"When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you" - Nietzsche

Over the past ten years I've gone through several periods of time, lasting between a few weeks to a few months, where my awareness of the number 333 occurs so frequently and synchronistically it's as if some form of communication is being attempted via this number. I will suddenly look up from my work to look at a clock the second it turns to 3:33. My total at the convenience store comes to $3.33. I get the urge to stop and eat at a new restaraunt and realize after I place my order it's #333 on the block. etc, etc. Anyone familiar with the history of Western magick will immediately recognize the signifance of the number. It's the dreaded number of the demon Choronzon, named by the famous John Dee and Edward Kelley who stumbled across it in one of their Enochian workings I believe. Later Aleister Crowley reportedly battled Choronzon and even came to define "it" as pretty much the closest thing to evil; a caustic legion of nasty guardians of The Abyss between samsara and Enlightenment.


So naturally I've been fairly self-conscious and even alarmed at times when struck with the idea that some terrible demon has been trying to communicate with me for over a decade. Last night though I stumbled across an interesting article by Demitria Monde Thraam (DMT) of the Choronzon music project that really made me stop and reevaluate my understanding of Choronzon, Thelema, Chaos, and the Tao. DMT believes that, basically, Choronzon has been misunderstood by the patriarchally influenced (my spin) Western tradition that is bent on ordering, binding and controlling entities, instead of approaching them in the spirit of relationship as you would another human being or even most animals. In the particular case of Choronzon ... well let's just say he/she/it doesn't really appear to enjoy being bossed around by humans or stuck in a box.


Perhaps Chaos is only "evil" when viewed through the distorted lens of an ego disconnected from awareness of metaphysical oneness with the Tao. The incomprehensible complexity and diversity of Chaos, of the noun-less, dynamic, shifting sea of phenomena is only terrifying to an ego clinging to the ever-dissolving parenthesis of the little self. From the perspective of Enlightenment, maybe Choronzon is more like an aspect of Geburah. Or maybe even more like Binah herself! The Mother of form, the dark, primordial sea from which all forms emerge and also ironically the home of The Goddess Babalon who Crowley saw as the very power keeping Choronzon in check. There is also an archetypal resonance with Shakti, the raging force coiled at the base of the spine anxiously waiting for an opportunity to swath a fiery path of wanton purification through your nervous system. Thoughts of the wrathful diety Mahakala even come to mind; perpetually in motion as a holy being, but a terrifying encounter for the weak and evil aspects of your self. And in another sense, and this is probably most in alignment with DMT's perspective, is Choronzon as a personification of Tao itself. Unnameable. Even as Unameable.

At the very least I feel that contemplating Tao in it's untameable organic wildness as Chaos provides an interesting contrast to the typical mindset we (or at least I) fall into when inundated by the heavy Western emphasis of Tao as Order or Tao as One in the naively simplistic sense of one as lacking color and energy and diversity.


Sean.

Sean,

(disclaimer: all in my current view, subject to change, error etc.)

Wuji & the Greek Kaos are the same - the unmanifest. The meaning of the word chaos has evolved over time in our culture to mean disorder, but the original word described something more primal, predating order and its breakdown. Choronzon is not the chaos force at all, but rather the force of restriction, the ego or false self ascendant and deified. If there is an entity that embodies the chaos force/ Wuji, it's Baphomet (at least in the chaote pantheon, where there is a polarity between B. as the unconditioned Source and C. as the restriction and limitation of the false intellectual self).

DMT doesn't come across as being very informed, replace Choronzon with Baphomet in that quote and you get something much more in keeping with the mythology.

I'd also like to toss in that C is not 'evil' in a moral sense. But for someone on a spiritual path, it can certainly be the adversary.

-M

edit: garbled sentence.

Interesting thougts Sean.

Talking from experience, synchronicity is closely connected with awareness fused with intentionality. In practical reality that means, when you consiously or unconsciously are focusing your intention in some direction, your awareness is also receiving a response. Basically it's quite causal. Like karma.

