The following text is from the forthcoming book Now That's What I Call Chaos Magick by Greg Humpries and Julian Vayne. Publication will be towards the tail end of 2002 - please check our website www.liminalspace.co.uk for details. See also www.occultebooks.com.
(UPDATE: May 11th 2004 - 'Now that's
what I call chaos magick!' is now out - To find out more and order go
here (click 'Non-fiction Collection' then 'Chaos Magick')
The occult tradition has always been highly syncretic, embracing ideas, language, techniques and images from many different areas of human experience. In demonstrating such eclecticism and mutability one might well argue that, since the end of the shamanic phase of culture (in the west), occultism has clung like a rather disreputable parasite, to the pelt of first religion and then science. The magickians of the medieval period couched their work in terms of Hebraic and Christian Qabalism. Alchemy and the Hermetic tradition maintained an uneasy truce (mostly) with Catholicism and latterly spiritualism attempted to clothe itself with a broadly Protestant iconography.
Today occultism is beginning to emerge on its own terms. For occultism is a study, an area of enquiry that, whilst it may utilise the language of religion or science (or art, or many other things), is itself a complete body of knowledge. For me, as I have explained in my previous work Pharmakon, occultism is the study and practice of engaging with mystery. Magick is the technology of exploring the occult, those hidden aspects of the universe. Moreover magick provides mechanisms whereby we can learn to cause change in the hidden processes of the universe.
The grandfather of contemporary occultism is undoubtedly Eliphas Levi who attempted to formulate a general theory of magick (indeed he always claimed to be primarily a theorist rather than a practitioner of the occult arts). It was Levi's' The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic (1856) that began the process of de-coupling magick from a specifically religious viewpoint. Just as the age of reason was giving way to the first murmuring of the 'irrationalist' movements (that would later flower as asceticism, romanticism, theosophy and surrealism) so Levi sought, if not to create a scientific vocabulary for magick, then at least to try to cut through the complexity of the subject in order to identify 'principles'. Levi focused his work within what we might now call the western magickal tradition, but contemporary researchers were also active in creating a scientific language (devoid of explicitly religious content) to explain such phenomena as mesmerism.
Levi's first magickal principle was that of the Will which, as in mesmerism, was imagined 'as steam or the galvanic current', that is a 'real' force. Levi opined that paraphernalia such as robes, incense, magick circles and the like were primarily important as aids in supporting the Will. Their virtue was in their effect on the Will of the magickian and not primarily to be considered as arising from any inherent property. With this principle Levi, at a stroke, jettisoned the magickians reliance on virgin parchment and the blood of pigeons and recast the material mechanics of magick into what Israel Regardie would later call 'an artificial system of props and aids'.
Levi's second principle was that of the astral light. This light was the medium or dimension of reality which permeated all things, and of which the material world was only one of innumerable projections. Levi's conception of the astral light was similar to ideas such as that of the luminiferous ether (the medium through which electromagnetic radiation was conjectured to pass by 19th century physicists) and the all-pervasive 'odic force' of Baron von Reichenbach. The fundamental principle of magick that the doctrine of the astral light reaffirmed was 'all is one and one is all'- everything in the universe was intimately interconnected. Today we might imagine this astral light as the 'quantum vacuum', conceptualising it less as a substance (in the way that water is) but instead as a dimension or underlying quality of the universe (that gives rise to the probabilistic nature of events).
Levi's third principle, which was significantly developed by the adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, concerned correspondences or 'like attracts like', what James Frazer went on to examine in The Golden Bough as 'sympathetic magic'. For Levi the doctrine of 'as above, so below' affirmed that what was within the macrocosm was reflected within the microcosm. Today models such as the holographic or fractal universe expound essentially the same doctrine. On the most superficial level one might say that humans are 'the magickal mirror of the universe' so that the constellation of Leo was related to the breast and the organ of the heart. However for Levi these chains of symbolic meaning were not to be taken strictly literally, rather it was the principle or quality that these symbols represented that would have a sympathy or connection. Thus the principle represented by the god Mars would correspond with activities such as conflict and qualities such as passion in the soul of the magickian. It was this conception of the doctrine of correspondence that paved the way for the dream analysis of psychoanalysis and the archetypes of Carl Jung.
