In Memoriam: Peter J. Carroll (1953-2026)
The Occult Library mourns the recent passing of occultist, writer, and theorist of chaos magic, Peter J. Carroll. He passed from this world on April 22nd, 2026.
Carroll’s contributions greatly advanced the theory & praxis of magic in the 20th and 21st centuries. Carroll’s ability to distill advanced concepts and frameworks, while still retaining the essence of their content, represents the mark of a profound writer and occultist. It is for this reason that many of Peter’s works served as the incepting point for many budding magicians. in particular, his work in Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic still finds a home on laps and shelves across the world.
Cover of Carroll’s work entitled, Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic.
Peter J. Carroll was born in England in 1953. By the middle part of the 1970’s, having reached an age of magical immersion, Carroll and colleague Ray Sherwin incepted a publication entitled The New Equinox. Regularly containing contributions from Carroll himself, the publication ran between 1976 and 1979 out of Yorkshire, U.K.
Adjacently, Carroll and Sherwin became immersed in occult circles coalescing around The Phoenix bookshop in the East End of London, U.K. Subsequently in 1978, the duo founded the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), an order of chaos magicians who envisioned themselves as the inheritors of the Zos-Kia tradition of Austin Osman Spare.
Theirs was an order that blended components of Spare’s system with the Thelema of Crowley, mystical currents within Asian thought, as well as novel developments in chaos theory. The order was deeply influenced by a backdrop of subcultural, anarchic, and experimental currents.
Shortly subsequent to the publication of his work Liber Kaos, in the 1990’s, Carroll stepped back from activity in the lluminates of Thanateros. However, the organization still persists to this day, with various circles and representative offshoots around the globe.
Cover of Carroll’s 1992 work entitled, Liber Kaos
Carroll was a proponent of Austin Osman Spare’s unique system of magic. Carroll distilled and extended the theories of Spare, relating concepts such as Spare’s Zos & Kia to his own understandings of of consciousness and perception. These frameworks are treated heavily in Carroll’s seminal works Liber Null (1978) and Psychonaut (1982). In 1987, these works were combined into a single, aforementioned volume called, Liber Null & Psychonaut.
Liber Null & Psychonaut remains a foundational text on chaos magic, and is perhaps one of the important works on magic in the 20th century. The text is challenging, yet it also expresses a clarity which beckons to the entrant.
Carroll was prolific in other respects: he taught and instructed, sometimes at the call of luminaries like Robert Anton Wilson (who called Carroll “The most original, and probably the most important, writer on Magick since Aleister Crowley”). Carroll also wrote heavily for periodical publications like Chaos International, all while published other books of his own.
Of note are the 1996 work Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magic, and the 2010 work The Octavo: A Sorcerer-Scientist's Grimoire. Carroll’s final book was published in 2025 to much fanfare. It is entitled, This Is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Magic.
Cover of Caroll’s 2025 work entitled, This Is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Magic
The Occult Library recognizes that human beings themselves are like libraries: lives filled with knowledge and vocation, often marked by a personal mandate to share openly with others. We are grateful for the extensive writing and sharing that Peter J. Carroll offered the occult community. His work has served to shape the topography of occult life in the 20th century onward, and offered a refuge to seekers old and new alike.
In Gratitude,
— The Occult Library staff