Voices of Chaos

An oral history of the Chaos Magic scene.

Voices of Chaos documents the emergence of the Chaos Magic scene, its story, and its legacy, from the early 1970s to the present day, through the voices of many of those who lived it.

Comprised of intimate accounts from such figures as Peter Carroll, Phil Hine, Dave Lee, Patricia MacCormack, Rodney Orpheus, Lionel Snell, Julian Vayne, Aidan Wachter and Nikki Wyrd, the book charts the ongoing trajectory of the most radical, vital, and often misunderstood, magical current of the past few decades.

As well as such more public figures, the book features new, revealing testimony from people connected to the scene’s emergence in and around Leeds and London, whose stories have never before been told. Their accounts bring fresh insights and perspective to the story of Chaos Magic, drawing in performance art, surrealism, queer activism, music, literature, zine culture and more. 

The book is illustrated with previously unseen photographs from the earliest days of a movement that represented—and still does—a hugely influential strand of avant-garde culture and esoteric thinking.