A 2024 doctoral dissertation reading chaos magic as rhetoric: how a practice that frames itself as anti-authoritarian still draws on forms of authority and tradition, examined through sigil work and appeals to non-human agents. Open access via the Texas Digital Library.
Chaos Current / Topic
Technology
Techgnosis, digital practice, information theory
Erik Davis's active Substack. Ongoing dispatches on consciousness, technology, culture, and weird California at his own pace. Free posts alongside subscriber-only material.
An on-screen take on the Gysin and Sommerville dreamachine: a full-screen light that pulses at an adjustable frequency, viewed with the eyes closed to induce flicker visuals in the alpha range. Carries a photosensitive epilepsy warning.
James Ellis's long-running interview show on fringe philosophy, weird literature, accelerationism, and occulture. Reaches chaos magic through the accelerationist-occult crossover rather than directly; chaos practitioners turn up as guests.
Carroll's second major book. Covers aeonic theory, magical mathematics, and the Illuminates of Thanateros training system in detail. Full text on the Internet Archive.
Morrison's essay from Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Argues that pop culture, comics, rock stars, brands, and advertising function as contemporary sigil making and egregore building. Available in full on the Internet Archive.
Carroll's follow-up to Liber Null and Liber Kaos: short aphoristic chapters and exercises that push chaos magic theory through cybernetics, probability, and self-modification. Full text on the Internet Archive.
The long-form essay that seeded Davis's 1998 book TechGnosis. Excerpted in Flame Wars (Duke University Press, 1994). Traces the mystical and magical undercurrents running through information technology, from medieval memory arts to cyberspace.
A group chaos magic blog by Julian Vayne, Steve Dee, and Nikki Wyrd. Mixes field reports, technique pieces, and reflections on magical culture and practice in the contemporary British chaos scene.
Burroughs's short essay on the cut-up technique he developed with Brion Gysin in 1959: take written text, cut it apart, rearrange the pieces. A direct technical influence on chaos magic sigil practice and on the later work of Genesis P-Orridge and Grant Morrison. Hosted by UbuWeb.
Burroughs extends the cut-up method from the page to tape recorders and mass media, treating recorded sound as a tool for scrambling and disrupting systems of control. A 1970 companion to the cut-up work that influenced chaos magic sigil practice. Full PDF hosted by UbuWeb.
Venkatesh Rao's lay essay threading egregores, hyperstition, and chaos magic meme-work into a single readable frame. Covers Kek, GameStop, and QAnon as worked examples of collective reality-making. Public post on Rao's Contraptions Substack.
Essay arguing that artificial intelligence will emerge from the work of occult-minded computer programmers rather than from government labs or hackers. Originally published in Konton magazine; archived on the Hermetic Library. The archive tags the piece with "egregore".
Jason Louv, editor of Generation Hex and Thee Psychick Bible, in long-form conversation on magick, technology, and counterculture.