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6.) FESTIVALS AND WORSHIP DAYS
been for centuries
Sun and the Moon.

The festivals are reckoned as they have

by most Southwestern tribes, by both the
Theseasonsbeginonthefirst

fullmoonafteraSolsticeor
an Equinox.
themselves are

The Solstices and Equinoxes

times

ofcelebrationaswell,andperhapstheperiodbetween
the two (which usually works out to be no
more than a week
or so) could be considered a time of
Holiday. Lesser
ceremonialsareheldonNewMoonsandFullMoonsbetweenthe
first Full Moons of the seasons. Optionally
certain Pagan
festivals could be celebrated in
conjunction with other
groups, but they are not to be adopted as
official Lifeway
Fellowship ceremonial days.
There
areotherceremonialsthatarepersonalinnature,and
can be held at any time, although
synchronizing them with
the Festivals and the New and Full Moons is
advisable. They
are Naming, where a newborn child is named
in the presence
of the group and their Life-beads given;
Coming Of Age,
where the child's physical maturity is
acknowledged, and
where, for a short time, they become Child
of the Water (if
aboy)orWhitePaintedWoman(ifagirl);Initiation,where
a person becomes a full-fledged member of
the group, given
after a person becomes a legal adult;
Joining, where a man
and a woman consent to be married;
Unjoining, where a man
and woman who are married consent to have
the bond

dissolved, which is to be done only after

four reconcili-

ation attempts fail or after evidence of

marital infidelity
Moonlodge, which is

or abuse is given before the group; the

a special sweat for women in their Moon-

time; and Release,

whereaceremonyforadead
memberoftheFellowshipisdone
to guide their soul Back Home. Other
ceremonials that are
dreamed or envisioned by a person or group
are also
encouraged.

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7.) SUMMING UP
or unclothed at
none of the
nude.

However,

clothes are not

but interfere

A few quick ones: One can be either clothed

ceremonies, but it should be known that
Southwestern tribes did ceremonies in the
one should disrobe for the sweat lodge, as
only uncomfortable within the sweat lodge,
with the cleansing process of the lodge.

This Statement can be accepted or rejected

by individual

groupsthat
federatethemselves

withLifeway
Fellowship.But

federation can be denied to those groups who

stray too far

fromsomeofthebasicguidelines,ordoanythingthatwould
sully the reputation of the Fellowship in
general.
Hi-dicho...this is finished.
May these proceeds please Life Giver Usen',
and the Mother

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and the Father.

ENJU!
Chihacou White-Puma, 1988.

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{file "Pantacle, The (Gary Dumbauld)" "bos098.htm"}

The Pantacle - a teaching story

(c) Gary Dumbauld, 1988

the stone

Michael came, walking slowly, purposefully, to

circle deep in the woods. Stripped of clothes he

came, naked to
the wind the moon and the stars, a cord of red twice
his height
tied round his waist, a black-hilted knife at his
left hip. He
tried to still his mind, remember his lessons, push
his thoughts
to the back of his mind, and just feel; the feel of
the Earth on
which he trod, the feel of the wind on his body, the
featherweight touch of the moonlight on his skin. He tried
to put
himself in harmony with the grand design of the
Universe, the
purpose of the evening, he willed himself sternly to
master his
emotions, listen and look with sacred intent.
He came, bearing the pantacle before him,
balanced firmly on
his hands. Silver, it was, silver like the moon,
carved and
etched, polished, burnished and blackened with signs
and symbols.
How he had sweated over it, this past year, with
hammer and
chisel, graver and burin, acids and wax, the tools of
the
silversmith. A year and a day it had been, since he
was judged
worthy to become a Priest, and given this task. His
to carry,
this silver shield, but not his to own, till the rite
was over
and he, like his father and mother before him, his
aunts and
uncles and grandparents for generations, inherited by
solemn and
sacred ceremony the High Priesthood of the Wise.
her low,

The High Priestess' athame pressed to his chest,

clear voice as she asked him the ritual questions,

roused him as
from a dream, of forest dark, and woods enchanted.
He answered
her with a voice not quite fearful, but not as steady
as he would
have wished.
"I come to this Circle seeking knowledge. I am
Michael; my
face you well know; I have been sworn and initiated
into the
Third Degree, but I would now seek the Priesthood of
the Wise. I
come, bringing as my key this sacred Pantacle, over
which I have
labored for a year and a day; I wish to be instructed
in it's
true meaning; to this end I present my self, the work
of my
hands, and two passwords: Perfect Love and Perfect
Trust."

