Fog…. the most underrated part of Nature

If someone says, “It’s a bit foggy in my life,” this doesn’t mean much good. He or she doesn’t know exactly which way to go or what to do next. This person searches for directions, not knowing where to go next. Aimlessness, uncertainty, confusion… these are all words that belong to this archetypal Fog in our lives, but it is not the only side of this valuable archetype. There is a light side too about the Mist in our lives.

In this blog I shed a different light on the archetypal meaning of Fog. Because in my view, Fog itself is the most underrated piece of nature and so is the archetype Fog….

If you want to read more about archetypes in general first? Go to my blog ‘How to connect to your Inner Wisdom‘, or ‘Sense (of) your Inner Storm‘.

Negative meaning

The negative meaning we give to fog comes from the stories with which we were raised. In movies, fairy tales or myths, something terrible always happens as soon as the hero of the story ends up in a foggy surrounding. Suddenly the monsters appear, or the Hero gets hopelessly lost and does not arrive at his or her destination or arrives much too late, or even worse: he or she enters the realm of the dead.

These are all expressions of the shadow side of the archetypal Fog. If the archetype is dominant in your life, then it hides something in you that cannot bear the light. It shrouds our darkest side in mists. We don’t want to or we cannot face it.

Nature can sometimes show that dark side of Fog beautifully too. Then the fog is so dense that you really can’t see anything, not even your hand in front of your eyes. The mist then really hides everything and everyone around you. And if something or someone suddenly emerges from that fog, we get a big fright.

An invitation to slow down

If you are just on your way to your destination, such a dense fog is very irritating. You actually want to move on quickly and that is not possible….

But that is precisely the invitation that the archetypal Fog gives to us: “Slow down. Don’t go so fast. Are you going in the right direction? Do you have the right goal in mind?”

In our Western patriarchal world, in which we usually (only) appreciate each other for the goals and results we achieve, it often feels like failure if you don’t know which way to go in your life. But this is not a failure!!

Having a misty time in your life is an invitation from your subconscious that you need to slow down. That you can stop for a moment to determine which direction you really want (or should) go.

Light side of the archetypal Fog

The light side of the archetypal Fog in us is about slowing down in order to be able to better determine the right next step in the here and now.

If you take a very close look at the vaporous fog in nature, you will see all kinds of small liquid water droplets that have formed around a tangible grain of earth or sand. Each drop in itself is therefore enormously fertile precisely because of that combination of tangible and liquid substance.

Fog may limit your view of the future. But it invites you to stop and take a closer look at the here and now. What tangible things do you have within reach, that only need to be seen and fed? Fog often hangs just above the ground, ready to be absorbed and make the seed that’s within the droplets grow.

Moreover, the fog also always plays beautifully with the sunlight. It refracts the direct and sometimes burning rays. In that sunlight the misty droplets create  a beautiful play of brilliance with all kinds of colours. Just enjoy it and take a closer look at it to get inspired. At least that’s what I 😉 do.

Warm yourself in the Fog around you

So I see the archetypal Fog mainly as a blanket, which you can wrap around you. A blanket that protects you from the cold of not knowing for a while. The not-knowing that we in the Western world have such a negative opinion about, but that contains so much wisdom. Which direction are you going? And which one do you want to go?

Warm yourself with that misty blanket. Don’t dismiss the fog in your life. There is so much value in it when you look at it up close.

Go along with that delay. You then enter a different consciousness. The world between reality and unreality. It may sound vague, but it certainly isn’t.

‘Foggy exercise’

Try this ‘Foggy exercise’ if you feel like you are in a fog in your life:

1. Grab a sheet of paper and a pen
2. Set the timer for 20 minutes
3. Write down all the ideas, actions, products, services, tasks, dreams, etc that come to mind. Exclude the judgment on its enforceability. Make just a ‘brain dump’ of all those foggy droplets hanging around you.

Describe these matters as briefly and clearly as possible, but also as concrete as possible. So one word is ok, but so are two or three sentences. It’s only about the idea itself, so the ‘what’ and not about the ‘how’.

The challenge in this part of the exercise is that you keep writing and don’t stop and think. Then reason and judgment will take over.

4. When the timer goes off after 20 minutes, stop writing. Now hang over your sheet of paper like a helicopter. Are there any items that would make you very happy if you were to do them? Make it green. Are there also items that you feel a lot of resistance to? Make them red or grey.
5. Focus on the green items. Do you see a pattern in that? A certain direction? For example, that you discover that almost all the things you have written down there have to do with working with young people.

That is already a first indication of the direction you can go. The fog around you is already clearing up a bit. Can you see the sunlight shining through it? Which way do the rays shine? What is it that  cannot or does not want to be visible yet, but is already emerging more and more from the fog?

6. What first step or steps can you take to reveal it even further and put it back in the light?
7. Take off the blanket and set off in the direction that the fog has shown you.

Fantastic Friday Session ‘Let’s dive into the Fog’

If you want to dive deeper into your own inner Fog, please feel welcome to join the Fantastic Friday Session on this archetype. In the agenda of my website you’ll learn more about these sessions, and you can subscribe there.

Have a nice trip!

Frédérique te Dorsthorst – de Muij
www.balancedstory.com

April 2025