Let's assume that you've read around the Kite's Cradle and you like what you've found,
at least enough to actually do magic rather than just read about it.
Here we offer a basic pack of materials for you to begin practice Chaos Magic
especially if you are considering joining the Illuminates of Thanateros.
No you don't have to join, not even to access these resources
but consider this a recommendation from the Kite to you.
We recommend you learn a couple of banishing rituals. The IoT devised the Gnostic Ritual of the Pentagram. Get it HERE
The Book, as they call it, gives essential background on the IoT, history and structure, and gives contacts. Download it from the Illuminates of Thanateros British Isles website HERE
Read Grant Morrison's essays on Pop Magic!
Simple, clear, based on experience.
Get Phil Hine's book Condensed Chaos, a most readable and info-packed introduction to chaos magic. I consider this the get-started book.
Please note:
Someone published Liber MMM online, taking it from Peter J. Carroll's book Liber Null & Psychonaut.
Someone also published The Gnostic Ritual of the Pentagram online, taking it from Pete's book Liber Kaos.
While I make those copies available here for your benefit,
out of respect for Pete and for your further information may I recommend most strongly that you go and buy these books.
Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J Carroll.
Two series of terse essays giving general lines of chaos magic. The first outlines the grade syllabuses of the Illuminates of Thanateros, the second concerns itself more with groupwork and further elucidation of the first.
Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine.
Superb introduction to the practice of chaos magic. Where Liber Null apppears like a collection of pronouncements, out of context, Condensed Chaos fleshes out the magical attitude and practice from the author’s own vast experience of both doing magic and giving workshops on it. All presented with a down-to-earth sense of humour.
Prime Chaos by Phil Hine.
A companion volume to the above, with more depth and many more things to make and do. Much useful stuff on the practicalities of magical groups.
Liber Kaos by Peter J Carroll.
Here the author attempts a Chaos Magic Theory. While the mathematical metaphor doesn’t come off for me, the sections on the eight magics and the appendices, especially Liber KKK, provide a paradigm template which helps to structure one’s understanding of the otherwise confusing morass of approaches to magic.
Visual Magick by Jan Fries
Not so much a chaos magician as a ‘freestyle shaman.’ Originally a treatise on how to do sigils, this book grew in the telling, and encompasses a whole range of approaches from hypnosis to raising animal atavisms. Very much geared to getting up and getting sweaty by DOING magic.
Chaotopia! By Dave Lee.
Subtitled ‘Magick & Ecstasy in the PandaemonAeon,’ an update on chaos magic and a collection of essays and exercises especially those concerned with ecstatic states, from one of the major figures still very active in chaos magic.
PsyberMagick by Peter J Carroll.
Terse and provocative collection, with more of the author’s deepening preoccupation with magical physics, and plenty of more advanced magical exercises.
S.S.O.T.B.M.E. by Ramsey Dukes.
A seminal chaos magic text, treating mainly of the relationships between Science, Magic, Art and Religion, and partly responsible for steering British magic away from merely psychological techniques. Dukes, whatever pseudonym he uses, constitutes the secret weapon of chaos magic, and may I recommend all of his books.
The Book of Results by Ray Sherwin.
An excellent introduction to magic in its own right, and a valuable reminder that Pete Carroll didn’t create chaos magic on his own. A completely different approach and therefore in itself a lesson.
