Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic

I was really excited about this book based on the reviews, but it turned out to be the over-hyped babbling of an author who passes off a few subjective experiences as time-tested occult doctrine.To preface, let me begin by saying that I am not a "wizard", occultist, or magician of any nature, but I am sufficiently familiar with literature on spirituality/theology/magic(k)/etc to form a valid opinion on the matter.This compilation is ostensibly a series of 2 books packed together as one. Upon closer analysis, one realizes that in actuality, it's a collection of essays tenously linked to each otherin questionable order. The author passes off several opinions as universal truth in Liber Null, only to admit that this is just one possibility of many in Psychonaut. His view of "the universe"being either Chaos or a Spiritual Conciousness being one example. He readily admits that he chooses to believe in the "meanigless chaotic"view because it appeals to his spiritual proclivities.Moreover, the author never provides a single reference or backs up anything of what he says. He simply shoots off fantastic claims, such as, succubus''s are all male, X Belief System is stupid, X Doctrine is True/False, etc, without ever once logically breaking down his reasoning or explaining how they are flawed and/or correct. The man is guilty of the same crimes he blames monotheistic religion of i.e., making shit up with little proof.Finally, he keeps spouting the same nonsense lines that other "pseudo-enlightened" types love to profess - that being that there is no "good or evil" and "truth or lies", simply limited, relativistic human perspective. In the literal next chapter, he contradicts himself by then proclaiming what is true and what is false as if he never said this. A lot of so-called Taoists these days do the same thing. A brilliant refuation of this illogical position is allegedly credited to Socrates - If nothing is true, then how do you know that to be true?Overall, I got little value in this book outside of getting a glimpse of the beliefs/doctrines of black magic practitioners. The rituals he advises in this book are extreme, and he readily warns that they may do more harm than good. Furthermore, they require all manner of elaborate ceremony - so I hope you have a spare art department in your home. He readily admits that one has to do several exorcisms and banishment rituals before and after so your life and soul don't get destroyed by demons. He explains that a seeker must basically dedicate their entire lives to this and discard all desire or a normal life for the nebolous "benefits" that are not adequately described. In business terms, this is what we call a bad ROI.Overall, I cannot reccomend this book. If you're interested in taking a peek at what some occultists interpret as truth, go ahead. Carrol's views might have been interesting/radical in the pre-wide-spread internet days of the 80s, but today his views are ubiquitous and found among any anti-religion "warlock" on any occult message board,.

When I was thirty, I read these two volumes religiously and dedicated myself to IOT°4. After a decade of practice, I counted myself an adept, and put it all behind me. Twenty-five years later I have re-read these books and humbly offer my opinion on their efficacy.This volume is split into two parts as the eponymous title indicates. Liber Null is a four volume set describing the theory and philosophy of IOT(Illuminates Of Thanateros). Psychonaut is more concerned with the practice of IOT.As such, I found Liber Null to be more dramatic and useful. I had no desire to lash myself to IOT. The four books of Liber Null happily pointed me in the right direction. At least in part. Much of the theory of Chaos Magick, as envisioned by the author is tied to the care and feeding of the ego. It took many years to undo this. Only after greviously wounding the ego was I able to be liberated from the dance of Thanateros and truly appreciate the power and responsibility of an adept.So, be warned. There are some gems scattered amongst the drek and dross, but some are toxic. And those gems can be found elsewhere in a more enduring form. Take care.

Peter J. Carroll's Liber Null & Psychonaut set the standard that all other chaos magick books are judged by. I was shocked by how much I liked this book. If you are interested in practicing chaos magick this is absolutely the book to start with. In fact, this is one of the few magical text that I find myself reading cover-to-cover repeatedly. The only complaint I have is that I didn't find it sooner. I needlessly wasted a lot of time and money on inferior publications before making this purchase. Ignore some of the more negative reviews, like I wish I had done, and get this book. This book has proven to be such a high water mark in the chaos magick universe that no one, including the author, has been able to surpass it. If you are only going to read one book on chaos magick make sure this is the one.

What else to say. Pete Carroll is smart, articulate and something of a genius. Written closer to the beginning of his career, he's obviously been thinking about these things for a long time. I wish he offered more practical process along with the theory, but the theory is awesome.

I was in between returning this book as derivative nonsense and keeping it to complete my library of books on chaos magic. I must say that I definitely prefer Phil Hine's organization, presentation, and take on the chaos magic theory in Condensed Chaos and Prime Chaos. Peter Carroll seems to present rather great ideas but his presentation and organization is lacking comparatively to that of Phil Hine. I also must admit I was hesitant of getting this because I read a bit of it in a book store and honestly was disappointed when I did read it.Liber MMM is a presentation of mindbody manipulation techniques which forms the basis of practice for the rest of Liber Null. The rest of Liber Null presents intriguing ideas but seems to not thread all of the ideas together. It's as if Peter had a basic outline and and improvised most of the material as he went from section to section (which isn't a bad exercise come to think of it).Also would like to say that the dogmatic tone is unnecessary. I personally am going to go over the book once more, take the ideas and theories presented, and reorganize them, strip the dogmatic tone, and get just the gist of what is being stated; this is mainly for my benefit and probably useless for it mostly appears that Phil Hine did just that in his books. But I want to take Carroll's ideas and see what I can do with them.I have yet to read Psychonaut, I also ordered Liber Kaos, I too am going to order Pybermagick and The Apophenion at some point. Overall I would say that Peter J. Carroll as an author on the occult is dogmatic, but informative, and probably should only be taken as serious as you Will. Take what's useful and leave the rest, for me it's more of the latter.

What a bloke, what a book, some heavy data to be processed from this book, no messing straight to the point, glad I invested

"When we are born, we are soft and supple, in death we are stiff and inflexible. To be inflexible is to be the servant of death"- the Tao Te ChingEven if chaos magick is not a magical tradition you practice, even if you are not a practicing magician at all, there is much to learn from Liber Null. It is a guide to psychic flexibility, to seeing shades of meaning in your environment and to expressing intent. As such, this is a seminal work not just for the magician, but for the artist as well. Learn to be flexible, learn to be adaptable and learn that your world and the reality around you are every bit as flexible.

I think it's implicit in the system of Chaos Magic that you should use your intuition to separate the wheat from the chaff. Certainly Carroll expects people to do so. Look where you're stepping, avoid pitfalls and have fun. Terse language, enough instructions to set a foundation to your practices. When in doubt, read and re-read. Remember not to violate the Will of others.

If you want to purchase a book to introduce you to the main concepts of Chaos magick, this the book to have. It's simple but direct approach can satisfy practioners of both magick and mysticism.

A wicked guide to some chaos magick ideas. Well written with cool exercises to get comfortable with the concepts. Deff recommend!