In keeping with the theme of "Looking at the Stars" ....
Did you know the ancient Chinese viewed Heaven as an inverted (upside down) metal bowl covering the Earth, where tiny holes in the bowl were the places where the light from the stars shone through. Kind of interesting in a way, when you stop and think the stuff in outer space ... the Heavens ... is actually comprised of mostly metal in the form of rocks, minerals and nebulous gases capable of coalescing/condensing to form metals at extreme temperatures and pressures. We know all of this science with respect to how Earth and the planets were created in the aftermath of the Big Bang, how life on Earth progressed. We humans ourselves literally evolved from stardust ... "We come spinning out of nothing, gathering stars like dust"~Rumi. We know this now, in the aftermath of countless scientific discoveries and incredible celestial mapping and imaging capabilities in the modern era, but isn't it kind of mind-blowing that the Ancients had some notion of these things so very long ago even before they had access to the technology and information we have available today?
This notion of Heaven and Earth, with respect to metal, is also interesting from the perspective that the macrocosm of Heaven and all of the planets, solar systems ... galaxies is reflected in the microcosm we know and experience here, on Earth, on a daily basis both in the world around us and within ourselves as well, particularly at this time of year. From the iron metal spinning in our Earth's solid core, with scorching molten-metal swirling violently around the very center of her being, to the metal shaping and controlling the growth of wood by way of channeling water into streams, rivers and lakes, thereby keeping all water from sinking, slipping away down into the core of Earth where it would extinguish Earth's living fire. Earth's living fire is a reflection of the fire which sustains life in our solar system, our sun. And on a personal level each of us is now searching for warmth, in various forms --e.g., warmer food and beverages, enjoying sitting by a hearth-place fire-- in order to keep our inner fires stoked and burning. We see nature around us dropping her leaves and non-harvested fruit onto the crimson bed below. The leaves and decaying fruit which will decompose and rejoin earth once again in order to replenish the earth in an ongoing seasonal cycle of life. The stark bare bones of the trees now bare all to us as nature draws inward in preparation for the icy blanket of winter that is about to descend. Maybe you notice the world around you seems a bit quieter these days? Many of us are, ourselves, beginning to draw inward in reflection as the world around us begins to still. And when you stop and think, you realize that it's all connected somehow? So in case you were in need of a timely reminder, today is as a good a day as any to stop and look UP, if not up just settle for looking around in the absence of judgment. Observation is not judgment. I wonder: What do you see?
[Keeping those whose lives have been torn apart by terrible wild fires in California in my thoughts and ongoing prayers. Hopefully, these fires will be brought under control soon so that a sense of safety and security can return to those living in a constant of fear. Only then can the process of healing and rebuilding begin. Fire shapes metal? Perhaps we, like metal, are stronger as a result of our forging in Fire? In any event, more needs to be done by way of preventing these horrific and devastating wild fires from occurring in the first place. We can't always control nature, especially where weather is concerned, but surely we can do more to reduce the risk of wildfires in around population centers. If we fail to ardently undertake meaningful prevention measures, I would argue that in these places a match becomes far more dangerous than any firearm. Well, it is late ... really late. I will have to read this again in the light of day, after some sleep.]
11/20/2018 Have slept some now. It occurred to me upon waking that there seems to be a glaring inconsistency, or perhaps it is just thoughtlessness --mindless bureaucracy-- between the way we blindly accept the agenda of 'Climate Change', the underlying premise being that man can in some meaningful way 'control' or impact Earth's dynamic climate environment, and yet we completely dismiss the real-world, short-term impacts of man's playing with nature's intended waterways by way of damming up rivers and diverting vast amounts of nature's intended water resources to places that were never meant to support large populations in the first place --take the city of Las Vegas for example. Surely playing with the Colorado river and other similar waterways in the state of California has had long term consequences with respect to drought and an increased risk of forest fires, but no one seems willing to acknowledge this truth or even to begin a purposeful conversation about these things? About things we actually
can control.
Side Note: Just in case you were wondering, the Heavens are Yang in nature (upward moving, expanding, bright, masculine) and Earth is Yin in nature (downward moving, condensing, inward moving directed motion (cold, but nurturing), feminine) ... Bearing in mind that a thing is only Yin or Yang with respect to another thing, never an absolute, for the nature of mater is fluid and in a constant state of transformation/flux. Therefore, as sad and destructive as the innate nature of an uncontrolled forest fire seems, if we are willing to look beyond the destruction --although the loss of life is hard to overcome-- we can actually see transformation and the hope for new growth arising from the ashes of this seemingly violent act of destruction.
Perhaps we need practice shifting from the knee-jerk response of judgment into observation in order to return to sacredness in our everyday lives???
