The Shadow Knows

“Accepting a larger level of anxiety is the price of growth. The failure to grow will produce either depression, or such fixated adaptation as we find in our daily neuroses.”

James Hollis, Why Good People Do Bad Things, pg. 70

Defining Traditional Chaos

James Hollis applies the Jungian philosophy that your ego consciousness is splintered and therefore you have what Jung called the Shadow. Some of these shadowy facets of your personality or ego are unconscious to you and it is these aspects of the personality that can control your thought processes, feelings, emotions, and actions. He advocates searching out these hidden parts of your ego consciousness because until you heal and accept them, they will cause you to behave in ways that deny your Highest Good. When this happens in your life, you go into chaos. The Shadow creates the chaos.

In Greek and Roman mythology, the Goddess of Chaos, also called Strife, has two sides which have opposite effects on your human life. The Goddess of Chaos is of The Light, regardless of how she appears to you. Strife can be a motivational energy that causes you to work harder to achieve your dreams or she can bring destruction for what seems to be no good reason at all. In whatever form she appears in your life, you can be assured that nothing will be the same when she’s gone.

Chaos causes the disintegration of old paradigms, out-dated institutionalized reactions and systems, and all things that no longer serve you. Chaos forces you to release old tribal belief systems inherited from the societal, cultural and family environments you were exposed to growing up.

Chaos shines the light on things that you haven’t dealt with in your life that are holding you back. Sometimes you consciously know what those thoughts and emotions are. Sometimes they remain subconscious and you are asked to move to a new level of Trust and Faith that everything that is happening is in your Highest Good. When you get on a roller coaster, you do so with complete Trust and Faith in the company who built the track, the safety harness, and the computer systems that run the ride. Allowing Chaos into your life is like riding a roller coaster.

Re-defining Chaos, Change, and Fear

When Chaos shows up, your response could be “hold on! The ride has begun!” Go on the roller coaster with her. OK – here you go- you’re ramping up to the top of the first hill. The car hesitates for just a moment – AND YOU’RE OFF! The car is shaking, hair is flying everywhere. You are screaming your lungs out! Here comes the Loop de Loop. You are upside down! And look – you haven’t fallen out of the car. Sometimes it felt like you could fall out during that ride but, you reach the platform all in one piece. Every time. Regardless of what happens on that ride, you always come out in one piece. You may be dead, but honey, you will be all in one piece wherever you land!

Did you tense up or relax while on that ride? If you relaxed into the ride, you probably weren’t scared much at all – a little concerned, maybe, but not terrified. That’s healthy. If you can realize that CHAOS is exactly like that roller coaster ride, the FEAR OF CHANGE practically disappears. When you can reach that state of balance, CHAOS moves out of the Darkness, into the Light to become CATALYTIC HUNCHES AWAKENING OUR SPIRITUALITY. Change becomes CATALYTIC HUNCHES ARRANGING NEW GROWTH EXPERIENCES. Fear becomes FLOWING EASILY ALLOWING REBIRTH. Do you see the beauty in that? The Goddess of Chaos never comes without bearing gifts.

You may have to walk into your Dark Night of The Soul. You may have to face terrible hardship. You may have to do it all by yourself. You will have to walk through the swamps before you reach your destination. You will have to face your illusions – False Evidence Appearing Real – before you are able to use the catalytic hunches that lead you out of the Forest of Darkness. You will have to learn how to Flow Easily Allowing the new growth experiences arranged specifically for your Rebirth.

What are you going to release in order to create space for the abundance and prosperity that’s waiting for you? CHAOS gives you that ability to achieve what you desire. Embrace her. Rejoice when the Goddess of Chaos enters your life or someone else’s. Someone lose a job, get fired? Call them up and tell them Congratulations! Relationship ending or changing? Congratulations! Don’t know what you are doing with your life? Hurray! Move into chaos with faith and trust that all is right and perfect in your life, even if it doesn’t look like it.

Chaos gives you a unique opportunity to practice looking at it from a higher perspective. This is where you begin to learn what it means to be in the human experience with a spiritual awareness. When you see what is occurring as simply an indication of the larger energies manifesting around you, you have an ability to relax into the human experience regardless of whether the human experience is judged “good” or “bad”.

When observing Chaos from this view, it becomes possible to read the clues that are given to you that show you where you are and what the next right action is going to be. Strife is doing her job to motivate you out of complacency and into action. However, action may not be what you think it is. Sometimes the right thing to do is to simply S.Y.A.D, as in “SIT CH’OR ASS DOWN!” Sit your ass down. Don’t move. Don’t DO anything. Not doing anything is doing something. The Universe will tell you when to move, what to do, and usually how to do it. If you stay present and aware, the signs will appear.

At this point is helps to remember that chaos and change are most likely happening in response to an affirmation or denial you put out into the Ethers. Affirmations create chaos. Denials create chaos. The Universe is setting up the conditions required to give you what asked. The old saying “Be careful what you asked for!” probably came from someone who was experiencing chaos and realized that what was happening was answering his prayer.