Hellblazer (yeah the comic book)

[HeavenlyBlues]

So, I've been peeking in on chaos magick for a while now, and I'm starting to get where it's coming from. Reality is what you make it. employing sigils to tap into the universal mind-kind-of-thing. Relatively new system, right?

It occured to me recently from what i've read and what i've heard said, that it doesn't seem to be too far off from what John Constantine employs. For those of you familiar with the comic and chaos magick, am I onto something here? I don't know so much about whether he's big on sigils as just drawing protective circles, but he is eclectic to say the least. Gotten tangled up in most spiritual paths and thinks they're equally full of $h!z but just as real and dangerous.

So, is there a little John Constantine in the chaos magicians out there?

[Seehiah]

Given that Constantine was created by Alan Moore (literally- I recall reading an account by Moore of how he bumped into Constantine in a pub once!), and that Alan Moore is himself a practicing magician wiht a Chaotical bent, I'd say that you're quite right.

While sigils are probably the best known aspect of Chaos Magic, they certainly aren't the be-all and end-all of the concept. Constantine's ability to McGyver a spell out of whatever the situation is, based only on the most basic of existing principles, is pretty darn chaotic.
Example- in one storyline he engineers a prison riot via his own nicotine withdrawal cravings!

I've lost count of how many people have written Hellblazer, not even counting the odd one-offs by Neil Gaiman, but each writer has brought their own ideas of 'what magic is' to the character. Net result, sometimes he's failry heavy-duty Ceremonial, other times he seems to be using pure headology. And everything inbetween.
But this variation doesn't negate the idea of Constatine as Chaos Magician- I think it actually reinforces it.

Have you read much of Grant Morrison's work? Especially 'The Invisibles'? Another Chaos Magician- very big on sigils himself.