Over the years, I have seen on social media, blogs and YouTube several discussions relating to the history of the IOT. These vary in quality, some being very good and others less so.
One thing they appear to have in common is that they are produced by people who have either no or tenuous links to the IOT, and the research is conducted mainly through other articles accessed via the internet. It’s my opinion that any discussion that over relies on information gleaned from the internet which does not include book research and fieldwork to be essentially flawed. As we all know, because it’s on the internet that does not mean it’s accurate, and there may be some essential information that will not be included.
In relation to the IOT while there are some books that will give information there are not many and therefore, I would consider fieldwork to be an essential component of any research conducted into this magical order. Putting it plainly: if you want to know what happened in the IOT, ask the membership.
I would point to this video made by someone who was there when the IOT was born to be the most accurate account as well as Dave’s series on the history of the IOT on this blog.
Most internet discussions focus on an event which I like to call the ‘Ice Magick Argument,’ often referred to as a ‘war.’ I personally cannot comment on the ins and out of what happened with this as it happened so long ago before I had joined the IOT.
Most histories of the IOT given by people who have never been members tend to finish with The Ice Magick Argument and little attention is paid to any history that occurred after that event or how the IOT is today. The IOT is a group that is constantly evolving and changing and due to this development, the IOT that exists today will have some differences to the IOT of five years ago. Occasionally I see discussions on social media involving people who say they were members 10 years ago or so whose opinions may have historical value, but due to the continual evolving nature of the IOT bear little resemblance to how the order is today.
The PACT will also mean different things to different people. One person’s experience of it may be very different to another’s, as individual development and expression is encouraged within the order.
On the BIS YouTube account, youtube.com/c/IOTBIS we have started a series of personal accounts of how individuals joined the IOT which gives a more up to date flavour of the IOT by showcasing these individual journeys within the PACT. As the IOT encourages its membership towards personal autonomy and finding their own magical style it is hoped that these videos will give a hint of the diverse experience of PACT members and a more accurate snapshot in time of how the British Isles Section operates during the time the video was made.
(This is the opinion of Soror Brigantia and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of everyone in the IOT)
Developing a magical will has never been an issue for me. Stubborn and determined to the core; formulating a goal, planning the process of achieving said goal, executing the plan and achieving the goal at the end has been a natural process for me.
This has been surprising for some folks that I have met throughout my life, who thought that being introverted meant being weak and took it upon themselves to foolishly attempt to bully me into a course of action that I did not want to take. However nothing will persuade me into doing something I do not want, immovable as a mountain and as stubborn as Balaam’s ass … I would not be moved!
If my heart is set on something I will achieve it by hook or by crook. If I find that a door is closed unto me then I will either get a battering ram and smash the door to smithereens or will take the side route and find a way around the door, perhaps through a side gate that’s been left unlocked. I have always found a way. If a person gets in my way, well, that only encourages me to work harder for the goal and makes the victory all the more sweet.
This has served me well in the sense that I have met all the goals that I had as a child and have had awesome experiences – seen things and done things that go beyond what would have been expected for me as a child. I have also gone beyond my own expectations of myself as a direct result of my experiences within the Illuminates of Thanateros and have done things I would not have done otherwise and have been all the better for it. I have used a combination of magical and non-magical means to build for myself the life that I wanted.
However this determined carpe diem nature has also led to a feeling of tension or stress within my self; the type of tension that any completer/ achiever has I guess. Sometimes I enjoy the fight and sometimes I don’t but it does feel like a fight on occasions.
Due to the pandemic however I have experimented with a different way of doing things. Maybe this is because the keyworking I was doing made my working life busier than it usually is. Sometimes the pandemic stress impacts on my cognitive functioning and just getting through the pandemic successfully is all one can manage. Maybe it’s because I am getting into a time of life where I want to chill more and no longer feel the need to be so goal driven.
Lately I have been experimenting with working more with the energy that is there and making that work for me. Instead of battering down the closed door I am now finding a different door one that is open and working with that as opposed to aggressively focusing on the locked one. Working with the Tao and finding the path that is obstacle free and making that work for me is a gentler way of working with my magical will.
I don’t always achieve exactly what I want with this method, I achieve something else which is of equal value with the knowledge that aggressively achieving is not always necessary. There are other ways to live.
