Condensed Chaos - Phil Hine

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CONDENSEDCHAOS

an introductiont o chaos mag i cby phil hine


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Occult/Religion U.S. Price $14.95CONDENSED CHAOSA n In t roduc t ion t o C h a o s M a g i c

William S. Burroughs, authorof Naked Lunch says:"Phil Hine's book is the most concise statement ... of the logic ofmodern magic. Magic, in the light of modern physics, quantumtheory and probability theory is now approaching science. We hopethat a result of this will be a synthesis so that science will becomemore magical and magic more scientific.""Phil Hine is one of the leading exponents of what is likely the fastestgrowing school of thaumaturgy: Chaos Magick."James Martin, Abrasax Magazine"Most modern books on magic are not worth reading. To his credit,Phil Hine has produced a tour de force which should be studied."Ian Read, Editor, Chaos International"Phil Hine shows himself to be one of the leading thinkers in thefield, and one of the least dogmatic." Steve Moore, Fortean Times"The author isone of the rising stars of Chaos Magic."Peter J. Carroll, author of Liber Kaos and PsyberMagickPhil Hine is a former editor of the internationally acclaimed maga-zine Chaos International. He divides his time among doing magic,recovering and then writing about it afterwards. He has facilitatedworkshops and seminars on modern magical practice in Americaand Europe. He is the author of Prime Chaos, The Pseudonomicon,andChaos Servitors: A Users Guide. He lives in London, England.

ISBN 1-56184-117-X

NEWFALCON # PUBLICATIONS


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Wth thanks toChristopher Hyatt,Robert & Stephanie Wlliams,Ian Read,Ed Wallis,Hannibal the Cannibal,Vishvanath,Maria Strutz,Barry Walkerand

Rodney Orpheus


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Table of ContentsForewordBy Pete Carroll 9

Chapter OneIs ChaosMagick? 11

Chapter TwoMagick InThe Material World 26

Chapter ThreeBecoming AMagician 39

Chapter FourAnother Crack InThe Wall 58Chapter Five

Playing Wth Chaos 80Chapter Six

Chaos Servitors 105Chapter Seven

Ego Magick 125Chapter Eight

Kali In TheDisco 143Chapter NineConquering Demons 160hapter Tenre You Illuminated? 176urther Reading 191or Further Information 192


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CHAPTER ONEIS CHAOS MAGIC?WHATISMAGIC?The world ismagical; wemight get asense of thisafter climbinga mountain and looking down upon the landscape below, or inthe quiet satisfaction at the end of one of those days wheneverything has gone right for us. Magic is a doorway throughwhich we step into mystery, wildness, and immanence. We livein a world subject to extensive and seemingly, all-embracingsystems of social and personal control that continually feed usthe lie that we are each alone, helpless, and powerless to effectchange. Magic is about change. Changing your circumstances sothat you strive to live according to a developing sense ofpersonal responsibility; that you caneffect change around you ifyou choose; that we are not helpless cogs in some clockworkuniverse. All acts of personal/collective liberation are magicalacts. Magic leads us into exhilaration and ecstasy; into insightand understanding; into changing ourselves and the world inwhich we participate. Through magic we may come to explorethe possibilities of freedomSurely this is simple enough? But no, magic has becomeobfuscated under a weight of words, a welter of technical termswhich exclude the uninitiated andservethose whoareeager for a'scientific' jargon with which to legitimise their enterprise intosomething self-important andpompous.Abstract spiritual spaceshave been created in the midst of which tower the Babel-likeLego constructions of 'inner planes', spiritual hierarchies and'occult truths' which forget that the world around us is magical.The mysterious has been misplaced. We search through deadlanguages and tombs for 'secret knowledge', ignoring themystery of life that is all around us. So for the moment, forgetwhat you've read about spiritual enlightenment, becoming a 99th


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6. Gnosis. One of the keys to magical ability is the ability toenter Altered States of Consciousness at wll.We tend to draw adistinct line between 'ordinary consciousness' and 'alteredstates', where in fact we move betweendifferent states of con-sciousnesssuch as daydreams, 'autopilot' (where we carry outactions without cognition) and varying degrees of attention, allthe time.However, asfar asmagic isconcerned, the willed entryinto intense altered states can be divided into two poles of'Physiological Gnosis'Inhibitory states, and Excitatory states.The former includes physically 'passive' techniques such asmeditation, yoga, scrying, contemplation and sensory deprivationwhile the latter includes chanting, drumming, dance, emotionaland sexual arousal.

ABRIEFHISTORYOFCHAOSThe Chaos Magic movement had its first stirrings in the latenineteen seventies, in England. While the new phenomena ofpunk rock was grabbing the newspaper headlines, and scientistsacross the world were beginning to delve into the mysteriousmathematical world of fractals and non-linear dynamics, a newapproach to magical practice was being synthesized in the wildsof West Yorkshire. At the time, English occultism was verymuch dominated by the three strands of popular Witchcraft,Western Qabalah, and Thelema. At least, there were enoughpeople interested in these approaches to spawn supportingmagazines. In one such magazine, The New Equinox, thereappeared the early writings of PeterJ.Carroll, whoisconsideredthe foremost exponent of modern Chaos Magic. By 1978, thereappeared the first advertisements for the "Illuminates ofThanateros", an order who's practices were composed of ablendof shamanism, Taoism, Tantra and Thelema. The announcementof this new order was shortly followed by the first edition ofPeter Carroll's Liber Null, which while describing the basicphilosophy and practical approaches, did not contain the term'Chaos Magic'. LiberNull was closely followed by The Book ofResults by Ray Sherwin, which lucidly explained Austin OsmanSpare's great magical innovationsigil magic. Austin OsmanSpare is considered by many to be the "grandfather" of ChaosMagic. An obscure figure, brought to light by the work ofKenneth Grant, Spare was a superb magical artist, sorcerer, and


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spiritualist. At a time when many of his contemporaries sneeredat table-tapping and contacting 'spirit guides' in favour ofelaborate Rosicrucian ceremonies, Spare was painting the spiritshe was in contact with, and using his own system of 'sentientletters'sigilsto manifest his desires. Spare was not partic-ularly enamoured of the Golden Dawn-style approach to magic,and makes some very acid comments on the subject in The Bookof Pleasure (1913).The Bookof Pleasure (subtitled: The Psychologyof Ecstasy)contains the essentials of Spare's magical philosophy, and thekey techniques with whichheapplied it. It isnot an easy book toread, and Spare is often referred to as an "incomprehensiblemystic." His vocabulary is wide, his use of grammar is strange,and he uses many terms in ways that give them a differentmeaningfromtheirusualcontext. Norwas heattemptingtowritein a "textbook" style that modern readers are used to, and TheBook of Pleasure is very stylistically reminiscent of an oldGrimoire before it has been tidied up. Fortunately, The Book ofResults gave a very clear exposition of sigil magic, andLiberNull also dealt with Spare's concept of the alphabet of desire.Another powerful influence of the development of Chaos Magicwas the work of Aleister Crowley. Crowley synthesised amagical world-viewa psychocosmout of his studies inmagical and esoteric fields such as the Golden Dawn, Yoga,Alchemy, Kabalah, andfromhis experience in other disciplines.Moreover, it is Crowley's life, rather than his voluminousmagical and mystical writings that is of interest. Crowley tookhis personal experience, magical and otherwise, and created hisown enclave, beyond the boundaries of conventional morality.He deliberately sought extremes of experience, concealing, andat the same time, revealing himself through a series of colourfulpersonalities. Part of Crowley's attraction for the modernmagician is that he created something which has enduringpowera psychocosm which continues to be developed andtwisted intodifferent forms. Crowley did not somuch 'follow atradition, he embodied a dynamic process of realityengagementcreating his own pathfromwhatever hehappenedtofind infront of him.The early growth of Chaos Magic was characterised by aloose network of informal groups who came together to


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and Robert Shea's blockbusting Illuminatus! trilogy, and also inMalaclypse The Younger's book Principia Discordiawhich setsout the basic principles of the Discordian Religiona religionbased aroundtheGreek Goddess, Eris.Traditionally, Eriswas adaughter of Nox (night) andthe wfeof Chronus. She begat a whole bunch of GodsSorrow,Forgetfulness, Hunger, Disease, Combat, Murder, Liesnicekids! The ancient Greeks attributed any kind of upset or discordto her. With the fall of the ancient empires, Eris disappeared,though it is suspected that she had a hand in 'manifesting' thefirst bureaucracies, triplicate forms, and insurance companies.She didn't put inapersonal appearance again on spaceship Gaiaagain until the late 1950's, when she appeared to two youngCalifornians, who later became known as Omar Ravenhurst andMalaclypse The Younger. Eris appointed them the "Keepers ofthe Sacred Chao" and gave them the message to: "Tellconstricted mankind that there areno rules, unless they choose toinvent rules." After which Omar and Mai appointed each otherHigh Priest of hisown madness, anddeclared themselves each tobe a Society of Discordia, whatever that maybe. Eris has sinceclimbed her way from historical footnote to mythic mega-star,and the Discordian Movement, if such a thing can be said toexist, is growing on both sides of the Atlantic, helped by theDiscordian tactic of declaring that everyone is a genuine Pope.More people are getting into the idea of a religion based on thecelebration of confusion and madness. The central Greek myththat Erisfiguresprominently in is theever-continuing soap operaof 'Mount OlympusHome of the Gods'; the episode whichinadvertently brought about the Trojan War. It seems that Zeuswas throwing a party and did not want to inviteErisbecause ofher reputation as a trouble-maker. Infuriated by the snub, Erisfashioned a golden apple inscribed with the word Kallisti, ("tothe prettiest one") and tossed it intothe hall where all the guestswere. Three of the invited Goddesses, Athena, Hera, andAphrodite, each claimed the apple for themselves and startedfighting and throwing food around. To settle the dispute, Zeusordered all threetosubmit tothe judgement of amortal over justwho was 'the prettiest one', and said mortal wasParis, son of theKing of Troy. Zeus sent all three to Paris, via Hermes, but eachGoddess tried to outwit the others by sneaking out early and


