Thread: Andrew Chumbley

Greetings All

Just a question of wondering - Chumbley - trad Witch or something completely different?

I have been slowly making my way through a copy of Azoetia, which is a tad hard going as it seems (at least to me) to be a combination of Spare-influenced workings, almost with a twist of Kenneth Grant as opposed to other alleged "trad" Craft that I have come across.

Then according to Wikipedia, Chumbley was apparently a member of "Peter Carroll's Illuminates of Thanateros and his earlier articles were published in the chaos magic journal Chaos International".

Andrew D. Chumbley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not that I personally mind

A few years ago I did design a ritual based on some of his initial workings in the Azoetia and the results were very "primal" shall I say - along the lines I have experienced some Cochrane influenced workings ... but the overall feel of Azoetia to me does appear to be an interesting mix.

So just wondering if anyone here has read/worked with Chumbley's material and what do they think .. trad Craft or more Chaos influenced magick?

BB - Soror V

I've read the Azoetia, but have never worked with it.

This is a very good question. I'd say Chumbley was totally a Trad. Witch. I mean, he did work with the toad bone ritual. He has a definite Spare influence, which to me usually is always a good thing. Would you consider Spare traditional? I do. More so than most occultists of his time. He stripped something very old bare. I feel it isn't following anything old, but simply going through a very ancient and primal process that reveals something new.

Hello,
I would say that Andrew was far from just a traditionalist. According to one of his friends from his youth, he was always special and had an understanding of the current of magick. He did have an interest in Spare and Cochrane and I believe it was him that gave the name to the book Roebuck in the Thicket.
I bumped into him from time to time some 30 years ago in one particular bar in Chelmsford and myself like most thought him rather strange. Time rolls on and I would love to sit with him again and chat about magick.
If you notice Andrew's inspiration you will see that his praxis takes into account many, many aspects of magickal mythos, ethos and lore from the four corners of this globe.

best wishes,
Ahrazura

He looks traditional, but when you read Azoetia, you will see much fun and idiocy, for example watchtower ritual from neowiccan book, or athame.