An Introduction to Chaos Magick and Sigils
Chaos Magick is based upon the tradition of Ceremonial Magick in Europe and America, which includes everything from summoning demons and talking to angels in the Christian tradition, complex initiation rituals using Egyptian god-forms in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Aeon Magick of Aleister Crowley. Chaos Magick was formed by a number of magicians who relaxed the rules, stripping Ceremonial Magick down to its core and focusing on experimentation.
One of the most popular aspects of Chaos Magick is the use of sigils, which are symbols used to represent something else. Some magicians use more ancient sigils, like these related Venus depicted below:
Nowadays, sigil magick is most closely associated with Chaos Magick. In Condensed Chaos, Phil Hine breaks down the process for a successful sigil. As in Ceremonial Magick, the operator must make a statement of intent about the magical operation—either verbalizing it or writing it down. That way the purpose of the sigil is completely clear, and any aberrant thoughts in your mind won’t change its intent. Next create the sigil. The next step is to project the sigil into the “multiverse.” This can be done through meditating on the sigil, having an orgasm while staring at the sigil, or doing a magical ritual to charge the sigil. Finally, forget the original intent of the sigil, because the whole point of using it is to tap into your unconscious mind, and thinking about your desire consciously interrupts that process. Another reason to forget about the sigil is to display confidence in its efficacy. Aleister Crowley wrote in Chapter XIX of Magick Without Tears about the “The Act of Truth” which he described as “devastatingly effective.” It involves such complete confidence in an outcome that you act like it’s already going to happen, “that an eager wish is an accomplished fact. a reasonable anxiety, entirely unfounded—and to act accordingly.”
Posting a Pepe the Frog meme fits this description of the process of sigil magic. For one, most people who post Pepe memes related to the 2016 presidential election know their intent—to help Donald Trump and to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. But meme posters might want to spend more time clarifying their intent if they want to turn memes into actual sigils. Next, creating the sigil involves either finding an existing Pepe meme or creating a new one. Projecting the sigil is done by posting it online; however, to works on more planes just the physical, the posting process should be done in a state of gnosis. Given how worked up today’s keyboard warriors get, such an altered state might be achieved by some simply by being on the alternate world of the Internet.
It’s obvious there could be some Magick involved in posting Pepe memes/sigils. Most who post these images probably aren’t aware of Chaos Magick, though, making the meme primarily effective on the level of Malkuth (the physical world and four elements). Because there are so many people posting Pepe memes, using the collective emotions, concentration and intensity of Trump supporters, it’s apparent the Pepe image has moved from a mere cartoon to an actual sigil with a lot of force behind it. And the fact that the image has clearly rattled the Clinton campaign and groups like the SPLC and ADL lends even more credence to Pepe’s status as magical sigil.
Another thing that’s happening with Pepe/Kek is that all the energy focused on the memes is creating an egregore, defined either as a kind of collective mind or as an actual entity. As more Pepe/Kek memes are shared, as more people think about him and his attributes as “bringer-in of light,” the more powerful he will be. Even if Pepe isn’t an avatar of a more ancient god, it doesn’t matter since he’s being created as a new thought form on his own.
