reality as fragile, where one's own individual beliefs
are seen a prop as those held by others. A great many people do
this as a matter of course and, as this proccess leads to anxiety
and alienation, seek to resolve the inner conflict by embracing an
ideology which gives them the illusion of 'solid ground' - meaning
participation, and a secure place to be. Many religious and quasi-
magical cults recruit their members by deliberately targeting
individuals who have begun to question their participation in
Consensus Reality.
Individuals with a rigid ego-complex tend to react to any
perceived 'threat' to their world-view by suppressing, denying,
or attaching the source of dissonance. The more 'loose' one's
ego-complex, the more adaptive and tolerant the individuals is to
new ideas, change, understanding another person's viewpoint, and -
perhaps most important - the ability to interact with others
across a wide social range, without requiring a complex consensus
of attitude and belief.
EGO MAPPING
In deliberately setting out to enter into Paradigm Shift, the
magician is preparing to assault the fortress of his own identity.
A ground plan of the area is therefore useful. Ego Mapping
requires the articulation and unravelling of one's own beliefe and
attitudes: ideologies that the magician is attracted to or,
equally , is repelled by: perceived strengths and weaknesses,
fears, ego-propping fantasies, desires, dreams, nightmares. The
magician writes an account of himself, as he is, how he would like
to be, and how he things other see him; he trawls back through his
personal history, attempting to identify major turning-points,
success, incidents of failure, embarrassment, blunders, traumas and
ecstasis. An account of himself in the third person may be useful,
as might be an obituary, written in the present, or ten yeas in
the future.
As the process gains momentum, there comes the understanding that
one's worldview, which may well have been tacitly sccepted as
'true' so far, is merely one of many, in a bewilderingly complex,
expanding culture. An initial choice of Paradigm Shift may be the
movement into a paradigm which is diametrically opposend to a
belief-system which one has invested a good deal of time, energy,
and self-esteem into. A change of political ideology is a good
example, as it requires a radical transition towards embracing and
experiencing a worldview which has been, for years, the
'opposition'. Here, the magician may have spent years viewing a
particular ideology through stereotyped 'others'. by deliberatly
becoming one those 'others', he challenges the 'truth' of his
pervious worldview. Of course, this is risky, especially as it
will affect every spect of one's lifestyle, particularly
interactions with family, friends, peer group, etc.
SUB-PARADIGM SHIFTS
The kind of Paradigm shift examined so far is very broad in its
scope. It can also be instructive, from time to time, to make
occasional sub-paradigm shifts within a specific context. The
symbolic and ontological sub-paradigm that make up occult belief
systems come within this category. Compared with manking Paradigm
Shifts within one's Social World, shifting between magical
paradigms is relatively easy. Magicians do tend to move between
magical paradigms in the course of their offer different degrees of
explanatory strength, freedom of expression, personal meaning and
working within its parameters until they are experienced as 'true'
and then moving to another paradigm, is instructive. One example of
such concept of subtle body energies. By studying, and heance
embedding the symbolism and layout of standard
western set of chakra-points, a magician will eventually come to
have expirience which accord with that particular overly of
internal subtel energies. Shift into a different system of power-
points, and one can again experience phenomena which are consonant
with the new system. Such experience tends to lead to the
conclusion that magical belief systems are not necessarily 'true'
descriptions of the territory, but merely structures for organizing
assimilating, and integrating experience. To do this successful
requires that the magician works with any chosen system over time.
Thus magical models becomes themselves tools, rather than rigid
parameter. Some tools are likely to be better for some types of
exploration than other, and Chaos Magick tend to the view that it
is more efficient to have a wide range of conceptual weapons to
choose from, rather than be limited to one paradigm that cannot
possibly account for everything. Tools however, can be subtle
traps. A magical model which at first appears liberating, yielding
new insights, informating and experiences can become, in time,
restictive.
The inability to move beyond the limits of one's chosen dominant
paradigm seriously hampers one's ability to be adaptive to life-
changes, and the exploration of new possibilities. A strength of
the chaos approach to magick is the freedom to draw inspiration,
creativity, and structure from any area of human endeavour, and not
be restricted to what is usually perceived as 'magick'. Hence a
rising interest in cybernetics, science-fiction, biology,
communications, non-linear dynamics, and other diverse
contributions to contemporary culture. Rather then attempting to
accommodate ideas within existing paradigms, Chaos Magick creats
new paradigms based on current ideas and possible futures, rather
than continually attempting to rewrite and recycle the past. The
cumulative effects of Paradigm Shift, practised on all possible
levels, are: the deep unterstanding that all beliefs are relative,
that one can consciously adopt a particular stance and successful
weave a projective glamour (both for self and others) from it; that
one is able to accept new
information and ideas without perceiving them as a threat; that
one can live comfortably within many differnt roles and selves.
All individulas are free to make contradictory statemants, be wrong
occasionally, and admit to errors in judgement, without suffering
a serious blow to the ego. This transition is known as shift from
Ego-centric behaviour, to Exo-centric behaviour. That is, the
process of movement from a position where a stable sense of self
has to be maintained at all costs, to a position where a multitude
of selves is acknowledged, which a continual sense of engagement
towards those selves which are, as yet, unknown. Further, it
requires the identification and acceptance of that which the
magician has previously found fearful, distasteful and
unacceptable - the demon-selves which, having been faced and
bound, become routes into power. This practice is not easy, as it
requires the ability to move freely eithin one's Social World,
and the continual reassessment of on's Personal World.
USEFUL GAMBITS
Going Away
Travelling not only broadens the mind, it also provides a useful
opportunity to adopt Paradigm Shifts in a social space where few
other are likely to be familiar with one's 'normal' identity.
Self-Observation
Here, the magician develops the ability to observe himself
dispassionately, so that he becomes aware of how he creates
projects, and maintains a distinct identity. Awareness of the
dynamics of identity Maintenance is essental when attempting to
alter that than projection at will. It is also important to be
able to observe how other people react to willed identity
projetion. Self-Observation becomes a continual meditation. It is
also instructive to pay attention to how others maintain and
project different identities.
Shock Tactics
It is a natural tendency for individuals to attribute their
own behaviour to situational factors, yet at the same time,
attribute the behaviour of other to their personality, the
process of labelling other on the basis of their dress, peers,
and given opinions can become a subtle trap. Knowledeg of this
tendency can be turned to the magician's advantage. If, for
example, he knows that another person has tagged him as holding
generally liberal views on various issues, then choosing the
appropriate moment to make a comment which implies the opposite
view, is likely to give the other person a considerable shock.
Such tactics may used to enhance personal power, or to appear to
collude with another, whilst maintaining a hidden agenda.
The above might promot the question 'Do Chaos Magicians ever
remain in one paradigm or sub-paradigem for any length of time?'
Of course. The practice of making Paradigm Shifts allows the
magician to move between paradigms, so that he develops, over time,
a web of personally significant paradigms, based on developing
personal and ethical stances, embedded beliefs, a mobile sense of
identity, and whatever magical models are being used at any one
time. This sounds complex, but is experience as simple, or self-
evident. The Chaos Magician is more likely to accept that his
paradigm-web is likely to change, and that he is quite likely to
find himself doing things which were previously outside his
know repertoire of experiences.
THE MAGICAL SELF
Creating a Magical Self is a process of deciding what qualities,
abilities and skills the magician wishes to acquire, and creating
a role which is the encapsulation of these projections. The
Magical Self is a persona-mask which the magician 'wears' each time
he performs any act of magick. It may be associated with a
particular symbol, item of adornment, clothing. Each act of magick
reinforces the role. A related practice is that of adopting magical
names. Some magicians choose a name or motto which reflects their
magical aspirations. Such names are usually chosen due to
association with particular magical concepts. The magician
identifies himdelf with the name - thereby invoking his Magical
Self. As the magician develops, so may his name change. An example
of a magical name is PACHAD - a Heberw word which can be
translated as 'Fear'. It is also a title of the Cabbalistic
Sephiroth GEBURAH, which corresponds to the planet Mars. This
name might thus be adopted by a magician who wishes to identify
his magical self with a martial curent.
