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37-519: Their early network consisted of a number of "stations" worldwide including TOPY-CHAOS for Australia, TOPYNA for North America and TOPY Station 23 for the United Kingdom and Europe. Smaller, "grass-roots"-level sub-stations called Access Points were located throughout America and Europe. Throughout its existence, TOPY has been an influential group in the underground chaos magic scene. In 2016, French-Canadian director Jacqueline Castel began work on

74-607: A Disinfo Convention talk. Morrison's particular take on chaos magic exemplified the irreverent, pop cultural elements of the tradition, with Morrison arguing that the deities of different religions ( Hermes , Mercury , Thoth , Ganesh , etc.) are nothing more than different cultural "glosses" for more universal "big ideas" – and are therefore interchangeable: both with each other, and with other pop culture icons like The Flash , or Metron , or Madonna . Alan Chapman – whilst praising chaos magic for "breathing new life" into Western occultism, thereby saving it from "being lost behind

111-516: A front for abuses of power and developing an actual cult of personality . There have been a number of texts produced by Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth to expound its philosophies. Some of the key texts produced over the years have been: Chaos magic Chaos magic , also spelled chaos magick , is a modern tradition of magic . Emerging in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and esoteric subculture , it drew heavily from

148-413: A result-oriented approach rather than following specific practices based on tradition. An oft quoted line from Peter Carroll is "Magic will not free itself from occultism until we have strangled the last astrologer with the guts of the last spiritual master." Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin are considered to be the founders of chaos magic, although Phil Hine points out that there were others "lurking in

185-480: A stable sense of self. The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged, often at random, to create a new text. The technique can also be applied to other media: film, photography, audio recordings, etc. It was pioneered by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs . Burroughs – who practiced chaos magic, and was inducted into the Illuminates of Thanateros in

222-439: A tool, often creating their own idiosyncratic magical systems and blending such different things as "practical magic, quantum physics, chaos theory, and anarchism." Scholar Hugh Urban has described chaos magic as a union of traditional occult techniques and applied postmodernism – particularly a postmodernist skepticism concerning the existence or knowability of objective truth. Namely, according to him, chaos magic rejects

259-515: A variety of other ways to attain a "brief 'no-mind' state" in which to work magic. Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις , gnôsis , f.). A related term is the adjective gnostikos , "cognitive", a reasonably common adjective in Classical Greek. Plato uses the plural adjective γνωστικοί – gnostikoi and the singular feminine adjective γνωστικὴ ἐπιστήμη – gnostike episteme in his Politikos where Gnostike episteme

296-413: A wall of overly complex symbolism and antiquated morality" – has also criticised chaos magic for its lack of "initiatory knowledge": i.e., "teachings that cannot be learned from books, but must be transmitted orally, or demonstrated", present in all traditional schools of magic. Innovations continue into the 2020s, as found in social media, fandoms, and webcomics. The central defining tenet of chaos magic

333-545: Is arguably the idea that belief is a tool for achieving effects. In chaos magic, complex symbol systems like Qabalah , the Enochian system , astrology or the I Ching are treated as maps or "symbolic and linguistic constructs" that can be manipulated to achieve certain ends but that have no absolute or objective truth value in themselves. Religious scholar Hugh Urban notes that chaos magic's "rejection of all fixed models of reality" reflects one of its central tenets: "nothing

370-508: Is generated." Gnosis (chaos magic) In chaos magic , gnosis or the gnostic state refers to an altered state of consciousness in which a person's mind is focused on only one point , thought, or goal and all other thoughts are thrust out. The gnostic state is used to bypass the "filter" of the conscious mind – something thought to be necessary for working most forms of magic. Since it takes years of training to master this sort of Zen-like meditative ability, chaos magicians employ

407-492: Is true everything is permitted". Both Urban and religious scholar Bernd-Christian Otto trace this position to the influence of postmodernism on contemporary occultism. Another influence comes from Spare, who believed that belief itself was a form of "psychic energy" that became locked up in rigid belief structures, and that could be released by breaking down those structures. This "free belief" could then be directed towards new aims. Otto has argued that chaos magic "filed away

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444-555: The psychedelic movement . TOPY practiced chaos magic alongside their other activities, and helped raise awareness of chaos magic in subcultures like the Acid House and Industrial music scenes. Along with being an influence on P-Orridge, Burroughs was himself inducted into the IOT in the early 1990s. From the beginning, chaos magic has had a tendency to draw on the symbolism of pop culture in addition to that of traditional magical systems;

481-426: The symbolic , ritualistic , theological or otherwise ornamental aspects of these occult traditions, to leave behind a set of basic techniques that they believed to be the basis of magic. Chaos magic teaches that the essence of magic is that perceptions are conditioned by beliefs, and that the world as we perceive it can be changed by deliberately changing those beliefs. Chaos magicians subsequently treat belief as

518-524: The "grandfather of chaos magic". Working during much the same period as Spare, Aleister Crowley 's publications also provided a marginal yet early and ongoing influence, particularly for his syncretic approach to magic and his emphasis on experimentation and deconditioning. Later, concurrent with the growth of religions such as Wicca in the 1950s and 1960s, different forms of magic became more common, some of which came in "explicitly disorganized, radically individualized, and often quite 'chaotic' forms". In

555-403: The "passage" of the unconscious. These desires would then grow, unconsciously, into "obsessions", which would culminate in magical results occurring in reality. Aleister Crowley had also argued that the key to magic was an altered state of consciousness, whether attained through meditation , sexual practices or the use of drugs . However, the real breakthrough of the early chaos magicians

592-475: The 1960s and the decade that followed, Discordianism , the punk movement, postmodernism and the writings of Robert Anton Wilson emerged, and they were to become significant influences on the form that chaos magic would take. During the mid-1970s chaos magic appeared as "one of the first postmodern manifestations of occultism", built on the rejection of a need to adhere to a "single, systematized convention", and aimed at distilling magical practices down to

629-518: The background, such as the Stoke Newington Sorcerors ". Carroll was a regular contributor to The New Equinox , a magazine edited by Sherwin, and thus the two became acquainted. In 1976-77 the first chaos magic organization Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) was announced. The following year, 1978, was a seminal year in the origin of chaos magic, seeing the publication of both Liber Null by Carroll and The Book of Results by Sherwin –

666-447: The earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I've made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or a book, or something that happened... Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines

703-409: The earliest texts on chaos magic, Liber Null (1978) and The Book of Results (1978), both refer to this state of one-pointedness as "gnosis": The particular state of mind required has a name in every tradition: No-mind. Stopping the internal dialogue, passing through the eye of the needle, ain or nothing, samadhi , or onepointedness. In this book it will be known as Gnosis . It is an extension of

740-447: The early 1990s – was adamant that the technique had a magical function, stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes". Burroughs used his cut-ups for "political warfare, scientific research, personal therapy, magical divination, and conjuration" – the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness". Burroughs stated: I would say that my most interesting experience with

777-421: The early 1990s, a rift occurred within the network when Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV , one of the few founding members still involved at that time, and probably the best known public face of TOPY during the 1980s, announced their departure from the organization. This was later exacerbated with Genesis P-Orridge later claiming to have shut down the network upon leaving and requesting that the group no longer use

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814-492: The existence of absolute truth, and views all occult systems as arbitrary symbol-systems that are only effective because of the belief of the practitioner. Austin Osman Spare's work in the early to mid 1900s is largely the source of chaos magical theory and practice. Specifically, Spare developed the use of sigils and the use of gnosis to empower them. Although Spare died before chaos magic emerged, he has been described as

851-480: The feature-length documentary about TOPY, titled A Message from the Temple . Potential TOPY members were encouraged to make magical sigils of a certain prescribed nature. These acts were to be performed on the 23rd hour (11:00pm) of the 23rd day of each month. If an individual chose to do so, they were invited to mail their sigils to a central location where the magical energy in them could be used to enhance others. In

888-537: The first published books on chaos magic. According to Carroll, "When stripped of local symbolism and terminology, all systems show a remarkable uniformity of method. This is because all systems ultimately derive from the tradition of Shamanism. It is toward an elucidation of this tradition that the following chapters are devoted." New chaos magic groups emerged in the early 1980s – at first, located in Yorkshire , where both Sherwin and Carroll were living. The early scene

925-447: The future leaks out. David Bowie compared the randomness of the cut-up technique to the randomness inherent in traditional divinatory systems, like the I Ching or Tarot . Genesis P-Orridge, who studied under Burroughs described it as a way to "identify and short circuit control, life being a stream of cut-ups on every level. They are a means to describe and reveal reality and the multi-faceted individual in which/from which reality

