Author Topic: What is Chaos Magick? (Read 3015 times)

PrincessBurrito · « **on:** January 01, 2016, 06:55:34 am »

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

Wimsaur · « **Reply #1 on:** January 01, 2016, 09:35:20 am »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

Chaos Magick is an approach to magick that allows for anyone to create and change their beliefs based on their needs.

Everything is permitted. Gods are treated like archetypes. The magickian can use both classical gods and modern characters from all sorts of media including TV, movies, books, comics, etc. Thus, you can perform a ritual to Zeus one night and Superman the next.

Many chaos magickians make use of sigil magick whereby he can easily formulate a statement and create a symbol that can be charged to attract the energy to him.

It's more of an outlook than a system.

-Wimsaur.

Jack · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2016, 01:47:08 am »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

This is one of those cases where a quick google is not going to hurt. Wikipedia has a decent bare-bones overview.

Basically in chaos magic you treat everything as tech: rituals, spells, correspondences, gods, prayers, offerings, beliefs. You believe in whatever you need to believe in to get the results you want, and the belief in the moment is what matters. What you believe will change as necessary; this is not a bug, it's a feature.

SunflowerP · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2016, 02:51:59 am »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

The Chaos Magic 'Primer'

Sunflower

Littlewolf · « **Reply #4 on:** January 02, 2016, 02:30:49 pm »

Quote from: Jack;184338

This is one of those cases where a quick google is not going to hurt. Wikipedia has a decent bare-bones overview.

Basically in chaos magic you treat everything as tech: rituals, spells, correspondences, gods, prayers, offerings, beliefs. You believe in whatever you need to believe in to get the results you want, and the belief in the moment is what matters. What you believe will change as necessary; this is not a bug, it's a feature.

Greetings,
I hope it's alright if i ask a question here. Say you believe in all the Deities but only worship a handful of them, but then you need help and none of your deities have the right stuff to help you. So you call upon another deity, ask them for their assistance, give them an offering in thanks, and then you part ways. Is this like chaos magic?

I'm not sure i understand how a belief can change, can someone start and stop believing in a deity whenever it suits them?

Emma Eldritch · « **Reply #5 on:** January 02, 2016, 04:51:07 pm »

Quote from: Littlewolf;184363

Greetings,
I hope it's alright if i ask a question here. Say you believe in all the Deities but only worship a handful of them, but then you need help and none of your deities have the right stuff to help you. So you call upon another deity, ask them for their assistance, give them an offering in thanks, and then you part ways. Is this like chaos magic?

I'm not sure i understand how a belief can change, can someone start and stop believing in a deity whenever it suits them?

No, that's just being polite. In chaos magic you don't even have to believe in said deity except for the duration of the ritual. This is a technique that some people find easier, and some find very difficult indeed.

A part of chaos magic (at least it was popular back in the day) was the idea of paradigm shifting. The idea was that if you switched beliefs you would see how much of your self was not truly essential to the core 'you.' So being able to completely alter your worldview and beliefs was a skill practised not just for magical results but as a way to deepen self understanding and even achieve some enlightenment.

I am not sure if that clears anything up. But I tried!

Wimsaur · « **Reply #6 on:** January 02, 2016, 06:11:49 pm »

Quote from: Mama Fortuna;184366

No, that's just being polite. In chaos magic you don't even have to believe in said deity except for the duration of the ritual. This is a technique that some people find easier, and some find very difficult indeed.

A part of chaos magic (at least it was popular back in the day) was the idea of paradigm shifting. The idea was that if you switched beliefs you would see how much of your self was not truly essential to the core 'you.' So being able to completely alter your worldview and beliefs was a skill practised not just for magical results but as a way to deepen self understanding and even achieve some enlightenment.

I am not sure if that clears anything up. But I tried!

Well said.
I find their idea of chaos in chaos magick to be similar to the Task of Taoism.
Read "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu.

Wimsaur.

Freesia · « **Reply #7 on:** January 04, 2016, 04:33:32 pm »

Quote from: Littlewolf;184363

Greetings,
I hope it's alright if i ask a question here. Say you believe in all the Deities but only worship a handful of them, but then you need help and none of your deities have the right stuff to help you. So you call upon another deity, ask them for their assistance, give them an offering in thanks, and then you part ways. Is this like chaos magic?

