Chaos Magic!!! A course by Peter Carroll at the Maybe Logic Academy

(The following are the classes from Peter Carroll’s course he taught at the Maybe Logic Academy in 2005.)

In the Spring of 2005, Peter Carroll, one of the creators of Chaos Magic taught a course at Robert Anton Wilson’s Maybe Logic Academy. I was among the many participants of Carroll’s fine introduction to the inner workings of Chaos Magic. Over the 7 weeks of the course Mr. Carroll some of the major tenets of Chaos Magic. Just like Chaos Magic itself the class striped through all the pretense and pomp of the Magical world and got to the bleeding heart of the matter at hand. Such topics covered were Enchantment, Divination, Magical Theory, Evocation, Invocation, Philosophy of Chaos Magic, and Illumination.

You will recall the ‘Crowley 101’ course that RAW taught at the MLA and that I posted last week here on this website. Whereas RAW’s ‘Crowley 101’ course was a dipping of the proverbial toe in the pond of the Occult, Mr. Carroll’s class was a cannon ball into the choppy mercurial waters of the Occult. I cannot think of a better way to study Magic(K) than by comparing and contrasting the two methods found in ‘Crowley 101’ and this class.

The Required reading for the course were two of Carroll’s books, Liber Null and Liber Kaos. I encourage readers to go out and buy both books. Understanding that times are tight, I found incomplete versions of each book and hyperlinked them to the titles listed above.

The topic for Week 1 was Enchantment.

Carroll’s assignments are self-explanatory and full of amazing information. So, I will not be typing out everything he wrote in the assignments. I think the pictures of the assignments are clear enough for any interested reader to examine them and then get to work. While I will not retype everything, I will transcribe somethings from the class assignments and also type out some lines from the required reading material for the course.

By the way, the required reading for the class were two of Carroll’s books entitled Liber Kaos and Liber Null. While I encourage all interested readers to go out and buy both books, the present author understands that times are tight and there are some online links to some, but not all, of both books.

Carroll considers Enchantment the most important element of magic. He writes, “In Chaos Magic the word Enchantment means making things happen by Magic.” It “means getting what you want by casting spells. Carroll considers Enchantment as a “more useful skill than Divination.” He considers the willingness to persist with Enchantment as the mark of a “serious magician.” So, get Enchanting!!!

Carroll writes that Enchantment usually takes longer than other forms of magic to produce results, which is why he made it the topic of the first week.

Carroll wanted participants to pursue Enchantment spells to at the end of seven weeks we had “some practical results to discuss,” as well as “negative results” too, which are never really negative if you can learn from them.

The reading assignments are listed on the scan for week 1.

The first bit of reading he asked participants to do was on Sigils. I first learned about Sigil Magic from Grant Morrison during the legendary Disinfo conference in NYC. I was in the audience that day. Morrison yawped like a Scottish warrior high on Ale and Hilaritas about the benefits of dedicating time to Magic. “Just Fooking Do it” was the mantra he intoned throughout his talk. Among the many amazing things, he spoke about that day, he also told people how to do Sigil Magic.

Basically, write down a very specific desire you have, the more specific the better. Try to express it one sentence. Then cross out all the vowels and repeating consonants.

With the remaining letters construct yourself am image, which to me generally looks like a kool Vodun image and draw it out. Once you have your image you need to charge it with your concentrated energy of desire. Carroll recommends charging the sigil during a state of Gnosis, which means an altered state of consciousness from sex, drugs, and rock n roll! One you’ve charged the Sigil, perhaps after you’ve ahem discharged, cast the piece of paper away into the wind. Tear it up, Burn it, Bury it, or literally toss it in the wind. The point is that you from then on Forget About It. For the subconscious mind will work its magic from then on.

I’ve constructed many Sigils since hearing Morrison talk about it. At this moment, I cannot attest to specific results, they are fun to do, and hey who knows, maybe they do work. Carroll, and many other serious magicians highly recommend keeping a Magic and Dream Diary for these sorts of things. One day, I may get there. Till then, I relay the message.

