Have you looked back in time? Seen the awesome origins of all of Creation? This divinity can be revealed in many ways- in the rituals that Pagans use to celebrate the Goddess, in the small and large magical events that fill our days, and in the connections that arise from the Perfect Love and Perfect Trust with which we approach each other in our Highest moments.
Now, we have been given the gift of literally seeing the past- not just the recent past, but millions of years ago, reflecting the creative energies of the Big Bang in our Universe! The James T. Webb telescope, launched at Christmas, 2021, has given humanity access to images of the Cauldron of Creation and Destruction at the Universal level! Yes, the Big Bang has gained popularity among us all, and not just the television show, which, incidentally, opens with a song by The Bare Naked Ladies that chronicles, surprisingly accurately, the actual course of the evolution of— well, everything!
Images that expand our perception
In the last installment of my musings on the intersectionality of Magic and Science (see my blog from March, 2022). I was eagerly awaiting, along with all of you, I believe, the first truly mind-blowing images from the James T. Webb infra-red telescope, whose range is vastly greater than the previous best-known telescope, the Hubble.
Many connections between the Cosmos and our experience of Magic
These images have thrilled and excited scientists all over the world, as well as the general populace. And it is satisfying to note that scientists’ reactions to these images and this information sounds a lot like… exclamations of mystery and magic! NASA scientists seem to realize the vastness of discovery possible through study of these images:
…Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it… These first images show us how much we can accomplish when we come together behind a shared goal, to solve the cosmic mysteries that connect us all. It’s a stunning glimpse of the insights yet to come.” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
There is something about the vastness and timelessness of Space and thoughts of The Universe that sets the mind to musing on large questions and even larger answers. We in the Pagan community have felt the tug of the quest to see ourselves as a part of a Higher Wholeness, a larger system that includes Magic and Mystery hand in hand with science. Dennis Overbye, in the publication Out There (Jan, 2022), describes the quest in this manner:
“There was no military or economic advantage in devoting 25 years and $10 billion of national treasure to build a telescope, of all things, devoted not to looking down at our enemies, but out across time and space, trying to decipher the nature and condition of our origins. We all share the quest even if we all don’t get the time and chance to obsess about it.”
Overbye sees this quest as superceding politics, nations and policy, as he describes our natural human tendency to look beyond:
“Building it required the best of humans: cooperation and devotion to knowledge, daring and humility, respect for nature and our own ignorance, and the grit to keep picking up the pieces from failure and start again. And again.”
As we thrill to the previously unimaginable images from the earliest moments of All That Is to incredible detail of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, it is easy to see that we, living things existing for a moment of interstellar time, are connected to the Universe, to the many waves and particles that make up all matter.
And we see Magic everywhere
Our practice shows us over and over that, As Above, So Below; As without, So Within is not just a ritual phrase, it reveals our part in the cycles of Nature and of Life. We recognize that there is a flow that we are part of, as expressed by Gypsymumma in her song, Cycles of Life
Individuals who hold magic and The Goddess in our lives are not the only ones who perceive the One-ness of All that Is: These words from Benjamin Resnick, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July, 2022 express the awe and exhilaration felt from observing the majesty of the Heavens, as revealed by Science, and particularly the James T. Webb Telescope.
“All of this means, by some alchemy of thermodynamics … or perhaps by some act of primordial grace — we are mostly composed of starlight, our mass coming from some mysterious vibration of immortal and timeless energy, echoing through the universe from the beginning of time… We are the universe coming to know itself. We are the eyes of God peering out into endless darkness, lighting fires of imagination and ingenuity that allow us to reach into our bodies to make them well, and to travel to the great orbs in the sky, and to look deep into the past, with a golden vessel like the altar of incense overlaid in gold, burning through time and thick with the fragrance of memory, hiding its illuminations somewhere beneath the smoke. And we come to understand what and where and when we are.”
We are part of the Cycle of Birth and Death
Through the study of the limitless Universe, the cycle of Creation and Destruction can be appreciated at a Cosmic level. Here are two images of a giant “star nursery” and a dying star:
The Stephans Quintet explores a supermassive black hole, enabling scientists to get a rare look, in unprecedented detail, at how interacting galaxies are triggering star formation in each other
This image shows an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, from approximately 2,000 light years away. The birth and death of planets in our Universe has continued since the original Big Bang of creation, and we are part of that process!
Looking ahead
Many of us lament the destruction of our beautiful planet Earth, and wonder if it is possible to save our Home. https://ourchants.org/sites/default/files/09%20Ancient%20Mother_0.m4a (Ancient Mother, Our Chants, Positive Songs for a Thriving Planet)
One mission of the James T. Webb telescope is to investigate the existence of Exoplanets, and determine if our future as a species might include migration to another planetary home that could sustain human life.
“Webb’s detailed observation of this hot, puffy planet outside our solar system reveals the clear signature of water, along with evidence of haze and clouds that previous studies of this planet did not detect. With Webb’s first detection of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it will now set out to study hundreds of other systems to understand what other planetary atmospheres are made of.” NASA website
We wonder if humanity can curb its ravenous appetite for More, Greater, Bigger… and live in harmony with all species and Nature, whether on our own Spaceship Earth or a New Home in the Sky, discovered in part by exploration of exoplanets through this new and amazing technology.
It is my hope that we humans will be inspired by these images to reflect on the beauty and mystery of Science, and to let ourselves become again bedazzled by how Science and Technology persuade us to look beyond the everyday. Even in the lyrics of tongue-in-cheek popular music we find an appreciation and attraction to Knowledge and Science. (Thomas Dolby)
These are wonderful James Webb Space Telescope photos, what a time to be alive!