Magic of chaotes

This is deleriously delicious. In about 1989(I think) I wrote an article for Chaos International magazine about a wonderfully furious row the Late Gerald Suster and the still with us Peter J. Carroll had in a pub near the British Museum on the relative merits of Thelema (Gerald) and Chaos (Peter) .





Anyhow, it somehow found its way into cyberspace about ten years ago and has been reproducing itself ever since. Google tell me there are 128 versions out there. One is in French, and I found it with a bit of discussion about 'the magic of chaotes' - which google kindly translated into a form of English - see 1. below

Then I got google to translated my article from French back into English.... See 2 below

At last, I can finally understand what I was waffling about all those years ago!

This truly is chaos at its best...

I wonder if I could get all my ramblings translated into French and then back into English?



1. Good question my very expensive me.
I return to visit a forum where this question is still put, and the amateurs do not miss with the call to try to deliver an opinion on the Magic of Chaos. It is reproached the chaotes for being either immature or not to know what they do or, quite simply, to copy the old paradigms while hoping to make believe in the whole world that they created a new system.

The error of the answers rests simply on the incomprehension of the studied subject. If the chaotes cannot define their Art with precision it is stupidly that they know that any definition locks up the practice in a conceptual bottle which kills the spirit and denatures the letter of Art. To define, taxonomiser, to arrange in small boxes makes safe the human being which then thinks of having of its range a thing which can only be imperceptible. Therefore, not of definition but of the kilometers of foolish and insane sentences, of the thousands of ritual and practices strange, violent ones, striking, inconsistent.

No Book of Shadows but of the thousands of pieces of paper bottom griffonnés with haste in some sordid coffee. Not great theory but of hundreds of the revolutionary and contradictory slogans. No the Pantheon fixed for eternity but an insane dance gods and goddesses, phantoms and the alive ones called upon, devoted, adored then forgotten. No the dogma until in the refusal to prohibit the dogma by adopting them all.

No the temple or of place of society gathering, but of the wet cellars squattés temporarily, set up in taz magickes before to be forever abandoned. No ranks, not of a fixed nature, not of ceremony solidified in the vain one, but a cloud of groupings évanescents constituting itself only on the common will and yet single collectively to act the time of a breath of the god, plays and sarabands and some portable computers for all ceremonial books.

Not, the Magic of Chaos will not be the putrid statue of a finishing age, there remains breath of life and thirst for unsatiated will of goal.

2. Chaos vs Thelema [as re-translated from French back onmto English of a sort by google]
Inspiré, sans doute imprudemment, par la nouvelle lune & la « Psychedelic Jungle » de Cramp, j’ai décidé de pénétrer dans le débat opposant la Chaos & Thelema. C’est, bien sûr, une tâche impossible, & c’est sans doute ce qui m’a poussé à le faire.

Very from does accesses, what distinguish Thelema from Chaos? In “Starfire”, Mick Staley tries to distinguish Thelema from Crowleyanité. Thelema, us suggests it preexisted to the formulation that made some of Crowley. That poses problem immediately, since for the majority of the magicians: Crowley = Thelema. But if one can accept that there is something which existed independently of the writings of Crowley, then that must be this thing (Thelema) which must be contrasted with Magick of Chaos. The core of this thing, I suggest that it is the Will. Is this idea of Will in one way or another opposed to Chaos?

But then what Chaos?

For the needs for this argumentation, I will interpret Chaos as follows: that the world of the experiment day labourer has her roots in Chaos. Thus, any test to include/understand the world via the reason reaches a limit of which the other pouring lies in Chaos, a state of existence/non-existence which cannot be included/understood by the rational ego. However, through ritual techniques, this state can be expressed in the world of the every day, suspending the consensual “laws” of the direction common & allowing Magick to be born. Moreover, perhaps like result of this practice of Magick of Chaos, the idea of Chaos penetrates slowly in popular imagination through science. This refutes the traditional science, which is based on the belief that if the structure of the physical world could be sufficiently modelled in a mathematical form, it would be possible to predict the future states of various systems (weather for example) which constitute the physical world.

However, it is allowed unwillingly that that would require a measuring accuracy which it is impossible to realize. The engineers have for a long time to accept this uncertainty - that all measurements are limited by the veracity of the measuring apparatus. The absolute precision is an impossible goal é to reach. There is always a degree of uncertainty, an instability & by concentrating the Will on that, the magickien can exert an influence on this level on the world, which when it occurs, can produce a Voulu result.

Since Chaos is a form of Magick - seeking to exert an influence on the conscience of the world of the every day - it must thus implied the Will. Otherwise, it would be more one form of mysticism, which is a test “to follow the current” of the experiment of the world without seeking to influence the direction of this current. In this form, Chaos is closer to a high form of order which i.e. apparent chance or event impromptu of the experiment of the existence of an individual are only results of some existence higher than that of the individual himself. And by désengageant the desires of the ego, one can try out this higher existence, interpreting the obstacles & the failures of the existence of the every day like a stimulus with the development of a “stoical” conscience, which will make it possible the ego to freely swim a such fish in the river of the CAT, or Chaos.

