The Cosmic Dance spins all around us, a primal pattern blending creation and destruction, and all things between. Order bursts out of the Chaos, exists for a moment in time, and then falls back into the nothing from which it was born. Layers upon layers churn as we find ourselves caught up in the cycles, finding our way, trying to keep balance, and not get lost.

The Nataraja is the name of this dance, and in our daily journeys we drive forward carving out a life for ourselves through this ever-evolving fabric. Most of the time we are so caught up int it that we forget how delicate and volatile it all can be. We go about our day, and once in a while we get caught up in a wave, a tsunami, that draws all of our attention. 

For over a thousand years, The Nataraja has long been a representation of Hindu Cosmology. Shiva dances within a ring of fire, cycles of time, like a maelstrom in the ocean of everything. In one hand he beats the drum of Creation, in the other he holds the flame of Destruction. Two more hands below forming the gesture of protection to remind us that through it all, we will find our way through. A raised foot symbolizes our liberation from the cycle rising above the Chaos dancing upon the Demon of Ignorance representing all those that remain oblivious to this cycle that surrounds them. 

This painting is modeled after the sculpture in Geneva at CERN, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire. It was gifted in 2004 by India, one of the long standing partners of the research center. It is meant to be a metaphor linking the Hindu vision of the cosmos reminding us of the "cosmic dance" of subatomic particles in the realms explored by the physicists at the facility. 

There are times in our life when we need to call upon the Nataraj, usually in times of renewal and great change. A moment to reassess ourselves and gather all the things no longer serving us, we gather them, burn them, and let them go. In the vacuum left behind we create space for a new beginning, new energy and patterns to serve us on our journey forward.