The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/texts/txtfiles_misc/pc.txt

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    P R I M E   C H A O S
    =====================

FOREWORD

This book is a state-of-the-art report on Chaos Magick. It is
written with an overview of magick which has grown out of many
years of practical work, in a variety of magickal groups and
orders, including the Pact of the IOT.
The author's creative and experimantal involvement with magick
shows in the originality of the material. Think of an influential
magickal book: how long ago was that picture of magick conceived?
Less than 50 years? Phil's book represents the nearest thing to
live magick I've seen in print. It contains work which is still
being tested. This is a window an the world of the working
magickian, a mysterious flask of distillate hauled from the
laboratories of the mind, still smoking suspiciously.
One of the great strengths of the book is the section on groups.
Chaos Magick has drawn most of its current incalculable influ-
ence from the work of groups. In a world where transaction has
replaced duty as an imperfect method of achieving social
coherence, it is astonishing that virtually nothing exists on
the practical dynamics of the non-religious magickal group.
What Liber Null did for the solo magician, this essay does for
the magickal group, in summarizing the results of years of
experience in such alliances.
Informed as it is by the spirit of postmodernism, the book
does not try to achieve closure. It does not present a system,
but supplies the reader with powerful strategic and magickal
tools for this stage of the Pandeamonaeon. The mood of the
book ist of being profoundly at home in the accelerating shift
and fragmantation of daily life. Connoissuers of late 20th
century demotic will be delighted by the thefts of phrase. As
we see fractal T-shirts, popular images from chaos, and chaos
sigils fired out of our TV screens, the reciprocal process is
occurring too, and magickal symbolism is growing out of fractal
shards of culture.
In opening up the magickal demensions of the work of Burroughs
and Gysin, Phil introduces to the experimental sorcerer two
particulary valuable ideas: the use of cut-up, the sliding
and dislocation of words, as a magickal technique, and the
concept of wordvirus, aka meme. As in pre-literate societies,
magick becomes the core of language, as we weave spells from
spelling. This pulls our magick into the heart of everyday
life, the Chaos of the Normal, which is where it belongs.

Dave Lee




W H Y  C H A O S  M A G I C K ?

There's basically two kinds of magick. There's puff's magick, and
git `ard Magick. Chaos is git `ard Magick.
                               Mick McMagus. Leeds, 1987

As our world changes, so too do our magick. Throughout history,
the way in which magick is described and understood changes, from
its beginnings in proto-shamanism, to the great 'Occult Revival'
at the turn of this century. Chaos Magick sets the pace for our
entry into the next century.
There have been revolutions in science, literature and art. Chaos
Magick is the first revolution in the field of Magick. Previous
(and many existing) magical philosophies have been rooted in a
connection to the past - be it the past of the ancestors, or in
historical (or romantic) tradition. Althrough much of what is
emerging as Chaos Magick builds on what has magically gone before
it stresses change, rather than continuity, as the only constant.
We live in a world that is rapidly changing, a world where the
application of high technology and media saturation enables us to
mix styles endlessly, where elements of the past present, and
possible futures are conjured up in most aspects of everyday life
from the clothes we wear, to the beliefs we adopt. While other
magical systems promise stability, an anchor into fixed time and
ordered universe neatly encapsulated into bite-size take-home
pieces, Chaos Magick moves with the fusion and fluidity of
modern life.

Chaos Magick began to surface in the late 70s as punk rock arose
to threaten the complancency of the establishment. Now we see
Chaos Theory move from an obscure branch of mathematics into an
accepted 'new' science. We have watched computer-generated
fractals become high fashion, the mandalas for a new generation.
Chaos has become fashionable. We do not reject modern culture,
we embrace it. So how is Chaos Magick different from the other
Magical Systems which are on special offer in the modern world ?

Firstly, Chaos Magick is a paradigm rather than a system in itself.
It is an approach or overall view, wherein each individual, ulti-
mately, creates his own magical psychocosm. Rather than 'following'
a path, the Chaos Magician weaves his own path out of individual
experiences, and what works best for him. The Chaos Magician has,
from the very beginnings, the option to be as eclectic as he
desires, selecting beliefs and techniques from any magical system,
indeed anything which ha believes will be useful - from the past,
present, or possible  futures. From literature, art, science,
pseudoscience, technology or fantasy.

The revolutionary impact of Chaos Magick was that it emphasized
practical experience. What matters is hands-on experience - rather
than accommodating second-hand beliefs or long lists of corres-
pondences. There are no Chaos teachers, 'holy' books or traditions
that dictate belief an behaviour. The Chaos Magician is free to
act first, and choose his questions ans answers later. It is the
Chaos Magician rather than some guru or teacher, who is respon-
sible for development, experience, creativity, and the results of
his actions.

Magick has always been a way of creating islands of order out of
what Austin Spare called 'the chaos of the normal'. As society
became more complex, it seems that 'magical' realities became
increasingly abstract and relatively simplistic. The otherworld
of tribal shaman is a fair reflection of his everyday world,
whereas the 'innerworld' of the twentiethcentury Cabbalist bears
little resemblance to consensus reality, as he ascends Jacob's
Ladder away from the Earth into cosmic abstract spaces. the
general view of Chaos Magick is that any islands of order we
create are at best temporary enclaves; that belief itself is a
tool, rather than a set of limitations that can quickly become a
stagnant dogma. Thus a Chaos Magician may choose to adopt a
Cabbalistic belief-system as a temporary measure, just as he may
given enough time, determination and effort redesign his personal
belief which govern any aspect of his behaviour or attitudes.
"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted" is one of the
few Chaos slogans. No wonder that some occultists react to Chaos
Magicians as through they are militant anarchists.
As we move towards the twenty-first  century, a number of concepts
which, until fairly recently (and  from certain belief-system
remain so), appeared stable and understood have been called into
question. Pete Carroll, in his seminal work Liber Null (the
premier grimoire of Chaos Magick so far), described the 'death'
of these concepts as - the Death of Spirituality, the Death of
Superstition, the Death of Identity, the Death of Belief, and the
Death of Ideology. These concepts are no longer fixed and rigid,
and reality becomesa playground for those with the will to enjoy
and make it so. One of the immediate concerns to be voiced about
Chaos Magick was an implied lack of an ethical basis. Most other
occult systems have clearly-stated (sometimes over-stated) ethical
stances concerning what the practitioner must not do. The Chaos
paradigm rejects the necessity of this attitude and instead tends
towards the view that personal morality grows from within - that
is, it up to each individual to define and uphold his own ethical
standards, rather than them being imposed by some outward agency.
Having said this, Chaos Magick is generally pro-life and pro-
freedom of expression. Magick tends to be portrayed as being
separate or beyond our everyday existence. Chaos Magick, howerver
supports the proposition that magick works best when it is
responsive to our life situations. The Chaos approach is that of
becoming more flexibel and adaptive to the world through which
we move, to take a wide-angle, rather than one-directional view
of the world, and to seek and embrace new possibilities. To find
the most appropriate position and perspective to act from, and
than act decisively. Magick becomes not so much what we 'do', but
the 'way' we live.
This book is but one viewpoint into the Choas Perspective. Magick
stagnates when it becomes trapped into set formulations and pro-
cedures. Look beyond what you 'know'to be magick, and go further.
Enjoy.
     - Phil Hine, January 1993.



          P A R T   O N E
A C H I E V A B L E   R E A L I T Y

One of the first questions that a non-magician asks the practitioner
of magick is Why do you do it ? A number of answers may be offered.
One may speak of a desire to unterstand the universe, of finding a
way of 'spiritual' living, a means to personal transformation, self-
evolution - of course, much depends on the belief-system that has
been adopted. Spiritual Living implies the belief that there is
something about  life which isn't 'spiritual'; Personal Trans-
foramtion keeps things nicely psychological; and Self-Evolution has
a Darwinian ring to it. For now through, let's cast the net fairly
broadly and answer that Magick is a set of techniques and appoaches
that can be used to extend the limits of Achievable Reality.

In the Chaos paradigm, the emphasis is placed on realizing magick
work into Consensus Reality. Success is not measured through context
dependent 'spititual' grades, nor by a slow, imperceptible plodding
along a course which was laid down by someone else, but by visible
results by  which the magician demonstates to himself that he can
do things which, a short time ago, never entered his mind as
possibilities. Some Chaos Magicians tend to the view that Magick is
a means of adapting oneself to one's environment. Through Magick,
one can redesign oneself, enabeling greater freedom of movemnt
within the environment and, where necessary, seek to adapt and
redesign the environment to allow a greater degree of posibilities.