This has led to my now having more than one way of working with my magical will. I can choose to work gently with the energy that presents to me but I can still take a battering ram when I want to. Flexibility is the key.
Soror Brigantia is a Magus of the Pact and a former British Isles Section Head
For many years it’s been my preference to undertake works of magick in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to me. While magic can be done without this and can be done without any magical tools at all, for me nothing beats the sheer joy of creating a piece of spell work that is beautiful, using tools that have been beautifully handcrafted by artisans or crafted by myself. I find that this is particularly effective if I want my heart to sing during the ritual to make use of magical items that do just that.
Having always had a great appreciation of art and spending many a happy afternoon mooching around art galleries, exploring the emotions that the art work invoked in me and how I related with the art, doing the same magically is a logical consequence.
One of my most interesting experiences in a gallery was viewing Van Gogh’s Starry Night in The Museum of Modern Art in New York and being asked by security to move along as I had been staring at the painting for too long. The reason for my length of time at the painting was due to having transported into the painting itself and directly interacting with the night sky in the painting. To me it felt as if I’d been there a few minutes but it was a couple of hours. It was a very confusing experience for my 20 year old self but nonetheless an awesome experience and only increased my love for that particular painting.
My opinion on making magick beautiful has become a tad unpopular as more pragmatic magic-on-the-go systems tend to be popular within chaos magic but I have my reasons for taking the time to make a ritual visually appealing. I have found that the beauty and artistry of some magical paradigms and rituals make a helpful counter to the ugliness that can be seen in the world today. Sadly, I cannot walk through a town centre without seeing perpetrator behaviour, arguments, people who are depressed, anxious or broken due to the pressures of life. I see alcohol and drug abuse and on occasion signs of human trafficking. This is happening within half a mile of where I am currently sitting – or perhaps even closer. It breaks my heart; I have nothing but empathy for all of the tears of Erzulie.
If I can undertake small acts, however small to create an act of beauty in this world then I will, and I will bring that into my magical practice whenever possible. What difference that may make to the world I do not know but as Gandhi said “What you do may be insignificant but it is important that you do it.”
So I have spent some of my time during lockdown doing what a lot of people are doing- making arts and crafts. Some people are making clothes, knitting blankets and doing some awesome embroidery. My crafts are of course of the witch variety and some of these have been inspired by my 2018 visit to New Orleans. People who practice Conjure and Voodoo in New Orleans are experts in making magical objects and know how to do it with beauty and grace.
Inspired by their example I have made magical objects that are physically in the New Orleans style although they would have been magically charged differently, in my own Welsh way. Some of these objects have taken months to make, which is beneficial during these very stressful times. During the making my mind is focused on my statement of intent and not on how stressful my life is being a key worker in a pandemic, so the work has a therapeutic as well as a magical value.
I find that the process of making magic a work of beauty as well as finding the beauty and joy whenever and wherever you can not only counters the ugliness that can also be found in the world but also brings the magician into the place of calm stillness where one is better able to find one’s own practical solutions to the difficulties that we encounter in the world today.
In my workplace we have a chillout room, where people can go if they are upset, stressed or need a moment away from the hustle and bustle. It’s a beautiful room set up with relaxation in mind.
When I first arrived at this workplace there was one thing however that spoiled the effect of this room for me. In the room was a poster depicting the Buddha on top of a mountain, surrounded by lush vegetation, with the caption “When you reach the top of the Mountain keep climbing.”
I hated that poster, partly because it does not make sense. When one has reached the top of a mountain how can you climb any further? What are you supposed to climb on? The clouds? Secondly when I have achieved a goal that’s been difficult I don’t keep climbing, I take a moment to feel smug about what I have achieved, take a day off relax and to remember to feel good about myself. I did it, I achieved my objective, now I can chill. I’m not going to keep climbing; I’m going to take a break.
I felt exhausted just looking at that poster, and needless to say the poster is no more, it is an ex poster. For me it summed up everything that is wrong in our culture, the constant drive to achieve and do, the constant striving due to an underlying belief that we are only valuable when we are doing things and achieving. This is one of the beliefs that underpin a capitalist society and makes the wheels of industry turn- we must work because what are we without it, what value do we have? For me this negative message was summed up in this poster, all bound up in New Age wrapping and definitely not what Buddhism is actually about. Capitalism pretending to be Buddhism.
