AFFECTED BY AFFECT
posting by Jana
I've recently started following Aeon magazine on Twitter, thanks to Cosmic Person Debbie posting an intriguing article from it on the Conversation Community of the Cosmic Person FB Group page.
Trolling the Tweets today, I came across Aeon's conversation page. The question and the answer on the top of the stack both caught my attention. I'm moved by the rap/poetry passion of the respondent; affected by affect.
Do we matter?
What do you think?
Nepomuk Onderdonk replies:
I think the vision of our universe that we hold makes a difference for our lives; for most of our history, we DID think of ourselves as a center of the universe, fructifier of heaven; the idea was codified into religious scriptures precisely because of the effect it had on hearts and minds, a feeling of being significant and even universally loved.
With the dawn of our telescopes, this vision was understandably dropped, but the unforeseen effect seems to be similar to a child who becomes orphaned and lost, imagining that no one matters, or if there is someone who matters it must surely be someone other than us, or that no divinity could possibly be able to keep track of or care about something so “insignificant” as a speck as “isolate” as that of the earth and the “solar system”.
I wonder to myself about this great “leap of doubt”; who are we trying to impress by pointing out that we are not the center, the sun is, and that we are aware there are so many other galaxies and so insist on our own insignificance. It seems to me at best, folly, but at worst, disingenuous, an excuse to rock and roll down the hill of hedonism to rest in the garbage heap of materialism, justified by a small screen from a telescope not to have to climb the mountain of immortality; but 30 years deep into the golden age of astrophysics and 15 years deep into the golden age of eastern mysticism translated properly into modern English, I watch the river of immortality that is the stars and the heavens above me only with increased awe, as I come to understand the depth that passes above me every day, my shamanic altar integrating and in tune with not only the sun moon and dipper, but SGR A* the black hole at the center of the milky way, and Virgo A* the quasar at the center of the local supercluster; and whatever Kepler or Galileo’s views may be relevant to, they are irrelevant to the spirituality of a human being or other living creature residing on the earth, who can sit still and look up, as a river of stars with boundless depth “pass above us” every 24 hours, the flowing energy of the warping stripes of the stars and the galaxies above a serene netherworld of heart and mind that moves like wisps of smoke to evaporate distress and difficulty below, caressing with tender care the flocks of pure life that are not aware of their silk thread discipline, their chronicle of poetry above the chaos; and so we respond, rising up to soar like a phoenix into the heights of our spirit’s mysterious perfection, to stand aloft like dragons on an island across a deep ocean, to further experience the pearls that are written out onto the sky in a composition of wholeness, the true invitation into numinous spirit’s dark mystical and silent chamber, the accumulated episodes of heaven’s temple palace precious treasure book.
in other news...This week I've been sprucing up the website a bit, freshening the home page, reorganising the Cosmic Person sections; simplifying where I can. I'm going for a cleaner look whilst trying to serve up rich and hearty content - more stew than broth but with clean flavours. Feedback and input welcome!
