From S. Kelley Harrell, author of Gift Of The Dreamtime: Awakening To The Divinity Of Trauma, via Amazon.com:
Though maybe not meant for novices, students of any level of magick can learn from his approaches and suggested tools.
From JSV of Ravenoir.com:
Coming at you from the Illuminates of Thanateros Section in the United States, Wetzel pulls no punches in this his first work. Liber LLL is an extension of the basic magical practices outlined over two decades ago by Peter Carroll in Liber Null...The good thing about this book overall, and about Liber Ventum in particular, is that these techniques certainly appear to be ones that the author himself has tried in the field. The overall approach is certainly highly results oriented, with little material being devoted to detailed theorizing and none to a broader contextualization of the work of the magician...Highly recommended for people into the Chaos current, accessible and ideal for scaring your elderly Wiccan granny (the section on trafficking with the goetia makes some of Uncle Crowley’s antics look positively restrained!). Excellent stuff.
From Psyche of Spiral Nature:
...includes techniques for lucid dreaming, gnosis, a note on weapons and tools, rituals, metamorphosis, and the eight colours of magick, each accompanied by exercises for further exploration...Most of the techniques and theory will be familiar to the experienced chaote, but the neophyte may find this a welcome addition to hir library.
From Shade Oroboros of Silverstar Magazine:
This is hard-edged, no-bullshit sorcery designed to create solid results and foster the useful habit of reliably expecting such results.
From Frater daro 257 4*:
This document is a clear example of why I approached Chaos Magic and the IOT in the first place. Straight, to the point, communication of concepts in a clear language and definition as pertains to skills in which must be developed to persue our magical self.
From M.L. Colcord:
Ian Read said when interviewed by Phil Hine for Chaos International that maybe one in one hundred books about the occult had enough merit to read and own. The first effort by this CM practitioner seems one such effort.
From Lupa, author of Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic:
I first read this a couple of years ago when I bought one of the author's 500 self-published copies. Now that it's being published by Immanion Press, I decided to take another romp through what has always been one of my favorite books on Chaos magic.
The new edition hasn't changed substantially from the previous--it was excellent writing to begin with, and most of the corrections seem to have been of minor typographical errors. Content-wise, nothing has been taken away.
Readers will notice fairly frequent allusions to the Illuminates of Thanateros, a Chaos magic order to which Wetzel belongs. While the book can certainly be a training manual for those going through their IOT novitiate, "The Paradigmal Pirate" is certainly usable by anyone.
The first section goes through five types of magic as originally delineated by Peter J. Carroll. However, rather than parroting Carroll's works, Wetzel has built upon the foundation previously laid to add another level to the develpoment of Chaos magic. In addition, I find his interpretations more concise and organized than Carroll;s work, and so I tend to recommend it to anyone just getting into Chaos magic as an introduxtory text. Not that the ideas aren't advanced of course; quite the contrary. However, Wetzel's style is less technical without being watered down, and he clearly explains the rudiments of Chaos magic as well as ways to expand it.
The second section is where he not only shows off some of his own successes with magic, but also explains the joys of paradigmal piracy. It's an absolute gem simply because it's a practical guide to how to learn waht you need from a given paradigm.
I think what I like the most about this book is Wetzel's assertion that good magicians always build on the works of previous ones and strive to exceed them. "The Paradigmal Pirate" has inspired me for nearly two years now; it's a big reason as to why my own writings have delved into experimentation with different paradigms and pushing them past their previous limits.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's curious about Chaos magic, as well as Chaos magicians who might be in a bit of a rut. In addition, it's just a really good point of view to look at on the subject.
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