Chaos Magick For Beginners, As Defined By An Individual Practitioner | ₵Ⱨ₳Ø₴₥₳₲i₵₭.₵Ø₥
Chaos Magick For Beginners, As Defined By An Individual Practitioner
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Chaos magick, at its core, will vary wildly in practice and paradigm from practitioner to practitioner, and this is part of the beauty in it.
Mandy Hatake
I want to preface this brief article by stating that I hope the title provides an accurate description of the intent of this article, in being that I do not mean it to be an all-encompassing definition of chaos magick.
Chaos magick, at its core, will vary wildly in practice and paradigm from practitioner to practitioner, and this is part of the beauty in it. This article is meant to only show my personal views and opinions, and should not be taken as written in stone, the end-all-be-all, by any means.
I have considered myself a chaote (one of the many blanket terms for chaos magick practitioners) for quite some time, nearly half of my life.
This means that I am a practitioner of chaos magick and chaos theory. Chaos magick is actually quite simple in how I view it, and in how it applies to my personal paradigm.
While it has gained quite a lot of attention over the years, particularly because of its actual name, the average traditional witch or practitioner who is not versed in its etymology often will have a completely different idea on what it encompasses compared to its actual principles and concepts.
The name itself seems to have led even self-proclaimed chaotes to believe it is something more than it actually is, and many times the terminology itself will be used as an excuse to simply wreak havoc and discord and chaos with no sort of moral obligation or responsibility on the practitioner.
I, personally, feel as though this is an abuse of what chaos magick is, at its core, and often is even something as simple as a misconception. But again, this is just my opinion on the subject.
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Chaos magick, at its core, is based on the idea that belief defines perception, and perception defines reality.
To put it simply: regardless of the methods used to attain this state of mind, if you can coerce yourself into a state of true unyielding belief of a particular outcome (or timeline), it becomes real, a literal manifestation into your own reality.
The paradigm I choose to follow also relies heavily on the concept of infinite multiverse theory, a fairly newly popular physics theory that is quickly gaining grounds within the scientific community as of late. I will touch more on multiverse theory and how it relates to my personal magickal paradigm in another article.
One of the more common practices within chaos magick involves work with charged sigils, working with egregores, servitors, and tulpas, as well as a form of seemingly “chaotic” eclecticism, hence where the name is derived from.
In this style of extreme eclecticism, for lack of a better descriptor, the magick user has the understanding that all religious, spiritual, and magickal practices are merely a means to an end.
They are tools to help force the user into this state of “true belief,” often gained via various methods of gnosis, thus manifesting their desires. The chaote uses all the tools that become available to them, and discards the tools that aren't efficient with their particular magickal style or working, and often the dogma that goes along with many of these practices as well.
Because of these common practices, as well as the name itself, chaos magick has developed a bit of a bad reputation within the pagan and metaphysical communities, as many who follow the traditional versions of the paths that we often draw inspiration from consider it disrespectful to the sacredness of their chosen path.
This is also considered a bit paradoxical to chaotes as many paths lay claim that their own is considered something like “the one true path.”
Many chaotes, however, have learned to use this paradox to their advantage. Many of us have started off in our spiritual and magickal paths in some of these more traditional paradigms, and quite a few of us have realized that within a lot of these paths lie the same knowledge, the same tools, and often the same methods, simply under different ideologies.
It allows the chaos magick practitioner the ability to discern between what is actually necessary and what is simply ideology, so that we can construct an efficient and personalized experience for ourselves.
The one common core principle that you will often find within the community is the phrase, “Nothing is true, Everything is permitted.”
I have found this to be helpful in creating and defining my magickal paradigm. This seemingly paradoxical statement, once meditated upon and fully understood, can often be used as a jumping board for a more personalized magickal paradigm.
For quite a long time, I didn't understand what was meant by it, even though I saw the phrase tossed around the chaote community pretty regularly. It wasn't until I started diving into multiverse theory that a unique desire and motivation for that understanding came to me.
The easiest way for me to describe my understanding of this principle is by referencing a scene in the movie Practical Magic.
The scene where the sisters use whipped cream to draw a pentacle because they lack the called-for tools and this was the closest and fastest option on hand is probably one of the best examples of the innovative and quick thinking nature of this principle in pop culture.
Chaos magick isn't edgy or dark, or even "chaotic" by nature.
Rather it is called this because it often substitutes simpler methods or utensils from the usual, and creating your own unique version of a magickal paradigm or even creating your own from scratch is often applauded as a way of generating more powerful magickal results.
The focus is less on tradition and more on ingenuity, which creates a more personalized experience for the practitioner, thus it becomes easier to connect with your practices in ways that don't seem as archaic. When you can generate this type of personalized and connected experience within your practices, the results of your magick become more streamlined, efficient, and fruitful.
This, to me, is what chaos magick is truly about.
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