Child of the Milky Way - Chet Raymo

I am a child of the Milky Way.  I am made of the dust of stars.
Every atom in my body was forged in a star.  When the
Universe exploded into being, already the bird longed for
the wood and the fish for the pond.  When the first galaxies
fell into luminous clumps. already matter was struggling
toward consciousness.

The star clouds of Sagittarius are a burning bush.  If there is
a voice in Sagittarius, I'd be a fool not to listen.  If "God's"
voice in the night is a scrawny cry, then I'll pick up my ears.
If night's faint lights fail to knock me off my feet, then I'll sit
back on a dark hillside and wait and watch.  A hint here and
a trait there.  Listening and watching.  Waiting, always waiting
for the tingle in the spine.

Chet Raymo
from The Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage

with thanks to Cate Kerr
Beyond the Fields We Know

Photo - Cate Kerr

~

How can you explain the mystery of the Inexplicable?
You can only surrender to it...

My "medicine" - my wild comfort -
is the wonderment and splendor
of the Infinite Cosmos...
It soothes my Soul

MM

_/\_

 

The Silence of the Universe - Chet Raymo

It is a thin membrane that separates us from chaos...
The space between the stars is silence...

How are we to understand the silence of the universe?
Beyond earth's sun of our sky is silent.
Stars blow themselves to smithereens;
we hear nothing.

The fireball of creation exploded from a pinprick of
infinite energy.  There is no sound track.
The universe is silent; a primal silence.

The silence of the stars is the silence of creation
and recreation.  It is the silence of that which
cannot be named...

Chet Raymo
The Soul of the Night

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Soul of the Night - Chet Raymo

It is a thin membrane that separates us from chaos...

The space between the stars is silence.  How are we to 
understand the silence of the Universe?  Beyond the earth's
skin of our thin sky is silent.  Stars blow themselves to
smithereens, we hear nothing...

The fireball of Creation exploded from a pinprick of infinite
energy - there is no soundtrack - the Universe is silent...

If we converted the radiant energy of stars into sound what
would we hear?  The static of electrons fidgeting between 
energy levels in the atoms of stellar atmosphere;
 statistical, indifferent noise...

In the almost perfect vacuum of interstellar space, stars
detonate, meteors blast craters on moons, and planets split
at their seams without sound.

What's up there is just one galaxy after another, magnificent|
in their silent turning.....a primeval silence...  The silence of
that which cannot be named...

Chet Raymo
From: The Soul of the Night

~

"In a dark time the eye begins to see."
Theodore Roethke

Medieval Mystics embraced the darkness...
The Night is our window into the Infinite...

Few people willingly choose to walk the dark path,
to enter the dark wood...

Chet Raymo
From: The Soul of the Night

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Lunar Eclipse May 15, 2022

(taken with my cell phone :)