Portals of Time

measuring eternity in flight from adversity

Because time is life. And life lives in the heart

〰 Michael Ende 〰

George Fitzmaurice on Unsplash

Eternal Chronos and the fleeting Kairos

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens

〰 Ecclesiastes 〰

The world of Ancient Greece was ruled by more or less 12 goddesses and gods ~ Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Hestia.

The numbers and names may differ slightly, depending on the source, and which of these deities are included in the immortal incrowd of Mount Olympus. The divergence increases, the further we track back to the ancestral generation of primordial origins. Where did all these divine creatures come from?

One reassuring name, however, keeps showing up. No matter which trail you follow, there is always Chronos, the primordial god of time, occupying the prime slot, the position of the very beginning.

Primordial [from Latin primus = first + ordiri = to begin] describes the first order, the original source as an immeasurable quality.

According to the Orphic tradition ~ a religious lineage worshipping the legendary poet Orpheus ~ Chronos emerged self-formed at the dawn of creation. This incorporeal god and his female counterpart, both formed as serpents, coiled themselves around the primordial world-egg and split it apart to give birth to the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky.

Orphic egg

Following their act of creation, the primordial divine couple circled the cosmos driving the rotation of heaven and the eternal passage of time.

Kairos is the god, or daimon of golden opportunity and the youngest of the sons of Zeus. This parental lineage makes him a grandson of Chronos.

The ancient Greeks imagined Kairos as “Running swiftly, balancing on the razor's edge, bald but with a lock of hair on his forehead, he wears no clothes; if you grasp him from the front, you might be able to hold him, but once he has moved on not even Zeus himself can pull him back.”

In Ancient Rome, Kairos was called Tempus ~ a name used today in various Roman languages in the sense of time and weather. And in modern Greek the meaning of kairos overlaps perfectly with the Latin tempus.

In ancient Greek, kairos was associated with ‘the brief moment in which things are possible’ and usually translated as critical moment or right moment. Since most languages don’t have a single word for this, translations tend to offer opportunity as an option.

Opportunity [short from the Latin phrase ob = towards + portum = harbour + veniens = coming]. The English metaphor ‘any port in a storm’ was used originally to express the sentiment that “any refuge is welcomed in adversity.”

In its current use, the word opportunity has shifted from ‘refuge in adversity’ towards representing a favourable time or condition for certain actions.

Harman Sandhu on Unsplash

Kairos in the Anthropocene

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic

〰 Terry Pratchett 〰

On the website ‘Grammarly’ (and others), kairos is described as the “connective tissue that considers the appropriate context and timing for an argument.”

Let that sink in for a moment:

»The connective tissue that considers the appropriate context and timing for an argument.« ~ sounds perfectly natural, doesn’t it? But why argument?!

According to Grammarly “Kairos is a rhetorical device that identifies a critical moment to perform an action for maximum effect. In language, whether written or spoken, this rhetorical appeal can make an idea or purpose more compelling.”

In other words, kairos is used deliberately and consciously as a rhetorical tool to create situational context and precise timing “to deliver a message so it’s received with the greatest impact and urgency.”

This definition of kairos represents a relatively young anthropocentric interpretation. Kairos as a ‘rhetorical tool for persuasive writing or speaking’ ~ with the explicit or implicit purpose of gaining personal advantage ~ uses timing with the intention to plant certain ideas in the minds of readers and customers, while generating the ‘opportune context’ out of thin air (by making associations and suggestions to support the argument).

There is nothing natural about this. It’s totally manmade. As if by sleight of hand, the meaning of kairos has shifted from ‘refuge in adversity’ towards opportunism, persuasion, propaganda, and manipulation.

In rhetoric, context and timing can be manipulated. The speaker / writer creates an impression of a ‘golden opportunity’ and tags an ‘irresistible offer’ onto this apparently natural ‘kairos’, often with the addition of an artificial time limit.

Kairos = Golden offer, available for a limited time only!

REALLY??!!

Taking advantage of an opportunity for commercial gain ~ esp. an ‘opportunity which has been artificially created’ ~ is twice removed from the original meaning of kairos. The first removal is that the ‘window of opportunity’ is manmade rather than natural. The second is the manufacturing of an apparent ‘refuge in adversity’ ~ a perceived advantage for the prospective customer ~ while creating a context to benefit the seller of the ‘opportunity’.

Aliona Ve on Unsplash

Kairos in the Symbiocene

The world takes a breath,

and in the pause, before it exhales,

fates can be changed.

〰 McKinley Valentine 〰

The Italian pædiatrician Maria Montessori (1870-1952), known for her innovative development of a philosophy of education, observed and wrote about sensitive periods. Working with young children, she observed ‘windows of time’ that are opportune to learning specific skills.

Such portals of time ~ equivalent to an opening in space ~ occur naturally and represent the original meaning of kairos. These time-portals don’t just exist for young children. They are a natural feature of any growing process of any living organism.

Every moment in life can be viewed through the eyes of Kairos.

If you are a gardener you’ll know that many seeds tend to sprout in spring, mostly between February/March and June in the Northern hemisphere. That’s their kairos. Fruit trees have their season for bearing fruit. Chicken have seasons for laying eggs, mammals have cycles for sexual productivity etc.

The relationship with seasons explains why the word kairos has also been used in the sense of weather (which tends to change with the natural seasons). As the definition of kairos expanded from opportunity to include sensitive phase, season and weather, it always maintained its close relationship to the natural unfolding of life. This meaning is precious, worth carrying over into the symbiocentric use of the word.

In her article on Chronos vs. Kairos, McKinley Valentine explains, “Where Chronos is quantitative, kairos is qualitative. It measures moments, not seconds. Further, it refers to the right moment, the opportune moment. The perfect moment. The world takes a breath, and in the pause, before it exhales, fates can be changed.”

The time-portal of kairos can be brief as a blink or last a lifetime. It may relate to the constellations of stars, to opportunities granted through social, cultural, and economic factors, or to adversity in which refuge might be welcome.

In any case, natural genuine kairos is far superior, and therefore preferable to manmade time-slots, foisted upon us as a ‘golden opportunities’, tempting us to give (or waste) our precious time, resources or attention in exchange for dubious offerings.

If in doubt, we can learn to distinguish a natural kairos from a manmade one. The latter variety usually comes with uncomfortable strings attached. Instead of relying on a natural sensitive phase, they may push buttons of guilt, fear of loss, or worry what others might think.

‘Favourable opportunities’ which sound ‘too good to be true’ may not be kairotic, but constructed with the purpose to throw us off our own track and into the groove of some influencer with a degree in MR & PC (= manipulative rhetoric & psychological coercion) .

Although natural time-portals do open and close as well, they have a tendency to become available on a recurring basis, within season.

The time-portal of kairos tends to include a temporal and a circumstantial aspect. This applies to both varieties, the kairotoid manmade version, and the kairotic natural event.

Kairos in the Symbiocene may offer refuge in adversity, but it should neither be an escape from responsibilities, nor add emotional pressure to our plight.

While the primordial Chronos won’t save us from the storms of time, not every call that sounds like the voice of Kairos is truly a safe or welcome harbour. On the other hand, a true kairotic moment doesn’t necessarily look or feel appealing.

The opening of a portal of time may appear dangerous. Kairos may trigger waves of fear, while offering a genuine and unique opportunity to changing life for the better.

We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos

- the right moment -

for a 'metamorphosis of the gods', of the fundamental principles and symbols.

This peculiarity of our time,

which is certainly not of our conscious choosing,

is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing.

〰 Carl Gustav Jung 〰