Adopting this stance requires the ability to evaluat one's
circumstances without recourse to the safety-net of delusions
which aspiring magi often weave about themselves. Gone too, are the
cosmic cop-out clauses which, on the one hand, allow a magician to
believe that if a spell 'worked' it's because he is a good magician
but if it didin't, it's because the tides/karma/fates weren't
'right'. The responsibility for the failure or success implies a
greater responsibility than failure, as successful magicks lead to
change, and change is not generally easy to cope with.

GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD
The very act of doing magick itself threatens the magicans
established limit of Achievable Reality, even if one is
practising the entry-level BodyMind Exercises, Mind Control
and simple Sorceries which are available through the plethora
of magical workbooks (Chaos or otherwise) now available.
Probably the most formidable opponent the  magician will
encounter is his own inertia, or resistance to change.
Embarking on any training or work schedule automatically
invokes this demon, and magicians may be surprised time and
time again at the ingenuity 'it' shows in manufacturing
excuse which justify the delaying of a practice 'until
tomorrow'. The demon of Inertia is the Guardian of the
Threshold of Achievable Reality, and the only way to over-
come it is through determination, effort and sheer bloody-
mindedness: themselves useful qualities for the would-be
magician.

BASIC PROCEDURE
One may consider magick to be an art, science, or somewhere
inbetween, but it remains true that before one assumes the
pose of being a magical Dali or Heisenberg, some basic
procedures must be established. Just because Chaos Magick
semms to imply that  all the 'rules' of other magical systems
can be cast aside, doesn't mean that there is a total absence
of self-discipline. Well begun is half done, and establishing
basic procedures of practice go a long way in moving back the
borders of Achievable Reality.

STAGES OF LEARNING
When learning any new skill, there are three key stages which
it is well to be awere of. Firstly, there is the initial
stage of practice which if fulled be high levels of enthus-
iasm and motivation, and so the results of learning are
fairly immediate. So far, so good. However, at some point in
the practice, one enters a 'dry' stage - the Guardian of the
Threshold has caught on to what is happening and suddenly,
the practice becomes BORING. Out come the
excueses and delaying tactics. This is the 'hump` experienced by
students and people on long training courses, and is the point
where many people give up. This is the time when one has to conquer
the Guardian by being equal to its wiles. Once this stage has
passed, one frinds that the effort that was being diverted into
resisting the practice is available for further progression; that
there is now little effort involved in the practice, and its
benefits may be reaped. A great deal of early learning follows
these stages, and learining magical skills is similar, exept that
one is not only establishing new patterns, but changing
established patterns.

TIME SCHEDULING
Learning new skills requires time - a commodity that one often not
willing to redistribute and which not everybody has to the same
degree. Many magical workbooks insist that set exercises be
diligently performed at the same hour each day. This is fine, if
one's lifestyle allows such rigorous structuring of personal time,
but others find it near-impossible. When setting a Time Schedule,
it is essential to be realistic. Making up unrealistic schedule
often means the one is unlikely to stick to it, which ultimately
strengthens the Guardian of one's Achievable Reality. A Time
Schedule should be difficult, but not impossible, lest one sets
oneself up for failure at the beginning.

THE MAGICAL DIARY
Keeping a Magical Diary of practice, ideas, weird experiences, and
dreams is essential. It becomes not only a record of work done,
but also a depository of ideas and insights arising out of one's
magical work. It is also a valuable tool for self-assessment. Just
as it is all too easy for aspiring magicians to see themself as
the best thing since Solomon's wand, so too is it easy to deny
that one has made any progress at all. When there is no guru,
teacher or master to give support, then there remains only oneself.
The Magical Diary is the place where strenghts and weaknesses are
acknowledged, and changes over time effort can be discerned.

MAGICK WORKS
Magick, like sexual intercourse, needs to be experienced to be
fully understood. Similary, the fist few times that one tries it,
it might not live up to preconceived expectations. It might even
be a dismal failure, but that shouldn't put you off forever,
right? However, the Guardian lurks in a corner of the psyche,
armed with justifications, rationalizations, excuses - all the
embedded cultural programming which says that magick is super-
stition, fantasy, and something that can't 'really' happen. The
fact that much of what passes for Consensus Reality is based on
superstition, fantasy and things which defy rational explanation
is neither here nor there. To overcome the Guardian, the would-
be magician has to prove to himself that MAGICK WORKS, and the
only way to do this is by trying it out. Proving that Magick
Works, even in a small way, begins the process of pushing back
the boundaries of Achievable Reality. Suddenly, nothing is as
clear-cut as it formerly seemed. Keep 'doing' Magick for long
enough and it becomes an embedded part of personal reality - as
familiar as the sky, earth, and buildings seen every day. At this
point one ceases to believe in magick as something 'seperate'
from the rest of one's familiar world. Rather, the world is
becoming magical.


T H E   D Y N A M I C S   O F   S O R C E R Y

Orthodox magical systems make a distinction between 'Low' Magick
(Sorcery) which is concerned with bringing about change in one's
immediate circumstances, and 'High' Magick which in concernd with
'Spititual' Evolution. The Chaos Paradigm generally rejects this
distinction, as it implies a philosophy which rejects the
physical world as being somehow inferior to a 'spirituality'
which is somehow above the world. Also, this distinction is not
an accurate reflection of magical experience.
Being able to see the results of Sorcery workings (even in small
ways) shift the boundray of Achievable Reality and successfully
embeds the fact that magick works. It also raises one's
confidence in both personal abilities and the techniques them-
self, and leads to a more expansive outlook.
Also, success with Sorcery techniques requires that one develop
the ability to assess self-performance, and critically examine
desires, which in self leads to change. Bringing about direct
changes in the world necessitates that the magician pay close
attention to what he is about. Sorcery, with its emphasis on
pragmatic techniques and observable results, directs attention
to the world as it is experienced, rather than some simplistic
idea that has hitherto been accepted as 'real'. Reality is more
complex than many people generally like to think.
The dynamics of socery are fairly simple, and there is a wide
variety of techniques available. Also it's not difficult to
devise personal techniques which are unique to oneself. The
application of Sorcery, too, is very wide.

1. INTENTION
Most acts of Sorcery begin with the Statemant of Intent. This is
a simple declaration of what one is about to do, and for what
final purpose. Since vague intentions tend to give rise to, at
best, vague results, the magician should formulate a Statament
of Intent which is as precise as possible, without
becoming overly verbose. Two techniques which may be of assistance
here are:

(I) DIVINATION SYSTEMS
The surface desire for change may well not be the best point from
which to work. This is where Divnation Systems such as Tarot,
I Ching, Runes, Astrology, or self-created systems can be brought
in. For example, a Sorcerer is desirous of obtaining employment
- 'getting a job' is desire. However, using a divination system to
examine the components of the situation, he finds that a key
element which 'blocks' his desire is lack of confidence. so he
performs a working where improving self-confidence is  the main
focus of the Enchantment.
Divination system can also be used when examining a situation
which involves other people. It may occasionally be useful to
examine one's motives for intervening in a situation involving
other people, and also looking for 'hidden' factors which may be
immediately apparent.

(II) COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING
There is often a good deal of difference between what we think we
'ought' to be doing, and what can realistically be achieved. This
difference is often a contributing factor to work and life
stresses. Magicians often have high ideals, but may sometimes find
that it is difficult to bring those ideals down to earth. It can
be useful, in this regard, to take an overall intention and break
it down into smaller stages, each of which is more readily
realised than the overall objective. Rather than trying for a
sudden 'push' of Achievable Reality threshold, it may by more
realistic to attempt this in stages.

SORCERY EVENT SERIES
A Sorcery Event Series (S.E.S.) is a series of linked Sorcery
operations. A long-term goal is broken down into smaller, related
steps. As one results manifests, the momentum of success carries
the magician into the next working in the
series. This sets up a condition where each single event concluded
in the series, increases the probability of the overall intent
manifesting. The S.E.S. is a particularly useful tactic for work-
ing with establishing long-term projects. The effect can be
likened to setting up a line of dominoes, and then pushing the
first domino into its neighbour.

2. PROBABILITY PATHWAYS
Contrary to popular opinion, magical results do not pop up out of
thin air, and it does help enormously, with Sorcery workings if
there is a 'pathway' through which the desired result can manifest.
This can also be examined in terms of probabilities. A Sorcerer
who performs a ritual to ensure that he passes an exam, but who
does not any revison or cramming, is not creating a situation where
there is a reasonable probability that he will pass with flying
colours. If he does study, however, the probability of success is
likely to be higher. Sorcery does seem to achieve the best results
when the probability factor is at least fractionally higher than
zero. To take another example, when planning workings for
financial gain, it is useful to have a number of projects on the
go, any of  which many results in increased funds - and hence the
sorcery working is more likely to yield some kind of positive
result.