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the High

"All who bring such words are doubly welcome"

Priestess replied, "and I give to you a third

password, a kiss",
And so saying, kissed him on the lips and whirled him
sunwise
into the sacred space. He gazed about himself, his
eyes sliding
easily over the usual implements on the altar, the
candles and
wands, censer, bowls of incense and salt; he looked
at the High

Priestess expectantly.
The High Priestess spoke again, her voice
reverberating
through the circle, echoing back from the sacred
boundary stones;
"A seeker comes; this his purpose. The purpose of
the Wise--to
teach! As it has ever been, let it now so be done!
Who shall
begin?"
begin.

The Priest in the North stood forward.

Young
High Priest to be, step to the North."

"I shall

Michael walked to the North, handed the Priest

his Pantacle, and
stood silently while the Priest examined it, hoping
that his work
would be judged as correct, hoping he had made an
accurate
rendering of all the signs and symbols that he had
been shown, a
year and a day previous.
The Priest carefully examined the pantacle,
turning it about to
catch the light of the central fire, then handed it
back to the
boy.
"It is well done, all is correct.
symbol at

Look upon the

the top of the pantacle--the upright triangle. This

sign is the
symbol of fire, the flame straining upwards, and
stands for the
three-fold salute, by which I now salute you,
recognizing the
fire within you, the fire of will, the will to
accomplish, the
will to dare. A year ago you knew nothing of the
craft of the
silversmith, and yet you have taught yourself to make
this pantacle. I say again, well done!", and so saying, the
Priest
touched Michael with his athame on the right
shoulder, the top of
his head, the left shoulder, and again on the right
shoulder.

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Putting his arm around Michael's shoulder, the
Priest brought
Michael around sunwards a few steps, then faced him
again.
"The next symbol on the pantacle is a pentagram.
This

pentagram stands for the five-fold salute.

In the

form of a

pentagram with one point up, the five-fold salute

symbolizes that
which is the best man has to offer, ascending to the
Gods, being
enriched, expanded and augmented, and returning to
enrich the
life of mankind. Thus, the five fold salute
symbolizes the
microcosm of man containing the macrocosm of the
Universe."
So
saying, the Priest touched Michael with the wand, on
the right
hip, head, left hip, right breast, left breast, and
right hip.
your

A priestess stepped forward, saying, "Now, with

permission, I will carry on this candidate's

instruction." The
Priest bowed to her, and returned to his place in the
North. The
Priestess took Michael by the hand and walked with
him farther
around the circle, still moving sunwards. She
stopped, released
his hand, and faced him, taking up a bowl of blue
paint.
Stepping closer, she reached out her blue-daubed
hand, and made
the sign of the labrys on his chest.

"The next symbol on the pantacle is that of the

Goddess in

her aspect as the two moons, monthly waxing and

The
waxing moon symbolizes that which is outgoing and
constructive in
mankind, the waning moon that which is hidden and
withdrawn. The
waning moon also reminds us that for every
accomplishment there
will be failures, that for every gain in our lives
there will be
setbacks; we are not to weep and wail against the
Gods, or fate,
or karma, but we should accept that there is a
balance, and the
balance will be maintained, whether we will it or
not.
Constructive and destructive, life and death--this is
the way the
world is made; that which dies paves the way for the
next round
of life."
waning.

