The Octavo: A Sorcerer-Scientist's Grimoire

by Peter J. Carroll

A sorceror-scientist's grimoire (Roundworld edition) Every universe potentially has its own Supreme Grimoire containing the spells which define its reality and the magic which you can perform within that reality. In this Octavo we have assembled scattered secrets for a Supreme Grimoire forRoundworld, the universe in which you're standing. To this end we have taken some inspiration from Pratchett's Discworld, and a lot from Theoretical Physics and Practical Chaos Magic. "The most original, and probably the most important, writer on Magick since Aleister Crowley." -Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy. Peter J. Carroll is one of the founders of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) which he led for a decade. He has spent thirty-seven years in research and experiment and is the author of three other books Liber Null & Psychonaut, Liber Kaos: the Psychonomicon, and Psybermagic, and The Apophenion.

Genres: Occult, Magick, Magic, Nonfiction, Esoterica

186 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2010

About the author

He maintains a personal website at www.specularium.org

and acts as Chancellor to Arcanorium College:- www.arcanoriumcollege.com

Peter Carroll began his career in Magic at London University where the Chemistry proved so tedious that he settled on a pass degree in that and an unauthorized first in Magic, with Liber Null & Psychonaut emerging as his postgraduate thesis over the next several years whilst teaching high school science.

He then set off around the world wandering in the Himalayas, building boats in India and Australia and seeking out unusual people.

Then after a stay in Yorkshire, he headed back to the Himalayas for a while again before returning to settle in the west of England to found a family and a magical order. Appalled by the compromises made by so many magi to make a living out of their writing or teaching, Carroll decided to make his fortune with a natural products business so that he could write and teach only what had value and interest for him.

Past Grandmaster of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros

Chancellor of Arcanorium College

Acting Marshall, Knights of Chaos

A Bard of Dobunni Grove


*Whilst Carroll derides the very low predictive power of natal astrology he nevertheless looks forward to his Uranus return.

Reviews

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the Octavo is kind of a rehash of some of Peter Carroll's other ideas, but at the same time is a clear extension of where he has developed those ideas to a level of sophistication that mathematically proves his points. The Octavo isn't an easy read, and I recommend doing some research into the technical jargon that Carroll uses, but underneath the jargon the reader will find a concise explanation of specific magical concepts and how those magical concepts fit into our particular universe. It's worth a read, especially for the magician who is focused on practical magical work.

[Aleksandr Lazarev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who the hell rated this book 5 stars?! Are you braindead or got paid?
Pseudo scientific money grabbing bullcrap (I didn't buy it)
I give 2 stars only for Mentioning Crowley and Levi, book is useless.
Ceremonies given have no practical goal and as author mentions should not be used for egocentric goal. So why should they be practiced at all? Book has no purpose or point.

Matematical formulas of magic seem to me as nonsense bullcrap.
First formula have two constants on one side of equation and makes no sense.
If You want see real equations just open theoretical physics book.

Ok I was too fast to criticise it, looks like it has some deep potential...maybe

Start and end ceremony with meditation

Fake it lill you make it. *nice advice, thanks*

Information we can change is limited due to small limit of quantum changability.
Material stuff needs more energy than information.
I dont think that this is valuable in any sense, since I can not change even a tiny amount of material stuff, even I can not know what happens next.

In diskworld power is 50 times larger and it can alter real objects.

Recommends Eliphas Levi
Quotes Aliester Crowley

Astral consists of wawes and fields, not of solid objects.

As light speed decreases, time goes slower. How can it help me?

Practitioner should concentrate on variant of time he wills. How?

Line of sight or physical contact can increase probability of seeing it on time line.

Photo or video is not as effective, visualization is better.


So to recap briefly: -
1) Reality exhibits a Particle - Wave duality. To a human observer the particle aspect of reality appears real and the wave reality appears virtual.
2) Wave functions spread out in space and time to create fields. Fields do not carry information as such, but rather ‘form’ or morphology. Such fields maintain physical laws and constants, they act as conservation principles in the sense that Noether implied.
3) Fields propagate at lightspeed. (But forwards or backwards in all three dimensions of time). Thus we can at least work out some of the rules of their operation.
4) Fields correlate by affinity. Fields ‘from’ an event only affect other events that have a very similar form or shared characteristics.
5) No Presence of the Past. Spells and telepathy cease once the person projecting them stops doing so. Gods who run out of followers cease to have any effect. The Morphic field of dinosaurs has ceased to exist. Protons have maintained a constant electric charge since time immemorial because we have always had plenty of them about to keep it that way.

Ok, so what?

