I stumbled upon your blog, while sniffing around for blogs on chaos magic. I stumbled upon chaos magic while sniffing around for information on the artist Austin Osman Spare. (I am an artist myself.) I’m curious… are you a solitaire mage or do you work within some sort of pagan/occult group or network? Do you think being part of a group is necessary to development as a mage, or does structure contradict the nature of chaos magick itself? Cheers, Arc (Also I very much like your icon.)

Thanks for the compliment and the questions. I am jealous of you already. I am not, but have always wanted to be a graphic artist. I’m afraid all my artistic skills are in the written word. I’m glad you like my Chibi-Baphomat icon. It seems so appropriate for chaos magick.

I practice solitary myself. I would say it does not inhibit you from becoming an excellent magus. It does, however, make some types of rituals more difficult. I often wonder if a good initiation would help me open my mind, but that’s impossible to pull off as a solitaire. I do long to see how powerful a group working together can be.

My difficulty in finding a group is partially geographic. You just don’t find many practicing chaos magicians in Indianapolis. Not that I would necessarily feel the need to join with just chaos magicians. As long as I felt a synergy with the groups belief structure, I could work within it. So far, the two most organized groups, wiccans and thelemites, don’t fit the bill for me. I also feel that you should develop a level of trust with people you do ritual with.

I don’t think there’s anything truly inherent in chaos magick that makes forming groups impossible. The individualistic and sometimes self-centered nature of chaos magicians themselves does make things difficult. I am a part of a couple of online networks, but they lack organization, and I have yet to do any real work with them. I also attend a couple of local groups for discussion, but not practice.

I’m not above starting an online network that performs related magicks to see if they can influence each other’s workings.

In the end, I can see the benefits of working with other magus, but I don’t feel the need to rush into it. If a group comes along that I feel comfortable working with, I would do it. If not, I don’t think it’s going to stop me from achieving my goals.

I/III/I
Quero Regnum

Dream Journal

10/23-10/24/11

Putting this one out just to help encourage my fellow tumblr-dream folks. You know who you are. I haven’t had many things I remember recently, that seems to coincide with my amount of meditation. Less meditation = less remembered dreams.

I did, however, have a zombie dream which is always nice. I don’t remember much but I do recall teaching people how the sharpened shovel is one of the most effective weapons against zombies. People may complain about how the zombie genre seems to be overused now, and that may be true. But I know more people who consistently have zombie dreams than other other theme.

Here’s something I’m learning about my dreams. For the most part, I can make connections between what happens to me during a day and what I dream about. I only rarely have dreams that seem to explore something outside of my conscious experience.

Two, when I dream about things that may be slightly weird, but based on normal events, like work, I awaken drained and depressed. But I can have the most intense nightmares, ones where I wake up screaming, and the next day I am refreshed and happy. Being scared or experiencing horror is not the thing that bothers me. Experiencing the mundane does.

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

Hey is it just me or is the person who made this circle a total fuckin idjit? I don’t think they understand that Tetragrammaton is a description of something, not a word to be inscribed. I feel sorry for this girl who is obviously being initiated by blighters. 

Magick Working Journal

10/17-10/21

Yeah, I’ve been that lazy. I have not made a journal entry in almost a week. To my credit I have taken on a new task. I find myself constantly returning to the works of Bill Whitcomb. A magician I respect for his open approach, his belief in discipline and acquisition of knowledge, and his advice to make things your own. In his book, The Magician’s Companion, he outlines a course of study for serious practitioners.

Partly because I want to test my Will, and partly to fill gaps in knowledge I know I have, I decided to partake in his long list of recommended reading. For too long I have been distracted from purposes and not finished them. I have a hard time finishing books, and I consider myself a writer.

So I’ve replaced meditation and journal time with reading and have had some success. I have finished the first couple of works on the list. One, a short by William S. Burroughs, and the first of the Carlos Castaneda books.

So during the time I would otherwise meditate, I light the candles and incense in my temple and read. Despite my lack of meditation, or perhaps because I treat my reading as a meditation, my banishing has become more intense. I find myself stuck in my visualizations for longer periods of time with more clarity.

I also attempted this week to add inscriptions to my new magick circle with dismal results. The paint bled out from the stencil and failed to produce anything close to the desired effect. Luckily, I repainted over the mistake and my circle suffered minimal damage. I am going to try using a large sharpie or a paint marker. Something that will not bleed. Unfortunately, the texture of the painted carpet makes it difficult to use anything over it.