I'm not sure i understand how a belief can change, can someone start and stop believing in a deity whenever it suits them?

Not all practitioners use deities. The people I knew who practiced it used their personalities to promote their will on their environment. I met a few people who used Angelic energy instead. The idea is that everything, including divinity, is a tool that can work in your favor.

Belief is a tool. If god exists, then all gods exist. If god answers prayer, then all gods answer prayer. I was never good at logic puzzles. Chaos is filled with these puzzles.

What I really like about Chaos Magic is that it is approachable from a pantheistic path and requires no deity devotion or intervention. The practitioner is responsible for his/her own symbolism and progression. However some of the practitioners develop ultra-egotism along the way. Cough...cough...my ex-boyfriend.

RecycledBenedict · « **Reply #8 on:** January 04, 2016, 05:19:23 pm »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

Chaos magic emerged in the UK in the 1970s as a reaction against what, at the time, was perceived as 'dogma' in the then existing ceremonial magical (Christianity + Theosophy) and Witchcraft (Wicca) sub-cultures. At least during the following 15-20 years the Chaos-magical sub-culture was very diverse, but after a peak in the early to mid-1990s the initial creativity was spent, and one part of the Chaos-magical scene was reduced to acceptance of whatever Peter Carroll say. This may run counter to the initially very individual and personal expressions of Chaos-magic.

For an intellectually sophisticated version of Chaos-magic, read Lionel Snell's/Ramsey Duke's book SSOTBME.

Deities are not necessarily a part of a Chaos-magical worldview

Chaos-magic has influenced other schools of magical thought and practice. Although Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick is mainly an introduction to ceremonial magic, it contain a few traces of Chaos-magic. Patrick Dunn's Post-Modern Magic (public since 2005) and Jason Miller's Strategic Sorcery (public since 2006) are styles of magic that developed out of Chaos-magic. It could also be argued that witchcraft-styles like those of Tony Steele and Andrew Chumbley began as attempts to develop personal Chaos-magical paradigms out of Oera Linda or British folklore, respectively.

Chaos-magic influenced artistic creativity to a certain extent: Comics-writers Alan Moore and Grant Morrison both have a past within Chaos-magic (just as authors like Arthur Machen and William Butler Yeats had a past within ceremonial magic one hundred years earlier).

DIASPORA-1963 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 28, 2016, 10:57:25 am »

Quote from: Littlewolf;184363

Greetings,
I hope it's alright if i ask a question here. Say you believe in all the Deities but only worship a handful of them, but then you need help and none of your deities have the right stuff to help you. So you call upon another deity, ask them for their assistance, give them an offering in thanks, and then you part ways. Is this like chaos magic?

I'm not sure i understand how a belief can change, can someone start and stop believing in a deity whenever it suits them?

Yes. Exactly. Needs based. Thank the deity & part ways.
I am especially & always devoted to Hecate; she never minds when I call upon another deity - but, then, no other deity is allowed to remain forever w/me. I am especially & always devoted to Hecate - but she cannot always help me - so, she helps me by allowing another to help me. Simple as that.
Mark aka Cellvanvs Magvs

DIASPORA-1963 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2016, 11:03:19 pm »

Quote from: Freesia;184487

... However some of the practitioners develop ultra-egotism along the way ...

Hopefully, that is just a phase ... If Einstein became increasingly humble as he progressed in life ...

Your take on Chaos Magic is not bad - its fundamental theory is, I think, that reality is taken for far more than it is worth, that reality can indeed be played with - & indeed in a rather child-like way (notice that I was careful not to say "childish"). What do you think? ... "Reality" is more like clay, than stone - most of it, anyway ...

Cheshireheir · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2016, 10:35:19 pm »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

I had a very close friend of mine practice chaos magic for a while. and i agree that those who practice for long periods can become egotistical. That certainly happened to my friend.

I myself practiced for a bit though at the time i didn't know that it had a name. I pretty much would do rituals or spells and attach symbols or words to them that seemed to have meaning to me. It was an open 'prayer' that held intense meaning behind it. It wasn't directed to any one being.

MeadowRae · « **Reply #12 on:** March 29, 2016, 07:33:23 am »

Quote from: Cheshireheir;189111

I had a very close friend of mine practice chaos magic for a while. and i agree that those who practice for long periods can become egotistical. That certainly happened to my friend.

