Chaotes then and now
By Psyche | December 16, 2009
It should hardly seem surprising that something called “chaos magick” is constantly in flux, both in terms of what gets classed as chaos magick, and in who it attracts.
I was first introduced to the subject by some English bloke on IRC in a random Wicca chatroom1 who later, through a series of unlikely circumstances, became my husband.2 He introduced names I’d never heard of before: Austin Osman Spare, Peter J Carroll, Robert Anton Wilson – people with three names writing weird stuff.
It was refreshing. I was young, and apart from a few friends in high school, I didn’t know anyone else who was interested in magick. Until I found the chaotes, all I knew were religious Pagans who left me empty, or pedantic ceremonialists who bickered over trivia that seemed unnecessary.3
From there I devoured everything I could find: Ray Sherwin, Phil Hine, Stephen Mace, Jan Fries, Steve Wilson, Ramsey Dukes, Jaq Hawkins, Hakim Bey, ye gods even Adrian Savage, simply because the word “chaos” was in the title. The books were difficult to find, expensive and experimental; the websites were raw and their authors approachable.
First Wave
There’s basically two kinds of magick. There’s puff’s magick, and git ‘ard Magick. Chaos is git ‘ard Magick.”
- Mick McMagus
It’s been interesting to see how the chaos current has changed over the years. From the first wave, developed by Peter Carroll and Ray Sherwin in the late 70s and early 80s in England, a sort of reaction against what was going on with Thelema at the time. With a label like “chaos” and an eight-rayed start as its symbol, of course it was going to acquire a dark mystique. If Thelema was the sex, drugs, rock and roll of the occult, chaos was its punk – with all that entailed.
It’s no coincidence that chaos magick arose during the same period as chaos mathematics. Even today Carroll continues his attempts to marry science and magick.
Liber Null was heavily influenced by Aleister Crowley, of course, with several exercises and examples drawn almost directly from Magick
. Several people were promoting Austin Osman Spare in various magazines and small press, and Spare’s influence was formative, as was Lionel Snell’s S.S.O.T.B.M.E.
, with its abstract philosophy.
Second Wave
When Peter Carroll and Ray Sherwin started calling what they did chaos magick, the idea was informed by the emerging field of chaos mathematics, the books published in the 90s carried that influence and incorporated the it into the every day in the works of Phil Hine and Ramsey Dukes (Lionel Snell), and Stephen Mace, Jan Fries, Steve Wilson and others developed these ideas further.
The second wave exploded online in the 90s, with websites like Tzimon Ylatzer’s Tools of Chaos, 1351’s Choronzon, Fenwick’s Chaos Matrix, and e-lists such as the Z(Cluster), AutonomatriX, chaoskaos and various groups both online and off.
Third Wave
Over the past few years it seems a third wave has been rising, repopularizin “pop culture magick”, abstracting insight from anywhere and everywhere and, to paraphrase Crowley, “interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with one’s Soul”.
It’s all relevant, and it’s all meaningless. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. The face changes, but the core of the philosophy remains the same.
Change
The philosophy may be the same, but the personality shift is drastic.
The 90s chaotes were egotistical, couple that with the pseudo-anonymity of the Internet,4 and you find that chaotes in the 90s were assholes. It was part of the aesthetic. Lovely people when you got to know ‘em, but with an exceptionally low tolerance for bullshit. After the newagers5 and fluffier neo-Pagans, it was refreshing to actually be challenged for once. I loved it.
Today’s chaotes don’t seem to be like that. They’re nice. Friendly, even. It’s a little disconcerting.
I’m not sure if it’s reflective of the happy go-lucky so-called “millenials” that are making up the Nu Kaos Kids, or that as the old chaotes age the posturing no longer seems necessary. But the old standby doesn’t seem to fit as well as it once did. Hell, even I’m getting nicer.6
So, darling chaotes of the future, if crusty old people in their, er, early 30s appear dark and angsty, continue to be yourself, you adorable rays of sunshine dressed like Neil Gaiman’s Death, and we can’t help but warm to you.
It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. The dark, evil roots seem to be burried, for now.
A Question
Are the new kids going back and reading the old stuff? Not just the founders of the current, Peter Carroll, Ray Sherwin, but also its influences, Crowley, Spare, Grant.