I'm not familiar with the magickal traditions, but - the idea that chaos is "evil" is only a very narrow ortodox Christian notion.

A famous qigongmaster in China bases the success of his practice by aligning himself with chaos. He plainly states that the universe is chaos, and if you try not to be too systematic, too rigid and try to shake things up abit, energy will be abundant. Basically he feels that energy is a dynamic relationship between shifting polarities. If you try to freeze the polarities and fix them, energy dissappears.

All the great spiritual traditions (including Daoism) base their understanding of the universe of the amoral relationship of chaos and cosmos. The chaotic dimension is the destructive, non-ordered, non-rational dimension. But it's not evil. Aligning with chaos is aligning with its power, which is neither good nor bad. (I start sounding like Nietzsche!)

Talking about synchronicity:
I remember a dream I had about 10 years ago. I was skiing down a white mountain, and when I was almost down by a dry riverbank, overlooking a big fjord, an indian was suddenly standing there out in the water, holding up a hand to signal me to stop. I stopped and went back the way I came.

5 years later, I was sitting in an IMAX theatre watching the "IMAX Extreme" film. (It's awesome btw: Surfing, climbing, skiing, etc in imax format.) Suddenly there was a scene where the camera was descending a white mountain face, down towards a riverbank by a fjord. An old indian was staning there holding up his hand, singing. It was the same indian.

Ps: My girlfriend can tell the future by picking up random things from her purse. Not that's chaos theory for you!!

h

Ahhh... good old Baphomet. Forgot about him somehow. I did a wonderful pencil rendition of Eliphas Levi's famous drawing back in art school. It crossed my mind that DMT is just misnaming the Chaos current and is not tapping into Choronzon at all. I haven't started building an altar to Choronzon just yet, don't worry. I'm curious to hear your take, if anything, on the repeated 333 synchronicities? I should also mention that I go through extremely synchronistic periods with the number 418 as well so maybe I am not completely doomed.


Great post hagar. That is an amazing synchronicity with the Indian. Do you remember the name of the Qigong master who refers to chaos, I'm curious. Regarding my synchronicities with numbers, I am aware that it has a lot to do with intention. What makes the 333 and 418 sightings stand out for me is that they will disappear for over a year and then come back in a flood for no apparent reason. It's not like I start reading magick books and then I start seeing the numbers. I haven't read any Crowley ... well probably in almost 10 years now come to think of it. Also, the sightings seem to have the quality of being pushed into my awareness. Like where I will be completely wrapped up in a book and I will suddenly snap up and walk into the kitchen and look at my microwave to see it stopped at 3:33 and I will realize I had no purpose in getting up. It's that creepy sometimes.

Anyway ... my Choronzon mystery continues.

Sean.

Sean:

Here's a text I found about him. I saw a video of him from WuChi productions.

"At 93 years-old, Dr. Duan is a wealth of knowledge and spirit. Born into a respected, medically-oriented family, young Duan was raised inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, as his grandfather was a personal physician to the last Chinese Emperor. Master Duan's father was a bodyguard to the Emperor, specializing in the martial arts. Learning in the ancient way, directly from his grandfather, Dr. Duan was taught Traditional Chinese Medicine and is an expert in acupuncture, herbs, and Qigong "Qi" healing. Raised through turbulent times in Chinese history, Dr. Duan excelled in the Wushu fighting arts, including Kung Fu and Bagua. He fought in many battles as a highly-regarded soldier, excelling in his martial arts training. Taught in the traditional ways, he feels fighting skills and medical skills go hand-in-hand, as a good warrior must also be a good field doctor.

Master Duan, continues to operate two humble TCM clinics in Beijing as he has for the past 70 years. He charges only a few dollars per treatment and is renown for his healing abilities, generosity, and compassion. Appearing regularly on the covers of both martial arts and medical magazines in China, Master Duan is also featured in the PBS television documentary on Qigong, as well as in the book "Qigong - Essence of the Healing Dance," both by Francesco Garri Garripoli. Master Duan has been honored by the China government s Medical Qigong Health Department, and is a senior advisor to many associations including the International Medical Qigong Society of Beijing, the Swedish Medical Qigong Society, the International Society of Chinese Medicine, and the Chinese Kung Fu Training Alliance of Beijing. He teaches regularly in parks throughout Beijing each morning at dawn."

Article

Ok well since none of this is 'real' we can really have fun with it. I personaly often go with Jung's idea that synchronisites are 'messages' from the universe to you (from the macrcosm to the microcosm), and I believe that the meaning that you assigned to your 333 synchronisity is its 'real' meaning - you just have to read into the mythological language.

So lets say that 333, the number aligns itself with 'chaos'. I was especially struck when you mentioned how many people, may think of chaos and Chronozon etc as evil, since their intention is always to control - whereas chaos inplicitly is 'control-less' - by definition you cannot control the uncontrolable - which is a bit scary.

So now what's the context of this message? You'll probably know better than anyone, but since none of this is 'real' let me suggest a possible context and then see if it resonates with you. In this case i think the 333 synchronisity is in the context of your spiritual evolution. So the message may be - it is time to make friends with chaos if you're to carry on the spiritual path. I'm glad you think its a little scary because if it wasn't, it wouldn't be a 'test' for you. (remember - all stories of the Hero's Journey, a metaphor for spiritual evolution imo, include the bit where the Hero gets very frightened and has to overcome obsticles and tests.)

What could all this mean in a practical sense? Well the way i interpret it is this: our illusionary ego (the first four rigid circuits of our conciousness) are what are opposed to 'change', chaos, unfamiliarity etc. The goal of any spiritual system is to initialy overcome the rigidness of these circuits - doing so can seem chaotic (at first), since you need to relinquish your control over your ego - it the archetypal story of the boy wondering into the uncharted, myterious forest. If this 333 was happening to me (and it has been in a different way) - I would relise that I'm ready for the next step, whatever that step is for you. Perhaps you're ready to re-imprint one of your 'circuits'? it's up to you which one you think it is...

I would just say that after you've overcome the test/obstacle, you need to come back to your centre - the chaos wont seem so chaotic from this point of view... until, that is, the macrocosm thinks you're ready for the next step - and the chaos will be back - but far more chaotic and challenging than before That's what we, as spiritual adventurers, signed up for!

Sean,

I view synchronicity and repeating numbers as a sign that I'm letting my life be in flow, so for that reason I'd take it as a good sign. I'd also take the choice of synchronistic number to mean that something ego-related is going on, but it certainly doesn't have to be an undesiable sign. As an example, at one point of my life I was shaking loose a big chunk of my childhood Christian conditioning and fear. The number 666 started crawling out of every available situation to greet me. It was unnerving at first, but eventually I started to view it as 'normal', even liked it and it stopped being the preferred repeating number. In retrospect, it was kind of a detox effect that gave me an idea of what was being released.

I highly recommend The Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey for a poetic and generally awesome exposition on creative chaos. Bey also wrote a nice little book called Aimless Wandering, the Chaos Linguistics of Chuang Tzu.

But anyway, Choronzon isn't something to avoid - just another (thorny) thing to integrate. Have fun with the exploration & best wishes.

-Marc

Hagar man, thanks for digging up the information on that teacher. I enjoyed reading about him.

This part really struck me freeform. This aspect that if it wasn't scary it wouldn't challenge me in any way. Whatever is behind the 333 appearance (my mind, some form of energy, an actual independent being, etc) it's manifesting in a controversial form that I can't easily put in a box, which of course my mind naturally prefers to do. Notice Marc's excellent post sharing his skepticism on the benevolence of Choronzon. This entity is quite possibly not my "friend". It may not be my "enemy" other. More like a powerful, amoral archetype that is attracting my attention. Whatever this is, it's keeping me on my toes and that's probably a good thing.

Marc, I've always wanted to read TAZ, thanks for the recommendation and for your feedback on how to deal with Choronzon.

