Divination in Chaos Magick is an active, pragmatic art; it is the skill of hacking reality’s code to retrieve information. The Chaote views divination not as a passive glimpse into a fixed fate, but as a dynamic dialogue with the subconscious and the fabric of probability itself. The methods are many, the dogma is none, and the only arbiter of truth is a verifiable result.
The Principles of Chaote Divination
Unlike traditional approaches, Chaos Magick divination is governed by a few core principles. The first is paradigm shifting: the tool’s power comes from your temporary, functional belief in it. The second is gnosis: all effective divination requires a shift in consciousness to bypass the rational mind. The third is utility: the information gained is not for passive consumption, but for strategic action. The Chaote uses one of four operating models—the psychological, spiritual, energetic, or informational—depending on which is most effective for the task at hand, treating them as interchangeable lenses, not absolute truths.
Sortilege
Sortilege, or divination by casting lots, uses physical tools as an interface with the subconscious. While traditional systems are respected for their established power (egregores), a Chaote treats them as open-source code to be modified and personalized.
| System | Traditional Use | The Chaote’s Hack |
|---|---|---|
| Tarot | Interpreting spreads based on memorized meanings. | Using cards as visual sigils for enchantment, or creating personal spreads on the fly. |
| Runes | Casting and reading according to Norse lore. | Creating personal bind-runes for specific queries, or assigning new meanings to the symbols. |
| Pendulum | Asking simple Yes/No questions. | Using it over maps to find locations, or over lists of options to identify the best choice. |
When I began my formal occult practice around the year 2000, I experimented with pendulum divining with surprisingly good results. I was once able to determine my then-girlfriend’s mother was traveling to Germany for work, a fact I had no mundane way of knowing. Despite this early success, I was never a great fan of the practice, finding it less useful than the other methods I had been cultivating since childhood.
Scrying and Visionary Reception
Scrying is the art of gazing into a medium to induce a gnostic state and receive visions. The medium—be it a traditional black mirror, a bowl of ink, or a modern smartphone screen—serves to fatigue the conscious mind, allowing the inner, psychic eye to open. The goal is to move from seeing with the eyes to seeing through them, using the surface as a screen for subconscious and acausal information to project itself.
Somatic and Energetic Divination
These methods dispense with external tools, using the magician’s own body and energy field as the divinatory instrument. This is a direct form of perception, honed through practice. Aura scanning is a prime example; I use it not to see colorful halos, but to get a direct, gut-level “read” of a person’s energetic and emotional state. Another technique is what I call listening to the energy current. This is a form of channeling-like meditation where I quiet my mind, focus on a question, project it into the cosmos, and then gently tune my awareness to “listen” for the reply, which often arrives as a direct feeling or an intuitive “knowing” about the flow of events.
Automatism and the Subconscious
Automatism is the practice of letting the subconscious speak directly through the body, bypassing the conscious mind and psychic censor entirely.
- Automatic Writing and Drawing: Popularized by Austin Osman Spare, this involves entering a light trance and letting your hand move across the page without conscious control, producing text or images that can then be interpreted.
- Echolalia: A more experimental and uncanny form of divination is using echolalia. In a gnostic state, the magician verbally repeats random words or phrases they overhear from their environment—a nearby conversation, a TV show, a song on the radio. The resulting stream-of-consciousness collage is then analyzed for its symbolic and synchronistic meaning in relation to the query.
Oneiromancy and Dream Realities
The dream state is the most natural and potent divinatory tool we possess. My own journey into magick began with these practices when I started meditating at the age of 10, which naturally led into lucid dreaming, astral projection, and chakra meditation. Some dreams have provided me with transformative divinatory experiences.
They taught me that visions can be brutally literal. For 15 years, I had a recurring dream of my gums bleeding and teeth falling out. The meaning wasn’t a deep symbol of anxiety or death; it was my subconscious telling me to go to the dentist, where I was diagnosed with severe plaque and gum inflammation. Dreams can also be a bridge for communication. After my friend Pete committed suicide, he came to me in my sleep for a chat; in the same brief period, he appeared in the dreams of two other friends, telling us all very similar things. Most importantly, dreams can also be initiatory. At the age of 17, in a vision saturated with ki energy, I saw my soul dancing with my then-girlfriend’s. In that state of telepathic communication, I expressed a needy attachment that scared her soul away. The subsequent end of the relationship triggered a two-year “dark night of the soul”, but the experience was transformative, forging a resilient self via painful illumination and teaching me the essential lesson of non-attachment.
Gnostic and Astral Divination
These are the pinnacles of direct divination, relying entirely on the magician’s cultivated consciousness.
- Astral Projection: Through an Out-of-Body Experience (OoBE), the magician can theoretically travel to gather information directly, observing events and places from a non-physical perspective.
- Channeling: I have, multiple times, contacted what some would call the HGA and others just guardian spirits. These sessions of channeling provided invaluable warnings and guidance that have shaped my path.
- The Gnostic Flash: Sometimes, divination is not an act you perform, but a state that happens to you. These are the spontaneous moments of gnosis where you simply know something is going to happen before it does. This insight comes unbidden and without any control on my part, sometimes heralding a major life event and sometimes something trivial, such as the price of an item in a local corner store.
Chemognosis
Chemognosis, the use of psychoactive substances, can act as a catalyst for divination, forcibly tearing down the psychic censor and opening the mind to floods of information. It can unlock latent psychic talents in the unprepared and provide seasoned practitioners with startlingly clear visions. I once took DXM with a girl who had no magickal experience. In her trance, she began to perfectly describe the complex, troubled dynamics of my relationship with another female, offering advice with an accuracy that defied logic. To this day, I am unsure whether the chemognosis unlocked something within her or if my own magickal power gave her a temporary boost in magickal abilities.
Creating Personal Divinatory Systems
The ultimate expression of the Chaote’s approach to divination is to move from being a user of established systems to an author of their own. The goal is to build an oracle that speaks the unique, native language of your own unconscious, making it more potent and precise than any “one-size-fits-all” traditional method. This is where divination becomes truly experimental and uncanny. A practitioner might move beyond custom Tarot decks and into “psychonautic sortilege”, creating a system where the divinatory tools are significant personal objects—a seashell from a specific beach, a ticket stub from a concert, a key to a former home—with each object’s meaning rooted in the emotional and symbolic weight of its memory.
The practical process for “authoring an oracle” is a deep magickal act in itself. First, you must choose your medium, whether it’s stones you’ve gathered, a set of cards you’ve painted, or even a folder of digital images. Second, you must assign a clear and consistent meaning to each component, a process best done through deep meditation and magickal journaling. The third and most critical step is the consecration: a formal, personal ritual where you introduce the new tools to your unconscious mind, charge them with intent, and declare them to be a valid and open channel for communication. Finally, you must “train” your new oracle by performing daily, low-stakes readings and recording the results, building a strong feedback loop and deepening the psychic link between you and your unique system.
Summary and Advanced Field Notes
A survey of divinatory methods reveals a core truth: all tools, from Tarot cards to psychoactive molecules, are interfaces for consciousness. The adept Chaote learns to move beyond reliance on a single system and develops a “divinatory meta-system”, using all methods in concert.
P.S. Some advanced practitioners learn to create a divination web, using one method to inform another—for example, using a Tarot reading to find the right question to ask during a scrying session. In the end, divination is not about seeing the future, but about understanding the present so deeply that the future becomes a matter of choice. The information is a weather report; your will is the ship’s rudder.
Questions and Answers
Q: What is “bibliomancy” and how is it practiced by a Chaote?
Bibliomancy is divination using books. A Chaote might grab a random book, ask a question, let it fall open, and blindly point to a passage, interpreting that text as the answer, embracing the synchronicity of the act.
Q: How do you tell the difference between a genuine channeled message and your own internal monologue?
A channeled message often feels “other”—it uses words or concepts you wouldn’t normally think of, presents an unexpected perspective, and has a feeling of authority or clarity that is distinct from the usual ego-chatter.
Q: How do you handle a terrifying or disturbing vision during a scrying session?
The secret is to remain a neutral observer. Do not panic or identify with the imagery. When you are ready, formally close the session with a banishing, then journal the experience and perform a follow-up divination to understand its meaning, as such visions are often valuable warnings.
Q: Can divinatory tools like Tarot cards or runes “lie” or be wrong?
The tools themselves are neutral pieces of card or wood. The “error” almost always comes from the operator: a poorly framed question, a biased interpretation driven by wishful thinking, or a mind too clouded by emotion to receive a clear signal.
Q: What does it mean to “consecrate” a new, personal set of divinatory tools?
It is a personal ritual where you formally introduce the tools to your subconscious. This might involve anointing them with oil, passing them through incense smoke, and spending time meditating with each piece while projecting its intended meaning into it, creating a psychic link.
Q: Can you use corporate logos or other modern symbols for sortilege?
Absolutely. A Chaote could create a powerful system by assigning meanings to a set of corporate logos and drawing them from a bag to get insight on a business question. The power is in the system you build and believe in, not its historical antiquity.
Q: How do you “shut down” a divinatory sense if it becomes overwhelming or you’re getting too much “static”?
Through deliberate and forceful grounding. Engage in intense physical exercise, take a cold shower, eat a heavy meal, or focus on a complex, mundane, and logical task like building furniture or doing your taxes. These actions pull your consciousness out of the subtle realms and lock it firmly into the physical world.