Over the years, there have been many forms and definitions of magick, and a lot of disagreement as to which is the correct one. The word comes from the ancient Persian word for knowledge*, and in the years since the birth of Muhammed largely referred to knowledge of either the arcane or mystical arts. This continued up until the Middle Ages, when it came to specifically refer to evil sorcery and the workings of Lucifer. Then in 1976, Aleister Crowley, the self-proclaimed Great Beast 666, defined it as 'The art and science of causing change in conformity with will.*. He also used the obsolete spelling 'magick' in order to distinguish the real stuff from imitators. Basically, magick is bending reality, and magic is sleight of hand. This convention will be used in this entry. Over the years, there have been a number of alternate spellings, including magik, majick, and even majik. For the most part, the idea of these was the same as Crowley's original distinction. Fortunately, none of them have ever caught on. There have also been outgrowths of the word 'magick,' such as magickal and magickian; however, when Crowley's spelling was in common usage, 'magick' was used both as a verb and as a noun, and the word for a practitioner was in fact 'magitian.' Nonetheless, this entry shall use 'magickal' instead of 'magical' for the same reason as the division between 'magick' and 'magic.

Modern magick, insofar as its practitioners believe it to work, can be broadly divided into five main types: natural magick, white magick, black magick, sex magick, and chaos magick. Natural magick is, for the most part, knowledge of alternative medicine, with an occasional attempt to call upon spirits of nature to predict weather, crops, etc. White and black magick are pretty self-explanatory. Sex magick, as its name suggests, is a form of magick revolving around the performance of sexual acts, generally (though not necessarily) based on the achieving of an orgasm, whether alone of in company. In company is the preferred method. Chaos magick (to which sex magick is related) is the most recent method to emerge, and has gained great popularity among modern occultists and magitians. It is also the subject of this entry.

What is Chaos Magick?

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. - Hassan-i-sabbah*

This statements pretty much sum up chaos magick*. The main area in which it differs from other forms of magick is that it is focused entirely on magickal practise, and has nothing to do with philosophy or religion whatsoever. Chaos magitians believe that all religions, philosophies, and belief structures are mere aids to concentration, and nothing more, and that as long as one gets results, it does not really matter how they occurred*. Thus, a chaos magitian is just as likely to worship Allah, Lucifer, Buddha, Ganesh, Ra, Gaia, Cthulhu, or one of the gods of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. There are also many different ways of casting chaos magick, but the most popular involves the use of 'sigils.'

Sigils and Casting

A sigil is a (supposedly) magickally-charged symbol, which the magitian concentrates on in order to affect reality. Originally, the sigil system was used in astrology. Astrology originally used the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn as its main 'planets' of influence, as Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the asteroid belt had yet to be discovered. Anyway, each of these seven 'planets' was assigned a magick square, i.e. a square of numbers which, when the numbers in any row, column, or diagonal line are added together, always equal the same answer. While modern squares use numbers, they originally used letter of the Hebrew alphabet, where each letter had a numerical value; for example, 'aleph' represented 1, 'beth' represented 2, etc. These squares were said to spell out the names of the spirits governing the 'planets.' In many cases, the name of a spirit was put into the form of a magick square of the 'planet' they were associated with, and then traced out in a join-the-dots style manner. This formed a linear design, known as a sigil, which was then used to summon, control, or banish a spirit. The sigil could be invoked by various rituals. *.

In modern chaos magick, however, the formation of a sigil is somewhat different. In the most popular method, as originated by Austin Osman Spare and later adapted by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin before being adopted by Grant Morrison, the would-be sorcerer/ sorceress writes out what they want, then eliminate all vowels and repeating letters, so that, for example, I WISH TO HAVE LOTS OF MONEY would become WSHTVLFMNY. These letters are then rearranged, combined, and distorted to form a symbol or glyph - a neo-sigil, if you will. There are no rules as to what a sigil must look like, only that it 'works for' the magitian. Corporate logos are also examples of sigils, whose purpose is to make people buy stuff they don't need.

In order to make the sigil work, the magitian must forget what it means, so that the true effect only dwells in their subconscious mind. They must then clear their mind, and, at the moment that consciousness blinks*, the spellcaster must see the sigil in front of their eyes, burning in their consciousness, to the exclusion of all else. The best method for achieving this is meditation, but that takes years of study and practice. Chaos magitians tend to be rather impatient, and so often use sexual intercourse, masturbation, physical exhaustion, near-death experiences, or adrenaline rushes to achieve similar states of mind. Certain psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs can also be used, but as they tend to screw with the mind and cloud vision, they are generally only used by people for whom chaos magick and the occult is more about rebellion against authority than about causing change. These methods are faster, but the mental effect does not last as long. As far as effectiveness goes, chaos magitians claim there is little difference which method the caster uses. However, the practitioners also warn that chaos magick will never do the absolutely impossible, such as make the caster win the lotto without even buying a ticket. *

However, this is not the only way. Some magitians prefer traditional methods, and to this end may engage in 'satanic' rituals or follow the teachings of people such as Aleister Crowley, though would regard both of these as no more 'real' than, say, the Loch Ness Monster. Others prefer an effort of pure will; for example, a man who wants to get his girlfriend into bed might wear a tuxedo and drink a vodka martini while playing the theme tune to a James Bond movie.