Since the lockdown began while my working life is busier than it was prior to the crisis. And my personal life is different. There are no more magical outings, no in-person temple meetings, no occult conferences, no pubs, restaurants etc. Outside the working environment there is little for me to do, work towards, organise or strive for. Over the Easter holiday I found that I was bored and not feeling that great about myself on account of not having achieved anything with this time. Then I remembered this awful poster and saw that while I may see through the capitalist belief systems I am in fact just as bought into them as anyone else.
Having had that realisation I went and sat by the front steps and watched the bees. They were very enthusiastic about gathering pollen from the bluebells and I sat and watched. Firstly I watched without judgement, and then I meditated on how the bees enable life to continue and how all things relate to all things. I watched them for hours. Then I saw how important it is to just stop and watch and listen, as we miss so much of what’s really happening around us when we are too busy to notice all the interlocking and interconnected workings of Baphomet.
Since that day I have slowed right down. I still do things if they need doing but I do them more slowly, focusing more on the process and less on the end result, and I enjoy doing the tasks a lot more as a result. It feels that my life outside work has become a meditation as I spend more time watching and listening to the sights and sounds of nature around me. I am no longer feeling that I must be achieving to be valuable.
I’m
finding it an odd experience being an essential worker during the
Covid-19 crisis. In many ways the world is a much quieter place, it
takes less than half the time for me to drive to work than usual and
the streets are deserted. In my life however there is a higher degree
of activity than usual as my place of work responds to the crisis, I
am busier than ever. I exist in this strange place amid this duality
of activity and inactivity- in Isa my life is the swirling
undercurrent of activity while all on the surface is still. The birds
sound much louder than they used to.
I
find myself on occasion feeling somewhat envious of my magical
friends who are utilising the freed up time for a magical retreat.
Then at other times I remember the people who have lost loved ones,
the people who have lost their jobs and income as a result of the
crisis, people who are vulnerable — and then I am grateful for my
own situation. The truth is while part of me would like to retreat
and isolate I would not do that. If I was not working I’d be
volunteering.
I
find myself in a position of solidarity with other essential workers;
the people who clean the hospitals and shops, shop workers, factory
workers, care workers, steel workers, police and the postal services
and the many many others who do jobs that run so smoothly we are not
aware of their essential work. The unknown heroes of the crisis. It
seems that some of our most essential people are the lowest paid,
putting themselves at risk every working day for a pittance. I find
myself grateful for the locksmiths – it’s a bit challenging
having a lock down when one is locked out, as I found out! I am
grateful to the magicians who are on retreat doing their magick to
eliminate the virus. Julian
Vayne’s work on ‘Hearty’ is something that I found very
inspirational.
sigil of Hearty
I
worry about my friends doing the front line work in the hospitals but
I get the vocational drive behind why they have to do what they do. I
worry about the people who are street homeless and hope that they
have found shelter and that the people helping them are OK.
A
great deal of my magical work over the last year has been about space
clearing and protection and I wonder if a part of me knew that there
was something coming that I would need protection from. Reflecting on
2019 I did feel a sense that change was on its way leading to my huge
space clearing and decluttering project where even my paperclips were
cleaned with Florida water and prayed over. I developed a fondness
for Psalm 121 which in the context of Covid-19 feels very relevant
and I find myself saying the psalm before I enter the workplace:
Coming
out is always a difficult process, whatever it is that you’re
coming out as. Going against the expectations of your society,
against the pressure of your peers and all expectations that there
may be. It’s difficult to admit that there is something about you
that is different. It’s especially difficult if what you’re
coming out as is not cool, not well thought of and seen mostly as a
stupid piece of crap.
I
have come out in all sorts of ways over the years and what has been
difficult, the most challenging thing to admit to not just to the
world and to myself that … my favourite magical paradigm is …
disco. Yes, disco. Not heavy metal not black metal, not punk, not
dance. Disco!! And I don’t know anyone who would admit to liking
this form of art, but go to any night club and see what happens when
a disco track is being played. I think I’m not the only not so
secret lover of disco. And OK it ain’t Mozart; I see no complex
equations within the sounds of the disco notes … but it is the most
overwhelmingly optimistic sound I’ve heard and it fills my soul.
