The Greco-Roman tradition of ''Prima Materia'', notably including 5th and 6th centuries
Orphic cosmogony was merged with biblical notions (''Tehom'') in Christian belief and inherited by alchemy and Renaissance magic.The Cosmic Egg of Orphism was taken as the raw material for the alchemical ''Opus Magnum'' in early Greek alchemy. The first stage of the process of producing the ''Lapis Philosophorum'', i.e., ''nigredo'', was identified with chaos. Because of association with the creation in Genesis, where "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2), Chaos was further identified with the element Water.
Alchemy in the middle ages and renaissance
Raimundus Lullus (1232–1315) wrote a ''Liber Chaos'', in which he identifies Chaos as the primal form or matter created by God.Swiss alchemist Paracelsus (1493–1541) uses ''chaos'' synonymously with ''element'' (because the primeval chaos is imagined as a formless congestion of all elements). Paracelsus thus identifies Earth as "the chaos of the ''gnomi''", i.e., the element of the gnomes, through which these spirits move unobstructed as fish do through water, or birds through air.
An alchemical treatise by Heinrich Khunrath, printed in Frankfurt in 1708, was entitled ''Chaos''.
The 1708 introduction to the treatise states that the treatise was written in 1597 in Magdeburg, in the author's 23rd year of practicing alchemy.
The treatise purports to quote Paracelsus on the point that "The light of the soul, by the will of the Triune God, made all earthly things appear from the primal Chaos."
Martin Ruland, in his 1612 ''Lexicon Alchemiae'', states, "A crude mixture of matter or another name for ''Materia Prima'' is ''Chaos'', as it is in the Beginning."
The term ''gas'' in chemistry was coined by Dutch chemist J. B. Van Helmont in the 17th century, directly based on the Paracelsian notion of chaos. The ''g'' in ''gas'' is due to the Dutch pronunciation of this letter as a spirant, also employed to pronounce Greek χ.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Chaos (cosmogony), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
