You
are looking at about a half million stars orbiting their
own center. This phenomena of gravitationally bound concentrations
of stars, is called a globular cluster. This one is M13
and is visible in the Hercules system. M13 is actually moving
away from our point in space toward what the astronomers
call the "Galactic Center" of the Universe.
M13 is large enough
see at certain times from Earth and yet it is 25,100 light
years away! That means it's damned big.
And it's damned old.
Spectroscopic study of globular clusters shows that they
are much lower in heavy elements than newer stars such as
our Sun. Globular clusters are believed to be formed from
an earlier generation of stars. M13 well may be 24 billion
years old!
What happens when
starlight that old touches the Earth? I know that light
is the initiating or quickening force of the life on Earth.
Mythology teaches us this in the many creation stories of
a Sky father impregnating a fertile Earth mother. What does
the intensely brilliant and ancient light of M13 activate
in us?
Astronomy is a fascinating
subject. Everything swirls around each other out there.
Everything - no matter how incomprehensibly massive- orbits
something bigger. All these heavenly bodies are spinning!
All metaphysicians
know the famous axiom - As Above, So Below. Take
a look at the micro view of our universe, like the structure
of DNA, or the tendencies of subatomic particles. Then compare
their patterns to the movements of gigantic celestial bodies
as observed through a telescope. You'll see that everything
is moving in circles. This spiraling reflects through our
universe from the smallest to the very largest things that
we can perceive.
Quantum physicist
and philosopher
David Bohm calls this the Holographic
Model of our universe where "every element contains
enfolded within itself the totality of its universe."
(Click his name for a link that is amazing brain and spirit
nourishment! Two paws up!)
The Hindus call it
Shiva Dancing.
To the Hopis it's
Spider Woman. To the Pagan Norse it's the Wyrding Way.
To me, this is the
intelligence of God/Goddess expressing itself through time
and space. This is how we are created in the image of God,
as the bible puts it. The spiral is reflected through the
cycles of our lives -as individuals, as families, as humans,
as children of the planet, as members of our solar system.
We expand and contract. We birth, grow, then die. Everything
does this, from the microbes that make us up to the ancient
giant stars.
So I was in bed with
the remote in my hand when a photo of M13 flashes by in
a news bite. I got a chill when I saw this radiant ball
of ancient stars orbiting their own center just as our planets
orbit our Sun. It appeared to me like a clan of celestial
bodies made of pure energy gathered in a tribe moving away
from our system. But their light has sparked life into the
Earth's primordial fertile elements so she could birth her
millions of life forms. I am grateful to be one of them
so I sent a prayer of thanks to M13 as it journeys through
space toward home.
-E.Sikie
