Chaos Monasticism and It's Practices

We know what they say about Curiosity and the Cat but...

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:05:45 GMT

Im just starting my novitiate into the IOT and Im having issues with some of the meditation that I will need to be doing.

I normaly go dancing to meditate but now I have to try to be still and silent.
This will be interesting!

I know this is a kind of lame question but, What do you do for your own meditation?
Im hoping to find some suggestions that go beyond the basics of sit down and shut up...

Some interesting Ideas have passed my node...

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 21:12:50 GMT

I would definitely take a moment to look at this community. I think perhaps this person has a great idea.

celebrateon911

A exerpt from the website

"This declaration goes out to everyone. No matter who you are or what your story, I ask you to please take a moment to read.

Since 2001 the day September 11th has been stolen by darkness. For five years seemingly little has occurred on anniversaries of that date beyond unrelenting despair and mourning. Yet however appropriate this might have been at one point it does not have to always be this way. And I personally do not wish it to be any longer. And so this is a call to all of those who think that there has to be another way to steal this day back.

I will not any longer cry on September 11th. This year, on September 11, 2007, I will celebrate.

I will no longer cry over those who have left me but instead celebrate the lives that they had and joy they brought me. I will no longer cry about what I don't have but instead celebrate what I do have. I will no longer cry about the past but instead hope for the future. I will no longer cry about the opportunities gone but instead rejoice over the new opportunities that still await."

Cauldron Farm

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:26:49 GMT

Oh! I also wanted to share the Cauldron Farm website as an example of the kind of intentional community people can create when they work together. Although Cauldron Farm is specifically pagan, they seem to have adopted and incorporated many elements that I would personally find important in creating a retreat for magical people.

A Message from The Abbey

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:20:16 GMT

Stealing & morphing a passage from the Abbey of Gethsemani website:

"The tools of the contemplative’s craft are simple: prayer, work, study, community, silence, hospitality, love. Getting started and keeping at the tasks are graces only Chaos can give. The monk recognizes this gift and strives to open to it generously, for zie has met Chaos in this life. Zir mission, zir service in the community and the world is to follow Chaos more closely and to find Chaos at the center of life."

I found the brief description of the contemplative's craft to be rather inspiring.

Quote-y bits, and another site

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 05:16:56 GMT

In a little burst of geekiness last night, I added random quotes to the page footers on chaosmonks.org. There are only 8 quotes in the database right now, but I'll add more when I get time. If you have any favorites, feel free to respond to this message with them (include the author's name, if you know it, and their web and/or e-mail if you know it).

In other news, it seems that one of my other sites, wikibible.org is getting some hits and has been mentioned in places like Digg. Unfortunately, I've not set it up yet, so there's just a semi-perpetual "Under Construction" page there. I need to roll my own software, as I don't like standard wiki software for this project, so it'll take longer to get running than just installing some open-source thing and running with it. Anyone know Ruby, Rails, and MySQL, and want to help get the site up?

Night all!

Expansion of ideas concerning monasticism

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:32:08 GMT

Life and our minds are really a roller-coaster sometimes, eh? I'm still in Tucson, attending the yoga program. I've met a wonderful, magickal woman and we have decided to walk along this path together. And she and I both wish for a community, a "tribe" if you will, of like-minded people. This dovetails with my interest in monasticism and alternative ways of living. Although I believe that chaos magick needs a monastic tradition of sorts, I am no longer limiting my thoughts to that specific path/approach; chaosmonks.org, though, will still focus on the chaos magick path. This "new monasticism" I'm envisioning is large enough to encompass many different traditions.

If you are looking for a "tribe" or community of people like yourself, people who believe in magick, practice true living, and don't fit into "normal society", drop me a note.

I keep saying I'll write more about the change in my ideas, but I haven't. I'll try to do so as soon as I can. I'll put it up in the Library on chaosmonks.org when I do.

Embrace the Chaos, my friends.

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:45:04 GMT

I'll pose a question in a bit, but first some background.

I've practiced various belief systems throughout my life, adopting a number of skills and visualization techniques (8), and have recently had success with channeling animal spirits, most notably a dragon. After a rather intense jog (I use exercise as to induce trance on occasion) I collapsed in a heap on the yard- not exactly the safest or most responsible thing to do, but it felt right at the time. I felt a heat radiating off my body, nay, pushing my down. In this void beneath the earth I saw a pair of eyes. I called to them and they revealed themselves in the image of a dragon from a puzzle I loved as a kid. It consumed me, i focused and felt it devour each limb, then my own energy enveloped it. I felt my skin morph, maw, claws, scales, wings, and tail form, juxtapose atop my own limbs. I invoke this transformation, which my Rational personality recognizes as the will to manifest- the Natural, in order to charge task oriented activities/rituals or assert control over uncertain situations. I have also tried to use the imagery to bring flying back into my semi-lucid dreams, though with only marginal success.

My question is thus, does anyone on this board have any other suggestion for this archetype, for this fragment of my psyche? Any other useful animals/metaphors I may wish to evoke?

Of all the techniques I practice on a daily basis, I have to say that fragmenting my personality into archetypes has been by far the most effective, and has allowed me to evoke various modalities of thought at the drop of the hat.

On a personal note, I like the idea of hats, but rarely wear one.

Monasticism vs Daily Practice

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:58:39 GMT

By way of an attempt to initiate a discussion I thought I'd pose these questions to those still watching:

How do you view the difference between Chaos monasticism and just a daily magical practice? Is a period of monasticism just an intense period of daily practice or is there something more to it? Would, as an example, someone going through the six month Liber MMM novitiate in the IOT be considered a monk or does there need to be more to it? How would you define a monastic practice in relation to Chaos magic practice?

A symbol

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:36:56 GMT

I need some help identifying this symbol.

I saw it underneath my eyelids when I shut my eyes... the drippy bottom bits weren't drippy, just thicker than the other lines, and it was more symmetrical. I feel like it's important. But I don't know what it is. Oh, and if it helps, it was aqua blue against the black of my inner eyelids.

It seems familiar to me and some other people. One person suggested that if it were up-side-down it looks a little like how Dagon (Lovecraft's Dagon) is supposed to look. It reminds me of the eye of horus or ra. Someone else was saying something about pharoh type things, but it seems to me more something that may have been influenced by Egypt but is unrelated otherwise.

Anyway, seeing as google had failed me after several hours of searching I'm asking readers of this journal thingy. And I may X post if I can find somewhere else where someone might know...

Chaosmagic.com World Meating 2006!

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:27:49 GMT

From Dead Jellyfish of chaosmagic.com:

"I'm pleased to announce that Chaosmagic.Com will be hosting another Chaosmagic.Com World Meating. This time the Chaosmagic.Com World Meating will be held at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas from August 25th, 2006 to August 27th, 2006.

The Chaosmagic.Com World Meating will be three days of lectures, workships, rituals and fun. More information and details to come. The Meating will be quite enjoyable and I hope to meat many of you there."

Annoucement page here:
http://www.chaosmagic.com/news/chaosmagiccom-world-meati.shtml

Hotel/venue info including admission rates:
http://www.chaosmagic.com/news/chaosmagiccom-world-meati-2.shtml

sammaelhain and I will definitely both be there and we will both be presenting. My topic will be Sex Magicians, Mystics and Revolutionaries. Please feel free to contact me via email, AIM or YIM, or reply to this message if you have questions. I will do my best to answer them!

-Soror Ceilede

Shuttle to ChaoStation, now boarding...

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 20:46:59 GMT

Thought you guys might be interested in this...

Some clever magical associates of mine have created a new forum for the discussion and practice of astral magic. This is not just a forum, but also an astral temple in the form of a futuristic spacestation. Its eight arms correspond to the eight magics.

Check it out and register at:
http://chaostation.artofmagick.com

-Soror Ceilede 789

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:07:14 GMT

Happy solstice!!

