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There is a lot of disrespect from the ‘serious’ occultists shown towards practitioners of Chaos Magic, as if we are a bunch of shallow, willy nilly ‘eclectics’ (the word ‘eclectic’ is a swear-word for some occult windbags) who care little about serious magic…yeah sure. Maybe we like it that way. But then, why does our magic work so much better than a lot of the magic of our detractors? (Maybe because our detractors are too busy looking for things to denounce and they have no time to practice any magical skills.) You call something that works possibly-sometimes-if-you-really-concentrate a good system? I don’t. I practice magic that gets results, every single time. (They may not always be the exact results I was enchanting for. There is Eris, after all. But there are always results I can clearly point to.) And most of my knowledge is not just a superficial glossing. I have actually studied and practiced hard in many systems (and some of them were wastes of time). Most other Chaoists can say the same thing. I think the real reason Chaoists are mistrusted is that we laugh a lot and have a good time while getting real magic done in the real world. (Not in a book.) And that is an absolute sin to the big-ego windbags one often runs into in the Pagan and magical communities. I like to compare the Chaos approach in doing magic to basically a bunch of people exploring the crap out of all magical systems and seeing what really works and what doesn’t. When a proponent of one system says something stupid like "No! You can’t call that up like that!", a Chaoist would just as likely prove them wrong (whether anybody, in fact, gets devoured or not). We question the validity of current magical paradigms and rules. This gives us the reputation for being assholes, much the same way that the first Pagans to question the ‘Burning Times Myth’ were considered assholes by the Wiccan community. You have magic? Show us. Don’t just sit there and wax profound about how you discovered some great new magical theory. Show us. It really comes down to the fact that when a Chaoist meets another occultist, they tend to piss off the other occultist by situations such as this: Occultist-"You are doing it wrong."And usually the other occultist can prove absolutely shag all. The other occultist would sooner walk away then prove anything, because they (being the all-wise occult know-it-all that they are) feel that their ideas and knowledge should be accepted automatically. Chaoists refuse to accept anything automatically. That’s why Chaoists are so mistrusted. (And that’s why we often come off as being such asses.) We want magic that has results. If magic doesn’t bring you results, then you are doing something wrong. Why obscure magic behind a bunch of jargon and muddled conceptual crap geared only towards initiates of some lethargic system? Instead of sitting there and arguing about which ancient book is better, or who did what to whom in the middle ages, or which Witch is real, or what gods should be called on when, or how to hold an athame, or even how many angels fit on the head of a needle, the Chaoist is simply interested in magic that works. Unethical? Yeah sure, use that catchphrase whenever you feel threatened because someone is doing something you don’t like. Whatever. It seems to me that all the so-called ethical people are the ones doing all the unethical crap. Let’s cut the crap. There may be some Chaoists who are not the best people to be around but that is characteristic of any segment of the population. So what if we don’t follow the arbitrary rules that others created for magic? Magic is change. Magic has no rules. We create the rules. Nothing is true and everything is permitted. Bounce that around your skull for a minute. The implications are staggering. We humans need systems in order to organize and make sense out of the information we receive from the universe. We invent all sorts of constructs, personalities, god-forms so we can understand something about the mystery of Chaos. Astral plane visitors will say that there are, in fact, real astral entities. That is possibly so, but those entities still need to interact with us in our imagination in ways we can grasp. That is why Egyptians had Egyptian gods and Celts had Celtic gods, and so on and so forth. The Chaoist approach is to recognize this. Celebrate this. Live accordingly. And like it or not, the Chaoist approach is revolutionizing the occult world to the point where a lot of the Chaos-positive things that are commonly accepted nowadays would scandalize some people if they knew the origins. I have real experiences with Eris, the Discordian goddess. I have real experiences with many gods from the Celtic traditions. I likewise have experiences with Vajrayana dakinis. Sometimes I have experiences with entities, or beings that fit in no categories, but are still communicative through my imagination. Someone who is not Pagan, or doesn’t think gods exist will have experiences in other ways. What is going on here? I have no fucking clue. Nor do I need to. Why shove it all under one category and force it to fit when I am the sort of person that appreciates the complexity of the mix? To tell me that I must adhere to one system or one set of beliefs is patently absurd from my experience and perspective. To tell me that my approach is shallow is just an act of name-calling with no real substance. In my lifetime I have run into quite a few ‘magical’ people with little magical experience try to tell me all sorts of