Ariel Motto

Anth E300
12/3/15
Chaos Magic: The Ideologies of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth
Introduction
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) is a British avant-garde collective and magical
group formed in the 1980s by a group of experimental artists and musicians and lead by Genesis
P-Orridge (Neil Megson), referred to in their texts as Brother Genesis. Associated music acts
within the group include Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle, and Coil. The former was established as
the mouthpiece for its own quasi-religious group, TOPY. P-Orridge identified as a pagan in the
1970s and had an interest in body modification and extreme experiences. The theoretical
frameworks and school of thought associated with TOPY include discordianism, chaos magic,
esotericism, occulture, and post-anarchism, while utilizing media and aspects of popular culture
as a platform for expression, all of which are merged and inter-related. TOPY is classified within
the realm of hyperreal or fiction-based religions, but the very nature of the group's ideologies
blur the lines between real/unreal, sacred/profane, and art/magic.
Conception and Ideologies
Psychic TV formed in 1979, comprised of former members of of industrial outfit
Throbbing Gristle, including Peter Christopherson, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Genesis P-Orridge.
They spawned TOPY in 1981, a magical group referred to by some a scholars as a hyperreal
religion. Hyperreal religions are defined as religions that mix elements from religious traditions
with popular culture, (Kirby, 40). Its ideologies were a bricolage of spiritual and magical
conceptions integrating a wide range of influences, including novelist William S. Borroughs, and
science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick. P-Orridge has absorbed principles of Wicca, Thelmic

magick, Tibetan Buddhism [and] Native American traditions throughout his life, and these
ideologies are partly what laid the framework for TOPY. According to Carole M. Cusack in
Discordian Magic: Paganism, the Chaos Paradigm, and the Power of Parody, P-Orridge's
perspective is broadly Discordian, in that he has affirmed the existence of a conspiracy, which
he identified with capitalism, the class system and Christianity (134).
The missions of TOPY were largely to reject convention and conformity and employed
magical practices as a means of personal liberation via neuromancy (implicit powers of the
human brain) and use of sigils (guitless sexuality focused through thee will structure)
(Cuscack, 139). Practices of the group include chaos magic, sleep magic, sex magic (a form of
esoteric practice that has existed since the Middle Ages) and psychic discipline, partly borrowed
from and influenced by the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley (Kirby, 52). The members of
TOPY are seen as equals, disavowing the notion of hierarchal structures within conventional
religions. Cusack quotes Christopher Partridge, who asserted that TOPY emphasises discipline
and the ending of personal laziness, it eschews dogma and regulations, and encourages
detraditionalized, eclectic, occult spirituality (17). Current incarnations of the group promote
functional, demystified magick (Kirby, 53). Kirby quotes an excerpt, a mission statement of
sorts, from one of the group's integral texts, Thee Psychick Bible:
We have reached a crisis point. We are aware that whole areas of our experience
are missing...we are faced with the debasement of man to a creature without
feelings, without knowledge and pride of self...We have been conditioned,
encouraged and blackmailed into self-restriction, into a narrower and narrower
perception of ourselves, our importance and potential. All this constitutes a
Psychick attack of the highest magnitude. Acceptance is defeat...Right Now you

have these alternatives: to remain forever part of a sleeping world...To gradually

