Through recorded history, societies have recognized two opposed but complementary Principles: Light and Dark, Order and Chaos, Creation and Destruction, Existence and Nonexistence. Today, we understand these principles as the Divine and the Arcane. The names are relevant but misleading. The Divine Principle does indeed manifest itself most strongly in the gods themselves and in their works, but the Divine is present to some extent in all that exists. The Arcane, on the other hand, reveals itself, when it does reveal itself, in phenomena which may seem to have no meaning at all. Accidents, freak occurrences, even seeming violations of the laws of nature—these are the essence of the Arcane. And yet we owe the greatest achievements of mankind to the Arcane Principle no less than to the Divine. I wish to recount the origin of these Principles, as distilled from our history and our sacred traditions; to examine their manifestations in our world; and finally to offer an attitude we might adopt toward their place in civilization.
In the beginning was Chaos. After an infinite time which was no time, Chaos gave birth to Order, for Chaos left to its own devices will give rise to all things indiscriminately. At this moment—the first moment, the origin of Time itself—Reality as we understand it began to exist. Order implies Will, and Will Desire, and chief among the desires of this primordial Order was the desire for more like itself, something to stand with it against the Chaos which, unchecked, would reengulf Order as quickly as create it. Thus, the Order patterned after itself a World: the Land and the Sea. But the Chaos was not eradicated and will never be, for it too propagates itself, not out of any will or desire but by its very nature. Nor would we wish Chaos to be vanquished, since Order by itself would exhaust the raw substances and thoughts to which it gives shape.
The Order itself, spawned in Æternity, is infinite, but its manifestations within the flow of Time are finite. Plants, animals, men, even cities and empires, all come and go, and all are subject to limitations and imperfections. This was an affront to Order, for it was an intrusion of Chaos; and so the Order brought forth certain powerful Emanations which would be impervious to Chaos. These Emanations appeared within human society, which was already the highest expression of Order; they are the gods, and in them the Order reflected in mankind is focused and perfected. Through the gods, we mortals thus had our first direct impression of Order, and we knew it as the Divine. The gods are not all that is good and holy, but they are all that we can know of what is good and holy, the most direct experience of the Cosmic Order which we can comprehend in this life. We worship the gods because it is through them and in them that all that is best in ourselves is achieved. They love us because we are of the same stuff as them, although imperfectly realized and in need of guidance; they love us with the love of the primal Order for all Order.
But even as the gods were arising to reconcile us with the Divine, men were becoming aware of a different Principle at work in their lives. This force was unlike the gods: it did not offer enlightenment, or peace, or healing, yet its power was obvious. It did not announce itself, did not explain its own nature, and yet it was most certainly there, hidden away in the gaps in existence. What must the mages have thought who first tapped the Arcane? They could only guess that they had stumbled upon a limitless, awesome force which in every one of its manifestations had no apparent purpose except the destruction of all that exists, no motive but antipathy to all who live and all that has meaning; and this was indeed exactly what they had found, for they had drawn upon nothing less than the primordial Chaos itself. Early experiments must surely have ended in disaster, pouring out unbridled Chaos into the world to annihilate any and all Reality in its path. Order is the fabric of our world, through which Chaos cuts like a knife.
And yet this is precisely why the Arcane Principle—a Principle opposed to life, to truth, opposed even to the gods themselves—nevertheless must be harnessed by any civilization that aspires to greatness. Civilization consists not in passively submitting to the flow of existence, but in shaping it, in transforming and improving it, and it is here that even Chaos finds its proper place. When a farmer diverts the flow of a river to irrigate his fields, he cannot accomplish his feat of engineering simply by moving water: rather, he moves earth so that he might ultimately move its opposite. Just so, to alter the flow of existence, we must be able to shape nonexistence. It is agreeable to the gods that we wield the power which is their antithesis, as long as we do it in order to effect their will, just as the farmer, by shaping the water with its opposite, allows the water to fulfill its purpose in nourishing life. The Arcane and the Divine truly are complementary, and even if our very souls are manifestations of the one, we can only achieve our fullest glory if we understand and accept the other.
At the same time, we must never become complacent; we must never be lulled into supposing that the Arcane is our friend, simply because we enlist it in our aid. If the farmer alters the river indiscriminately, he risks all manner of disaster: he may flood his own field, or bring drought to the river’s original destination, in either instance damaging or destroying the life he sought to nurture. How much greater the disaster should we unwisely alter the course of Reality itself. The power to alter Reality is great, and we must exercise it with all this wisdom we possess and which the gods grant us. Moreover, the hatred that we sense when we tap the Arcane is quite real, hatred of us because our life is its antithesis, hatred of our world because the very existence of the cosmos is a rebellion against Chaos. Each time we channel the power of the Arcane, we are reminded that it not only has no care for the constructive purpose for which we channel it, but it is antithetical to the very notion of purpose.
Is the primal Chaos evil? In some sense the word is not strong enough; in another it misses the point entirely. Utter evil is a vacuum, the absence of even a glimmer of good. Chaos is a vacuum which is yet full, a meaninglessness which will not admit meaning and therefore precludes even the possibility of good. We can no more comprehend this ultimate meaninglessness than we can fully comprehend the ultimate meaning and truth of the Divine; less so, in fact, for our minds themselves are formed of Order, and Order calls our minds back to it through manifestations of the Divine. It is therefore perhaps most precise to say that the nature of Chaos exits our comprehension in the direction of evil, for it is actually something much older, more fundamental, and less explicable, a Principle beyond our understanding because by definition outside the scope of our minds, and yet in some mysterious way a precondition for our world. When we approach such a Principle we must do so with the utmost humility. Chaos is in no sense deserving of worship; but there are other forms of respect than worship.
And yet, shall we sit by and let the universe take its course, afraid to intervene? This would in fact be the greatest possible victory for Chaos, since it would mean that we, embodiments (flawed though we are) of Order, had resigned our role in shaping existence. It is in the nature of Order to wield and shape Chaos, just as it is the spontaneous nature of Chaos which brought forth Order itself. The Principles imply each other, and as we strive to embody one we must also embrace the other. This is the curse of civilization; it is also the blessing. If we wield the power of the Arcane at great risk, it is also with great reward: the very walls and spires of our City are testament to this, and its populace—teeming, vibrant, sometimes even Chaotic but always, in the end, bound into a great Order—is living proof that the awesome power of the Arcane, applied with skill and wisdom, can indeed bring us closer to the glory of the Divine.