isiZulu on our Galactic Stoep

isiZulu Greeting on Voyager 1: "Siyanibingelela maqhawe, sinifisela inkonzo ende...."  The message translated to English is "We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity."

-http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/nguni.html

The world in which we live is more miraculous than we know. There are things which go on in our world about which we know nothing.

-Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa

The two Voyager spacecraft were launched in August and September of 1977 and spent more than 11 years exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before officially heading off toward interstellar space in 1989. As of 2011 they are still operating and now leaving our Solar System. On board is a Golden Disk of data, recordings, and images. Greetings in several languages assumes there is intelligent life out there. Some examples:

Amoy (Min dialect)
"Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time."
Arabic
"Greetings to our friends in the stars. We wish that we will meet you someday."
English
"Hello from the children of planet Earth."
Gujarati
"Greetings from a human being of the Earth. Please contact."
Hebrew
Peace
Nguni (Zulu)
"We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity."

For more see: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/greetings.html

The greetings may have been in jest but express a deep unconscious longing to connect with life out in so-called "Outer Space". They give voice to the hope that we are not alone in the incomprehensible vastness of  the Universe. These greetings sound almost like a heartfelt response to the message of the Hosts of Heaven themselves: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward everyone!" (Luke 2:14) The Zulu greeting is especially significant.

"We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity."

I am fortunate to have been born and now retired in the Kingdom of the Zulu, KwaZulu-Natal living among a proud and beautiful people, the Zulu. In the Nguni languages, iZulu means "heaven, or sky". The Zulu are  Sky People.

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa is one of the more colourful and controversial of the Zulu. He is a sangoma   or Zulu shaman. He has sought to preserve Zulu tradition and folklore in several books, notably Indaba, My Children and Song of the Stars, the Lore of a Zulu Shaman. See http://credomutwa.com/about/

In Song of the Stars, Credo Mutwa writes about extraterrestrial life. He says:

Life can take many forms. Look at the forms that life can take on this planet alone. Here in this bush, there are insects you could easily mistake for rocks or for pieces of bark  -- until one of them stings you, that is. Life does not have to consist of bipeds who move and breathe and smoke cigars as we do. I have said it before and I say it again -- the universe is a gigantic chamber of possibility where everything has the chance and the right to happen; and so we must not have cut-and-dry theories regarding just how life should look. Life could surprise us! (p.143)

He then describes the "many kinds of extraterrestrial creatures" he is aware of, the Muhondoruka, the Mutende-ya-ngenge, the  Mvonjina, and others.

In an astonishing interview with Andreas Müller (For Full Text see  http://www.kornkreise-forschung.de/textCredoMutwa.htm), Mutwa relates stories about Star Peoples and Crop Circles in Africa.

Art: Credo Mutwa

Sometimes large fields of corn and millet were planted. These were sacred to the goddess and were offered to the vast armies of birds to eat. No human being could enter the sacred cornfield. 

The sacred fields were ploughed far from the ordinary millet, maize and corn, as they were left unfenced. Over centuries, people had discovered that the star gods sometimes communicated with human beings through these sacred fields. Time and again, strange circular depressions were seen in the centre of these fields. These depressions were called Izishoze Zamatongo, the great circles of the gods. 

These circles were an amazing sight to see. The gods never cut the stalks of corn or millet when they form these depressions. It appears as though a great circular, disk-shaped force has descended on the field. It pressed the corn firmly into the ground, without breaking the stalks or damaging the plants. Then the force appears to spin, resulting in the strange spiral appearance of the fallen stalks. Words cannot describe such a phenomenon, which I have seen more than thirty times in the course of my life as a traditional healer. Whenever a circle appeared in the fields, the people rushed to erect a fence of poles around the circle. They would dance and perform other sacred rituals honouring the star gods and the Earth Mother.

-Credo Mutwa, Isilwane The Animal - Tales and Fables of Africa, Foreword

Ngiyabonga kakhulu Vusamazulu! You made us not to forget where we come from, to understand our myths, stories, and customs and to learn more about them.

Voyager Links:
Other Languages: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/languages.html
More about Voyager: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/index.html
Voyager Timeline: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/timeline.html
Check where the Voyagers are now: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html

For further reading: 
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell Series)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inner-Reaches-Outer-Space-Collected/dp/1577312090/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323156095&sr=1-1

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Pulse Beat of a Planet!

Every second 200 lightening strikes occur somewhere on earth in order to keep reestablishing electrical balance between the earth and the ionosphere. These lightening strikes energize the 'flute' and vibrate the resonating cavity. The 'flute' vibrates waves that bounce off the ionosphere and then off the earth, back and forth. The resulting 'song' incorporates information from the ionosphere which reflects the universe and information about everything that occurs on earth. Usually this 'music' is described in terms of its beat or frequency. The beat frequency is called the Schumann Resonance... It is likely that the nervous system of the human being evolved in relationship to the Schumann Resonance, which, among other things, functions as a timing mechanism for optimal biological functioning... This wave guide is not empty, but rather is embedded with information from the entire universe. The rhythm like the beats of a drum holds within it a symphony that each of us receives and interprets in our own way. Imagine the changing light of a star or the light of the changing moonlight impacting the ionosphere in a way that can be decoded or heard by the human brain. Likewise, on the side of the earth's crust, the other side of the musical instrument, all activity on earth modulates its bit of information, whether an action or a thought, into this vibrating field. To be tuned to the earth's electromagnetic field is to be literally tuned to the universe.

