At one point early in his magic Gandalf probably wondered to himself "Is it the staff or is it me?" Ian probably wondered the same thing, "Is it Gandalf or is it me?". Loved your latest appearance on THC Gordon, I was just bugging Greg about your long absence a week or so ago. The voice of reason-becometh magi in da house!
Me, a former trad-ish Cath turned not really a chaos magician but now I read this I'm not too sure, had to laugh at this one line, sorry: "Chaos magicians should be the trad caths of the occult world if they were internally consistent with their own premises."
Great piece Gordon. I thought you were very gentle with Richard Metzger on the podcast, who seems woefully out of touch with what has been happening with the magical revival, perhaps because many of its exponents have come out of England. If chaos magic means anything now, it is the work that you and the RSPM have been pursuing. Damn it we have work to do, as our times keep getting wilder. Some might say apocalyptic.
That is my take on magic in general, Gordon. I don't “practice” it, I just do it. I learned it from my ancestors in Appalachia in the early '60s, at least to the extent that magic is learnable.
It mostly works. When it doesn't, I go get some wire cutters and an axe and proceed to plan B.
The idea is to marshal the vast resources that exist at the boundary of the human world and the non-human world, as I've heard you call it. Most people don't seem to know these resources exist.
I'm not much for the rituals. Every space is holy, and every person place and thing is holy. You call who you need when you need them and they appear or they don't.
I have had them say to me “you're being frivolous, come back when you're serious.” More often they jump in with both feet to help out if I give them a good reason to do so. But it doesn't require seven candles lit in perfect order on a moonless night at a crossroads. They are well aware of us.
All this to say I essentially agree with you. Using magic is like muscle memory in sports or in playing a musical instrument. You might say we play a magical instrument. When you need it, you just do it. You don't really think about it.
Brilliant insights and you genuinely made me laugh out loud in a few places, a heart-felt thank you. Your point about the lighthouse and responsibility touched me very personally on this Mercury station. A treasure to read.
Thank you for this, it has been something I have been thinking for a long while. I think chaos magic allowed me to dismantle everything, blow up the house and the shitty foundations it was built on, and thus rebuild. It certainly was a very important part of my inheritance, it still operates I think in the background, as I think about "results", and it certainly allows me to chuck what does not work. It also helps cut through online bullshit, and stupid magician cults, which I know you are all too aware of on the twittersphere.
At one point early in his magic Gandalf probably wondered to himself "Is it the staff or is it me?" Ian probably wondered the same thing, "Is it Gandalf or is it me?". Loved your latest appearance on THC Gordon, I was just bugging Greg about your long absence a week or so ago. The voice of reason-becometh magi in da house!
Me, a former trad-ish Cath turned not really a chaos magician but now I read this I'm not too sure, had to laugh at this one line, sorry: "Chaos magicians should be the trad caths of the occult world if they were internally consistent with their own premises."
Great piece Gordon. I thought you were very gentle with Richard Metzger on the podcast, who seems woefully out of touch with what has been happening with the magical revival, perhaps because many of its exponents have come out of England. If chaos magic means anything now, it is the work that you and the RSPM have been pursuing. Damn it we have work to do, as our times keep getting wilder. Some might say apocalyptic.
That is my take on magic in general, Gordon. I don't “practice” it, I just do it. I learned it from my ancestors in Appalachia in the early '60s, at least to the extent that magic is learnable.
It mostly works. When it doesn't, I go get some wire cutters and an axe and proceed to plan B.
The idea is to marshal the vast resources that exist at the boundary of the human world and the non-human world, as I've heard you call it. Most people don't seem to know these resources exist.
I'm not much for the rituals. Every space is holy, and every person place and thing is holy. You call who you need when you need them and they appear or they don't.
I have had them say to me “you're being frivolous, come back when you're serious.” More often they jump in with both feet to help out if I give them a good reason to do so. But it doesn't require seven candles lit in perfect order on a moonless night at a crossroads. They are well aware of us.
All this to say I essentially agree with you. Using magic is like muscle memory in sports or in playing a musical instrument. You might say we play a magical instrument. When you need it, you just do it. You don't really think about it.
Once on an Ayahuasca journey I asked, "Show me the timeless worlds."
"You're in one right now," she said.
"Oh. Yeah."
Brilliant insights and you genuinely made me laugh out loud in a few places, a heart-felt thank you. Your point about the lighthouse and responsibility touched me very personally on this Mercury station. A treasure to read.
Thank you for this, it has been something I have been thinking for a long while. I think chaos magic allowed me to dismantle everything, blow up the house and the shitty foundations it was built on, and thus rebuild. It certainly was a very important part of my inheritance, it still operates I think in the background, as I think about "results", and it certainly allows me to chuck what does not work. It also helps cut through online bullshit, and stupid magician cults, which I know you are all too aware of on the twittersphere.