Slight Shift

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:36:37 GMT

If you're reading this from your Friends page, check out the new layout! Okay, so it hasn't changed much. I decided to use hxaosanto's journal background because I like it a lot, and decided to change the style because I despise "disjointed" and its hard to read text.

Most of you have probably read this, but I wrote about color monasticism in my last submission to Konton Magazine, Liber Chromatria. You can read the article at this link:

http://www.chaoscurrent.com/liber_chromatria.html

Let me know what you think!

beliefs...

Sun, 01 May 2005 21:49:31 GMT

I've come to notice one thing about most of the biggest and more popular religions people follow... Christianity, buddhist, hinduism, Wiccan, Science and yes, even Chao/discordian and more seem to say the same thing but differ in alot of ways but yet are WAY more alike than people seem to realize. I see that they are just different perspectives on looking at the same thing... The way things are/Life and the truth. But I had heard somewhere a statement saying "How do you explain god?" and this is basically the question these things are all trying to answer. Tho I have found that the Chaos religion seems to put it in a way that is somewhat easy to understand. Tho I dunno if I understand it mostly because I understand other views as well.. Tho I've been VERY confused about the whole "Magic" sense of things. I see myself and have been told that I am correct about what I do ect is viewed as magic, but also it being seen as being a person who is very like budha himself and even Jesus.. also people like Einstein and alot of the other great minds in our world. Tho what I know of now (and I'm still learning VERY fast on a daily basis) is that it seems much more and bigger than just magic or any religion I've come across. Kinda like a combination of ALL the things that we have learned through our humanity (tho VERY early humanity seemed to be ahead of us but yet the knowledge they had has been lost or purposfuly denied ect) I can relate to almost anybody I come across or any belief that I come across as well. The the ones I don't relate to the most are the beliefs of EVIL religions and how people can be completely for evil and destruction. This is due to Love itself, I can see why people might go towards evil so blatently ect but yet I can't see why they continue to do so. As Far as I know they are just closed minded and ignorant and refuse to listen to anybody except themselves.. Love is Truth, Life and the only way we as humans as a whole will ever be able to make something of ourselves and be able to reach the stars and become the best we can be... I seem to have been led to the chaos aspect of things for a reason and see alot of truth with it, but yet I see that even it can expand it's knowledge and help the rest of the world to see the truth.. But working around the lies that try to stop this truth from being known has been around for WAY TOO LONG... Magic by ALOT of the world is viewed as an EVIL and they are trying to stop what it's letting people know.. I know I'll eventually figure a way around ALL OF THIS and be able to help.. are there others that might feel this same way? or anyone have any helpful ideas or anything?

I'm just only looking for love (which is help)...thanks

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 05:48:37 GMT

Hello all. I'm ceilede, your current moderator. Just wanted to check in and let you know that I'm still watching the community and am brainstorming with some ways to make it better, more active, et cetera. I changed the user info to include my contact information and added some interests to the list, hopefully to attract new members. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

I will probably be altering the look of the community a bit to make it easier to read since I have trouble seeing the small text, but other than that, the look should not change much.

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:39:02 GMT

DISCORDIAN DEVIVAL ANYONE?!?!?

this looks super fun and there will be a good chunk of discordians going
myself included
so you should check out the site and them come over and play

Calendar for the month of Orange, Year 1

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:55:12 GMT

Orange Year 1

1 G: 14 Dec 04 GD: Tuesday	2	3	4	5 Red Subfeast	6	7	8	9	10 Intro Week Ends Orange Subfeast
11 G: 24 Dec 04 GD: Friday	12 Christmas (Christian)	13	14	15 Purple Subfeast	16	17	18	19 G: 1 Jan 05 GD: Saturday Greg. New Year (World)	20 Expl Week 1 Ends Yellow Subfeast
21 G: 03 Jan 05 GD: Monday	22	23	24	25 Green Subfeast	26	27	28	29	30 Expl Week 2 Ends Blue Subfeast
31 G: 13 Jan 05 GD: Thursday	32	33	34	35 Black Subfeast	36	37 Fast	38 Fast	39 Great Feast	40 Summ Week Ends Octarine Subfeast Great Feast

The Gregorian dates included in this Chaosmonth are 14 December 2004 to 22 December 2004.