abandon the hopes and dreams of childhood...to be permanently addicted to the
drug of of the commonplace...or to fight alongside us in Thee Temple Ov
Psychick Youth. Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth has been convened in order to
act as a catalyst and focus for the individual development of all those who wish to
each inwards and strike out... (Kirby, 53)
Discordianism/Chaos Magic
Chaos magic takes on an anarchistic worldview and aims to transcend reality: The aim
of Chaos Magic is no longer simply transgression of social and sexual taboos, no longer an ideal
of political liberation, no longer even the transgression of the boundaries of the self; rather the
aim here is the transgression of reality, the shattering of all known conceptions of the universe,
and the liberating ecstasy of infinite transformation (Kirby, 145).
Discordianism, a sub-category of chaos magic, is a hyperreal religion founded in the
1950s by Greg Hill, beginning as a parody of mainstream/traditional religion and conformism
(Cusack, 2). Additionally, Discordianism draws from various Buddhist and Pagan ideologies
with from an absurdist standpoint (Kirby, 44). It invokes magical practices and conceptions of
chaos governing reality and personal liberation, incorporating anarchist thought. Its supreme
deity, Eris, is a goddess of chaos. One of its key texts, Principia Discordia, states that Chaos is
the true reality, and apparent order (the Aneristic Principle) and apparent disorder (the Eristic
Principle) are mere mental constructs, which humans develop to assist them in coping with
reality (Cusack, 128). In addition, Discordianism states that chaos is energy, a theory that
works in tandem with that of chaos magic, a belief system that expounds that random and
unpredictable paradigm is in opposition to 'classic' ceremonial magic in the Western esoteric

tradition, where rituals are formal and initiations are hierarchal (Cusack, 135). An influence for
this framework is Aleister Crowley, who according to Cusack defined magick as the art and
science of causing change to occur in conformity with will. This framework is largely
uninterested with the status of gods/higher power(s) and the power of individual autonomy is
paramount.
Imagination and creativity are emphasized within TOPY, along with challenging notions
of truth and reality and dismantling binarisms such as good/bad, black/white, etc. This belief is
parallel with that of Discordianism, as stated in Principia Discordia: all affirmations are true in
some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true
and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and
meaningless in some sense (Cusack, 141). In addition, TOPY exhibits Discordian thought in its
transcendence of fixed limitations within life, sexuality, and its conceptions of gender and
religion. According to Cusack, it is irrelevant to Discordians whether they are a religion, or
whether they engage in magical practices. In the present, this type of Post-Crowleyan magic
has shifted towards chaos magic and ideals related to the Left-Hand-Path of magic.
This rejection of binaristic restrictions are evident throughout P-Orridge's life, one
example being in his gender expression/presentation. In more recent years, his spiritual/artistic
undertaking has been the process of transforming himself into his late wife, Lady Jaye, a project
he dubbed Pandrogyny. Before Lady Jaye's death, the couple received matching sets of breast
implants and $200,000 worth of other cosmetic surgeries, along with hormone therapy. They
dressed alike and mimicked each other's body movements and mannerisms as a means to merge
their identities and to transcend the limitations of what it means to be male and female
(Cusack, 140). Cusack quotes P-Orridge:

Either/Or, Good/Bad, Male/Female, and Physical/Non-Physical...Then the whole

idea intruded, of 'as above, so below; the smallest is the same as the largest'-a very
ancient idea. And it fits: everything is a mirror to everything else, no matter how
small you get, no matter how large you get-it's all absolutely and uncannily a
mirror of itself. If that's the case, then it's one huge or minute non-physical
reflection of itself. Which means we aren't really important and we don't really
exist in the true sense of the word. We are merely blessed with a sense of
existence! (Cusack, 140)
Interweaving of Popular Culture
One integral element of TOPY, as referenced by Kirby, is how it functions as occulture.
She defines this as the often hidden, rejected, and oppositional beliefs and practices associated
with magical, occultist, and other non-traditional religions. As previously stated, TOPY rejects
the hierarchical structure of theistic religions and instead embraces a model in which those that
consume its spiritual and cultural products actively engage and participate with them. The way
that TOPY harnesses art, music, and popular culture facilitates this process and functions to
preserve its mission of spiritual exploration and gives rise to new meanings of the sacred and
secular. TOPY enables the participant to create, rather than consume, popular culture artefacts
(sic) (Kirby, 40). Kirby quotes Possami as she compares the model that TOPY's participants
ascribe to as opposed to that of traditional religions: [T]exts are consumed by the reader,
construct who the reader is, and (re)define the reader's self in his or her involvement with this
culture of desire...spiritual consumers construct their sense of self through consuming popular
culture (40). TOPY produced a body of its own religious texts, including Thee Psychick Bible.
Varying interpretation of texts and other media produced among participants is encouraged.