3. TIMING
Timing is an important yet often underrated factor in practical
magick. A good example of how timing can critically affect the
outcome of a working is that of Healing. If a client has a long-
term, progressive may be more successful at an early rather than
a late stage in the course of the illness. Complex life
situations can be examined for the purposes of Sorcery as
unfolding event series. In the early stages of a developing
situation, there may be more fluidity and flexibility than at a
later stage, where it is less easy to influence probable out-
comes. Events which can be perceived are macroscopic changes
which have been brought about by
the unseen interaction of microscopic fluctuations. In other words
an avalanche can be seem, but not the very small factors which
brought it about. Developing strategies that allow the
identification of small changes, and then influencing them so
that they lead to change which fulfils the cordinations of one's
statement of intent, can therefore be useful for Sorcery working.
In other words, learn to 'nudge' a situation at the right moment.
Paying close attention to what is happening in a given situation
is useful, and using Divination systems can also help here.

SORCERY OPERATIONS - BASIC PROCEDURE
Once a Statement of Intent has been formulated, and any other
relevant factors taken into account, the next general step in
any Sorcery operation is to move into a Free Area. In orthodox
magical systems, this tends to involve ritual procedures for
setting up a magical Circle, making any psychological adjustments
for magical work, or assuming particular postures. In the Chaos
Paradigm, a Free Area is any space which has been redefined as a
zone where normal Consencus Reality is suspended, and Magical
Reality is operant. Thus a Free Area may refer to a previously-
prepared Temple, a space in which ritual is to be performed, or
a state of Consciousness.
Within the Free Area, the magician uses any offered technique/
trick deemed appropriate to clear his awareness of anything but
the impending magical act. This can range from full ritual
procedure - performing a Banishing ritual, setting up an altar,
ect.,to merely closing one's eyes and concentrating. The
techniques used to define a Free Area often depend upon:
I)   Circumstances
II)  Available Time
III) Necessity
IV)  Individual Perference
Following the defination of, and entry into the Free Area, the
next stage is to move towards a stage of consciousness known in
condition of one-pointed consciousness wherein awareness is emptied
of all save object of concentration; where will is given both
intentionality and vector. The main routs to Gnosis are threefold:
Excitatory - anything which stills the BodyMind, such as passive
meditation, slow chanting, hypnotic agents, or slow breathing; and
Indifferent Vacuity - a state of no-mind, or Non-Interest/Disinterest
where the object of desire flickers briefly in a mind emptied of
all content - no emotional attachment to the desire.
Upon entering the 'peak' of Gnosis, the desire in its chosen
repredentative from - a sigil, for example - is projected forth,
towards its target or into the void of the multiverse. It is then
banished from awareness, that is to say forgotten.
Following projection of the desire, the Free Area is closed using
any preferred method, such as manic laughter, a Banishing Ritual,
or a hand gesture. The Magician then moves onward, having set up
the conditions whereby his desire will manifest accordingly.
It should be noted that a key to Sorcery is that, on completion
of a working, it should be considered - at least on a magical
level - to be finished with, and nothing more in the way of
magical work needs to be done. The deep certainty that one's
Sorcery will yield the desired result will only come through
continued practice, effort, and refinement of technique, but it is
not unusal for advanced practitioners to claim a 'succes' rate
with the kind of magick of around 80-90%.

The above description of General Sorcery working, from a three-
hour group ritual involving prolonged dancing, druming and
chanting, to an act of 'Empty-Handed' magick which can be
performed anywhere, and need only last a few seconds. In general,
magicians tend to proceed from the former to the latter type of
working. As one continually shifts the boundary of Achievable
Reality, the definations of 'what' constitutes a magical action
tend to become fairly fluid. At
the beginning of magical practice, it is usual to perceive magical
operations as being 'seperate' to everyday experience. Later how-
ever, acts of magick becomes a part of everyday experience, as
one makes the transition between inhabiting a Consensus Reality
which is gradulally widening to admit the possibilities of magick
to creating a personal Magical Reality - a Psychocosm.

E V O L V I N G   A   P S Y C H O C O S M

In becoming familiar with magical ideas, reading books, learning
symbol systems and correspondences, one comes to learn the 'game
rule' of magick. Like any other game, the rules define the frame-
work of the activity. For a game to be wortwhile, its rules must
be flexible, open to different interpretation, and allow for
different needs and situations. Involvement with magical practice
shows that the game rule of Consensus Reality are more flexible,
and  have more loopholes than one may originally through.
Developing a magical Psychocosm is slow process, as one pathers
momentum in magical practice, shifting from the 'beginner's mind'
of having read a few books and probably having set up
preconceptions as to what magick is 'about', to beginning to
practice magical techniques in earnest. One of the strengths of
Chaos paradigm is that experience is stresses over pre-
experiential beliefs. Do it first then consider which beliefs
and concepts seem to be most appropriate, in the light of
personal experience.
In modern culture, there are hundreds of magical paradigms
available, with more being discovered, recovered and invented
every year. Beginners in magick often adopt a paradigm which
reflects their core self-beliefs and ideas, or, as is some-
times the case, the first system that is encountered or made
accessible. Since few people get anything from an approach they
are not even remotely interested in, it is usually best to
choose a magical system that is attactive, for whatever reasons.


ENGLAMOURMENT
All magical paradigms have their attendant glamours, and these may
be changed as a paradigm develops. The earliest editions of Liber
Null, for example, did not mentation the term Chaos. Early on in
its development, Chaos Magick required the glamour of being some-
how 'sinister' or 'Satanic' which, while inaccurate, has doubtless
drawn quite a few people to become interested in it. Some magical
systems have strong quasi-religious overtones, and for
practitioners of these systems, the glamours can become faiths.
Elements of glamour include not only beliefs and concepts, but
styles of writing, narrative content, images, overall presentation
buzz-words, and occasionally the participation of charismatic
figureheads. Often, the attractiveness of a glamour for an indi-
vidual reflects personal tastes in literature, music, or other
fashions. For Chaos Magicians, the power of glamour becomes yet
another technique to be unterstood and utitized. For example,
successfully weaving the glamour of being a shaman will signi-
ficantly alter other people's reaction to the magician, as would
successfully weaving the glamour of being a Satanist. Indeed, it
is possible for a magician who is adept in the projection of
glamours to be perceived as both (by different sets of people),
when in fact neither glamour is particularly true.

PARADIGM SHIFTS
A well-documented feature of post-traumatic reaction is the
tendency amongst some individuals to shift towards major lifestyle
changes. Witness, for example, the number of people who embrace
religion following bereavement, accidents, or over-use of
hallucinogenic agents.
A core technique in Chaos Magick practice is the conscious attempt
to make periodic Paradigm Shifts. The aim here is to loosen one's
personal web of beliefs and attitudes; to gain an Ego-complex that
is adaptive to new situations and attitudes. Shifting into a new
paradigm or world-view is instructive, not  only in terms of
empathy - understanding another persons' outlook on life - but also
by bringing about
a deliberate change which occurs across different strata of one's
life, the magician undergoes a process of egofracturing and
remoulding.
It should be understood that making a paradigm shift is not easy.
It is not merely a matter of deciding one day to be a hedonist,
and the next, a medieval ascetic. Merely playing around with
beliefs and attitudes in the safety of one's own handspace is
little more than mental masturbation. Paradigm Shifts are rarely
effective unless they are enacted fully within Consensus Reality.
Thus it is one thing to convince oneselfe of being a Born-Again
Christian, another to convince family and peers that such is the
case, and another thing still to convince other Born-Again
Christians. Entering any particular paradigm as an ego-
deconstructive exercises implies a stance of total involvement
and embtace of any associated beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours.
This process takes time. It takes time to establish oneself
comfortably within a particular paradigm; time to exerience
Consensus Reality totally within that worldview, and time to
withdraw from that paradigm and evaluate the experience. Some
paradigm are easier to enter and leave than other. It is
relatively easy, for example, to shift from being a fanatical
follower of a religion to a fanatical exponent of a magical
system. All that a person has changed, in this example, is the
surface content of the beliefs. The embedded patterns of
behaviour and attitude have remained intact, and it is these
'embedded' befiefs and behaviours which are at the root of the
more conscious responses to situations and life-changes.
The sense of being a uniaue individual - the Ego - is maintained
by a pattern which basically makes a divide between what it 'is'
and what which it is 'not'. An individuals' attitudes beliefs
and allegiance to various ideologies and social groups reinforce
the sense of selfhood, against the projected other. These
structures are very much responsible for maintaining one's
preception of the way things 'are' - the embedded perception of
consensus reality, echoed back through all aspects of one's life,
so that there is little sense of
reality being fragile or unstable (exept at times of stress).
One's worldview literally becomes the World - embedded and
reinforce, so that its limitations and parameters are experienced
unreflexively, as self-evident 'truths'. The first stage of
moving into a Paradigm Shift is made when one begins to question
the validity of these self-evident truths - to begin to experience
Consensus Reality as fragile, where one's own individual beliefs
are seen a prop as those held by others. A great many people do
this as a matter of course and, as this proccess leads to anxiety
and alienation, seek to resolve the inner conflict by embracing an
ideology which gives them the illusion of 'solid ground' - meaning
participation, and a secure place to be. Many religious and quasi-
magical cults recruit their members by deliberately targeting
individuals who have begun to question their participation in
Consensus Reality.
Individuals with a rigid ego-complex tend to react to any
perceived 'threat' to their world-view by suppressing, denying,
or attaching the source of dissonance. The more 'loose' one's
ego-complex, the more adaptive and tolerant the individuals is to
new ideas, change, understanding another person's viewpoint, and -
perhaps most important - the ability to interact with others
across a wide social range, without requiring a complex consensus
of attitude and belief.