Another Topic of research and discussion for Week 1 was ‘Gnosis’ Which I said was basically entering an Altered State of Consciousness. The kool thing about magic is that ASC’s are not just arrived at through sex, drugs, and rhythmic music drumming and chanting. One can utilize Automatic writing and/or Automatic drawing to get there. (I imagine this is where Chaos Magic owes some debt of gratitude to Osman Spare, British Occultist, artist, and Creator of Sigil Magic)

Carroll points out that achieving Gnosis can occur though two main ways: Inhibitory (the way of the monk) and Excitatory (the way of the Shaman). Carroll provides more specific practices to achieve Gnosis through both means in his book, which I recommend you look at!

The next topic Carroll gets into is “Sleight of Mind.” He writes, “The magician must occupy his conscious mind with something which somehow activates his intent in his subconscious without consciously reminding him of what it is.” (Easier said than done my friend!)

Next Carroll asked participants to read what he wrote about ‘Enchantment’ in his books. What he shares is profoundly interesting. “Magical Will may exert its effects directly on the universe or may use symbols or sigils as intermediaries.” Our Will makes things happen. However, Carroll writes, “In trying to develop the will, the most fatal pitfall is to confuse the will with the chauvinism of the ego. Will is not will power, virility obstinacy or hardness. Will is unity of desire.” I like that phrase ‘unity of desire’ and it makes me think a lot about how important it may be to have as clear a vision as possible for what you want from your life, both short and long term.

“The magician,” writes Carroll, “therefor seeks unity of desire before he attempts to act. Desires are re-arranged before an act, not during it.” Sigils, “serve as a focus for the will.” He reiterates that One’s concentration should be augmented by Gnosis to cast the Enchantment.

Carroll also says there is another technique aside from Magical Trance to Strengthen one’s Will, is through Luck. “The magician should observe the current of his luck in small, inconsequential matters, find the conditions for its success and try to extend his luck in various ways.” (This reminds me a little bit of RAW’s exercise in Prometheus Rising to envision finding a Quarter every time you go outside and then pay attention to how often you find Quarters. It seems like Carroll is expanding on that exercise a bit here.

Finally, Carroll assigns readings in what termed “8 Magics” This is a core aspect to Chaos Magic, hence the symbol of the circle with 8 arrows pointing out from it. Carroll equates the number 8 with the 7 “classical” planets plus Uranus. He calls all this, “Octarine.”

Carroll writes, “From the vantage point of the Octarine gnosis, the magician self should be able to perceive the selves of the other seven powers and be able to see their interrelationship within hos total organism.”

Carroll, and Chaos Magicians in general, associate each of the eight magics with a color and position on the Octarine image. If we begin with the arrow pointing due north form the sphere, we see that that is called ‘Octarine’ or pure magic, moving clockwise down the sphere we arrive at the next arrow assigned the label as Black or Death magic, moving on we arrive as Blue or wealth magic, then to Green or Love Magic, and the furthest arrow pointing south is Yellow of Ego Magic. Next, we hit Purple or Silver or Sex Magic, then on to Orange of Thinking Magic and finally we hit Red or War Magic. These are some serious types of magic!

Lastly, I’d like t point out something that Carroll is adamant about when it comes to the difference between Chaos Magic and Thelema, or the Magick of Aleister Crowley. Carroll says that Chaos Magic gets you results, whereas as Crowley’s magick is a more contemplative and meditative (theurgic) form of Magic.

Week 2 of Peter Carroll’s Chaos Magic hosted at the MLA in 2005 was interesting. Peter asked participants to examine the practice of Divination. I like what he says about it on the assignment page for the week. He writes, “of all the magical arts, Divination offers the most opportunities for really screwing things up.” Continuing, “The magician should try to develop divination in two ways, firstly by trying to become more generally psychic and open more to intuition and secondly, by mastering one of more methods of deliberate divination.” The second is useless without the first!

Carroll also suggests those wishing to practice this stuff to keep a dream diary as a way to develop one’s intuition and overall psychic abilities.

The required reading for week 2 tackled the subjects of Mind Control, Dreaming, Divination, and ‘Sleight of Mind Divination.”