-http://www.envirohealthtech.com/ecfaq.htm

Science Fiction? At Technical College the only two subjects I passed with distinction were: Space Physics and Microwave Techniques. Microwave Techniques fascinated me as much as did Space Physics. I probably felt there was a connection between the two. And indeed there is!

One section of the Microwaves syllabus was "waveguides" and "standing waves".

A waveguide "is a hollow conductive metal pipe used to carry high frequency radio waves, particularly microwaves". At Ultra High Frequencies one is no longer working with copper wire conductors to convey electrical impulses but literally a plumbing system! In our case we were working with electro-magnetic microwaves. In the case of sound waves, caves and stethoscopes are "waveguides" too. Similarly, we “conduct” light waves by means of optical fibres.

A standing wave occurs when the wave within the conductor appears to be stationary as in the ripples of a pond that appear not to be moving.   This happens when the wave guide is in resonance or tuned to a particular “beat” frequency. One then has what is called a resonating cavity. Drums and acoustic guitars are resonating cavities or chambers. Standing waves also occur in river rapids and ocean swells.

Wikipedia: A standing wave in a rectangular cavity resonator

The Earth-Ionosphere Complex is also a waveguide with its own resonating frequency but operating not at Ultra High frequencies (UHF) but at Very Low Frequencies (VLF). A recent report of io9 explained:

The Earth pulses with a special kind of resonant wave. The Schumann Resonance has long been dubbed 'the Earth's heartbeat,' and it has only been spotted from below. Recently, though, satellites have found signs of this electromagnetic heartbeat leaking up into space. 

The heartbeat of the earth goes at about eight cycles per second. Like many other heartbeats, it's regulated by electricity. When lightning strikes the earth, it creates electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere. These waves are caught between the ground and the upper atmosphere, sixty miles up. Most of these waves are dampened and shake themselves to nothing. 

Others, with just the right wavelength and frequency, just keep going. The wavelength is the circumference of the earth (or twice the circumference, or three times, or four, and so on). This means that the troughs of these waves will always line up, as will the crests. When crests combine, they get bigger. And with lightning hitting the earth over four million times a day, these waves keep getting the boosts they need. The waves don't sweep across the surface of the earth. Instead they're like standing waves, that just pulse at their troughs and crests - a resonant heartbeat. Scientists call this heartbeat The Schumann Resonance.

 (See also the Wikipedia article at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schumann_resonances)

What is intriguing about the phenomenon is that it could explain many so-called "paranormal" occurrences. Schumann resonance excitations have been linked to upper atmospheric "transient luminous events" (TLE) curiously called "sprites", "elves", "gnomes", "jets", and so on. Intense Solar activity could also modulate TLEs. Some high altitude "unidentified flying object" sightings might simply be TLEs.   However I would hesitate to discount all UFOs as TLEs! That would spoil many a ghost story. Some TLEs are real epiphanies such as the Shekhinah, the Annunciation at Bethlehem, Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, or even the Day of Pentecost!

More startling than an extraterrestrial invasion, however, is our tampering and exploitation of this extremely delicate membrane and shield around our Planet. The reported "leakage" has probably been occurring all along and only now being detected. But what if it is a symptom of something suddenly seriously out of kilter? In a paper by Richard Alan Miller and Iona Miller, The Schumann's Resonances and Human Psychobiology,  the authors  raise concerns about projects such as the very controversial HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) Project. It is not a little worrisome that some of these projects are military. They write...

We live in a matrix of oscillating fields; the tiniest fluctuations in one interlocked field carry over perturbation into others. Many times per second, pulses travel completely around the world between our planet's surface and the ionosphere sending coordinating signals to all organisms. 

These signals couple us to the global electrostatic field. Named for their discoverer, these Schumann Resonances (SR) provide the orchestrating pulse for life on our planet.  

We all march to the cadence of this cosmic drummer - our planetary heartbeat, which sets the tempo for health and well-being. Damaging this planetary pacemaker could spell doom for life as we know it. In the name of progress and defense, this pacemaker is now threatened, while vast amounts of public money are spent on this exploitation.

(Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haarp)

Solar Activity also influences the resonating frequency of this Global Ventricle. Some believe there is a correlation between Cosmic and Solar Activity, the Schumann Resonance Frequency, and psychological behaviour, health, and altered states of consciousness. (http://www.neilcherry.com/documents/90_n4_Schumann_Resonance_and_suicide.pdf, http://www.neilcherry.com/documents/90_n2_EMR_Schumann_Resonance_paper2.pdf)  It is supposed that Earthlings are electromagnetically coupled to the rhythms of the Spheres. Gregg Braden speculates, suggesting that the Schumann Resonance is increasing, affecting cellular resonance. We perceive this as time speeding up, he says. (For more about Tesla, Braden, and others see http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_tesla2.htm) Schumann's Resonance has in recent years taken on spiritual, mystical, esoteric, and theological connotations indicative of the growing connectedness between Science and Spirituality.

Much of this is highly speculative but as I learnt way back in the late 1960s at a more practical, hands on level, if you damage, dent, puncture, modify, or perforate your waveguides there could be unexpected consequences. The characteristics of the system, in this case, our planetary eco-system including the manner in which we interact with our environment and others could be affected! We know, for instance, what happened when the Ozone Layer was ruptured. Whether Conspiracy Theorists have valid grounds for concern or not, it would still be wise not to rush in where angels fear to tread. We need to think twice about harmful atmospheric fracking. An ionospheric hernia might not be all that pleasant!

In conclusion, may I direct readers to an interesting forum thread where Michael Persinger (PhD Behavioral Neuroscience) was quoted:

All behavours, including consciousness, are generated by and correlated with brain activity. The activity can be conceived as complex matrices of electromagnetic patterns and their associated chemical changes. Weak intensity complex magnetic fields generated by the earth and by human technology affect consciousness and experience. The critical factor is not the intensity of the fields but their patterns and the information contained within the patterns. Those patterns that are most similar to the natural temporal configurations of brain activity are most effective. 

The brain activity associated with consciousness responds to the subtle changes in geomagnetic activity. These changes include alterations in the occurrence of dreams, enhanced electrical sensitivity of groups of brain cells (and the more extreme form, electrical seizures), and the ability to focus during the day. 

Because all human beings are immersed within the ---> geomagnetic field we are intrinsically connected to it and to the secondary fields that arise from this connection. Very small changes in the activity of the earth's magnetic field due to alterations in solar activity can affect all human beings. These direct effects are primarily upon the subtle but complex electromagnetic fields that interact with everyone's consciousness due to the marked similarity of the characteristics of our brains and our genetic history.  

This creates the potential for the function of every person's brain activity to be changed---> without their awareness. 

And that is scary!

More Links:
Magnetic Activity And Schumann Resonance: http://quake.geo.berkeley.edu/ncedc/em.intro.html
For the "Ham" enthusiast - how to construct your own Schumann Resonance detector: http://www.vlf.it/re_2/schumannsearch.html



©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

The Soul of Safrica

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

-Krishnamurti

Let there be a place for everyone under the sun - and everyone to take their lawful place - even the bushman to tame nature and to dance for the rain.

-Henry Jansen alias Xam

The National Coat of Arms of South Africa captures the very essence of our land and people. As such it is our National Icon!

Every South African should reflect long and and deep on its profound symbolism. It is well worth reading about it at the "National Coat of Arms" site.   I find it profoundly spiritual. For personal reasons the Khoisan element is especially interesting which is more fully explained on the Linton Panel page   The human figures in the Coat of Arms derive from the Linton Stone, now preserved in the SA National Museum in Cape Town:

Credit: Dr Ben Smith, Wits Rock Art Institute.

The panel shows people capturing a power the /Xam called !Gi. The San sought and used this power for the benefit of their community. It allowed for the healing of the sick and for the healing of divisions within society. San rock art was believed to be rich in this special power.

Credit: Dr Ben Smith, Wits Rock Art Institute.

This delicately painted figure has power that we can all share in. It was intended to have special power as it was painted straddling a line of !Gi. Within the new Coat of Arms the figure will continue, as its painter intended, to channel its power for the benefit of all.


This caught my attention. What is this !Gi?

!Gi refers to what has been variously described as "supernatural potency", "magical power",  "spiritual energy", or simply "spirit" or "soul" and even “sorcery" depending on the context. Some Christians may have difficulty with some of these concepts but without going into the anthropological explanations or theological implications, I think of !Gi as the "wind" that Jesus speaks of, "the wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth" (John 3.8). Or we can think of it as the Shekhinah of God permeating all of Creation. Hinduism speaks of the Atman -  the Universal Life Principle, and Taoism of Qi.

"The people who possess !gi  are called !gi ten, meaning 'those who are full of supernatural power", writes Cherrie Rhodes. However we may wish to think of !Gi, the intention of our National Coat of Arms is that Holy Spirit Power is for "the benefit of the community, the healing of the broken and divided". This is the essence of ubuntu ...

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
-Desmond Tutu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy )


To read:
Lewis-Williams, D.J. & Challis, S, Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art
Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Pearce, D.G., 2004. San Spirituality: Roots, Expressions and Social Consequences. Double Storey, Cape Town.
Solomon, A, The myth of ritual origins? Ethnography, mythology and interpretation of San rock art. South African Archaeological Bulletin, http://www.antiquityofman.com/Solomon_myth_ritual.html
Rhodes, C, Shamanism Across Cultures: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the !Kung and Ainu,


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Panspermia: The Mantis or the Stork?

Genomic analysis, based on increases in genome size and the evolutionary record, indicate that genes began to evolve and to undergo duplicative events billions of years before the formation of this planet, at least 10 billion years ago. This does not mean that life began 10 billion years ago, but rather that the first gene was fashioned approximately 6 billion years before the creation of Earth. The genetic evidence supports extra-terrestrial abiognesis... (p.12) ...the first gene was fashioned billions of years before the creation of Earth (p.19).

