Ever had a week of chaos where as soon as you managed to close one of the 500 tabs in your brain another would pop up? It reminds me of the childhood board game ‘Whack-A- Mole’. I would rather not whack anything – ok if I am being honest, I could probably whack my neighbour every night around 1am when they decide to rearrange the furniture, but then again that is not very ‘neighbourly’ is it.

It also brings me to another conversation I had this week about how chaotic our lives can get. And while I try to choose my words carefully the word chaos is the perfect fit for my days at the moment. Now being in the ‘deeper plunge’ game for a while, I do have the knowledge and tools that should keep me calm when the hurricane blows through. Yet combined with the very fiery energies at the moment it has not been possible to remain calm as the cabin lake on a clear cloudless morning.

That being said, if we look around us, especially at our greatest teacher – Mother Nature – then things fall right back into place – thank goodness! For ultimately without chaos, we have no chance at evolution. The clear cool calm lake would become stagnant, rotten and depleted without some sort of ‘movement’ introduced into its ecosystem. Hence the smallest microbe, fish and environmental factor plays their part in introducing the movement or ‘chaos’ needed to sustain itself.

Another great example of chaos in nature is cloud formation – only formed by the turbulence of elements ‘clashing’ and adjusting to each other, the tides of the ocean and snow flake crystallization are also good examples of this.

I also realised that chaos is part of the creative process, which so many acclaimed and very ordinary ‘creatives’, philosophers and sages have spoken of through the ages.

One of the most famous quotes about this comes from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche which states ‘One must have chaos within oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star’. The philosopher had one of the most fascinating lives and minds and could very well have been onto a great key to life when he shared his revolutionary ideas with the world.

From great minds to the battlefields of life, if you have ever participated in war or watched movies themed around battle you know very well what the outer manifestation of chaos looks like. The frenzy, crazed, irrationality of humans which propagate senseless violence and abuse. The slaughtered remains left behind on the landscape to rot.

When we are experiencing chaos in our lives it depicts a very desperate attempt to try and gain control again, sometimes at any cost. And we too may leave others beaten and bloodied on the battlefield, while we crawl towards a better tomorrow – which may or may not arrive.

The revered Hindu goddess Kali – Ma, often known as the Dark Mother – comes to life for me when I think of this destruction and upheaval. But she too is often misunderstood. For while she is many things to many people, she is actually like a fierce protective mother who wants the best for us and will sometimes be ‘cruel to be kind’.

She will strip away all the toxic, distasteful, wasteful aspects of ourselves. She can sweep through our lives like a tornado, leaving little in her wake and leaving us disoriented, confused, empty, broken and alone. She does this not because she wants us to remain in this sorry state, she does this because she wants us to get back up again and start over with more strength, wisdom and clarity – she wants growth.

She wants your potential to shine and when it is layered with so many illusions of ego and dirt, she has no choice but to visit chaos on your life so you will wake up and evolve!

So, if I allow myself the space to sit still and quieten down for a moment -especially when I think I don’t have a moment to spare – that is when the chaos can start shifting into something else. The creative process definitely has a life of its own, but it also needs a little helping hand once in a while.

If we continue stirring the pot, we either land up spilling the contents, burning ourselves with splatters or dissolving the contents down to nothing.  If we continue to let the chaos be our master and follow it blindly, we will burn out before we can breakthrough.

As Nietzsche discovered, yes, we do need it, but to create the dancing and dazzling star we also need space to allow it it’s time and place to shine.

For now, I will continue to honour these crazy cycles that visit my life every so often and keep an eye out for Kali -Ma so she feels welcome at my table and doesn’t have to break down the door again!

‘God of Chaos’ asteroid plummeting towards Earth | Witness (news24.com)

Friedrich Nietzsche – Wikipedia

Kali – Wikipedia

To read one of my letters to the unseen click below

To Those Who Clean Up After Our Dirty Business – The Uncoiled