(2) Order & Necessity

As put "Providence is Divine Order" and "Necessity is the
Minister or Servant of Providence."
[From the First Book. THE CORPUS HERMETICA.]

Comment. Allegedly the Corpus Hermetica was written by
Hermes Trismegistus, who (according to legend) was the
builder of the Egyptian pyramids. Considered by many, the
Corpus was thought to be sacred writings originating in
Pharaonic Egypt. However, most of the Hermetic books
were lost during the burning of the royal libraries in ancient
Alexandria--but some books supposedly survived. Scholars
speculate that the surviving texts of the Corpus Hermetica
were likely redacted between the first and third centuries c.e.

What gets me is how sophisticated these two ideas posted
above are when it comes to Order and Necessity. Pharaonic
Egypt goes back fairly far in historical time, but here we have
these impressive ideas being put forth-especially in terms of
how they seem to relate to modern science theory.

In today's world scientists have introduced new perspectives
when it comes to Order, in that it more than often is connected
with Chaos. One can look at this linkage on two levels.

There's Providence, who can be considered as God who
bestows protective care upon us, or Nature as a spiritual
power. Unfortunately these dictionary accounts reflect our
old tendency to dichotomize, essentially separating God from
Nature, or Spirit from Matter.

But both scientists and theologians have begun to grasp hold
a new "holistic" perspective. And even out of the milieu of
the Sacred, there's now systems thinking. More than often,
scholars now are looking at the universe as one gigantic
System consisting of systems infinitum.--yet a Whole! Also,
some scholars are endowing the universe with Intelligence.

If so, this brings us back to the very archaic idea of Providence.
Thrust into the milieu of Religion, we have long declared the
existence of God or Spirit in a myriad of ways. But especially
here in the Corpus Hermeticum God is perceived as Order.

So what seems to happen when we look at Nature from this
perspective? In Chaos Theory there's the following outlook.

The cosmic explicate order is made-up of non-linear dynamical
systems, and some scholars believe that there is creative
potential embedded in non-linear systems. In other words we
are talking about "Cosmic Creativity."

An example of this Creativity, from a systems perspective, is
that eventually a non-linear system will eventually reach a
chaotic situation and is forced to make a shift in direction. It
either does or does not. If it does not, well the system will
fall more and more into chaos and eventual destruction. On
the other hand, there's a point of a possible shift--called the
"bifurcation point," when a "fork is created and the system
takes off in a new direction."
[John Briggs & F. David Peat, TURBULENT MIRROR: AN
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO CHAOS THEORY AND THE
SCIENCE OF WHOLENESS, HARPER & ROW, 1989,
PP. 143-144.]

And the internal feedback in some non-linear systems is so
"complex that there is a virtual infinity of degrees of freedom."
For Ilya Prigogine, the late Nobel laureate, thermodynamist
and systems theorist, Nature is built by feedback among all
levels. Once again Peat believes that "this is an assertion
of Nature's creativity." Each new level of organization creates
something fundamentally new. It almost seems that Nature
has a choice of orders. And it is Prigogine's opinion that
this "mixture of necessity and change...constitutes the
system's creativity."

Admittedly, discussing Chaos Theory is dreadfully difficult
in terms of straightforward understanding. But it all boils
down to Creativity and Choice. Providence would seem
the fundamental Order in Nature, but out of Necessity it
need face endless Chaos out of which to rise unto new
levels of Be-ing.. So, as microcosms to the Macrocosm,
as individual non-linear systems, it's no surprise that we
humans face the same circumstances.

Long ago our ancestors must have intuited what scientists
today are discovering. Order is a Constant, ever continuing
over Time. And Necessity serves as the Spark of Survival.

(1) A Special Name

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus actually provides God with a special
name--in that he says "Hallowed be thy name."

Comment: Maybe strange, but sometimes I relax by reading
the dictionary. So I'm going to do a little exercise in regard to
this special name by linking meaning upon meaning, employing
the AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.

• Hallowed: (1) Made or set apart as being holy; sanctified;
consecrated. (2) Highly venerated; unassailable; sacrosanct. 


• Hallow: (1) To make or set apart as holy; sanctify; consecrate.
(2) To honor as being holy; revere; adore. 


• Holy: (1) Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a
divine power, sacred. (2) Worthy of worship or high esteem;
revered. See "kailo" in Appendix. [Kailo: Whole, uninjured,
of good omen. Old English-wholesome, health, to heal,
holy, sacred.] 


• Whole: (1) Containing all component parts; complete.
(2) Not divided or disjointed; in one unit, (3) Sound; healthy;
restored; healed. 


• Wholesome: (1) Conducive to sound health or well-being;
salutary. (2) Morally or socially salubrious. 


• Healthy: (1) Possessing good health. (3) Indicative of a
rational or constructive frame of mind, sound. 


• Sound: (1) Free from defect, decay, or damage; in good
condition. (3) Having a firm basis; solid; unshakable. (7)
Deep and unbroken; undisturbed. (8) Free from moral defect;
upright; honorable. (9) Worthy of confidence; trustworthy. 


• Salutary: (1) Effecting or designed to effect an improvement;
beneficially corrective; remedial. 


• Heal: (1) To restore to health; cure. (2) To set right; amend.
(3) To rid of sin, anxiety, or the like; restore. To become whole
and sound; return to health. See "kailo" in Appendix.

Well it looks as if our small word-game has come around
full circle. It's really interesting "what's in a name." :-)

However, what interests me is not so much the most correct
linguistic interpretation, but rather how this particular name
can be seen in terms of our own life. Whole, complete, stable,
sound, holy--all these words seem to beckon in terms of
emulation. These words almost seem like a promise, in that
there is a goal that seems to attract us forward.

Introduction

The following essays will focus on the little "seeds" that are
found in Sacred Scripture. By this, I mean some small wisps
of Wisdom that might impact on our life today. As for Scripture
itself, I will focus on many cultural sources of various sacred
writing as well on those presumed both exoteric and esoteric.