Chaos
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For other senses of this word, see chaos (disambiguation).
Chaos (derived from the Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to unpredictability. The word χάος did not mean "disorder" in classical-period ancient Greece. It meant "the primal emptiness, space". It is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghn or ghen meaning "gape, be wide open": compare "chasm" (from Greek χάσμα), and Anglo-Saxon gānian ("yawn"), geanian, ginian ("gape wide"); see also Old Norse Ginnungagap. Due to people misunderstanding early Christian uses of the word, the meaning of the word changed to "disorder". (The Ancient Greek for "disorder" is ταραχή.). Mathematically chaos means an aperiodic deterministic behavior which is very sensitive to its initial conditions, i.e., infinitesimal perturbations of boundary conditions for a chaotic dynamic system originate finite variations of the orbit in the phase space; see chaos theory.
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[edit] Physics
Chaos in physics is often considered analogous to thermodynamic entropy.
[edit] Characteristics
The original meaning of Χάος /'xaos/ or /'χaos/ was "Space, the great outer void".
Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, described Chaos as "rather a crude and indigested mass, a lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed, of jarring seeds and justly Chaos named". From that, its meaning evolved into the modern familiar "complete disorder", and the word "Chaos" is used by astronomers in Mars placenames to mean "area of disorderly faulted terrain".
Chaos features three main characteristics:
- it is a bottomless gulf where anything falls endlessly. This radically contrasts with the Earth that emerges from it to offer a stable ground.
- it is a place without any possible orientation, where anything falls in every direction;
- it is a space that separates, that divides: after the Earth and the Sky parted, Chaos remains between both of them.
[edit] Primal Chaos
In Ancient Greek cosmology, Chaos was the first thing to exist and the womb from which everything emerged. For Hesiod and the Olympian mythos, Chaos was the 'vast and dark' void from which the first deity, Gaia, emerged. In the Pelasgian creation myth, Eurynome ('goddess of everything') emerged from this Chaos and created the Cosmos from it[citation needed]. For Orphics, it was called the 'Womb of Darkness' from which the Cosmic Egg that contained the Universe emerged. It is sometimes conflated with 'Black Winged Night'.
The idea is also found in Mesopotamia and associated with Tiamat the 'Dragon' of Chaos, from whose dismembered body the world was formed.
Genesis refers to the earliest conditions of the universe as "without form and void," a state similar to chaos.[1]
Primal Chaos was sometimes said to be the true foundation of reality, particularly by philosophers such as Heraclitus and those trained in Orphic schools. It was the opposite of Platonism. It was also probably what Aristotle had in mind when he developed the concept of Prima Materia in his attempt to combine Platonism with the Presocraticism and Naturalism. It was a concept inherited by the theory of Alchemy.
[edit] Chaos and Thelema
Within the Thelemic canon, Chaos is often paired or passionately united with either Babalon (Binah, Neschamah, Aima, Isis, "Mater" and He of Tetragrammaton) through the path of Love (Daleth; see the magick circle), or with the "purified" Virgin Daughter of Babalon (Earth, Malkuth, Nephesch, Persephone, "Filiae" and He final of Tetragrammaton; see The Vision and the Voice, 4th AEthyr)- who awakens "the eld of the all-Father". This uniting of the "Great Father" with the Mother and Daughter completes the Christian conception described in An Essay Upon Number, part II. Chapter 11 of The Book of Lies and The Vision and the Voice insists upon the unity of Chaos and Babalon as the Supernal Triad. As a Tetragrammaton or four-fold word, Chaos "is equal to her seven-fold word" by gematria (Kaph + Ayin + Vau + Samech = 156) which suggests the 4=7 and 7=4 Grades of the A.'.A.'. Furthermore, the Mystery of Chaos is "beyond the comprehension of any but Masters of the Temple" (a Grade in the A.'.A.'. associated with Babalon).
Chaos is also considered the Beast.
As both the "Word" or "Logos" of the Gnostics, and the Wisdom of the Kabbalists, Chaos pertains specifically to the 9=2 Grade of Magus (the 11th progressive Grade in the A.'.A.'.), which it conceals.
A note to The Abul-diz Working identifies Chaos with Aleph (large=1000) Tau (ATh or Essence; "the") in Hebrew with a numeration of 1400 ("Tria Capita" or "the Three Heads" - TLT RYShYN); with a regular aleph, 401 (ARR - "cursing"). In An Essay Upon Number, Aleister Crowley draws a connection between ATh and the Word Azoth - "the sum and essence of all, conceived as One". Furthermore, Chaos is identified as "the Unknown God of Chokmah in Liber 418." In Greek (applying isopsephy) Chaos adds to 871, which is identical with the words "Pain, Sorrow", "Secret, dark", Web; cloak", "To purify", and "Against one's will."
The primary source concerning Chaos within the Thelemic canon is The Vision and the Voice. Chaos is also mentioned in the Class A documents Liber I and Liber CLVI. Rituals that include Chaos are the first version of Liber XXV ( from The Book of Lies), and Liber XV.
From the Escalier des sages (1689 e.v.) Chaos as an alchemical formula has the following Notariqon: Caliditas Humiditas Alger Occulta Siuitas.
From The Vision and the Voice, 4th AEthyr:
- "This is the meaning of that passage; they are attempts to interpret Chaos, but Chaos is Peace... Blackness, blackness intolerable, before the beginning of the light. This is the first verse of Genesis. Holy art thou, Chaos, Chaos, Eternity, all contradictions in terms!... But when the balances are equal, scale matched with scale, then will Chaos return."
[edit] See also
- Hesiod's Theogony
- Alignment (role-playing games)
- Chaos Theory
- Chaos magic
- Chaos in Michael Moorcock's Multiverse
- Chaos (Warhammer) for Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40000
- Azathoth and Nyarlathotep from the Cthulhu Mythos
- Discordianism
- Hakim Bey
- Interconnectedness
[edit] Sources
- Thelemapedia. (2004). Chaos. Retrieved April 14, 2006.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses (I, 7)
- Hesiod, Theogony (116; 123-132)