The Priestess linked arms with him then, and

they moved farther
sunwards about the circle. She turned to him, and
kissed him
firmly on the mouth, saying "The next symbol on the
pantacle is
the kiss. I kiss you, Michael, because we are human;
the Gods
have created us male and female. I also kiss you in
token of the
perfect love and perfect trust I have for you, and
for the
perfect love and perfect trust you declared for us
when you
entered this holy space. That is why you were
greeted by the
High Priestess with a kiss."

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394
Michael stood, blushing. He could still taste
the sweetness of
her mouth, and his body wanted to respond to her as
man to
woman--it was well he was carrying the pantacle in
front of him;
then he got himself under control, realizing the
importance of
this lesson; the ritual kiss would always be more
than a
handshake between equals, but never quite a sexual
overture; an
acknowledgement, not a demand. He sighed, composed
himself, and
looked at the next sign on the pantacle.
A stern-looking Priest came towards Michael, his
face set in grim
lines, carrying something Michael could not quite
make out. The
man faced Michael, then walked behind him, carrying
what could
now be clearly seen as a cat o'nine tails. Michael
flinched in
anticipation of being struck; surely the Priest was
not going to
whip him? Ouch! Yes he was!
"Michael," the Priest said, between strokes,
"the next sign
on the pantacle is the scourge. The scourge of
memory. Stand
tall, now, and be still, it will hurt worse if you
try to avoid
it."
Now he had stopped striking Michael with the
The welts
on his back stung and burned, but Michael tried to

scourge.
ignore the

pain and concentrate on the Priest's voice as he

continued.

"Michael, you told us at your First Degree

initiation that
you were willing to suffer to learn. This scourge
will not be
applied to your back again in a physical sense, but I
want you to
learn to look back upon your life; and take power
from the
foolish stupid things you have done. The mistakes,
the petty
jealousies, the little hurts you've inflicted on your
friends,
your parents, the people around you. Remember,
Michael, and as

you remember, allow yourself to feel sad, to feel the

pain and

embarrassment you've caused.

Feel it, take the power

from it,

then let it go! Go onward, take strength from your

past, don't
dwell on it, but don't pretend the past never
happened."
The Priest again stepped behind Michael, this
time carrying a pot
of something in his hand. Michael flinched again as
something
touched his back, but this was cool and soothing,
drawing out the
pain. The Priest waited a few moments, till he saw
that the
cooling balm had done its work, then took Michael
gently by the
hand and drew him along, ever sunwards, to explain
the next
symbol.

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395
"The next symbol on the pantacle is the sign of
the God, the
horned circle. The horned circle represents, among
other things,
the Cretan bull, annually sacrificed by our
ancestors. The bull
symbolizes the wild magic of the God, the intuitional
magic, the
magic that springs from the instinct. The Cretan
priests
sacrificed the bull, thus indicating the triumph of
reason and
intellect over instinct and intuition. We, however
are not
Cretans, and we do not immolate the bull of intuition
on the

altar of reason.

Logic and reason are fine in their

place, but

never neglect the way you feel; never forget that the
universe is
a mixture, a combination, a melding of the tangible
and the
unreal, instinct and logic. Now I must retire, your
instruction
will be completed by the High Priestess."
The High priestess approached Michael, walking
slowly,

deliberately, each foot placed with purpose, her

upright carriage
reminding him of her status, first among equals, High
Priestess
of the Coven, the Circle of the Wise.
She stepped closer. "Michael," she said, "the
last symbol on the
rim of the pantacle is the inverted triangle, the
alchemical
symbol of water; representing the number three, the
number of
life. It is a gate, a gateway of life, a gateway of
time, for
time is past, present, and future; life is body,
mind, spirit. I
am about to bestow upon you, the three-fold kiss, to
bring your
body, your past, your mind, the present, your spirit,
and the
future to bear on this moment."
So saying, she bent and kissed him, first on the
right shoulder,
then the left; kneeling she kissed him just above the
phallus,
and then on his right shoulder again.
"Michael, you have now passed around the rim of
the

pantacle, let us now move to the center, and I will

instruct you
in the meaning of the central pentagram. The
pentagram in the
center of the pantacle is the sign of mankind. If I
stand thus,
with feet apart, hands stretched to the winds, head
erect, the
pentagram will enclose my body. We therefore can
observe that
the pentagram in the center of the pantacle
represents mankind in
the center of the universe, surrounded by Goddess and
God;
blessings and reminders; past, present and future;
good memories
and bad; light and life, love and law. The central
pentagram

therefore can serve as a reminder to us, that the

Universe was
NOT made for man, man was made for the Universe."

