Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic - Peter J. Carroll 1987

Liber LUX

BEING THE INITIATE 3° Syllabus of the Magical Order of the Illuminates of Thanateros in White Magic, the subject is divided in accordance with the schema shown in figure 3, and we discuss the theoretical aspects of Chaos, Kia, Duality, Aether, and Mind.

Duality describes humanity's usual condition. Happiness exists only because of misery, pain because of comfort, good because of evil, yang because of yin, black because of white, birth because of death, and existence because of non-existence. All phenomena must be paired, as the senses are only equipped to perceive differences. The thinking mind has the property of splitting everything it encounters into two, as it is a dualistic thing itself. Yet there is a part of man which is of a singular nature, although the mind is unable to perceive it as such. Man considers himself a center of will and a center of perception. Will and perception are not separate but only appear so to the mind. The unity which appears to the mind to exert the twin functions of will and perception is called Kia by magicians. Sometimes it is called the spirit, or soul, or life force, instead.

Figure 3. The schema of Liber Lux.

Kia cannot be experienced directly because it is the basis of consciousness (or experience), and it has no fixed qualities which the mind can latch on to. Kia is the consciousness, it is the elusive “I” which confers self-awareness but does not seem to consist of anything itself. Kia can sometimes be felt as ecstacy or inspiration, but it is deeply buried in the dualistic mind. It is mostly trapped in the aimless wanderings of thought and in identification with experience and in that cluster of opinions about ourselves called ego. Magic is concerned with giving the Kia more freedom and flexibility and with providing means by which it can manifest its occult power. Kia is capable of occult power because it is a fragment of the great life force of the universe.

Consider the world of apparent dualisms we inhabit. The mind views a picture of this world in which everything is double. A thing is said to exist and exert certain properties. Being and Doing. This calls for the concepts of cause and effect or causality. Every phenomenon is seen to be caused by some previous thing. However this description cannot explain how everything exists in the first place or even how one thing finally causes another. Obviously things have originated and do continue to make each other happen. The “thing” responsible for the origin and continued action of events is called Chaos by magicians. It could as well be called God or Tao, but the name Chaos is virtually meaningless, and free from the childish, anthropomorphic ideas of religion.

Chaos is also the force which adds increasing complexity to the universe by spawning structures which were not inherent in its component parts. It is the force which has caused life to evolve itself out of dust, and is currently most concentratedly manifest in the human life force, or Kia, where it is the source of consciousness.

Kia is but a small fragment of the great life force of the universe, which contains the twin impulses to immerse itself in duality and to escape from duality. It will continuously reincarnate until the first impulse is exhausted. The second impulse is the root of the mystic quest, the union of the liberated spirit with the great spirit. To the extent that the Kia can become one with Chaos it can extend its will and perception into the universe to accomplish magic.

Between Chaos and ordinary matter, and between Kia and the mind, there exists a realm of half formed substance called Aether. It is dualistic matter but of a very tenuous, probabilistic nature. It consists of all the possibilities which Chaos throws out which have not yet become solid realities. It is the “medium” by which the “non-existent” chaos translates itself into “real” effects. It forms a sort of backdrop out of which real events and real thoughts materialize. Because aetheric events are only partially evolved into dualistic existence, they may not have a precise location in space or time. They may not have a precise mass or energy either, and so do not necessarily affect the physical plane. It is from the bizarre and indeterminate nature of the aetheric plane that Chaos gets its name, for Chaos cannot be known directly.

From the aetheric realm of nascent possibility only what we call sensible, causal, probable, or normal events usually come into existence. Yet as centers of Kia or Chaos ourselves, we can sometimes call very unlikely coincidences or unexpected events into existence by manipulating the aether. Such is magic. Even the physical sciences have begun to blunder into the aetheric with their discoveries of quantum indeterminacy and virtual processes in subatomic matter.

It is the aether, which surrounds the central core of the life force, with which the magician is concerned. Its normal function is as a Kia-thought intermediary, yet its properties are so infinitely mutable that almost anything can be accomplished with it. Thought gives it shape and Kia gives it power.

Thus are will and perception extended into areas of time and space beyond the physical limitations of the material body.

It is the very mutability of the aetheric which has given rise to such a bewildering variety of magical activity and supportive thought forms all over the universe. The differences, however, are only superficial. When stripped of local symbolism and terminology, all systems show a remarkable uniformity of method. This is because all systems ultimately derive from the tradition of Shamanism.

It is toward an elucidation of this tradition that the following chapters are devoted.