962-411: The magical trance by other means. In asserting the necessity of attaining such a state, the earliest chaos magicians were following the example set by artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare . In Spare's magical system, magic was thought to operate by using symbols to communicate desire to something Spare termed "Kia" (a sort of universal mind, of which individual human consciousnesses are aspects) via

999-446: The magician's universe, a hologram, microcosm or 'voodoo doll' which can be manipulated in real time to produce changes in the macrocosmic environment of 'real' life." Both The Invisibles and the activities of Morrison themself were responsible for bringing chaos magic to a much wider audience in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the writer outlining their views on chaos magic in the "Pop Magic!" chapter of A Book of Lies (2003) and

1036-550: The occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spare , expressed several decades earlier. It has been characterised as an invented religion , with some commentators drawing similarities between the movement and Discordianism . Magical organizations within this tradition include the Illuminates of Thanateros and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth . The founding figures of chaos magic believed that other occult traditions had become too religious in character. They attempted to strip away

1073-475: The primary task here is "to thoroughly decondition" the aspiring magician from "the mesh of beliefs, attitudes and fictions about self, society, and the world" that his or her ego associates with: Our ego is a fiction of stable self-hood which maintains itself by perpetuating the distinctions of "what I am/what I am not, what I like/what I don't like", beliefs about ones politics, religion, gender preference, degree of free will, race, subculture etc all help maintain

1110-442: The rationale being that all symbol systems are equally arbitrary, and thus equally valid – the belief invested in them being the thing that matters. The symbol of chaos , for example, was lifted from the fantasy novels of Michael Moorcock . Preluded by Kenneth Grant – who had studied with both Crowley and Spare, and who had introduced elements of H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Cthulhu mythos into his own magical writings – there

1147-499: The registered trademark of the Psychick Cross . Some of the remaining members of the network chose not to go along with this and carried on with their activities. TOPY continued to grow and evolve throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century while Genesis P-Orridge moved on to other projects such as The Process , as well as a similar project to TOPY called Topi. Genesis P-Orridge 's TOPY has been criticized by Dan Siepmann as being

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1184-443: The topic. Phil Hine, along with Julian Wilde and Joel Biroco, published a number of books on the subject that were particularly influential in spreading chaos magic techniques via the internet. In 1981, Genesis P-Orridge established Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). P-Orridge had studied magic under William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin in the 1970s, and was also influenced by Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare, as well as

1221-472: The whole issue of truth, thus liberating and instrumentalising individual belief as a mere tool of ritual practice." Peter J. Carroll suggested assigning different worldviews to the sides of a die, and then inhabiting a particular random paradigm for a set length of time (a week, a month, a year, etc.), depending on which number is rolled. For example, 1 might be paganism , 2 might be monotheism , 3 might be atheism , and so on. Phil Hine has stated that

1258-476: Was a trend for chaos magicians to perform rituals invoking or otherwise dealing with entities from Lovecraft's work, such as the Great Old Ones . Hine, for example, published The Pseudonomicon (1994), a book of Lovecraftian rites. From 1994 to 2000, Grant Morrison wrote The Invisibles for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, which has been described by Morrison as a "hypersigil": "a dynamic miniature model of

1295-479: Was also used to indicate one's aptitude . According to chaos magic , successfully executing an act of magic is dependent on bypassing the conscious mind. To achieve this, it is necessary to enter into an altered state of consciousness in which thoughts are stilled, and awareness is held on a single point . Only then will the ritual , sigil or working flow unimpeded into the unconscious, from where it works its effects. Without any etymological justification,

1332-453: Was focused on a shop in Leeds called The Sorceror's Apprentice , owned by Chris Bray. Bray also published a magazine called The Lamp of Thoth , which published articles on chaos magic, and his Sorceror's Apprentice Press re-released both Liber Null and The Book of Results , as well as issuing Psychonaut and The Theatre of Magic . The "short-lived" Circle of Chaos , which included Dave Lee,

1369-584: Was formed in 1982. The rituals of this group were published by Paula Pagani as The Cardinal Rites of Chaos in 1985. Ralph Tegtmeier (Frater U∴D∴), who ran a bookshop in Germany and was already practicing his own brand of "ice magick", translated Liber Null into German. Tegtmeier was inducted into the IOT in the mid-1980s, and later established the German section of the order. As chaos magic spread, people from outside Carroll and Sherwin's circle began publishing on

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