-Rhawn Joseph and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, 

"Genetics Indicates Extra-terrestrial Origins for Life", Journal of Cosmology, 2011, Volume 16, 

http://journalofcosmology.com/JoC16pdfs/27_JosephWickGeneticOriginsLife.pdf

Ironically, it was genealogy that led me to reflect on exobiology - the evolution of extraterrestrial life and its possible migration to Earth. And it wasn't simply the bizarre idea that the Hottentotsgot (the praying mantis) of my Khoi forbears, thought by some to have been a "Sky God", had genetically engineered us! Rather, it was a more sober, scientific pursuit that led me in this direction.

Family tradition maintained that the Garvies of Perthshire, Scotland were from somewhere else. A family oral tradition insisted that the Garvies were descended from John Garbh, seventh MacLean of Coll, through one of his sons. This son was wounded at the Battle of Inverkeithing in 1651, and did not return to Coll. His three sons (or grandsons) John, James and Patrick rented Upper Balgarvie, Lower Balgarvie, and Mill of Balgarvie in the parish of Scone. From them stemmed the Garvies of Perthshire where my great grandfather Laurance was born two centuries later.

To date I haven't found source documentation to substantiate this tradition. It is simply one of our many Garvie ancestral legends and now part of the corpus of Garvie mythology. In an attempt to verify this I then resorted to y-DNA analysis. I was hoping to find a genetic connection between the Garvies of Perthshire and the Macleans of Coll. Unfortunately no such proof has been found. We have far too few Garvie and Maclean DNA samples to confirm a genetic connection. All we can say at this stage is that both the Garvies and the Macleans share strong Celtic DNA material in common. We must still find the documentary and genetic "missing links" to solve this puzzle. But it was this conundrum that got me thinking about the bigger picture, the origin of life on planet Earth.

In recent years, astrophysicists have discovered a vast number of "extrasolar planets", "islands" in far flung Galactic Hebrides, that could and probably harbours life far beyond our wildest imaginings...

Extrasolar Planets

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System we take for granted and imagine is extraordinarily unique.. As of November 23, 2011, some 704 extrasolar planets (in 578 planetary systems and 83 multiple-planet systems) have been identified.
A substantial fraction of stars have planetary systems - data from the HARPS mission indicates that this includes more than half of all Sun-like stars. Data from the Kepler mission has been used to estimate that there are at least 50 billion planets in our own galaxy.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet

Unashamedly, Earthlings are searching for habitable planets that they could one day colonize! This archaic "colonial mentality", now projected on a cosmic scale, is to my mind, just a little too presumptuous. What if it happened the other way round, that instead, Earth had been colonized? There is a surprising proponent for this view. Dr Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA-molecule and Nobel Prize Winner has suggested just this!

Panspermia 

Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 - 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson. He, Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

During the 1960s, Crick became concerned with the origins of the genetic code. In 1966, Crick took the place of Leslie Orgel at a meeting where Orgel was to talk about the origin of life. ..... Many molecular biologists were puzzled by the problem of the origin of a protein replicating system that is as complex as that which exists in organisms currently inhabiting Earth. In the early 1970s, Crick and Orgel further speculated about the possibility that the production of living systems from molecules may have been a very rare event in the universe, but once it had developed it could be spread by intelligent life forms using space travel technology, a process they called “Directed Panspermia”.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick#Directed_panspermia

Dr. Francis Crick suggests in his book Life Itself: Its Origins and Nature (1981) that primordial life was shipped to Earth in "spaceships" of some kind. Crick makes this startling proposition: "Life did not evolve first on Earth; a highly advanced civilization became threatened so they devised a way to pass on their existence. They genetically-modified their DNA and sent it out from their planet on bacteria or meteorites with the hope that it would collide with another planet. It did, and that's why we're here."

Terming his model "Directed Panspermia", Crick suggested that a "spaceship" carrying "large samples of... microorganisms" was sent to the Earth billions of years ago by an extraterrestrial civilisation - either as an experiment, preparation for colonisation or a genetic Noah’s Ark of some sort. (Crick, F. H. C., and Orgel, L. E. "Directed Panspermia", Icarus, 19, 341 (1973), quoted in David Darling’s Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight)

Dr Crick is not alone in these views. Sir Fred Hoyle in his Life from Space, took a similar view. He rejected chemical evolution in favour of propagation from space or panspermia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle#Rejection_of_chemical_evolution

It is speculated that our DNA was encoded with messages from that other civilization. They programmed the molecules so that when we reached a certain level of intelligence, we would be able to access their information, and they could therefore "teach" us about ourselves, and how to progress. (For more about so-called "Junk DNA" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_DNA)  The Universe could be teeming with life.

Sumerian and other mythologies, even passages in the Bible, tantalise us with stories of our celestial origins. Crick and others have suggested there might be DNA evidence that could substantiate this. Just as Garvies suspect that their origins go back to the distant Isle of Coll so Earthlings infer they've come from some far away planetary island in the Cosmos! But our limited historic and genetic records continue to tease us.- had we been pollinated from afar?

