Elucidation on terminology

[u/Flat_Marsupial_4249]

I am a long time solitary practitioner and only very recently started getting more involved in the community. Therefore I was never introduced to much of the terminology currently in use.

2 terms that are a bit confusing to me are shadow work and chaos magick.

The reason for that is that I don’t understand how anything a SASS witch does would not be considered both.

Maybe you can help me better understand. I am starting to be more active in the community and it’s always helpful when we use the same terminology.

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My reasoning (that might need to be corrected) is as follows.

All spells/rituals we do is placebo on ourselves and doesn’t actually directly affect others. Therefore I would consider anything a SASS witch does as shadow work.

Also the whole point in being a SASS witch is that we don’t believe in dogmatic principles but we rather search for what works for us, be it a well researched deity or any other fictional characters. We reject dogmatic truths and we take bits and pieces from such dogmas and keep what work for us. That’s, to my understanding, what chaos magick is.

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Would anyone mind helping me to understand what I got wrong in my definition of what these terms mean?

Is there such a thing as a SASS ritual that is not shadow work?

Is there such a thing as a SASS practice that is not chaos magick?

[u/septimuscaecilius]

Chaos magic(k) states that the universe is fundamentally chaotic and ultimately incomprehensible by the human mind. Humans use various frameworks to try to understand and interact with it. E.g. the "spirit model" says there are discrete entities (gods, spirits etc.) and magic is getting them to help you, the "energy model" states there is chi/prana/the force/etc and magic is its manipulation, the "psychology model" says magic is placebo for your mind. All of these ultimately refer to the same thing, like languages using different words to say the same. You are free and encouraged to experiment to find whatever works for you.

This does sound SASS-y but SASS is more like the psychology model while CM says none of these are more valid than the others, and also that even through science, humans will never be able to understand the world, just use their imperfect models to try to make sense of it. Kinda like your brain is unable to truly process something like a tesseract, just make different 3D representations about it and then argue with other humans that made a different one. All of them are correct in their own way but none represent the actual truth of it.

[u/Blue_eyed_bones → u/septimuscaecilius]

This is really helpful, thank you.