The Ice War was one of the more significant division points between Chaos Magicians in England and Germany. On one side there was Peter Carroll and the IOT, and on the other was a guy named Helmut. This was in the mid 1990's, about the same time Weiser and Lewellyn were in heavy competition, the former releasing things like Crowley reprints and the latter with Modern Magick and witchcraft books. It was an important time for occultism as it brought in a huge number of new people.
The bottom line on the Ice War is that it showed that Leadership is often effective while Authority is often a bane. It was essentially a popularity contest, the actual "magical combat" involved was minimal, and both sects were reduced dramatically. Both still exist and would probably assert their growth, but an honest appraisal shows more of a trend toward independent magicians working alone or in small unaffiliated clusters. I'm not entirely certain what happened to Helmut, but I've heard he's still around. As for Peter Carroll, he's doing a fair job at marketing physics as the new occultism, but his Arcanorium College is mostly trite New Age regurgitation.
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