Mind Control: Techniques for Stilling the Mind

In Liber Null, Carroll provides some methods for achieving a still mind (or at least more still than it usually is). They are Motionlessness, Breathing, Not-Thinking, Magical Trances, Object concentration, Metamorphosis, which is an interesting exercise in the “willed restricting of the mind.”

I like what Carroll writes about Laughter. He considers it a true magical aid and calls Laugher, “the highest emotion.” This of course reminds me of both James Joyce and Robert Anton Wilson. Joyce loved that the first three letters of his last name spell ‘Joy,’ and he thought Comedy was a higher form of Art than Tragedy. Joyce as funny AF!!!

RAW once promulgated a magic ritual in which one should put a picture of a person who acts like a bully toward you into the center of a circle. Wilson mentioned doing this with ither other, but you can probably do it by yourself. While looking at the picture of your tormentor, you should start laughing. You probably need to will the laughter a bit at first, and if you are with other people who are also laughing you all may actually start authentically laughing. Just look at this picture and laugh and the abusive fucker. Wilson swore by this method for increasing general Hilaritas in the face of a person who is sending you malignant energy, vibes, or actions. So, get out there and start LAUGHING!!!!

Carroll writes, “Laughter is the Only tenable attitude in a universe which is a joke played upon itself…The trick is to see the joke played out even in the neutral and ghastly events which surround one.”

Another technique Carroll recommends is non-Attachment or lusting after results. One most “shoot your shit” and keep it moving! I can personally attest that this is way easier said than done. Which makes the notion of distracting yourself from your desire after casting your Sigil into the wind even more interesting.

Here’s an example, you are an actor, trained in the classics by a wizard of an acting teacher, and your agent sends you out of auditions. Each audition raises so much hope, as landing one of those roles would immediately help your financial situation and make you feel like all that amazing training in learning how to “reflect mankind unto themselves,” worth it. There is so much emotion involved in each audition, yet you must let it go immediately after the audition. The actor must exert much energy to avoid checking his or her or their phone every five minutes like a cokehead waiting for one’s plug to call back. But this is the job of the magician. One must learn to truly walk with non-attachment and keep the focus on your Preparation and
Performance. This is all a magician can do.

(The scenario above is true for many different artists working in different mediums. Robert Anton Wilson began a practice of Non-Attachment during the 1980s when it hit him that his books will be relegated to the “fringe” class of books. Thought history will place RAW’s fiction in the same pantheon of Burroughs, Vonnegut, Heller, PK Dick, and Pynchon, Wilson received near zero “mainstream” attention during his career. This messed with him when he first arrived in Ireland in 1982. He really wanted Illuminatus! to be a big hit and eventually made into a film. However, this did not happen and RAW got a bit depressed. Then he resolved to just stay focused on his work and not worry about how many people heard his message. That is a hard path the walk, but he was able to achieve degrees of Non-Attachment when it came to the masses hearing his message!)

Another method of ‘metamorphosis’ that Carroll suggests is Behavior Modification. He writes, “To proceed, select any minor habit at random and delete it from your behavior, at the same time adopt any new habit at random.” (I’ve yet to completely do this exercise, but it seems interesting. If any readers here have done this, please let me know. What results did you observe?)

Carroll again suggests that those interested in all this should track everything in your Magical Diary.

On the topic of Dreaming, on page 23 of Liber Null, Carroll writes, “The musician aims to gain full access to the dream plane and to assume control over it.” He says, again, to keep a dream diary. Carroll suggests that the partitioner “record details of all dreams as soon as possible after waking.”

Divination was another topic explored this week. On the subject Carroll writes, “The magician must begin to notice all coincidences which surround him, instead of dismissing them.” Record all these instances in your Magical Diary.

Next Carroll suggested we examine ‘Sleight of Mind: Divination.” He says that there are three elements to be considered when it comes to Divination, “the target, the means of obtaining information about it, and the interpretation of the information. He provides two methods for getting there: Sortilege, the shuffling of Tarot cards, and Hallucination. The idea is that this will “provide a mechanism when the subconscious can communicate its psychic knowledge.” Hallucinatory methods are things like staring into a black mirror or water and waiting for an Image to arrive.

About all this, Carroll stresses how important it is “that no conscious deliberation take place during the Divination.”

Finally for Week 2’s assignment, Carroll suggested that participants “select no more than two methods to practice during this week. So, try a Sortilege technique and a Hallucinatory technique. Then record your results or impressions of your work.

The title of Week 3 was ‘Magical Theory,’ and it’s here that Carroll discussed some his philosophical ideas involved with Chaos Magic. He states a couple of the Chaos Magic axioms like “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted,” which others who’ve stated this like Robert Anton Wilson and William S Burroughs attribute to Hassan i-Sabbah. Perhaps because of Illuminatus! Trilogy and Burroughs’ work the phrase took off first in the 1970s punk rock culture. Another Carroll, Jim Carroll, the punk rock Rimbaud, wrote and sang a song with the title ‘Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted.” (Of course, today we seem to be living in a media ecosphere where “Everything is True, Nothing is Permitted.”) That being said, the Chaos Magic crew took the phrase and ran with it.

The second axiomatic phrase that all the hepcat Chaoists say “belief structures reality,” however this too has become a Meta-belief, says Carroll. However, it is true that some beliefs work more effectively than others.

Principia Magica Chaos Magic Theory. In order to explain it Carroll introduces the concept of ‘Ether.’ “Ether,” writes Carrol, “acts as though it were a form of information emitted by matter that is instantaneously available everywhere and has some power to shape the behavior of other matter.” Carroll equates Ether to “Morphogenetic fields or non-local affects in physics.”

Carroll also writes about what he calls “General Metadynamics Paradigm.” “In Divination it would suggest that the magician seeks to visualize the future situation in which he will know the answer. It may also help if the magician resolves to visualize sending the answer back to the time of divination when he has found the answer or conferment his divination.”

I really love that. This sounds so kool and magical. I saw KRS-One perform one time in New York City and he did something similar to what Carroll is talking about here. KRS was kicking a long and highly entertaining freestyle (that an extemporaneous impromptu verbal rhyme display where the MC, ideally, crafted in the moment and not prewritten or rehearsed, which is generally the most magical moment in the Emcee performance, much like the jazz greats of old.) So, KRS was on stage at Santos Party House in lower Manhattan rhyming a dope freestyle and then he starts rhyming about his future self and how he is envisioning his future-self floating above him on stage looking at his rhyming to all of us. This blew my mind at the time, and I still remember the moment very clearly as I type these words. It truly was a magical moment.

Next Carroll suggested class participants to read about Random Belief. He suggests six Belief Systems that one could play around with. Paganism, Monotheism, Atheism, Nihilism, Chaoism, and Superstition. Carroll makes it fun when he says to equate each belief system with a side of a 6-sided dice and then roll the dice and let chance choose for you which belief system you will inhabit for whoever long you choose.

The topic of week 4 of Peter Carroll’s Chaos Magic course was Evocation. To Evoke means to bring something forth. In the magical sense to Evoke one must Conjure from your senses something which was not there before. It is an amazing act of creation, and some may say it is an act of co-creation between you and the great unknown “other” that may or may not exist. That’s Magic baby!!!

Carroll in this course provides a more specific definition of the term when he wrote, “Evocation means interacting with ‘spirits’ or servitors to make them do things for you or to find out things for you.” What are these ‘spirits?’ Carroll’s explanation is interesting. They are the automatic thoughts and feelings we have that roam freely through our minds all day and night. “Thoughts and feelings have something of a mind of their own…Thus the Chaos Magician tries to bundle up a nexus of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in the personal subconscious into something that will act automatically and with a certain degree of autonomous intelligence.” Carroll further adds, “Evocation may be further defined as the summoning or creation of such partial beings to accomplish some purpose.”

I love this line of thought. I have spent more time meditating than practicing magic and the general belief in meditation is that automatic thoughts occur as much as we breathe. When you sit and meditate for long periods and observe these thought bubbles moving through your realm of conscious awareness you can see how nonsensical and fragmented many of your “thoughts” are. So generally, the belief is that these thoughts have nothing to offer, and the meditator should remain focused on breathing and observing these thoughts as they arise and subside. All things in this realm of existence arise and subside just like the ocean’s tide. We must learn calm repose to observe this ebb and flow. Now Carroll’s suggestion here is to do something with those thoughts and to use them to sharpen your magical mind. Sounds fun!