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She knelt at his feet, smiling, and kissed him,
first on the
left foot, then the right, saying, "I bless your
feet, Michael,
that have brought you in these ways, reminding you to
be ever
ready to go on foot, to help, protect, and defend the
brothers
and sisters of the Wise."
She kissed his knees, saying, "I bless your
knees, reminding
you to ever go on bent knee in humility when
supplicating the
Deities, that one who knows his own worth will gladly
kneel in
order to learn."
consecrate

She kissed his phallus, and said, "I bless and

the organ of generation, that in time you may know

that love is
the great teacher of equality; love is the prime
example of man
and woman as equals; two beings, alike in all ways,
equal in all
ways, but totally different; one incomplete without
the other;
forever opposite, but forever complimentary.
Indiscriminate sex
will gain you nothing, Michael, for though sex is
magic, love is
the magician."

She kissed his right and left breast, saying "I

bless your

breast, and remind you to keep within the safe

repository of the
breast, the secrets of the Wise, as if under lock and
key."
Then she kissed him on the mouth, and said, "I

bless your

mouth, Michael; henceforth, as a High Priest, you

will be a

teacher, and the words of your mouth, based in

knowledge,

leavened with intuition and instinct, uttered with

magical will,
shall live in the memory of the Wise. Go forward,
make your
progress, High Priest and Magus!

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{file "Chaos Magic (Mark Chao)" "bos099.htm"}

Defining Chaos
By: Mark Chao

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Introduction
*
Chaos, according to the `Oxford English
Dictionary' means:
1. A gaping void, yawning gulf, chasm, or abyss.
2. The `formless void' of primordial matter,
`great deep' or
'abyss' out of which the cosmos or order of the
universe was evolved.

the

There are a couple of additional

definitions, but they are
irrelevant
to this discussion. When chaos is used in magic,
there is no place
for
confusion or disorder.
Chaos is the creative principle behind all magic.
When a magical
ritual is performed, regardless of `tradition' or
other variables in
the
elements of performance, a magical energy is
created and put into
motion to
cause something to happen.
In his book,
`Sorcery as Virtual
Mechanics',
Stephen Mace cites a scientific precedent for this
creative principle.
I quote:
"To keep it simple, let us confine our
example to just two
electrons,
the pointlike carriers of negative charge. Let us
say they are a part
of the solar wind--beta particles, as it were-streaming out from the
sun at thousands of miles a second.
Say that
these two came close
enough that their negative charges interact, causing
them to repel one
another. How do they accomplish this change in
momentum?
"According to quantum electrodynamics, they do it
by exchanging
a "virtual" photon. One electron spawns it, the
other absorbs it, and
so do they repel each other.
The photon is
"virtual" because it
cannot be seen by an outside observer, being wholly
contained in the
interaction.
But it is real enough, and the
emission and absorption
of virtual photons is how the electromagnetic
interaction operates.
"The question which is relevant to our purpose
here is where does

the photon come from. It does not come out of one

electron and lodge
in the other, as if it were a bullet fired from one
rock into another.
The electrons themselves are unchanged, except
for their momenta.
Rather, the photon is created out of nothing by
the strain of the
interaction. According to current theory, when the
two electrons come
close their waveforms interact, either cancelling
out or reinforcing
one another.
Waveforms are intimately tied to characteristics like
electric charge,
and we could thus expect the charges on the two
electrons to change.
But electron charge does not vary; it is
always 1.602 x (-19)
coulombs. Instead the virtual photons appear out
of the vacuum and
act to readjust the system.
The stress spawns
them and by their
creation is the stress resolved".