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offering a bribe to Paris. Athena offered Paris victory in battle,Hera, great wealth, while Aphrodite 'merely loosened the claspsby which her tunicwas fastened and unknotted her girdle,' alsooffering Paris themostbeautiful of mortal women.So, Aphroditegot the apple, and Paris got off with Helen, who unfortunatelyhappened to be married to Menelaus, King of Sparta. Thanks tothe meddling of Athena and Hera, the Trojan war followed andtherest, asthey say, ishistory.Nowadays, in our morechaos-positive age, Eris has mellowedsomewhat, and modern Discordians associate her with all intru-sions of 'weirdness' in their lives, from synchronous to mis-chievous occurrences, creative flashes of inspiration, and wildparties. She does get alittle bitchy at times, but who doesn't? Itwas the Discordians that pointed out that amidst the long list ofdualisms that occultists were fond of using, the opposites ofhumour/seriousness had been left aside. Humour is important inmagic. As a colleague of mine once said, we're too important totake ourselves seriously. Some members of the I.O.T. Pact, forexample, use Laughter as a form of banishing, and of coursethere is nothing like laughter to deflate the pompous, self-important occult windbags that one runs into from time to time.Important: rituals, when silly, can be no less effective than whenyou keepastraight face. Magic is funotherwse, whydoit?Unlike the variety of magical systems which are all based insome mythical or historically-derived past (such as Atlantis,Lemuria, Albion, etc.), Chaos Magic borrows freely fromScience Fiction, Quantum Physics, and anything else its practi-tioners choose to. Rather than trying to recover and maintain atradition that links back to the past (and former glories), ChaosMagic is an approach that enables the individual to use anythingthat s/he thinks is suitable as a temporary belief or symbolsystem. What matters isthe results youget,not the 'authenticity'of the system used. So Chaos Magic then, is not a systemtutilises systems and encourages adherents to devise their own,giving magicatruly Postmodernist flavour.Needless to say, Chaos Magic quickly began to acquire a'sinister' reputation. This was due to threefactors; firstly that its"pick'n'mix/D.I.Y" approachtomagicwas frowned uponbythe'traditionalist' schools, secondly that many people associatedchaos with 'anarchy' and other negative associations, and thirdly


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that some Chaos Magic publications were hyped as being'blasphemous, sinister, and dangerous' in a way that they werenot, which proved all the same to be an attractive glamour forthose who required suchaboost tothe ego. Although there wereSatanic orders around at the time of Chaos Magic's earlypromotion, they certainly did not promulgate themselves asvisibly as other occult groups. Chaos Magic was thus bothattractive for those people looking for a "dark" glamour tobecome involved with and equally, those who needed a "satanicopponent" to bolster up their fantasies of being "whiter-than-white."

What isnotable concerning thegrowth of Chaos Magic isthatfrom its beginnings, it has been very much perceived as"experimental" magic. This means not only experimenting withmagical techniques and practices, but also questioning andtesting a great many of the concepts which many people whobecome involve in the occult accept as implicitly 'true'. The latenineteen-eighties gaverise to thesecond great surge of interest inChaos Magic, with the rise of specialist occult magazines such asChaos International in which practising Chaos Magicians madetheir technical and philosophical findings known to their peers.This period was one of agreat surge of interest in occultism,with the availability of affordable Desktop Publishing systemsleading to a surge of self-publishing and special-interest occultmagazines being a contributing factor. The diversification ofesoteric studies into separate (and almost mutually exclusive)fields continued, and the late eighties also gave rise to themushrooming of interest in shamanism of one type or another.An important (but often overlooked) element of growing occultmovements is the availability of information in the publicdomain. If you go into any bookstore cateringtooccult interests,there islikelytobeawide range of titles cateringtovirtually anysubject, from Astrology to Zen. Chaos Magic has not, so far,reached such a high level of visibility. Instead, the ideas havespread by word of mouth, through the information-highways ofInternet and Compuserve, through limited edition books andspecialist magazines. In a subculture where commercial trendstend to create the illusion of 'separate' occult traditions andapproaches, Chaos Magic texts represent the move towards


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diversity of approach and fluidity of movement between thecolour-coded zones of the occult belief-market.The development of Chaos science and Chaos Magic do gohand in hand, with uncanny (or fortuitous) synchronicities; forexample, in 1987 the University of Leeds, England hosted anexhibition of thescientific possibilities of Chaos. Later that year,Leeds was the venue of the first ever "Symposium of ChaosMagic"and,around thisperiod, appearedto be acentre of ChaosMagic activity, with groups such as the aforementioned I.O.T.,the 'Circle of Chaos' and 'Leeds Order of Neuromancers'operating aroundthecity.Inavery magical way, 'Chaos' has become fashionablehebuzzword of theNneties.Fractal designs havecrawled their wayfromcomputer screens onto t-shirts, rave posters and postcards.The chaos science of non-linear dynamics is now used in fieldsas diverse as economics to linguistics and has been widelypopularised through the character of Ian Malcolm in Spielberg'sJurassic Park. It is somehow appropriate that, just as the rise ofpersonal computers assisted the paradigm breakthroughs whichallowed chaos science to emerge, so the practical application ofchaos formula has led to improvements in computerdevelopmentfrom the use of fractals to model three-dimensional landscapes to fractal-based data compressionformula. At a very basic level, Chaos challenges the way inwhichwehabitually experience theworld.FRACTAL LOGICIf anything, the fractal has become both the main motif of the

emerging sciencesbothademonstration of its principles and atthe same time an image of popular culture. The staggeringbeauty and complexity of images such as the Mandelbrot setarises from the application of asimple rule (x+x2+c). The term'fractal' means self-similar at any scale. When you look into afractal form you see variationsonthe overall shape of the set, nomatter how much you increase the scale. It seems that the deeperinto the image you go, the more there is to see. Everything isconnected to everything else in the set. This similarity can alsobe seen in natural phenomena such as mountains, clouds, andcoastlines. It can be seentooccur in the shape of molecules andgalaxies. The fractal is fast becoming one of the most powerful


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metaphors for explaining and understanding the world. Con-scious ness can be modeled as having a fractal nature. Certainlymuch of our learning arises in our minds in the same way that afractal is modeled on a computer screen. The processes ofcreative thinking constitute one example. We have isolated ideas,and gradually therelationships between ideas and concepts grow,until we suddenly perceive the 'shape' of a new idea. The waysin which we look into somethingaffects the possibilities of whatwe willfind. If one's learning or attention is broad, rather thannarrowly focused and specialised, thenonewill seethe similarityof ideas across different disciplines and specialisations. Also,similar ideas crop up indifferent cultures, at various points inhistory. In some ways, the Fractal is atwentieth-century icon ofthe idea that all things are, at some level, interconnected at anygiven moment. Chaos Theory is itself a multi-disciplinarytheory. It is being applied inawide diversity of fields, from thestudy of epilepsy to the fluctuation of stock market prices. Insome ways, Chaos Theory's most striking implications concernour implicit experience of the world at a day-to-day level. Wehave come to accept as 'natural' that events happen in a logical,linear sequence, and that anything which happens outside of thissequence is somehow outside of the natural order of things. Thislinearity is portrayed in everything frommathematics to popularfiction, to the level where it is embedded in our consciousnessand taken for granted. It is the way that we tend to think aboutour experience of the world, but it is not necessarily howwereally experience the world. Chaos Theory, in a way, points outthe obvious: thatoneevent can change those that followinawaythat can have a tremendous impact upon us. We tend to think ofourselves, for example, as being fairly constant day after day,only changing over a span of time. Chaos Theory shows us thecomplexity which underlies theapparent simplicity. Look at howwe model conscious awareness. We talk about 'normal' con-scious ness and that which is distinct from it as 'Altered States ofConsciousness.' Yet we continually shift fromone condition ofawareness to another; moving in and out from being aware ofwhat is going on aroundus, a flash of memory, adash of fantasy,giving attention to a piece of inner dialogue, a loop of songfragment or advertising jingle, daydreaming, wondering aboutpossible futures that we are moving into, and more. When you


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consider that at any given moment, your consciousness can beengaged in many directions at once, the idea of 'normalconsciousness' that we all talk about becomes something of afacade. Consciousness behaves in an analogue (gradual) fashion,not likesomethingdefinite.The power of Chaos Theory as a model isthat it can approxi-mately model awide variety of phenomena that previous theoriescouldnot.Pre-Chaos science approached phenomena interms ofisolating one element of anevent or situation and studying it.Forexample, the dominant approach to understanding our senses isto study each sense in isolation of the others. This can tell us alot about each sense, but it is not an accurate way of describinghow we experience our senses. It is a very common humantendency toconfuse the map with the territory, that is, to act asthough the models we use tointerpret experience actually are theexperience. One of the points that Chaos Theory makes isthat nomodel can describe something utterly accuratelywe can onlymake approximations. Much has been made of Heisenberg'sUncertainty Principle, which demonstrates this concept at amathematical level.

A version of theUncertainty Principle which has become awatchword for ChaosMagicians isthat famous phrase, attributedto Hassan I Sabbah, that Nothing Is True, Everything isPermitted. If "Nothing is True", then questions of 'proofbecome irrelevant, and the responsibility"Permission" forone's actions and beliefs is thrown back upon the individual. If"Nothing is True", then everything becomes art, play, or make-believe. So you can choose your beliefs and attitudes withoutfeeling the necessity of validating them as "Truth" orscientifically valid. Again, this is a rather obvious statement,although it seems that we tend to agree to act as though thesituation was otherwise. Single "Truths" which have an essentialcharacter, can only be maintained by rigorously ignoringanything which does not conform to a particular belief-system.Thus beliefs survive, even if there is a relative absence ofevidence to support them. Chaos Magic recognises the powerand malleability of belief, and consequently uses belief as a toolfor magical action.That wecan quickly allowbeliefs toformthebedrock of our interpretation of reality allows us to manipulatetheability for magical purposes.


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MAGICAL MODELSThe way that magic is generally conceptualised changes asgeneral paradigm shifts in thinking occur. Until fairly recently(inabroad historical sense), practitioners of magic subscribed tothe 'Spirit' Model of Magic, which basically states that theOtherworlds are real, and are inhabited by various pantheons ofdiscrete entitieselementals, demons, angels, goddesses, gods,etc. The task of the magician or shaman is todevelop (or inherit)a route map of the Otherworldo know the short-cuts, andmake afew friends (orcontact relatives) over there. Having donethis, they havetointeract withthesespirits in agivenway, to getthem to execute your will. So clergymen pray, shamans stuffsacred mushrooms into their orifices in order to meet theirancestors, while demonologists threaten entities into submissionby thunderingout bitsof the Old Testament.By theEighteenth Century, and therise of Science, the idea of'Animal Magnetism arosein theWest, thefirst manifestation ofthe 'Energy' Model of magic. This model places emphasis on thepresence of 'subtle energies' which can be manipulated via anumber of techniques. Along came Bulwer Lytton and his ideaof' Vril' energy, Eliphas Leviand theAstral Light, Mediums andectoplasm, Westernised 'popular' accounts of Prana, Chakras,and Kundalini, and eventually, Wlhelm Reich's Orgone energy.The next development came with the popularisation ofPsychology, mainly due to the Psychoanalytic fads of Freud,Jung and company. During this phase, the Otherworlds becamethe Innerworlds, demons were rehoused into the UnconsciousMind, and Hidden Masters revealed as manifestations of the'Higher Self. For some later exponents of this model, Tarotcards were switched frombeing a magical-divinatory system tobeing 'tools' for personal transformation, just as the goddesses/gods came to be seen as not 'real' entities, but psychologicalsymbols or archetypes.The current up-and-coming paradigm is the 'Cybernetic'model, as we swing into being an information-based culture.This model says that the Universe, despite appearances, isstochastic in nature. Magic is a set of techniques for rousing aneurological storm in the brain which brings about microscopicfluctuations in the Universe, which lead eventually tomacroscopic changesn accordance with the magician's intent.


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See Chaos Science, the Butterfly Effect, and all that. Anothermanifestation of the Cybernetic Model coming to the fore is thenew age assertion that crystals work 'just like' computer chips.There are signs that the Cybernetic Model dovetails back into thespirit model, and once you get past the mathematical proofs andweird jargon, the modeldoesdisplayasimple elegance.Each model has its own attractive glamour, with exponents oropponents on either side. Many occult textbooks containelements of the Spirit, Energy, and Psychological models quitehappily. Should you ever find yourself in the position of havingto 'explain' all this weird stuff to an non-aficionado or skeptic,then the Psychological model is probably your best bet. Thesedays, people who ascribe to the Spirit model (if they are not of aPagan or Occult persuasion themselves), tend to think that theyhave an exclusive copyright over theuse of Spirits! If the personis acomputer buff orFractal phreak, thenbyall means gofor the'cyberpunk' paradigm. Scientists only tend to accept somethingif a scientific 'rationale' can be wheeled up. Acupuncture, forexample, was until recently explained using the Energy Model,and poo-poohed by the scientific establishment until someonecameupwith Endorphin stimulation. Now most hospital physio-therapy departments havea setof needles.While some magicians tendtostick toone favourite model, itis useful to shift among them as the situation befits. Somemodels have a stronger 'explaining' powerandaccount for someaspects of magic 'better' thanothers. The Spirit model, byfar theoldest, can account for just about any aspect of magic. ThePsychological model, while beinguseful for looking at magic asa process for personal development, hasdifficulty with situationssuch as tribal shamans cursing Westerners who (a) don't believein magic, (b) didn't see the shaman squinting at them, (c) andbreak out in hives anyway. If youuse only one magical model,sooner or later the Universe will present youwith something thatwon't fit your parameters. When you are spending more timedefending your models thanmodifying them then you know it'stime for another spot of deconditioning...report to Room 101.


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future. Although it is ever the folly of the young to sneer at themistakes of theirforebears, let us not forget that, in essence, theirmagics worked; thatwearehere. Evennow I feel thestirrings ofthe next generation of magi, and it is my fervent hope that theytoo will surpass the present generation; that they will not beseducedby thepast, but will take magicforwards.Just as the transcendental emphasis of the 19th century magireflected the driving passions of their age, so too does contem-porary magic showup thedominant characteristics of this latterend of the 20th Century: a faith in Technology and a magpie'sview of culture. In any of our Western cities, we can dailyexperience the cultural melting pot of stylesfromanywhere intheworld,fromanyplaceor time. So too, wesee thetendency toreduce magic toaprofusion of techniques, asthe would-be magiincreasingly search for 'better' techniques; quicker results;instant enlightenments. The present technologists of the spirit runthe same risks as the previous generations' architects of theabstract; of narrowing theirvision;of imbalance.Magic is powerful; it is dangerous, as is anything whichprovokeschange.One may be driven towards magic, be seducedby its glamours, or washed up against its shores through crisis,but it is most definitely not for all. No more than one wouldindiscriminately feed people powerful psychoactive drugs, orleave children to play with dangerous machinery. This is theseduction of technology, that its creators distance themselvesfromthe uses to which their creations are put, and its glamoursare seductive in the short-term, whereas the consequences aresomewhat different. In the Sixties, we werefed the glamour ofUtopia through the harnessing of Nuclear Power. Thirty yearslater, the glamour has soured somewhat. It is the same withmagic. "What -weimagine magic will enable us to become, andwhat we actually becomeafter years of practice, are usually quitedifferent.The ability to perform advanced acts of magic requires yearsof effort; years of study, training, practice, analysis, and growingself-awareness, these years are valuable; the passage of timeallows us togrow, to create our owncodesof ethics and honours,formng the roots of our power, and the bedrock upon which we"build our magical reality. As is often said, a powerful magicianstands alone in the crowd, to some degree alien or inhuman.


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SELF-ASSESSMENTIn addition, Chaos Magic places an emphasis on Self-Assessment. Unfortunately, each individuals' capacity for self-delusion and blindnesstoproblem areas does not somehow ceasewhen a certain level of magical proficiency is attained. It isalways easy to ignore or sweep aside that which does not fit intoour dominant image of selfhood. In some magical or mysticalsystems, the responsibility of assessment isshifted ontoamasteror guru, someone who is supposed to have special insight intoones' character and know what is the 'right' thingfor the studentto do next. Wthin the Chaos approach, responsibility for actionand movement rests ultimately with each individual. Certainlyyou may seek adviceor different perspectives through any meansopen, from consulting with spirits, divinations, or asking yourfriends what they think,but the responsibility lies withyou.Theability to examine your behavior, thoughts and feelings with adegree of dispassion and objectivity is a skill which, once youbegintouse it,canbeapplied in any areasof your life.

MODELSANDMETAPHORSDespite the seeming complexity of occult theoriesthehierarchies of inner planes, chakras, energy lines, archetypes,souls, akashic records, karmic debt recovery agencies and soforth, they tend to share a common tendency of renderingdescriptions of the phenomenal world (where we spend most ofour time) into very simple terms. Chaos Magic tends to reversethis kind of modeling, and tendsto generate very simple modelsfor describing abstract experience, while recognising thesometime need for using complex models for getting to gripswith the phenomenal world. Peter Carroll, the foremost exponentof Chaos, points out that it is characterised by a "Cavalier"approach to metaphysics, based on the recognition that meta-physics are, after all, subject to belief. Many Occult beliefsystems consist of ahodge-podge of metaphysical speculationswhich are accepted as "truth", and which have additional bits'bolted on' as those who create them try and cram anything andeverything into the same model. Scientists once believed theycould arrive at a grand theory of everything and anything.Occultists are attempting the same thing, although it tends to


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manifest as attempts to merge divergent systems such as theTarot, Runes andIChing together.Chaos Magic however, is characterised by a willingness touse different models and learn from them. Thus ChaosMagicians use metaphors fromChaos Theory, Ecology, Biology,Psychology, Science Fiction, computer programming, manage-ment theory, and anything else which might prove interesting orpotentially useful. The chapter in this book dealing with ChaosServitors is a result of mystudying the principles of program-ming a computer using the COBOL language. I never actuallybecame adept at COBOL programming, but it gave me a useful

perspective with which to examine the magical techniques Iwasusing at the time.Usingthisparticularmodel led me towonder ifsome properties of the model were possible to transfer intomagical action, and by experimentation, I found they were,although not quite in the wayIhad expected. Encountering newmodels and metaphors can sometimesfireus with enthusiasmfornew explorations and creative leaps into the darkness of theunknown. But models, magical or otherwise, can become subtletraps. It seems all to easy for us to embrace a new model orreality-map, yet to suddenlyfind hat we have bound ourselveswithin its limitations. But some models are particularly suited forspecific tasks and situations. Rather than attempting to stretchone model sothat it can account for everything and anything, theChaos approach encourages one to use the model which is mostappropriate to the situation. Some years ago, I was approachedby an acquaintance who requested that I create a 'protective'talisman for herhome.Now there are manydifferent approachesto this kind of magic. It would have perhaps been easiest for meto create a 'shield' about herhome,which could have been donewithout too much fuss or props. However, I wanted myacquaintance to 'feel' that somethingdefinite had been set up, sowe optedfor aritual of angelic invocation using all the pomp andformality of the Qabalah, which left them in no doubt thatmighty forces had been marshaled in order to protect the homefromanythingoranyonewhomight intrude with malign intent.If our basic models of reality are changed, then suddenly,much of what we take for granted about the world can be calledinto question. It is a common tendency to behave as if ourmetaphors and maps are "True." If we choose to live according


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to the statement "Nothing is True," then we are bound toacknowledge the fragility of a metaphor asbeing no more than itis. Chaos has shifted the emphasis from seeking that which is'magical' as that which lies beyond the known world, butrecognising that theworld itself ismagical.

SELF ANDOTHEROne of the most basic relationships isthat of Self and Other; meand everything else; us and them. Even this relationship isinformed by the dominant model of reality which is based onnineteenth century notions such as the absolute separation ofmind from matter; the mechanical nature of the physical worldand the distinction between subjectivity and objectivity. In thismodel, which is our consensual description of experiencedreality, the mind makes sense of random, chance events whichhappen in the exterior, objective world. This is not so much anaccurate description of theworld, but a description that, on thegrand scale, confirms and supports much of our self-conceitsabout humanities' relationship with the rest of theplanet.Modelstend to make the world a simpler place, shape experience toconform to our expectations, and also do a neat job of justifyingour 'superior' position to everything else. A good example ofsuch reductionist modeling is the creation of stereotypes. We alluse stereotypes to varying degrees. They can be positive, actingas role models or ideal types, or negative stereotypes, which areresponses to anxietyoss of control. A simpler example yet isthe tendency to describe our own behavior as a response to agiven situation while attributing the behavior of others to theirpersonality. A specific example within the magical context isthat while you might well invoke deities, interpreting them asarchetypes or subpersonalities, howfar do you accept that thosedeities might have an existence, purpose and intentions that areseparate and beyond your own? Thus, on various levels weascribe meaning, intentionality and purposiveness to ourselves,and 'forget' about the 'Other'be it other people or otherspecies.Where is this relevant to magic? Like many other basicpatterns within our consensual reality, the consequences of theSelf-Oher distinction arerarelyquestioned.However, the ChaosMagic perspective demands that the magician be capable of


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looking 'behind the facade' of paramount reality for theunderlying complexities and patterns. Chaos places an emphasisupon attention todetail, tobeing wary of the tendency to becomeuncritical of that which seems, on thesurface, to be self-evident.On the more practical level of sorceryhe use of enchantmentsto actualise desire, it is all to easy to view a situation in terms ofour own viewpoint being the most important, or that ourperspective of an event is the only one that counts. The EgoMagic techniques of Chaos Magic allow youto shift perspectivesand look at a situation from another person's viewpoint. Therelativistic perspective of Chaos Magic emphasizes thatsituations and events are rarely as clear-cut as we would likethem to be. There is also the question of how the 'Self isregarded.Although science has more or less driven out the religiousconcept of animmortal soul, it still tends to make a distinctionbetween innerandouter experiencebyupholding the Mind-BodydivideThe Ghost in the Machine. Magical theories which, likescientific theories, were codified and generalised in theNineteenth century, tend to reinforce this division to variousdegrees. In contrast, Chaos supports the view that the Mindarises from the body. On the surface, this appears to be areductionist argument, which is a criticism which has beenleveled at Chaos Magic on more than one occasion. However,there is more to the concept than divesting ourselves ofessentialist qualities.Many magiciansusethe term BodyMind tosignify that Mind and Body should be considered a unifiedwhole. If this can be accepted, then the whole subjective-objective distinction is called into question. Moreover, thisviewpoint is supported by Chaos Science, which has not onlyhighlighted the fact that the 'objective' world, which was oncethought to bemeasurable, quantifiable andexplainable followingmathematical rules, has a high level of 'fuzziness' and indeter-minacy; but also that the 'subjective world' of themind can beexamined using analytical tools. Not only is there no 'Ghost' inthe machine, but the idea of aphysiological 'machine' movingthrough a passive environment has been shown up to be rathersimplistic. Chaos philosophy is developing the idea ofinterdependent systemsecologieswhich have the inherentcapacityfor self-organisation. Asapurely practical example, go


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out into woodlands orasimilar 'natural' space. You are enteringa dynamic ecosystem, whose elements includeflora, fauna, localhistory, geographical and geological features, mythicassociations, seasonal variations andweather.When you enter it,you become another element in a mesh of interrelated dynamics.Your experience of being within this place will depend uponyour interaction with other elements, many of which you arelikely to be unaware of (at least initially). Before you start toimpose any 'magical' significance onto the place, observe it, beaware of your own relationship with it, and you might besurprised.

This illustrates another basic point about the Self-Otherdynamic; that we can often be too eager when it comes toattributing meaning and interpretations onto a situation, and notallowing for other meanings to make themselves known. Ratherthan upholding 'differences' between Self and Other, ChaosMagic supports a celebration of diversity and difference. If"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted", then there is nopurpose or grand cosmic scheme to life beyond what we chooseto impose or believe. To some this is cynicism. For the ChaosMagician, it isabreath of dizzyingfreedomACHIEVABLE REALITYMagic is a set of techniques and approaches which can be usedto extend the limits of Achievable Reality. Our sense ofAchievable Reality is the limitations which we believe bind usinto a narrow range of actionsand successeswhat we believeto be possible for us at any one time. Inthis context, the purposeof magic is to simultaneously explore those boundaries andattempt to push them backo widen the 'sphere' of possibleaction. Doubt and cynicism are dominant social attitudes in thislast decade of thetwentiethcentury. One of thefirst barriers thatyou will encounter is thedoubt overwhether magic can possibly'work' in thefirst place. Like sex, rnagic needs tobeexperienceddirectly before it can befully understood. A single act by whichyou demonstrate that MAGIC WORKS to yourself is worth athousand booksonso-called occult theory.

Much of what passes for magical theory is a hodge-podgeofborrowed concepts, ranging from maps of the Inner Planesderived from Theosophy to popular psychology and 'alternative'


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physics. For theChaos approach, the question of how much of itis "True" is irrelevant, since is the adoption of a belief whichmakes it viable, rather than its coherence. Most occult theoriesare treated in the same way as general scientific descriptions ofthe world. That is, they are presumed to be "true" independentlyof human experience and passed down from book to bookwithout being questioned, and eventually pass into generalacceptance, to the level that some people become quite upset ifyou don't appear to subscribe to them. This type of theory isknown as Theory-of-Action. One of the problems that somepeoplefindwhen encountering Chaos Magic, is its tendency todiscount orthodox magical theory, in favour of personalexperience. However, there is another type of theory, Theory-in-Use, which is of greater use to the contemporary magician.Theory-in-Use relates to the guidelines and patterns that amagician learns, through personal experience and practice.Theories-in-Use cannot betaught, but arise out of the results ofapplying magic in your life. While books and other people cangive youaknowledge of magical techniques, it is up toyouastohow you apply them, and what theories and beliefs you weavearound the results of your application. There are no 'correct'ways to perform magical acts, just the ones that work for you.Magic isabout becoming moreflexible, therefore you should notbe surprised if you find yourself changing your ideas aboutmagic from time to time.

