My spouse is a ye olde Principia Discordia/ RAW/Invisibles flavored Chaos magician and when we met I was forced to review my ideas on it. I'd always felt a lot like Mordant and cringed a lot when people started in on wanking their way to riches and power and being flippant.
I found online a great deal of CM Chaos stuff online that made a lot more sense to me as it was detailed via the older traditions of the Kabbalah.
I'm sure there are many more knowledgeable folks on here than I that can detail the Chaos/ Babylon working but it is some great stuff to study. I do tend to agree that the female energy of Babylon resonates with the male energy of Chaos...
I framed my issue with Chaos magic as practitioners not deeply understanding a chosen symbol structure and context well enough to responsibly use it. I believed that one needed to approach the field of play with caution and respect. Wearing funny hats and jumping around acting retarded on drugs invoking/provoking seemed not only stupid, it seemed dangerous(if not a little bit like some occult orgs, which have caused a great deal of High Weirdness even with dedicated study). Like a kid with matches hiding in the liquor cabinet.
As a Fortean, I've researched and experienced a goodly amount of badness out in the world that is probably directly related to ill conceived magical work. People's are dumb.
My spouse listened to my concerns and asked me if I thought magic should only be the province of the smart and trained. I thought about it and replied that no, everyone has access to it. He then pointed out that I do believe all religions are generated and 'made-up', which is accurate. So it boiled down to my approach of caution and not a little elitism versus his approach of 'fuck-it' and egalitarianism.
I wandered around thinking about what we had discussed for a while and returned to the idea that everybody is already capable of doing this work, some are doing it via religion already. At least the Chaos crowd was taking responsibility for their reality in a way that I could respect...even if I do shake my cane at them to stay the fuck outta my stone circle and stop upsetting the cows.
Being fully aware that the ancient religious traditions were broken and some reinvented whole cloth I can't get all high and mighty on folks just re inventing their own personal systems by grab bagging from a wider range than I do. I can however limit my respect for someone who does not then choose to seriously regard the responsibility of their actions. I don't care if you were trained for 20 years by ancient and honorable Order or spent 3 days reading the Invisibles' Letter Column so long as you're thinking about how your actions in general impact other people. |