Eccentric? Science Fiction? Till more evidence comes in, it may seem so. But we live with the "missing links" and the questions! To think that we already have all the answers is presumptuous to say the least. So the Khoikhoi idea of a Celestial Mantid, a Khoi Prometheus, that once gave their ancestors the gift of fire and their distinctive clicking language, might not be as far fetched as sceptics might think! Sober biologists and cosmologists are entertaining similar ideas.  And if not a Praying Mantis, then perhaps a Galactic Stork really did bring us, just as our parents taught us!

For further study:

Exopolitics, http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_autor_salla.htm

Also see Wikipedia articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Star Lore of the Khoi and San

"My belief is in the blood and flesh as being wiser than the intellect. The body-conscious is where life bubbles up in us. It is how we know we are alive, alive to the depths of our souls, and in touch somewhere with the vivid reaches of the cosmos." 

-D.H. Lawrence

The Khoisan were the nomadic, indigenous peoples the Portuguese navigators and Dutch settlers encountered in the Cape Peninsula in the 15th and 16th Centuries. The European settlers called them Hottentots but are today collectively known as the Khoisan. They comprised three distinct groups:

• the Strandlopers (literally "beach walkers"). These were beachcombers living off shellfish and generally dwelt in the caves along the coast. They were the "Sea People".
• the Khoikhoi (literally "men of men") were pastoralists. They were the "Herd People".
• the San who were hunter-gatherers. They were the "Bush People". The Khoikhoi called them the Sankhoi.

Eva Krotoa was Khoikhoi whose grandfather was a Strandloper.

Unfortunately many of the traditional beliefs and legends of the southern Cape Khoi were lost in time. However the stories and rock painting records of the Khoisan from other parts of southern Africa have thankfully been preserved.

Sky Legends and Star Lore of the Khoi and the San

* A girl child of the old people had magical powers so strong that when she looked at a group of fierce lions, they were immediately turned to stars.  The largest are now in Orion's belt. 

* A strong-willed girl became so angry when her mother would not give her any of a delicious roasted root that she grabbed the roasting roots from the fire and threw the roots and ashes into the sky, where the red and white roots now glow as red and white stars, and the ashes are the Milky Way. 

* When the Pleiades appear in the east, little ones are lifted by their mothers and presented to the stars. The Pleiades are considered friendly and the children are taught to stretch their hands toward them.

* According to the Namaquas, the Pleiades were the daughters of the sky god.  When their husband (Aldebaran) shot his arrow (Orion's sword) at three zebras (Orion's belt), it fell short.  He dared not return home because he had killed no game, and he dared not retrieve his arrow because of the fierce lion (Betelgeuse) which sat watching the zebras.  There he sits still, shivering in the cold night  and suffering thirst and hunger. 

-Compilation by Dave Laney, SAAO
http://www.astronomy2009.org.za/fileadmin/files/education/astrocd/resources/South%20Africa/HartRAO/Ch08_Star_Patterns_06a.pdf

The Khoi appear to have revered their ancestors and elevated them as sky gods. These were the "Sky People". Generally the belief was that Earth People become Sky People. Sometimes it may have been thought that the Sky People returned to the Earth when meteors or comets were observed. Some early European writers believed the Khoi were moon worshippers. The Khoikhoi Supreme Being was Tsui Goab ("Wounded Knee").  He was a chief by the name of Tikqua who had progressed and after many transmigrations on his eventual ascension became the Sky God. (http://www.vanhunks.com/cape1/vanhunks1.html)

Of peculiar interest is the Khoi reverence for the Praying Mantis. "Khoi and San mythology refers to the praying mantis as a god. The word for the mantis in Afrikaans is hottentotsgot (literally, the god of the Khoi)." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis) The San say that the praying mantis gave them words and fire.

The Hottentots-god
by Henry Jansen alias Xam 

One day all the animals got together and decided to destroy the one; namely the Hottentots-god. He was too fine and small, and usually sat in every tree and bush for days on end and never did anything. Elephants flattened every tree to get rid of the Hottentots-god. Lion roared that the earth shook and even the hyena lifted its last leg. Then a big drought arrived and everyone started to suffer, as there was no rain to feed the plants or the animals. Then they realized that the Hottentots-god always prayed for rain, but by then it was too late... 

[Let there be a place for everyone under the sun - and everyone to take their lawful place - even the bushman to tame nature and to dance for the rain.]

Hjalmar Thesen's haunting story, The Echoing Cliffs, ends with Liklik looking into the eyes of Kwiknee. There has been a massacre and Liklik says to her, "Look long, my little one, for we shall not see it again... Tonight there will be many new stars in the sky, our friends will be watching over us."

Kwiknee shivers and moves closer to Liklik and replies, "When the moons of one hand have shone over the ocean, your child will be born. This I tell you now, while my heart grieves for the people we shall not see again... My eyes are your eyes, my ears are your ears. My eyes look with yours towards the place where the sun sets and a home that will be the home of your children."

Indeed! Our souls are “in touch somewhere with the vivid reaches of the cosmos”! I owe something of this to my own ancestors.

Note:
The origin of the belief in the Sacred Mantis is obscure and the connection with the Alien Mantids of UFO lore is at best perhaps curious but largely conjecture. Or is it? See the somewhat bizarre reports of "Praying Mantis like Aliens" at http://www.ufobc.ca/Beyond/prayingmantis/index.htm and http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread299896/pg1 . Outlandish ? See my next blog!

Further reading:
Penny Miller, Myths And Legends of Southern Africa.
Hjalmar Thesen, The Echoing Cliffs, 1963, Hutchinson & Co.

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

11th Great-Grandson of a Khoi-Strandloper

Today her documented legacy lives on, as paradoxically as her life, in at least three million previously classified ‘white’ descendants of her daughter, Pieternella, who married Dutch farmer Daniel Zaaiman. According to lineages provided by genealogist Keith Meintjes, these descendants include former premiers Paul Kruger, Jan Smuts and FW de Klerk.

-Sharon Marshall

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

What's up with the Sun?

A few days ago, a kind friend "facebooked" me...

Hi Colin. Others have been telling me of unusual solar activities happening soon what do you know about them?  Your last blog was in May?

I commented there but perhaps I need to add a few more reflections here.

Indeed many have noticed an apparent increase in some very "unusual solar activity". Now this might simply be because we are observing the sun more intensely than ever before with much more sophisticated technologies than we had hitherto. Secondly one notes that perhaps what one is observing is not all that unusual. Solar activities have caught the attention of astronomers now for several centuries but it is the intensity and frequency of these that might be curious and catch our attention now.

"The Sun is churning with activity, today," reported the CQ Amateur Radio Magazine Facebook page a day or two ago. Radio Amateurs take a special interest in solar activity because we are interested in its effects on radio propagation and communication at short wave frequencies. "Churning" is perhaps putting it mildly. The sun right now is a seething cauldron. Lately the sun has been in a state of incredible agitation and disturbance.

Photo: Sunspotwatch

Following an unexpected period of dormancy the Sun has suddenly awakened from its deep slumbers and been unusually active of late. You can follow it at http://sunspotwatch.com/ and  http://spaceweather.com/   Also see http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/category/space-weather-2/. There has been lots of spectacular solar flare activity and many incredible photos and videos.

Please note that the direct observation of the Sun's surface with or without an optical device is extremely dangerous, and "requires both knowledge and close attention to safety precautions." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot

I am asked, "What do I know about them?" Quite frankly, nothing! I don't think anybody really does. We know so little.  Even those said to be in the know are merely scratching at the surface. Many are mystified. Indeed the entire Universe is one amazing, unbelievable mystery! I have just been reading a fascinating article titled "31% of Universe Is 'Pure Mystery' and the Brightest Places in the Universe". Read it in order to learn a little bit more.

On a more esoteric note, some have attributed this sudden increase in Sun Spot turbulence; Earthquakes; Volcanoes; Hurricanes; Political and Economic Upheaval; etc to the now disintegrating Comet Elenin alluded to in my previous blog. For more about this check the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_collision. Much of that is purely channeled speculation and the re-presentation of ancient Sumerian mythology and remains unsubstantiated by current scientific observation. Nevertheless the human spirit is insatiably intuitive and curious and should not, in my view, simply be discounted or disregarded. Intuition, dreams, and wonder are often the gateways to hitherto never before realised scientific discoveries.

Mysterious, awesome, astonishing, beautiful, alarming as these very unusual Solar Events may appear I am reminded of something Emerson once said, "Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are." Indeed! We too easily discount ourselves as mere grovelling earthlings when really, we are celestial beings beyond comprehension.

One also looks with awe at the massive outbursts and disturbances out there in the cosmos and one has the distinct feeling that one is witnessing events within one's own seething fractured self. As Jan Smuts once said, "There is a crack that runs through the universe and that crack runs through me." The Universe is one enormous mirror in which we see ourselves and our own individual and planetary conditions reflected.

[Apologies for not blogging since May! May I blame it on Solar Flare Activity? As has been reported there have been power grid outages in some places. Communication satellites have had to be disabled. GPS has been behaving erratically misguiding many of us. All attributed to these recent Solar Storms we are now observing. I must have experienced something of a Solar triggered Writer's Block!]

For further reading:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

The Ancient Study of Sunspot (Sic) in China and Its Modern Application (Zhongguo Gudai Taiyang Dianzi Yenjiu Yu Xiandai Yingyong)

Something's Coming...and it's not just Comet Elenin!

"We are born at a given moment in a given place and like vintage years of wine we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything else." -Carl Jung

This June is a very significant month for me. On the 15th I will turn 65, technically the date I should have retired. But that was prematurely snatched from me and will be a subject for another time. More important now is what makes June 2011 so significant to me. Not anything I imagine that would matter very much to others except perhaps a little tinge of curiosity. For me however, something more astonishing than Harold Camping's Rapture and much more exciting than the expected imminent Ascension of New Agers.