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398
Austin Spare understood this principle in regard to
magical phenomena
long before scientists discovered photons or began
experiments in the
area of chaos science.
Austin Osman Spare-some history
*
Austin Spare was born at midnight, Dec. 31st,
1886 in a London
suburb called Snow Hill. His father was a London
policeman, often on
night duty.
Spare showeda natural talent for drawing at an
early age, and in
1901-1904 left school to serve an apprenticeship in
a stained-glass
works,
but continued his education at Art College in
Lambeth. In 1904 he won
a
scholarship to the Royal College of Art.
In
that year he also

exhibited a picture in the Royal Academy for the

first time.
In 1905 he published his first book, `Earth
It was
primarily
meant to be a book of drawings, but included
commentaries that showed
some of his insight and spiritual leanings.
John Singer Sargent
hailed him as a genius at age 17.
At an
unspecified time in his
adolescence, Spare was initiated into a witch
cult by a sorceress
named Mrs. Patterson, whom Spare referred to as his
"second mother".
In 1908 he held an exhibition at Bruton Gallery. In
1910 he spent a
short time as a member of the Golden Dawn. Becoming
disenchanted with
them, he later joined Crowley's Argentum Astrum.
The association did
not last long.
Crowley was said to have
considered Spare to be a
Black Magician. In 1909 Spare began creation
of the `Book of
Pleasure'.
In 1912 his reputation was growing
rapidly in the art
world. In 1913 he published the `Book of Pleasure'.
It is considered
to be his most important magical
work, and
includes detailed
instructions for his system of sigilization and the
"death postures"
that he is well known for.
1914-1918 he served as
an official war
artist. He was posted to Egypt which had a great
effect on him. In
1921, he published `Focus of Life', another book of
drawings with his
unique and magical commentaries.
Inferno'.

In 1921-1924 Spare was at the height of his

artistic success, then,
in 1924 he published the `Anathema of Zos', in
which he effectively
excommunicated himself from his false and trendy
artistic "friends"
and benefactors.
He returned to South London and
obscurity to find
the freedom to develop his philosophy, art and magic.

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In 1947 Spare met Kenneth Grant and became
actively involved with
other well-known occultists of the period. In 19481956 he began work
on a
definitive Grimoire of the Zos Kia Cultus, which is
referred to in his
various writings.
This is unfinished and being
synthesized from
Spare's papers by Kenneth Grant, who inherited all
of Spare's papers.
Much of this information was included in `Images and
Oracles of Austin
Osman Spare' by Kenneth Grant, but there are some
unpublished works
which Grant plans to publish after completion of his
Typhonian series.
References for this section are mostly from
Christopher Bray's
introduction to `The Collected Works of Austin Osman
Spare' and from
`Excess Spare', which is a compilation by TOPY of
photocopied articles
about Spare from various sources.
The Magic of Austin Osman Spare
*
Spare's art and magic were closely related. It is
reputed that
there are messages in his drawings about his magical
philosophy. One
particular picture of Mrs. Patterson has reportedly
been seen to move;
the eyes opening and closing.
Spare is best known
for his system of
using sigils.
Being an artist, he was very visually
oriented.
The system basically consists of writing down the
desire, preferably
in your own magical alphabet, eliminating all
repeated letters, then
forming a design of the remaining single letters.
The sigil must then
be charged. There is a variety of specific ways to
do this, but the

key element is to achieve a state of "vacuity"

be done
through exhaustion, sexual release or several other

which can
methods.