EGO MAPPING
In deliberately setting out to enter into Paradigm Shift, the
magician is preparing to assault the fortress of his own identity.
A ground plan of the area is therefore useful. Ego Mapping
requires the articulation and unravelling of one's own beliefe and
attitudes: ideologies that the magician is attracted to or,
equally , is repelled by: perceived strengths and weaknesses,
fears, ego-propping fantasies, desires, dreams, nightmares. The
magician writes an account of himself, as he is, how he would like
to be, and how he things other see him; he trawls back through his
personal history, attempting to identify major turning-points,
success, incidents of failure, embarrassment, blunders, traumas and
ecstasis. An account of himself in the third person may be useful,
as might be an obituary, written in the present, or ten yeas in
the future.
As the process gains momentum, there comes the understanding that
one's worldview, which may well have been tacitly sccepted as
'true' so far, is merely one of many, in a bewilderingly complex,
expanding culture. An initial choice of Paradigm Shift may be the
movement into a paradigm which is diametrically opposend to a
belief-system which one has invested a good deal of time, energy,
and self-esteem into. A change of political ideology is a good
example, as it requires a radical transition towards embracing and
experiencing a worldview which has been, for years, the
'opposition'. Here, the magician may have spent years viewing a
particular ideology through stereotyped 'others'. by deliberatly
becoming one those 'others', he challenges the 'truth' of his
pervious worldview. Of course, this is risky, especially as it
will affect every spect of one's lifestyle, particularly
interactions with family, friends, peer group, etc.

SUB-PARADIGM SHIFTS
The kind of Paradigm shift examined so far is very broad in its
scope. It can also be instructive, from time to time, to make
occasional sub-paradigm shifts within a specific context. The
symbolic and ontological sub-paradigm that make up occult belief
systems come within this category. Compared with manking Paradigm
Shifts within one's Social World, shifting between magical
paradigms is relatively easy. Magicians do tend to move between
magical paradigms in the course of their offer different degrees of
explanatory strength, freedom of expression, personal meaning and
working within its parameters until they are experienced as 'true'
and then moving to another paradigm, is instructive. One example of
such concept of subtle body energies. By studying, and heance
embedding the symbolism and layout of standard
western set of chakra-points, a magician will eventually come to
have expirience which accord with that particular overly of
internal subtel energies. Shift into a different system of power-
points, and one can again experience phenomena which are consonant
with the new system. Such experience tends to lead to the
conclusion that magical belief systems are not necessarily 'true'
descriptions of the territory, but merely structures for organizing
assimilating, and integrating experience. To do this successful
requires that the magician works with any chosen system over time.
Thus magical models becomes themselves tools, rather than rigid
parameter. Some tools are likely to be better for some types of
exploration than other, and Chaos Magick tend to the view that it
is more efficient to have a wide range of conceptual weapons to
choose from, rather than be limited to one paradigm that cannot
possibly account for everything. Tools however, can be subtle
traps. A magical model which at first appears liberating, yielding
new insights, informating and experiences can become, in time,
restictive.
The inability to move beyond the limits of one's chosen dominant
paradigm seriously hampers one's ability to be adaptive to life-
changes, and the exploration of new possibilities. A strength of
the chaos approach to magick is the freedom to draw inspiration,
creativity, and structure from any area of human endeavour, and not
be restricted to what is usually perceived as 'magick'. Hence a
rising interest in cybernetics, science-fiction, biology,
communications, non-linear dynamics, and other diverse
contributions to contemporary culture. Rather then attempting to
accommodate ideas within existing paradigms, Chaos Magick creats
new paradigms based on current ideas and possible futures, rather
than continually attempting to rewrite and recycle the past. The
cumulative effects of Paradigm Shift, practised on all possible
levels, are: the deep unterstanding that all beliefs are relative,
that  one can consciously adopt a particular stance and successful
weave a projective glamour (both for self and others) from it; that
one is able to accept new
information and ideas without perceiving them as a threat; that
one can live comfortably within many differnt roles and selves.
All individulas are free to make contradictory statemants, be wrong
occasionally, and admit to errors in judgement, without suffering
a serious blow to the ego. This transition is known as shift from
Ego-centric behaviour, to Exo-centric behaviour. That is, the
process of movement from a position where a stable sense of self
has to be maintained at all costs, to a position where a multitude
of selves is acknowledged, which a continual sense of engagement
towards those selves which are, as yet, unknown. Further, it
requires the identification and acceptance of that which the
magician has previously found fearful, distasteful and
unacceptable - the demon-selves which, having been faced and
bound, become routes into power. This practice is not easy, as it
requires the ability to move freely eithin one's Social World,
and the continual reassessment of on's Personal World.

USEFUL GAMBITS

Going Away
Travelling not only broadens the mind, it also provides a useful
opportunity to adopt Paradigm Shifts in a social space where few
other are likely to be familiar with one's 'normal' identity.
Self-Observation
Here, the magician develops the ability to observe himself
dispassionately, so that he becomes aware of how he creates
projects, and maintains a distinct identity. Awareness of the
dynamics of identity Maintenance is essental when attempting to
alter that than projection at will. It is also important to be
able to observe how other people react to willed identity
projetion. Self-Observation becomes a continual meditation. It is
also instructive to pay attention to how others maintain and
project different identities.
Shock Tactics
It is a natural tendency for individuals to attribute their
own behaviour to situational factors, yet at the same time,
attribute the behaviour of other to their personality, the
process of labelling other on the basis of their dress, peers,
and given opinions can become a subtle trap. Knowledeg of this
tendency can be turned to the magician's advantage. If, for
example, he knows that another person has tagged him as holding
generally liberal views on various issues, then choosing the
appropriate moment to make a comment which implies the opposite
view, is likely to give the other person a considerable shock.
Such tactics may used to enhance personal power, or to appear to
collude with another, whilst maintaining a hidden agenda.
The above might promot the question 'Do Chaos Magicians ever
remain in one paradigm or sub-paradigem for any length of time?'
Of course. The practice of making Paradigm Shifts allows the
magician to move between paradigms, so that he develops, over time,
a web of personally significant paradigms, based on  developing
personal and ethical stances, embedded beliefs, a mobile sense of
identity, and whatever magical models are being used at any one
time. This sounds complex, but is experience as simple, or self-
evident. The Chaos Magician is more likely to accept that his
paradigm-web is likely to change, and that he is quite likely to
find himself doing things which were previously outside his
know repertoire of experiences.

THE MAGICAL SELF
Creating a Magical Self is a process of deciding what qualities,
abilities and skills the magician wishes to acquire, and creating
a role which is the encapsulation of these projections. The
Magical Self is a persona-mask which the magician 'wears' each time
he performs any act of magick. It may be associated with a
particular symbol, item of adornment, clothing. Each act of magick
reinforces the role. A related practice is that of adopting magical
names. Some magicians choose a name or motto which reflects their
magical aspirations. Such names are usually chosen due to
association with particular magical concepts. The magician
identifies himdelf with the name - thereby invoking his Magical
Self. As the magician develops, so may his name change. An example
of a magical name is PACHAD - a Heberw word which can be
translated as 'Fear'. It is also a title of the Cabbalistic
Sephiroth GEBURAH, which corresponds to the planet Mars. This
name might thus be adopted by a magician who wishes to identify
his magical self with a martial curent.
There is little point however, in designing a magical persona
which merely reinforces qualities that the magician already
possesses in abundance. The Magical Self is an invocation of
future otherness - a self which one might sense the need of, but
has not yet developed the requisite abilities and powers of.
Initially, the Magician Self is a mask which one adopts when
moving from Consensus Reality to Magical Reality. But, over time
and experience, the 'everyday' selves assume the function of masks
and Magical Selves become dominant.

