A Chaos Magic Paradigm
Peter J. Carroll
The Apophenion
A Chaos Magic Paradigm
Peter J. Carroll
ISBN: 978-1869928650
Format: Softcover
£15.00 / US$24
Subjects: Chaos Magic
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From the Author
“My final Magnum Opus if its ideas remain unfalsified within my lifetime, otherwise its back to the drawing board.
Yet I’ve tried to keep it as short and simple as possible, it consists of eight fairly brief and terse chapters and five appendices. It attacks most of the great questions of being, free will, consciousness, meaning, the nature of mind, and humanity’s place in the cosmos, from a magical perspective.
Some of the conclusions seem to challenge many of the deeply held assumptions that our culture has taught us, so brace yourself for the paradigm crash and look for the jewels revealed in the wreckage.This book contains something to offend everyone; enough science to upset the magicians, enough magic to upset the scientists, and enough blasphemy to upset most trancendentalists.”
The Apophenion cover artwork by David Gough www.davidgoughart.com
”Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad,[1] who defined it as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness”. Source Wikipedia
Praise for Peter J. Carroll’s works
“The most original, and probably the most important, writer on Magick since Aleister Crowley.” Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy.
“Magicians feared they had lost Him to the world of Theoretical Physics, but Zarathustra has come down from the mountain. The Apophenion is spoken – and proves the wait was worth it. Religion starts the hunt for Meaning, and with science Meaning is killed and served up as Truth. So we need magic, sowing the seeds of Meaning in everyday events, and we need art to cultivate them to public awareness. Thus does Apopheniareveal how to bring back meaning to our diminished lives.” Lionel Snell, Aka Ramsey Dukes, author of SSOTBME.
REVIEWS
THE APOPHENION
by Peter J. Carroll
‘Framed as the outpouring of insight generated by the novel Goddess ‘Apophenia’, Pete Carroll’s new work is a real gem. Coming from a science background, this is his attempt to create a falisfiable model of why the universe looks the way it does, and just why magick can operate successfully.
In the inimitable Carrollian style we have come to know and love, our author sets out to demolish the edifices of being, consciousness, causality, the big-bang and more. In toppling these ontological Titans Pete discovers a universe of panpsychism and intense meaning.
If nothing else this agrees with my own views and is therefore a Good Thing. Pursuing this process through the scientific style of exploration means that quantum physics, special relativity et al show up pretty frequently in the text. If you buy this book expecting lists of planetary correspondence and ritual-by-numbers instructions you’re going to be disappointed.
However this doesn’t mean that this is all physics and no esoterica. Rather the point is that the reading of the universe that the author presents is suffused with magick. (Nevertheless there are some reassuring illustrations of occult entities and one explicit ritual – a rather lovely evocation of the Goddess Apophenia herself).
My reaction in reading this book was one of excitement. The suggestions that Pete advances tickle the mind delightfully. Certainly this isn’t Liber Null. It’s not a manual of techniques but instead concentrates on theory, yet that doesn’t make for a dull read. The theorisation presented here can light the touch paper of a hundred disciplines: cosmology and magick for sure but also Fortean studies, ethnography and especially neuro-biology.
Algebra explodes across the appendices of the book scattering the non-mathematicians towards the Epilogue where things are nicely rounded off in laypersons terms. The truth may well be that we live in vorticitating hypersphere with three dimensional time that, as the author beautifully asserts, “…invites us to become apprentice gods.” The very fact that I can now say ‘vorticitating hypersphere’ and know what that means is a testament to the authors explicatory powers.
The final and perhaps most wonderful thing about The Apophenion is how it demonstrates the development and maturation of Pete Carroll’s earlier writing. If nothing else this stands as a testament to the work of an individual (or perhaps conspiracy of selves!) who’s magick really does seem to work.
Eight chaospheres out of a possible eight!’
– Julian Vayne