Arcanorium College

Basic Chaos Magick

in theory and practice
Introduction
This course covers a few of the elementary aspects of traditional Chaos Magick. As
such it should prove suitable for those of all levels of experience, although it is aimed
at those who have just begun to explore this way of engaging with their lives.
We shall explore divination, enchantment, evocation, and invocation. Each area will
have some material, posted monthly, which you can address at your own speed. If
anyone wants to join in at a later date, or only engage with some of these topics,
please do, although the course does build over the months into a complete structure.
I hope that this flexible approach will allow for a more in depth approach, and allow
plenty of time to fully engage with the topics.
Please start a diary thread for yourself in this board. I shall respond to your posts at
least once a week, but not on a daily basis.
The course does not use spooky occult style language, as my approach to it relies on
mundane methodology, drawing on experiential activities and common cultural
sources. If you prefer more eldritch stylings, feel free to insert appropriate adjectives,
and references to arcane names

Before we start the main meat of the course, here is some material on banishings I
provided in a course five years ago, for anyone who would like to engage with this
necessary skillset first.
Arcanorium College Basic Chaos Magick Nikki Wyrd

Banishing
Hekas! Hekas! Este Bebelloi! (Greek for Get Out! Begone! You thing that doesn't
belong! - it can also be plural, and means something like profane things, they are
profane in the sense that they don't belong in the sacred space...)

Banishing Theory

What is a banishing ritual for? What does it banish? Well, they occur at the start and
end of every magickal act, marking apart the space the magician enters when casting
spells or whatever act of magick one does. Defining in spacetime and psychological
headspace a realm of The Other, where everything is permitted. By setting aside
explicitly the spacetime for an act of magick, the practitioner can engage fully with the
paradigm that Magick Works, whilst holding on to the everyday sanity of whatever
they can justify as normality to those around them.

From a more magickal perspective, looking out from within the magick circle, the
banishing ritual prevents mundane worries, metaphysical entities and influences,
magickal interference, from intruding into your sanctuary. As the ancient Greeks put
it, Apo pantos, kako daimonos!

So a good banishing ritual needs some basic components. Rather than me just tell you
what I think those are, lets get some feedback. To guide you, think about these
questions:

1. What defines a space/time threshold?

2. Does this banishing need to have a physical form? What do you personally think?
Which senses have the strongest influence on how you feel?

3. What are you, specifically, trying to banish for a given ritual (e.g. would the
banishing for a Venus rite be different to that of a Mars rite?)

4. Last but not least; which banishing rituals have you tried, have you used
prefabricated ones or written your own?

Please add any other comments or questions for any of the rest of the group to
address as well.

I look forward to reading your answers.

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Arcanorium College Basic Chaos Magick Nikki Wyrd

Banishing practice

Some of us have much experience of varied rituals, others have only tried a couple up
to now; Id like each of us to find one banishing ritual we havent done before from an
existing/traditional source, and also construct a quick portable banishing for use in
situations where a Star Ruby might not be convenient...

The reasons are as follows:

Traditional banishing. Regardless of the relative complexity of an older ritual (and they
often are!), the power of using a tried and tested methodology can add to the belief
invested and therefore the power of, the banishing rite. Additionally they have been
refined by people over the years, and have the benefit of someone else working out
the flaws and removing extraneous material. From a magickal perspective, they have a
track record of keeping nasties at bay, and use ancient words and gestures with
inherent effectiveness.

Pick a tradition you like, and then look for a banishing ritual (for now well stick with
opening rituals) that you havent done before. If its fairly simple to memorise, do so,
but if not feel free for the purposes of this exercise to use a crib sheet if necessary.
We want to try out an existing rite in order to examine how it places its cues of
entering another space, how it prepares the magician to act magickally, how it tells
the realms of the Other to let in the helpful and banish the unhelpful spirits/etc.

Self-made banishing. Here Id like to see each of us use the insights weve gained from
the previous work to construct a short and sweet banishing by conjuring up within
ourselves the sensations caused to us (as individuals) by crossing mundane thresholds,
and those felt when entering magickal consciousness.

The techniques used here could be anything you feel most useful; for me I know that
changing the field of my gaze puts me into a light trance pretty instantly, so Id
include at least one gesture that would make my eyes have to engage the 180o stare
(by for example spreading my arms wide, which can be disguised as a simple
stretching movement if in public). Id also add in a word or sound which I had
anchored to previously existing magickal states of consciousness, and maybe take
along a bottle of oil, or scented leaf that I could use as a smell changing tool. For me
the key movement to crossing a threshold is the sensation of stepping onto a different
level floor, so Id pick a place where a step existed that I could use to perform this
motion, or at the very least, take a step forward with great attention.

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Arcanorium College Basic Chaos Magick Nikki Wyrd

Having gathered these and whatever other cues we think are most suggestive, they
need to be put together in a way that flows, and makes sense magickally. If you wish
to keep the exact rite a secret, in proper occult fashion, please do and just report back
on your experiences and observations of doing the exercise rather than a detailed
description of your rite.

Good luck with these two tasks, for those who choose to go with these exercises, I
want to see reports of at least one full performance of each of these! Practice runs are
of course encouraged too

N.B. the definition of 'traditional' lies entirely with you.