Chaos Magick
Chaos Magick
I'm just wondering what everyone's opinions are on chaos magick. Or if anyone identifies with chaos magick, what does this mean to you and such. Basically anything anyone wants to say about it.
I was into it a while back,but more on the Discordianism. I still consider myself Discordian,my friend J practises Chaos magick but I believe it has become too ceremonial and formal these days. Just my opinion. I had an Eris moment last week,my son loves those hotdogs you get in the big jars[bratwurst?] and we were in the supermarket but we couldn't get any buns,as they were out of them. I had to call J,right there and then,it was too funny,"NO HOTDOG BUNS!" fnord. Pav, I will get some links here for you,in a little while.
Here are some links
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Discordia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic
http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos.php
If you google Chaos Magick,you will get a wide selection of sites and information, if you want to know about 'hotdog buns' it's in the pentabarf,in Principia Discordia.
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Discordia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic
http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos.php
If you google Chaos Magick,you will get a wide selection of sites and information, if you want to know about 'hotdog buns' it's in the pentabarf,in Principia Discordia.
The ideas of chaos magick expressed in that wikipedia article seem, generally, alot less pretentious and presumptuous then Peter Carroll's Liber Null and Psychonaut, which is what I just read and why I posed the question. I must say that I did not really enjoy that particular text, though some of the ideas (such as an individualized system of spirituality) are obviously appealing since I applied them to myself without the label of "chaos magician". Also gnostic states and what not. But has anyone else read Carroll's work and get the same feeling from it as I do? I mean, of course he has a right to his own beliefs and such, but the way he phrases things just doesn't appeal to me. I don't quite know how to explain it at the moment. Maybe someone else can articulate it better if you know what I'm talking about....it almost seemed nihilistic even....
I see it as a paradigm within a paradigm,The apropos of nothing.LOL. I always found it hard to concieve that something so organised was/is chaotic,by definition or results,my major sticking point.That is why I always preferred Discordianism. I 've forgotten a lot,but I remember thinking that a lot of the ideas seemed stuck in the same time warp as Crowley's hermetics [ re:A.O .Spare] Golden Dawn etc. heavily biased towards masculinity as the ultimate divine,with the feminine somewhat supportive,not quite ever fully equal. A major failing in my eyes. This is just my opinion,but my friend often requires my input,which I think proves my point,somewhat.
The Charge of Eris
"I have come to tell you that you are free.
Many ages ago, My consciousness left humanity, that they might develop themselves.
I return to find this development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by misunderstanding.
You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in them,
your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun.
I am chaos.
I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms.
I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy.
I am chaos.
I am alive,
and I tell you that you are free."
(PD 9:1-6)
Freedom is the first option, the first capacity, the only beginning.
It is by choice and choice only that you limit and define yourselves.
Define yourselves well.
Define yourselves as you want to be for every little decision taken,
from every breath you take to every look you take to every thought you think is your singular expression of an infinity of choices.
Everytime you are – you choose – you subtract one out of infinity,
an infinity you will never be allowed to get back.
So choose wisely.
The recognition of freedom is not liberation.
The recognition of freedom is overwhelming and dizzying.
The recognition of freedom can be so dizzying that many people will spend a lifetime refusing it.
Becoming grey.
No matter how much you fight against it, one day,
maybe out of «enlightenment», out of sheer probability or out of good or bad luck,
freedom will inhabit you.
Maybe only for one instant maybe for the rest of your life.
As it does, you will be recreated within your own body, your mind reshaped within your own skull.
No matter how much YOU fight against it,
no matter how much THEY try to flay you into shape with honey and or and/or sticks,
you cannot escape your true nature of being free.
Heed the call,
because for a life so short as a humans's life, it is still not possible to escape its freedom no matter how hard one tries,
yet one can lock one's freedom away in the wrong cage so easily, so hastily, so unknowingly,
so as to be dreadful of one's own life, of one's own destiny, of one's own choices.
No one can take away your freedom,
but you can easily waste it away.
(OL 13:1-12)
Seek me not in any temple, save that which is my bed.
Seek me not in meditation set aside, I am here, now!
My perfume is carried on the winds.
Dance and be Damned!
(The Stupid Book, Verse 21)
And when [men] become free then [man]kind will be free
May you be free of the curse of Greyface
May the goddess put twinkles in your eyes.
May you have the knowledge of a sage,
and the wisdom of a child.
(PD 65: 10-13)
Hail Eris!
All Hail Discordia!!
Thought I 'd put this up,I love this.
"I have come to tell you that you are free.
Many ages ago, My consciousness left humanity, that they might develop themselves.
I return to find this development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by misunderstanding.
You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in them,
your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun.
I am chaos.
I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms.
I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy.
I am chaos.
I am alive,
and I tell you that you are free."
(PD 9:1-6)
Freedom is the first option, the first capacity, the only beginning.
It is by choice and choice only that you limit and define yourselves.
Define yourselves well.
Define yourselves as you want to be for every little decision taken,
from every breath you take to every look you take to every thought you think is your singular expression of an infinity of choices.