Sean.

there's a book with this title
The Tao of Chaos
I quite liked it, if you are into enneagram anyway, it might interest you. He describes how the patterns of personality form around the core of Nothing in defence of primordial chaos. (...or something like that...it is some time since I read it

kind greetings
affenbrot

I found this on google and then had to sign up just to tell you about my experience. Where to begin?
Back in 2003 I began dating an extremely amazing man. Magical in a sense, he seemed to posses other worldly qualities about himself. He was just completely unlike anyone I have ever met. One October night in 2004 while staying at his house I woke right up. The clock was right in my face and it was 3:33. I thought nothing of it and slowly went to sleep. The next night at home in my own bed I again woke right up and stared straight ahead at my clock, 3:33. The next day I thought that it was odd and told him about it and we shrugged it off. Over the next two months it became alarming. I would wake up constantly at 3:33. And like you, it would be everywhere. The bus infront of me, the total of my latte, etc. I have always had amazing intuition and something told me there was something big going on. It drove me crazy. I didn't know what to do as I was certain anyone I talked to would think I was nuts. Then it happened. Three months after it all started he was killed in an avalanche. I had heard about the avalanche mid day and the helicopters flew over my house. My heart immediatley sunk(he was an avid skier and it was his day off, I knew he would be out there and in the back country). I started sending him text messages hoping it wasn't him. After no reply I sped up to the mountain and sure enough there was his truck surrounded by news crews. It was unreal. After a few days went by I looked at the text messages I had sent and the last one went through at 3:33! As if that wasn't enough I took over his job a couple months later and my paychecks were $843.33 (salary). True story! I still have flare ups of the 3:33, but not in the same alerting way. I still don't know what it was all about and it will always be a very interesting subject for me. I also found it amazing that his birth number was 33/6 and mine 36/9, more 3's. Anyhow, I have been wanting to share this for sometime and it felt good to read about others experiencing similiar happenings.

Fascinating and tragic story DragonFly. Thank you for sharing. I do often wonder wether 333 is ominous. And "flare ups" that is a good word for how 333 occurs for me as well. I will suddenly have between a day to two weeks of frequent sightings.

What is your intuition about this number DragonFly? Do you feel like it's an attempt at communication? From who/what? A higher part of yourself? An outside force? God or demon?

Sean

I wish I knew. I have been searching for the answers everywhere and have yet to come to a clear answer. Maybe I never will. My first intuition is that it was coming from a higher power and my deeper self. I am completely torn between whether it comes from a state of good or evil. Was I being warned or was I apart of a bigger picture that I needed to pay attention to? 3 is the number of truth and I have pondered that quite a bit. But like you I also found 333 in the writings of Aleister Crowley and it freaked me out somewhat.

Have you had any new insight on that number and its appearance in your life?

Hey Dragonfly, I am also still confused on where this message is coming from; inside, above, below? Hmmm... the more I think about it, the more I am thinking this uncertainty might be the point. If this is chaos poking it's face into our lives, then it would kind of make sense for it to be a mysterious force "beyond good and evil". I am going to write Demitria Monde Thraam above and see if we can get her into this thread. Stay tuned.

Lao tzu said "to organize is to destroy" according to Chang Tzu.

333 is there if you look for it. As a Taoist you should just keep things simple. The only thing being communicated to you is that you underestimate your brain's power to manifest things like that. After I read your article I went to call a masseuse. She gave me her address with the number 333 south juniper. It was pretty strange but I know not to get hung up on that kind of thing. It causes too much unnecessary anxiety. I laughed about it and went on a walk, and that’s what you should do. I just want to make you feel better. Choronzon is nothing but your over awareness of the number 333.
To balance things out you should become aware of more things... like the frequency of other numbers.

I'm sorry if this turns out to be offensive somehow. I mean well I’m just not that articulate.