CHAOS IDENTITIES
Entering a magical universe is an attempt to impose order onto
chaos. Magical universe are based in Mythic or eternal time -
linking into the past through symbol, image, and a sense of
continuity. An escape route, whereby one can gain a breathing space
a sense of order and permanence. There can identity be stabilised
and rooted into a structure. The magical revival is powered by two
related undercurrents. Firstly, the search for a personal and
collective past, and secondly, the need for escape routes from
the perceived tyranny of Consensus Reality. The desire to uncover
and preserve the past is part of the impulse to preserve the self.
Without knowing where one has been, it is difficult to plot a
clear future. The concern for recovering the past, through
museums, ruins, etc has been growing since the nineteenth century.
The past is seen as the foundation of personal and collective
identity. It offers the sense of continuity, of eternal time. But
history is no longer true. The past is being re-written, re-forged
in a new image to feed dreams of
Golden Ages, or National Boundaries, of Agelss Wisdom. History has
turned into commodity, a growth industry; the preoccupation with
roots has grown rapidly since the 1970s, ever more so due to
widespread insecurity in areas nominally seen as stable - labour,
credit, technology, skills.
Magical universe offer the promise of a meta-theory through which
all things may be represented. This runs contrary (hence its power)
to the spirit of the age, which turns away from global projections;
where a meta-narrative is illusory. The sciences are suddenly
uncertain; no longer able to chart the void through mathematics,
they find smaller and smaller worlds to discover. The one-world
dream of the Enlightenment is fragmenting into worlds colliding and
worlds apart; individuals do masks to enter the different reality-
games, the social worlds layered through the eyes of strangers;
existences which may only be guessed at refracted through the media
never-web of stereotypes and labels. Images flicker across screens
and into minds.
Working, living and acting within a magical psychocosm, one
discovers that the sense of identity becomes inextricably
interwoven with one's magick. There is a graduated progression from
magick beeing something that one is interested in, to something
that one is engrossed by, to being a magician more or less full
time. In terms of the Chaos approach, this implies continual change
modification of identity, entering different paradigms of belief
and behaviour, learning new skills, and shedding life-patterns
which have outworn their usefulness. There is thus a shift from a
core Ego which is based on differences, the self-other divide, to
Exo, the self in a continual progrss of engagement. As one
continues to expand and develop the personal psychocosm, the size
of the social group which reinforces that sense of identity grows
smaller.

SELF LOVE
The aim of the progress is to reach the point where identity is
countinually being deconstructed - when a measure of fluidity
of expression is attained and one is released from the necessity
of seeking self-validation from others. This is what Austin Osman
Spare referred to with his doctrine of Self Love. This is no
narcissistic basking in the glamours of the ego, rather, it is the
discovery of the void at the core of an indentity which is freely
able to move into any desire set of social relations, without
becoming trapped or attached to them. As the core of the sense of
self is 'Self-Love', rather than any limitated label, one attains a
state of great freedom of movement and expression.
Self Love does not necessarily imply alienation or withdrawal from
Consensus Reality. Modern culture is saurated with escape routes
by which one is encouraged to resist the routines of reality.
Drugs, sex, fantasy scripts, social enclaves, ideologies,
therapies, mindscapes, the past, utopia - all well-signposted
escape routes that, ultimately, reveal themselves to be dead-ends.
This is especially true of so-called revolutionary escape routes -
political, alternative lifestyles, magical endeavour. They support
rather than threaten, consensus reality, whilst feeding the
illusion of escape. Many of these escape routes require a change
in social scripts and masks and do little more than create fragile
enclaves within consensus reality, which inevitably are recaptured
recuperated, and commodified into fashion and trends.
Magick is the 'great' escape route to the edge. Through its
practice the magician may project himself into Mythic Time, make
place and space sacred, project future benign or otherwise. Whilst
political ideologies focus on changing the structure of social
relations, magical scripts focus on changing identity, so that the
structure might one day follow. All transient individuals,
magicians dream new towers from the buildings of consensus reality.
The difficult comes in attempting to find others who will share
and personal identity has been rendered fluid, ephemeral, and
endlessly open to the exercise of will and imagination. This may
be liberating. It may also, of course, be deeply
unsettling and stressful. Nostalgia for common values becomes a
cultural force, as much from the counter-culture as the
establishment. As the spatial and temporal worlds become
increasingly compressed, so the response increasingly becomes
that of denial, cynicism or a blase attitude - sensory screening,
the yearning for a past forever lost, and the simplification of
representation. The search for escape routes vieds yet another
market of commodities. There is no escape from Society of the
Spectacle. The Chaos appoach to the deconstruction of identity
can be understood by examining the tactics of Aleister Crowley,
who has left a good deal of useful materiel for exploring the
boundaries of identity. Crowley's life can be understood as a
continual battle between himself and consensus reality - a battle
to create a personal enclave for himself beyond the limits of
conventional morality. Crowley sought to escape the Society of
the Spectacle by becomming himself Spectacular. He used his
lovers, pupils and writings to create a free area from which he
could give free reign to the myriad selves which he had uncovered
through his magical living. Crowley's approach to the problem of
identity was an extrem one, and part of his drive towards the
extrems of experience may have come from his desire to inaugurate
a new society. The scheme may have begun as a deliberate
projective glamour, but there are indications that Crowley became
trapped within his own glamours which, though they provided meaning
and support, may have also, at times, seemed to be crushing weights.
Through he deliberatly created tensions and stresses within himself
he used these to fulfil his task - to perturb - and he countinues
to do so.
The Chaos Magician may occasionally resort to extreme stances, but
is less likely to be concerned with projecting his personal
visions onto anyone else. Chaos future dreams are not, as yet,
guided by one overall meta-vision. Instead, there is the
Pandemonaeon - a future which sewthes with possibilities, any of
which may become manifest, according to individual will and
powers, rather than overall schema.

Matter is my playground. I make and break without though. Laugh
and come UNTO me.
                 Eris, the Stupid Book

Modern society has exalted the notion of individualism almost to
a pathological degree. Within this urge to be individual are the
continual exhortations to find 'real','higher' or 'true' selves.
But if 'Nothing is True' and 'Everything is Permitted', one may
come to discover that there is nought but a whirling void behind
the social masks and personas necessary for moving through social
reality. The Chaos approach offers the choice of becomming many
individuals, and to finde a sense of freedom not through
attempting to resist consensus reality,, or to create an enclave
beyound it, but to embrace it joyfully. While the majority of
magical paradigms seek to reject consensus reality in favour of
'higher' states of being, the Chaos approach masks consensus
reality into a playground for the phenomenizing of will desire.
By experience consensus reality from the basis of Self Love, the
magican may begin the long and fascinating process of bringing to
earth those shards of the Pandaemonaeon - and whatever my lie
beyound it - which engage attention. This is, by definition, the
activity of an Elite group, since few have the drive, stamina, and
determination to continually strip away the skins of identity, in
favour of freedom of movement.
For the Chaos perspective, the sence of selfhood is an emergent
property of continual movement through zones of social dynamics -
there is no 'core' behind the masks. As one gradually moves away
from dependence on social groups to reinforce a sense of identity;
when one ceases to label one-selves on the basis of a few dominant
behaviours or identifications; the magician becomes able to
establish experimental 'beachheads' into the nascent possibilities
of the future round the corner. Freedom lies in remaining mobile,
elusive, and relaxed. Rather than resisting the chaos of the
normal, the magician joyfully hurls his-selves into it,
never quite sure what will emerge. When there is no need to
be anchored in a stable past or present, the possibilities of any
future that one might care to dream about are there for the taking.
Thus, by extending the limits of Achievable Reality, it becomes
possible to mutate and re-design the human entity for explorations
into future spaces.


        P A R T   T W O
M A G I C A L   D Y N A M I C S

RITUAL MAGICK
Ritual Magick is one of the most powerful (and glamorous)
approaches to practical magical work. In the present context
ritual may be defined as a structured sequence of events,
performed with the intent of bringing about magical effects. This
defination is necessarily broad, as there are many different forms
and styles of ritual; from full-blown ceremonial magick utilizing
robes, banners, and props cerefully arranged to represent a
particular magical system, to on-the-spot improvisation. The
latter may be just as effective as the former; power resides in
the ritualist, not the words, gestures or symbols.
A magical ritual is more than the sum of its parts. Ritual has
elements of performance, and its own psychology; yet it would be a
mistake to consider ritual to be merely psychodrama. Ritual can
be broken down into the arrangement of sensory cues, voice
technique, gesture, visualization, movement, symbolism, role-
shifting and trance induction, yet it is more than any of this.
Unaccountably, rituals, when performed, create an atmosphere - a
space - in which something mysterious and wonderful may happen.
If nothing else, ritual demonstrates how little we know of our
potential, of ourselves, and the world through which we move.
In the pervious section, the 'Circle' of traditional magick was
redefined as a 'Free Area'. The space in which all normal
limitations on the barries to what is 'possible' are swept aside.
A space in which we are reminded of all that is mysterious and
awe-inspiring, if only momentarily. A space where we might conspire
with gods or dance with demons.