And
I also like Titania’s Little Book of
Spells by the way. Since I’m coming out I may as
well say it- the books are furry and pink and purple and I love them
and I see nothing wrong in that.
So
where did my love of disco emerge? When I did I realise that this was
the sound for me? It came about due to my deep love of magick, magick
for its own sake, magick for the pure joy of doing it. There are
always several layers of statements of intent within my rituals and
more often than not hidden in the main statement of intent is a
secondary statement of intent. While I call it secondary often it is
the most important statement of intent which is “to experience Joy
while doing this Ritual.” It’s through this experience of the joy
of magick that the disco paradigm emerged and took hold of me.
How
it came about is that a group of friends and I regularly meet up to
practice magical rituals, to share and swap techniques and we chose
to have a number of sessions around certain themes. We could not help
but see the overwhelming similarity between the great God Baphomet
and John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. From
this we felt that we would do an evening of disco magick and would
boogie – boogie – boogie with the gods in good ol’ disco style.
“As above, so below …”
I was working with the voodoo paradigm at the time so I undertook a great work which I called Disco Voodoo, calling upon the Lwa via song, selecting the disco tracks that I felt most summed up the qualities of the spirits. And it rocked!! The voodoo spirits loved the disco music and manifested more strongly than they ever had to me before and I knew I had found my crossroad, my gateway in to the spirits of voodoo.
But
why disco? Why did the Lwa respond so effectively to this music?
There are many reasons; one reason is that disco music is very much
about being alive, and full of metaphors and symbols about the things
that we do to create life. The highly sexualised lyrics and rhythm of
the music combined with the love of life that only the dead can feel
led to a merging of life and death and love and loss into a single
paradigm that can be described as Thanateros.
During
that temple meeting Disco Voodoo also known as Makossa Voodoo took
form and is developing into a complex system of spirits some of
African origin some of which are Welsh connected to my local area all
of whom are called up by a number of sacred chants from the disco
paradigm.
The
Illuminates of Thanateros recently held an Open Circle in South
Wales, with an assortment of magicians both inside and outside the
IOT. We’ve been doing this for some years now, increasingly
replacing the elaborate conference-style events of old with pop-up
magical gatherings and semi-open circles.
Yes,
semi-open. This means that non-IOT magicians join us for the
shenanigans. This further means that in the interests of our oaths of
confidentiality, any IOT members are made known as such only with
their express permission, even within the Circle. However, just
because you don’t ‘out’ other members doesn’t mean that you
yourself can’t go public as a member of the IOT. That’s for
secret societies, which we are not.
All
of this breaks the mould set by more traditional magical
organizations, but it’s an exciting development within an Order
whose mission is, quite simply, to encourage and facilitate the
practice of chaos magic in groups, thereby enabling wider access to
magical culture in our society – Aepalizage! – as we like to say.
While
the network may be the new shape of magical orders, the Circle is
still how the magic happens: people getting together and doing the
thing. Not that you can’t do magic on your own: of course you can.
But the accumulated magical skill and experience plus the undeniable
social proof effect of being amongst colleagues gives each magician a
powerful platform from which to work great magic, magic often
unavailable to the loner.
Every
group that’s met regularly and kept good records – yes, even an
informal Circle benefits from keeping a magical diary – every group
can confirm that the magical results really go with a swing when we
all pitch in together. That, after all, is why we in the IOT also
describe ourselves as a Pact; a group of free individuals who agree
to act together in each others’ interests, in contrast to an
hierarchical Order.
So
we got together and did the thing in Swansea, South Wales, a sort of
planned ‘bring-a-ritual’ party. After a keynote address and
ritual by Soror Brigantia 739 we swung into a parade of excellent
magical work. No, I won’t tell you without permission what we did;
what goes on in the Circle stays in the Circle. If you want to know,
join in next time. Or maybe even set something up yourself; just find
some others.
In
occult circles and within occult literature we hear a great deal
about people who make outstanding contributions to magical practice.
There are, for example, countless blogs and publications regarding
the fantastic work undertaken by Aleister Crowley, Edward Kelly, John
Dee and Austin Osman Spare — to name just a few.
