This is adapted from a reply to someone on another forum who was trained in a traditional context (Santeria & Palo) and then moved to explore chaos magic techniques while I am pretty much moving in the opposite direction. To each as they will and so on..
My more recent magickal work has included learning from mentors who work in Chaos magick. Perhaps the biggest influences the latter has had on me are an openness to saying "I wonder what happens if I try this?" This is sometimes followed by "Ouch! I won't do that again!"
It also tends to influence me to see how simple I can make things and still get results. I value that attitude of experimentation, which doesn't tend to be prominent in more traditional systems. In the end it may be that more traditional work with spirits, saints, etc just comes easier to me, so I tend to turn to that when I want reliable results.
My early magical mentors, while many things being pretty traditional witchcraft, taught that the bottom line is witches take what works. So when I encountered chaos magic theory in the form of books by Peter Carroll, Phil Hine, and particularly Jan Fries I took pieces of their methods and perspectives and applied it to what I was already doing.
When I met people involved in group work using chaos techniques I found a bunch of different approaches.. one was an old witch who was very experimentation/results oriented but clearly stuck in a lot of methods of working he acquired from years of being in covens. Another was the fragments of the IOT which it seemed was cool for a minute but quickly fell in disarray. I only got to see it being cool once, and that was such intense, erratic energy I don't think that kind of thing could have held a group together unless they were all part of a cult or something locked away in the woods. And then things would have gotten really weird.
There is another group doing very interesting work which I will probably join at my next opportunity (the initiator is perpetually traveling) but to be honest I am more interested in them as a way to network with other artists and musicians involving their work in magical practices (and vice versa) than learning anything particular. They don't really teach as such anyways.
But yes. I think because "pure" chaos magic only uses symbol systems personal to the magician it doesn't have access to (god I hate this word) the "egregoric" muscle that has built up around the saints and spirits of living traditions over generations. I never liked how chaos magicians appropriated other spirits, particularly those used in living traditions and put them into a novel context without their informed consent. Its an insult to their autonomy.
This may be part of why you're saying "ouch". If you already have spirits who have ways of working with you and you don't understand entirely what some other changes in procedure might mean they could get too hot, get ****** off, or the procedure could create some change in their fundamental platform of manifestation. This is why even when you get a really awesome idea and it fires your gnosis on all cylinders divination is essential to make sure your procedure is sound. Its taking me a while to learn that and it can be a rough lesson.
While keeping up with energy circulation techniques coming from ceremonial magic and eastern traditions can be helpful to alleviate this, there is another disadvantage to the chaos methodology and one which wasn't obvious to me until recently. When and old friend and co-"worker" moved back to Miami and became initiated in a vodou house there, her houngan (who had a very eclectic and bizarre set of spirits) was very curious about chaos magic and so she taught it to him (she has been doing it for almost a decade at that point). He said roughly "yes.. you could do this and it may work great.. but you
will get old quickly.. spirits are much more effective because they do not require the will of the magician to be the sole mediator". I think he's probably right.
My approach now is to do the petition and any element that I think might be effectively malleable in a personal style, such as I posted in that sigil thread, and to keep any spirit work accompanying it very simple and to the point. And I have started using a pendulum to make sure that whomever I'm working with is happy with this arrangement and that this is the best way to do things, etc. This seems to work.
I have been prescribed a regimen of cleansing baths to get my heat down. I think it one of those times I need to take myself down to baseline and focus on simple devotions to ancestors and spirits I know and trust. Did I "**** myself up" as a result of these practices? I don't think so. . certainly not as much as being a bystander in someones unwise enochian meddlings... But I do think I've learned that focusing too much on a creative goal in the context of your workings can make you less careful and even lazy, muddles your working environment, and thus your work.
:bonk::biglaugh: