By Ray Sherwin

Ray Sherwin is was one of the authors who were at the forefront of the development of Chaos Magic in the UK. Not as prolific as some of the other writers on the Chaos Magick scene, such as Pete Carrol and Ramsay Dukes, he did, however, write one seminal book.

The Book of Results was first published in 1978 just as Chaos Magick was emerging and it was essentially a book about the practise and theory of sigils as espoused by Austin Spare at the turn of the Twentieth Century. However, Sherwin takes the process of working with sigils and develops it into a fully ritualised technique. In the book he describes a daily regime that, at first glance, seems to owe more to Abra-Melin (though much more compact and personalised) than to Chaos Magick. However, this is Chaos Magick in its true form without much chaos. The chaos in this book is anything but disorganised. The discipline described by Sherwin is far from the adhoc, suck-it-and-see, ritual that often seems to acompany much of what Chaos Magic has become over the years.

The true Chaos Magick that Sherwin describes is the chaos of abandoning all established theory and running barefoot in the head with no boundaries. This sort of writing is where Chaos Magick came from. Letting go of the cobwebs of doctrine - left over by the likes of Crowley, Mathers or The Key of Solomon - is what Chaos Magick was supposed to be about. Having said that Sherwin isn't afraid of referring to the likes of Crowley but he takes what he needs and builds from there.

The book includes a great deal of practical advice, which can be very useful at the beginning of a magical career and is a breath of fresh air to an old git like this reviewer who has been going a bit longer than that. The revised version of The Book of Results (published in 1992) includes chapters on example rituals, action sigils and even the Singing Tadpole by Thessalonius Loyola.

We have been unable to locate The Book of Results on either amazon.com or amazon.co.uk. This is a rare book published by a small underground publisher. However, it may be a available second hand. Follow these links to search for works by Ray Sherwin on either of the Amazon sites or visit our second hand books link page here. (This window will stay open to allow you to refer back to the details of this book as you search for The Book of Results.)

Sherwin, Ray; The Book of Results, Revelations 23 press, 1992, 55 pages including Foreword by Pete Carroll.

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