Posts
A few nights ago, I decided to go stargazing. This was not a momentous occasion, in itself, as I’ve been doing this for years. But on this particular night, I was going to try out my new telescope. It took awhile, as I am much better with philosophy than technology, but finally after several attempts I was able to see the moon in all its celestial splendor. The detail was breathtaking--craters and peaks as crisp as a BluRay DVD, magnificent in magnification. I thought back to the night that one man from Earth stepped out of a spaceship and walked on that Moon back in 1969. I was grinning from ear to ear.
But still, as I folded up the tripod a few moments later, and brought the telescope back into the house, I felt the pull of the night sky. Once again, I headed outside and stood in my backyard, my eyes lifted to the stars. It was cold and I shivered but as is often the case on chilly winter nights, the sky was clear and as lit up as a Christmas tree. I soon forgot the temperature as my spirits lifted as well.
I’d been attracted to the heavens for most of my life, as I believe many are. For me, there is nothing so primal and commanding as the canopy of the stars surrounded by the Earth’s dark shadow of night--That time when a hushed stillness comes over half the planet and the yearnings of the soul come to light--When the voice of your heart becomes louder in the silence that surrounds you.
How many times, I ask myself, have I gazed up at this same sky, looking for answers to the questions of “why”, “if” and “how”, my eyes fixed upon the moon or a bright star, my heart open to whatever the Universe might reveal? Or perhaps, focused upon my life lessons and what I have learned or still need to learn?
People stargaze for different reasons: To try to understand something larger than themselves, for solace--believing that perhaps the stars are a guiding force of guardian angels, to revel in the magnificence of the Creator, or for a scientific explanation of the Universe.
I think of the ancients in Mesopotamia watching the heavens. I get a sense of their excitement as they discover a group of stars that move across the sky and they name them “planets” (Greek for “wanderers”). I imagine them in the warm stillness of the cradle of civilization, observing patterns in the luminescent bodies and creating personas for each and every one. I can hear the Greeks, divining the list of twelve constellations created by the Babylonians into a Zodiac (Greek for “animal circle”). I think of Galileo and his telescope and his first close up of the cosmos…And of Ptolemy, Newton and Einstein looking at the same sky asking the serious questions about space and time.
I can hear Astrologers talk of the power of the stars and their connection to destiny. I recall them speaking of Mercury retrograde, of the recent Moon in Aquarius and the Moon in my Seventh House… Of conjunctions and squares…Of Lunar eclipses…and though I don’t know much of this field, I must agree that there is something above, some power, beyond my comprehension that I reverently acknowledge.
A friend recently told me that “stargazing was a form of prayer.” And as I fix my stare upon Polaris, I would have to agree. When all is said and done, I look to the stars for the deeper meaning of my life. I imagine a force greater than anything on Earth, Ever-Present and All-Knowing, and I pray for strength, wisdom, and the knowledge that I need to move forward and become all that I can be. I think of my ancestors gazing at these same stars and yearning for the very same things that I long for--the health, safety and well-being of themselves and their kin.
I stand there in the dark silence of the night and think of all the people that at this very same point in time are gazing upon this same canvas of celestial bodies--filled with the same hope, despair, longing, dreams and questions that mankind has always held deep within the recesses of the heart and mind and I am filled with a sense of wonderment for the collective unconscious of the human psyche. My hand wraps around the amethyst quartz stone I wear on the chain around my neck and for a moment I close my eyes.
Who, beside me, is looking to these same heavens for Divine answers? Does someone in Canada ask for inspiration? Is there a mother in Haiti praying for healing? An end to her struggles? Is the farmer in Brazil praying for a bountiful harvest? Is a father in Mexico asking for an end to violence? I realize that no matter what I am feeling in the moment, I am not alone and I am comforted. I tighten my grip on the amethyst, take a deep breath and smile.
My feet are steady beneath me, rooted to a living Mother Earth and I understand finally, the power that comes from within--that inexplicable sixth sense that binds us all to each other and to Spirit or the Higher Power of God-- and I realize that I am part of the constellation of humanity bound to planet Earth, a member of a Solar System connected to a Galaxy, melded to a living Universe… ever-moving, expanding, evolving…
I am not alone indeed…
