A contemporary esoteric practice built on induced altered states and belief as a deliberate instrument, studied by religious-studies and psychology scholarship.
28 articles · 8 from the last two years
Common study designs
ethnography
1
historical analysis
8
observational cohort
1
theoretical or philosophical paper
13
historical-comparative review with directed content analysis and critical discourse analysis
1
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...
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...
In 1969 German artist Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) created a large canvas with one black corner and a typed message reading ‘Höhere Wesen befahlen: rechte obere Ecke schwarz malen!' (‘Higher beings command: paint the upper right corner black!').
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...
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...
The article examines mystical elements within the Ancient Egyptian tradition. In Ancient Egyptian culture, mysticism was viewed not merely as a collection of religious rituals, but as an esoteric system that clarified the structure of the universe and man's place within the spiritual hierarchy. For the first time, the idea that chosen individuals could achieve enlightenment (attaining secret...
This essay asks why people read personhood into machines, and what else have we attributed personhood through cultures in history. The argument is made between philosophy, anthropology and psychiatry. It treats Turing's imitation game as a test of the observer, sets Searle's Chinese Room against Hilary Putnam's multiple realizability, and reads the personhood trials that science fiction has...
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 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...
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...