Welp. I can no longer say that I have not written an entire book.
I turned in the third draft of my Chaos Witchcraft manuscript last week, so if no more major overhauls are required, it will go on to technical editing, and at some point in 2025, it will physically exist in the real world. And it’s an exciting process, but I have also been dealing with an avalanche of impostor syndrome — just feeling like this book is not necessary, and even if it were, I should not be the one tasked with slapping it together.
But then a couple of things went down that altered my brain chemistry about the whole affair.
One of these things was a meme, posted in a local Witchcraft-oriented Facebook group. In the center of the image, the words “CHAOS WITCH” gleamed in a curlycue font, while all around it, dainty, cottagecore graphics depicted what that allegedly meant:
- Works on their own terms and with different types of magick.
- Very intuitive and curious.
- Works with what they have on hand.
- Hates to follow strict rules.
- Core belief – the power of the mind is the most important.
- Will not follow traditions.
And none of these were wrong per se, but they were also not specific to a Chaos approach to Witchcraft — I felt like pretty much any armchair occultist could adopt these as identifiers without too much strain, similar to how anyone can ace one of those “FIVE SIGNS YOU’RE A HEREDITARY WITCH” quizzes in which the questions are like, “Were you born under an astrological sign? Do you breathe the air around you?”
In fact, revelatory identification was exactly what happened next: Comments started appearing that were like, “Oh! I always assumed I was eclectic, but I’m clearly a Chaos Witch!” And I was just like, “I mean, you always assumed you were eclectic, because you are, in fact, eclectic.” And being eclectic is not bad at all, mind you, nor has it ever been. But “Chaos” offers an allure that “eclectic” does not, so directionless Witches are starting to glom onto it without any context or background.
And here’s the problem with that: Sooner than later, if we don’t start ascertaining what the boundaries of Chaos Witchcraft actually are, we’re going to end up juggling a horde of wildly different definitions, with practitioners on every side of the argument swearing up and down that only theirs is correct.
Which is, y’know, exactly what happened to Wicca.
In the early 2000s, when the religion was at its trendiest, “Wiccan” could mean an initiate of a tradition of Witchcraft with roots in the New Forest area of England, or it could mean a soft polytheist who used the words “Pagan” and “Wiccan” interchangeably, or it could mean an appropriative New Ager with a bindi and a smudge stick, confidently asserting that Wicca “is whatever you want it to be.” You might be tempted to think that at least they all had Witchcraft in common, and that would almost be true, except for the Wiccans proclaiming that Wicca was not Witchcraft, along with the coteries of faultfinders averring that Witches could not be Wiccan.
If someone brought up Wicca back then, there was a whole acrobatic routine involved in figuring out what the hell kind of Wicca they were talking about. And that led to a lot of online conversations like the following (which I am fancifully reconstructing but assuredly not making up):
Pagan Friend: “Ugh. Wicca sucks.”
Me: “You do know I’m Wiccan, right?”
Pagan Friend: “Well, yeah. But you’re not, like, Wiccan. You’re more… Wiccan Wiccan.”
Me: “I am very curious as to what you think the difference is.”
Pagan Friend: “I mean… okay, you’re Wiccan, but your Wicca is, like, Wicca, not… like…”
Me: “… Wicca?”
Pagan Friend: “Yes! No. Wicca.”
Me: “So… I’m Wiccan.”
Pagan Friend: “Exactly! You’re just not Wiccan.”
Me: “Ah. Glad we could clear that up.”
Today, we have postmodern Chaos Magicians experimenting within Witchcraft paradigms, and Witches discovering Chaos Magical Theory and plugging it into their personal practices: Both of these fit comfortably under the heading of Chaos Witchcraft as I understand it. But we also have Pagans who adhere to the whole “Chaos is more fun to say than Eclectic” slant, rubbing elbows with those who have never heard of Chaos Magic and can’t be bothered to understand Χάος as anything other than lazy disorganization, but who have decided to call themselves Chaos Witches anyway.
I am honestly not sure how to categorize those last two modalities. But if a workable (if not malleable) framework for Chaos Witchcraft isn’t provided at some point, we are absolutely going to get stuck with “whatever you want it to be” as another default definition.
And speaking of people who have never heard of Chaos Magic, here’s the other thing that changed my perspective.
An indie publisher recently hopped onto social media to post an excerpt from one of their metaphysical books, which included a brief but quite accurate summary of Chaos Magic. And I was totally here for that. The people leaving comments, though, were emphatically not, my favorite critiques being:
“So, you are out to destroy what makes magic magical. It won’t bode well for you, and I have no sympathy.”
And…
“LAME. You just took all the fun out of being magical. It’s suppose to be organic, not broken down into technology. When will you people ever learn to leave well enough alone?”
And yes, the unwarranted apoplexy made me giggle, but I also don’t want these particular people — those who are aggressively ignorant of Chaos Magic and its history — to be the only ones allowed to define it.
Again with the Wicca analogies, but in online spaces, more often the not, it’s the people who know the least about Wicca dictating what it can and can’t be. If Chaos Witches (and Warlocks) are able to clearly and calmly explain what it is we are actually doing, highlighting some fundamentals that are recognizable from practice to practice, we’ll be able to prevent at least some of the Greyfaced misinformation campaigns that do take the fun out of magic.
I am still not quite ready to view my own book on the subject as a necessity, but it will definitely be a resource, something that will offer an accessible map of Chaos Witchcraft, with some interesting roadside attractions circled in red. And hey, it might contribute towards greater understanding, and even a bit of community. I would be willing to live with that.
With a little luck, the forthcoming revisions from my editor will be like, “This statement needs a footnote,” and “Please stop forsaking spellcheck,” as opposed to, say, “We’ve come to the conclusion that you peaked in high school.” But even if I have to start from scratch, it will just be a part of the journey. As a Chaos Witch, I employ a variety of magical methods until verifiable results are achieved — it makes sense that writing about Chaos Witchcraft would follow the same guidelines.
So, yeah, we will see what happens next. Perhaps I’ll throw stones about it. But whether I do or don’t, I promise to keep you posted as the Chaos adventure continues.
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