Cybermagical Models

(draft)

Contents

Introduction

I have to firstly try and convince you that there is something seriously wrong with material causality, and that there is something that could supersede it as a belief. These are vitally important questions for magicians, for since the demise of essentially spiritual descriptions of magic, the belief in material causality has been increasingly used in a haphazard fashion to form various ill-conceived metaphors such as "magical energy" or "magical force" which are tactily presumed to be something analogous to static electricity or radio waves. This is, I think, complete bullshit. Magic can sometimes be induced to behave a bit like this,but it is not a very effective description. — Peter J. Carroll, "Chaoism and Chaos Magic: A Personal View"

This is a system of magic symbols and correspondences grounded in the notion of magic as boundary and signal phenomena, and focused on events (do-ings) of magic more than entities (be-ings). It is a work in progress.

Fundamentals

Amplification & Attenuation

Amplification and Attenuation are the co-operations "behind" operations of Volition. They correspond to the Laws of Requisite Variety and Knowledge, Enchantment and Divination, and Fire and Water.

Calling & Crossing

The Laws of Form are a calculus of indications or boundary algebra, concerned with distinctions between things [1]. The Law of Calling (Form of Condensation) and Law of Crossing (Form of Cancellation) are the operations "behind" operations of Perception. They correspond to Evocation and Invocation, and Air and Earth.

Four Functions of Magic

The Wand and Cup weapons are used to transmit the power of the life force (or Kia) directly onto the aetheric. The wand is the weapon of will and the cup that of perception. The words are used to convey the indescribable processes which occur at the interface of consciousness and matter, rather than mere sense perception and motor action. All that can be said of these processes is that some events have the appearance of proceeding from the outside into us, and others appear to originate within us and proceed outward. The lesson of all higher ecstacies is that this difference is arbitrary and unreal.
[…]
The Sword and Pentacle are weapons of analysis and synthesis respectively. Upon the pentacle aetheric forms, images, and powers are assembled when the magical will and perception vitalize the imagination. […] Through the sword, the magical will and perception vitalize the imagination of the undoing of things. — Peter J. Carroll, Psychonaut

Thus from the center to the uttermost parts, everything moves [cf. the Hermetic Principle of Vibration /lvx], and relationships are established according to natural analogies. […] The supreme direction belongs to the supreme Master, in such wise that diversity is resolved into unity. For all things depend from unity or develop from it, and because they appear distant from one another it is believed that they are many, whereas, in their collectivity they form but one, or rather two Principles. These two Principles, whence all things proceed, and by which all exist, are the substance of which things are formed, and the Will of him who differentiates them [cf. the One Matter and One Mind /lvx]. — "The Primordial Principles of Things (Part 8)," A Treatise on Initiations

The functions are taken from Peter Carroll's "Magical Weapons" [2], and correspond to the classical implements (Wand, Cup, Sword, Pentacle) of the elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth). Cf. Energy, Time, Space, and Matter, and Plasma, Liquid, Gas, and Solid. The symbols for the elements here are taken from a Spanish system [3], and we can see geometric progression from point to line to plane by arranging the symbols in the Vedic order from subtle (volatile) to gross (fixed): Air → Fire → Water → Earth.

Air also corresponds to Imagination and Earth to Concentration, as in the four magical virtues: Will, Perception, Imagination, and Concentration. [4]

With the addition of the Lamp or Inspiration (cf. Quintessence or Spirit), they become a pentagram, symbolic of the human and Microcosm:

The Lamp weapon is only named as such because of the popular analogy of spirit with light. Chaos, the ultimate substrate of existence, and Kia, the personal life force, are euqally likely to be felt as an awesome darkness or as both brilliance and voidness simultaneously. As a device to channel these forces to the mundane consciousness of the magician there is no limit to the forms the lamp might take. […] The lamp is the weapon of inspiration in the original sense of the word—it inspirits him. — Peter J. Carroll, Psychonaut

Six Signal Operations

These operations are copied from Jesper Sørensen's "Frames of Ritual Action," and represent interactions between CONTAINER- and TRAJECTORY-schemata [5].

Seven Boundary Operations

These are obviously Venn diagrams of common set operations. Although they are not direct correspondences, cf. the seven steps of alchemical transformation (Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, Coagulation).

Notes and References

1. G. Spencer Brown, Laws of Form (London: Lowe and Brydone, Ltd., 1971).
2. Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null and Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic (York Beach: Weiser Books, 1987) 187–189.
3. Symbol 30:1, Symbols.com.
4. Peter J. Carroll, Liber Kaos (York Beach: Weiser Books, 1992) 201.
5. Jesper Sørensen, A Cognitive Theory of Magic (Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2007) 167.