~Date:  93-08-27 23:04:22 EDT
~From:  Typhon@aol.com
Posted on: America Online

[This is probably more a literary than a metaphysical comment, but...]

  While Nyarlothotep and (more particularly) Azathoth can be
considered chaotic gods in Lovecraft's writings, they aren't
necessarily gods of chaos -- in other words, Azathoth is described as
being formed of seething chaos (I believe the desc. is something like
"the bubbling chaos at the center of the universe"), but is not
described as specifically being concerned with the *promulgation* or
*representation* of chaos.  Lovecraft's nasties were more concerned
with taking over everything and turning humanity into hors d'oeuvres
(sp?) than with representing abstract notions like "chaos."

  As a possibly related *real* religious note, one of the aspects of
Shiva, Bhairon (that's the name in northern India; I forget the
southern version, but it's longer), is directly related to odd and
unpredictable behaviour outside the social norm (in one myth, he
chopped off one of Brahma's heads in a fit of pique and ran about with
it stuck to his hand for a while). While all Shaivist cults tend to
focus on "non-norm" behavior to some extent, Bhairon's is particularly
outre. This is perhaps an example only of a god of "social chaos", but
the focus on unpredictability and odd new turns of thought seems
related to [other popular] descriptions of "chaos magic(k)"....

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I did NOT write this, but I'd love to hear commentary on it.

Tyagi Nagasiva
Tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com