There is little point however, in designing a magical persona
which merely reinforces qualities that the magician already
possesses in abundance. The Magical Self is an invocation of
future otherness - a self which one might sense the need of, but
has not yet developed the requisite abilities and powers of.
Initially, the Magician Self is a mask which one adopts when
moving from Consensus Reality to Magical Reality. But, over time
and experience, the 'everyday' selves assume the function of masks
and Magical Selves become dominant.
CHAOS IDENTITIES
Entering a magical universe is an attempt to impose order onto
chaos. Magical universe are based in Mythic or eternal time -
linking into the past through symbol, image, and a sense of
continuity. An escape route, whereby one can gain a breathing space
a sense of order and permanence. There can identity be stabilised
and rooted into a structure. The magical revival is powered by two
related undercurrents. Firstly, the search for a personal and
collective past, and secondly, the need for escape routes from
the perceived tyranny of Consensus Reality. The desire to uncover
and preserve the past is part of the impulse to preserve the self.
Without knowing where one has been, it is difficult to plot a
clear future. The concern for recovering the past, through
museums, ruins, etc has been growing since the nineteenth century.
The past is seen as the foundation of personal and collective
identity. It offers the sense of continuity, of eternal time. But
history is no longer true. The past is being re-written, re-forged
in a new image to feed dreams of
Golden Ages, or National Boundaries, of Agelss Wisdom. History has
turned into commodity, a growth industry; the preoccupation with
roots has grown rapidly since the 1970s, ever more so due to
widespread insecurity in areas nominally seen as stable - labour,
credit, technology, skills.
Magical universe offer the promise of a meta-theory through which
all things may be represented. This runs contrary (hence its power)
to the spirit of the age, which turns away from global projections;
where a meta-narrative is illusory. The sciences are suddenly
uncertain; no longer able to chart the void through mathematics,
they find smaller and smaller worlds to discover. The one-world
dream of the Enlightenment is fragmenting into worlds colliding and
worlds apart; individuals do masks to enter the different reality-
games, the social worlds layered through the eyes of strangers;
existences which may only be guessed at refracted through the media
never-web of stereotypes and labels. Images flicker across screens
and into minds.
Working, living and acting within a magical psychocosm, one
discovers that the sense of identity becomes inextricably
interwoven with one's magick. There is a graduated progression from
magick beeing something that one is interested in, to something
that one is engrossed by, to being a magician more or less full
time. In terms of the Chaos approach, this implies continual change
modification of identity, entering different paradigms of belief
and behaviour, learning new skills, and shedding life-patterns
which have outworn their usefulness. There is thus a shift from a
core Ego which is based on differences, the self-other divide, to
Exo, the self in a continual progrss of engagement. As one
continues to expand and develop the personal psychocosm, the size
of the social group which reinforces that sense of identity grows
smaller.
SELF LOVE
The aim of the progress is to reach the point where identity is
countinually being deconstructed - when a measure of fluidity
of expression is attained and one is released from the necessity
of seeking self-validation from others. This is what Austin Osman
Spare referred to with his doctrine of Self Love. This is no
narcissistic basking in the glamours of the ego, rather, it is the
discovery of the void at the core of an indentity which is freely
able to move into any desire set of social relations, without
becoming trapped or attached to them. As the core of the sense of
self is 'Self-Love', rather than any limitated label, one attains a
state of great freedom of movement and expression.
Self Love does not necessarily imply alienation or withdrawal from
Consensus Reality. Modern culture is saurated with escape routes
by which one is encouraged to resist the routines of reality.
Drugs, sex, fantasy scripts, social enclaves, ideologies,
therapies, mindscapes, the past, utopia - all well-signposted
escape routes that, ultimately, reveal themselves to be dead-ends.
This is especially true of so-called revolutionary escape routes -
political, alternative lifestyles, magical endeavour. They support
rather than threaten, consensus reality, whilst feeding the
illusion of escape. Many of these escape routes require a change
in social scripts and masks and do little more than create fragile
enclaves within consensus reality, which inevitably are recaptured
recuperated, and commodified into fashion and trends.
