Summer Harvest

Originally published on Fantastic Planet. This version of the article does contain revisions.
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The basic mathematical system used in Chaos Theory, fractal mathematics, describes the universe as a fractal, a whole– or Entirety, if you will– in which each part is similar to/resembles the completed Whole. As above, So below. One of the things I love the most about fractal mathematics, is how neatly it works as a metaphor for the Gnostic creation myth.

In chaos math, fractals are generated by way of iteration, which essentially means the process of running the result of a formula back through itself. As an example, suppose you have a system governed by the formula x2+1=y, and begin the iterative process by giving x a value of 1. To iterate, you’d solve for y, and then replace x with your result for the next number. So, if x’=1, then our first y will be 2: (1) 2+1=2. We’d then use 2 for x, so x=2, and our new y becomes (2)2+1=5. Our next would be (5) 2+1=26, etc. etc. Taking x and y as coordinates on a graph, you can map your iterations. In this case, it’d be a line that shoots to infinity to the upper right, no matter how many times the function is iterated. This is the way iterated systems are graphed.

Now, a fractal occurs when a seemingly random element is introduced into the system– essentially, when an integer is no longer whole. For example, let’s take our x2+1=y, but instead of starting at 1, we’ll start at 1.081. Watch the number of integers go wild.

if x is…. 1.081 then y becomes….. 2.168561
if x is…. 2.168561 then y becomes….. 5.702656810721
if x is…. 5.702656810721 then y becomes….. 33.520294700862607220539841

and so on and so forth….

Now repeat this iteration about a million times and then restart with about a million different initial values, and you’ve got a fractal (this is why fractals weren’t really discovered or developed until the modern era– you need a computer to repeat all of the millions of iterations needed to graph the fractal).

This is a hugely important issue that goes largely unrecognized because of our habit of estimating or rounding when it comes to mathematics. It illustrates that a teensy, tiny alteration of a function way back at the beginning of the iterative process can cause MASSIVE change in the function later down the road. Suppose you’re calculating air traffic control patterns based on records from the past ten years and you decide to round 1.00045 down to 1. It might make sense and save time in the short term, but once that 1.00045 value kicks in down the road, you can be in serious trouble, as the results produced via the function deviate in the extreme from the predicted values.

So how does this fit in with Gnostic creation myth? The process of creation is described in Gnostic texts as an iterative process. In the Secret Book of John, for instance, the creation begins when the Limitless Light, the Unknowable God, emanates a female aspect, Barbelo, which returns to the Limitless Light and then emanates two aspects, which return to the Limitless Light and emanate four aspects, and so forth. There’s an equation here, a mystical variation on y=x2, and every time a y variable is produced, it returns to the Limitless Light in order to continue the process.

Until, that is, we get to Sophia. Sophia emanates without returning to the Limitless Light – she runs the function without iterating. In essence, she estimates instead of getting the proper value. It’s as though instead of producing 15, she produced 14.00036485. This introduced a random element to the equation: the Demiurge, Yaldabaoth.

And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, - he had not approved - and without her consort, and without his consideration. And though the person of her maleness had not approved, and she had not found her agreement, and she had thought without the consent of the Spirit and the knowledge of her agreement, (yet) she brought forth. And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and something came out of her which was imperfe] and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.

Although the Demiurge and his initial creation were indeed slightly similar to the divine Aeons above, by the time this equation was iterated a gazillion times over, things got real freaky. When the Demiurge and the Archons created the Illusion that is the Materia, they were like the hapless air traffic controller who thought that rounding off numbers was a good idea. This produced an exceptionally “chaotic” universe, which may even be shaped and dictated by a chaotic function, which would explain everything from variations in red shift in astronomy to vibrational rates of movement in the Earth’s crust to patterns in bird migration. The Big Bang makes us think of a giant explosion that starts in a “center” and throws energy outward in relatively spherical radii, but I tend to think that the initial “bang” resulted in something that would look more like a 4-d Mandelbrot set.

This is easy to justify theoretically via the principle of self-similarity (As Above, So Below). All fractals are self-similar, which means that all parts of any given fractal resemble the whole thing; because they’re all governed by those initial equations, certain patterns have to manifest. It’s like a coastline, which resembles itself on a map no matter the scale (a coastline from 1 mile up resembles a coastline from 100 feet) because it’s all governed by connected patterns. So the rotation of the universe resembles the rotations of galaxies which resemble the rotations of solar systems, all the way down to the quantum level. Now, they may seem to be different, but the underlying initial structures at the very beginning of the iterative process are pretty much the same. Thus, we really did come about in God’s image, as did the entire universe, though it doesn’t sometimes look that way.

In Gnostic mythology, Sophia and the Christos are correcting the divine equation by way of iteration. If we’re all rounded variables in a fake ordered set which is dictated by an underlying fractal, God and its Aeons are stripping off the “rounding” and returning us to our original natures that exist on the left side of the decimal point. This can also be applied to the concept of the Eucharist, whereby the Phildickian “plasmates” (living information) are introduced to an iterated formula: ritual that is repeated at regular intervals.