While Psyche is away on vacation, she has been kind enough to allow me to write for Plutonica.  As an apéritif, here is a little of my background.

Nine years ago, I had my first exposure to Aleister Crowley.  With a little digging, that led me to Robert Anton Wilson, Pete Carroll, Phil Hine and the rest of what I understood as the cutting edge Western Esoterica.  During this period, I also took initiations into a lineage of Raja yoga and the vajrayana based “Velocity Path” of the Arica Institute.  My magical and mystical bents developed tangentially, supported by a shared skill base.

Six years passed, and I had developed what I consider a solid competence with magic and state-based mysticism.  I also became aware of an extreme shallowness to my practices.  At some point, I had accepted the Eight Colors of Magic and the different stage models of development (Leary-Wilson circuits, Spiral Dynamics, etc.) as my reality.  They provide very useful maps for relative development, yet through my attachment to them, I had allowed my relationship with Soul to atrophy.

I returned to the Crowley material.  His earnestness spoke to me of something deeper, beyond my experiences with magic and mysticism.  I resolved to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of my Holy Guardian Angel and see what was what.  The plan was to proceed through the Elemental initiations by evoking the Seniors of each Enochian watchtower and the Tablet of Union.  Then I would create an Enochian version of Liber Samekh and work with it until the Knowledge and Conversation.

During the next three years I worked through each of the Watchtowers.  The experience transformed me in ways I could never have expected.  I also attained the Knowledge and Conversation much earlier than planned.  I refused to believe it, and instead attributed it to a late manifestation of the magical power of the Neophyte, The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel.

I would like to share with you the individuals who helped me clear everything up.

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The Internet is wonderful; so many interesting things to read, watch and play with, but, let’s face it, there’s also a lot of crap, and sometimes it can be difficult to find the shiny bits.

To combat this, I hereby introduce Saturday Signal, Plutonica.net‘s attempt to sift signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

Saturday Signal will offer up Continue reading »

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Women of Power: The Woman As Magus, by Jaq D. Hawkins
CapallBann Publishing, 186163241X, (153 pp. including appendices, bibliography and index), 2006

“…most of the books on ceremonial magic continue to be written by men, despite significant numbers of female members existing in ceremonial magical Orders.”

Jaq D. Hawkins is the author of several books on magick.  Her first, Understanding Chaos Magic, remains among the most straightforward introductions to the subject.  Her latest book, Women of Power, tackles the subject of the woman as magus, what it means and how it plays out in practice. Continue reading »

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In Treasure House of Pearls John Crow recently posted about the Theosophical journals he’s been going through in his research on Alan Bennett (interesting stuff, you should check it out). He commented on the “institutional memory” these journals leave behind – an enduring physical record of events that occurred: lectures given, essays shared between countries and their responses.

While his post referred specifically to the Theosophical Society in comparison to the OTO, this echoed my experience with the of the occult ‘zines I’ve been rereading for a project I’m working on. Continue reading »

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There are some books that are required reading for the dedicated student, and this list represents my top five books dedicated to chaos magick – books that defined chaos magick as a distinct field of study and practice.

1. Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic, by Peter Carroll

Liber Null, first published in the late 1970s by Ray Sherwin, is the handbook for the Illiminates of Thanteros, the first group dedicated to chaos magick. The IOT was conceived of as a new kind of order based on meritocracy, and Liber Null serves as an introductory text to what was then a new approach to magickal practice.

New Falcon published Liber Null and Psychonaut together in 1987. Psychonaut expands upon themes raised in Liber Null, and contains the much maligned pseudo-scientific approach to catastrophe theory, but it does have its moments, defining and reframing magickal theories for a new generation of occultists.

The material draws heavily from Aleister Crowley, and sections of Magick are frequently paraphrased – even example for example in some cases. Even so, it remains a cornerstone of chaos magick, and its relevance has not dimmed.

2. The Book of Results, by Ray Sherwin

Sherwin co-founded the Illuminates of Thanateros with Peter Carroll, and The Book of Results is another early text which helped define the movement. In it, Sherwin gives a lucid introduction to sigil magick via Austin Osman Spare, and introduces chaote philosophy.

The introduction to incense creation and aromatherapy have been criticized as being out of place in a book dedicated to chaos magick, but in many ways I think that rather misses the point.

3. Infernal Texts: Nox and Liber Koth, by Stephen Sennitt

Nox is an anthology of twenty-two essays and articles previously published in Sennitt’s magazine of the same name written by various chaos and black magickians. It primarily consits of the rites and theories of the Order of Nine Angels, and draws heavily on the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, the OTO, and Lovecraft for inspiration. Continue reading »

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