MAGICAL POWERIt should also be understood that magic is not only concernedwith pushing backtheboundaries of AchievableReality,but alsounderstanding that some self-imposed limitations can be as mucha source of power as arestriction. What is 'power' anyway? It isone of those words which gets thrown around a lot, and inmagical writing tends to imply that amagician whois 'powerful'can summon dangerous demons, smite his enemies, and beattended uponbyglamorous partners. There is alsomuch talk ofmysterious and subtle energies through which this powermanifests. The word power hasvariousdefinitions, among whichare "the ability to act or produce an effect, the possession ofcontrol, influence or authority over others," and, as Bertrand


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Russell put it, "the abilitytoachieve intendedeffect." This latterdefinition isclosest tounderstanding 'magical power.'A confusion has arisen in recent years over the relationshipbetween power andthecore tenet of Chaos Magic, that "nothingistrue, and everything ispermitted." Some critics have chosen tointerpret this as meaning that thewhole point of Chaos Magic isto throw away all restrictions and find power in absolutefreedom This isboth a misunderstanding of the Chaos approach,andamisunderstanding of the nature of power. Absolute power,without restraints, is a fiction in the modern world. Anywherethat you choose to look for an example of someone who is

'powerful,' look closer and you willfind hat power is severelyconstrained. Take for example the American hostage crisis inIran. Theoretically, the then president, Jimmy Carter, had thepower to reduce Iran to smoking rubble within minutes.Although Carter had the military power to do this, it could notactually be done. In the light of this, a more appropriatedefinition of magical power might be that it is the ability toachieve intended effect within the constraints of a givensituation. Acommon misunderstanding of magical power is thatit somehow allows themagician toexercise control overaspectsof reality, and a distinction has arisen between "power-over"(bad) and "power-from-within" (good). The term "power-over"is used to describe the wielding of power against another, byphysical, legal, or financial means. Whereas "power-from-within" is the very personal senseof 'being able' which arisesout of acts of creativity ormagic. This distinction has its value,in that it enables us to understand that magical power issomething that we feel within, rather than an external agency.Next, there comes the issueof so-called magical powers such astelepathy, levitation, influencing people (and events) at adistance, sensing auras, precognition or for that matter, bendingspoons. In Tantra, such abilities are known as Siddhis, a wordwhich is generally translated as "achievements." Somethingwhich is an achievement is the result of practice, discipline andpatience. If you everdomeet a magician who can seemingly domarvelous things at thedrop of hat, it is a fairly safe bet he hasbeen practicing for avery long time.

Magic isthe quest for powerhe ability to achieve intendedeffect. You become 'powerful' in this sense, when you have


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demonstrated to yourself (and others, if you are working in agroup or in touch with other magicians) that you can makemanifest your intention, tothepoint where youare confident andrelaxedhat magic isnot somuch something that you 'do', butan expression of yourbeing.The understanding of the limits andconstraints which channel your power, is thedifference betweenthe effective magician and the megalomaniac. Chaos Magic isnot about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process ofdiscovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines whichenable youto effect change in theworld.

MAGICALREALITY: THETWILIGHT ZONEMagic isatwo-way process; you use it to change yourself and inreturn, it changes you. Letting yourself enter amagical reality isnot about creating an enclave of magic beyond your everydaylife, but of allowing magic inallowing for theintrusion of theweird, the irrational, the things you can't explain, yet areundeniably real. You may well learn the summoning of spiritsusing ritual magic, but what happens when the spirits summonyou? Encounters with strange lights, half-glimpsed figures,rushing presences and flickering lights; these are very muchassociated with the wildernesshey come with the territory.But what do you do when magic comes a'calling around intoyour house?There is no script or teaching on this subject. You learn bylive experience and listening to your fellows. This is truly theintrusion of the Twilight Zonehe fuzzy borderlines that wedraw between common, everyday experience, andthemore-than-real. What isit about theseexperiences that is important? Firstly,that they are real in a way that overcomes all rationalisations tothe contrary. Whenever Iam in the presence of strangeness, Ishiver and tears prick up at the corners of my eyes. 1know andvalue this response, as it allows me to sort out the differencebetween 'real' strangeness and an over-active imagination.Secondly, theyare often shared byothers. Amagician deals withgods, demons, spirits, elementals and what have you. It is easy,therefore, to slip into a mental attitudeof thinking that all thesediverse entities are only at your beck and call, and have noexistence or will beyond yours. This attitude tends to fragmentwhen a spirit turns up unannounced, especially if other people


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meet it too. A common feature of such experiences is that wetend to behave 'normally' withinthemIt is onlyafterwards thatwe realise and say "what the Fu...". Afewyears ago, a visitingfriend came back from thebathroomandtoldmethat there wasa"thing" on the landing. Intrigued, Iwent out tohave a look at this"thing" and found a moving shadow, roughly six feet high andman-shaped, in the half-light of thestairwell. We proceeded toquestion this entity and found it to be evasive, althoughpromising that it would "give you power". Unsatisfied with itsanswers, we told it to leave us alone. It wasonlyafterwards thatthe uncanniness of the whole experience hit us. It wasparticularly amusing that although we accepted the presence ofthe unknown entity unreservedly, we had been highly skepticalof the answers it had given us to our questions, and dismissed itwhen it would not give us the quality of information that werequired.This sort of behavior appears tobecommon, at least fromthepeople I havetalkedtoabout such intrusions of the uncanny. Wedo what seemstobe appropriate at the time, and only afterwardsdoes the shock of the bizarre hit us. And it may be a shockindeed. When people ask me "is magic dangerous?" Irememberan experience of afriend some years ago.Shewas just getting togrips wthgoddess-consciousness, having come through feministpoliticization, but still dealing with Catholicguilt. Ihad lent herboyfriend a copy of Aleister Crowley's Hymnto Pan.She foundit one night, and read it. She said it stirred mixed feelings ofexcitement and revulsion as emotional sparks andbeliefs warredwithin her. Filled with a curious tension and apprehension, shereached up to a bookshelf and knocked down her boyfriend'sTarot pack. 'TheDevil' landed face up, down at her feet. At thatmoment, she said, her entire world cracked apart. Now I couldsay that the experience was a manifestation of Chaos, or asynchronic itybut such terms are almost irrelevant. Whatmatters is that it happened, and nothingwas the same again.Thisis magic indeed. I don't think it is possible to go out searchingfor such encountershey come to us. Hence theterm'TwilightZone*he UFOnauts never appear to the believer, but to the'ordinary person' next door. But there do seem to be someshades of awareness and perception that help, while othershinder. Physical exhaustion which leaves you alert seems to be


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CHAPTER THREEBECOMING A MAGICIANBecoming amagician takes time, and practice, and experience. Itis not just a matter of reading a few books, trying out a fewexercises, rituals, and soforth, and then declaring yourself to bea magician. Sadly, it is all too easyfor us to convince ourselvesabout our suitability for something. When Aleister Crowleywrote that "magic is for ALL," few seemtohave considered thathe was possibly overstating thecase. Athorough examination ofCrowley's life, particularly the number of his associates whotriedto bemagicians, yet failed; who's lives ended inmadness ormiseryclearly indicates that magic is NOT for everyone. Amagician is a person who recognises that the world he movesthrough is an extremely complex place; that all that seemsapparent and clear-cut, in actuality, hides a seething complexity,the full depths of which he may never grasp. Such a person, bynecessity, is continually on guard against that which might limithis ability to adapt and survive in this world. A magician isconstantly aware of his inner structures, and that which isaroundhim. He constantly strives to extend his possibilities for action,patient, yet aware of the necessity sometimes, of going toofar inall directions. Magic, in some senses, is the science of extremes.Many people are attracted to the occult as an attempt to escapefrom the responsibility of being human. Many seem to want togain magical powers immediately, without sacrifice or respon-sibility to that power. But the kind of abilities that a magicianmay develop cannot be bought over thecounter like a Saturday-night special. Magical 'powers' are literally the result of one'sdiscipline; they are the result of practice, study, and theapplication of theories and techniques in one's own life.Moreover, this process is one that changes you. Wth power,comes the understanding of responsibility. It is my responsibility


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as a writer to say that no one ever became a magician fromreading books. Sure, you can learn from other people, but youdon't become a magician until you begin to twist something thatyou have read or learned, and apply it successfully within yourown life. Anyone can convince themselves that they are amagician in thesafety of their own heads; it helps sometimes tohave a few followers or friends who agreebut the test here, isto go somewhere else and be a magician there. One of the mostsignificant 'powers' a magician develops is a certain poiseadegree of self-assured assurance of manner. A good magicianmaintains this poise, no matter where he is, or who he has abouthim. This is a power that other magicians can recognise andrespect, as it says much more about a person than what he saysabout himself.In magical circles, there is sometimes a degree of confusionover the distinction between 'basic' and 'advanced' magic. Theformer is associated with 'beginners', while the latter isassociated with adepts or magi. Some people seem to have theopinion that 'basic' techniques of magic should onlybepracticedfor a set period, and then discarded in favour of something morearcane. In the Chaos approach, the term 'basic' applies to anytechnique or practice whichissimple, effective, and which, onceunderstood, can be applied throughout your life, no matter howfar advancedamagician youmaybecome.PREPARING FOR MAGICAL PRACTICETo learn any magical techniques and skills requires Practice, justas does learning toread, write, or drive a car.Practiceis difficult,especially nowadays, whenweare increasingly becoming usedto theidea of 'instant' courses, remedies, and therapies.One weekend workshop doesnot make you a 'magician', anymore than one weekend of driving a car would make you aproficient motorist. To become skilled requires time, effort, andself-discipline. When learning magical techniques, we are oftengoing through a process of extending our everyday range ofabilities, often in ways that may not have occurred to uspreviously. This requires a level of determination that will, attimes, seem onerous, or 'more effort than it's worth', and thebenefits may only seem obvious in thelong-term.