Everytime you are – you choose – you subtract one out of infinity,
an infinity you will never be allowed to get back.
So choose wisely.
The recognition of freedom is not liberation.
The recognition of freedom is overwhelming and dizzying.
The recognition of freedom can be so dizzying that many people will spend a lifetime refusing it.
Becoming grey.
No matter how much you fight against it, one day,
maybe out of «enlightenment», out of sheer probability or out of good or bad luck,
freedom will inhabit you.
Maybe only for one instant maybe for the rest of your life.
As it does, you will be recreated within your own body, your mind reshaped within your own skull.
No matter how much YOU fight against it,
no matter how much THEY try to flay you into shape with honey and or and/or sticks,
you cannot escape your true nature of being free.
Heed the call,
because for a life so short as a humans's life, it is still not possible to escape its freedom no matter how hard one tries,
yet one can lock one's freedom away in the wrong cage so easily, so hastily, so unknowingly,
so as to be dreadful of one's own life, of one's own destiny, of one's own choices.
No one can take away your freedom,
but you can easily waste it away.
(OL 13:1-12)
Seek me not in any temple, save that which is my bed.
Seek me not in meditation set aside, I am here, now!
My perfume is carried on the winds.
Dance and be Damned!
(The Stupid Book, Verse 21)
And when [men] become free then [man]kind will be free
May you be free of the curse of Greyface
May the goddess put twinkles in your eyes.
May you have the knowledge of a sage,
and the wisdom of a child.
(PD 65: 10-13)
Hail Eris!
All Hail Discordia!!
Thought I 'd put this up,I love this.
Well, I'm afraid that the level of attitude I've found in general on the subject of Chaos Magic(K) has left me a bit short of being well read. I love reading things like The Gulag Archapellago (think LONG and tedious!) or even Crowley and happily lap it up, but this... well... I tend to throw the books accross the room before I even get through the intro.
I mean, obviously Discordians are all about that, I think the Church of the Subgenius are there, too. I have a friend who's a SubG who is also a chaos magician. I find that Chaos Magicians are either A. high magick and very high on their horse, or B. have lots of chaos in their lives, (even at personality level!) and tend to be disconcerting people to be around. NO offense, eretik! You don't seem like that, somehow...
This is one of the reasons I don't practice chaos magick. I have a bit of the fey in my blood, so I get enough chaos without trying to summon it into my life.
I mean, obviously Discordians are all about that, I think the Church of the Subgenius are there, too. I have a friend who's a SubG who is also a chaos magician. I find that Chaos Magicians are either A. high magick and very high on their horse, or B. have lots of chaos in their lives, (even at personality level!) and tend to be disconcerting people to be around. NO offense, eretik! You don't seem like that, somehow...
This is one of the reasons I don't practice chaos magick. I have a bit of the fey in my blood, so I get enough chaos without trying to summon it into my life.
I can be disconcerting,Juniper,very much so.I often cross the boundaries of social acceptability,because I have a point to make.I am dynamic but disordered.I am unpredictable in action,but reliable in thought.I like to 'shake up' the established order and see the insanity within the rules etc. I point them out to others,often,for reaction's sake. I am also a walking dichotomy,because of having to impose order to run a home,yet keeping the chaotic from being stifled, as it is creative and fun. I walk on the fence but frequently fall off,usually into the disordered side.lol. Chaos magick and I never got along,but Shamanism is truly chaotic,in a real sense,as we do things and go places that cannot be quantified in any other way, but we do it,without thinking - by being,which is paradigm shifting,but not with all the intellectual/analytical trapping/bullshit.My take anyways.Banishing with laughter,to close workings etc. is very powerful,something I learned from Discordianism.I love the Principia,it's outrageously funny,but has a serious message about keeping the rhyme with reason, not letting order and rules take over completely, that society is a construct and can cage us in,that we have forgotten the fun and joy in life,to release the child within sometimes, etc.etc.etc.
Touche, eretik!
However, I think you underestimate me. I follow a core shamanism path, so I and many of my dearest friends basically fall into the category that you so neatly fit into... that is, breaking the rules, being funloving but walking the line between order and chaos. For some reason, people are too close to one pole or the other that really gets to me.
Where as, being the In-Between is where my comfort zone lies. Balance is key, and it's a dynamic balance, not a static one.
After all, without Order, you have no civilization, no love, no bonds of joy or sorrow.
Without Chaos, you have no growth, no change, and no new ideas.
I'm drastically oversimplifying things here, but you get the idea.
However, I think you underestimate me. I follow a core shamanism path, so I and many of my dearest friends basically fall into the category that you so neatly fit into... that is, breaking the rules, being funloving but walking the line between order and chaos. For some reason, people are too close to one pole or the other that really gets to me.
Where as, being the In-Between is where my comfort zone lies. Balance is key, and it's a dynamic balance, not a static one.
After all, without Order, you have no civilization, no love, no bonds of joy or sorrow.
Without Chaos, you have no growth, no change, and no new ideas.
I'm drastically oversimplifying things here, but you get the idea.