The idea on which that is based tends to being that of the hermit, wise forests of the hindouism, the solitary follower of High Magick. No doubt that if that were possible at the time current, one could try out such an existence if one could withdraw remainder of the human existence. But such a model is not valid any more, since the development of the conscience of humanity is such as any place virgin & wild does not exist any more in order to undertake such a search. We are thus obliged to satisfy us with the results of the human desire of knowledge, power, control & safety.

It is perhaps there the crucial difference between Magick of Chaos & Thelema. Thelema, as developed by Crowley in a form adapted to the 20th century, contains all the heritage of the experiment & the practice which goes up through the Dawn Golden delicious, of Hermetism to Egypt & the Country of Sumer, which in their turns draw their beliefs from anonymous ancestors who fought in order to create the models of the world, cosmologies & the myths of the creation which enabled them to give a direction to their presence in this world.

The task of Crowley, like that of Mathers & Eliphas Levi before him, was to synthesize this vast corpus of conscious/unconscious knowledge & to represent it in a comprehensible way by its contemporaries. Unfortunately, if that is a question mainly of language, the language magicke is limited by the domination Judeo-Christian, on the one hand, & of the Reason on the other hand. Our language of the every day derives from our perceptions of a world made up of distinct objects, & on the faculty of the sight. But, as soon as we enter the more subjective sphere of Magick, the problems occur. Up to which point do share we same reality magicke & in the same way use us words such “Will”?

The problem is not confined in Magick. During a time I worked as controller of quality in “London Rubber”. Periodically, I was to compare my work with that of others in order to ensure me that we apply the same processes so that I do not reject hoods that others let pass. In science, the theory wants that the work of a person must be examined in a critical way by the unit of its pars. The difficulty is that, as soon as the creativity between concerned, the process is faded. Should the test for any form of Magick be “that functions?” But how can one of judge since the results of a ritual can not be visible during a certain lapse of time. At the beginning of the Eighties, a great work was carried out in order to stop the expansion of the nuclear weapons. But it is only today that a major change occurs in Eastern Europe & who can be regarded as a success. And the changes can however be lost by a failure of imagination & the difficulty of being opposed to the complex parasites militaro-industrialists of the East & the West.

It may be that Thelema is soiled by the terminology inherited the Golden delicious Dawn life Crowley, but in its heart a detector of conneries imparable rests. I discovered that the question “which is your Will?” directed towards any group which proclaims to wish changes, is an effective challenge. What is disturbing on the other hand is to discover that in the majority of the cases this question evokes only silence or, as well as possible, an escape.

I feel that that is the most detrimental criticism for Thelema, that it fails to pass from Magick to varied alternative beliefs which try to reformulate the company. It is not a question of simple academic interest, whereas the current néopaïen seems to emerge & take the control of the conscience & the alternative structures.

Can Magick of Chaos then succeed where Thelema (still) did not reach that point? I doubt it qu seen of the reaction of the average citizen lambda who thinks that it is “too dark”. The simple word of “Chaos” tends to be seen labelled like “anarchist” & evokes nightmarish sights of man-monsters traversing the streets in order to do everything péter. Of course, for some that can appear a call, since such a bad thing must, ultimately, being good.

Not, in one way or another we must achieve a task of Sisyphus by applying the concept of Will like razor of Occam towards the dualistic entities of the conscience - or the unconsciousness - of New Age. In practical terms, I understand that that means to direct our Wills towards & with the Vert movement in full growth, so that instead of disappearing in a fog from “good intentions”, it becomes true & critical volunteer of the culture consumerist. Just like the Marxism failed to carry out its desires, owing to the fact that the working class “had been mobilized already” by the capitalists, thus Magick fails it owing to the fact that energies of the unconscious mass was already exploited by the advertizing, via the mass media.

Energy tending towards the change of the conscience was diverted by the culture consumerist in a desire to have a flood without end of merdasses useless. All the flood of the advertizing is to exceed our logical circuits & to reach our desires directly to reach with a statute & safety. We do not make that to buy the product, we buy the dream, the illusion of Maya. That is, as we can assert it, a form of Magick. I then to be a poor squattor of a shantytown the Third World, but if I can buy a bottle of Coke, I think of having the dream of richest American multimillionnaires. I can be the owner of old a Trabant of East Germany, but while crossing the Wall I become the potential owner of Porsche.

But if you observe those which have already such dreams, that do you find? That it is, as in California, these same people who turn to the most ridiculous conneries New Age in order to satisfy their race for always more, for something which will fill the painful vacuum & without end that they feel to crawl & to corrode them like some Charles nightmarish Manson waiting behind the walls of their house of Beverly Hills.

