Chaos Magic
Βασίλειος Μελετιάδης
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) October 5, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23153119 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Chaos magick |
| Key points | Argues that Chaos Magic, founded in late-1970s Leeds by Ray Sherwin and Peter Carroll, is characterized by a relativism of belief and a pragmatism that values results over truth, with practitioners pursuing altered states of consciousness ("gnosis") to work magic. The text contends the movement spread via zines and early online chatrooms to Germany in the mid-1980s and the United States by the end of the decade, and notes that self-identifying "Chaoists" are probably few even where practices are popular. |
Abstract
Chaos Magic is a new religious movement whose development is primarily connected to the city of Leeds, UK in the late 1970s. It was the brainchild of two unknown at the time occultists, Ray Sherwin and Peter Carroll, who, being inspired by an array of figures and movements that included Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Robert Anton Wilson and the new religious movement Discordianism, went on to found the first Chaos Magic group, the Illuminates of Thanateros. Coinciding with the breakthrough of the broader punk subculture in the UK, chaos magic eschewed imposed order, promoted the deconstruction of established beliefs and norms and attempted to reshape them in new provocative ways. Its key figures advocated a form of relativism of belief, in which personal faith can also be aimed at fictional figures drawn from novels, films and even board games. What really mattered was not the belief itself but whether it could induce or contribute to an altered state of consciousness (gnosis) through which the practitioner was able to alter reality i.e. do magic. As the absolute merging of pragmatism with occultism, practitioners valued results over truth (which was seen as socially constructed and imposed) and experience over theory, despite the fact that they produced plenty of the latter. These approaches to reality and magical practice were encapsulated in their favorite motto, "nothing is true; everything is permitted". There is a hint of sarcasm and cynicism in that phrase; a reminder that Chaos Magic practitioners, or Chaoists, never took their system too seriously. Practitioners of Chaos Magic communicated through a small network of zines and underground periodicals during the 1980s and then via the first online chatrooms in the 1990s. The movement spread to Germany in the mid-1980s, then to the United States by the end of the decade. Today Chaos Magic practices are popular amongst many solitary pracitioners of occultism and magic in Europe, even if they do not identify as Chaoists themselves (the number of self-identifying Chaoists is probably quite low). Smaller numbers of practitioners are found in Brazil and Japan.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on chaos magick, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Signature and the Sigil: Fortean Biography, Chaos Magick, and a Metabiographical Approach to Proper Names in Jonathan Downes's The Owlman and Others | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Digital Sigil Magick: The relevance of sigil magick in contemporary art and culture | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |