Chaos Magic

From SourceryForge

"It would be inappropriate for any Chaos Magic text to prescribe any particular beliefs or dogmas. It would be inappropriate for any Chaos magician to slavishly adhere to the fine detail of any system." - Liber KKK by Peter Carroll

Chaos magic is a new and unorthodox approach to applying change to reality. It has spread throughout the occult world as an effective means to achieve results.

The core foundation of chaos magic is the assertion that a belief in itself is not a final purpose or a strict framework but merely a tool to serve a particular purpose. Chaos magic does not hold any particular belief systems or operational frameworks as superior. The only exception being the superior belief that no belief in and of itself is a final purpose. Methodology and techniques used by chaotes vary to absolute extremes and are often incompatible with each other in their traditional sense.

Chaotes do not subscribe to any particular ideology. The most unique approach that the chaos magic has is the so called concept of Paradigm Shift: defiance of absolutism and disconnection from routine and established belief systems at will for the sake of temporarily accepting other belief system or systems suitable for achieving the desired results. Chaotes therefore tend to have wide and otherwise incompatible insights into religious and esotherical paths, psychology, neurophysiology, literature, philosophy and NLP, precise sciences and other knowledge.

Chaotes do occasionally employ rituals but they, as well as beliefs, can be arbitrarily temporary. A chaos mage can borrow a ritual here and there, rewire it to suit his own needs at will, use it and discard it. Two chaotes would probably have three different opinions on Servitors at any given point of time.

The mindset necessary to effectively employ the chaos magic is achieved through self-deprogramming. Subsequently, self-programming is used to achieve the desired result.

The wisdom key of the chaos magic, as instituted by Peter Carroll:

"Nothing is True. Everything is permitted"

[This is the common form of the original, "Nothing is true, everything is permissable", popularized by Robert Anton Wilson and attributed to the 10th century Ishmaeli ascetic prince Hassan-I-Sabbah.]

Operating chaos mages would freely accept and subsequently modify or reject methods and beliefs coming from different paths, operate with different entities and bear different philosophies. Their current belief systems may be based on something as established as Christianity, something as mystical as Kabalah or even something outright bizzare as, for, example, Summoning Spongebob or worshiping Muppets.

(The original Wikipedia article begins here. It should be dropped later as this page is finished)

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Original article taken from http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Chaos_magic

Following the death of Aleister Crowley, magic as practiced by the still somewhat sparse occult subculture in Great Britain tended to become more experimentalist, personal and a lot less bound to the magical traditions of established magical orders. Main reasons for this might include the public availability of previously secret information on magic (especially in the books published by Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie), the radically unorthodox magic of Austin Osman Spare's Zos Kia Cultus, the influence of Discordianism, the increasing popularity of magic caused by the success of the Wicca cult and the use of psychedelic drugs.

The term chaos magick first appeared in the widely influential "Liber Null" by Peter Carroll, first published in 1978. In it, Carroll formulated several concepts on magic that were radically different from what was considered magical mysteries in the days of Aleister Crowley. This book, along with "Psychonaut" by the same author, remains the main authority on chaos magic, as this magical current became known.

Pete Carroll also co-founded the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros, short Illuminates of Thanateros or IOT, a magical (dis-)order that continues study and development of chaos magic to the present day. However, chaos magic unsurprisingly is among the least organized branches of magic.

Perhaps the most striking feat of chaos magic is the concept of the magical paradigm shift. Borrowing a term from philosopher Thomas Kuhn, Carroll made the technique of arbitrarily changing one's model (or paradigm) of magic a major concept of chaos magic. It has since found its way into the magical work of practitioners of many other magical traditions.

Practitioners of chaos magic attempt to be outside of all categories - for them, worldviews, theories, beliefs, opinions, habits and even personalities are tools that may be chosen arbitrarily in order to understand or manipulate the world they see and create around themselves. Chaos magicians (a term sometimes called an oxymoron because it is a category for undefinable things) are often described as funny, extreme, individualist, erratic, anarchist or very hard to understand people. Sometimes they are described as sad old fascists.

While chaos magic has lost some of the popularity it had in the UK during the 1980s, it is still active and influential. Meanwhile, Carroll has departed from chaos magic to study concepts of magic reliant on mathematics, quantum physics and chaos theory.