Casual Friday was subsequently cancelled

Is it a meme if only four people contribute? Probably not. Doesn’t matter. So far I like Rose’s response best.

(Technically there are more than four responses but the ‘not-a-meme’ was shared via Jack’s facestalk friends and I’m not one of them because I’m all up in the twitterz instead.)

Anyway, Mr Faust asked his friends if they still considered themselves chaos magicians and -paraphrased emphasis mine- what happened to chaos magic.

So now I want my turn spinning the decks.

The whole thing actually reminds me of that famous, horrible line in X-Men (that Brian Singer apologises for in the DVD commentary): “Do you know what happens to a toad that gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.”

What Is Chaos Magic?

Chaos is the realpolitik of the gods.

That’s its difference. It’s USP. In chaos magic you will reach your goal before you find the edge of it -before you find a limit that you aren’t willing to cross.

You know all that spooky Lovecraft stuff or whatever?

That was just a roadsign, an indicator, a -dare I say it- signifier. That just says “I will do whatever it takes to reach my goal. I will fight them on the beaches of the eternal sea, I will fight them on the landing grounds of their monstrous spacecraft, I will fight them in the fields and in the streets of R’yleh…” And so on. It’s getting the win.

You know all that inclusion of modern culture/TV characters and whatever? That’s also getting the win. That’s saying I will eat the whole world entire and when I spit out the bones they will fall into the shape of the palace of my heart’s desire.

Chaos is air so cold you think ice crystals might form in your lungs and kill you.

What Is A Chaos Magician?

A Chaos magician is a thief in the British Museum of the universe. And it seems that those of us that have kept out of jail this long are the ones that either steal ethically or just break in at night to avoid the crowds.

Chaos magicians see magic the way the tragic see love.  It means never having to say you’re sorry:

This is what I’ve got. This is what’s in my little shop. I worked hard to get these items because I like them. You don’t have to like them.  You don’t have to see value in them. They may look like absolute junk to you but I have literally travelled the world sourcing them.

This is the twenty first century. You can shop absolutely anywhere you like. You are welcome to shop at Walmart if you wish. Walmart, where there are more people and better parking and everything looks familiar and the shelves are laid out so that even the absolute dimmest of souls can still find things easily.

I think my humble shop is laid out pretty well but that’s probably because I can always find what I need. Everything is free in my shop, by the way. You can pull a truck up to it if you like. You wouldn’t be the first. Actually I sincerely hope you do. It’s what it’s here for. I opened the shop so I could swap things with other shopkeepers. Everything may be free but still, In my shop I’m CEO. Bitch. Don’t need anything today sir? Fine. See you at the pointy end of the plane.

What is a chaos magician? What are you?

What Happened To Chaos Magic?

Why did chaos decline? Well, did it? The world changed. Were you expecting chaos, of all things, not to change?

Here’s how my darling Peter opens his latest book:

Every generation rewrites its theory and practice of Magic. Chaos magic updated the ancient Occult Arte during the last two decades of the 20th century. It liberated magic from its dependency on religious symbolism and theological theories about deities and spirits by demonstrating that imaginary gods and spirits have exactly the same effects as the supposedly ‘real’ ones. Thus it initiated the reformulation of magical theory and practice in terms of some of the symbolism of science, psychology, and parapsychology. Plus its own idiosyncratic symbolism went down rather well with the late crop of hippies and then the punks. The eight-rayed Chaostar looks particularly catching in chunky silver jewellery or in red paint on black leather. Today a lot them wear a discreet Octaris ring with a business suit.

Let’s close out with some popular culture here because, you know, that’s totes what we do and shit.

Ariel: You ever heard of the Masada? For two years, 900 Jews held their own against 15,000 Roman soldiers. They chose death before enslavement. The Romans? Where are they now?

Tony Soprano: You’re looking at them, asshole.

So this is what constitutes chaos magic. Today. In central London. As the sun shines down on children playing on top of a mountain of skulls. Inside a brain running on 400 milligrams of caffeine and whatever is left of last night’s champagne.

In my little shop.