The period ‘zines and journals were key,7 like Chaos International, Kaos, The Lamp of Thoth. Excerpts from Liber Nox has recently been republished again by Original Falcon as Infernal Texts: Nox and Liber Koth,8 are people buying it?
Footnotes:
- Hey, this was a thousand years ago in Internet time. (Also known as 1997.) There wasn’t much available for the magickally-inclined on IRC. (Is there now?) [back]
- Ten years together. Eight years married. It’s pretty weird. [back]
- I didn’t really get Thelema, at that point, and even today much of ceremonial magick retains its air of solemn frivolity. [back]
- Hey, remember when the Internet used to be like that? It was cool, wasn’t it? [back]
- Newage, rhymes with sewage. Remember it, kids. [back]
- I know. It’s weird for me, too. [back]
- We talked a bit about this last year in “Occult ‘zines as cultural artifacts“. [back]
- I reviewed an earlier edition of Infernal Texts for SpiralNature.com. [back]
Related posts:
- Chaos magick: doing what works & more
- Top 5 Books on Chaos Magick
- “Celebrity” occultists
- Dave Lee, Chaotopia! and chaos magick in general
- 10+ books to a new magickian
Category: Essays & Opinion, Occulture
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fuck off!!
Ah, see? Adorable!
nice
the young kaotes are reading…
…comics, mostly
and recipe books, and computer manuals and newspapers and ceral boxes, anything they can use i think
Oh, dear. I forgot to mention the excellent stuff that’s coming out of Hidden Publishing, and chaos magick’s first professional historian, Dr Dave Evans!
Love it! I hope I’m still young enough to be one of the mason jars of sunshine! Or is it moonshine? Definitely reading the influences, and I would include William Burroughs and Brion Gysin as further essentials. All the TOPY texts as 1st or 2nd generation as well (I was a toddler when Thee Grey Book came out, so I couldn’t say for sure).
Do have Infernal Texts, would you include Kaos in the ‘zine list as well?
I would and did include Kaos. Joel Biroco was an inspiring and somewhat intimidating influence.
Burroughs and Gysin, definitely, and though I never really got TOPY, they should certainly be included in the cannon.
trouble reading italics, i guess o_O
Cheers for the synopsis. It’s obviously a schema your sympathetic to.
However, with that said, I wonder if you might have picked up the rose coloured glasses…
“It was part of the aesthetic. Lovely people when you got to know ‘em, but with an exceptionally low tolerance for bullshit.”
Aside from you, I can count the number of chaotes I respect on less than a hand. I see no evidence of a healthy path. Rather, I see rampant egotism, shallow rebellion, sycophancy, and misanthropy. Not a schema I’d give much credence, but of course, different folks are looking for different “answers”.
Of course, this is a nostalgia piece. Things were always better in the good ol’ days.
I happily confess, I love egosim, and shallow rebellion is almost always adorable – like rich punks! The sycophancy I’ve never encountered though? The chaotes I’ve known have always been far too self-serving for that to ever become an issue.
As to “answers” – chaos magick has never been about answers, only results, pure and simple. It’s a philosophical framework, not a religion or even a spirituality.
“I happily confess, I love egosim, and shallow rebellion is almost always adorable – like rich punks!”
Not the type of folks I’ve got much time for. Different strokes, I guess.
“The sycophancy I’ve never encountered though? The chaotes I’ve known have always been far too self-serving for that to ever become an issue.”
Well, admittedly we’re not talking about the same type of sycophancy that’s in play with fundamentalist religions or spectator sports. I probably couldve picked a better term for the prejudice.
“As to “answers” – chaos magick has never been about answers, only results, pure and simple. It’s a philosophical framework, not a religion or even a spirituality.”
I wouldn’t disagree; however, I would argue a philosophic framework that isn’t yoked to truth (ie “answers”) is inferior goods.
I wouldn’t disagree; however, I would argue a philosophic framework that isn’t yoked to truth (ie “answers”) is inferior goods.
That’s a curious statement, and not one I’m sure I agree with.
A useful philosophical framework should aid one in moving through the world as it is. In fixing on “truthes” assumed to be static one may be disinclined to seek further information or experiences, as one already “knows” what’s “true”.
To borrow from you: “That’s a curious statement, and not one I’m sure I agree with.”
