By Soror Brigantia
I was 8 years old in 1977, yet I remember it well. It was the Year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and in the weeks leading up to the celebration, the entire valley was filled with decorations. The valley was a riot of red, white and blue with Welsh dragons adorning the streets. Neighbours collaborated to hang colourful bunting from house to house. Every neighbourhood held its own street party. I was particularly impressed by the pretty homemade fairy cakes with colourful balls on them. This was the last time I truly saw strong community spirit in the Welsh valleys. As we moved through the 1980s, the old community spirit was systemically broken, and something new took its place.
While I have painted an idealized picture of community life here, there was also a degree of unhappiness, despair and anger. While the Jubilee celebrations reached their peak, The Sex Pistols released “God Save the Queen” in the spirit of raw rebellion against the many economic and social injustices existing in Britain at that time. Some people reacted to this band with a sense of outraged horror; others applauded them, and people took sides. By 1978 the discontent was reaching a crescendo with the Winter of Discontent, the winter where we always kept a number of torches and candles in the house due to the electricity strikes. The Sex Pistols had broken up by early 1978, but many punk bands continued and the spirit of “if you want something done, then do it yourself” central to the punk philosophy prevailed. The punk attitude led to a period of intense creativity among the young people. If you wanted good music, good fashion and good magick, it was time to pick up an instrument yourself and get it done. This instrument may have been a guitar, a sewing machine or your own handmade wand. There was an attitude of not needing to wait for perfection before making a start; if you only learned a few chords, then that was enough to get the ball rolling. The establishment could not be relied upon to look after the people; the people had to look after themselves.
In this atmosphere of creativity and rebellion, a number of magicians, tired of the established way of doing things, mirroring the punk rock attitude of “do it yourself”, planted a seed. One of these magicians was Peter J Carroll, and as he planted the seed of chaos magick the face of occultism changed forever. It was no longer necessary to follow a teacher or a Priest or Priestess to learn and practice magick. Like punk rock, chaos magicians were doing it for themselves. Giving things a go and seeing what worked and what didn’t in the spirit of anarchic rebellion against established norms. The new magical order, the Illuminates of Thanateros, was announced. Pete stepped back from the IOT in the 1990s, and the IOT continued down its own pathways.
This seed of chaos magick developed in a myriad of ways. It became a strong tree with many branches, and then it began to develop fruit. From these fruits seeds came, and many new trees took root. Suddenly, the one seed planted by Carroll and others turned into a forest. A forest of chaos magicians that grew in unpredictable chaotic ways, all inspired by Carroll’s book “Liber Null” and Sherwin’s “Book of Results”, both published in 1978. These new chaos magicians, embracing the “do it yourself” attitude of bold experimentation and paradigm shifting laid down by its founders, took chaos magick in different directions.
Fiercely independent, the average chaos magician does not sit around in apathetic slumber waiting for someone else to show them the way. Inspired by the founders of chaos magick, they embrace life and their magick with strength, determination and joy, forging their own magical paths. As Sid Vicious sang “My Way”, the new generation of chaos magicians took the principles laid down by the founders and, like the chaos star, expanded those principles in every direction. This happened with the setting up of other chaos magick groups, with solo practitioners, and within the IOT itself. With Pete stepping back from the IOT, the young organization began experimenting with forms of magick quite different from those that Carroll had initially envisaged.
The IOT is in constant evolution, and it eventually became something very different from its original form , with each individual magician being encouraged to find their own magical style. I think I can say with some confidence that my chaos magick bears little resemblance to Peter J Carroll’s chaos magick, yet the paradigm shifting spirit of experimentation he inspired still prevails.
I rocked up to the chaos magick scene in 2005, some ten years after Peter J Carroll’s departure, but I was fortunate enough to have met him on several occasions. He did not wish his photo to circulate in the public domain, so when I first met him, I did not know who he was. I assumed he must be a new novice. In fact, it was on the tip of my tongue to ask him how his MMM was going until I was introduced to him as “Pete”, accompanied by a strong, meaningful expression from the then Section Head – and the penny dropped. I was pleased to have been saved from making that particular faux pas. I also fondly recall a time when I had just gotten out of bed and was making my breakfast, and I suddenly saw Peter J Carroll sitting at the table, reading his own book. I did a double-take and rubbed my eyes. I had been doing some heavy magick all day the day before, and I wondered if I was hallucinating, but no, here was Peter J Carroll at the breakfast table, reading his own book. It turned out he was going over one of his rituals in preparation for delivering it later that day, and I was honoured to be asked to invoke the Goddess Apophenia for the ritual that he was running.
Having left the IOT, Pete continued his work of inspiring others by founding the successful Arcanorium College, continuing to write and create and establishing his Specularium website. He became one of the most influential magicians of our time to whom all chaos magicians owe a debt. As Pete was going in his own direction, the IOT went in another: travelling from one incarnation into another, never standing still, always looking for creative expression, always evolving. Yet, owing its very existence to the group of young occultists along with Peter J Carroll, who planted that first seed of chaos magick in the late 1970’s and inspired generations of chaos magicians to do it their way.
May he rest in chaotic power.