This creates a `vacuum' or `void' much like the

condition described
in the introduction to this discussion, and it is
filled with the
energy of the magician.
The sigil, being now
charged, must be
forgotten so that the sub-conscious mind may work
on it without the
distractions and dissipation of energy that the
conscious mind is
subject to. Spare recognized that magic comes from
the sub-conscious
mind of the magician, not some outside `spirits' or
`gods'.
Christopher Bray has this to say about Spare's
methods in his
introduction to `The Collected Works of Austin Osman
Spare':
"So in his art and writing, Spare is putting us in
the mood; or
showing by example what attitude we need to adopt to
approach the
`angle of departure of consciousness in order to
enter the infinite.
What pitch of consciousness we need to gain success.
"One must beware making dogma, for Spare went to
great pains to
exclude it as much as possible to achieve
success in his magic;
however a
number of basic assumptions underpin chaos magic.
"Chaos is the universal potential of creative
force, which is
constantly engaged in trying to seep through
the cracks of our
personal and
collective
realities.
It
is
the
power
of
Evolution/Devolution.

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400
"Shamanism is innate within every one of us and
can be tapped if

we qualify by adjusting our perception/attitude and

being
ready to accept the spontaneous. Achieving Gnosis,
or hitting the
`angle of departure of consciousness and time', is a
knack rather
than a skill."
making our

There are other methods to utilize the same

concept that Spare
explains for us. Magicians since Spare have
written about their own
methods and explanations of his method quite
frequently in occult
magazines, mostly in Great Britain. Spare is
certainly not the first
person in history to practice this sort of magic,
but he is the one
who has dubbed it (appropriately), Chaos.
Chaos since A.O.S.
*
Austin Spare died May 15, 1956, but his magic did
not die with
him. There have been select groups of magicians
practicing versions
of Chaos
ever since, especially in Northern England and
Germany. In 1976, a
couple of dozen Chaos Magicians, including Peter J.
Carroll and Ray
Sherwin, announced the formation of a new
magical Order,
the
Illuminates Of Thanateros. The intention of the
group was to have an
Order where degrees expressed attainment rather
than authority, and
hierarchy beyond just organizational requirements was
non-existent.
There are those who say that this lofty ambition has
failed and that
the Order has since slipped into a hierarchical
power structure; Ray
Sherwin "excommunicated" himself for this reason,
but the Order
continues and
is identified
as the only
international Chaos
organization to date.
The IOT has since spread to America. There are
smaller groups
of Chaos practitioners, as well as individuals
practicing alone.
Chaos since Spare has taken on a life of its own.
It will always
continue to grow, that is its nature.
It was
only natural that
eventually the world of science would begin to
discover the physical

principles underlying magic, although the

scientists who are making
these discoveries still do not realize that this
is what they are
doing. It is interesting that they have had the
wisdom to call it
chaos science...
In the abovw part of my series on Chaos, I've made
scant reference to
the IOT due to lack of information, however, in
typical Murphy's Law
fashion, a letter just arrived filling in some
blank spots and
pointing out to me that I made one mistake in
chronology. The story
goes;
In 1977/78 Ray Sherwin was editor and publisher of a
magazine called
`The New Equinox', which Pete Carroll was a regular
contributor to.
Unsatisfied with the choices of available magical
groups in England
at the time, they formed the IOT. They advertised
in `New Equinox'
and the
group formed and progressed as previously
explained.
Ray Sherwin
dropped out before Pete Carroll went on to form `The
Pact'. They are
still friends, and
Pete has graciously
consented to write an
introduction to Ray's newest edition of `The Book
of Results' which
will be available through TOPY soon.

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Chaos Science
*
Modern chaos science began in the 1960's when a
handful of openminded scientists with an eye for pattern
realized that simple
mathematical
equations fed into a computer could model
patterns every bit as
irregular and "chaotic" as a waterfall.
They were
able to apply this
to weather patterns, coastlines, all sorts of
natural phenomena.
Particular equations would result in pictures
resembling specific

