This selection of writings reflects my life in magic over the last four-and-a-half decades arranged in four parts.
Part 1, ‘Primal Chaos’, starts in the chaos magic scene I was part of from the beginning, as a founder member of the first IOT group in England, which was based in West Yorkshire and ran from 1980 to ’82.
I’m still working in the IOT. Chaos magic is still alive, evolving and changing, despite the warnings I’ve seen every few years since about 1987 that it’s dead. Some of the core chaos magic ideas have influenced new communities, sparking shared practices and philosophies that are needed more than ever in this traumatized, ‘post-truth’ world where people are getting into magical thinking but without any critical perspectives.
... At age 17 I heard some Jefferson Airplane lyrics about activities that have not yet been given names (1), and decided that what I wanted in life was lots of exciting, weird experiences. Later, I found that ‘doing magic’ fitted that ambition quite well. That enthusiastically neophilic approach to life works much better when you have other people around you acting as mirrors for each other in evaluating weird experiences and non-standard ontologies. Sharing the weirdness with others boosts it but also acts to ground and balance it. With powerful magic, big shifts in your cosmology can occur, and these can be disturbing: Am I going madder than I want to be, or am I seeing things more clearly?
... I had a number of intense magical experiences, mostly in my late teens, and involving LSD. Psychedelics were the beginning of my re-entry into the magical thinking I’d abandoned at about four years old. I explore that connection in Part 2.
In the mid-1990s I extended my fascination with the mysteries of place and the origins of cultures by beginning to study and practice the ‘Northern Mysteries’. I joined the Rune-Gild because they are the only organization I have yet found which brings to that work a respect for both the history and the magic. Some of that story I tell in Part 3.
In Part 4 I gather together a few of the many public magical presentations I’ve done over the years and write about the scenes around those workings. I also present some entities that are still being worked with, which you can engage with if you wish.
This is a book about subtle energy for those who can’t bring themselves to ‘believe in’ subtle energy.
It is a book of ideas and practices, many of which come from traditions which are usually called vitalist, for sceptics of vitalism.
It is an exploration and a celebration of that set of feelings which are undeniably, irrefutably real to consciousness, and appear to stem from ‘subtle energies,’ and the schemes of belief which work best for experiencing, cultivating and manipulating these subtle sensations.
It is about learning new languages, the languages of breath and energy-sensing.
When I write ‘energy’ in a magical context, I invariably mean ‘sensed energy.’ I do not ‘believe in’ vitalism as an overarching philosophy, nor is Energy Magic the only belief framework or paradigm I employ in my work on myself and my world.
For me, it is a question of how useful an idea is. This is the true core of the Chaos Magic attitude, which is the philosophical underpinning to this book.
To me, the essence of the application of the ‘energy’ approach or ‘energy magic paradigm’ is that it puts to best use a primary datum: the undeniable sense of energy flowing in a healthy system.
Life Force is in five parts.
The first four Parts are practical. The fifth is concerned with theory.
Part I is about the immense variety of breathing techniques, introducing nine of them and understanding the core polarity between arousal and relaxation of sensed energy which is central to most breathwork.
Part II is about the spiritual and emotional journey of one kind of breathwork, Connected Breathwork, the technique in which I am most experienced. Amongst other topics, it deals with: the idea of embodied wisdom and the experience of guidance arising from it, and the issue of ‘spiritual crisis’ and its relationship to the core polarity of breathwork.
Part III is about working with sensed energy outside the individual body. It covers the use of sensed energy in healing and group energy-magic workings such as the Chaotron and the Breath of Light Circle.
Part IV is about the internal transmutation of sensed energy. It discusses the cultivation of sensed energy with internal exercises, and the alchemy of sexual desire.
Part V supplies some theoretical background, and a systematic, sceptical evaluation of weird events which are usually attributed to the action of subtle energy. These include physical theories to describe the transmission of ‘energy’ close up, the more challenging theoretical considerations around transmission over greater distance, and events which just seem downright impossible, such as the levitation event I witnessed as a young magician.
No book has attempted this before.
To map such disparate sets of data requires a big, inclusive frame of reference which permits many ideas, ranging from clinical practice to spiritual traditions. My approach is sceptical without dismissing non-ordinary experiences; it is somewhat scientific in its approach but I believe it enshrines the true spirit of broad and deep scientific enquiry. This philosophy is Chaoist, multiple models are examined to account for the experiences herein, so as to provide a menu from which we can select the most appropriate and effective model for the situation we find ourselves in.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Force-Sensed-Breathwork-Psychedelia/dp/0995490430
All you need to know about Connected Breathwork. Plus a 60-minute audio CD which works as a ‘virtual coach’ for solitary sessions. 24 page saddle-stitched A5 booklet with 60 minute audio CD.
‘In order to master this technique, you will need a coach. After a few hours of coached sessions, you should have enough experience to do a full session on your own. Coaches aim to equip the student with enough experience to be able to work alone indefinitely if desired.’
‘The aim of this book is to support the student of breathwork in between coached sessions. The accompanying CD can be used as a ‘virtual coach’ for solitary sessions.’ ‘The wonderful thing about this breathwork is that, if you breathe continuously and focus on the feelings, you cannot do it wrong! ‘A few sessions with a coach should convince you of the power of this technique to let go of negativity, and fill yourself with life-energy’.
Breath and Birth, Breath and Money, Breath and Intimacy, Breath and Death, Breath and Sex
‘In order to feel ecstatic in present time, you have to be in your body in present time. The boredom of pointless mental activity is a screen which covers our present-time awareness, distracts us from the amazing range of sensations and emotions that flow through us all the time. When you are doing Fast and Full breathing (see below), it is impossible to be bored! You will be in an incredibly rich awareness of feelings in present time, feelings that increasingly seem like patterns of energy inside you.'
‘You will learn to breathe continuously and intensely enough to overwhelm the internal monologue and put yourself in the present moment, in your body, in feelings. You will learn to appreciate whatever is there, just under the surface of your thoughts, and so to achieve bliss states more and more readily.’
Available from da********@*******ia.com
A light-hearted (and thoroughly serious) evaluation of what the author found worked as he built the life he wanted, working outwards from the magical centre.
Now available for just £3.88 as an e-book from here.
Originally published by attractor 1994, 2005, 56page saddle-stitched A5 booklet. Some of these are still available. Now available as a perfect-bound edition from
Originally published by attractor 1994, 2005, 56page saddle-stitched A5 booklet. Some of these are still available. Now available as a perfect-bound edition from
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wealth-Magic-Workbook-Paradigm/dp/1481935011
Bright From the Well consists of five stories plus seven essays and a rune-poem. The stories revolve around themes from Norse myth – the marriage of Frey and Gerd, the story of how Gullveig-Heidh reveals her powers to the gods, a modern take on the social-origins myth Rig’s Tale, Loki attending a pagan pub moot and the Ragnarok seen through the eyes of an ancient shaman.
The essays include examination of the Norse creation or origins story, of the magician in or against the world and a chaoist’s magical experiences looked at from the standpoint of Northern magic.
Now available from Mandrake of Oxford http://www.mandrake.uk.net/bright-from-the-well-northern-tales-in-the-modern-world/ and other outlets.
Chaos Magic : The Story So Far. Magic and Ecstasy. Fractals for Chaos Magicians. Wealth and Money. Conflict and Exorcism. Magic and Sex. Magic and Physics. Landscape Vision. Body Alchemy and Healing. Chaos Illumination. Ecstasy and the Quest. Pacts With Spirits. The Galafron Rite. A Chaos Magic Bibliography and a Glossary of Chao-Speak.
Available from http://mandrake.uk.net/chaotopia-by-dave-lee/ and other outlets
Fortean Times verdict :
Chaos magic has come of age in this book by magician and NLP maven Lee. This is not a primer or grimoire; instead, the book puts chaos magic in its conceptual context, explaining the theoretical and metaphysical vistas which have underscored the art’s development since its inception under the aegis of the late, great Austin Osman Spare.
It allows us to see chaos magic äs a form of autonomous mysticism; not so much a syncretic exercise in cosmic tourism as a balancing attempt to make sense of what arrives in one’s head. This makes it more democratic than the intimidating acolytism of learned magic in the European tradition. Chaos magic rests on the principle that the practitioner can apply belief at will, rather than surrendering to any particular paradigm (thus the slightly wrenched meaning of ‘paradigm shift’ in chaos practice). It also assumes that altered states permit a powerful interaction with one’s own centres of power, and äs a result, chaos magicians experiment with psychotropic techniques, including drug use, meditation, hyperventilation and extreme exercise.
Lee shows us the intellectual underpinnings of a practical System, without rendering the art, or his discourse on it, abstract or arch. He sets out the theoretical contribution of Robert Anton Wilson et al, explains Aeonics, and the trajectory of its distillation from the baroque theatre of angelology, and expounds the vital notions of chaos and Illumination, äs Spare originally conceived them, and as practice has altered and matured them.
This is not for the beginner in chaos magic, but it is a good guide for the observer with a grounding in the history of European magic, and a grasp of its cultural milestones. If you ever wondered why magicians do what they do, it’s because it works. If it didn’t, the tradition would have died out with the birth of science; it hasn’t and is enjoying a fertile period. Chaos magic is central to the continuing health of magical traditions, and writers like Dave Lee are central to that influence. His observation that accomplished magicians concentrate on inner development ties chaos magic firmly to the spiritual traditions of alchemy, and suggests that the development of chaos magic as a spiritual endeavour has a long future, as well as a brilliantly energetic past. Great stuff.
Sly Delaney – FT214 – verdict.
The most comprehensive and complete book on the subject available anywhere. This book provides all the basic know-how required to make high-quality magical incenses for ritual, celebration and meditation. Over 100 ingredients are discussed, and over 70 recipes are given. For those who wish to formulate their own recipes, comprehensive Tables of Correspondences are included.
“Burn to me perfumes!”
‘…the smoke seems to act as a vehicle for your invocations, mantras and devotions via the vibration of the bodymind’s biofield, amplifying them tremendously to potentiate the intention of the ritual. A candle- or fire- lit sanctuary in a temple or in a woodland clearing where the glowing clouds of smoke seem to vibrate with the spoken words, swirl with the movements of the participants, and above all reach the nose in wisps of ever-changing unearthly fragrance… this is the stuff of which effective ceremony and ritual are made
Magickal Incense was first published by Revelation 23 Press in 1992.