Early Magics
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: Early Magics
Author: Zooreter
For early man, religion and magick were inseparable from the world around them, and just about every feature of the land was infused with some sacred significance. Swamps were evil. Every spring, tree, river and mountain was imbued with a spirit, with the unknown hidden behind every rock. With all of this in mind, early man developed magick as a force to combat the evil, and religion to honor the Gods. The origins of magick were derived from necessity rather than desire, and this still holds true today.
Zarathusta or Zoroaster, was the creator of the dualistic religion, in which Ahrua Mazda, the representative of good and right pitted against Ahriman, the representative of evil. These forces were necessary, according to Zarathusta to keep the universe in balance. Zarathusta was also given the title as the "Father of Magick" because of the Gathas, or verses he had written in the holy book, Zend Awesta.
Chaos magick is the
fruit of Austin Osman
Spare and Peter Carroll's
rebellion against the
traditional magickal
systems which they
deemed needelessly
complicated, discriminatory
and impotent.
Influenced by both Spare and Austin's scientific pursuits and interests, Chaos Magick is a 'non-system' focusing on the mechanisim of 'belief' as a means to achieve a desired end. Belief in anything, a force, a diety, will be adopted for the purpose of the magickal work at hand and then discarded after it has served its purpose. To do this magicians must become skilled in changing their beliefs at a moment's notice and 'believing' that "Nothing is True and Everything is Permitted" as Ray Sherwin wrote in 'The Theatre Of Magick' "The (Chaos) Magician believes nothing in the sense of having faith.
He experiments practically to ascertain if there is any value in the postulates he has either originated or borrowed from elsewhere. It is a fact that we all must hold certain organic beliefs for the sake of convenience. You all believe that the chairs you are sitting in are real -- most of the time. This is not however a mental process, but rather an instinctive or organic one without which life would be impossible."
The path of Chaos is not one for the weak or fearful. You must realize that you are entirely on your own and free to do as you please, therefore you alone are responsible for the outcome of your actions. You will not find 'Karma' or 'The Law of Three' in Chaos Magick to comfortably set your limits for you. Chaos Magick is not black, white or gray, it is simply neutral energy which you will shape into your intention. Therefore, unless you have a solid code of ethics and know what you are doing, Chaos Magick is not for you, indulge in foolishness and you will quickly be on the way to self-annihalation Chaotes generally don't worship a 'god', but as mentioned above they will temporarily believe in any god-from required to make their magick work.
Working with god-forms
in Chaos Magick involves
the same or similar
invocation or evocation
methods used in
traditional systems. Unlike
god-forms that already
exist, servitors are
magickal beings, created
by a magician to perform
a certain task. Servitors
are created in a state
of gnosis and stored in a
material object such as
sigil which then enables
the magician to summon,
communicate and affect
it. There are mainly two
types of Servitors;
"Egregores" which are
large servitors usually
created by a group of
magicians and remain in
existance indefinetly , and
"Independent
Thought-Forms" which are
usually active for the
duration of the magickal
working and then
destroyed by the magician.
Sigil Magick was developed
by Spare and involves the
creation of an abstract
image of the magicians
written will or intent and
absorbing the sigil into
the subconcious in a
state of gnosis. It then,
should be forgotten and
the material sigil
destroyed, for it is
belived that once the sigil
is in the subconcious mind
it will operate unaided.
Chaos magick is path of complete magickal freedom, make your choices carefully and be responsible. Above all, if such freedom makes you uncomfortable and you feel a compelling need to be goverened by dogmas, then steer clear from the path of Chaos or your sanity just might get swept away...