Magick is the 'great' escape route to the edge. Through its
practice the magician may project himself into Mythic Time, make
place and space sacred, project future benign or otherwise. Whilst
political ideologies focus on changing the structure of social
relations, magical scripts focus on changing identity, so that the
structure might one day follow. All transient individuals,
magicians dream new towers from the buildings of consensus reality.
The difficult comes in attempting to find others who will share
and personal identity has been rendered fluid, ephemeral, and
endlessly open to the exercise of will and imagination. This may
be liberating. It may also, of course, be deeply
unsettling and stressful. Nostalgia for common values becomes a
cultural force, as much from the counter-culture as the
establishment. As the spatial and temporal worlds become
increasingly compressed, so the response increasingly becomes
that of denial, cynicism or a blase attitude - sensory screening,
the yearning for a past forever lost, and the simplification of
representation. The search for escape routes vieds yet another
market of commodities. There is no escape from Society of the
Spectacle. The Chaos appoach to the deconstruction of identity
can be understood by examining the tactics of Aleister Crowley,
who has left a good deal of useful materiel for exploring the
boundaries of identity. Crowley's life can be understood as a
continual battle between himself and consensus reality - a battle
to create a personal enclave for himself beyond the limits of
conventional morality. Crowley sought to escape the Society of
the Spectacle by becomming himself Spectacular. He used his
lovers, pupils and writings to create a free area from which he
could give free reign to the myriad selves which he had uncovered
through his magical living. Crowley's approach to the problem of
identity was an extrem one, and part of his drive towards the
extrems of experience may have come from his desire to inaugurate
a new society. The scheme may have begun as a deliberate
projective glamour, but there are indications that Crowley became
trapped within his own glamours which, though they provided meaning
and support, may have also, at times, seemed to be crushing weights.
Through he deliberatly created tensions and stresses within himself
he used these to fulfil his task - to perturb - and he countinues
to do so.
The Chaos Magician may occasionally resort to extreme stances, but
is less likely to be concerned with projecting his personal
visions onto anyone else. Chaos future dreams are not, as yet,
guided by one overall meta-vision. Instead, there is the
Pandemonaeon - a future which sewthes with possibilities, any of
which may become manifest, according to individual will and
powers, rather than overall schema.
Matter is my playground. I make and break without though. Laugh
and come UNTO me.
Eris, the Stupid Book
Modern society has exalted the notion of individualism almost to
a pathological degree. Within this urge to be individual are the
continual exhortations to find 'real','higher' or 'true' selves.
But if 'Nothing is True' and 'Everything is Permitted', one may
come to discover that there is nought but a whirling void behind
the social masks and personas necessary for moving through social
reality. The Chaos approach offers the choice of becomming many
individuals, and to finde a sense of freedom not through
attempting to resist consensus reality,, or to create an enclave
beyound it, but to embrace it joyfully. While the majority of
magical paradigms seek to reject consensus reality in favour of
'higher' states of being, the Chaos approach masks consensus
reality into a playground for the phenomenizing of will desire.
By experience consensus reality from the basis of Self Love, the
magican may begin the long and fascinating process of bringing to
earth those shards of the Pandaemonaeon - and whatever my lie
beyound it - which engage attention. This is, by definition, the
activity of an Elite group, since few have the drive, stamina, and
determination to continually strip away the skins of identity, in
favour of freedom of movement.
For the Chaos perspective, the sence of selfhood is an emergent
property of continual movement through zones of social dynamics -
there is no 'core' behind the masks. As one gradually moves away
from dependence on social groups to reinforce a sense of identity;
when one ceases to label one-selves on the basis of a few dominant
behaviours or identifications; the magician becomes able to
establish experimental 'beachheads' into the nascent possibilities
of the future round the corner. Freedom lies in remaining mobile,
elusive, and relaxed. Rather than resisting the chaos of the
normal, the magician joyfully hurls his-selves into it,
never quite sure what will emerge. When there is no need to
be anchored in a stable past or present, the possibilities of any
future that one might care to dream about are there for the taking.
Thus, by extending the limits of Achievable Reality, it becomes
possible to mutate and re-design the human entity for explorations
into future spaces.