CORE ELEMENTS OF RITUAL
Rituals are processes in themselves, where different elements
combine to help the participant create the Free Area where magick
becomes vibrant and alive. To understand the ritual process is
important, so that rather than slavishly following someone else's
written sequence, the magician may create his own.

1. FAMILIARITY V RISK
Rituals usually contain some elements which are familiar to the
participants, and some elements which are new, and therefore place
them at risk. Familiar elements include 'warm-up' exercises such
as a Banishing, or techniques which the participants have used
before. Risk elements include anything which is being tried out for
the first time, and anything which requires improvisation, or
freedom of action from participants. A script can only be followed
to a certain point. After that point is passed, the perticipants
must be on their toes, for anything might (and often does) happen.
The ritualist must be responsive to each moment as it happens. For
example, a ritual might be desigend to invoke a particular deity
into a chosen person, for purposes of oracle or inspiration. It
can happen that the chosen vehicle for the deity does not achieve
the required state - but someone else participating might.
In this example (and it is by no means uncommon), a group of
ritualists who cannot move beyond their script are likely to
struggle onwards, unaware of what is happening within the ritual
process. A responsive and observant group, however, will be able
to improvise, adapting to the new situation as it changes. This is
largely a matter of confidence and hands-on experience. To learn
ritual magick, like anything else, requires that the safety of the
familiar be challenged with the necessity of taking risk. Of
course, any rituals involves risk. The first time that one
performs a ritual, one expects something 'strange' to happen if,
somehow, one does it wrong. After one has done the same
ritual a hundred times, one may be lulled into a sense of
complavency, which is equally risky. For strange things happen
just as often when they are not expected, as when they are. The
risk of ritual is part of its glamour, and part of its power.

2. BELIEF SHAPES THE POWER OF RITUAL
Veractiy of belief is a cornerstone to ritual magick. This has
several levels to it. The core belief, that 'Magick Works`, can
only become embedded through experience. Another level - how far,
and how much magick can work - very much depends on one's dominant
explanation of how magick works. Choas Magicians have identified
four basic models of how magick works. These are the Spirit Model,
the Energy Model, the Psychological Model, and the Cybernetics
Model. Eech model has different strenght and weaknesses when it
comes to explaining magical effects and phenomena. Each model
also tends to develop its own terminology and frames of reference.
Different systems of magick can be seen to have varying degrees
of each model, and since magick, like any other field of human
endeavour, follows general trends in thinking, there are different
trends in magical models. Until fairly recently, the predominant
model of magick was the Spirit Model. According to the Spirit
Model, all entities - gods, goddesses, demons, elementals, angels,
servitors etc. - are real, and have a separate existence from
those of us who would dare to deal with them. Humans and other-
world entities have a reciprocal relationship with each other. The
Energy Model arose, in the West, with the new discoveries of
science - electrictiy, magnetism, and so forth - and the Wertern
imports of the Eastern philosophies such as Tantra. The Energy
Model might explain the discrete entities of the Spirit Model in
terms of subtle energies which take the form of entities when
viewed by limited humen senses. So they are not separate beings
with their own existence and purpose, but energies which we have
clothed in form, so as to work with them.
The Psychological Model grew out of the rise of
Psychoanalysis, particularly the work of Carl Gustav Jung, and
has come to be the dominant model for explaining magical phenomena.
In the Psychological Model, the gods, elemantals, demons etc.,
have no existence beyond the human mind - they are merely symbols
or archetypes of deep parts of the human psyche.
The Cybernetics Model is just beginning to creep in as magicians
begin to speculate about the natur of magick as revealed through
the lens of Information Sciences. As yet, it remains incomplete,
but a cybernetics-based view of magical entities might say that
there are information systems which have the capacity to be self-
organizing, and which arise out of our participation in a complex
web of systems - including personal belief, group  belief,
environmental systems, and the very fabric of reality itself.
But enough of theory. When within the Free Area of ritual, it is
best to believe that the elements that one is working with, be
they gods, guardian spirits, allies etc., are real within their
system. In this respect, it may be useful to ask oneself which
model gives the greatest glamour of being a magician. Sending
forth calls thundering through time and space to bring oneself to
the attention of some mighty, ancient being, or performing a
sequence of actions which allow a latent aspect of Self to rise
into awareness ? Which sounds more risky and exciting ? If the
entive being summoned is a part of the self, can much go awry ?
If on the other hand, it is a being with all the powers, will,
and regality of ancient Goddess or Spirit, then how much more
important is it that the ritual be performed to the height of
one's ability -with style, respect, and awe ? Choosing the most
appropriate glamour will produce a concordant emotional intensity
and Choas Magicians tend to the view that ritual should be
intense, else all is merely play-acting. And remember, the models
we create to explain the mysterious are just that - models, not
the territory itself. Models cannot adequately contain the
mysterious, and ritual, for all the explantations written,
remains at the heart a space where the mysterious may into our
lives.

3. DRAMATIC AWARENESS
This term is used to draw a parallel between Ritual and
performance. Together, the performers and audience of a masque or
play can build up an atmosphere which can be felt by all present.
The audience listen to what is happening on stage, empathize and
react. This reaction is communicated to the actors, which in turn
affects their performance. Thus an atmosphere of Dramatic
Awareness - a shifting of awareness towards the mysthic arena of
experience - can quickly be generated. If the audience is familiar
with the myths or struggles being displayed on stage, then the
experience may be cathartic for all concerned.
Something very similar occurs during a magical ritual,
particularly in Group rituals, where the participation of all
those within a Free Area contributes towards each individual's
experience of the ritual. In ritual time, all senses are heigh-
tened, and small microscopic changes in a participant's
behaviour - for example, voice tone, body language, or postural
shifts - may be obviously apprehended, but nevertheless contribute
to shifts in awareness for the entire group. Very subtle cues
create profound changes in consciousness. It has been observed
that ritual participants who become (to varying degrees) possessed
by an entity display varying degrees of postural change, vocal
alteration, and also, most significantly, small changes in the way
that the facial muscles create the overall 'character' that is
usually associated with a particular personality. If, for example,
a group of ritualists are observing another person move into this
state, these small signals will heighten the overal sense of
Dramatic Awareness throughout the group.

Within a ritual, participants can learn to move with a quality of
deliberate to all their movements. Another analogy between rituals
and theatre can be drawn - actors make their movements with the
deliberate intent of communication something to the audience.
In a ritual space, the audience can be considered to be any
participant who is not engaged in activity. On a 'greater'
level, the audience may be the entities which the ritual is
designed to stir forth.

4. COORDINATION OF TECHNIQUE
Rituals often require the participants to simultaneously employ
different techniques. For example, etching a pentagram in the air
may require the coordination of gesture, visualization, breathing,
and colour projection, as well as the implicit beliefe that doing
so will bring about some change within the ritual space. The
successful coordination of different techniques to carry out an
action within the ritual space contributes towards changes in
consciousness. Coordinated movement, together with breathing and
visualization, directed by the intention of bringing about a
specific result, creates a shift into an emotional state which a
magician learns, through practice, to identify as being appropriate
for that action. Emotion acts as a support to belief, and when the
magician feels himself move into the appropriate state of awareness
he undergoes a subtle belief shift towards the tacit 'reality' of
the ritual process.

STAGES IN RITUAL PROGRESSION
This is a basic model for ritual design which identifies five
different stages in the ritual process. These stages follow the
general shift in ritual awareness towards the actualization of the
intent that the ritual is based around, and then back out towards
post-ritual consciouness.
1. Preparation.
2. Warm-up.
3. Core.
4. Wind-down.
5. Debriefing.

1. PREPARATION
It is not always easy to say what point a ritual begins or ends,
since the preparation to perform a ritual can itself be very
elaborate - cleaning the area to be used, bathing, relaxing and
meditating can be as much part of the ritual as
the main event. Fasting and self-deprivation (give up habits and
addictions) are also time-honoured methods of focusing awareness
towards a particular task or goal. Especially effective are those
preparations which produce changes in somatic awareness, such as
dieting, sleep deprivation or reducing one's normal intake of
stimulants.
If one is working within the parameters of a specific magical
system, then Preparation is likly to involve assimilating the
attributes, symbols, and concepts of that system. When working with
a particular entity, it may be deemed useful to have had some of
the ritual participants (if not all) acquire a knowledge of the
behaviour, attributes, and qualities associated with the entity.
Preparations also involves the pre-ritual briefing of participants
to ensure that everyone has some idea of what is being attempted,
and why.

2. WARM-UP
The warming-up elements of ritual consist of techniques that serve
to raise energy and enthusiasm, and focus awareness towards the
task in hand. These include drumming, dancing, meditation exercises
background music and coordinated breathing or chanting.
Not only do these techniques sever to focus awareness, they also
have powerful physiological effects as well. The kind of warm-up
techniques used in a ritual will help create the appropriate mood
for participants. Obviously fast drumming and energetic dancing
will create a very different ritual atmosphere than slow-moving
steps, sonorous chanting and solemn music.
A Banishing or Centering ritual is a standard warm-up precursor to
moast rituals, of which, more later.

3. THE CORE
The Core stage of ritual involves the techniques which implement
the main intention of the rituals so far, which is powered by all
the energy and enthusiasm generated during the rite. The content of
the core stage depends on the
general aim of the ritual, such as invocation - calling a specific
entity into one or more of the participants; evocation - calling
forth (or creating) a physical manifestation of an entity; the
projection of a specific intention from the ritual space into the
multiverse; the enactment of a specific mythic event; the enactment
of a psychodrama designed to bring about a specific shift in
awareness; or the celebration of some historical, mythic, or social
event.

4. WIND-DOWN
This stage of ritual marks the beginning of return to post-ritual
awareness, the return being facilitated by, for example, another
performance of a Banishing ritual. This serves to prevent the
energy and emotions generated by the ritual from spilling over
into everyday life. Occasionally, light-hearted games may be used
to relax participants and to discharge tension. The magical role is
shed, and the mythic world bidden depart, as the participants
prepare to return to everyday awareness.
It is generally the case that the more intense the ritual, the more
thorough the Wind-Down should be. It should be noted that not all
individuals return from intense trance states simultaneously, and
that careful observation of participants' return from intense ritual
consiousness is often necessary. It should also be noted that when
rituals are designed to bring about an intense shift in consciouness
the effects are likely to linger on afterwards. One of the strengths
of magick is that it provides the individual with a framework within
which to explore and assimilate shifts in awareness. It is not un-
konwn for rituals to bring about long-term changes in an
individual's awareness and life. Indeed, to do so is one of the aims
of ritual.

5. DEBRIEFING
This stage concerns the recording of impressions and insights, to be
enterd in the Magical Diary. The importance of this cannot be over-
stressed. It is surprising how quickly impressions of what
transpired during a ritual can become
distorted or forgotten. The magical diary is essential for the
self-assessment of progress, and recording experiences for future
reference. This stage also includes self or group assessment of
performance on a technical level - identifying which parts of the
ritual process had the most effect, and which, in retrospect, did
not deem to work as well. Magicians do not, in general, enjoy
having their performances criticized, but this is as much a part
of the continual process of learning and refining ritual technique
as any other.

E X A M P L E S   O F   R I T U A L S

BANISHING RITUAL
A Banishing Ritual is one of the first practical exercises that a
magician learns. It is also sometimes known as Centering, which in
many respects, is a more accurate term for the exercise.
A Banishing has three aims. The first is that it acts as a warm-up
- a preparation for doing further ritual, meditation, enabling the
magician to put aside everyday thoughts - "what's on TV later ?",
ect. It allows the magician to shift into his 'magician-self' role,
and to place himself in the metaphysical universe - the axis mundi.
Secondly, Banishing sets up the space being used for working as
'sacred', so that the loft, bedroom, basement or whatever becomes,
temporarily, a  Free Area.
Thirdly, a Banishing clears the atmosphere of the area being used
from any emotional undercurrents that one usually (unconsciously)
associates it with.
A Banishing can be a magical equivalent to tidying up (which should
be done before working). Since most people are not fortunate enough
to have a room which can be used soley for magical work, areas
which are used for day-to-day living often have to be used as
ritual spaces. This creates an atmosphere which can be sensed
through unconscious cues, which it is well to Banish before
starting focused magical work - or they might well disturb the
ritual. Similarly, after a working, one needs to dispel particular
atmosphere that
has been created, or one might well find that is clashes with the
everyday atmosphere that is normally associated with the room. On
this point, it can be useful to Banish a room if there's been a
particularly bad argument in it (the tension lingers), or if some-
one has spent a period of illness or depression there.
Most Banishing rituals have three basic components:
1. A section to focus awareness on the BodyMind.
2. A section which demarcates the main zones, gates, quarters or
   dimensions of the chosen magical universe - of which the
   magician is at the center.
3. An identification with a chosen source of inspiration - merging
   the macrocosm (total psychocosm) with the microcosm (self).

EXAMPLE BANISHING
There follows an example Banishing ritual that illustrates these
three sections.

                             OCTARINE
                            Pure Magic
                      RED       ██       BLACK
                War Magic       ██       Death Magic
                        ▄█▄     ██     ▄█▄
                         ▀██▄ ▄████▄ ▄██▀
                           ▀██████████▀
             ORANGE ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄████████████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ BLUE
     Thinking Magic ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀████████████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Wealth Magic
                           ▄██████████▄
                         ▄██▀ ▀████▀ ▀██▄
       PURPLE or SILVER ▀█▀     ██     ▀█▀ GREEN
           Sex Magic            ██        Love Magic
                                ██
                              YELLOW
                             Ego Magic



OCTOMATIC BANISHING
This is a banishing sequence based on the Eight rays of the
Chaosphere as facets of self/magical expression, showing eight
different areas of magical activity (see Liber Chaos by Pete Carrol
for a further exposition of these themes). Follow the sequence in
the diagram above. The direction of Pure magick can be taken as
East.

1. Begin facing East and stand, arms by your sides, head tilied
slightly upwards, breathing slowly and regularly. Clear your mind
of thoughts. Reach upwards with your right hand breathing in,
pause, and then bring it down the center line of your body whilst
breathing out, visualizing a beam of white light passing down
throught your body, from above your head to below your feet.
Next, turn your head to the left and point with your left hand,
then turn to your right and stretch your right arm out, forming a
Tau Cross - breath in, hold, and breathe out, visualizing a ray of
white light running across your body, from left to right.
Then, whilst breating in, bring your arms across your body so that
they are stretched out in front of you, with hands reaching out at
chest level. Exhale, and visualize a circle of light around your
body.
Then, inhale, bringing your hands backwards and fold them across
your chest. Breathe out, and visualize a sphere of white light
expanding around yourself. Feel yourself to be supercharged with
energy, yet at the same time, calm and ready for further action.
This completes the first stage of the Banishing, serving to direct
attention to one's BodyMind and internal states.

2. Establish the 8 directions of magick. For the first ray,
breathe in, and on exhalation, snap fingers or clap hands,
visualizing a chaos thunderbolt (or dorje) flashing forth, and
declare:
1. Pure Magick
- making an appropriate gesture and hurling it outwards.

Continue until you have established all 8 'rays':
2. Death Magick
3. Wealth Magick
4. Love Magick
5. Ego Magick
6. Sex Magick
7. Thought Magick
8. War Magick
This section severs to establish the 8 directions, demarcating
the sacred space, and placing the magician at its center. Then,
facing East, raise armes in gesture of invocation and declare:
   These are my weapons
   Expressions of my will
   I grasp them lightly
   I stand poised, at the centre
   The Universe dances for my pleasure.
To close, run throught the sequence again - but with each inbreath
visualize the thunderbolt returning to you.
for greater effect, each thunderbolt may be given its appropriate
colour. Also, each thunderbolt could 'evolve' into a chaosphere,
or a personal servitor-entity which is emblemeatic of that power
for you. If you wish to experiment with this Banishing, you should
develop it into a form which works best for you.
This final declaration is the magician informing himself (and any
other who may be listening in) that he is at the center of his
magical universe - separate, yet connected.
When working, Chaos Magicians traditionally choose one direction
as metaphysical east, as the beginning point of any ritual which
involves a progression throught a series of directions.

PRACTICE
A chosen Banishing can be done daily - on awakening, and before
retiring. It should be used to open and close any magical activity.
In time, one will find that the ritual can be done almost on
'autopilot', and the associateed feelings arise without conscious
effort. It should be taken as an encourageing sign if one starts
having dreams about Banishing.

