Chaos, the Solvent & Stone

In solutio, the body is joined with the soul and spirit. The skin-boundary dissolves into visceral as well as sp iritual perception. Awareness of physical processes may be greatly amplified, appearing as impressions, intuitions, sensations, sounds, odors.

Chaos is endlessly self-generating and self-iterating. It is an evolutionary force. New forms emerging from chaos tend toward higher degrees of adaptation. This recycling of consciousness leads to a self-referential vortex. Changes in state are accompanied by changes in boundaries, strength or intensity and stability (equilibrium points, periodic orbits, stable and unstable manifolds).

Chaotic systems revolve around attractors, nexus points of psychic gravity. Chaotic attractors are potential information generating devices. Some are fixed point attractors, or periodic oscillators like pendulums swinging between paradoxical opposites, while others are downright strange attractors. The degree of entrainment of processes determines the degree of coherence or integration of a system and its ability to unfold the potentiality of emergent information.

Attractors are magnetic analogs of archetypes. These pacemaker nuclei generate supercritical perturbations that resonate through our whole being. Pushed toward different attractors, we go through a state change, a new pattern or network of behavior. Changing the activity of just one element may unleash an avalanche of changes in the patterns that otherwise would not occur.

The body is always speaking silently. Through this raw, physical expression, that which was solid becomes liquified, dissolved, deliteralized. The concrete image of the body "morphs" into the flow of pure energy, in a variation of Transubstantiation. It is the "rapture" of being siezed up into the heavenly realm.

The flow of dynamic energy from the deep Self reawakens and activates the body, and also that portion of the unconscious that the body carries. The body not only carries, but is the memory of the entire evolutionary cycle. Consciousness can access any portion of this material memory through creative regression.

The body manifests kinesthetic, preverbal, and preconceptual memory of its direct experience. Immersion in the healing creative energy flow is like a spiritual baptism, which facilitates creative reformation of ordinary consciousness, and even the physical body.

Solutio, as a state of consciousness, unites the powers of above and below, transpersonal and personal. It is the integration of the higher spiritual powers with personal experience that embodies the healing dynamic. This produces the paradoxical poison-panacea. The dual nature of the universal medicine points to a consciousness state beyond both opposites.

All apparent structure is chaos and in chaos there are hidden forms. When we are far from equilibrium change becomes inevitable. Like a bifurcation point in chaos theory, the old system either fails or emerges with a higher degree of order. Our bifurcations or state changes are personal crossroads, decision points, initiated by perturbations of our systems. Flowing back and forth between chaos and order keeps us healthy.

We can cooperate with chaotic dynamics, enter a less-rigid process of flow, submitting outworn aspects of the ego to dissolution. This increases our adaptability and helps us evolve. Chaos theory provides a comprehensive metaphor for uniting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual realities -- holistic repatterning.

The alchemical process begins and ends with chaos (prima materia/ultima materia). Chaos is the universal solvent. Current research in quantum chaos shows it exists across all scales and domains of nature and human nature.

Illuminative Vortex

The nature of life is chaotic. Jung said, "God is the name by which I designate all things which cross my willful path violently and recklessly, all things which upset my subjective views, plans and intentions and change the course of life for better or worse."

Alchemy is a way of being and a form of thought. The subtle gold is the fully liquified Mercurius. Alchemy describes, demonstrates and illustrates the participatory field as central to the conscious condition in nature. As alchemists we intentionally engage the participatory field of consciousness to perform the Opus, or Great Work.

The concept of this interconnective field allows us to redefine consciousness consistent with the unpredictable values of quantum mechanics and chaos theory. The alchemical world is animated. Images have immediate present reality. Intentionally interacting with the experiential process allows us to transform consciousness.

As exemplified in alchemy's prime directive, "Solve et Coagula," the raw material of self and world is deconstructed to facilitate emergent self-organization at a higher level. This is nature's way, as chaos theory has shown us. Nature is a self-sustaining dynamical balance of order and chaos.

The alchemical perspective is not merely deconstructionist. Alchemical decomposition is paradoxically regenerative -- cyclically regenerative, even negentropic. In this sense, alchemy is Transmodern though it radically predates that post-Millennial philosophy.

Alchemy explores the nature of matter-energy and consciousness. It is possibly the first historical example of self-initiation, self-help and self-care -- self-organization of the human chaotic condition. Though following certain common guidelines, each alchemist's process is necessarily idiosyncratic. Solutions emerge from and through each individual practitioner in a self-empowering inner journey

The brain can become more chaotic while solving problems. Neurons express self-organized criticality (SOC), neither ordered nor random but somewhere in between. Chaotic modulations are reined in by attractors (archetypes, psychic gravity wells). Critical points lead to phase transition. The edge of chaos is the point of emergence for new behaviors, enhanced capacities and transformed identity.

Universal Solvent

Chaos is the universal solvent (Miller). Human intention is about choices, self-reflection and the search for meaning. The edge of chaos, where critical systems adapt and evolve, is the most effective place to be. As more than a metaphor, it mirrors greater degrees of freedom and nonlinearity in systems far from equilibrium.

Jungian psychologist, Edward Edinger lists seven aspects of solutio:

(1) return to the womb or primal state; (2) dissolution, dispersal, dismemberment; (3) containment of a lesser thing by a greater; (4) rebirth, rejuvenation, immersion in the creative energy flow; (5) purification ordeal; (6) solution of problems; and (7) melting or softening process. These different aspects overlap. Several or all of them may make up different facets of a single experience. Basically it is the ego's confrontation with the unconscious that brings about SOLUTIO.

Critical thinking, (purposeful, reflective judgement about what to believe and do), helps us navigate through superstition, presumption, conjecture, confabulation, groupthink and psyops toward testable hypotheses and models of reality. Relevance is determined by heart, intuition and skilled, active observation of experiences, information, communication and argumentation.

Bifurcation is the splitting of attractors. A cascade of bifurcations is the precursor to chaos. The number of attractors in a dynamical system changes when any system parameter is changed. Certain changes are possible which are absent in conventional systems. Periodic attractors describe oscillations between polarities which lead to flow. Strange attractors are the center of gravity for critical phenomena and experiences, holding us in thrall for longer or shorter periods of time.

The process doesn't have to make sense to the rational mind. Small and large-scale changes emerge and the practice of our art facilitates that, offering more potential for realization. Dramatic changes can come from seemingly insignificant events. As gain changes, the nature of the attractor changes.

Alchemy's structure challenges us to remain at the evolutionary edge, mutable to the transformative process. Patterns are detectable in the process when you look closely enough. Alchemy's mystery is the reconciliation of opposites, refining arcs of ascent and descent. Due to the Butterfly Effect, amplification of small fluctuations turns up the heat or intensity of psychic processes.

Integrating the science of chaos theory can help us expand our understanding of reality moving us closer to a unified worldview. It impacts our sense of self as well as our concept of "how things work" in the universe. Pushing through fear and following chaos back into our lives in a positive way also fosters the healing process, stimulating feelings of rejuvenation and well-being.