III. The Stars

Joseph Campbell said, “The two, the hero and his ultimate god, the seeker and the found—are thus understood as the outside and inside of a single self-mirrored mystery, which is identical with the mystery of the manifest world. The great deed of the supreme hero is to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it known.

What a fiery quest to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it known. A self-mirrored mystery confronts us and confounds us and informs us with its outside and its inside—a mystery identical with the mystery of the manifest world. 

Consider the stars that seem to bloom across the sky strung in configurations mapped by magi and shaman so long ago. In our darkness, they connect us with seers past and with imaginative visions of the gods outlined in constellations of light. These stars so resonant in this present moment with the intrigue of astrologers and astronomers from such a relatively recent human past—but consider their light from a time and place a billion light years ago. What past shines in their light now? Too easy to turn on the outside light or shine a flashlight to expose a path and under-look, overlook the great mystery of the Now darkness so pregnant with God’s Before. I suppose we are not wired to sustain the full head-on impact of such an arresting vision—our roots of light strewn across the sky in constellations of eons ago. And from these roots, the dust from which our bodies are formed; and from their inspiration, the very breath which quickens our imagination and brings unfathomable life to our soul.  Such beauty and life in what we can see in these dollops of shimmer dangling from the lobes of darkness and such beauty and life hidden in their profound message of light as they traverse the universe to illuminate our Holy Here now.