Following Levi MacGregor Mathers and his brothers and sisters of the Golden Dawn successfully nurtured the growth of occultism as a corpus of knowledge. The schema of the Qabalah formed the primary skeleton upon which this body was fleshed out and works such as Crowley's 777 demonstrate how the muscles hang upon these bones. The Golden Dawn went on to expand the doctrine of correspondence to include Egyptian gods, Classical symbolism, Buddhist meditations and a formidable range of other categories to create an extensive and coherent system.
The adepts of the Golden Dawn built on Levi's work emphasising the principle of Imagination. They suggested that the Will was blind and impotent unless the Imagination had been sufficiently developed by practices such as visualisation and pathworking. The Will and Imagination were seem as the twin forces that accomplished magick. By furnishing the Imagination with the correct symbolic vocabulary, through knowledge of correspondences, mental images thus created could be given reality by the controlled use of the Will.
Added to the emphasis on Imagination we might add a fifth principle which was summed up nicely by Aleister Crowley as the fact that the Will (or Will framed by the Imagination) had to operate 'without lust of result'. For a magickal operation to be successful the magickian had to be able to maintain a position of 'disinterested interest'. The sorcerer should be able to deliberately forget, or at least become consciously detached from, the outcome of the rite. In Austin Spare's system of magick various psychological devices were used to help the magickian forget their desire. To use the psychoanalytic language that Spare favoured, the intention of the spell sinks down into the depths of the subconscious to do its work only if it remains undisturbed by conscious attention.
Spare was also notable in that his system of magick did not rely on elaborate paraphernalia. Indeed most of Spares magickal work was conducted in everyday circumstances with nothing more than paper and pen. Magick had become increasingly 'all in the mind'. The highly personal and pared down style of Spares sorcery exemplified the simple but effective occult technology that characterises modern magick. This was a move towards what has become known as 'open handed magick'.
It was during the 1970s, with the second phase of the modern occult revival in full swing, that the depth and range of esoteric systems appearing in the west made it increasingly hard to justify using only one approach (such as the Qabalah based iconography of post-Golden Dawn magick). The increasing amount of information emerging about Eastern occultism as well as new scientific developments (for instance in parapsychology) led researchers to propose another two key magickal principles. The contribution of these additional principles was closely linked to the emergence of the chaos magick current, there were:
Belief shifting - The method of the operation (ie magickal work) is not as important as ones firm belief in its efficacy. Belief shifting was a principle that was particularly in tune with the emergence of post-modernist philosophy into mainstream culture (in the 1980s). The focus on belief shifting derived from the observation that magickal power did not seem to be dependent on knowing arcane esoteric formulae, nor was it determined by whether you had access to paraphernalia constructed according to ancient prescription. Belief (and the ability to adopt different beliefs) seemed to be the thing that combined Will and Imagination and framed the space in which magick could take place.
Gnosis - The operation should be conducted in an altered state of consciousness. Whether through biofeedback, dance, sex, psychedelics or any number of other methods, entering a 'trance' state appeared to be a key element in successfully magick. Today generating and successfully managing various states of gnosis is seen as pivotal to the pursuit of any magickal practice.
In addition to these new principles, movements such as Wicca had begun to fuse the 'high magick' of the ceremonial magickian with the 'low' or 'natural' magick for the folk tradition. This vital union served to encourage the emerging tendency of magickians to go for simple and dramatic practices over complex formulaic rituals (William Grays The Rollright Ritual is an exemplar of this process). Western magick increasingly moved away from the Judeo-Christian/Masonic tradition and towards a wider neo-Pagan/Shamanic style.
A more general addition to the corpus of magick also came from what we might now recognise as the 'chaoist school'. This was to approach magick directly using 'the method of science' (as Crowley had hoped to do). Thus occultism was interpreted strongly in terms of producing verifiable results. A decision as to what magick might be profitably undertaken was conceptualised in terms of a probability model of the universe. This interpretation of the magickal universe drew strongly on the popularised language of quantum physics and, later, complex non-linear dynamics ('chaos mathematics'). The weird and distinctly occult universe explored by writers such as Fritjof Capra (in The Tao of Physics) seemed to provide just the right mixture of science and spirituality, which could provide a highly modern magickal vocabulary. Attempts were made to frame magick in terms of a materialist worldview (notably by Ramsey Dukes). Latterly the cyberpunk and information culture has also been pressed into the service of the occult to provide different a terminology apparently devoid of religious overtones (though this can be easily contested - see Erik Davis TechGnosis).
