Chaos derives from the Greek Χάος and typically refers to unpredictability. In the metaphysical sense, it is the opposite of law and order: unrestrictive, both creative and destructive.
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 Ginnunga Gap. 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
Physics
Chaos is often considered analogous to thermodynamic entropy. Chaos is a poetic or metaphysical concept evoking a sense of discord, whereas entropy is a concretely defined function of a physical or communication system. See entropy for the mathematical quantification of the disorder in a system.
Physical chaos might be conceived as utter confusion, an incomprehensible and heterogeneous mess. This intuitive notion is at odds with the famous Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy cannot decrease in a closed system. Maximized entropy always corresponds to apparent homogeneity in a system. Any random disturbance of a homogeneous system results in no meaningful change, therefore scientists will say the randomness, i.e. chaos, is maximized. (Supposing that any real system is constantly subjected to random disturbances, and that randomness by definition cannot produce organization, the Second Law is then self-evident.)
As with any scientific concept or mathematical abstraction, entropy may not be equally applicable in every situation. For example, it is unknown whether protons may remain forever free and unchanged, or whether they are subject to destruction by cosmological randomness.
Chaos Theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under certain conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as chaos. Among the characteristics of chaotic systems, described below, is sensitivity to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, the behavior of systems that exhibit chaos appears to be random, even though the system is deterministic in the sense that it is well defined and contains no random parameters.
Mythology
In Greek mythology, Chaos or Khaos is the primeval state of existence from which the first gods appeared. In Greek it is Χάος, which is usually pronounced similarly to "house" (Koiné) or "cows" (Attic), but correctly in ancient Greek as /'kha.ɔs/; it means "gaping void", from the verb χαίνω "gape, be wide open", Proto-Indo-European *"ghen-", *"ghn-"; compare English "chasm" and "yawn", Old English geanian = "to gape".
In Egyptian mythology the world also begins with chaos. In this chaos lived 4 frog Gods and 4 snake Goddesses: Nu and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). These gave birth to all other Gods and Goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon.
There are also many cultures that have a certain deity or figure representing chaos. Some examples are Set (or Sutekh), the Egyptian God of chaos (as well as storms and thunder) who has been called "Set the Destroyer,", Loki, the Norse trickster god of mischief, and Eris, a Greek Goddess of "chaos, confusion, laughter, and discord." Eris is hailed to in the Discordian religion as well.
Theogonia
According to Hesiod's Theogonia (The origin of the Gods), Chaos was the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared. These first beings, described as children of Chaos alone, were Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Nyx (the darkness of the night), and Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld). Thus, at the very start of his story, Hesiod establishes the deities related to each element known to man, beginning with the primordial elements: the Earth, the starry Sky, the Sea.
Theogonia presents two ways to come to life: division (Gaia, Nyx) and mating. After Gaia, almost all deities brought to life by division are negative concepts (Death, Distress, Sarcasm, Deception, and so on) and for the most part are produced by the goddess Nyx. From this point on is set the model for reproduction, from the action of two entities, male and female, as it appears in the divine world in response to human society. So the first answer by the myth to the question "What is the cause of this?" becomes "This is the father and this is the mother".
Furthermore, deities created by division almost never become allies with those created by mating.
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.
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, Gaea, emerged. In the Palasgian creation myth, Eurynome ('goddess of everything') emerged from this Chaos and created the Cosmos from it. 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.
Chaos and Thelema
Within the Thelemic Canan, 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."
See also
Sources
- Thelemapedia. (2004). Chaos. Retrieved April 14, 2006.