I got my first computer in 1999, mostly because of the popularity of napster at the time. The idea of unlimited music was too good to pass up. This was really my first exposure to the internet, and I didn’t understand the potential. I vaguely remember a friend explaining to me what a search engine was….but I definitely remember my first search. It was Aleister Crowley. It wasn’t long after that I found myself a Probationer in one of the many “lineages” of Crowley’s A.’.A.’.
I never officially made it past the Probationer phase (my life changed drastically as we’ll see) but during this time I’d say I went from lifelong dabbler to disciplined student of the occult. I kept a daily journal of my work (not to mention I started doing daily work). My main course of study was Liber E vel Exercitiorum and I feel I mastered it. I was also still heavily into “Modern Magick” at the time, but also getting more into the Chaos Magic(k) ideas I was reading about.
I got my first divorce during this time period, moved around some, and spent some time starting over in mundane life, during which I lost contact with my A.’.A.’. “mentor”. (Funny side note: several years later I reconnected with him on myspace only to have him ask if I had my journal ready to turn in. I had a tome, but by then had no interest in furthering that A.’.A.’. relationship.)
I also made contact with the OTO for the first time during this period. I hung out for a day, but since they were several hours from where I lived didn’t really follow through in any meaningful way. That adventure would wait another decade.
Early into the 21st century I found my way to chaosmagic.com. Looking back now, that website was probably as much responsible for the current “me” as any experience I’d had so far. It, more than anything else, made me into a Chaos Magician.
One of the first things I discovered when I began interacting with other people on the website’s forum was that I was conversational in a wide range of occult-related topics.
Obviously, my posts up until now have concentrated mostly on moments I thought were catalysts. I’ve left out a lot. There’s all the silly rituals me and my friends tried doing in my buddy’s basement while in middle school, for instance. There’s the lady at sqecial media that taught me about the magickal properties of gems and incense and herbs. There’s the flea market fortune teller that taught me to read tarot cards. The list of fortunate encounters is literally infinite.
Anyway, I became a regular on the forums at chaosmagic.com, leading to the opportunity to get published in the website’s magazine, Konton.
My first article was entitled “A Chaos Rosary”. Click the link for the original article, reprinted on TOPY’s website. I made two rosaries. One for myself and one for a friend I made on chaosmagic.com, a friend who would soon be an important part of my “adventures”, Andrieh Vitimus, the author of “Hands-on Chaos Magic”.
At around the same time I started writing for Konton, I also joined the Temple Ov Psychick Youth.