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There are two elements that are worth considering when itcomestoPractice. Thefirst is that we arelearning newskillsthatwill form a sound basis for further work. There is little pointattempting to work entirely onthe 'astral plane' if you cannot sitstill for five minutes or hold an image in your mind's eyewithout wandering off onto another track. Practice requiresdiscipline, and the growth of self-discipline is initself a powerfulmagical ally. If nothing else, by assiduously doing somethingwhich you have promised to yourself that you will doyou areincreasing your confidence in your ability to do thingsandconfidence is a key to successful magic.The second element to consider is that in setting yourself agoal of regular practice, you are pitting yourself against what isprobably your most deadly magical adversaryyour own inertia.If you have a conversation with yourself that you are "lazy,unable to concentrate, and can never finish tasks off', then theonly way to break out of that self-imposed limitation is to setyourself aregular practice and do it!You may well be surprisedat your own ingenuity in trying to wriggle out from doing thepractice: that it'd be much better to have a lie in than get up and

meditate, that you'll do it twice tomorrow for missing out today,that you don't possibly have the 'spare' time.At times the limitations we impose upon ourselves seem tohave a life of their own. They resist being changedbyfightingagainst the changes that we are trying to make in our lives. Itmay be that, if we do not find a new taskdifficult and imposingon everyday life, we are not taking it seriously enough. Onlywhen we take up something that threatens our establishedpatterns do our limitations seek to preserve themselves, so thefact that you might be coming up with attractive excuses to keepyou frompractice canbetaken as a good sign. But theonly wayyou will change the pattern is to keeptrying until you change it.This often requires determination, tenaciousness, and sheerbloody-mindednessall in themselves, qualities that are usefulfor the budding magician.

THEMAGICAL DIARYThe Magical Diary is an ally to practice, a work record, andconfessor. Astronomers often say that "if it wasn't written down,it didn't happen," and this isagood axiomfor magicians to take


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practice at the same hour, each day. This isfineisyour lifestyleallows you to rigorously plan your day, but for others, it isimpossible. In setting up your own schedules for practice, it isessential that you be realistic about theamount of 'free time' thatyou can allot to practice. If you absolutely cannot do a dailypractice, then give yourself a schedule that you know you have abetter chance of keeping to. It is only useful to set practiceschedules if you know that you can realistically find the freespace to stick to them. If you set an unrealistic practice schedulethen it islikely you will not beable tokeep to itwhich will notimprove your confidence. I have found that on average, it isbetter topractice an exercise for ashort time frequently, than fora long period infrequentlyso thatfiveminutes of meditation ona daily basis is more beneficial than half an hour every threeweeks. Likewise, it is easier to begin some exercises byattempting them for a few minutes, and then to slowly increasethe duration, than to try and strainyourself. There's no point intrying to run before you can walk, especially when it comes tomagic, where it isvery easy tofall flat onyour face.

TAKINGABREAKOne point that mustbetaken intoaccount isthat it isvery easy toget into a situation where youfind hat you have 'overloaded'yourself with magical work todo.This isnot good practice, as itis increasing the possibility that you will get bogged in inertia. Ifyoufind hat this is the case, then take a 'holiday' from activemagical work. This is particularly useful if you find yourselfreadingtoomany magical books, without giving yourself time toassimilate their contents. Taking a break from active magicalwork can be a magical act in its own right. Set a period duringwhich you don't read any magical texts, or do any activepractice, other than perhaps, a simple daily meditation.Paradoxically, you may find this difficult to do, particularly ifyou have placed a good deal of importance on 'becoming' amagician. By givingyourself ashort breathing-space, you willfind that you can approach practice witharenewedfreshness.

STAGESOFLEARNINGWhen learning a new skill, there are three stages that we gothrough, which it is well to beawareof. Whenweinitially begin


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some new practice, there is (hopefully) a high level ofenthusiasm. Theresults of the practice are good, and we canfeelthe benefits of what we are doing. Sofar so good.At some stagethough, we pass into the 'dry' phase of acquiring the skill. Atthis point, it becomes BORING. This is the time when all theexcuses for notdoing something, all the little get-out clauses thatwe resort to are at their most powerful. It is the 'hump' thatstudents on long degree courses experience, and the phase whenit seems easier to give up rather than push on. Indeed, manypeople do quit magical development at this stage, as theysuddenly find that the benefits they have experienced earlier,suddenly dry up and vanish. Our advice is to grit your teeth andhang on in theret won't last forever (though at times, it mightseem like it). If you can get over the 'hump', then you may wellbe surprised tofind hat gradually, you feel different about whatyou're doinghat you can see thebenefit of something that, fora time, you felt was pointless and boring and, even, that you'requite enjoying it. A lot of our early learning is like this, thoughwe tend to forget how teachers pushed us to read, write and adduphe process moves frombeing a new, enjoyable 'game', tobeing a boring imposition, to being something that we one dayrealise that we can do 'without effort'. A great deal of magicalskills and abilities, frommeditation to clairvoyance, are learnedinthisway.

SELF-ASSESSMENTThis is the ability to make judgements about your ownprogression. As magic can be at times, a nebulous subject withvague terms of reference, self-assessment can be difficult. Agreat part of some magical systems is the development of asymbolic frame of reference in which the student can placeherself in termsof where she is, where she was, and where she isgoing. As you will see in the following section on 'MagicalDangers', it is all too easy for magicians to develop an inflatedsenseof their own enlightenment, but equally, it is similarly easyto deny according yourself with making any progress at all.Themagical diary is agreat helphere. You may not think that you'veprogressed in a given length of time, but providing you've beenkeeping arecord of your practice, then you should be able to seesome differences between when you began the practice, and


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where you arenowBeing able toassess yourself isan important,yet sometimes underrated aspect of magical development. Somestudents turn toteachersor 'gurus' to tell them 'where they are',which can bring its own problems, especially if one comes toexpect the guru to take total responsibility for everything, andsome so-called teachers are only too willing to do this. When itcomes down to it, the one who knows you best, of course, isyourself. Thus you must grit your teeth and be prepared toacknowledge (in your diary) your weak areas and theconversations which you have with yourself to convince yourselfthat you "can't do..." It can beuseful to divide a page into twocolumns and list your perceived strengths and weaknesses; whatyou would like to change, and how you perceive magic as beingable to help you change. "KnowThyself' wasthe admonition tothe initiate in theGreek EulesianMysteries,and it remainsacoreaxiomfor magicians to thispresent day.IS MAGICDANGEROUS?Though it is rarely admitted, there are certain pitfalls that

magicians are prone to, and even the most advanced of uscanend up in them. Some of the pitfalls associated with the practiceof magic are: IsolationIsolation precedes madnessyet most 'how to' books on magicare written for thesolo practitioner. Although magicians tend tobe individualists, it is well to remember thatweare social beingstoo, and we rarely grow in isolation to othershence a majorreason for the existence of magical orders, groups, and courses.Although not everyone likes workingin agroup, it is nonethelessuseful to have someone with whom you can discuss your ideas,progress, problems and feelings with. Even if people do notshare your interests, asympathetic ear isoften helpful. Magic isnot about retreating from the world, but awayof becoming moreeffective within it. If you can't communicate what's going oninside you to another person, and likewise, are unable to 'hear'other people's opinions, then it is very easytoend up in some ofthe other pitfalls.


