Modernity, Selfhood, and the Demonic: Anthropological Perspectives on "Chaos Magick" in the United Kingdom
Goldsmiths January 1, 2003 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.25602/gold.00028683 via OpenAlex 3 citations
Summary
Practitioners of Chaos magick, a form of magical practice that emerged in the UK in the late 1970s, use trance states to access an indeterminate ground of being called 'Chaos,' which they believe they can reshape according to their desires. Merging with spirit possession therapeutics, these practices aim to render visible and control the 'demons' of the psyche—socially inculcated fears, desires, and behaviors. The demonic is an ambivalent category that mirrors the uncertain experience of modernity; possession can be positively valued as a source of creativity and self-empowerment, allowing practitioners to construct contingent self-narratives.
Study at a glance
| Design | ethnography |
|---|---|
| Population | practitioners of Chaos magick in London (1997-2001) |
| Key finding | The Chaos magick subculture, rather than resisting modernity, recapitulates many of its core values and assumptions, shaping practitioners' sense of selfhood to the social, economic, and ideological requirements of late modernity. |
Abstract
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 known as "Chaos". Within trance, Chaos magicians believe that they are able to transform both their perception and the substance of the world by magically reshaping the Chaos force in accordance with their own desires. Merged with the therapeutics of spirit possession, such practices also aim to render visible and subject to control the "demons" of the psyche - conceived of as the socially-inculcated fears, desires and patterns of behaviour which "possess" the magician's persona. I show that, for Chaos magicians, the demonic represents a highly ambivalent category through which the equally ambivalent and uncertain experience of modernity is mirrored and made explicable. Possession by alien and demonic powers may also be positively valued as a source of "creativity" and self-empowerment, allowing practitioners to construct contextual and contingent narratives of the self - narratives commensurable with the uncertainties and insecurities of their daily lives. I also demonstrate that the broadly therapeutic goals of Chaos magick are indented within a set of discursive practices that shape practitioners' sense of selfhood to the social, economic and ideological requirements of late modernity. As a consequence, the thesis challenges prior anthropological conceptions of the contemporary magical subculture as a subaltern discourse engaged in resisting the rationalising and alienating effects of modem consumer capitalism; in doing so, the thesis demonstrates that this subculture is neither "Irrational" nor "pre-modern", but does in fact recapitulate many of the core values and assumptions of modernity.