Theos-Talk Archives (October 1996 Message tl00020)

> Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 23:48:06 +0100
> From: "Dr. A.M.Bain" <guru@nellie2.demon.co.uk>
> To: theos-l@vnet.net
> Subject: An ordered universe?
> Message-ID: <C0OWeKAm4EUyEwTC@nellie2.demon.co.uk>
>
> In message <199609301809.OAA09215@leo.vsla.edu>, "K. Paul Johnson"
> <pjohnson@leo.vsla.edu> writes
> >Finally, isn't it a paradox that an astrological configuration
> >can indicate an period of accident-proneness?  It would seem
> >astrology points to an ordered universe; yet it can also
> >identify periods when the order in one's personal universe is
> >most likely to break down.
>
> No paradox at all.  While astrology may seem to point to an ordered
> universe, it actually points to the universe *as it is.*  The ancients,
> in their study and development of astrology, have left us with the
> legacies which include allowing for disorder, because disorder has been
> observed as part of the "system" and its astrological indicators
> recorded.
>
> It seems more likely that the universe is subject to LAWS, but that
> these laws may *appear to us* to bring about what *we* call disorder,
> but which fits into the general scheme.  I you fall into the right
> swamp, you could become an alligator's dinner quite fast.  LAW:
> Alligators have to eat.
>
> Alan
> ---------
> Homepage: http://www.nellie2.demon.co.uk/
> THEOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL: Ancient Wisdom for a New Age:
> TI@nellie2.demon.co.uk, and from homepage above.

The image of the alligator is closely related to that of the
crocodile (although I believe that biologically, the two are not
identical species), and the latter image appears in the iconography
of various cultures.  The Hindu astrology substitutes the
crocodile ("makara") for the western capricornus; and the symbology
of the two systems must connect, notwithstanding that the Eastern
system is siderial rather than tropical in character.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a God in the form of a crocodile
at a time when the creatures swam the Nile, and that one might
be in danger of actually being eaten (though presumably, magi of
the caliber of those described in Exodus, capable of turning rods
into serpents, would have  been immune from interference
of this kind, at least in ancient myth).

Whether or not the crocodile is a suitable symbol for "chaos", and
what is precisely meant by "chaos"(is the bohu of the qabalists
a "crocodile"?) could be illumined by further discussion.  However,
I do find the American expression "Holy macqueral!" rather tame, if
not lame, compared to the expression "Holy Makara!".