“In all chaos there is a cosmos,
in all disorder a secret order,
in all caprice a fixed law,
for everything that works
is grounded on its opposite”
It is often thought that wholeness is found in the numinous encounter of some big archetypal image. But this is not so. Wholeness is the harmonious bringing together of the inner and outer aspects of our life – to bring order out of chaos. It is an amazing fact that as the great centres of urban life appeared over the last 5,000 years (starting with Sumer and Egypt), their priests each developed images of the night sky whose great cosmic order was applied as divine principle ordering our chaotic lives in this earthly world below.
This correspondence of “as above, so below”, lasted in Western culture until the arising of modern science and rationality. Where now to find the divine help when the inevitable challenges of life sink our hopes and throw us into disorder and suffering? Or must we just endure as did Job? Can we return to the harmony of wholeness when life continually splits us apart, leaving us in an inner state of disturbed emotion in the face of outer confusion? Let’s see what answers we can come upon together.