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The Esotericon & Portals of Chaos
Some three or more years ago we began with a project that would eventually involve a great deal of research and writing and practical magic, and the creation of a great deal of artwork. The concepts with which we began rappidly crystalised around the ideas below:
The idea of a 'Chaos Tarot' has periodically surfaced over the years, however the conventional idea of tarot seems far too limiting, and the several attempts to merely introduce Chaoist symbolism into the Conventional tarot format have not proved particularly interesting or groundbreaking.
Visual images can convey ideas and speak to our subconscious often far more effectively and more immediately than words. Moveable images on cards also provide many interesting possibilities that a book of images cannot provide so easily.
However it seems a waste to confine such a resource to just Divination, when it could also have application to Enchantment, Evocation, Invocation, and Illumination as well. Plus the symbolic systems from which conventional tarot derive and the symbolic systems into which more recent commentators have attempted to fit it, now often have little appeal or relevance.
The symbolic systems used in the past to generate or explain the 78 images usually ended up confected in such complex ways that the supposed meanings of the resulting cards bore only a highly etiolated relationship to them. Randomly generated images and meanings would have served the same purpose.
The Tree of Life (Naples arrangement), the Hebrew Alphabet, Astrological symbolism, elemental symbolism, alchemical symbolism, numerological ideas and all, make a rather messy 'universal kabala' with little explanatory power.
This proposed Portal Deck does not have to have 78 cards; it can have whatever number we deem useful.
It would seem nowadays more appropriate to start afresh with something closer to our own physical,psychological and metaphysical maps of ourrealities: -
To perhaps consider the relationship between the classical elements of earth, air fire, water and aether and the concepts of mass, energy, space, time and information.
To perhaps consider using the 8 colours of magic as the basis of a 'biplanetary' scheme that integrates a neo-pagan pantheon with both the eternal and the current challenges of the human condition.
To perhaps consider a replacement of the trancendentalist concepts of the platonic-pagan-monotheist esoteric paradigm with an approach derived from the emerging quantum-neo-pagan esoteric paradigm,by examining what the Lovecraftian perspective of cosmic indifferentism may have to offer.
- Elemental Magic
- Planetary Magic
- Stellar Magic
- Magical Cartography
- Chaobalistic
- Theometric Principles
The idea of a 'Chaos Tarot' has periodically surfaced over the years, however the conventional idea of tarot seems far too limiting, and the several attempts to merely introduce Chaoist symbolism into the Conventional tarot format have not proved particularly interesting or groundbreaking.
Visual images can convey ideas and speak to our subconscious often far more effectively and more immediately than words. Moveable images on cards also provide many interesting possibilities that a book of images cannot provide so easily.
However it seems a waste to confine such a resource to just Divination, when it could also have application to Enchantment, Evocation, Invocation, and Illumination as well. Plus the symbolic systems from which conventional tarot derive and the symbolic systems into which more recent commentators have attempted to fit it, now often have little appeal or relevance.
The symbolic systems used in the past to generate or explain the 78 images usually ended up confected in such complex ways that the supposed meanings of the resulting cards bore only a highly etiolated relationship to them. Randomly generated images and meanings would have served the same purpose.
The Tree of Life (Naples arrangement), the Hebrew Alphabet, Astrological symbolism, elemental symbolism, alchemical symbolism, numerological ideas and all, make a rather messy 'universal kabala' with little explanatory power.
This proposed Portal Deck does not have to have 78 cards; it can have whatever number we deem useful.
It would seem nowadays more appropriate to start afresh with something closer to our own physical,psychological and metaphysical maps of ourrealities: -
To perhaps consider the relationship between the classical elements of earth, air fire, water and aether and the concepts of mass, energy, space, time and information.
To perhaps consider using the 8 colours of magic as the basis of a 'biplanetary' scheme that integrates a neo-pagan pantheon with both the eternal and the current challenges of the human condition.
To perhaps consider a replacement of the trancendentalist concepts of the platonic-pagan-monotheist esoteric paradigm with an approach derived from the emerging quantum-neo-pagan esoteric paradigm,by examining what the Lovecraftian perspective of cosmic indifferentism may have to offer.
- Elemental Magic
- Planetary Magic
- Stellar Magic
- Magical Cartography
- Chaobalistic
- Theometric Principles
216 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
4 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Peter J. Carroll
26 books332 followersHe 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 30, 2014
5 stars just for scale, Pete takes his mixture of Chaos Magick and Quantum Physics into the 21st Century and far beyond with a journey into Cthuloid Trans-Humanism. Amazing stuff!
July 13, 2016
A must for starters in invocation :)
April 14, 2025
Imo petes best work, but this is defiantly the best place to start if your new to Peters work
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews