Eros and Chaos

Eros and Chaos is a provocative book. In linking Chaos with Eros, the author radically challenges the reigning paradigm that couples chaos with order. Drawing upon ancient mythologies that unite Eros and Chaos, Goodchild explores love's relation with its shadows within the personal, collective, archetypal, and cosmic domains. "Like a wind crashing down among oak trees, love shattered my mind", said the sixth-century poet, Sappho; and H. D., a poet of this century wrote, "Yet to sing love, love must first shatter us". This book takes the reader into that domain where Eros' arrows thrust us into those shadowy depths where our keenest vulnerabilities and woundings -- and our deepest imaginings and longings -- are hidden.But it is not only the content of this book that is provocative. The style also poses a challenging invitation to readers to enter into their own experiences of the shadowy realms, or Eros and chaos. Weaving together dreams, visions, clinical stories, poetry, experiences of nature and the world, and anomalous encounters with reflections on these experiences, the author deftly integrates content with style. The result is a book that dissolves concepts in those elusive, subtle waters of the image, and which opens the imaginal and invisible presences of the world.Perhaps the most important task that faces us is the ethical one of becoming more conscious. Veronica Goodchild shows us, in a compelling way, that this task cannot be accomplished apart from an awareness of the complexities of love and its shadows. She continuously reminds us that the soul longs most for love. It is the one experience we would rather not exit this life without having known. This book addressesthat longing.