Tag: gnosis

Gnosis in the chaos magick sense is a trance state or mind state / experience.  In chaos magick, we use the word gnosis (which otherwise means ‘knowledge’) to mean that we have reached a state of vacuity where one is no longer aware of the body and surroundings – one has shed the restrictions of the conscious mind and let go of ego. There is no ‘I want’, there is no ‘I’, there is only direct experience. This is simply because, for a second or twenty, we have bypassed the conscious mind and accessed the subconscious mind, so we let go of words, and accept symbols and their wealth of meaning and power. A chaote achieves this state of gnosis by way of inhibition, excitation or drugs. I try to match the method with my required result.

Restricted diet, sleeplessness, holding breath, near drowning, meditation, staring, boredom, repetition, a brilliant novel ritual, orgasm, drumming, whirling, rage, panic, fear, shock, can all be used to move past the ego and the conscious mind and penetrate the unconscious.

Have you ever worked really hard on a physical task that is pretty dull but makes you sweat, and you find yourself in a rythm of sinew and breath to such an extent that ‘you’ are not needed. This is beyond but very much related to the ‘automatic pilot’ that people find themselves using when driving home from work.

Personally, I seek gnosis through meditation every day (at the moment) and I suppose there are other words for taking yourself from zazen to samadhi.

You get out what you put in, so sometimes I really ‘go for it’ and choose my diet and waking patterns carefully. I can create fear in myself quite violently, and as long as I’m not in a hurry, I can find ways to surprise myself over periods of weeks. This is sleight of mind.

Some say that you can achieve gnosis for a few milleseconds by training the the body’s muscles to spasm, and so as long as you have the symbol of your magick (mantra, mudra, sigil et cetera) in place, that’s enough.

There are times when I really want to get my gnosis on and do some fucking magick and I just can’t. There are other times (on trains, in parks, as I wake) when I find gnosis overcomes me, and so I create magick without thought.

Most chaote authors I have read (and I have read a lot) clearly state that gnosis is required for chaos magick (which is magick of deep-seated beliefs [however temporary] and the subconscious). Were I talking to a self-proclaimed chaos mage and they told me they didn’t ever bother with altered states of consciousness I would ask them if they believe that rituals (repeated actions as per a recipe) without conscious and subconscious alignment are enough.

Ever read out aloud one of those ‘rhyming spells’ from a book? Did you wonder how some poetry from a paperback might make something happen for you? Why would a poem alone be magick? I don’t have much time for Recipe Witches.

You can believe what you wish about magick, and I encourage you to experiment; I only speak from my personal perspective as a chaos mage. Try asking other chaotes and see the variety of views and ‘rules’, but I exhort you to do some magick.

Detachment. Dislocation. Vacuity. Neither Here Nor Not Here. Does Not Matter, Need Not Be. Free Belief.

Magick is mind. What are you doing with yours?