2011-10-07

• Yay, it works! I can use this wiki site as an echo of my Twitter feed. That means I can get around the corporate firewall block of Twitter. And so can you, if you have a username here on Cast Iron Chaos. Just edit your username and add this text to your wiki page:

  <rss http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=modemac>

(Replace "modemac" with your Twitter username.)

As an example, I've set up a Cast Iron Cooking wiki page here with a mirror of my Twitter feed.

• I found an ebook online yesterday entitled Oven-Ready Chaos, which of course I had to try because of that name. It turned out to be a basic introduction to Chaos magic. Cool! It puts a lot of emphasis on the influence of Discordianism on Chaos magic…and it does a good job explaining why I've found this subject so appealing. In my rant the other day about The Only True Magic, I took magic to task for being so obviously based on fiction, even to the point where the Star of Chaos is lifted from the works of Michael Moorcock. I learned that this is intentional, at least to some Chaos magicians, and that there are aspects of this school that definitely appeal to me. There are unquestionable similarities and parallels between Chaos magic and the other path of (non-) religious belief I'd been following, especially the aspect that admits it's all bullshit and that it has a sense of humor. There's a D.I.Y. approach to this school that not only encourages you to create your own magic (as I said, the only true magic is the kind you create yourself), but also explains that fiction is a basis on which to construct your own paradigm. In other words, there is no difference in reality between ancient fictional pantheons such as the Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and Babylonian mythos and their varying styles of worship and ritual; and equally fictional modern-day mythologies such as comic book superheroes, Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. It even gives an example of a Chaos practitioner who did this:

"The final proof of all that being that one of my colleagues had to sit a computer exam, and was wracking his brains trying to think of an appropriate god-form to invoke upon himself to concentrate his mind on programming. Mercury? Hermes? And then he hit on it - the most powerful mythic figure that he knew could deal with computers was Mr. Spock! So he proceeded to invoke Mr. Spock, by learning all he could about Spock and going round saying "I never will understand humans" until he was thoroughly Spock-ified. And he got an 'A', so there!"

This explains why there are a lot of Lovecraftian references in Chaos writings. It also explains how "Simon," the author of the so-called "Simon Necronomicon" seen in many bookstores (and not just the New Agey ones) designed the sigils used in the rituals described in those books. If I understand this correctly, it's an explanation of the Chaos idea that "belief is a tool." Based on this, you could take the most blatantly fake idea around, apply a Chaos theme to it, and come up with something that could be called "Chaos magic." So, could I do a sigil based on My Little Pony and work it into my cooking?!? If these guys are to be believed, yes I could. And what would I get from it? In no way would I expect something outrageous like summoning Great Cthulhu from R'lyeh, or even his cute kawaii chibi version that's become quite popular on its own. No, the only thing I hope to get from this is a way to meditate and make myself feel better…which is what I want to accomplish when I cook.

• An easy outsider's explanation for what's happened to me: Obviously, I'm compensating for my divorce by immersing myself in cooking, and I'm grasping at this "Chaos magic" stuff as a way to make up for the loss when I threw a hissy fit and left the Church of the SubGenius. Right? Wrong.
• And I know very well that at least a few other people are reading this. Well, duh – I'm posting it on a publicly accessible Web page. I'm keeping my private thoughts and writings away from the Internet. I wouldn't be writing this on my Web page if I didn't expect someone to read it.