Chaos Magick - The magic of chaos
For a while, everywhere I go, I find Chaos Magick.. it seems to be the most “fancy and trendy” subject. Often regarded in connection with wicca, shamanism and ceremonial magick, feared admired or mocked, the chaos magick path is becoming more and more visible in the aspects of the magickal life.
As such, I started to cultivate myself in the field. I talked to a wiccan friend which also practices chaos magick and who recommended me a series of books for starters.. very good books which I also recommend to you:Phil Hine - Prime Chaos and Peter J. Carroll - Liber Kaos. Ow and a small disclaimer, Hime is a shaman with great knowledge of the Qabalah and taking in consideration my severe shortcomings in that field, I invite you to view with a critical eye, the words below.
What is Chaos Magick
“Chaos”… brr… sounds ”chaotic” right? Sounds of evil and demons and blood rites? Sounds of a lacking dogma and lacking logic, of magic created by hallucinogen-fried brains? It sounds of random rituals created by anarchists and slackers with a bone to pick with „traditional magic systems?
Chaos Magick is none of these, even though it probably is a bit of of them. It is in short words: „Chaos magic is a school of the modern magical tradition which emphasizes the pragmatic use of belief systems and the creation of new and unorthodox methods.” (and yes, I was quoting from Wikipedia ;-)
Chaos magick's inspiration comes from various sources, from fantasy books, from video games, from everyday life, from the magician's dreams, from his imagination. I chaos magick, the shape is less important than the intent, the process is not pivotal, but the practitioner is. Seeing this, you could think that the practitioners are of chaos magick are childish and lazy, but generally it not the case. Most have passed from other magickal paths to chaos magick and have greater understanding of the magical act than they let on.
By using his own imagination, the power of his will. The chaos magician alters reality according to his wishes.
Chaos Magick and the Old Gods
Does Chaos Magick have Gods? Is it a religious system? The short answer is no… Chaos Magick uses Gods as entities and especially Lovecraftian ones such as: Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth – heads up for tentacle-pron fanatics, and a warning for those who got nightmares after reading Lovecraft's books and for the fluffybunnies who are afraid to interact with anything dark....
Chaos Magick and Ceremonial magick
Chaos Magick is nuts! I'm not kidding... the first chaotic spell I ever read was called “the skullfuck spell”, while the second was derived from the Starcraft videogame “the taro adu’un spell”. Beyond the funky names, the hidden ideas are profound, chaos magick is strong and works and most practitioners are experienced ceremonial mages or wiccans.
Chaos magick has strong roots in ceremonial magic, in qabalah, in Crowley's teachings, but as a major difference, it renounces the objects, the glamour, the strict rules, focuses on each person's imagination, on the magician's power, on the power of his intent, not on the power of the magical objects or of the formula used.
Chaos Magick and Wicca
Chaos Magick and Wicca have many things in common.. which explains why it is drawing in more and more wiccans. It is, just like wicca, an intuitive form of witchcraft which combines low and high magic, it is a mish-mash of diverse beliefs and rituals, it is often practiced solitary and is based on imagination and belief and not on objects or fixed formula.
Despite of this, there are a few major differences:
• Wicca is a religious system of beliefs, Chaos Magick is a mystical path
• Wicca prides itself on its tradition, its simplicity, its relationship to a mystical past, while Chaos Magick is oriented towards the new, towards progress and technology.
• Wicca is an Earth-bound religion, Chaos Magick is closer to high-magic.
• Wicca has a major rede, a powerful ethical system, while Chaos Magick revels in working with dark entities.
• Wicca manifests itself through a transformation of the perception in order to include the world, while Chaos Magick assumes a transformation of the material due to the force of willpower.
The major advantage of the wicca/chaos pairing is that the two paths are complementary, it is easy to be both a wiccan and a chaos mage in the same time without contradicting ideas.
Regardless if it will draw more people in or not, Chaos Magick is an interesting and complex path, which deserves to be studied, at least superficially, for a better understanding of the complexity of the magical world.
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