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Magus-itisSome books on magic tend to give the impression that a Magusis someone who can do 'anything', from crossing the abyssovernight to balancing his checkbook. Magus-itis covers thesyndrome for peoplewho, despite what their peers think of them,feel themselves to have reached some exalted state, which isusually synonymous with behaving likeacomplete arsehole. It isvery easy for magicians to convince themselves that they are thebest thing since 'sliced bread' and hence 'above' everyone else,given automatic respect, and are obviously more 'important'.Sadly, the sufferer of Magus-itis tends to be seen by others as afigure of scorn, pity, fun, or someone to avoid at all costs. Theirinflated sense of their own importance israrely shared by anyoneelse, and their antics often put other people 'off the idea ofbecominga magician. Sufferers often display an intense desire tobe a Guru or Teacher, presumably so that they can acquire acaptive audience who will reinforce their sense of being 'right'in the face of all evidencetothe contrary. As they find it difficultto accept that anyone could possibly be at their level of'illumination', they lack the ability to develop the empathy,communication and social skills that makes for an effectiveteacher. In short, if you think that you arewonderful, but no oneelse seems to agree, then it's time to have a very close look atyourself. ObsessionObsession is not a danger that is exclusive to magic. You canbecome obsessed about anything, from sex to train-spotting, butthe common factor present in all obsessions isthat you can't talkabout anythingelse.Being obsessed with magic is apopular trip;I've done it myselfconstantly going on about magic to all andsundry, regardless of whether or not they're really interested and,if the conversation turns to something beyond magic, suddenlyfeeling uncomfortable.Then there's the 'sinister' behavior that sometimes manifests,cultivating a glamour of being an 'outsider', and staring intopeople's eyes. This isoften acover for a lackof social skills, anda gnawing sense of inferiority.


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Where possible, Chaos Magic uses simple explanations formagical techniques, relating them very much to aspects ofeveryday experience. Belief in concepts such as chakras, theastral plane, karma, reincarnation, auras, magical energies,cosmic powers and soforth is optional and a matter of personaltaste. But you don't have to believe in any of this to workeffective magic.Nor ismagic something which stands apart fromthe rest of your life. Magic is not so much something which youdo occasionally behind closed doors or in the space behind yourclosedeyes,butaway of living your lifea way of approachingthe world you move through and everything in it.Some Magical Workbooks tend to give the impression thatyou become a magician by experimenting with practicalexercises, taking on particular beliefs, and learning a specialistvocabulary with which you can talk to other magicians. For themoment, I want to pose the question, "what makes a goodmagician?" As I have intimated, being a magician is somethingmore than merely dressing up inablack robe, attempting to castspells, invoke gods and use strange terminology that only other"initiates" understand. Being a "good" magician, at least from

the relativistic perspective of Chaos Magic, is being effectiveand adaptive in as many areas of one's life as possible. Toexpandon this definition further Iwill examine five key qualitiesassociated witheffective magicians.THE QUALITIESOFC.H.A.O.SThis acronym represents Confidence, Honour, Attentiveness,Organisation and Sensitivity. These qualities are of use in notonly specifically 'magical' situations, but in life generally, andso are of'global' application.ConfidenceConfidence is usually a trait associated with magicians. It isgenerally accepted thatagood magician is 'confident'but whatactually does this mean? Confidence is usually described as aquality that people possess to varying degrees. We "gain" or"lack" confidence, yet it is also perceived that being "over-confident" is anegativetrait, sothat overall, confidence seems tobe something which is finely balanced. For the presentdiscussion, I will define confidence as a skill: the skill of being


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relaxed in the immediate present. I shall explain what I mean bythat as follows... A person who lacks confidence in general,tends not to attempt something which lies outside his rehearsedrepertoire of behaviorshe fears the possible consequences ofmoving into an unknown areabe they imagined, or predicatedfrompast experience. Similarly, a person who is over-confidentmay attempt something and fail, as he is limited by 'gazing' intoa future where hehasalready succeeded, and so his attentivenessto the immediate present is blunted. If one is relaxed within theimmediate present, then one is neither projecting/anticipatingfuture scenarios, nor is one limited by the boundaries created byprevious experience and past conditioning. Here, the ability torelaxrefers to being awareattentive, of the immediate present,without rigidly patterning that present as it unfolds.Confidence is also situation-dependent. We tend to say thatconfidence is required through practice at something. One maypractice a ritual until one may perform it totally seamlessly, butthat does not automatically imply that one will be totallyconfident performng itwhile three hundred people are watching.People tend to be confident in areas which are familiar, and notso confident when they enter new territory. This is particularlytrue of magic, which almost by definition necessitates amovement into uncharted territory. I have often observed howpeople who are very much 'experts' in their chosen fields canbecome spectacularly nervous and unsure of themselves whenplaced in a "magical" situation. If we lack confidence in asituation, we are not relaxed, and so tend to make mistakes.There is a very powerful conditioning-directive which says that"mistakesarebad." Being seentomake mistakes isbad for one'sego, and worse in termsof social status. If we do something, wehave to be seen to be "good" at it, if not "expert". Anything elseisanathematothe self-image.This is a potentially dangerous trap to fall into. Many amuddled magical theoremhasmanaged to maintain itself againstattempts at analysis or destruction, precisely because such ameme, when delivered by figure who has authority status, isextremely difficult to challenge. Gurus andbelief-systems formasafety-net for thosewho, while feeling aneed to step beyond theboundaries of their consensus reality, yet feel massivelyafraid atthe same time. Consider also, the experience of 'viability of


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magic' as an issue of confidence. One occasionally hears peoplemaking remarks to the effect that they are confident aboutmagic's viability when it is 'working' for them, but that whenlife 'goes wrong', then explanations such as karma, tides,psychic attack, etc. are trotted out. One of the core componentsof confidence is a recognition that the world is chaotic, ratherthan linear.We tend tomodel events inalinear fashion, and thenbehave as though everything will always conform to ourexpectations. Of course, it is often difficult toremain relaxedas acrisis bursts overus, asemotions, memories, fantasy projections,internal dialogues and learned response patterns struggle forsupremacy. This recognition of chaotic flowcan be discerned inthe ways in which we "frame" new experiencesparticularly,new learning. New situations tend to generate performanceanxiety, due to their unfamiliarity. Stepping into a situationwhere there are many unknown possibilities and contingencies,wefind it difficult to transfer confidence; that is, to stay relaxed,and to still the little doubts and fears. If one can work within theproposition that such new situations are not 'difficult', but"novel", then any physical sensation can be reframed asexcitement. When interest and curiosity are engaged towards anovel situation, we tend to pay more attention to what is goingon in the environment, rather than the demons of the ego. Inother words, there is a common tendency to, when faced with anew or unfamiliar situation, to label it as difficult andfrightening, and then retreat from it. This raises anxiety andhence difficulty becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If, on theother hand, the unfamiliar can be approached as novelty, thenawareness isengaged towards thesituation.

Confidence isalsotransferable. If one is skilled in confidence,then one can project it, so that others become confident.Numerous examples of such occurrences can be discerned in allareas of human activity. This phenomenon plays an importantrole ingroup magical events.As discussed above, confidence is a skill which centresaround relaxation. Relaxation promotes attentiveness to subtleconditions in the environment. As is well-known, relaxation alsoshort-circuits "Lust of Result." which, in terms of confidence, isequivalent to the tendency to generate fantasy outcomes. ButLust of Result can be more than simply worrying about the


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outcome of a sigil. Lust of Result can cover individuals'concerns over group performance, anxiety over the unfamiliar,forgetting one's lines, etc. A magician skilled in confidenceprojection can act as an 'anchor' for others present, so that theymay relax into the present, and interpret bodily arousal asexcitement, rather than anxiety. Understanding the dynamics,and becoming skilled at being confident is a basic requirementfor effective magic.Having stressed the relationship between confidence andrelaxation, it should be remembered that Preparation is alsonecessary for confidence. Not only must one be attentive ofsubtle changes and chaotic fluctuations, but one also has to BePrepared. This means knowing your material, and having arange of strategies opento you. Oneapproachtothereframng ofanxiety-based projections is to use them to mentally rehearsescenarios. Research from the American Department of Defenseindicates that people who mentally rehearse their range ofresponses todifficult situations calmly, tend to be more relaxedwhen placed in a'live' situation.

For a magician then, being confident is the ability to relaxwhen faced with unfamiliar or anxiety-creating situations. It isalso related tothe ability to experience the unfamliar asnovel orexciting. Confidence is alsoakey tosuccessful magic, and Iwilldiscuss techniques that demonstrate this shortly. If someone is(apparently) confident performing magical rituals alone, yetnervous and ill-at-ease in any other situation, then they havemissed the point of Chaos Magic.A byproduct of confidence is Neophiliahe tendency to beopen to new ideas and concepts. Generally, people who arerelaxed and confident do not feel that they have to defendthemselves or their chosen beliefs/ideologies. Thus goodmagicians tend to be open-minded and relaxedfanaticism andthe need to proselytise tend tobe the behaviors of thosewholackself-confidence unless surroundedby the safe and familiar.Honour

Most quasi-religious or transcendentalist magical systems arecharacterised by an ethical code which isexternal to individuals,laid down in some 'holy book', and almost always broken. Farbetter, then, to develop one's own personal rules. It may seem an


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odd statement for a Chaos Magician to make, but I believe thathaving a personal honour code enhances one's ability as amagician. Forexample,over the years Ihave developed my ownpersonal 'rules' about magical acts directed at other people, andwill not deviate from them unless a situation fulfills fairlyspecific criteria. Furthermore, being seen to be 'honorable' inspecific ways impresses other people, building one's credibilityas an effective magician, and as someone who can be reliedupon. A sense of honour determines ones actions, and it isusually by actions, rather than words or postures, that one isjudged by others. If you like, the points of honour that youdecide to live by are the foundations of your personalpsychocosm. It is also worth remembering that words havepower. If you believe that your words can unleash power andbind entities to your will, then it follows that your own wordscan bind you too.