crap about how they disapproved of the way I went about things. I have ceased trying to argue with those types. Beliefs are maps. Isn’t it best to have access to as many different maps as possible? Even better then that is to experience the landscape personally. Instead of arguing over which map has fewer mistakes, or which one is holier, it is best of all to just remember that the map is only a guide. Any experienced researcher will tell you the same thing regarding any subject. It is best to have access to as many points of view and beliefs as possible. All of you out there who would be so quick to judge us Chaoists as being shallow, diabolic, unethical, or whatever the you’re-a-no-good-shit-and-I’m-smarter-than-you phrase is this week, are only being silly, and you are not very funny at it. If you can’t say anything intelligent (i.e. that shows that you know what you are talking about), than keep your mouth shut. And (*gets upon his obligatory I-am-an-asshole-chaoist soapbox*) whatever you do, don’t threaten me with any hexes or curses, because not only will you be displaying a fundamental lack of mental ability, should your hex actually be real, you’ll get an impromptu lesson on why you shouldn’t mess about with Chaoists. (Some of us do have nefarious reputations for a reason. Namely: We will send all the crap you cast towards us back to you. It can be quite a hoot, let me tell you.) Remember, we Chaoists actually think of karma as only a belief system. Don’t do anything that would bring yourself to the attention of Eris or Her crazy children. Then there is the idea that we are evil because of our often quoted "Nothing is true and everything is permitted." But if we are simply following our true hearts and desires, how is that evil? You see, Chaoists do not have to believe that human beings are essentially evil. Thus we see no need to impose a system of morality which interferes with desires. We don’t even adhere to the common social myth that if everyone was allowed to do as they deeply wished then there would be mass destruction and suffering. Look around you! There already is mass destruction and suffering, and this in a global system where accepted lifestyles and options are implicitly compulsory—where rules and morals are the guiding principles. Chaoists aim at the complete liberation of themselves. We ignore the rules and the morals, because we have developed our own ethics from within. Another misconception often bandied about is the "You’re-into-chaos-therefore-have-no-organization-etc" type statement. This comes from a misunderstanding of the term Chaos. From the Chaos perspective, Chaos is the beginning and end. It is creative and destructive. Order and Disorder are twin polarities of Chaos. So we do have organization (not that that is necessarily a good thing, BTW). We just develop our organization in more organic and chaos-positive ways. We do see the need for discipline in magical practices. You can’t simply become good at something without disciplined practice. We don’t wish to destroy all systems (we just laugh at the more serious ones due to their ‘silliness’), we only wish to dissolve the ones that are based on destructive Order. We are not nihilists, usually. Every act of creation is an act of destruction. We commonly call this process ‘change’. Chaos can be viewed in this light as the Western equivalent of the word Tao in Chinese civilization. Not all Chaoists will agree with me, and that is fine. (I can send a few servitors after them to convince them—ah, no. Just kidding.) Chaoists are just like you, except more fluid on the whole paradigms/beliefs thing. Oh, and possibly more fun to do rituals with, depending on the ritual. And maybe more experienced, as it is hard to survive in Chaos Magic without growing in experience. Our segment of the magical community is sadly filled with those same sorts of people inhabiting the broader community who have stopped growing. Those sorts try to start cults and new magical movements. You can recognize them by their advanced state of magusitis and their vehement denouncing of anyone who disagrees with them. (They also tend to write Magic books which seem to be suspiciously like any other Magic books.) Those sorts tend to get more bitter as time goes on, some of them even claiming that they are now over with Chaos Magic and such. The once-were-Chaoists are necessary for us because we can laugh at them to no end. Discordianism tends to keep many Chaoists from falling into that pit…but I have run into a couple ‘Discordian Fundies’. (Some of the best jaking I ever did was against them.) But not all Chaoists are into Discordianism…possibly because it is such a non-lucrative enterprise. Anyway, there is no need to fear us Chaoists, unless you have no humor. (We Discordian Chaoists like humorless targets for pranking.) A Chaoist student in one’s Druid/Wicca/Chess/French class is not going to try to subvert the class to their own means. Or, at least, being a Chaoist would have nothing to do with it (though being Discordian just might). A Chaoist is similar to many Pagans in their tolerance for complexity, diversity, and fluidity…they just may or may not care for having gods. But if you believe we are evil or wrong because we like to change beliefs at whim (imagine that!) and adhere to none, then you may have a thing or two to fear. It’s called heresy, which is Greek for ‘choice’. by Irreverend Hugh, KSC this web edition, September 30th, 2006 ©Copyright 2004-2006. All Rights Reserved. |
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