We obviously have very different understandings of the value and application of philosophy. Etymologically, the passion and love of wisdom implicit within ‘philosophy’ implies something very different from what you’ve insinuated here. In a classical sense, philosophy was intended to help us experience what is rather than what we wish to be. Therefore, philosophy has always been linked to epistemology. Epistemologies that are not yoked to truth have decidedly less constructive value.
Furthermore, I said nothing of “fixing” on “static” anything. It’s certainly true that some schools of philosophy do exactly that, but it would be inaccurate to generalize this tendency.
The type of “philosophy” you’ve described here seems more like a “worldview” than “philosophy”, but maybe that’s my academic/semantic puritanism kicking in.
From my experience (not necessarily with anything magical or occult, etc, but with people) Kephra will never understand the usefulness of such a thing because (s)he will never find enough to motivate an attempt. That’s by no means wrong, but it’s just not how I roll. If we only ever did stuff that seemed useful, or that might glean answers, or was somehow “yoked to truth” then many of sciences great discoveries wouldn’t have happened.
I like to think of my practice as encouraging Black Swans.
If you think that makes litte/no sense, try looking it up in a book. The book may or may not be “yoked to truth” but it might prove a useful metaphor.
Not taking the bait.
Found this via an FB link from a young chaote friend of mine. As one of those 90s online chaotes I was tickled to read this. (BTW, you forgot a few other cool lists/groups – TIAMAT and Damascus MUSH, among others).
Nice to know some people are continuing to play with the whole paradigm/not-paradigm conundrum that is Chaos Magick.
Cheers.
Oh, wait I forgot, 90s chaos magicians are supposed to be assholes.
Fuck you.
Tiamat! Yes! Never participated in Damascus though, sounds like it might’ve been fun.
Welcome to the blog, and fuck you, too!
LOL! Well said! I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Indeed. We are getting nicer. Perhaps there is not point in creating an aura of mysticism around. No point of being dark and spooky, and scare off all those “non worthy” :)
Perhaps it is called aging – we are more open to other people, more open to their opinions and their experience ;-) We already explored some ways and continue to look for others, one which were not acceptable before.
Perhaps, though I notice that as chaotes age they tend to move away from self-identifying with that label, and the new chaotes who use do it don’t seem to have that same energy – they’re coming at it from another angle.
Digging up old news is just how I roll.
I’m taking your questions as a reading list, I came to this whole chaos magick phenom from a very rigid scientific background, having discovered a reference to Discordianism in an aside mentioned in a footnote’s endnote in some paper I dug up for research I was doing in grad school. I started from quantum mechanics and high level physics, and ended up here. Whether that’s a good direction isn’t something that really needs deciding.
I’ve definitely read at least some Spare, Crowley, Sherman and Carroll, but these zines are new to me. I plan to dig up some of these zines and see if there’s anything a 3rd-4th wave brat like me can use.
Definitely check out Liber Nox, which should still be available from one of the Falcons (either New or Original, it’s getting difficult to keep track of which still has which authors).
The others grab ‘em when and where you can find them, though when they appear on in the used market they tend to fetch extortionate prices.
Best of luck!
I grew up during the period when Chaos was forming, but never associated with the “mainstream -” at times I felt like The Only Chaote In The VIllage.
Actually, that’s ALL the time.
All these years I have kept myself to myself, and applied the old saying that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar in my dealings with people (although rotten meat trumps the other two).
I was drawn to Chaos from as early as twelve. I still practice, as quietly as ever, away from the limelight and the swollen egos.
The reason for my choosing to remain in the shadows came when the mainstream media got a hold of a Temple of Psychic Youth video, and a full scale Satanic Panic spread to all corners of Britain in its wake. I remember those days well, and resolve not to put myself in the centre of anything like that shitstorm.
Hey, I live in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, and though now I know a few people, back then I didn’t know anyone into this stuff. It’s what made the Internet so great as a place to connect with likeminded folks from around the world.
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A “Young Kaote” here.
As far as my experience goes, any self respecting Chaote (old or young) will take note of history. I’ve read a couple of the books you’ve mentioned in this article, but i’ve been kind of lazy in reading to tell you the truth. Mostly i use the internet to find writings and i have a feeling many more do the same. I don’t much feel like spending money on knowledge i could find for free online.