Peter J. Carroll Quotes

35 Sourced Quotes

Matter can be conveniently divided for descriptive purposes into space, time, mass, and energy. However we can only describe any one of these phenomena in terms of the other three. Any definitions we care to make about matter are thus tautological.

Peter J. Carroll
I regard physics as that subset of magic that works fairly reliably. I regard magick, in the traditional sense, as a kind of physics that we strive to understand and render more reliable. So it all comes down to the same thing, a quest to understand and manipulate the world with a self-consistent and coherent theory.

Peter J. Carroll
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.

Peter J. Carroll
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.

Peter J. Carroll
NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
A decade on and the rest of the page remains blank for we still cannot find a single datum that remains true under all possible circumstances, nor evidence of the impossibility of anything under all possible circumstances.
But by all means have a go....

Peter J. Carroll
Indeed, linear extrapolations make no large-scale sense in a universe that has spatial and temporal curvature.

Peter J. Carroll
Can we find "The Universe in a grain of sand"? Well perhaps, but a stone seems easier to visualize.

Peter J. Carroll
In a stagnant environment the body-mind creates its own adversity – disease and fantasy.

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

Peter J. Carroll
Man considers himself center of will and a center of perception. Will and perception are not separate but only appear so to the mind. The unity which appears to the mind to exert twin functions of will and perception is called Kia by magicians. Sometimes it is called the spirit, or soul, or life force, instead.

Peter J. Carroll
"Being" exists only as a neurological and linguistic illusion.

Peter J. Carroll
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.

Peter J. Carroll
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?

Peter J. Carroll
Magic is the science and the art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.

Peter J. Carroll
WE CAN ONLY ESCAPE THE BLOODY AND IGNORANT NIGHTMARE OF HISTORY BY EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES WHICH TODAY LOOK FRIGHTENINGLY WEIRD.

Peter J. Carroll
If someone claims to have free will, ask them, "free from precisely what?"

Peter J. Carroll
We doubt that any facts actually exist. We only have observations and interpretations. Most of the interpretations remain questionable.

Peter J. Carroll
That which is denied gains power, and seeks strange and unexpected forms of manifestation.

Peter J. Carroll
Any sufficiently advanced form of magick will appear indistinguishable from science.

Peter J. Carroll
Enforcing equality to compensate for the monstrous unfairness of nature destroys liberty.
But total liberty leads to various forms of "aristocracy" and decay.
Yet total equality leads to oppressive statism and decay.
However, equality of opportunity leads to a vibrantly chaotic and creative meritocracy.

Peter J. Carroll
In certain tantric rituals the candidate is first beaten by his guru, hashish forced down him, and he is taken at midnight to a dark cemetery for sacred sexual intercourse. Thus he achieves union with his god.

Peter J. Carroll
As a great master once observed: "There are two methods of becoming god, the upright or the averse." Let the mind become as a flame or a pool of still water.

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

Peter J. Carroll
It is a mistake to consider any belief more liberated than another. It is the possibility of change which is important. Every new form of liberation is destined to eventually become another form of enslavement for most of its adherents. There is no freedom from duality on this plane of existence, but one may at least aspire to choice of duality.

Peter J. Carroll
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.

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

Peter J. Carroll
Flat Earth theory serves well enough for a trip from the cave to the water hole and back, and a third dimension going up into the sky and down underground serves to accommodate gods and devils — A lot of people still think like that, believe it or not.

Peter J. Carroll
An old joke puts its thus, "when a man speaks to a god its prayer, when a god speaks to a man its schizophrenia"... Many people hear voices without suffering any of the debilitating and dysfunctional effects associated with schizophrenia, some treat these as sources of inspiration of develop religious ideas around them, others become mediums or occultists.

Peter J. Carroll
Chaos, the life force of the universe, is not human-hearted. Therefore the wizard cannot be human-hearted when he seeks to tap the force of the universe. He performs monstrous and arbitrary acts to loosen the hold of human limitations upon himself.

Peter J. Carroll
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.

Peter J. Carroll