This 'technocratic' approach would have been a sad reduction of the scope and richness of the occult tradition were it not for the fact that the chaoist school also drew from the 'Erisian', quasi-situationalist tradition. Inspired by the idea that if the science didn't work then perhaps the 'damned foolishness' would! Just as the psychedelic movement in '60s America had two sides (Leary - the cerebral eastern guru and Kesey - the crazed merry prankster) so chaos magick, through its key decade (the 1980s), maintained a deliberate lunacy alongside its assumed rationalism. The practice of banishing chaos rituals with laughter can be seen as emblematic of this. After a bunch of grown men and women have spent an hour waving their hands about, locked in a basement in Leeds, high on drugs and (apparently) convinced they are changing themselves and the wider universe through hidden powers - there is nothing left to do but laugh!
Although supposedly open to all influences and styles, chaos magick in the 1980s soon came to represent a definite type of sorcerer. Subscribers to journals such as Chaos International could be stereotyped as leather jacket wearing, rune carving, dope heads who felt honour bound to wage a war of 'we're more hardcore than you are' with all comers (but especially Thelemites). Fortunately such stereotypes were just that, empty images, and in fact many chaos magickians actively worked with colleagues from other traditions on projects that took them outside of their own sphere. (One of the most notable being the successfully defence of the ancient woodland of Oxleas in central London against the threat of built development.)
The chaos magick system rests upon a paradox. Namely that the system claims that 'nothing is true' and yet itself emerges from the 19th century attempt to create a grand theory of magick. James Frazer attempted to demonstrate that the diverse religions of the world share the same set of symbols, and Marx attempted to show that all cultures move through the same socio-political process. Freud and Jung proposed a common language of the unconscious that lay beneath apparent differences in language or culture. So Levi and the scholars of the Golden Dawn likewise proposed a similar universalism in magick. Chaos magick continued this idea; arguing all occult systems are ultimately grounded in belief and gnosis and yet, in its more extreme manifestations, placed all 'reality' in subjective experience.
The paradox is also evident in the tension between the concept of the self found in some chaos magick texts (eg Carroll's Psybermagick) where 'selves' are admitted to but no unitary being is acknowledged. Yet at the same time much chaos sorcery is devoted to 'getting what you want' where the question of who the 'you' is that 'wants' is rarely examined. But these internal tensions or contradictions do not mean that chaos magick is not worthy of study. Indeed they may well imply just the differences and inconsistencies that one would expect to see in a rich and living tradition. Certainly the few key texts of chaos magick would prove valuable additions to the library of any occultist, whatever their preferred style of magick.
Today people who profess an interest in chaos magick wildly and happily incorporate a number of different magickal practices, technologies, and styles into their work. Indeed so wide is the appeal of this recension of the occult tradition, and the two principles that it has added to modern magickal praxis so commonplace, that today there is little value in considering chaos magick as a style of occultism in and of itself. Even those magickians who have a definite religious belief (be it Thelemic, Pagan or of some other type) often talk in terms of 'magickal paradigms'. Most occultists are reconciled to the idea that many of their most cherished sets of symbols and practices may well only be methods of 'slight of mind'. On the other hand many self-proclaimed chaos magickians have plunged deeper into one or more particular belief systems. Thus today a chaos magickian is likely to be deeply involved in just a few traditions but with a working knowledge of many. Moreover the drive for 'change for changes sake' seems to have petered out, 'depth and diversity' seems to be the predominant approach rather than 'polymorphous paradigms plus a few key principles'.
So with this book we can confidently announce the death of chaos magick. If we want in the future to delineate highly eclectic approaches to magick from those that are bounded within a given tradition or system perhaps the word 'freestyle' might be appropriate. Perhaps the chaos current has done its job in freeing occultism from the dead grip of religion and other superstition. Thus we might simply talk about 'magick' and only prefix the word when we want to discuss a particular style within it (eg 'Thelemic magick', 'voudou magick', 'mimetic magick' and so on). In the same way we talk about 'art' and then define different media or styles - neo-classical art, surrealist art, visual art etc.
The 'meta-belief' that 'Nothing is True, Everything is permitted' and the eight rayed star of chaos can stand guard, ensuring that magick does not become swallowed up by the beasts of rationalist technology, new age religion or Paganism. Groups such as The Illuminates of Thanateros and itinerant chaoists will remain as the agent provocateurs of esoteric culture, chipping away at any limits that others might seek to impose on the magickal discourse. Equally chaos magickians will remain those gallant souls who battle the demons of delusion, acknowledging that it is certainly important to do 'what feels right' but always asking that awkward question 'yes, but did it work?'
Chaos is Dead! Long Live Magick!