Just few points.
The numerology in the Chirstian literature (Theomatics) is quite strong and has its Jewish (Kabbalah - gematria) and Greek (isopsephia) roots.
Good to check with it, because even the Christians are not quite familiar with it and misinterpret many numbers (everyone knows 666, but few talk about 888 for example. Similar with the reversed star - few people have a clue of the original meaning!). Just finished reading few interesting articles on that.

So unless you are uneducated Christian - why do you care?
If you are not - can't the number mean something else?
Exempli gratia, since I became obsessed with "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" I see 42 everywhere. Probably more than you see 333. At least once a week I send e-mails to my equally obsessed friends with a new revelation :-) [makes me think - didn't I join TaoBums on 4/2? Nope 4/3. Man that was close. Like 335 would be for you? :-)]
And we have a good laugh at it.

Demons are created by us. Check lots of the more reasonable teachings and books - from Bardo Thodol to Tao and Osho.
So don't create one. Divide by 111 (which summed is 3 again!) and think about the role of Trinity in all world religions :-) [e.g. Yang, Yin and Chi]

P.S. Not much help if you are uneducated Christian :-)

Hmmm...I know this is a bit old and all, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to drop a few cents...

Well, firstly I guess, concept that chaos was evil. It has mostly already been stated, but reinforcing it is always a goods idea...Chaos isn't evil, its another state of being...in fact chaos is a very accurate depiction of what being 'one' is. In every faith, or at least all that I can recall, we, as in the universe, was born from this nothing/all. We move through it, live it and are it. My belief about the conception that chaos is evil, is that we naturally, and for very good reason, have a powerful fear of things we can't control or harness. As well as things we can't fully comprehend.

As for 333. I have had that reoccurring to, along with a few other number sets. I did some gandering about about the meanings of 3 and 9. A book on I Ching I had, and most of all the books on numerology, along with in the tarot, have all stated that 3 is the completion of the 'first cycle', 6 the second, and 9 the third. Wit hteh number nine it is the final cycle in existence, and there for a new cycle will begin. Which, at least to me, would help with the understanding and event surrounding the noticing of 3 or such sequences.

With my sightings of the number, I had felt, also, that the universe is trieng to tell me something, and it is my belief that it is telling you to begin/finish, a new/old cycle, also maybe a omen that a cycle will be beginning/ending...

But at the same time, I also believe these idea are more than up for debate by each individual, (since all things like that or very much up to your perception of them)...

Hmm...well...I hope I added to the discussion in a decent way.

Nameste

Hello Sean,

Since you were first to greet me at the Lobby as a new member, I thought it appropiate to respond to one of your posts first. I locked into this 333 business because you are not alone in this phenomena. For years, both my wife and I have been encountering the same thing. I often wake up in the night and it is 3:33 am, I look over at my computer clock--car clock, and bank clock, and it's that time. I will see license plates of cars I stop behind with this numer. One time, I stopped at a light and a pizza delivery vehicle stopped beside me and it's first three digits were 3:33. The most informative reply I received took place in a dream back in the 1980's. In this experience, I met a wise man and asked him what 333 signified. His reply, "It means--Ultimate." This always stuck with me. When I began learning numbers and vibrations, I learned that scientifically all things in our physical known universe can be explained by 9 (333). I did a numerolical cahrt on the name of Jesus Christ (An old Egyptian Method taught to me by the Brotherhood of Light, used to determine vibrations and what it means), and the name came to 9 (333). When I through in the word "Cross," the vibration changed to 10, which meant "Completion" and made total sense, because it was where he completed his mission. The meaning, however, "Meant change of Cycle" as a 10. Therefore, I can only assume that 333, in its total (9), indicates that this world is currently undergoing a process of change that will ultimatelu bring about a major "Change of Cycle" affecting the entire world. Now why is it that many of us are seeing this so often while others are not. My best guess is that those who are spiritually sensitive are automatically attuned to the changes but may not know that it has a numerical vibration value. Once known, however, and correlated with what is occurring around us and in us, one can see that it all falls in place. Something out there wants us to prepare for the coming changes.

Regards,
Ayudar