types of leaves, the possibilities were

incredible.
Centers and
institutes were founded to specialize in "nonlinear dynamics" and
"complex systems." Natural phenomena, like the red
spot of Jupiter,
could now be understood. The common catch-terms that
most people have
heard by now; strange attractors, fractals, etc.,
are related to the
study of turbulence in nature. There is not room
to go into these
subjects in depth here, and I recommend that those
who are interested
in this subject read `Chaos: making a new science' by
James Gleick and
`Turbulent Mirror' by John Briggs & F. David Peat.
What we are concerned with here is how all this
relates to magic.
Many magicians, especially Chaos Magicians, have
begun using these
terms,
"fractal" and
"strange attractor",
in
their everyday
conversations.
Most of those who do this have some understanding of
the relationship
between magic and this area of science.
To put
it very simply, a
successful magical act causes an apparently
acausal result.
In
studying turbulence, chaos scientists have realized
that apparently
acausal phenomena in nature are not only the norm,
but are measurable
by simple mathematical equations. Irregularity is
the stuff life is
made of.
For example, in the study of
heartbeat rhythms and
brain-wave patterns, irregular patterns are
measured from normally
functioning organs, while steady, regular
patterns are a direct
symptom of a heart attack about to occur, or an
epileptic fit.
Referring back again to "virtual" photons, a
executed
magical
release of energy
creates a "wave form"
(visible by Kirlian
photography) around the magician causing turbulence
in the aetheric
space. This turbulence will likely cause a result,
preferably as the
magician has intended. Once the energy is released,
control over the
phenomena is out of the magician's hands, just as
once the equation
has been fed into the computer, the design follows
the path set for
properly

it.
The scientists who are working in this area would
scoff at this
explanation, they have no idea that they are in
the process of
discovering the physics behind magic.
But then,
many common place
sciences of today, chemistry for example, were once
considered to be
magic. Understanding this subject requires, besides
some reading, a
shift in thinking.
We are trained from an early
age to think in
linear terms, but nature and the chaos within it are
non-linear, and
therefore require non-linear thinking to be
understood. This sounds
simple, yet it reminds me of a logic class I had in
college. We were
doing simple Aristotelian syllogisms. All we had
to do was to put
everyday language into equation form. It sounds
simple,and it is.

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process.
dropped

However, it requires a non-linear thought

During that
lesson
over the space of a week, the class size
from 48 to 9
students.

The computer programmers were the first to drop out.

Those of us
who survived that section went on to earn high
grades in the class,
but more importantly, found that we had achieved a
permanent change in
our thinking processes. Our lives were changed by
that one simple
shift of perspective.
Chaos science is still in the process of
discovery, yet magicians
have been applying its principles for at least as
long as they have
been writing about magic. Once the principles of
this science begin
to take hold on the thinking process, the magician
begins to notice

everything from the fractal patterns in smoke rising

from a cigarette
to the patterns of success and failure in magical
workings, which
leads to an understanding of why it has succeeded or
failed. There is
a diagram of a fractal design on the cover of `Kaos'
magazine #11 (now
out of print) that would be a wonderful example of
magic at work and
the many paths that the energy may follow...
Defining Chaos Magic
*
Chaos is not in itself, a system or philosophy.
It is rather an
attitude that one applies to one's magic and
philosophy.
It is the
basis for all magic, as it is the primal creative
force.
A Chaos
Magician learns a variety of magical techniques,
usually as many as
s/he can gain access to, but sees beyond the systems
and dogmas to the
physics behind the magical force and uses
whatever methods are
appealing to him/herself.
Chaos does not come with a specific Grimoire or even
a prescribed set
of
ethics. For this reason, it has been dubbed "left
hand path" by some
who
choose not to understand that which is beyond their
own chosen path.
There is no set of specific spells that are
considered to be `Chaos
Magic spells'. A Chaos Magician will use the same
spells as those of
other paths, or those of his/ her own making. Any
and all methods and
information are valid, the only requirement is
that it works.
Mastering the role of the sub- conscious mind in
magical operations is
the crux of it, and the state called "vacuity" by
Austin Osman Spare
is the road to that end. Anyone who has
participated in a successful
ritual has experienced some degree of the `high'
that this state
induces.
An understanding of the scientific principles
behind magic does
not necessarily require a college degree in
physics (although it
wouldn't hurt much, if the linear attitude drilled
into the student
could be by-passed), experience in magical results
will bring the

necessary understanding.