As Kirby states, participants take on the role of creator/re-creator of the cultural

product rather than mere consumption. One example of this process is what Kirby refers to as
remix culture, which she credits the internet and other digital means in facilitating: ...remix
cultures generally see no problem with extending, recontextualizing, or changing the text, with or
without legal permission...In a secular context, remix has been applied to every form of cultural
production from music, visual art, text, film to game (Kirby, 51). TOPY evidences remix culture
in P-Orridge's statement on compositional/sampling techniques:
Sampling, looping, and re-assembling both found materials and site specific
sounds selected for precision of relevance to thee message implications of a piece
of music or a transmedia exploration, is an alchemal, even a magical
phenomenon. No matter how short, or apparently unrecognisable a 'sample' might
be in a linear time perception, I believe it must, inevitably contain within it (and
accessible through it), the sum total of absolutely everything its original
context represented, communicated, or touched in any way (Kirby, 55).
This statement from P-Orridge also demonstrates the marriage of the sacred and profane, the
spiritual and the popular in its rendering of the process of composition as a magical act. Kirby
argues that TOPY's creative endeavors served as both popular culture artefacts and a platform
for expression of their political, spiritual, and religious manifestos.
TOPY is often associated with the phrase post-anarchism, a term which emerged amid
a backdrop of new creative forms of radical discourse. This includes DIY (do it yourself) culture
and the 1980s zine network in North American and the UK, in which participants produced and
distributed their own xeroxed publications that oftentimes served as political or spiritual
manifestos. It is likely that the blossoming zine scene of the time and support of radical ideals is

what helped TOPY gain traction and notoriety.

Post-anarchist thought is evidenced in Hakim Bey's body of work during this period,
including zines such as Kaos. Bey's form of spiritualized anarchism was referred to as
Ontological Anarchism, the embodying of metaphysics and relation of being linked to
occultism (Greer, 198). This brand of anarchist thought is heavily related to the chaos magic
movement: This milieu can most accurately be described as a network of political, sexual, and
spiritual non-conformists, all of whom communicated through small-circulation hand-made
magazines called fanzines, though abbreviated to zines, as well as taped letters, self-recorded
music, mail-art, and 'comix' sent through the mail (Greer, 170). Motifs of anti-authoritarianism,
anti-censorship, and alternative sexualities were prevalent. Bey's Ontological Anarchism is
inextricably connected to chaos magic in the sense that, as Greer quotes Bey, no 'state' can exist
in chaos...therefore that governance of any sort is impossible, and chaos is what defines reality
(177).
Moral Panic
While the nature of TOPY's ideologies greatly encouraged individual interpretation and
variation of their beliefs and practices, a line was drawn to a certain degree when they became
subject to blatant misrepresentation. On February 19, 1992, a British television series Dispatches
aired the episode Beyond Belief, an expos on Satanic cults and what they deemed satanic
ritual abuse, which is defined by Kirby as systemic sexual molestation and/or psychological
harassment, usually by adults to children, that in some way invokes supernatural themes (139).
It featured survivor accounts and graphic footage depicting this abuse, including images of
obscene rituals involving a hooded man having ritual symbols carved into his flesh, a naked
woman tied up and raped, and an apparent abortion on another restrained and possibly drugged

