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Chaos magick

A contemporary esoteric practice built on induced altered states and belief as a deliberate instrument, studied by religious-studies and psychology scholarship.

23 articles · 5 from the last two years

Common study designs

ethnography 1 historical analysis 5 observational cohort 1 theoretical or philosophical paper 12 historical-comparative review with directed content analysis and critical discourse analysis 1

The Signature and the Sigil: Fortean Biography, Chaos Magick, and a Metabiographical Approach to Proper Names in Jonathan Downes's The Owlman and Others

Biography 2024 Nicholas K. Mohlmann

Abstract: Drawing on recent scholarship on metabiography, the article examines how cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes draws on subcultural ideological values to develop strategies to stabilize or destabilize the proper name in biographical discourse. Ultimately, the article argues that through paranormal concepts, Downes enacts a theory of the biographical signature that foregrounds the uncanny...

Digital Sigil Magick: The relevance of sigil magick in contemporary art and culture

Technoetic Arts December 1, 2013 Pam Payne

Abstract Many areas of contemporary art and culture in the United States and Europe can be shown to have a direct lineage to the rich history of the Western Mystery Traditions, rooted in ancient esoteric and magical philosophies of Greece and Egypt. Video mash-ups and audio sampling have inherited the cut-up methods of Beat poets and artists, who in turn were influenced by the Surrealists and...

Modernity, Selfhood, and the Demonic: Anthropological Perspectives on "Chaos Magick" in the United Kingdom

Goldsmiths 2003 Justin Woodman 3 citations

The thesis is based upon fieldwork conducted in London (between 1997 - 2001) amongst the practitioners of "Chaos magick" -a form of magical practice which appeared in United Kingdom during the late 1970's as part of the wider neo-pagan and magical subculture. Chaos magicians utilise trance states as means of attaining an unmediated experience of the inchoate and indeterministic ground of being...

Mythic Sovereignty: Magic, Sacred Kingship, and Narrative Cosmology in Giambattista Basile’s The Pentamerone

Bodhi International Journal of Research in Humanities Arts and Science June 3, 2026 K.T. Mahaswetha, Dr. T. Ganga Parameswari

The Pentamerone (1634–1636) by Giambattista Basile is one of the first, and most important literary collection in the European fairy-tale tradition. Basile’s work is considered a precursor to later fairy-tale writers like Charles Perrault and the Grimm Brothers. His stories also preserve a much older mythic traditions shaped by ritual transformation, sacred kingship, and cosmic justice. This...

The Shaman archetype in Azerbaijani magic tales: the motifs of metamorphosis

Journal of Young Researcher 2026 Asmar Shakir Aliyeva

The article examines the vestiges of ancient shamanic worldviews within the structural and semantic framework of Azerbaijani magic tales, focusing specifically on the archetype of transformation and shape-shifting.The shaman and the dervish figure in magic tales are genealogically and functionally sacred mediators originating from the same mythic root, representing two distinct historical...

Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth: Digital Innovation and Media Experiment in a Transgressive Esoteric Order

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft December 1, 2025 Cusack M. Carole

Abstract: Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was established by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) in 1981, after the demise of Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions (the industrial band and performance art collective led by P-Orridge). Similarly, TOPY partnered with P-Orridge's next band, Psychic TV, and for ten years the two engaged with chaos magick, made art, crafted esoteric...

Occult Strategies of Spirit-Contact in Modern Practice: Diffusion and Discernment

Open Journal of Stigmatized Knowledge & Suppressed Discourses October 10, 2025 Dr. Sixbert Sangwa

Background: Twentieth-century occult manuals outlined repeatable techniques—from telepathic “impressions” to full-moon invocations—that have quietly migrated into wellness culture, algorithm-driven social media, and certain prophetic movements. Yet their historical trajectory and doctrinal implications remain under-studied. Purpose: This article traces the diffusion of those spirit-contact...

Write a Rite!

April 22, 2025 Aaron Michael Ullrey

Constructive imagination is a pedagogical method where students, in a structured manner, generate mental experiences by imagining course contents—magic rituals in the course I describe here—and these mental experiences are then used in creative non-fiction writing. Treated in this chapter are two writing prompts accompanied by summaries of and quotes from student writing and feedback: “Write a...