Symbol of Chaos

Origins

Michael Moorcock conceived this symbol while writing the first Elric of Melniboné stories in the 1960s. It later became common in popular culture, appearing in occult traditions and role-playing games. In an interview, Moorcock described how he designed the symbol:

I drew a straightforward geographical quadrant (which often has arrows, too!) – N, S, E, W – and then added another four directions and that was that – eight arrows representing all possibilities, one arrow representing the single, certain road of Law. I have since been told to my face that it is an "ancient symbol of Chaos".

In occultism

In the late 1970s, the Chaos Star became the main symbol of chaos magic, a branch of western esotericism which originated in England. A variant on it, with an eye similar Eye of Horus in its center, is the official symbol of the Illuminates of Thanateros, a magical order dedicated to chaos magic. In his 1992 Liber Kaos, the IOT's "pope" Peter J. Carroll outlined a model of eight colors of magic (including the fictional color octarine, representing magic itself) as represented by the eight arrows of the star.

It has occasionally been used astrologically as a symbol for the trans-Neptunian object 19521 Chaos.

In video and tabletop gaming

The symbol has been adopted in tabletop games such as Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons, and games such as The Binding of Isaac.

The symbol's first appearance in a commercial role-playing game was in the Dungeons & Dragons supplement Deities & Demigods, which featured Elric, as well as gods and monsters related to the Elric series. It was taken up byStormbringer, Chaosium's licensed adaptation of the Elric stories, and by Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar, among other games.

Political uses

The Chaos Star in its original form has been adopted by multiple Eastern European and North and Latin American activist groups affiliated with post-leftism, insurrectionary anarchism and nihilist anarchism. The symbol likely came into modern anarchism movements from punk artwork and zines fulfilling the need for a unified symbol. A contributing factor to its adoption may be that Moorcock himself identifies as an anarchist.

According to Anton Shekhovtsov, Aleksandr Dugin has used a modified version of the symbol to represent his idea of Neo-Eurasianism, and it can be seen on the logo of his Eurasia Party and the cover of his book Foundations of Geopolitics.

References

References

1. "Symbol of Chaos".
2. Rhys, Dani. (2022-11-20). "Chaos Star – What Does It Mean and Where Did It Originate?".
3. "The Chaos Star — Illuminates of Thanateros North America".
4. Miller, Kirk. (26 October 2021). "Unicode request for dwarf-planet symbols".
5. Killjoy, Margaret. (2009). "Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: anarchist writers on fiction". AK Press.
6. Shekhovtsov, Anton. (2008-12-01). "The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism: Ideas of Rebirth in Aleksandr Dugin's Worldview". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions.