HERE’S AN INTERVIEW I DID AT PLATINORUM.COM.
For the full interview (in both English and Portuguese) just click the image above. : 3
And for our first interview, and international guest – Archtraitor Bluefluke (A.K.A. Nathan Smith)! Occultist and artist from Cincinnati (Ohio), he was featured mainly on Kaos Magick communities for his Psychonaut Field Manual – a beginners guide on Magick made through his cartoons, gaming references and light language. Even without a Portuguese version, the Manual achieve great popularity in Brazilian groups. To know more about his path, projects and views, check out now our interview with Bluefluke:
Platinorum Team: How did you started on magick and the occult? You still study other areas besides Kaos Magick
Bluefluke: When I was young I experienced Sleep Paralysis frequently. It ruined my life. It’s hard to care about making friends or doing well in school when you’re afraid that you’re going to be strangled to death by “demonic” entities. It turns down the volume on everything else. As anyone who has experienced S.P. can tell you, doctors are useless in this regard and telling your loved ones will only make them think that you’re broken or crazy. I pretended to be “cured” and quietly sought alternative solutions in occult literature. It wasn’t easy research, given the vast amount of information (both true and false) but eventually what I found worked. I came to realize that there was far more to the world than what we are told.
Along the way I became obsessed with Alchemy, learned it’s true nature and began my journey there. I branched out, studied everything I could get my hands on, joined and abandoned several groups but eventually found the niche and methodology that works well for me. I still love studying any and all branches of Western Esotericism. You never know what new technologies you may stumble on along the way. They’re all so beautiful.
PT: How are you relation and views about the Gods? Any panteon or deity you favor?
BF: A godform is what you make of them. Any method involving them is valid if it works for you and you’re getting what you want from the experience. As for me? Eris is my homegirl.
PT: About your works on Psychonaut Field Manual, there are plans to a printed version? You have any other projects combining art and magick on view?
BF: Once I complete all six chapters I’ll likely print multiple versions of varying cost, from an inexpensive comic book version all the way a glossy hardcover with a bunch of extras, sold at whatever price it costs to manufacture and ship them. I have no interest in profiting from the P.F.M. as that would ruin it and void the whole point of me making it in the first place.
Anyone is free to copy, print or share it, whether digital or physical. Forever. As long as they don’t sell it or put it behind a paywall, they have my blessing.
I’m also mostly done with my own Tarot deck, though it’s on hold until the P.F.M. is done so that I can give both projects the attention they deserve.
PT: We know your views of art (being graphic, writing, music…) as the language of magick. How creativity can help someone on his magickal works?
BF: Being able to express your desire or goal in a visual, narrative or musical form is critical to attaining them. It makes the whole process much more enjoyable and getting results far easier.
PT: How we can use magick working directly with art?
BF: Sigil magic is a big standout here. Encoding your intent through storytelling (hyper sigils) is another. Automatic drawing, writing and singing “in tongues” stand as classics for a reason, they work and very often they turn out beautiful art. One can make art part of their daily ritual and be reasonably sure it will greatly enhance the quality of their work.It gives every experiment a greater depth than without.
PT: What you suggest for those who want to improve they creativity?
BF: Practice! As with anything, the more you practice the better you will become. Do the work and you will get results. If you sit around fantasizing about it rather than doing the actual work, you will fail. That goes for for anything but doubly so for magic.
PT: We see many of today magickal works are just a improvement of the Middle Ages and Renaissance practices. As Kaos Magick being the first system that seeks to break with it, what’s your vision on it’s role in a free magickal development, without the barriers other systems usually have?
BF: Everything is subjective to the individual. Some things work for some but fail for others. For example, those who are completely incapable of achieving Gnosis through traditional western ritual work may be able to reach Gnosis through eastern style meditation and vice versa.
Neither technology is “better”, nor is the practitioner a failure if it is not compatible with them. Everyone has a different personality type and thus requires different set of tools. The flaw in rigid dogmatic traditions is that even if one is able to wield a tool unsuited for them, they will likely do so very poorly. These specific systems tend to work for specific personality types at the expense of all others and thus they produce uneven magicians on the whole.
Overspecialize and you breed in weakness.
Chaos Magic demands that each magician construct their own path based on their own needs, from whatever tools work best for them. As such, it has a much higher success rate than older more traditional systems and leads to a more creative, self reliant and balanced magician.
PT: Many people seek to use Kaos Magick to create their own magickal systems. What are your views on these? Do you have any hints on system creation?
BF: With Chaos magic the possibilities are limited only by your creativity and intelligence. As I explained before, this will likely lead to a much more balanced magician. However, in order to do so you MUST understand how the underlying machinery of thesesystems actually work. The best tip for doing so is to compare several similar tools that have a high rate of success. Take what they have in common and throw away the rest. Experiment by adding things to it that you believe will work and be honest with yourself if they don’t.In the end you’ll sculpt a set of tools that fit like a glove and get you results, every time.