Points of HonourYour Word is Your Bond. Avoid placingyourself ina situationwhere your integrity can be questioned. Be aware that otherpeople, particularly other magicians, are continually looking atyour reputation. It can take years to establish yourself as anmagician; but you can blow your reputation away in a singleevening.If I say so, I will tryIf I say I shall, I will doIf I say "I promise", lamboundIf you say you will do something, then you MUST do it. Ifyou are dependable, people will have confidence in you. Themoreconfidence they have in you, themorepowerful amagicianyou will become. Equally, if you cannot realistically do some-thing, then it is a mark of quality to say that you cannot do it.This point is particularly pertinent if you choose to performmagiconbehalf of other people.Resolve Problems. If problems occur, they should be dealtwith as soon as possible. The longer a problem is left, the lesslikely it is that it will be resolved. If a problem relating toanother person cannot be resolved, then contact them as soon as


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required, whatever one is doing. In the course of writing thisbook, I have had to lay down a sequence of themes which Iwanted todevelop through the narrative. Similarly, toperformamagical ritual, I have to prepare a framework of organisedcoherence. As noted earlier, there is a great tendency to viewapproaches to magic as systems. There are the variants ofQabalah, Wicca, Shamanism, Satanism, etc. Many of thesesystems have models of symbolically ordering and representingthe universe. Somearehighly abstract, such as western Qabalah,while others have varying degrees of interpenetration witheverydayexperience.Generally,weuse such models to structure,interpret, and evaluate magical experiences. Some champions ofthese approaches have criticized Chaos Magic as they feel thatthe term Chaos implies disorder and that Advocates of ChaosMagic are proposing a disorganised approach to magic. This islargely due to a misperception of the Chaos approach, whichtends to view the use of magical systemsas amatter for personalpreference. As I have already shown, the term Chaos need notrefer to disorder, and similarly, being organised need not meanthat you have assigned everything to a rigid place and cannotdeviate from it, but that you have prepared yourself in readinessfor action.Is organisation a skill? Obviously so, for it improves withpractice, and your effectiveness in organising yourself willdepend on your skill at being relaxed and attentive. If you makeorganisation an important point in your honour code, then otherpeoplewllview youas effective and competent, which will tendto increase your effectiveness even further. Obviously, there is afeedback loop in operationhere. If you have organised yourselfin preparation for a task, then you will find it easier to relaxwhenperformng thetask, and consequently, the more confidentyou canbeconcerning its outcome. Your abilitytostructure yourthoughts, and identify key areas in a situation which requireparticular attention is also a key topractical sorcery.Strivefor Excellence. In a way, this is the axis of the wholeissue of being a magician. Being a magician is not a state ofbeing, but a dynamic engagement. There is no zero state ofhaving "made it"here is onlymore to do.Becoming an Adept,inmany ways, is tantamount to becoming verygoodat doing lotsof things. The more you practice magic, the more you will


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discover about yourself, other people, and the world in general.Dowhat you will todo, to thebest of your ability.Erudition. If you would aspire to teach, to lead, or to inspire,then you need to have not only knowledgeof, but confidence in,your chosen field. A worthy comment from Robert AntonWilson in this respect is that "specialisation is for insects."Powerful magicians have a wide-ranging interest that crossesinto many different fields, but they are bound by none of them.Similarly, it is not enough to have access to specialisedknowledge. Great care must be taken as to how that knowledgeisexpressed.

SensitivityBeing sensitive does not mean that you are fragile; that as aresult of an adverse comment, you shrink away and spend thenext six weeks hiding from everyone else. No, here I amreferring to a wide range of skills which include discrimination,prudence, tact, care, and empathy. To be sensitive requires thatyou have an awareness of the needs and emotions of otherpeople. Indeed, sensitivity can extendinto thelevel of perceptionwhich we tend to associate with psychic powers and intuitedthoughts which turn out to becorrect. Again, sensitivity isaskillwhich can be learned. At its simplest level, it is the art oflistening to what others are saying. Much of what Ihave writtenabout Attention is pertinent here, but Sensitivity requires thatyou not only be aware of subtle nuances in a situation, but thatyou can react appropriatelywith intelligence, prudence andtact. The skill of sensitivity is a further illustration of the Self-Other distinction discussed inthe previous chapter. We areoftentoo 'caught up' in our own self-images to really pay attention toother people, or even to take account of other people's feelingsin a situation. If for example, I am too concerned with what Ithink other people are thinking about me, thenIam not going tobesensitive totheir actual reactions. Moreover, it isunlikely thatI will be able to respond effectively if Iam too concerned withmyself. Again, sensitivity requires relaxation. Sensitivity alsorequires that we are aware of complexities, especially given thecommon tendency to reduce any situation so that it conformswith our expectations. For example it is all too easy to believethat people who share common interests with us will be similar


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inother ways. This isobviously not the case, if we stop and thinkabout it,but in a'live' situation, it iseasyto forget thisand makea mistake without even realizing that you have erred. Again, thisrelates to the Self-Oher divide. If you are confident and relaxed,then you will be inabetter position to be sensitive to the differ-ences of another person and adjust your own behavioraccordingly. Sensitivity is useful whenever you are inasituationwhere you have to pay attention toanything other than your owninner dialogues, whether the 'other' be people, animals,ecosystems, orspirits.The sensitivearethe ones who survive.A very practical way in which sensitivity can be developed isto cultivate a danger-sense. You might have this sense already,particularly if you are given to wandering around dangerousneighbourhoods in innercities.All toooften, we may experiencethis inner 'warning' and dismiss it, as there may be no logical orrational reason that will uphold the 'scent' of danger. In my ownexperience Ihavefound that ignoring theprickings of my dangersense is a mistake. This can apply not only to situations but topeople. This latter is more complex. If you have a suddenperception that someone you have just met is going to be'trouble' itcanbeverydifficult toactonthat basis,whenthereisno explanation to support it, but I have always found that it is amistake not to. The danger-sense often has an element ofprescience to ithe danger may not be immediately presentbut it's out there waiting. If you pay attention to your danger-sense and learn to trust it, then you will find that at times itexpands, becoming an aura of expectationa foreshadowing,that something is about to happen. Such sensitivity is anachievementt arises as a byproduct of your discipline andawareness. Don't try to explain it or force it to be there, justlistento it. It might saveyour, or someone else's life. Afriend ofmine was onabus with his girlfriend on their way home fromaparty. Suddenly they both had the feeling that somethingundefinable was 'wrong'and so they did not get off the bus attheir usual stop, but at the next one. Walking back home, theypassed their usual dropping point, only tofind hat two cars hadcollided nearby and flattened the stopsign.Had they left the busat thatpoint, they couldhavebeen killed when the carscollided.


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CHAPTER FOURANOTHER CRACKINTHE WALLA key feature of contemporary approaches to magic is the useand exploration of practical techniques, the aimof which is tobring about changes inperception, attitude, and widenourpossi-bilities for action. This requires the development of particularabilities and skills which form the foundations for further work.The old saying that "you cannot run before you can walk" isparticularly apt when it comes to magic, where it is necessary tobe able to develop particular skills before one can make the mosteffective use of techniques which require them. A very basicexample of this isjust sitting still. If you are unable to sit stilland silent, you will not have much success with any magicaltechnique which requires, at thevery least, that you sit still.Many core magical 'training' exercises seem trivial orboring.Most of uswould probably prefer to do something stimulatingand varied rather than sitting in an awkward posture doingnothing. In a way, part of the rationale for such an exercise isthat it is boring or seeminglydifficult. Such exercises are a wayof testing the limits of your Achievable Reality. You arechallenging your inherent resistance to the possibility of change,and widening thecracks inthefacade of paramount reality.D.R.A.TThe keys to becoming a magician are relatively simple. Sosimple in fact, that people tend to overlook them in search ofcomplex systems of belief and abstraction. An example of suchsimplicity isthe DRAT formula for action:DDisciplineRRelaxation

AAttentionTTransformation


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Without discipline we would not learn. Without discipline weprobably wouldn't get up out of bed in the morning. We needdiscipline to conquer our greatest magical adversarynertia,which tends to appear in the formof little voices which sway ourresolve by arguing that what canbedone right now can easily beput off until tomorrow. Yet, whilealittle discipline helps spur usonwards, too much discipline can actually lead us back intoinertia, particularly if the goals we set for ourselves areunrealistic. So discipline requires Relaxation if it is to be usedwell. It is possible to be both relaxed and disciplinedsimultaneously. For discipline to be effective, we have to berelaxed about it, and within it. If weare to be disciplin

Condensed Chaos - Phil Hine

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