He continues, “Entities may be drawn from three sources — they’re discovered clairvoyantly, those whose characteristics are given in grimoires of spirits and demons, and those which the magician may wish to create himself.” First one must establish a relationship. He says that Automatic drawing or automatic writing helps here. One goal here would be “Find out” or create a name, an image, and/or a number for the entity. Second, he suggests that the magician focus his or her will and perception on the entity’s sigils or characteristics. Then do some form of self-banishing to restore yourself.

Sleight of Mind Evocation

In the readings for the week, Carroll lists three elements involved in Evocation. 1. Implementation of the entity in the subconscious; 2. The Empowerment of the Entity; 3. The Direction of the entity to various tasks.

Implementation can happen through extended effort of Fantasy and Imagination or more formal rituals where the entities visualized exercising the powers the magician wants it to have. Empowerment consists if the magician confirming. “Evoked entities are the magicians servitors; he is their master if he starts accosting advice from them the results can be disastrous.”

Sorcery Evocation

The magician creates with his or her own hands a physical representation of an entity. Its function is to attract success and repel misfortune and to act as a reservoir of power for the magician. The magician should treat this as a living being.

Shamanic Evocation

Here the magician strives to establish a vision of an entity which he projects to do his or her bidding.

I think of the Craft of Acting again when I read about Evocation. I believe that the great Actors are magicians and that much of preparing for a role is a dual ritual in Evocation and Invocation. There is an amazing story about the great Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins (one of Robert Anton Wilson’s favorite actors) and one of the things he does to prepare then stay in character while on set. He has mentioned in previous interviews that he will look at a picture of someone he is playing, like say when he played Nixon in Oliver Stone’s biopic about one of the most infamous US President’s in modern history. Right before heading to set, Hopkins looked down at a picture of Nixon and took a breath in above the photo like a human vacuum cleaner. Was he breathing in the “essence” of this man? Whatever it may be, it worked!!!

Week 5 was titled “Invocation.” Carroll had some kool things to say about the topic when he wrote, “Invocation, in Chaos Magic, means summoning the mindset you need to do something that you would not otherwise feel capable of.” Followed be, “The process of invocation maybe seen as adding to the magician’s psyche any elements which are missing.”

And I really like this. “The actual method of invocation may be described as a total immersion in the qualities pertaining to the desired form…The magician first programs himself into identity with the god by arranging all his experiences to coincide with its nature. Secondly, he unites his life force to the god image with which he has united his mind. This is accomplished with techniques from the Gnosis.

Carroll writes, “In works of invocation nothing succeeds like excess.”

“The magical life demands the abandonment of comfort, conventionality, security, and safety — for the competition, combat, extremes, and adversity are needed to produce higher resolutions and personal evolution.”

Week 6 was titled “A Philosophy of Chaos Magic.”

Carroll writes, “Every generation rewrites its books of magic based on the information available to it and no requirement exists to regard the old ideas as sacred.”

“Every magician should develop a personal arcana from a distillation of what has gone before and from ideas and experience in the present and from aspirations for the future.”

Carroll then tells participants to read the rest of Liber Null and Liber Kaos and “Identify material that you would wish to build into your own vision of magic and that which you would reject.”

His extra credit, of sorts, was fir participants to choose any of the three Ritual: Thanateros, Azathoth, or the Mass of Chaos and to do them.

Week 7 was titled Illumination.

I like these thoughts from Carroll, “If you cannot define your terms then remain silent.”

As well as “Music does offer a few Sleight of Mind tricks for making anyone outstandingly brilliant at something in particular.”

The first half of the trick consists of discovery or inventing the field in which you have the motivation and capacity for excellence.” Second part “consists of making it happen by enhancing the motivation and capacity with suitable ritual.” Illumination is that which expands and enhances the magicians magical abilities and personalities.

“The genius is not something added to oneself. Rather it is the striping away of excess to reveal the god within.

Among the titles of Kia is Anon. Anon freely transmogrifies its arbitrary personality, refusing any identity defined by its environment.

Then he suggests participants to try the Ouranos Rite.