Chaos Marxism Primer - Principia Discordia

Chaos Marxism Primer
Dolores LaPicho
• imagining the desired goal in symbolic form
• investing the symbol with energy; or, to put it another way, fixing the
symbol in the subconscious via repetition or association with some kind
of intense experience
• "banishing" (dispelling from consciousness) all counteracting symbols.
By this process, the subconscious mind is reprogrammed; and, since "above is
below" (perception is reality) so will reality be transformed for the practitioner in
accordance with will. Alternatively, some kind of psychic energy will be sent out
that will actually rewrite the material world according to desire. Sometimes,
both explanations are used. (You could also sum up these steps in the words of
the old jingle - "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, don't mess with
Mr Inbetween".)
In these traditions, the gods and demons of earlier belief are often reinterpreted
as manifestations of the individual or collective psyche, Jungian archetypes,
discarnate beings alien to this planet or even this plane, or even consciouslyconstructed
figments of the magician's imagination. Often it will be claimed that
these distinctions are not important - what is important is how the practitioner
behaves in regards to what she perceives in the altered state of consciousness,
and what is accordingly imprinted on the subconscious.
Increasingly, complicated traditional tables of magical symbols such as Crowley
used are being supplemented or even replaced by images from modern mass
media and popular culture, or even ones which the practitioner makes up
herself. In the chaos tradition, serious belief itself is seen as counterproductive.
The practitioner is encouraged to discover the symbols and the belief systems
which are most effective to change her consciousness in the required way, and
then "invest them with personal energy". Sexuality is perhaps the most vital
source of this energy - deliberate violations of personal taboos are also seen as a
"path to power". This is in essence exactly the same process as advertising,
psychiatry, brainwashing, rhetoric, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and what
those criminals in the "Church" of $cientology do. (L. Ron Hubbard stole most
of his good ideas from Crowley.)
The place where this kind of magic comes into contact with Marxist ideas of
ideology is the increasing acceptance that corporate capitalism and imperialism
are not only destroying the physical world but playing merry havoc with the
symbolic realms, with their advertising, propaganda and other mind-control
techniques. Also, occult theory follows the insight of Marxism that activity
determines consciousness, not whatever the conscious mind happens to
believe. A Marxist might call a picket line or a militant demonstration "an
altered state of consciousness", since it takes place in an area not
acknowledged to exist by the dominant paradigm of reality - an effective
political or advertising slogan has all the same characteristics of a meditative
mantra.
In general, modern occultists still have faith in the possibility of individual
action against this tyranny, as opposed to the Marxist insistence that only
collective mass action will be effective. In addition, the Hermetic formula is in
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