woman (Kirby, 135). Law enforcement and medical experts were consulted for the episode.
What was framed as actual Satanic cults engaging in such abuse was actually spliced footage
from a performance art film created by TOPY titled First Transmission, shown completely out of
context.
However, the episode incited a media pandemonium and public outrage, resulting in
active members of TOPY's homes being raided by the police. Questionable materials,
including personal artistic works, were confiscated. This included the home of P-Orridge, who
was out of the country when the episode aired. Following this backlash, P-Orridge and his family
chose not to return to England and the original incarnation of the group ultimately disbanded
(Kirby, 137).
The events occurred amid a nationwide paranoia of the dangers of Satanic cults/ritual
abuse that had already been well-established in the UK in the 1980s. TOPY's crossover of art and
magic along with truth and reality is what ultimately lead to the downfall of the original group's
founders and unfortunately contributed to the misconceptions surrounding their practices.
Although some of collective's ideas were loosely influenced by that of occultist Aliester Crowley,
the practices of TOPY were largely incongruent with the general public's misinformed
perceptions of Satanism, be it magical or theological (that of sadism, animal sacrifice, and
cannibalism). Kirby attributes the satanic panic of the 1980s and 1990s to a tense sociocultural climate due to the to the rise of fundamentalist Christianity, the anti-cult movement, the
new wave of child saving, and the survivor/recovery movement (140).
In The Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic as Religious-Studies Data by David Frankfurter, he
asserts that studies of the moral panic that occurred in the 1980s pointed to the
conceptualization and social concepts of evil as an idea, rather than its existence, such as

irrational fears of mind-control and abuse. He references Levi-Strauss, who states cults are good
to think with (111). He also points to Evans Pritchard's If I were a horse critique, in which one
insists that people 'must have' thought in such a way, or performed such-and-such a ritual, or
performed the imagined ritual for such-and-such a reason, or that there 'must be' such-and-such a
cult, simply because such thinking (or ritualizing) 'makes sense.' This idea relates back to that of
the individual governing their own reality, in a sense like discoridanism/chaos magic, but
asserting that to an extent, our own imaginations reconstruct or perceptions of reality.
First Transmission, like TOPY itself, transcended any boundaries: [it] can be
successfully read as a record of a previous magical act, an active and ongoing magic ritual in its
own right, a tool for individual magic practice, a piece of performance art...BDSM pornography,
[and] an experimental video (Kirby, 147). Much like the beliefs expounded within
discordianism and chaos magic, the reality of the events in the film are largely irrelevant, as
the individual is responsible for governing their own perception of it (Kirby, 147). An excerpt
from Thee Psychick Bible states What would happen if a rock band took its fans seriously and
chose to encourage them to explore...ANYTHING? (Kirby, 143). However, this mindset
subjected the founders to significant misconception, from both the media and devoted
participants.
Conclusion
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth transcended all boundaries and dismantled binaristic
limitations between good and evil, black and white, and the sacred and the popular. As Kirby
states in Occultural Bricolage and Popular Culture, Their art was their magic and their magic
their art, which also more or less was their lived experience (53). Through public art, film, and
musical performances, the group successfully established a platform for their political and

spiritual ideals to come into fruition while also enabling their participants to take the role of cocreators. Many dismissed the group as embodying that of a fiction-based or parody religion, as
the line between whether or not it was serious or irreverent was blurred, but this was arbitrary.
The group's objectives were achieving self-discipline and a strengthened sense of nonconformity, and individual autonomy was law. Therefore, TOPY's philosophy was that each
individual governed their own interpretations of reality within the chaos paradigm. While
borrowing and remixing aspects of other theoretical frameworks, popular culture, and orthodoxy,
they produced a powerful underground movement all their own. Although the original
incarnation of the group disbanded following the police raids in 1992, many factions of the group
still exist today and carry on the legacy of the original founders. A statement from the current
TOPY website:
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) exists to promote a system of
functional, demystified magick, utilizing both Pagan and modern techniques. It is
a process ov individual and collective experimentation and research with no finite
answers, dogmas, or unchangeable truths. It is for each to discover his or her own
understanding ov thee questions that suggest themselves, and through that voyage
ov discovery to find their personal and true identity, thee True Will (Kirby, 53).