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A magical organization or magical order is an organization or secret society created for the practice of initiation into ceremonial or other forms of occult magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. Magical organizations can include Hermetic orders, esoteric societies, arcane colleges, and other groups which may use different terminology and similar though diverse practices.
Numerology is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in words and names. When numerology is applied to a person's name, it is a form of onomancy. It is often associated with astrology and other divinatory arts.
Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a modern tradition of magic. Emerging in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and esoteric subculture, it drew heavily from the occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spare, expressed several decades earlier. It has been characterised as an invented religion, with some commentators drawing similarities between the movement and Discordianism. Magical organizations within this tradition include the Illuminates of Thanateros and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.
A sigil is a type of symbol used in magic. The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a deity or spirit. In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, a sigil refers to a symbolic representation of the practitioner's desired outcome.
The Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) is an international magical organization that focuses on practical group work in chaos magic. The idea was first announced in 1978, while the order proper was formed in 1987. This fraternal magical society has been an important influence on some forms of modern occultism. It has been described as "an unprecedented attempt of institutionalising one of the most individualising currents in the history of ‘Western learned magic’."
Lionel Snell is an English writer, magician, and publisher. He has released numerous works on the subjects of magic and philosophy under various pen names, and is most famously known as Ramsey Dukes. He has been described as "an important early contributor to the discussions of occultism in the mid- to late 1970s".
Philip M. Hine is a British occultist and writer. He became known internationally through his written works Condensed Chaos, Prime Chaos, and Pseudonomicon, as well as several essays on the topics of chaos magic and Cthulhu Mythos magic. He has facilitated workshops and seminars on modern magical practice in America and Europe and contributed to a wide range of occult journals, having been most active from 1986 to 1996.
Choronzon is a demon that originated in writing with the 16th-century occultists Edward Kelley and John Dee within the latter's occult system of Enochian magic. In the 20th century he became an important element within the mystical system of Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley, where he is the "dweller in the abyss", believed to be the last great obstacle between the adept and enlightenment. Thelemites believe that if he is met with proper preparation, then his function is to destroy the ego, which allows the adept to move beyond the abyss of occult cosmology.
In Western esotericism, left-hand path and right-hand path are two opposing approaches to magic. Various groups engaged with the occult and ceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious) black magic on the left and (benevolent) white magic on the right. Others approach the left/right paths as different kinds of workings, without connotations of good or bad magical actions. Still others treat the paths as fundamental schemes, connected with external divinities on the right, contrasted with self-deification on the left.
The New Equinox was a ceremonial magic publication founded in the mid-1970s by Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin, whose main interest at that time was the magic of Aleister Crowley. It was published between 1976 and 1979. The magazine was based in East Morton in Yorkshire. Anthony Venables was joint editor for a few issues. He has a book shop on Haworth Main Street. Carroll, who later went on, with Ray Sherwin, to found the Illuminates of Thanateros, was a regular contributor.
An egregore is a concept in Western esotericism of a non-physical entity or thoughtform that arises from the collective thoughts and emotions of a distinct group of individuals.
Margaret E. Ingalls, known by her pen name Nema Andahadna or simply Nema, was an American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer known for her magical writings about the Ma'atian current.
Aleister Crowley was an English writer, not only on the topic of Thelema and magick, but also on philosophy, politics, and culture. He was a published poet and playwright and left behind many personal letters and daily journal entries. Most of Crowley's published works entered the public domain in 2018.
In ceremonial magic, a magical formula or a word of power is a word that is believed to have specific supernatural effects. They are words whose meaning illustrates principles and degrees of understanding that are often difficult to relay using other forms of speech or writing. It is a concise means to communicate very abstract information through the medium of a word or phrase.
Eroto-comatose lucidity is a technique of sex magic known best by its formulation by English author and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1912, but which has several variations and is used in a number of ways by different spiritual communities. A common form of the ritual uses repeated sexual stimulation to place the individual in a state between full sleep and full wakefulness as well as exhaustion, allowing the practitioner to commune with their god.
In chaos magic, gnosis or the gnostic state refers to an altered state of consciousness in which a person's mind is focused on only one point, thought, or goal and all other thoughts are thrust out. The gnostic state is used to bypass the "filter" of the conscious mind – something thought to be necessary for working most forms of magic.
Within the magical system of Austin Osman Spare, Kia is a mystical concept – a sort of universal consciousness or unity, similar to the Tao. The concept has been adopted by numerous other occultists, such as Kenneth Grant, and has been particularly influential on the chaos magic movement.
Synchromysticism is the practice of attributing mystical or esoteric significance to coincidences. The word, a portmanteau of synchronicity and mysticism, was coined by Jake Kotze in August 2006. Synchromysticism has been described as a phenomenon "existing on the fringe of areas already considered fringe". Steven Sutcliff and Carole Cusack describe synchromysticism as "part artistic practice, part spiritual or metaphysical system, part conspiracy culture", while Jason Horsley describes it as "a form of postmodern animism" that "combines Jung's notion of meaningful coincidences with the quest for the divine, or self-actualization through experience of the divine."
In chaos magic, playback is a form of magical practice developed by William S. Burroughs, primarily as a way of placing curses on people or places. Burroughs was a part of the chaos magic movement, and this technique – along with others such as the cut-up technique – were further developed and commented on by later chaos magicians such as Genesis P-Orridge, Phil Hine and Dave Lee.
Within chaos magic, a servitor is a psychological complex, deliberately created by the magician for a specific purpose to operate autonomously from the magician's consciousness.
References
Notes
Citations
- 1 2 3 4 Clarke (2006).
- ↑ Dukes (2011).
- ↑ Davis (2008).
- ↑ Otto (2020), p. 762.
- ↑ Gallagher & Ashcraft (2006), p. 102.
- ↑ Carroll (1996b).
- 1 2 Stokastikos (n.d.).
- 1 2 3 Carroll (1987).
- ↑ Carroll (1996), ch. 59.
- ↑ Carroll (2005).
- 1 2 Carroll (1987), pp. 49–51.
Works cited
- Carroll, Peter J. (1987). Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic . Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-639-6.
- Carroll, Peter J. (1996). Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magick . New Falcon Publications. ISBN 1-56184-092-0.
- Carroll, Pete (1996b). "The magician as Rebel Physicist". Chaos International. No. 21. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009 – via PhilHine.org.
- Carroll, Peter (2005). "Chaos Magick Authority: A brief Autohagiography". Maybe Logic Academy. Archived from the original on 17 December 2006.
- Clarke, Peter Bernard (2006). "Chaos Magic". Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Psychology Press. pp. 105ff. ISBN 978-0-415-26707-6.
- Davis, Avi (2 October 2008). "A Chaos Magician". Vice . Vol. 15, no. 10. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- Dukes, Ramsey (2011). How to See Fairies: Discover Your Psychic Powers in Six Weeks. Aeon Books. ISBN 978-1781812907.
- Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (2006). Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-98717-5.
- Otto, Bernd-Christian (2020). "The Illuminates of Thanateros and the institutionalisation of religious individualisation". Religious Individualisation. pp. 759–796. doi:10.1515/9783110580853-038. ISBN 9783110580853. S2CID 213653031.
- Stokastikos (n.d.). "The Ice War". Chaos International. No. 23. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017 – via PhilHine.org.
