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How seriously are the "saints" of the chaos canon taken? In other words, how much stock do chaotes place in people like Peter Carroll, Phil Hine, Grant Morrison, etc.?
It's often not a question of taking them "seriously" as it is looking up to people who've been there already, got quite a bit more experience than you, and in all likelihood may have written something so influential as to change your life. In my experience when involving oneself in these subcultures a very tribal view of social ordering happens; it would be presumptuous and irritating-sounding to consider myself the same "tribe" as anybody else but those kinds of structures, both initiatory and social, can be very prevalent at a usually subtle but sometimes overt level, especially since there is often the shared experience of social exclusion and a pagan worldview. Once you're outside the walls of culture you look to people who've been there first and made it work, not to deify but to try your best to learn from.
How do chaotes respond to the accusations of charlatanry on the parts of characters like Aleister Crowley?
This is a meaningless question and anybody who doesn't treat it as such hasn't been a magician for very long.
How much stock is put in RAW, Hakim Bey, Church of Subgenius, and other more Discordian sources?
This kind of stuff is great but is often the "gateway drug" of actual sorcery and is usually a way of testing the water (Hakim Bey's in a bit of a different category though, a bit "harder edged" though he's coming from the same place). It's the stuff that one reads to get comfy with the idea of magick, get a sense of humor about it and use as social points to rally with people with similar outlooks. This stuff tends to be very early training wheels.
How do you feel the internet has affected the subculture? Do you feel the inclusive, DIY nature of the practice has weakened/diluted the credibility of chaos magick?
Made it extremely easy to get ahold of information about magick. Also made it extremely easy to do nothing but discuss it online and not actually do anything with the information. Put a lot of people on pedestals talking loudly who don't know anything about anything. Also driven up the price of Kenneth Grant's books and that side of things because people are so hungry for something "authentic," pricey, spookier than your average PDF, not free to everybody with a net connection.
How do chaos magicians deal with stagnation and dogma within their own common paradigm?
Depends who you ask. Getting entrenched and refusing to learn new tricks is the usual answer; or "paradigm shifting" if this is actually done in a meaningful way. Becoming a drug addict. Joining the corporate world.
Do chaos magicians, as a result of their shared beliefs, have more in common with each other, or less?
Usually more; you'll at least find common authors to talk about with most chaos magicians. Chaos magic tends to be a fairly common set of cultural signifiers. Running underneath that is whatever systems people happen to be working with in their practice, which provides a second layer of social "cliquing."
How do organizations like the IOT function within the community as compared to Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, groups of Freemasons, etc. Hwo does this differ from other "cults", and how is it similar?
Mostly silent but still active. Fairly exclusive so has little to do with the majority of chaos "culture" which is a fairly bankrupt and laughable figment of the internet's imagination.
Also please make a distinction between "cult" and "organization," I wouldn't consider any of the organizations you mentioned above as "cults." A good source for checking this is Robert Jay Lifton's eight criteria for thought reform:
http://www.reveal.org/library/psych/lifton.html
Any other advice/ ideas would be greaely appreciated...
Hopefully your paper will inspire you to do a bit of magic, not just research it from the sidelines. The "culture" that springs up around this material is often not much of an indicator of the validity of the techniques themselves, that you'll have to judge for yourself. And good luck.  |
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