Chaos magic groups and currents
The magical organizations Wikipedia places within chaos magic are the Illuminates of Thanateros and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, and around them sit the Discordian tradition and the libraries, magazines, publishers and online communities that carried the practice.
Chaos magic emerged in England in the 1970s and drew heavily on the artist Austin Osman Spare.
Each entry gives what the group is, when it began, who's involved, whether it's still running, and where it lives online. Links go to the source wherever one exists, because summaries drift and the source doesn't.
Nobody owns chaos magic. Joining anything is optional, and nothing on this list is needed to make a sigil tonight. Where sources disagree, both versions are here with their names on them.
Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT)
What: An international magical order focused on practical group work in chaos magic, also called the Pact.
When: The date depends on what you count. Wikipedia says the idea was announced in 1978 and the order proper formed in 1987. Another Wikipedia article places the first announcement in 1976 to 1977. Dave Lee, a founder member of a West Yorkshire group, writes that Peter J. Carroll conceived the order before Liber Null appeared in 1978, that the West Yorkshire group began in 1980, and that Carroll restructured the order in 1986 to 1987.
Who: Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin announced it in their magazine The New Equinox. Carroll's role as head is described differently by different sources. Lee says Carroll resigned as its head in 1991, that the order came into its own after he stepped back, and that Carroll's tastes in magic differed from the members'. Wikipedia's article on Carroll says he announced in 1995 his wish to step down from the roles of magus and pontiff of chaos. Wikipedia also reports a schism in the early 1990s in which most of the German and Swiss members left.
Active: Yes. The North America section takes applications through an online form. The British Isles section runs its own site. Sections run separately.
Own site: iot-na.thanateros.org and iotbritishisles.com.
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY)
What: A British magical organization and chaos magic network that also worked as an experimental art collective.
When: Founded in 1981.
Who: Genesis P-Orridge of the band Psychic TV co-founded it. P-Orridge left in 1991 and died on 14 March 2020. Members were encouraged to make sigils of a prescribed kind at the 23rd hour of the 23rd day of each month. Grant Morrison's series The Invisibles drew on Morrison's practice in the group.
Active: Not established. P-Orridge claimed to have shut the network down on leaving. Wikipedia reports that some remaining members carried on with TOPY, and that it kept growing through the 1990s and into the 21st century.
Own text: The network's introductory document is online at sacred-texts.com.
Discordianism and the Principia Discordia
What: A tradition built around Eris, the Greek goddess of strife, described as a belief system somewhere between parody and social commentary. Wikipedia says some commentators draw similarities between chaos magic and Discordianism. It is a cousin of chaos magic and not a chaos magic order.
When: The Principia Discordia was first published in 1965, in New Orleans, in an edition of five copies. A second edition of 100 copies followed in Los Angeles in 1969, and the best-known fourth edition came out in San Francisco in 1970.
Who: Greg Hill wrote the Principia with Kerry Thornley and others. It is quoted extensively in the satirical Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (1975).
Active: Wikipedia describes the tradition as decentralized. A community site hosts the text, forums and an IRC channel.
Own site: principiadiscordia.com.
Chaos Matrix
What: An online library of chaos magic files, sorted into categories that include sigils, servitors, gnosis, Spare, TOPY, Carroll and the IOT, and Discordianism.
When: Its banner reads "Immanentizing the Eschaton since 27 October 1995."
Who: The site does not name an operator on the pages checked. Most of the files are texts by other authors.
Active: The home page says it was last updated on 24 January 2013, and the revision stamp reads 20 August 2019. Going by those two dates, this page treats it as an archive.
Own site: chaosmatrix.org. Read the texts there. Mirrors elsewhere go stale.
Chaos International
What: A British magazine on chaos magic. Phil Hine was a former editor, and Ian Read produced it after him. Carroll wrote columns for it under the names Pete Carroll and Stokastikos.
When: It was running in the early 1990s. The magazine's imprint put out Hine's Chaos Servitors: A User Guide in 1991 and the first, booklet version of Condensed Chaos in 1992.
Active: No. Back issues circulate as scans of uncertain rights, so this page doesn't link to them.
Rune Soup
What: A blog, podcast and paid online community about magic and animism, founded by Gordon White. It describes itself as having a strong chaos magic inflection.
Who: White wrote the blog, including the 2010 post that named sigil shoaling. Rune Soup announced on 13 May 2026 that he had died while traveling in Peru. His partner James wrote that Rune Soup will continue, with courses and spaces on Mighty remaining available.
Active: James wrote on 30 May 2026 that it continues. That's the latest this page has.
Own site: runesoup.com. The family's own messages are at runesoup.com/messages-from-gordons-family.
Become A Living God forum
What: The official forum of the Become A Living God brand. Its front page promotes E.A. Koetting's books and an Asenath Mason oracle deck beside member threads, most of which concern demon work and Luciferian practice, with chaos magic a minority subject.
Active: Yes. Threads on the front page are dated October 2026.
Own site: forum.becomealivinggod.com.
r/chaosmagick
What: A Reddit community for chaos magic.
Active: Not confirmed here. Reddit doesn't show its threads to automated readers, so check the dates on the newest posts yourself.
Own site: reddit.com/r/chaosmagick. Read the community's rules before posting.
Chaos Magick News
What: A YouTube channel on chaos magick. Its own tagline: "Chaos Magick News has sold its soul for internet clout."
Own site: youtube.com/@chaosmagicknews. Go watch, and subscribe if it earns it.
Arcanorium College
What: A chaos magic teaching project founded by Peter J. Carroll, which offered a Baccalaureate in Magic, with a science department alongside.
Who: Carroll was chancellor and, until his death in April 2026, the sole remaining tutor.
Active: The college's page says enquiries were being made about whether it could continue under other magi, and that the course materials remain on the site for independent study.
Own site: specularium.org/arcanoriumcollege.
Mandrake of Oxford
What: An independent publisher of hands-on occult books, not chaos-only.
When: It started in 1986 as Golden Dawn Publications and took the name Mandrake in 1988, on publication of Sexual Magick by founder Mogg Morgan writing as Katon Shual.
Chaos titles: Carroll's The Apophenion (2008), The Octavo (2010) and Interview with a Wizard (2022), and the work of Jan Fries.
Active: The newest Carroll title Wikipedia lists with it is from 2022. The publisher's own site turns away automated readers, so this page hasn't checked it past that.
Own site: mandrake.uk.net.
Red Wheel/Weiser
What: A mainstream occult publisher.
Chaos titles: Red Wheel/Weiser published Carroll's Liber Null & Psychonaut (1987), Liber Kaos (1992) and This Is Chaos (2025).
Active: Publishing.
Own site: redwheelweiser.com.
The people behind the groups
Peter J. Carroll (1953 to 22 April 2026) was one of the originators of chaos magic theory and a cofounder of the IOT. His own site's announcement says he died unexpectedly. This page adds nothing to that. The announcement and the In Memoriam page are on specularium.org.
Gordon White died in May 2026; see Rune Soup above.
Where to go next
- What chaos magic is
- Chaos magic for beginners: start here
- The chaos star covers the symbol the IOT uses.
Art: Team Zer0