An Introduction To Chaos Magick

Derived from a lecture given by Zahrim on Friday July 11 1997
at #Ancients, the Home of Esoteric and Occult studies
home page: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2347/index.html)

Additional material and editing by CyberKaos,
Material also derived from a Q&A session at #Ancients.

Introduction

Chaos is the void where all things exist and all things are possible.
Magick is "causing change in conformity with Will." With those things in
mind, let's get down to Chaos Magick.

Chaos magick approaches magick through a totally utilitarian perspective,
encouraging practitioners to find out what works and then use it.
Techniques can be taken from other systems, or they can be pure fancy and
invention. It matters not, as long as good results are present.

One of the key factors of chaos magick is the use of belief as a tool.
Chaotes build up the skills to change their beliefs at a moments notice,
being a devout Catholic at one moment, to gain favors from Mary, and a
Wiccan at the next moment, to bargain with Gaia. This skill, known as
"paradigm shifting" in many circles, is necessary because chaotes feel that
belief is what makes magick work.

A good part of chaos magick deals with utilizing other systems to make a
practical, personal magick system that works for the individual. There are,
however, a few core practices that almost all chaotes use, which included
god-from and servitor work, gnosis, and sigilisation.

Gnosis

Chaotes do magick mainly through altered states of consciousness. Most
ritual goals are accomplished by achieving a state called gnosis... The
gnostic state is similar to the moment of orgasm, in many respects. It is a
moment of single mindedness, a one pointed awareness, that usually comes
and goes in a matter of seconds.

There are many ways to attain gnosis, and these means are best divided into
inhibitory and excitatory forms. Inhibitory forms of gnosis include
meditation, asphyxiation, yoga, and depressant drug use. Excitatory forms
of gnosis include dancing, drumming, sex, and stimulant drug use. Any of
these techniques can be used. It's all a matter of what works best for the
practitioner.

You know you've reached gnosis when you're no longer rationalizing about
your experience. It's like a small satori, if you're familiar with that
term.

A statement of intent like "Bobby Fischer will kiss me" is thought up, and
gnosis is achieved. If there is any doubt, the working will fail. The
chaote must fully believe their statement of intent will occur right up
until the moment of gnosis. Having sex of some sort and focusing at orgasm
is an easy way to set off your intent.

The theories as to why gnosis works vary. The more Jungian think that
gnosis is a way to commune with the collective unconscious. Some think it
is a way to commune with the Astral plane. Peter Carroll theorizes that
gnosis overcomes the psychic censor (the part of our mind which tells us
what is and isn't real).

As for cosmology theories, most chaotes believe that we live in some sort
of a perceiver-created universe. Some think that there are many universes,
and the overlap is what we call "reality." Others think that because
"everything is one," we can make things happen, as everything is just an
extension of ourselves.

God-Forms

While some few chaotes believe in 'gods' in a literal sense, most believe
them to be huge egregores created by mass belief, or to be some extension
of oneself. It should be noted that chaotes do not generally 'worship' any
'god'.

When god forms are used, the chaote will usually adopt a paradigm of
belief, although not one of worship. Thus, god-forms are invoked and worked
with in ways fairly similar to more traditional methods. I think the best
way to deal with discussing god-form work in chaos is by a q&a session.

What kind of gods do Chaotes have?

Every chaote has different gods they like to work with. Anything from
Jehovah to Loki can be used. For the most part Chaotes are malleable when
it comes to their theology, using whichever god-forms fit the occasion or
their interests and personality. Some like Kali, some like Pan. Some like
to make up gods or alter existing ones.

Chaos magick has no structured belief system, being a magickal technique,
rather than a religion. A christian can use it, a pagan can use it, a
Satanist can use it. Each chaote has her own beliefs. Or lack thereof.
Chaos magick has no dogma. Good and bad are decided by the practitioner or,
in most cases, not decided at all. It is completely amoral. The individual
answers to no higher power.

Sigilisation

Ok, on with the main techniques. One of the main techniques in chaos magick
is sigil magick. Sigil magick was developed by a fellow named Austin Osman
Spare, an artist and occultist in the early part of this century, who
probably got the idea from all the painting and drawing he did. Anyway,
enough history.

There are 3 main types of sigils. Alphabetic sigils are made from writing a
statement of intent, eliminating the repeated letters, and making a drawing
from the remaining letters, making sure the drawing bears little
resemblance to the intent.

Pictographic sigils are made from drawing a stick figure picture of your
intent (a stick man with knives in him and an initial, for example) and
then altering this picture for use as the basis of a sigil that no longer
resembles the original pictogram.

Mantric sigils are created by writing a statement of intent and rearranging
the letters to form a mantra, which is then chanted as part of the ritual.

Example: "I will puke in my lunchbox". --> "piki null liwy me chobe"
Like an anagram, only it doesn't make sense. Just pronounceable words.,
which are then chanted as a mantra

What tense should we phrase the affirmation to get scrambled?
It is usually very assertive: "Bobby Fischer WILL kiss me",
rather than: "I would like Bobby Fischer to kiss me".

These sigils are planted by staring at them (or chanting them, in the case
of the mantric) and achieving gnosis. Try not to think about the intent,
just the sigil. After that, the sigil will work unaided. More advanced use
of sigils can be found in Frater UD's Practical Sigil Magic (sadly out of
print, but well worth getting if you find a copy). As well as in almost
ever book or document ever written about chaos magick There are probably
almost as many sigilisation techniques as there are chaotes.

Servitors

Servitors are magickal beings, created by a magician to perform a task.
This task may be to defend a location, to help the magician find objects
(for example book-finding servitors are popular), or even to attack an
enemy. They are extremely versatile.

A servitor generally has a representative sigil, fetish, or similar
material tie, which can be used to summon, store, and/or affect it. When a
servitor is created the magician charges it (most usually while in a state
of gnosis) and generally believes in it. This belief creates the being.

There are several web-based and hard copy documents about servitors, and
Phil Hine's book Condensed Chaos (New Falcon version) provides a lot of
information on their creation.

Types of servitors include Egregores (large servitors used for an
indefinite period of time, often by a group of magicians), and Independent
Thought-Forms (which generally are active for a set length of time and then
are re-absorbed by their creator), although definitions of these terms vary
and other terms are also used.

Conclusion

The wonderful part of all this is that there really isn't very much by the
way of specifics. You do what works, with personal experience is the most
important factor rather than book learning or initiations, and what
specifics there are vary wildly. Each practitioner is different, Which
successfully confuses the fuck out of people who want a dogma.

This doesn't mean it's easy. Since there isn't any real dogma , the
magician has to constantly evaluate the success and failure of new
techniques. As a chaote you has to be brutally honest with yourself about
your own abilities, successes and failures, otherwise you wander off to
delusion and become an armchair magician. And in paradox (appropriately
enough for chaos magic), while being brutally honest with the self, and
admitting when problems arise, you also have to maintain a high level of
self-confidence.

If you're interested in more information, read the books of Peter Carroll
and Phil Hine, and check out Tzimon's web page at
http://www.crl.com/tzimon. I borrowed heavily from all of these gentlemen
to write this lecture.

Thanks also to CyberKaos, who contributed the servitor and godform
information and helped with last minute editing.

Zahrim's site: http://www.xtalwind.net/~baatezu
CyberKaos's site: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3384/