A brief note
I was recently invited to be a guest at Pete Carroll’s Arcanorium College by an acquaintance on Myspace. I’m checking it out and it is interesting to see what Pete Carroll is up to.
The person who invited me identified me as a chaos magician. I’ve been given that label a number of times and my work has been described as chaos magic as well. I want to set the record straight.
I have never considered myself, nor ever will, to be a chaos magician. While I certainly draw on the techniques and concepts espoused in chaos magic, I’ve also drawn on a variety of other esoteric practices that continue to inform my work to this day. Nonetheless, I don’t consider myself to be a ceremonial magician, a neoshamanist, a quabbalist, or any number of other labels one could foist on me.
I recognize that it’s convenient to label me as one of those labels, just as I recognize it’s convenient to label my work as one of those labels. After all those labels come with ready made definitions and the ability for others to identify with my practices…
BUT…
Speaking for myself and for my work, let me tell you that if I Label myself anything, it is as an experimental magician. That’s my current, that’s what my work could be labeled under, and it is what I identify with. If you wish to know more about what I think that entails, I direct you to my article, The Evolution of Magic.
I”d be very interested to hear what you Experience as a guest at the Arcamorium. Hopefully you’ll even post about it somewhere…
Yeah, funny. I’m only recently now realizing that no one label really fits me, because I’ve cast my net very wide when it comes to interests and skills development. I could come up with many different labels, but they would only describe parts, and not the whole.
Mythicanine
That’s exactly it! Even the label experimental magician really only describes the direction of my spirituality. I don’t think it encompasses everything in my life. Labels can narrow so much of the experience that one could have…