RITUAL MASS
The key element which is shared by both a religious (i.e. Catholic)
Mass and a Mass performed by a magical group is the calling into
the Free Area of the power of an entity, and the sharing of the
power of the entity by all participants. In a Catholic Mass, the
focus of the ritual is the 'miracle' of transubstantiation - the
conversion of host and wine into the body and blood of Christ,
which the participants consume. In a magical Mass, the modus for
sharing the power may be much wider. The chosen entity is invoked
into a chosen priestess, who then becomes that entity (with varying
degrees of possession). The entity may then deliver a litany, which
can be scripted, or be an improvised oracle. The entity may be
questioned by those attending, and may answer in any way it chooee
fit. It may choose to lead the participants into acts which it sees
as appropriate, or empower a prepared sacrament with its energy so
that all may partake of its power. Or it may choose to share its
power with those present inother ways.
In a Mass, it is often useful to have ritual officers who are aware
that it is their task, should it be found to be necessary, to
banish the entity from its chosen host. It is not unknown for
entries to resist departing from a space that they have been called
into. When an individual has become deeply possessed, it is some-
times necessary to restrain them, and recall them to waking
consciousness by forcefully banishing the possessing entity and
making the host recall their own identity and whereabouts. In
extrem cases, a lustration of water may be necessary to bring them
out of the possession trance.

I N V O C A T I O N

Invocation basically involves calling upon an entity and thereby
identifying oneself with it, to the level that one merges with it.
This technique can have profound effects, both emotionally and
physically, and like any other powerful magical technique, it can
be dagerous if not given due care and attention.

WHY INVOKE ?
For what reason might one desire to bing a goddess, god, or other
mythic entity down into oneself ? The multible entities found
within polytheisti and pantheistic systems each encapsulate
different attributes and qualities. Thus one might desire to invoke
Baphomet for inspiration; Pan for ecstasy and heightened sexual
arousal; one of the Nornir, for knowledge of the future; Ra-Hoor-
Khuit to give a hawk's-eye view of a situation; or Kali, to
consume some aspect of self which one wishes to loosen from one's
ego-complex. Throught invocation, one might make modifications to
one's selves, seek inspiration, or specific knowledge about a
certain event or item; develop powers of heightened perception, or
feel oneself charged with power which can be used for further
magical tasks.
Invocations are usually verbal, but are often aided by other
symbolic media such as smell, colour, music, lightnig and gestures.
All of these are arranged to enable the paticipants to focus
awareness upon the subject of the invocation.
Invocation tend to result in an ecstatic state, whereby the
recipient is so passionately swept up into trance, that some
quality or attribute associated with that entity manifests in the
person - such as enhanced oracular perception or knowledge of
'hidden lore'.  While this ability may be developed by anyone who
practises magick, most people don't do it, and thus a magical
practitioner may be asked to
act as the incarnation of a particular entity as part of an event
- or to bring about a similar experience in another person -
'invoking upon someone', as it is known.
Invocation serves to heighten dramatic awareness to the exent that
the magican, who is identifying with  (or being identified as) the
mythic figure in question, gains both access to abilities
associated with that figure, and temporarliy is able to perform
acts beyond his or her normal capacities. Actors often reports a
similar experience of becoming so caught up in the character they
are portraying, that they find they can sing, dance or perform
feats of agility which, while appropriate for that particular
character, are beyond their own normal range of ability. It seems
that, given appropriate conditions, we are capable of much more
than we usually allow ourselves.

DESIGNING INVOCATIONS
Source books of Magick abound with examples of invocations, but
for now, it is the processes underlying invocations which are to
be considered. Firstly, it is essential to build up a framework of
symbols which can be employed to focus awareness onto the subject
of the invocation. This is where the symbolic media and tables of
correspondences mentioned earlier come in useful. If, for example
a magician wished to invoke Star Trek's Mr. Spock, the first thing
to do would be to research Spock's mannerisms, gestures, posture
and Vulcan inscrutability, and adopt these as part of the ritual.
As a further aid, a pathworking could be devised based around the
image of Spock walking throught the corridors of the USS Enterprise
until the magician felt sufficiently composed as Spock to under-
take an appropriate task - such as debugging a computer program,
which often requires unswerving logic, patience and calm - all
qualities for which Mr. Spock is well-konwn.
When designing verbal invocations, it is important to consider
Delivery. The way we speak is a powerful way of projecting our
intensions. The delivery of a speech quickly transmits to both
self and audience one's degree of
confidance. A fine invocation may be written, but can quickly be
rendered ineffective if it is read out in a deadpan voice and
punctuated by ...ers and ...ums. Words can be paced, so that
speech can excite or relax the listener - which can be oneself
or others. (Good delivery of an invocation serves to raise dramatic
awareness in both self and others. If you think of it in terms of
a feedback loop, then the more enthralling the speech, the more
intense the degree of dramatic awareness, and the more people will
become caught up into the ritual atmosphere. When one person, for
example, is performing an invocation, others present may
temporarily become the 'audience' - and participants can shift
between active and passive involvement throughout a ritual. The key
to remember is that, if such be your intent, everything that
happens inside the ritual space can be used to enhance the atmos-
phere. Try exploring the effect of pacing your speech, deliberately
breathing louder, and, upon reaching the climax of the invocation,
becoming breathless and adding a bit of tremble. You don't have to
shout - a whisper can be just as effective (if not more so) than
a loud voice.
If you can successfully use your voice to project emotional tones -
such as awe, reverence or passion - then those listening, both
yourself and others, will pick up on the emotive undertones and
become drawn into the atmosphere you are generating. As people
enter different stages of trance, their voice pattern changes.
Others present perceive this, if only unconsiciously, and so the
atmosphere of dramatic awareness is generated. In a ritual sequence
all speech can be used to project appropriate feelings which
generate the group atmosphere. This is performed best when the
people speaking are confident and relaxed about what they are
saying. Hence the problem with (a) reading from textbooks and (b)
using very long speeches. If possible, it is preferable to either
learn a speech so that one dosen't need to look at bits of paper,
which tends to be bothersome (especially when reading someone
else's writing in a dark room or wind-swept moor) - or
one person to act as vessel or channel for a mythic figure, and
other participants to take on the role of celebrants (or
congregation).
However, in other cultures it is not unknown for several people at
once to become possessed by the same deity. In Haiti, there was
once a celebrated case of about 300 people all possessed
simultaneously by the god Legba, who marched in protest of the
political situation to the presidential residence !
In western magick, people tend to stick to one approach - usually
what they've been taught in a group or coven. This is often a
pity, because there are often good alternatives to be found in,
for example, the study of drama or oratory. One useful element to
look at is the idea of Status Shifts. We move through status shifts
as a consequence of social interactions, along a scale of low to
high Status transactions. These transactions also occur during
rituals.
During a vocal invocation, you might begin with the status position
of a supplicant reaching up to a deity, and eventually act with the
status of that deity, whilst others will (or should) regard you
appropriatly. This often leads to a confusion of-roles, as some
people find it hard to distinguish between the role someone might
within a ritual setting, and how they behave outside of it. Some-
one who becomes a goddess within a ritual should not be treated
like one after the ritual has been concluded !

Hence the prime danger in identifying oneself with Mythic figures
is one of blowing up one's ego to massive proportions. If you
continually identify with a figure who reinforces some idea which
you have about yourself, all you will do is imbalance yourself
towards those particular tendencies. I have known at least three
people become quite seriously disturbed because they worked
exclusively with lunar, oracular figures who accentuated their
already-present tendency to slip into passive, oracular trance
states. As in all practices, an understanding and continual
assessment of one's self in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and
ego-identifications is necessary - especially if you are working
with others in a teaching or group leader role.
It's fair to say that the more that is put into an invocation, the
more intenses the effect will be. There are more elements to
consider, such as the use of gestures to reinforce speech; the use
of lighting and props; smell, test, music and stage-setting. Of
course the absence of speech can be as equally effective,
as can be the use of grunts, howls and cackles. Having an
infectious laugh can be a very useful skill as well - you can
literally laugh your way out of some situations. Humour is an
important element of ritual, which is often neglected by some of
the ever-so-serious people one runs into occasionally. One approach
to experimenting with invocations is to assemble a variety of
speeches written by other people and try reading them aloud until
you hit on a delivery that feels effective. It can be useful to
tape such experiments, and even use them as background effects in
ritual work. Using approriate music can also be very productive.
While it's useful to look at other people's written invocations -
so you can grasp the way that structure and rhythm can evolve
through the way lines are delivered - it's generally considered
better to use your own attempts at invocation. Not only dose this
build confidence and give you a good feel for what works and what
doesn't, but it allows you to build up a close contact with the
figure you are identifing with. Generally, it's easier to invoke
human figures than non-human ones. Using the same principles as an
approach to shape-shifting, it would be appropriate for you to
observe a particular animal - look at its characteristic postures,
facial expression, its vocalizations, and characteristic
behaviours. You would become the animal by close identification
with its characteristics. The intensity of trance would probably
very much depend on the degree of abandonment that you allowed
yourself to have.