Peter J. Carroll Quotes

Science has brought us power and ideas but not the wisdom or responsibility to handle them.

Magic doesn't suit everyone. Only those prepared to take full responsibility for themselves should apply.

An ancient Chinese curse runs, "May you live in interesting times." Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has rarely been more interesting times than these. Whenever history becomes unstable and destinies hang in the balance, then magicians and messiahs appear everywhere. Our own civilization has moved into an epoch of permanent crisis and upheaval, and we are beset with a plague of wizards. They serve an historic purpose, for whenever a society undergoes radical change, alternative spiritualities proliferate, and from among these a culture will select a new world view.

No left wing parties have any respect for liberal economic values; and most centre and right wing parties merely promote a paternalistic stateism. Does it thus fall to the self-reliant students of the ruggedly individualist philosophy of magick to champion a certain measured libertarianism?

It has taken us two million years to elevate politics from the level of a monkey squabble, to a level comprehensible to a six year old child.

New Age-ism I could Love it: —
If dolphins had as much intelligence as cats, And stopped trying to rescue sinking pieces of wood. If crystals actually did something useful, Other than grease the wheels of commerce. If the Goddess had made animals taste less good, So I didn't want to eat them. If astrology could tell me anything, Other than the trite and obvious. If whales could do something more impressive, Than merely occupy a lot of space. If corn circles came from enlightened aliens, Rather than Wiltshire pranksters on cider. If channellers could speak in hieroglyphics, Instead of pop-psychological twaddle. If sharing, caring, non-sexist men, Could do anything useful in a crisis.

If someone claims to have free will, ask them, "free from precisely what?"

The Conscious mind is a maelstrom of fleeting thoughts, images, sensations, feelings, conflicting desires, and doubts; barely able to confine its attention to a single clear objective for a microsecond before secondary thoughts begin to adulterate it and provoke yet further trains of mental discourse. If you do not believe this, then attempt to confine your conscious attention to the dot at the end of this sentence without involving yourself in any other form of thinking, including thinking about the dot.

Science Fiction Gods; Do they take much of an interest in us? I doubt it. How much entertainment does an ant's nest provide you with? 'Adepticus Sir, that bunch of Ornithoids on Artoc 4 that you asked me to observe, well they've just trashed their planet.' 'Oh that is a pity Initiatus Jones. What was it this time, ecological screw up or nuclear winter?' 'Worse than that sir, i looks lke they were mucking around with vacuum energy without having first invented the Mobius sphere.' 'Ah yes, the old classic mistake, we loose a few like that.' 'Could we not have tipped them off about it Sir?' 'I'm afraid not Jones, stupidity must remain its own reward, it's regrettable but there you are. Did you salvage anything?' 'They composed some fairly good poetry a couple of centuries ago, and some rather fine cloud sculptures fairly recently, I've logged some records in the archives.' 'Splendid Jones, I'll peruse them this evening. What about those Apes on Sol 3, how are they getting on?' 'Quit a bit of warfare as usual Sir, mostly based on chemical explosives these days, but with the occasional use of plutonium. Many of them have developed a belief in a big bang theory, and they reckon that they have the maths to prove it.' 'Really? Smith in anthropology will probably find that hilarious, I'm sure she would appreciate the data. It was one of her old Stomping grounds you know?' 'No I didnt know that Sir' 'It was a long time ago Jones, and a bit of a fiasco actually, she gave them a piece of her mind about some of their barbaric behavior which then abruptly became worse. Ever since then they have been obsessed with the number plate on her craft, it read 'JHVH'. The department gave her a desk job after that.'

Magick will not free itself from occultism until we have strangled the last astrologer with the guts of the last spiritual master.

In Chaos Magic, beliefs are not seen as ends in themselves, but as tools for creating desired effects. To fully realize this is to face a terrible freedom in which nothing is true and everything is permitted, which is to say that everything is possible, there are no certainties, and the consequences can be ghastly.

Does the universe as a whole exhibit any kind of consciousness that we can interact with? Does the universe seek to evolve greater complexity and more sophisticated consciousness? Could it use some help from us in this? Do all species seem worth preserving regardless of their economic value to us? Does some mysterious circularity in time connect consciousness and the very existence of the universe? Most Neo-Pantheists like to think so.

The pseudoscience of astrology has no place in magick. Astrology has already died twice: once with the classical gods, and a second time after the Enlightenment. The complete failure of contemporary psychology to create anything other than a vocabulary of intellectual rubbish has encouraged astrology to resurface.

Space, time, mass, and energy originate from Chaos, have their being in Chaos, and through th agency of the aether are moved by Chaos into the multiple forms of existence.

Physical processes alone will never completely explain the existence of the universe, life, and consciousness. Religious answers are just wishful thinking and wanton fabrication cast over a bottomless pit of ignorance. To explain their occult and mystical experiences, magicians are forced to develop models beyond the scope of materialistic or religious systems.