This article first appeared in Konton Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1 (Vernal Equinox) and was reprinted in the anthology The Best of Konton Magazine.
It is self-evident that chaos magick has produced, quite possibly, the most chaotic form of magick yet to grace the morphogenic field of collective theoreticians. This form of magic, though, is less for the theoretical scholar, and more for the practicing student. There are often complaints among those in-the-know that students and scholars of the arcane (if it can be so labeled) arts try too hard to label magick, force paradigms/aeons/currents (take your pick), and analyze every morsel of magick right out of its practical underpinnings. But I feel that one can very succinctly trace the flow of magickal thought throughout the generations - as concepts change and flutter - to point to a specific new offshoot of magickal theory and practice that I - and others - term postmodern magick.
During a recent posting to the occult weblog Key 23, quite a bit of controversy was stirred up by an article I had written entitled onomatopoeia. This article was meant to address the problems with current magickal thought (particularly in youthful Americans) where magick has been reduced to a Hasan I Saban proclaimation, and masturbating to a crudely drawn sigil.
This article drew comments and criticism from the likes of Joel Biroco, Phil Hine, and Towards 2012's Gyrus. The main points of criticism lied in 1.) the attempt to classify styles or systems of magick so generally and 2.) the attempt to "push" magickians into a more promising direction.
The first objection however, shall be left alone, as this is more a philosophical argument of subjectivity (individual experience and meaning) versus objectivity (overarching meaning; absolution). If any individual should choose to write about such a subjective matter as magick, he/she must brave the boundaries of interpretation and make some generalizations (quite possibly bording on overly general) in order to bring the subject to a proper birth of group discussion.
The second argument also is a philosophical one, and bears the question: should we teach those who don't understand. Some magickians, including Joel Biroco, take the stance that "If they don't understand; don't explain." This is a perfectly valid argument that I've often wrestled with myself in regards to magickal studies; however, seeing as I was posting to an occult weblog about the state of magick, it would have been inappropriate to take this stance and just drop the argument.
This second argument was a potent one because the article in question was a direct stab at the unpreparedness of the youthful modern occult movement. Why was this unpreparedness such an issue? Because of the popularity of postmodern magick.
The distinction between chaos magick and postmodern magick (though admittedly a distinction that many argue against) lies in the magickian's interpretation of the mundane material at their exposure.
Chaos magick is famous for using anything in magick. Why evoke a spirit when one can just as easily evoke Mickey Mouse, or invoke the qualities of Batman. Nothing is true; everything is permitted.
Postmodern magick is a subtle yet distinct shift from this perspective. Simply using the example of walking up the stair, note that a chaos magickian would think: how I can use walking up the stairs in my magick? On the contrary, a postmodern magickian would look at that act and proclaim: walking up the stairs is magick.
How did this postmodern shift come about? We must first examine its good ol' Uncle Chaos to uncover the answer to that question.
In interview with Modern Magick author Donald Michael Kraig, I prodded him for his thoughts on several occult authors and magickal systems. When the subject of chaos magick was brought up, Kraig posited an interesting interpretation of the chaos movement that struck me as right on the mark. In the interview he states:
I [Donald Michael Kraig] have been working with the current since the time Peter Carroll released poorly-produced copies of Liber Null (not combined with Psychonaut) through a quirky occult shop in England called Sorcerer's Apprentice. This was probably a decade or so before most people in the U.S. had even heard of the topic.
It was, and is, a brilliant and direct use of magickal energy and technique. It was created and developed by people who were highly knowledgeable in magick and knew what they were doing. This is sort of like Picasso, who painted in his format not because he couldn't do realism, but because he chose to express himself in that way.
Many people - especially younger men, in my experience - come to magick in order to gain power over others. They tend to quickly fade away and lose interest because they discover that they have to study and work. The ones who remain discover that the true secret of magick is that it is not about power over others, it is about power over yourself.
As information on Chaos magick became available in the U.S., it was initially picked up by people who wanted to do magick, but didn't want to have to do any of that 'nasty and time-consuming' training or work which was required in other systems. As a result, many of the early Chaos magickians I met in the U.S. were self-centered, self-righteous egomaniacs who were proud of their ignorance of anything else, the exact antithesis of the Chaos magick tradition in England, where it was born.
It was this conversation with Kraig that led me to identity the "American Chaos ego" in my Key 23 article; a term that many fought against valiantly. But in truth, nothing - not even magick - seems exempt from the "lazy American" syndrome. And the Internet itself has spawned a multitude of virtual theorizing that (much like a computer virus) slowly eats away and corrupts the time that should be spent in practice.
Postmodern magick - spawned from idea of using "fiction" characters as architypes - developed as a synthesis of magick is a great amount of emphasis on art, fiction, etc., and a prevailing attitude that everything is magick, rather than stating that anything can be used as magick.
Whereas chaos magick has its roots in Austin Osman Spare, Peter Carroll, and Phil Hine, postmodern magick has its roots in Grant Morrison, William Burroughs, and Robert Anton Wilson, and is greatly exemplified by some of the publications of the Disinformation Company.
A prime real world example is a statement that Richard Metzger, co-founder of the Disinformation Company, made regarding Amazon.com. Metzger is noted as saying that ordering a book off of the Internet is magick. He explains that with a few clicks, "poof" a book shows up at his door. This statement is postmodern magick to its core. A chaos magickian wouldn't look at book ordering in quite the same way. A chaos magick would ask: how can I use ordering a book in magick?
Chaos magick is most commonly focussed on the "how" in terms of using traditionally non-magickal areas of life in magick. Postmodern magick is focussed on the "is" in how things "are" magick.
Postmodern magick is neither a current, aeon, or paradigm. It's more a way of thinkging - a way of perceiving. Postmodern magick is potent and powerful. The ideas of which can open the magickian up to a whole new arena of possibilities, but unfortunately, how many true magickians are out there?
Many forget that the keys to Carroll's chaos magick lie in gnosis and the magickal link. He devoted whole chapters to mapping out the magickal process according to probabilities in a physics-like manner. When experimenting with chaos magick one must understand his theories as well as his instructions.
On the surface it may seem that magick is as simple as masturbating to a sigil. But isn't that kind of like throwing finger paints on a piece of paper and calling it art. There's something more beneath it all that makes it art - a certain soulful pull, a certain dedication. The same can be said for magick, no matter what theories you subscribe to.