I myself practiced for a bit though at the time i didn't know that it had a name. I pretty much would do rituals or spells and attach symbols or words to them that seemed to have meaning to me. It was an open 'prayer' that held intense meaning behind it. It wasn't directed to any one being.

I have been looking at Chaos Magic recently, just to try to get a handle on what it is. I love the intense, open prayer analogy. That makes more sense than what I was reading/listening to. I have been watching some of Kelly-Ann Maddox's videos on youtube, as well. I started watching to understand shadow work better, but she also considers herself a chaos witch.

KrvZk · « **Reply #13 on:** May 30, 2016, 12:49:22 am »

Quote from: PrincessBurrito;184288

I don't practice any type of magick, I'm just curious.

Nothing is real. Anything is possible. To use chaos magik, spend a while planning out what you want to happen. Then let yourself forget everything within a few minutes. Don't overdevelop a good idea. Let it weave inadvertant tendrils to form itself into your pastfuture. One day you will remember the thing you wanted when you see that you have it and then you'll remember that you have had it on other occasions. Space out on made up situations, smile at absurd circumstances that come to mind.

When you snap back to now, let yourself create another blast to the otherworld. Imagine things that help you grok. Make sure people who are anti never know your chaos magik experiences because they can dissipate things inately. You Know: and if you tell someone else, you can tell when they Know and if you can let them understand vividly, they can let you know about metaphorical anamolies you weren't aware of and also strengthen aspects they agree with.

You can tell even sooner when they vehemently don't Know so stop and change the subject and let chaos magic cloud them back over because they can (not always) ruin things if they end up wanting to because of their preconceived notions that they won't allow to be changed. Which is why your thoughts can morph into things you have no inclination of yet.

Just because you have a random thought, doesn't mean you have to think it's true forever. You might see later how you were skewed but still on some strange track. You'll find more information constantly and understand ^|Nothing is real: Anything is possible| ^ the chaos mantra that you tell yourself/universe/and everything when you start to doubt your experiments. Then let yourself forget when you have a good plan for now. That's how you let the idea form itself chaotically.

Don't control every single part. Let chaos help swirl unseen/unknowns. When the time comes, you'll see it's working and bringing new things with it which you'll guide to more new ideas. New bubbles are being made so you have to wipe your thoughts and give full attention to the next myst. Let chaos whip things around so you don't get caught in the recoil.

Whenever you wander off again, you'll notice it's a good time to make something up. Be surprised! and happy! when it works. Don't argue with naysayers. They don't know and won't. Save your time for someone who can understand because you'll understand their theories and hypothesis that chaos guided you towards. Zone out and let synchronicity coincide with things you see.

Wisdom can be found from accidents so you figure out how to avoid a portion of them. Copy paste and jumbled partially. You don't have to understand. Sometimes you won't. Experiment and let chaos try new things. Some people can create a friendly entity to help. Some people can see or help others to see. Some people heal. Avoid hurting others too much because you'll be ejected from spectacular inexplicable great places that you will vividly remember.

It's hard to pay attention to everything when you think of questions and ways of describing what's going on. Forgetting is part of chaos, so is remembering. You get to pick what you want to try. Chaos shows you what it will, and unveils moments.

Daydream time spent on chaos experiments are more powerful than trying to constantly try things. Random moments reveal times to strengthen astral abilities so if it's not going smooth, take a break until you forget that you're waiting. When you remember again, you'll see things you wanted to happen and follow along easily.

Morag · « **Reply #14 on:** May 30, 2016, 06:19:42 am »

Quote from: KrvZk;192081

A Reminder:

Hi KrvZk,

We don't mind long posts here, but to avoid having a hard-to-read wall-o'-text, hitting "enter" twice every few lines adds some white space and makes it easier to follow - I've edited yours to add those breaks, but it's a really good habit to get into yourself.

They don't have to be the "proper" place for paragraph breaks (we're interested in readability more than technicalities), or a complete change of thought - some thoughts take a lot of lines and need to be broken up into sub-thoughts - as long as they're there.

This isn't a formal warning, just a reminder. No reply is necessary, but if you have questions or need clarification, please feel free to contact a member of staff privately.

Thanks!
Morag
TC Forum Staff

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