the Tree of Death and the Qliphoth

to pull over and allow himself to be stopped for the ticket. He was also obeying an impossibly lofty and intricately complex power hierarchy, however it was one where he was on the bottom. Thus, he felt desperate at his own foolish lack of control, and believed the only way to rectify this seeming imbalance between the imposition of a functional control hierarchy over his own, dysfunctional and chaotic situation was to act with humility in a rage. And, moreover, given the circumstances, most people would agree with him. But then again, given the proper circumstances, US soldiers could justify firing on US civilians.

Thus, the armchair general is the polar opposite of the armchair scientist. The general controls solutions while the scientist experiments with questions. And these two orbit one another around a playing-field of subordinates. To the average person, the chaos-theorist seems to understand and to wield forces they cannot possibly hope to understand. However, it is the Master Magician who makes the first move. After this the system of rules collapses into a steady state, and the scientist, though now capable of studying things in stasis, is hopelessly dependent upon following the rules of control. They may not, for example, upset the board and walk away. At least not without being ostracised and resented by the very subordinate pieces they wish to set free.

These rules seem subtle and complex to the rank amateur or to the new initiate.

However they are not. There is really only ONE RULE, although it is so important that it has never been given a name, or at least, its name is never revealed. The human emotions all LOOK the same in their extremes. Whether laughing or choking, waving or drowning, in ecstasy of orgasm or extreme physical pain under duress, this furthest exaggerated state of the emotions is the One Rule. All opposites break down at the point of pain tolerance into a Grand Unified Theory.

To the Chaos Magician, it appears the resources for manipulation of the Toxic Magician are limitless and abstruse. However, no matter how many rules of thumb the Toxic Magician might make use of in passing from one situation to the next, there is only one principle of guiding philosophy which they always remember. That is that: though it may appear that one person's liberty is derived at the expense of that of another, "everything will work out in the wash." This means, essentially, something similar to the concepts of karma or Christian morality, actually; "What goes around comes around." This seems ridiculous to the Chaos Aspirant — it seems to contradict the entire backwards and upside-down rebellion of their own ethics and aesthetic. However, it is necessary to accept such aphorisms, in the end, as "to make an omelet, you gotta break a few eggs." One cannot get ahead without leaving others behind, but, however infinitely various the map might seem, wherever one is going they will meet the same types of people and experience the same types of relationships. "Wherever you go, there you are."

One popular favourite of the crushed masses and envious employed is, "it's lonely at the top." However, is this really true? Perhaps there simply IS NO TOP. Perhaps it is a continuous circle, a hamster-cage wheel one is simply doomed to spin around for eternity, but can never climb. What if there were no enlightenment, no transcendence, and (GASP!) NO second coming? What if the "top" were "to the side?"

Most people understand this concept, if only tautologically. They race on about their daily lives, hopelessly oblivious to the guiding principle of Irony, and yet, when inevitably confronted with it, laugh as though it were a familiar old nemesis. They SEEK to impose some semblance of order on their bustle and business, and in so merely ATTEMPTING, rather than DOING, FAIL. This circular system of self-