Divine short, Enchant Long

Magick should enhance events with high probability, deviding large tasks to small tasks. Probably of enhancing small tasks with large probability is more possible than less probable events. * sounds like bullcrap to me, try to enhance roulette chances*

If event is not possible, his chances could not could be enhanced. * yes, thank you that is why its called magic*

the magician should never allow minor desires to become obsessive and interfere with the pursuit of High Magic *what is high magic?, do they pay money?*

Conscious desires tend to have a habit of only coming true once the conscious mind has forgotten about them *this is kind a truth, probably because we remember things we dreamed for, and dont count others. I'm not sure on this*

for any conjuration by taking the values of achievable Gnosis, Link, Subliminalisation, and Belief, all on a scale of 0 to 1, and multiplying them together *ok, without belief it does not work... is not a Crowley approach. Yea and what the hell is gnosis and all other crap in this equation?*

Half measures will plainly accomplish not half a result, but probably none at all.
*ok, perfect excuse if it will not work*

Thus magicians really need to give their conjurations everything they’ve got, and this often proves very hard and exhausting work. * belive and it will work... give what? *

Nothing has absolute truth, anything may prove possible. * I doubt it. *

A cupboard full of wands, robes, rings, amulets, crystals, elemental groundsleves and other technical apparatus does wonders for magical belief *yes this is exactly what I need, more useless clutter. *

As magic remains a minority belief system in most cultures magicians should conceal their ideas from hostile civilians and outwardly remain humorously dismissive of the whole concept, one may as well forestall unproductive criticism by supplying it oneself, or pass off one’s interest as merely scholarly. *Pfff..*

Plus as the real Shamans say, if you really do succeed in opening a door with a drug it will thereafter open at will and most such substances give all they will ever give on the first attempt. *drugs are bad... okk*


Yet in each case the intrinsic value lies in the amount of coherent or integrated information that a structure possesses, and to hell with political correctness, cultural relativism, and rubbish art and architecture. *why so angry? not enough money? Try magic that you are teaching.*


Conjure then, for needs if must, but preferably for opportunity and quality of experience, but never for merely more of the same. Conjure not for wealth, but for the experiences that you would spend the wealth on if you had it. Any necessary wealth will then materialise as a side effect. * It makes sense *

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For every successful artist, hero, and mystic, hundreds lie dead and forgotten, their random inspirations led to nothing more. * ok, sounds "scientific" *


The four horsemen, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death, groom their steeds. Within a few decades most of our cities and civilisation may lie in ruins as the food and the fuel run out and we slaughter each other over what little remains. This has happened many times before on local scales, it may soon happen on a global scale. * It may or most likely not, so what?, what can I do about it? It's just empty bullcrap *

The chances of advanced human civilisation surviving the twenty first century now seem to diminish with every passing year. As a species we stand in dire need of creative shocks and surprising innovations to our ways of thinking
* how do you know that? I think that humans are as powerful as ever. *


Last Kali Ceremony looks ok, but why use different language? Do You think Gods don't understand languages?! Admitting that Kali and Lilith holding similar concepts...
Memorizing mumbo-jumbo texts... Huh Really?
Maybe Ceremony can be artistic and fun like in Crowley's approach?

[Steve Cran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever world has a secret grimoire that contains the magical secrets of the world. For the Disc world, Terry Pratchett’s creation, that Grimoire is called the Octavo. Thus far Earth’s or should I say roundworld’s grimoire is yet to be be discovered. In Discworld it is buried and guarded. Roundworld’s Grimoire has only been revealed in fractured or fragmented form.

Roundworld is much different from Discworld in many ways. To name but a few, Discworld rests on the back of a turtle and is supported by 4 elephants. The Roundworld is of course a round sphere but more on that later. In Discworld the speed of light is slower and there is less causality. That makes magic more effective and more relied upon. What follows is a definite scientific grimoire that is loaded with mathematical and scientific equations along with rituals of Chaos magic.

Chaos magic is hard to define. You have to read up on it. Every Chaos magian will have a different definition of what Chaos magic is. Peter J. Carrol is a foremost Chaos magician.
His view of the universe and the gods is clear concise and understandable. The physics and science part went way over my head. I think on a deeper level the two are interconnected. I tend to think that most magicians are not too mathematically minded.

I managed to jot down a few notes, perhaps several. The first chapter dealt with the developement of magic and the mental mapping of the world. The first map was the Shamanistic and it was no more than the sky above perhaps no deeper than the first few feet of Earth. Their vision went perhaps to the next valley over. Their magic which affected the crops was simple yet effective.

The Greco Pagans had better maps ones that we would call psychology. It was a map of the inner realms or the mind. They had their mystery schools and developed and grew along with the agricultural stuff. But too many schools of thought were hard to manage so in the age of empires came about monotheism. This allowed the physical map to expand at the expense of the psychological map. Everything was monochrome good and evil. The fourth era was atheism.. This gave us a map of an awesome universe. Believing in Gods or a God became more and more difficult. The fifth era a burgeoning of magical thought divorced from religion.

Our universe is made up of three level. The first level is the microcosm which is obvious. The next is the Midocosm which is our level of things and lastly the macrocosm which is the heavens above. Our previous maps of the universe and its creation were wholly inaccurate. It is neither, flat, round or ever expanding. Rather it is in the shape of a hyper sphere. The entire universe is made up of hyperspheres that are spinning. Some in the same direction and some in the opposite. The ones that spin in the opposite direction manage to cling together. The book contains eight spells.
The author includes Chaos versions of banishing rituals and it’s view of the Gods. by the way it may be of interest to note that the author poses forward that the Gods are all imaginary but are effective tools for magic. The universe contains certain amount of randomness that can be alter and manipulated. Don’t expect miracles magic takes time on round world. Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the appendix which tells how to invoke different imaginary deities in the enochian and other languages. Enjoy the Chaos it is liberating.

[Atom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's a really exciting read and feels like someone dropping an alka-seltzer into your brain because it triggers off so many ideas and plans. Peter Carroll for those who don't know is a Chaos Magick bigwig who has written some key texts for those of us who like to prance around, make silly noises and ritually interact with the (rotating, hypercuboid) universe. Chaos Magick for those that don't know is the collision between Aleister Crowley, cyberpunk and post-material informatics.

In this book Carroll presents a grimoire (book of spells) influenced by Pratchett's Discworld and what appears to be cutting edge quantum and mathematical theory. I say appears to be because there are probably only about four people in the world who can unpack, understand and then critique the slightly intimidating algebraic formulae that form the spinal column of the work. I am rubbish at math(s) but could just about follow the arguments. However, it was less easy to verify the quantities underpinning the symbols (e.g. how do you prove that one roundworld thaum which = ten to the power of seven bits/sec has a direct bearing on the amount of magic that creates an intentional affect/effect or not?)

So, you either go with it or don't. I did. I can't wait to start translating the ideas in this book into action(s).

Recommended; especially if you've ever wondered or wanted to know what contemporary occultism looks like in the 21st century. Worth reading alongside Carroll's other wonderful book The Apophenion which sets the scene for this blockbuster of a mind-melt!

[Anton Channing · Rating 1 out of 5]

Carroll is more tedious and opinionated than usual in his latest tome. The book is little more than half hearted psuedo science with pretensions of intellectualism interspersed with magical tidbits because he knows no actual scientist will ever review it and he has to at least pretend the work has relevance to magic.

His aeonic history is a Euro-centric poorly researched and unapplogetically opinionated rehash of his earlier writings.

Admittedly I abandoned the book after reading four of five chapters. I doubt I'll be coming back to finish it any time soon, so bare this in mind when.

Which is a all a great shame really. Because as a paradigm the finite but unbounded hyperspherical universe idea, which he introduced in earlier works, isn't bad. But for a magician famous for being one of the founders of chaos magic, and proponant of the meta-model concept, he seems curiously fixated on this single model and obnoxiously dismissive of all magical models outside his own comfort zone.

He used to be one of my top rated chaos authors. Now I can barely see what I thought was so good about his writing. What I used to think was a dark sense of humour now comes across as sympomatic of a sociopathic outlook. I can recommend his works no longer.

[Ton]

Ritual building, and the Gnostic Banishing are worth perusing over in the library. I wouldn't buy this book, personally. Nor, would I use this as a guide. It's said to be a grimoire, but it's a lot of equations and theory that my eyes glaze over anytime a new chapter begins.

I thought we would get an insight to his experimental magic style, and see some notes and successful/unsuccessful results. But it's nothing of the sort.

His theory in Liber Kaos/Liber Null was a hard read, but there was something magical about it.

In The Octavo, seems the magics gone.

[Mihai Zoican · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on Magic I've read in years.

[The Vampire Javinus · Rating 1 out of 5]

In "The Octavo," Carroll fruitlessly attempts to apply quantum physics to magickal practice. To most people, this will come across as nonsense and to a physicist- it will likely be seen as confused ramblings.

The text alone was an immense slog to get through, but the many spelling and grammatical errors made it's 186 pages feel like an eternity.

If you're a fan of Carroll's work, I would suggest you give this a pass. There are fantastic grimoires out there that relate to and conpliment chaos magick practice, but this isn't one of them.

[Stacia Dinkens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense. Lots of math. The instructions are valuable, the math not as much.

[The Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

no sé cómo pude entender este libro y no mis exámenes de inglés 😅

enfin, pues, la hace mucho al cuento, y ciertamente respeto y admiro al autor, pero no encontré lógica o relación

[Felix Delong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically a cutting edge of modern magic =)

[Constantin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides some great food for thought, and it introduces some very interesting concepts.
That said, this is what this book is useful about. Other than this, it doesn't really have much to offer. The "practical" aspects are laughable at best and as another review mentions "My bullshit-o-meter rings a lot on those "science" equations about calculating magic etc.

About the "scientific" parts. Don't worry if you don't have a background in physics or science. Every single "science" bit in this book is pseudoscience created with the sole purpose to make the book look more "credible", but that's it really.

Overall, an ok book to spend an evening with and a good book to awaken your imagination and critical thinking.

P.s. Have in mind that Carrol, same as Crowley, is probably a "troll". They might have acquired some genuine occult knowledge on the subject BUT all they give to the public is stuff to toy about. The only reason their books are so popular and seem credible is that they have managed to create a lot of followers (fanbase).