G: Gregorian Date

GD: Gregorian Day of the Week

Skepticism Vs Dogmatism

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 07:27:43 GMT

Aristippus stated that philosophers differ from other men in that they alone would not change their lives if all the laws of man were abolished.

What is the aim of magicianhood?

To become self directed, self realized, to set yourself up so that if all the laws of man were abolished there would be no cause in that event to change how you live your life, to be fully autonomous.

Magic is first and foremost a tool of liberty, therefor let the magician of the new millennium be a liberator.

What is liberty?

Liberty is the quality of autonomy in our own lives and in the lives of others. Magick is this liberty in action, what many magicians refer to as True Will. Because liberty is built on the foundations of agape and philos the autonomy of one can not infringe on the autonomy of the other.

The idea of truth is not applicable to liberty, any idea which is true by function begins to define other things as false. Liberty is the unifying function, it is the sameness that exists in all opposites. When we abandon the idea of truth as a quality of our beliefs and methods we arrive at a point where even the most disparate of people can achieve a meaningful comunion founded on liberty, which is to say founded on the autonomy that springs forth from agape and philos.

Sextus Empiricus said of Skepticism, "But the chief ground of Skepticism is that to every reason there is an opposite reason equivalent, which makes us forbear to dogmatize." He also noted that those who seek must find the truth, deny they have found(or can find) the truth, or persevere in the search.

In other words Dogmatists are people who think they have found the truth, Skeptics are people who continue to seek.

The Great Work,autonomy, is not a destination, but a process. The magician interested in liberty is advised to practice skepticism. Explore all avenues continuously, and shun the seductive stagnation of "truth". Liberty lies on the path of empiricism, where it's not a matter of what is true, it's a matter of what works. The healthy skeptic, the post modern magician in the perpetual search for greater liberty will embrace and embody the axiom "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."

Or if you prefer Crowley, "In this book it is spoken of the sephiroth & the paths, of spirits conjurations, of gods, spheres, & planes & many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things, certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophical validity to any of them."

Confusion

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 02:24:47 GMT

ok I'm new here but maybe one of you might have some info that might help me out here...
For the last 3 years about I've been going through what I'd consider hell/heaven but not purgatory.. if thats what you believe in. I've been trying to find the answers to all sorts of questions. Like why do the clouds reshape themselves when I look at them, giving me messages and pretty much talking to me one on one. Why can I answer any problem I've ever come across as to the means of true world peace and how it can be done. Why the fuck is everyone in this town showing me in every way except for the way I want that they are reading my thoughts, why can I not figure out who I am, why do I seem like I could be the antichrist but yet jesus rerisen, why do I hate everyone but love them soo fucking much.. why have I come across this shit about chaos and the fact that I never knew jack shit about it before a couple weeks ago but yet I have a twisted chaos star tattoo'd on my shoulder (near my 3 6's) why do dice roll out of my hands in a pattern allowing me to do some wild crazy shit with them, why do I seem to fit almost perfectly into any religion but yet be so much against them. why have I seen a design in EVERYTHING that points to me, why have a read the revelations in the bible (and other parts) and felt like it was talking directly about me, and same with TV shows, Movies, people talking around me but not to me, they all seem to be pointing towards me... And this fucking mindreading bullshit gets to me, if it's some worlds best kept secret then fuck it...

All of this because of my quest for love that I've had almost my entire life..

ok, I hope this doesnt confuse anyone, but it sure as fuck does to me, I feel like I'm in the middle of EVERYTHING, I don't believe in god or satan but I do, I've cursed at them both trying to make them listen to me cuz I know the answer to them getting along in harmony.. but nooo..I've been instead manipulated into where I am now... homeless and alone completely due to this. Oh and the fact that I've avoided the goverment almost completely for the last 27 years didnt seem to make certain people very happy either... and most of all this all happened to me accidently and completely not on purpose... if anyone can shed some light on this then PLEASE!!!...