Preparing for winter. It is mid-October and the color is spectacular. I thought it would be less colorful this year, it has been so dry, but early and mid- summer we had good rainfall. It’s the driest I have seen in the ten years I have lived here. The pond is very low: we desperately need rain.
The sun falls low earlier now. For a brief time, as the sun’s trajectory lowers, it is blocked by the trees just west, but filters through open spaces and on the eastern side of the property the beautiful color of maple, oak and hickory leaves are highlighted, like a spotlight shining on them. It only lasts a short time, but it is a spectacle.
Daily we are bombarded by world news exposing a variety of events, political posturing, fabricating exaggerated promises and agendas designed to attract voters. Globally there are incidents of heroism, medical breakthroughs, and social unrest, in a profusion of occurrences and circumstances. This potpourri of human interaction is ingrained into our very existence.
I often think of this unfolding of things, wondering how it all fits into Universal design. There is such a mix; some aspects of human interaction are inspiring, creating adhesiveness that bonds and strengthens the human experience. Love of family, a sense of spiritual connection to nature, alignment with chosen religions, the desire to reproduce and create a better world for those of future generations, idealistic empowerments encouraging spiritual growth, and meaningful direction. The dark side of humankind is more difficult to understand or discover reason. The horrific evils that haunt our species are of no value to our development toward peaceful coexistence, spiritual presence or inner enlightenment, these atrocities are beyond logic; yet, continue; expanding and often dominant.
The Universe is a fascination, a mysterious mass; however, knowledge and a growing understanding emerge as the force of time marches in rhythmical Universal cadence. The most significant reality is we would not exist without the rhythm of the Universe and its patterns of change, expansion and vastness. The evolution of the Sun is what created life on Earth, about 1 billion years ago. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, but until the Sun grew to a certain size enabling life to form, Earth was barren. As I view the magnificence of autumn, I think of this. All life on Earth has been created from the evolution of the Sun. We are absolutely connected to the Sun, the Universe.
In a general sense, our minds are incapable of fathoming the immensity of the Universe, it is beyond human comprehension, and because of this the tendency is to place it secondary in our thoughts. However, we can rise higher; approach it wholly, with imagination combined with knowledge, enhancing connection creating a feeling of Universal empowerment.
Humankind has been drawn to the stars since the earliest times. In this modern era many react to star connection in a mundane manner, disregarding its significance, casting off the depth of the Universe, choosing the mentality: “Why bother with something that weaves its fabric with threads in billions when the human tapestry is so small by comparison?” The argument is that small by comparison does not cancel out importance. We are important, as important as any particle of matter within the entirety of the Universe; thus, should react to it from that scope of thought. The ancients were very connected to Universal power.
There have been mysterious events throughout Earth’s history. Many remain locked in time, things that occurred long ago and often without written history, and as we observe physical evidence of these mysteries we fail to comprehend a precise understanding of what they represent, tending to relate from a modern perspective, requiring tangibility. It may be that ancient cultures were less distracted than we of this modern era; faith and spirit occupied a penetrating force within their day-to-day design of living. The ancients were astute in their recognition of the power of natural functions, they were in awe and wonder, embracing Earth’s ebb and flow, dancing with life, learning to blend and thrive in a world structured from a base of natural blessings, simplistic, earth-born activities, creating opportunity to visualize and extract Universal importance, establishing spiritual presence.
I was fortunate to attend a series of lectures by the futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard in Sarasota, Florida in the mid ‘90s. Her lectures highlighted humankind and its relationship to the Universe. Barbara’s thinking is that humankind is presently in its extreme infancy, extrapolating the time span of human existence to the age of the Universe, and the Earth. Science teaches that the Universe is in excess of 14 billion years old, and its life and ability to expand and grow is likely infinite. Science also reveals that humans, similar in stature to humans today, have been walking the planet for only 200,000 years. Barbara believes humankind will experience massive changes, suffer horrific events, but ultimately will expand and grow from these reversals and continue to develop as a species, attaining a zenith far more advanced than present day. If we have come this far in 200,000 years, imagine what we will be like in a billion years. As we know, change jumps to the quantum as it develops and moves forward. This is the crux of Barbara’s message, that as we gain a closer time connection to the Universe, we will become more intensely connected to its overall force. In her view, we are very primitive, compared to what we may/can/will become. Things like hate, wars and inequities will not exist, as we become more profoundly developed spiritually, gaining an ability to reach higher within ourselves, releasing a broader level of compassion and understanding, and embracing the complexities of life with greater knowledge and inner love; thus, achieving greater significance, meaning and purpose.
There is also much evidence that star connections have been exhibited on Earth in physical form, and as difficult as this is to grasp, bits of evidence are also difficult to ignore. In South America there are long strips of straight road-like lines, displaying symbolic ground images, shapes that are only recognizable from a high altitude located on mountaintops. There is a lake named in ancient times, “Rabbit Lake”, but the shape of a rabbit is only visible at 3000 feet in altitude.
The Pyramids were largely ignored for over 3000 years, until the Greeks took a slight interest in them. Modern archeologists have been astounded by certain findings regarding the Pyramids. These are very large structures, and measurements from corner to corner are within 6-inch tolerances. No modern buildings nearly the sizes of the Pyramids come close to that tolerance ability. The Egyptians of that era had no pulley or wheel systems available to maneuver such large blocks of stone, which were quarried across the Nile and moved to the construction site, and their internal main shafts, align perfectly with the star Sirius. It makes one wonder. Some historians theorize that the Pyramids were not originally constructed as tombs, but were ultimately used for tombs. The irony is from then on throughout Egyptian history, tombs were constructed in a more conventional manner in the Valley of the Kings, and no Pyramids were constructed beyond the time of the great Pyramid’s construction era. The Pyramids, when they were new, were finished smooth, shined in sunlight, and had all-important capstones, which were plundered and looted thousands of years ago. There is no way of knowing the true history or purpose of the Pyramids.
