HONOURING CHAOS AND POSSIBILITY

Lawrence Toye - 2 December 2020

For the full blog, including visual images - click here.

Written blog, below:

Shared understanding

A common application of the word chaos is to mean “complete disorder and confusion” [Oxford Dictionary]. 

Chaos also refers to:
- "the void at the beginning of creation, the confused, formless, elementary state of the universe.”
[book of Genesis, the Bible - 1530s English version]. 

- “the initial "gap" created by the original separation of heaven and earth.”
[Greek creation myths]. 

To experience a state of chaos, then, is to arrive at a formless state of potentiality. 

Into a moment where anything is possible and nothing is certain.   

At first, when we frame this as a “state” that a human could experience, it may seem like an unnerving prospect. It doesn't necessarily feel comfortable, being in such an open and uncertain state, so we may instinctively resist the very presence of “disorder and confusion” in our lives. This applies especially to the part of us that loves form and structure.

Current State

If you’re reading this blog around the time it was published, then it’s the final stretch of a particularly disorderly and confusing year, when a global crisis has forced drastic habitual changes on many of us. There’s more uncertainty ahead, to. 

Amidst the “disorder and confusion”  we’re seeing in the world, there also exists possibility.

The events of recent times have shocked us awake, albeit to different degrees of awakening. For some, this has induced a state of panic and fear as they’ve watched everything they know crumble around them. For others, there’s been an opportunity to shake free from a set of routinely performed, obligatory lifestyle habits which they hadn’t even realised they were bound to. 

Through my own observations and experiences of these recent times, I’ve become super curious about what could be influencing whether we’ve “coped” or “crumbled” in times of crisis. Is it all dependent on our life circumstances, the “hand that we have been dealt” by the universe? Or are there variables we can consider which would drastically alter how we even view that very same “hand”? 

Along with my own shifts and challenges over this crazy year, I have also had the good fortune of being introduced to two theoretical models which happen to  have been of profound support in my journey of making some sense of my experiences...

The two models in question:
- Spiral Dynamics, a system which maps the development of human consciousness and forms part of a larger body of work within Integral Theory,  on “stages of development”. 

This gave me some insight into why people and communities responded the way they did.

- The Ecocycle, a project planning tool influenced by the life cycle of plants, animals and the universe itself. This gifted me with a reminder of the natural, cyclical rhythm which governs all things.

Their coalition: A map for navigating whatever is next..?

A brief explanation

One of the points/phases on the The Ecocycle model is the “crisis” phase (Rigidity Trap in the nature model above). 

It marks the point between maturation and release:  

In the context of a project, it’s the point where it’s time to acknowledge what’s not working. After all the hard work that’s been put into creating something to its maturity, seeing it face being deconstructed could certainly feel confusing and disorderly - chaotic even!?

In nature, fully ripened fruit moves from maturation to slowly being to decompose (microbial chaos), until the seeds within it reach the soil and can germinate, thus beginning their journey towards being a fruit bearing tree.   

It is whilst pondering this point of the cycle that I had a revelatory experience.

By considering this recent global pandemic as a “crisis”  (in context of the model) I began to see that in cases where individuals, communities or systems couldn’t easily adapt to the rapid changes in the world, it was likely that they were holding an aversion (or distrust) to the present and pervasive chaos all around them. 

Enter, Spiral Dynamics! 

I’d been initially studying Spiral Dynamics (and levels of consciousness as part of Integral Theory) a few days before my application of the pandemic to Ecocycle. In a moment of curious clarity, I glimpsed how individual and collective responses in times of crisis would differ drastically depending on which phase or level of consciousness they are in at the time... 

From this moment of insight, Irealised that there would be tremendous benefit in people gaining an awareness of these levels of consciousness and of how to develop an awareness of them within themselves.      

 And thus… the topic of our final YES& Digital Event for the year, the “2020 Edition: Honouring Chaos and Possibility” began to form...

An opportunity to go deeper

At this digital event, we’ll be asking a panel of speakers to share their own ideas about how can we navigate whatever is next, with openness, spontaneity and resilience. 

If you would like to delve deeper into the topic of this blog (and of the event), you are welcome to join us 

on December 10th, 6 pm AEDT.

Registration link here.

Image Source: Digital Village by Starling | Adapted from McCandless and Lipmanowicz retrieved from here.