It Can't Possibly Be True, Can It?

Perception is an abstract concept, yet it can cause certain subatomic particles to stop changing into each other. Since this is true, one should at least entertain the idea that the far more powerful force of will can cause even greater change. However, this is rather theoretical, and so here are two examples. The first comes from this researcher's own experience, and was originally posted in Peer Review:

A few days ago, I was coming home on the bus, and a small group in the back kept blowing on a whistle, which was annoying the rest of us. Eventually, the driver got so frustrated that he refused to drive any further until the whistle got handed over. Knowing the guys in the back to be incredibly stubborn, I got out a piece of paper, made a sigil, and then cast it. A few seconds later, the whistle was handed over. While it would likely have been handed over eventually, I know the way these guys think, and it was surrendered much quicker than it would have been otherwise.

The other example of the success of chaos magick comes from an interview with Genesis P-Orridge in Disinformation: The Interviews, edited by Richard Metzger. When discussing Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth [sic], Metzger mentions that he once subscribed to it, and when he was 17, there was this girl that he really, really wanted to have sex with, but who had no interest in him. He sent a sigil to TOPY HQ, and six months later, he and the girl were copulating happily. *

What's in a Name?

One would be forgiven for thinking that chaos magick is about causing chaos. While the magitian may attempt to use it for precisely that purpose, it is also often used to create order, and the more moral magitians use it to help people. Indeed, it is occasionally referred to as 'warpcraft' by those who do not wish to be associated with actual chaos. The name actually comes from a few different sources. First of all is the fact that there is no fixed method, hierarchy, or rule system for chaos magick; lack of rules equals anarchy, anarchy often results in true chaos. Secondly, many alchemical texts refer to 'chaos' as the primal singularity from which all matter, energy, time, and space spring; presumably, what was around before the Big Bang. The magitian may be said to be tapping into this 'substance' in order to control it and cause change. Thirdly, many of the early adopters and modern practitioners of chaos magick are/ were Lovecraft fans, and in the writings of Lovecraft, human intelligence is merely a cosmic fluke in a vast sea of chaos. Finally, in chemical and nuclear reactions, things tend to become more chaotic; chaos magick is believed by some to tap into this power and bend it to the magitian's will.

The History Of Chaos Magick

Austin Osman Spare

The British artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886 - 1956) is generally regarded as the originator chaos magick. Spare was first introduced to the ways of sex and sex magick at the age of fourteen by his nanny, known only as Mrs. Peterson. It was to her that Spare would eventually devote a large amount of his future artistic work. The details of Spare's earlier life are omitted for the sake of space, but it should be noted that he displayed incredible talent as an artist relatively early on in his life, and was briefly a member of the Argentum Astrum and the Ordo Templi Orientis, two occult groups which were to play a major part on the mental development of Aleister Crowley. The workings of Spare are largely shunned by the art world and thus unknown to the general public for three reasons - one, they are seriously weird, two, Spare had a major interest in the occult as well as in art, and three, people who look at his paintings for too long have reportedly observed what can best be described as weird s***. For example, the figures in the paintings moving, Mrs. Peterson physically emerging from the painting, Peterson and Spare emerging from the painting and copulating, etc. For this reason, it is believed in occult circles that Spare found a way for a part of his soul and that of Mrs. Peterson to remain in the painting, together forever. In other words, Spare literally achieved immortality through his art. *

Spare believed that the universe was divided into two parts - the human organism, which he called Zos, and a force of primal energy, which was known as Kia. Together, these formed what he imaginatively called the 'Zos Kia Cultus.' It was also Spare's belief that the psychic and occult energies of Kia could be channeled into Zos by means of intense focusing of the will - on a sigil, for example, although Spare used all the letters in a sentence, and referred to his sigils as 'sentient letters.' In the cultus, Zos is represented by the hand, and Kia by the eye or phallus. The superimposition of the two was the origin of Spare's ritual masturbation, an act which is also often done by modern chaos magitians. The surrealist artist Salvador Dali also occasionally performed this act.*

William S Burroughs and Brion Gysin

Though they were an interesting pair of occultists who achieved a lot, the contributions of Burroughs and Gysin to the development of chaos magick in minimal. Their main contribution was training Genesis P-Orridge. Gysin also created a technique of combining Austin Osman Spare's sigils with traditional magick square, where each space on the square was occupied by a sigil rather than a letter or number. He made a personal one for Genesis P-Orridge out of P-Orridge's name, and this technique was used quite a bit when Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth was at the height of its influence and notoriety.

The Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros

This chaos magickal group was founded in Germany in 1978 by Ray Sherwin and Peter Carroll, two occultists who had grown critical of the state of the occult field at the time and the many deficiencies in various occult groups. They began by publishing an occult magazine called The New Equinox, and when they decided to found their own order, they initially did so by way of a small ad in their magazine. What set their group, known originally as the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) was the fact that it was a hierarchy based on ability rather than invitation or money*, and was also more an informal gathering of like-minded people than a religious movement or non-profit organization. The IOT encompassed ideas from numerous ideologies, including Thelema*, the Zos Kia Cultus, Shamanism, Tantric Yoga, and Taoism. The name Thanateros is a fusion of the Greek words Thanatos, meaning death, and Eros, meaning sexual love. The IOT mainly practiced magick based on these two entities.

In the 1980s, the IOT began to attract a major following of English and German occultists, though at this point, Sherwin left on the belief that it was becoming more like the hierarchical groups that the IOT began as a reaction against. Carroll carried on, publishing two books on the IOT, Liber Null + Psychonaut, and Liber Kaos, and the IOT became the occult equivalent of a household word. Carroll later revised the teachings of the IOT under the influence of the writings of occultist Ralph Tegtmeier. Carroll now renamed it The Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros, or simply The Pact. At this time, Carroll started referring to it as a 'real' magickal order. However, several schisms were to follow, and two main factions emerged: RIOT (The Reformed IOT, based in Germany, now defunct), and AutonomatriX [sic] (California, still existing). There were also numerous other splinter groups, and it is these which in fact nowadays make up the entire Pact. There are many small, semi-autonomous temples scattered around to world, and the IOT is nowhere near as big as it was. Carroll has since left it, but he cited personal reasons as opposed to disappointment as to his purpose.

Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth

Thee Temple ov Psychick youth is one of the most original chaos magickal order to emerge in recent years. It was founded is 1981 by British performance artist Genesis P-Orridge, who took inspiration from sex magick as well as the teachings of Austin Osman Spare, body transformation, and some amount of the Illuminatus! trilogy, a scifi spoof of conspiracy theories, written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. There was also some influence from writer-magitian William S Burroughs and musician-magitian Brion Gysin, under whom P-Orridge had received magickal training in the 1970s.

Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (often abbreviated to TOPY) persistently used spellings such as 'thee' for 'the,' 'coum' for 'come,' 'majick' for 'magick,' and 'ov' for 'of.' The reason was (as P-Orridge would say) to majickally overcoum thee grip ov thee habitual and conventional*. The teachings of thee Temple are the most characteristic of chaos magick, explicitly rejecting the mystification of gods, demons, angels, or spirits, and instead defining majick as a liberating activity that uses implicit powers of thee human brain (neuromancy) linked with guiltless sexuality focusing through thee will structure (sigils).**.

The way TOPY operated was by providing an address on the record packaging of P-Orridge's industrial rock band, Psychick TV*, and anyone who wrote in would receive a welcome pack consisting of TOPY's manifesto Thee Grey Book and a few guides to sexual chaos magick and the use of sigils. If the subscriber so desired, they could also send in a sigil to TOPY and ask them to cast the spell on it. Many people wanted material success, though the greatest proportion simply wanted a boyfriend or girlfriend. TOPY were only too happy to oblige.

Subscribers were sent another gift from TOPY on the 23rd of every month for 23 months, and many of them figured that, if the 23rd gift came when they were 23, they would get something special. Actually, the 23rd gift was a copy of TOPY's second book, Thee Black Book, which contradicted a lot of what Thee Grey Book said. After that, the gifts stopped coming. The main purpose of TOPY was to get people to think for themselves, and anyone disappointed with the final result was generally perceived as being not yet ready to do so. However, it was people like this who were to lead to TOPY's downfall.

TOPY was organized in a rather anarchic fashion, with its only concession to order being that Genesis P-Orridge was officially in charge. However, after a while, people started pushing for TOPY to be registered as a religion, and for Thee Grey Book to be recognized as a Holy Book. P-Orridge attempted to disband TOPY in 1992 when he discovered that people were viewing TOPY as dogmatic, and were coming looking for easy, ready made answers. In short, they were calling it a religion. People calling themselves members of TOPY* wrote to P-Orridge, even threatened him, for daring to 'abandon' his 'religion.' Incredibly, Thee Temple is still going strong, mainly in America and on the Internet, though like the IOT, it is nowhere near as great as it was when it had its original leader.*.

Chaos Magick Today

While in today's climate of media hype and condemnations from fundamentalist Christianity of anything opposed to them as Satanic, it may be difficult for the would-be magitian to contact any formal groups. However, this is not really necessary. By its very nature, chaos magick can be practiced anywhere, anywhen, anyhow the magitian wants. If you would like to learn more about chaos magick, or about the occult in general, the following should prove useful: