Part III: Talking Time, An interview with Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen on the rise of Fotamecus

Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen is a chaos magickian best known for his encyclopedic website Chaos Matrix and the creation Fotamecus, a sigil which evolved into a godform which manipulates the experience of time.

This interview was conducted on August 16th, 2006 for issue 4 of RazorSmile, a print-based chaos magick magazine. This is the third and final piece of a three part interview.

Start with [cref 75], and follow with [cref 76] to conclude with this third and final part of the interview.

P: Were you concerned when you realized Fotamecus had transitioned from a viral servitor to an egregore in such a short period of (linear) time?

FKR: Concerned? Not really, I think I was too fascinated with it. There wasn’t any reason to be afraid. The whole process was endlessly fascinating; all we were trying to do was to see how far we could push the little sigil we’d started out with.

P: It was fairly unprecedented

FKR: It’s been modeled since, though. A few folks have used the same methods to over-empower a sigil to servitorhood and then push it the same way to egregorehood.

It works remarkably well for generating a purposeful group gestalt for things like intentional communities. Starting with sigils that represent the goals of the community, you overcharge, get servitors who act as guides you should listen to, and then eventually become overcharged to egregorehood where they steer the energies/fates/whatevers that surround the group. Those are somewhat limited in scope, though, and not likely to pass to godform.

P: Do you know of any which have lasted so long, and been as efficient?

FKR : Not that I’ve seen yet, no. I think a part of that is because of the niche that Fotamecus fills. The ability to bend time is a useful concept. It’s something that has a practical role in any magician’s tool bag. It’s also a fairly simple concept. Something like a guide for an intentional community or magickal working group is much more specialized.

P: The aliens of Vonnegut Jr’s Slaughterhouse Five thought so.

FKR: *chuckles*

P: So, the film comes out in October in England, and you’ll be attending the premiere, I understand? Did you have any part (besides ultimately creating Fotamecus) in the creation of the film?

FKR: I’m still sorting out the dates, but yes I’ll be at the premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival. Matt Lee has a documentary about the making of the film, as well.

My only role in the creation of the film was in turning Fotamecus loose on the world. The film is Matt’s baby, and it’s been fascinating to watch. I didn’t find out there was a film being made until all the footage had been shot!

I’m writing a Fotamecus retrospective for the DVD, and in the process of assembling my notes realized there’s easily enough material for a book.

P: When did Matt start working with Fotamecus? And when did the idea for the film first germinate?

FKR: He wrote the proposal for the film in January 2001. The filming was done in ’02 or ’03, and editing was finished recently. Matt would know all those dates far better than I, though.

P: What’s it been like for you, watching your creation change, evolve, grow up?

FKR: It’s been… interesting. I’ve often commented that I feel somewhat like a father. Fotamecus was a magickal child borne of Node Fizzgig, but really pushed hardest by Quinn and myself.

After the empowerment ritual it was like he’d become an adolescent responsible enough to strike out on his own, stumble a touch, but ultimately do what he wanted on his own. When he was younger, it was like we were caring for a spiritual creature that needed the attention and care that a child does. Though he’s always had a punk attitude; takes after his parents in that regard.

P: Recently I’ve heard of Fotamecus turning up in the oddest places, under the oddest circumstances.

FKR: *laughs* That’s always how it goes!

P: I know a few people who say he showed up in a blade, of all places.

FKR: That one’s a new trick on me, but I wouldn’t put it past him. One of our empowerment rituals, “Time Consumption”, involved empowering a cookie with Fotamecus energy and then eating it.

P: With your connection to occult swordplay, I found the story interesting, but I’d never connected him with blades of any sort previously.

FKR: I haven’t either, but if you can fill a cookie, why not a blade?

P: More in line with the Discordian proverb: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

FKR: You know, Node Fizzgig never did figure out what genus and species time flies belong to. It was a serious question (well, somewhat serious) during those late night sleep deprived diner runs.

P: What does Fizzgig mean, anyway?

FKR: *laughs*

It comes from the movie The Dark Crystal. Fizzgig is the name of the dog-like companion to Kira, the film’s heroine. He’s a big fuzzy lovable critter with a really big bark but who runs at the first sign of danger. Because any node of the Z(Cluster) is encouraged to have a Z in the name, Kirstan, the third of the three initial Fizzgigians along with myself and Quinn, suggested that name. It had a Z, so it worked, and he seemed like a good mascot. Plus, it was a fun-sounding word.

P: It is a fun word. Did Fizzgig serve as a mascot for the node?

FKR: Not really. Fotamecus ended up being our mascot, instead.

We also had “The Fizzgig Egregore” which was our experiment at a group guidance egregore of the type related to Fotamecus. It never took a name or any mascotly aspects, though.

P: Do you have any advice or tips for those who might be interested in getting in contact with Fotamecus today?

FKR: Yes, don’t be afraid to play and experiment. The sole reason Fotamecus was successful was because people were not afraid to play with things. I was often told, literally, that I was “playing with forces I didn’t understand”, but I’m still here, and so are all the others. Generally, when you have the skills to dig yourself a grave in magick, you also have the skills to dig yourself out. By experience, I think the weirdest thing that happened was walking out of the mists.

Reading up on Fotamecus is easy; he’s everywhere on the Internet these days, and the Fotamecus Film Majik DVD looks to be a fabulous ritual tool that I’m looking forward to exploring as well.

P: You mentioned that you haven’t worked with him since ’99, but do you ever call him up, just to chat? I’m sure he’s been on your mind lately. Or vice versa, as the case may be.

FKR: It’s not so much that I’ll call him up to chat as that once or twice a year when I’m sitting idle some eve, he’ll plop down (metaphorically) beside me, and we’ll catch up. We’ll talk time, my conceptions of it; I’ll bounce things off of him and most often he’ll just chuckle.

He’ll chuckle like he’s got it figured out now, and I’m the one who’s the child. But hey, he’s the godform of time, so I suppose he’d know.

P: Do you still see him as battling Chronos, or has he outgrown such things?

FKR: For many people struggling to break their conceptions of time that battle/struggle aspect is very real. However, for those who’ve got a grip on fluid time that aspect of conflict seems to fade away. It becomes more like just another mode of being, or another tool. It’s not any better or worse than living your moments in fixed time, just different.

Fotamecus is fabulous at presenting himself to individuals as that individual needs to see him. If that’s as a warrior in the battle for time, he can do that, if it’s as the wu wei chrononaut just going with the flow, he can do that, too.

P: As a godform, does he have any favourite offerings?

FKR: Smashed clocks. That’s what we always used when he was younger. We would get the dot clocks for car dashboards real cheap, and destroy them.

P: It’s weird, I’ve kind of watched him grow up too, on the zee-list and experientially, and it’s funny how some things don’t change.

FKR: Another fabulous Fotamecus talisman are those gag watches you can buy that keep time, but keep it backwards – counting backwards through twenty-four hours rather than forward.

Basically, anything that takes the idea and actuality of measuring time and tweaks it, somehow. That seems to be the unifying factor of what works best with him. That could be as simple as a drumbeat kept in time with the changing beat of your heart.

Fluid time, not fixed.

Additional Resources:

Chaos Matrix – http://www.chaosmatrix.org/
Fotamecus Film Majik – http://www.fotamecus.co.uk/
Sheffield International Documentary Festival – https://sheffdocfest.com/

Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen is currently working on a theory of integral magick as a metamodel uniting all magickal systems. A proponent of experiential practice over armchair theorizing, he advocates an approach of open skepticism and bold personal experiment. Fenwick has his degree in Information Technology and has worked as a web programmer, a custom corsetry shop proprietor, a loan analyst, and a winery cellarmaster, among other odd things. Fenwick blogs at http://kaidevis.livejournal.com/info and emails from fenwick@chaosmatrix.org.

Psyche has been studying and practicing various occult traditions for more than a decade. She lives and works in Toronto where she blogs esoteric at Plutonica.net, runs the occult resource website SpiralNature.com, and a Tarot consultation website, PsycheTarot.com.

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Related posts:

1. Part I: Talking Time, An interview with Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen on the rise of Fotamecus
2. Part II: Talking Time, An interview with Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen on the rise of Fotamecus
3. An Interview with Austin Osman Spare

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