Beginners, read this

[thief_and_a_liar]

"I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star." — Friedrich Nietzsche

Chaos, in this case, isn't about being 100% destructive, or worshipping Tiamat, or being a Discordian. Rather, it hails back to the original Greek definition for the term--the pure potential that predated the ordered world that we know today.

The roots of Chaos magic are several; Peter J. Carroll, the creator of Chaos magic, was inspired by everything from shamanism to the works of Austin Osman Spare, one of Aleister Crowley's contemporaries. Rather than being a tradition in and of itself, it is a system that boils magic down to its bare-bones components, free of cultural trappings, to create a practical methodology. There are no set gods or spirits, and Chaos magic may work within any model of how magic works, from energetic to psychological and then some. Additionally, there are no central religious beliefs; for many, though not all, Chaos magicians, belief is a tool to be used as needed.

While a Chaos magician may work with just about any sort of magic, there are two in particular that are associated with Chaos magic, sigils and servitors. The sigil was derived from Spare's work. Seeking an easier way to work magic than long, drawn-out ceremonies, Spare devised a method of creating a picture of one's desire by writing out what the magician wanted out of a particular magical act. Certain letter would be removed from the sentence, and the remaining letters rearranged and overlapped or connected to create an abstract picture. The resulting sigil would then be charged.

Servitors are thought forms (or spirits, if you will) that are created by the magician to perform certain magical tasks. They may be created in a similar manner as sigils, with the purpose and name of the servitor turned into one or more sigils. Some magicians create physical representations of their servitors. While servitors are generally created to carry out single tasks and are then destroyed afterward, some magicians do create permanent servitors for multiple uses.

More generally speaking, some Chaos magicians use Carroll's Eight Colors of Magick. Carroll uses different correspondences than Isaac Bonewits did in "Real Magic", and assigns one color/type to each point of the eight-pointed chaostar.

The correspondences are as follows:

Black: Death
Blue: Wealth
Green: Love
Yellow: Ego
Purple or Silver: Sex
Orange: Thinking
Red: War
Octarine: "Pure" Magic

Octarine is the name Terry Pratchett gave to the (humorous) theory regarding the eighth color of the spectrum.

As to the connection with Chaos theory in physics, Carroll dedicated the first chunk of "Liber Kaos" to the scientific exploration of how magic works. While a thorough understanding of physics isn't necessary to be a Chaos magician, a basic grasp of Chaos theory is useful.

Additionally, Chaos magic is sometimes confused with Discordianism, a parody religion founded in the late 1950s with the publication of the Principia Discordia. While a number of Chaos magicians may draw on Discordianism, they are not one and the same.

http://www.chaosmatrix.org


Recommended Reading

Carroll, Peter J. (1987). Liber Null & Psychonaut. Boston: Weiser.
Cunningham, David, Taylor Ellwood and Amanda Wagner (2003). Creating Magical Entities. Ohio: Egregore Publishing.
Ellwood, Taylor (2004). Pop Culture Magick. Stafford: Immanion Press/Megalithica Books.
-- (1992). Liber Kaos. Boston: Weiser.
Hawkins, Jaq D. (2001). Understanding Chaos Magic. Capall Bann.
-- (2003). Chaos Monkey. Capall Bann.
Hine, Phil (1995). Condensed Chaos. Tempe: New Falcon.
-- (1999). Prime Chaos. Tempe: New Falcon.
Wetzel, Joshua (2006). The Paradigmal Pirate. Stafford: Immanion Press/Megalithica Books.

[Moon1ight]

Good Article, thanks a lot, Thief  :)