Recently the charming Dawniris Hotcake Eyres asked me what my theory on Tarot was, and rather than be curt as I normally am when asked such a thing, I wrote the following little response. None of this information will be all that new and interesting to those well versed in the subject, but I suppose this has more to do with my personal approach than anything else. Reposted here.

Made in 2006ish

Theory of Tarot, eh?

I prefer to be as minimalistic when discussing the esoteric, so forgive me I am obtuse. In fact I prefer not to have a theory, but more of a workable hunch.

Divination works by using meaningless random results to discover novel meaningful information.

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I’ve been working on a zine.

At first I had parts in there about design but I’m not feeling it anymore.

The stuff I’m taking out I’m just going to post here, mostly since popjellyfish wanted to read it, and maybe a few of you might actually need to. Its unfinished, and pretty unstructured, but its never going to get out unless I get it out now.

Its essentially design gripes from my own little point of view, somewhat in the context of speaking to my community of occultniks as a whole. I’m not sure I can even stand behind it, philosophically, but nevertheless, here it is. Enjoy.

Pretty Damned For Kids : Style Sheet Witchcraft

As a designer with a good network of creative and intelligent friends who represent their work online, it has been hard to navigate while biting my tongue. I have a backlog of criticism and unasked for advice when it comes to logos, site design, and identity creation that will never find its way out of my system unless I let it out, so in the following I attempt to relieve myself.

Specifically, my network is comprised of people who are all familiar with concepts such as memetics, magic, and marketing. I personally detest the practice of marketing the use of marketing as magic, because its tacky, but I also don’t have a problem with good natured hypocrisy. I am a ‘chaos magician’ after all, and thats just how we roll, right? Anyways, the following is addressed to those who understand this paragraph. This is especially for those who are creators of niche media and arts.

It seems to me that my community for the most part got into the occult via Chaos Magic or Crowley, but altogether ignored Anton Lavey, because somehow he was harder to take seriously than those two sources of reputable flimflam. Memes they may have missed out are on some of the most important ones a serious business wizard can have. LaVey’s magic is centered on practicality before spirituality, focused on the results in the here-and-now. In particular, Lesser Magic:

Non-ritual or manipulative magic, sometimes called “LESSER MAGIC,” consists of the wile and guile obtained through various devices and contrived situations, which when utilized, can create “change, in accordance with one’s will.” In olden times this would be called “fascination,” “glamour,” or the “evil eye.” […] To manipulate a person, you must first be able to attract and hold his attention.

- Lavey

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Set-Apep, originally uploaded by chaoflux.

Sketchbook, reppin my vintage Setian memes.

individuals.

individuals with experience.

individuals with genuine artistic talent:
Not crafters.
Not illustrators.
Not editors.
Not marketers.
Not schemers.
Not even witless pranksters.

Artists.

individual artists who are not:
strung out
act strung out
incapable of holding a dialog
exceedingly hip
stupid

individual artists who are:
intelligent
interesting
honest
humorous
self aware
self directed
multifaceted
magical

ideally:

Individuals with experiences with occult techniques, but not ruled by them. Experiences, not just knowing about them, or what to expect they would be like. Individuals who have had such experiences who indulge in their enjoyment, without looking back bitterly upon when their rationality and leashes abandoned them. Rather, those who are ready and able to enjoy all possible realities, for whatever they bring to ones own personal mythic narrative of life.

Individuals aware of Intellectual Decompression, creating a space and time in which belief of consensus reality falls away in favor of a subjective, dreamy, cathardic, and artistic playground. The realm of the Muse, where magic and creativity are spawned. Intellectual Decompression means that outside of this time and space, there are no machine elves, no ghosts, no gods, and no monsters. Although creativity of course, cannot be locked up in such confines.

Individuals who want to meet individuals who fill these qualifications. Individuals who are serious when it comes to their passions and their muses, but can laugh at just about everything else. Individuals who are diciplined, who can get into character, those who exceed at playing pretend, but don’t lose sight that its a game.

Individual of style, and the ability to freestyle, at the drop of a hat.

Individuals who can forth bring enriching experiences without even intending to. Individuals not entirely interested in selling out and making a profit. Individuals free of dogma, free of taboo, free.

Individuals who don’t need to convince people. Individuals who don’t find anything charming about alpha bully attitudes. Mature individuals, who want to play and who want to create.

Wide eyed idealists with hard heads and smiling faces, welcome.

chaoflux23 [atttt] gmail, with no real plan in mind, besides fun, friendship, and art.

So I went to the mall for the holidays and all that. My list was pretty short and my girlies was long, so I had some time to kill.

Enter the Dianetics booth. I submitted to a stress test and I was asked about what I knew about Scientology, since they could tell I was lulzing them. (“Hell yeah I wanna stress test! Hook that shit upppppp!!!!!”)

So I told the short version of the jack parsons story, and the lady was all sorts of interested as well as repelled, that I must have made it up, but it was too weird to be fiction.

Anyways I took the test and held those metal things, and they asked me to think about people in my life. I thought about my girly, and the needled moved. She said that’s it that’s where there is stress in you life. To which I replied that it doesn’t take machines to be able to tell that every guy who is waiting on his girlfriend to finish shopping is stressed out.

She asked me what I did for a living and told her I sold occult books. She asked if I did magic and what kind I did. I had a hard time saying “I kill people” so I went with the mysterious answer instead, which I suppose turns out to be much more scary.

I got a free dianetics dvd and I promised id watch it. I probably won’t.