While
the contributions of these men cannot be undervalued, the lack of a
female role model can leave many female practitioners of the occult
wondering where their place is in all of this and where are the
female occultists. It’s my opinion that the female role models are
there, such as Dion Fortune. It’s just that they don’t get as
much ‘air time’ as the men. For me personally one outstanding
example of a female magical practitioner is Harriet Tubman.
Harriet
Tubman was born Araminta Ross in the 1820’s and was born into
slavery. A remarkable woman, she liberated herself from the bonds of
slavery and fled to Pennsylvania. Not content with this she made
several trips back south to liberate other Afro Americans held in
bondage. She even risked recapture by going back to Dorchester County
– where she had been held in slavery – to free others.
She
became one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad
and one of the most unusual. Few Underground Railroad conductors
would conduct their people all the way from plantation to freedom.
Most of the time they would work as a team with different conductors
picking up the escapees at different stages of their journey. Feeling
a sense of responsibility towards the people she had freed Tubman
would take them on the whole route.
Due
to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 it become legal for bounty hunters
to cross into a free state and recapture escapees. Tubman took her
charges all the way to Canada to ensure their continual freedom after
escaping. Most conductors would only lead 2 or 3 escapees; Tubman
made a speciality of conducting larger groups of sometimes up to 25
people. This was dangerous work. Most conductors who did take their
charges for the whole of the journey were white men and were
therefore protected in some measure by this status. Tubman was a
black woman and an escapee herself making this work more dangerous
for her.
However,
unlike many of the men who did this work Tubman was never caught. She
had an innate sense of strategy and knew her terrain well – for she
was also a Hoodoo woman, a practitioner of Conjure. She is famous for
her Christian faith as in those days it was not uncommon for a Hoodoo
practitioner to also be a Christian. She could hear the voice of god
who would tell her what lay ahead on the course she was travelling on
the Underground Railroad and she would change direction if she was
told that danger lay ahead.
During
the civil war she worked as a nurse for the Union and a considerable
amount of her nursing was aiding soldiers who had contacted
contagious diseases. Tubman of course never contracted those diseases
herself. As she was a Hoodoo woman and knew the herbs and plants and
their medical properties she was able to take measures to protect
herself. Due to her advanced ability as a strategist she also worked
more directly for the army and led a raid during which 750 Afro
Americans achieved their liberty. She truly earned her nickname of
‘the General.’
After
the war she worked for civil rights for women and Afro-Americans.
When she saw that older Afro-Americans with poor health were not able
to obtain the health care they needed she used all her financial
resources to establish housing for them where they could receive this
care.
Harriet Tubman was a very practical woman who used her Hoodoo and conjure skills in a very real way to achieve very real results within the realm of civil liberties and for that I applaud her. What better role model could there be?
When Sheffield-based Notwork 23 held their recent Catch23 festival, there was bound to be a strong Pact presence. Dave Lee was one of several with a part to play in the opening ritual centring on a double invocation of Eris and Horkos, the Goddess of Discord and the God that makes you keep your promises, becoming a heady affair of invocations of all the Colours of Chaos.
Soror Brigantia and Kite had planned on attending simply to enjoy not organising anything this time, as did other Pact people in the locality, but … ya know … Hail Eris and we got roped into the ritual too. Inclusiveness, appreciation of variety and passionate magical expression drove the ritual point-first into the Festival and pegged the whole fiercely sunny day firmly as we went on to experience- well …
There was a room dedicated to talks and workshops. Personal favourites included Dave Lee and musician/magician George Rogers collaborating in the working “From SNAFU to FUBAR, a working against the global war machine;”Ian (Cat) Vincent drawing on his vast experience for the workshop “Defence Against the Dark Arts” and the gong bath. That was an unexpected treat for someone who’d never bathed a gong in his life.
And that Kite guy was a late substitute speaker, giving a hot sweaty audience a rehash of how “You Are The Experiment.”
Meanwhile, there was music going on everywhere, all day and late into the night, with a vast and strange variety from plain acoustic bands to Discordian musical happenings. There was a beautiful, mellow – if overwhelmingly hot – atmosphere, and we wound up talking all night with a succession of great folks we’d never met before.
Gotta admit it, we were jealous of Sheffield at this point. So well done to Notwork 23 and all the other disorganizations involved with putting this event together at the Yellow Arch Studios in Hipster Central, Sheffield. Special shout to Anwen Burrows, without whom- well, gods only know. Hail Eris!