But, of course, the last thing that they want to hear is the “truth”. They prefer to create an industry New Age richissime rather than to accept that within the richest houses reality is held of the Chaos, this Vacuum which drapes veils of Maya, the dance of the Illusion, in which we all are, at the same time, this famished tramp & this voluptuous starlet of cinema. “Which is your Will?”

Of course, I am somewhat predisposed thanks to all that I sang with Bowie on Ziggy Stardust, I chose Magick like Voie. Through experiments at the same time beautiful & terrifying, I arrived at comprehension that the human condition is only one aspect of a continuum of conscience. For me, all the universe is an alive entity with which I interacted in the fugacious currents of energies which inspire my awakening. Rationally & poetically, I perceive my brain, my body like part of the substance of the universe & not like an element distinct from him. For me, the human condition is partly a tragedy, partly a joke. We are semi-intelligent monkeys which were led by the fugacious vision of what could be, in order to create this world, our reality. But in our ignorance, we took the vision for the unit, the ego for self. We fight for the order & create chaos, & then we recognize in chaos a “higher form of order”.

“Knowledge is the capacity, the capacity is control, control is safety”. Ah yes? But knowledge is as the pleasure, a pleasure more intense as any other pleasure created by our safety. Safety is sterility, sterility is death. We run after the evolution but let us not can accept that the evolution implies changes & that these changes deny any safety. What do we want?

If our Will is safety, stability, whereas that is, like so many fossils. To embrace Chaos (Thelema) is to give up the false gods & to accept that our actions as a magickiens will change not only ourselves but also our world. In so far as Chaos & Thelema are valid ways, then they will change us. To cling to an identity, although that is pleasant or gratifying, is a negation of Magick. Magick is changes, the only constant factor being the revelation of the existence of the order/the chaos of the universe.

In addition to Thelema & Chaos, I also practise Magick de Maat. For the Egyptians, Maat was “the order right of the universe”. Contrast rests between the Hindu concept familiar of “karma”, which deals with our human existences, & the concept less familiar of “rta”, which deals with our aspects as forms of the universal conscience.

Magick diverged from Science 300 years ago. Science sought to discover the “hand of God” in the natural world; Magick wished to become equalizes it gods. Today we are the witnesses of the overlapping of these two ways. We are not any more creations of some distant god, but the natural products of the universe. We “evolved/moved” starting from organic chemical compounds. Today, we have the capacity, through the replication of the ADN, to make us evolve/move ourselves. We have, literally, the capacities of the gods. That of which we miss, & what Magick must try to provide us, it is intelligence to use such a capacity. Is the way to make a success of that to put the question “Which is your Will?” Are our genes our justifying force, or there it is another thing which I can call “Conscience”? This conscience I hold it for implicit within the structure of the universe, & that was proven like such by quantum physics. It may be that that is unprovable/undeniable & consequently A-scientist, but I suggest that our so-called conscience is a quantum phenomenon.

It is that which Crowley tried out by the interaction of Night & Hadit in the Book of the Law. It is also the root of Chaos. Thus, Thelema & Chaos are only two aspects different from a single experiment, expressed in the language appropriate to different times & in different cultures.

Only, I then to completely express the complexity of these possibilities, & however we all must try to do it. While placing them in the middle of our experiments to be in the world, we can hope to create a company which will survive rather than will perish under the effect of its unconscious contradictions. We are only “naked monkeys”, but we are monkeys having of the sufficiently complex brains that to apprehend the possibility of being more than what we are & to become “homo veritas”, a true man at the very least.
Such as we are, we cannot entirely perceive the truth of all that, only our imagination can apprehend the potential of it. It is my Will to make that that is, for this reason I write these words, so that they touch & stimulate those which read them. How it is thus!

While reading again what is above, I feel the need to develop the arguments somewhat. The events in Eastern Europe of these last years strike me by their consequences. The gasoline of the “iron curtain” was to make it possible the East to develop its own alternative economic system as enacted by Marx. What currently occurs, is the incorporation of this economic system in the total economy, which implies a failure of the Marxism. This failure leaves a vaccum capacity. The majority of criticisms as for the structures of the powers of the West come from the Marxism. But if this one failed, the possibility for a new criticism of being born.

Where will we find this criticism? In Magick. Of course, that requires magickiens that they adopt a more rigorous intellectual approach as for their beliefs, & it is undoubtedly that in question with the arguments of Chaos or Thelema, i.e. one & the other shows the other to be perverted compared to the “true form” of Magick. What I suggest is that the magickiens start to seriously take Magick as an energy directed towards the change, rather than like parasitic system of beliefs in order to escape economic success from capitalism. To practise Magick we must believe undoubtedly that we live a universe magicke, rather than economic. How much more effective would be our Magick if we replace the system of beliefs of the economic company by that of a company enracinée in the design magicke of reality.

Here the apple with which I try you - will dare you to taste with the forbidden fruit?
Alistair Livingston
French translation by Spartakus FreeMann, Nadir de Libertalia, Anno iv13 Ground 25° Aries, Luna 15° Cancer Dies Veneris