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Several years ago, I had an interesting insight. I was working in a factory at the time and it was easy for the mind to wander off into more interesting territory. Essentially, I thought of how popular myth pits order and chaos against one another as enemies in a feud older than time. However, I saw that if you followed the train of thought from any one point to another, you would find that chaos and order exist everywhere and in cooperation. I started with people. Everyone has a brain with two functioning halves and lobes (Order) but everyone has a unique personality (Chaos). However, every personality is founded upon experiences, imprinting and heredity (Order). Despite this, everyone has free will, the ability to choose to act how they wish at any given moment (Chaos). Most of those choices are predetermined by instincts such as reproduction, social acceptance and self-preservation (Order) but we have the ability to override those instincts or delay our actions upon them (Chaos). I explored my insight both up and down and realized that everyone and everything is influenced by Chaos and Order on multiple levels. Chaos and Order aren't abstractions or ancient feuding gods; they're primal forces that work so closely together that they can only be differentiated on the most general level. On a more poetic level, one could see them much like Shiva and Shakti, two titans locked in eternal embrace, their lovemaking the source of existance.
I recently reread the Theory section of Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics. He refers to the Tetragrammaton in regards to the elements. Elemental Fire is the first element, the Prime Mover, if you will. He also refers to it or a substance related to it as the Electric Fluid. Fire expands, changes and creates. However, it is inherently connected to Elemental Water, which is connected to the Magnetic Fluid, a force that contracts and nourishes. It got me thinking that perhaps Fire is Chaos. Both elemental Fire and Chaos change constantly, create incessantly and expand beyond limit. Electric is an apt term for this primal force. Electricity is energetic and the inherent chaos is apparent as one witnesses the jagged, almost random path of a lightning bolt from cloud to earth.
Elemental Water is the force of Order. It constricts, grants form and places limitation, much like a magnetic field, it gives energy stability and shape. As I run along this analogy, I realize that I could take it even farther. As the Prime Mover, Chaos/Fire would associate with Chokmah on the Tree of Life, a power of infinite strength with no purpose other than to change, create and grow. Of course, it would be meaningless without its partner Order/Water symbolized by the sephirot Binah that takes the infinite power of Chokmah and channels it, using it like a sculptor to create thoughts, objects and beings without end. It's funny. I recall from my studies into Chi Kung that males are considered allied to Heaven whereas females are allied to the Earth. This brings us to the notion that men are attuned to Chaos/Fire/Yang. They are the force of change in the world. Apparently, there was a study that revealed that gene variation, the force of change in evolution originates in the male chromosomes. If that's true, it's yet another bridge in the gap between science and mysticism. So, this places women as attuned to Order/Water/Yin, the force of nurturing stability.
Of course, having said that, I've always harboured a personal theory that attunement reverses with each level or world from the physical to the spiritual. For example, men might be physically Yang but they're emotionally Yin; they keep their emotions contained and stable whereas women tend to be emotionally Yang, expressing their emotions openly and powerfully. To continue the switch, men are mentally Yang but spiritually Yin. This, in my mind, counters the popular belief that men invent or build things because they're secretly envious of the female ability to bear children. A Fire mind would be driven to create or change its environment.
In any case, in the end, perhaps everything in existence can be seen as an interplay of Order and Chaos. Just like a computer program that is a collection of commands but at its heart is a series of binary 1's and 0's, each 1 represents change or a burst of energy, Chaos, while each 0 is a state of rest, stasis, Order. From computers, we can take the analogy to include DNA, the few nucleotides combine, like a line of binary code, to produce countless different creatures and variances even within species. Chaos and Order, change and stability, energy and rest, burst and focus, force and form. Perhaps the I Ching would be an interesting study in the interplay of Chaos and Order.
I find it fascinating, as I go along, all of the little clues in life. From Taoism to Western Mystery Tradition, the links, connections and associations are there to behold. Archetypes to the elements, biology to philosophy, it has become quite apparent that there is a meta-language that human consciousness uses to interpret the universe. Whether the universe actually works in terms of Order and Chaos, sets of fours like the elements and primal forces of the universe or even octaves like music and Dr. Leary's model of the mind is not truly important. I think what's important is that's how the mind views the universe and therein lies the bridge between the macroverse and the microverse.
Addendum (December 7, 2002): Reading this thoughtstream and this essay by Jonathon Bowser brought to mind something in my journal from my days at the factory. I'm fascinated by gender, the similarities and their differences, and always have been. What struck me many years ago was the notion that men aren't simply strong humans, the male body and mind seems designed produce power. On the other hand, women aren't defined by their softness but by their lack of force. Now, back then I obviously couldn't see the Yin that flows through women.
A quote comes to mind (I think I heard it on TV). It went along the lines that women are "like steel wrapped in silk". Kind of gives that image of softness hiding strength and durability. What I think of is the sun and moon. As in Jonathon Bowser's essay, I think of the sun being a symbol of Power and the moon as a symbol of Beauty. However, they are opposites in this sense as the sun's Power keeps anyone from seeing its Beauty and the moon's Beauty hides its subtle Power. Men and women, to me, seem the same. On the surface, men display and express Power and it seems that society measures a man by his ability to do work; his Beauty is hidden behind the blinding light of his Power. On the other hand, Women seem the opposite. Just like the Moon, we are captivated by the Beauty of Woman and focus only on it while we ignore or fail to see Her Power.
Again, the association is made with the Tao and the Yin Yang symbol. Man is Power but Woman carries its seed within her heart and in a solid relationship, her Power supports and feeds his. Woman is Beauty and Man holds Beauty in his heart and together, the Beauty of Woman gains its spark from the Beauty of Man.
Namaste
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