One compelling detail has emerged in modern times. An ancient tribe of people, the Dogon, migrated to W. Africa thousands of years ago. Their origin is from the vicinity of the Pyramid construction sites and they are of Egyptian decent. According to their oral tradition, the star Sirius has a companion star, which is also depicted in ancient Dogon cave drawings. This star is invisible to the naked eye, but the Dogon had knowledge of this star and also knew that it orbits Sirius every 50 years. Two French anthropologists _ Marcel Grianule and Germain Dieterlen _ recorded it from a Dogon priest in 1930. This legend may be of little interest, but it is exactly true. How did a people who lacked any form of astronomical device know so much about an invisible star? They also knew that Jupiter had 4 major moons and that Sirius’s small companion star was extremely dense, as science would later discover. One teaspoon of matter from this tiny star would weigh 5 tons on Earth. The star, which scientists eventually named Sirius B, was not officially seen or recorded until the late 19th century, when telescopes were developed enough to see this star. It was not photographed until 1970.
According to Dogon ancient oral history, a race of people from the Sirius system called the Nommas visited the Earth thousands of years ago. They also appear in Babylonian, Acadian, and Sumerian myths. The Nommas, according to the Dogon legend, lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on the Earth in an ark that made a spinning decent to the ground with great noise and wind. It was the Nommas who gave the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B, and they may have been responsible for the Pyramid construction. The Sirius system is close in proximity to Earth, eight light years, and by comparison to the depth of the Universe a 20-minute commute. The furthest known distance in our Universe is 13 billion light years, a fascinating comparison.
What can these revelations possibly mean, or how can – or does – it affect people of our era? Much can be hypothesized, and compounded into various assessments. The ancients can serve as our guides: we are their reflection, as we may be to those who replace us in say 100,000 years. Looking at the ancients more closely, the Neanderthals represent a good starting point.
Anthropologists tell us beings much like ourselves were first known of 200,000 years ago and called MHS (modern human species). Yet, earlier species appeared before MHS and among the earliest were the Neanderthal: their history goes back 500,000 years. They were a bit different, smaller, very stoutly built, had short life-spans, around 30 years however, they represented much more than that. Modern views depict the Neanderthal as dull-witted, slow thinking, lacking in creativeness, with low-level mental processes. Nothing could be further from the truth. They depicted the essence of the human spirit with great ability to transcend challenge and adversity.
The Neanderthal’s brain was larger than modern humans, but science tells us their brains functioned differently, they could calculate basic survival rudiments, create tools directly from the Earth, taught themselves how to hunt, gather food, manufacture clothing from animal skins, as they connected to the Earth more profoundly than any form of human beyond their time. They migrated from Africa, over thousands of years, to what is now Europe, and went as far north as what is now Russia. They taught themselves how to endure extreme cold and survive in high, harsh latitudes, an amazing feat. I have spent blocks of time in wilderness areas using modern high-tech equipment, and the conditions are often challenging. To imagine starting from nothing, it is astonishing to think of how they were able to learn to function and thrive. Yet, they did, exemplifying how diverse and flexible humans can be. Neanderthals disappeared about 40,000 years ago, and many anthropologists surmise that the MHS eventually moved into the regions occupied by the Neanderthal, and a form of assimilation or destruction occurred resulting in their demise. This is theory. The specifics remain a mystery.
As we contemplate the immensity of the Universe, comparing it to our individual lives, we seem miniscule. However, visions we create within our minds and spirits reflecting the events of our lives are as golden as the Universe totally. As we sluice the gravel from the creek we are given, representing our time on Earth, the nuggets we find are where we discover a love of life and a recognition that we not only have purpose, we reflect the past and project the future. We are the Neanderthal, we are the modern, new, high-tech species; we are the gardeners that grow the wheat that feeds the next generation, which moves on and repeats the ever-present life energy.
In 1970, I lived in another place, also rural. My neighbor, Mr. Davis, lived across the road. He was in his 80’s when I met him. I visited him at his house, where he had been born, and had lived with his sister his entire life. He invited me in and proudly showed me a photo album that dated back to the early years of the 20th century, with photos of him during the only time he did not live in this house, when he was a soldier in WWI. I was so enthralled. We then sat on his porch and had tea, and I mentioned to him how beautiful those big hardwoods that surrounded his house were. These were all mature trees. Mr. Davis told me he planted them all when he was a boy. I visualized a young boy planting the seedlings that were now majestic giants. This experience offered me a realization that we can and do leave a mark as we traverse life. He also told me of a tornado that came through the area in 1910, which knocked all the windows out of his house. The property where my house is located was a cabin and it was destroyed. My house was built in 1911 and Mr. Davis, in his youth, watched the carpenters work there each day.
A few of us will make it to the century mark. Most won’t, but it’s of less importance how long we live than what we do with the time given. It was late evening when I left Mr. Davis’s porch, the moon was shining through his big oak tree. As I walked across the field to my house, stars filled the sky and I found Orion; it was a sensuous moment. I then squinted my eyes and looked skyward, seeing the stars in a diffused blur, and it seemed I could hear an echo.
Raymond Greiner