Between 1st June and 1st July 2011 there are three eclipses, the so-called "Mid-year Eclipse Triad" of 2011: 1 June, 15 June and 1 July. Our Winter Solstice falls on 21 June. Now Mid-Year Eclipses are something really cool for Geminis! They are Gemini Eclipses.  What makes this even more  interesting for me is that my birth coincided with an eclipse too, the 14th June eclipse of 1946.

Observing the 2002 Solar Eclipse (Photo: C Young)

I've dubbed these mysterious coincidences between the macro- and microcosms, "AstroSynchronicities". Carl Jung said, "these [cosmic] influences are nothing but unconscious instrospective perceptions of the collective unconscious." Or to rephrase that, these are reflections of a far bigger picture of which we are not always consciously aware. In that sense the Mid-year Eclipse Triad of 2011 becomes for me "sacramental": an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible reality. It evokes the sense of wonder and mystery that I tried to describe in a previous blog.

Lyrics from "West Side Story" beautifully expresses this mystical feeling of anticipation, expectation, and cosmic connectedness or harmony I feel:

Could be! 

Who knows? 

There's something due any day; 

I will know right away, 

Soon as it shows. 

It may come cannonballing down through the sky, 

Gleam in its eye, 

Bright as a rose! 

Who knows? 

It's only just out of reach, 

Down the block, on a beach, 

Under a tree. 

I got a feeling there's a miracle due, 

Gonna come true, 

Coming to me! 

Could it be? Yes, it could. 

Something's coming, something good, 

If I can wait! 

Something's coming, I don't know what it is, 

But it is 

Gonna be great! 

With a click, with a shock, 

Phone'll jingle, door'll knock, 

Open the latch! 

Something's coming, don't know when, but it's soon; 

Catch the moon, 

One-handed catch! 

Around the corner, 

Or whistling down the river, 

Come on, deliver 

To me! 

Will it be? Yes, it will. 

Maybe just by holding still, 

It'll be there! 

Come on, something, come on in, don't be shy, 

Meet a guy, 

Pull up a chair! 

The air is humming, 

And something great is coming! 

Who knows? 

It's only just out of reach, 

Down the block, on a beach, 

Maybe tonight . . .

Comet Elenin? I almost forgot. Just wait and see! Meanwhile, google it or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2010_X1

oOo

For further reading:

Carl Jung and Astrology
http://www.chartplanet.com/html/carl_jung.html

Synchronicity
http://www.chartplanet.com/html/synchronicity.html

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za



The Footprints of God: The Relationship of Astrology, C.G. Jung, the Gospels

Deep-Space Ambiguity

As the hart panteth for the water brooks, so panteth my soul for Thee, O God. 

(Psa 42:1)

Deep Space. Deep Space Tracking Station. Deep Space Network. Deep Space Communications Complex. I wondered, "Why not Far Space?" And Far Space Tracking Stations and Networks? Why Deep? "Deep" seemed subliminally, spiritually, and deliberately ambiguous to me.

Webster's Dictionary [1880] defines:

Ambiguous [Lat. ambiguus, from ambigere, to wander about with irresolute mind] Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to signification; equivocal; as, an ambiguous  course; an ambiguous  expression.
What have been thy answers what but dark,Ambiguous, and with double sense-deluding.   Milton

"Nebulous".....now there's another spaced-out synonym.

"Deep Space" terms seem to suggest not only something "far out" but also "deep within". For me "deep space" has a psychological or spiritual connotation. At Hartebeesthoek, one of the original three Deep Space Instrumentation Facilities of the early 1960s, we were not only probing deep space, we were also, unconsciously perhaps, engaged on a journey inward.

Heart Nebula

Even the etymology of "Hartebeesthoek" implied something more. The word derives from Dutch, from hart  deer + beest  beast + hoek  corner. Hart is akin to "horn" and refers to the antlers. The "hartebeest"  is an antelope. Merriam-Webster traces the word "deer" to "Middle English, deer, animal, from Old English deor  beast; akin to Old High German tior  wild animal, Lithuanian dvasia  breath, spirit". In Afrikaans, though not etymologically related, hart  not only means "deer" but it is also the word for "heart". In Psalm 42:1 the hart becomes the symbol of the spirit. So Hartebeesthoek came to symbolise for me that "corner" within my own heart that encompassed the immensity of deep space!

The Hindu Scriptures must surely count among the most beautiful and inspiring in the World. The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads are among my favourites. In the Chandogya Upanishad is this beautiful "deep space" gem:

OM.  In the center of the castle of Brahman, our own body, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotus-flower, and within can be found a small space.  We should find who dwells there, and we should want to know him.
And if anyone asks, "Who is he who dwells in a small shrine in the form of a lotus flower in the center of the castle of Brahman?  Whom should we want to find and to know?" we can answer:
"The little space within the heart is as great as this vast universe.  The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars; fire and lightning and winds are there; and all that now is and all that is not: for the whole universe is in Him and He dwells within our heart." (Chandogya Upanishad 3.13.7)

It is a thought not alien to Christianity either.

In the words of Augustine (De Lib. Arb., II.41), "Wherever you turn, by certain traces which wisdom has impressed on her works, she speaks to you, and recalls you within, gliding back into interior things by the very forms of exterior things."

William Law (A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life) put it this way, "The outward world is but a glass, or representation of the inward; and every thing and variety of things in temporal nature must have its root, or hidden cause, in something that is more inward."

"All our greatest philosophers and theologians unanimously assert that the visible universe is a faithful reflection of the invisible," says Nicholas of Cusa (Of Learned Ignorance,I.xi).

Scanning the skies with deep space antennas is, in a way,  a scansion of, and a panting for the Divine Imprint within.

In conclusion, a thought for Holy Week...

"Think, dear friend, reflect on the world that you carry within yourself. And name this thinking what you wish. it might be recollections of your childhood or yearning for your own future. Just be sure that you observe carefully what wells up within you and place that above everything that you notice around you. Your innermost happening is worth all your love. You must somehow work on that." -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

"Deep-Time Eyes"

Lord, I was blind; I could not see
In Thy marred visage any grace,
But now the beauty of Thy face
In radiant vision dawns on me.
                          -William T Matson


What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth . . .. The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots . . .. When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-coloured surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich colour spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.

-Yuri Gagarin

It is the Season of Lent. Good Friday is coming. So is Easter.

Visiting my optician  the other day got me to thinking about these things, especially short- and far-sightedness. Fifty years ago today, 12th April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go into Space. Though Gagarin never saw God out there he certainly saw "Beauty", beauty in a way no person had ever seen before.

Recently a Methodist minister had introduced me to a fascinating online discussion series on "Evolutionary Christianity" (http://evolutionarychristianity.com) hosted by Michael Dowd. I heartily commend these conversations to you too. The talks included a galaxy of theologians, scientists, and writers, some who I had previously read or heard speak. They were familiar, trusted voices. Although originally an Advent series of meditations, I made these hour long meditations my Lenten study for this year. What a marvelous time-shift this has proved to be!

Speakers included: Charles H Townes, Owen Gingerich, Richard Rohr, Jim Burklo, Denis Lamoureux, Bruce Sanguin, Mary Southard, Diarmuid O Murchu, Ursula King, Sally Morgenthaler, Philip Clayton, Ian Lawton, Joan Roughgarden, Matthew Fox, Spencer Burke, Brian Mclaren, Michael Morwood, Gretta Vosper, Ted Davis, Tom Thresher, Paul Smith, Doug Pagitt, Ian Barbour, Kevin Kelly, John Polkinghorne, Linda Gibler, Michael Dowd, Gloria Schaab, William D Phillips, Joan Chittister, Ross Hostetter, John Cobb, John F Haught, John Shelby Spong, Karl Giberson, Ilia Delio, Kenneth R Miller, and Gail Worcelo. All Christian scholars and researchers of renown, some Nobel Prize Winners, sharing what they had in common, namely, their love for Jesus as disciples of his and the amazing mystery of evolution they had come to appreciate. It was for me an incredible experience listening to these speakers.

One of the notions that immediately caught my attention was what Michael Dowd, the host of the discussions, called "deep-time eyes"....that is, the ability to look deep down into the mystery of cosmic time and space and there to see and experience the presence of God manifest throughout evolutionary time and realise our own connectedness to all creation.

Evolutionary Christianity points to those who value evidence as divine communication. Whatever our differences, we all have deep-time eyes and a global heart. -Michael Dowd

Though I still see as if "through a glass dimly", I can identify at least four influences in my life, a "Quarternity" if you like, that has affected my own seeing. There are two places and two people: Hartebeesthoek Deep Space Tracking Station - the Sterkfontein Caves; and, Teilhard de Chardin - Jan Smuts.

Hartebeesthoek Deep Space Tracking Station

It was at the Hartebeesthoek Deep Space Tracking Station that I was first introduced to notions of "deep space" and "deep time". The operations at a Tracking Station centred around concepts of space and time. For instance, this idea was especially embodied in what is called "Round Trip Light Time" (RTLT).

In space technology, the round-trip delay time or round trip light time is the time light or radio signals takes to go to a spacecraft and return. (See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-trip_delay_time).  One was constantly being reminded of the relationship between space and time. Every space probe at every moment required of us a constant awareness of this ever changing variable....the RTLT. Nothing was static. Though minuscule in the great expanse of Space, RTLT made one ever conscious of the incredible immensity of the Universe. RTLTs were commonly measured in minutes or hours. However, set against the backdrop of countless Galaxies measured in billions of light years away one was overcome by the incomprehensible wonder of it all. Though occupying minute slivers of space and time, we needed to acquire deep-space-time perspectives or deep-space eyes to see it.

RTLT was also a reminder of the vibrancy of the cosmos we found ourselves in. Everything was in motion. We are part of an amazing, dynamic, living organism.  Spacecraft. Earth. Moon. The Planets. The Sun in it course round the Galaxy. The Galaxies themselves. Potential was everywhere. Everything was alive and pulsating, a cosmic symphony rather than a meaningless cacophony of noise! One became conscious as Gagarin did, of beauty and wonder. If the Earth and Spacecraft were stationary bodies the RTLT would simply be a static straightforward measure of the distance between the two. But not so, all was in flux. Earth, planets, and spaceprobes were all engaged in a complex dance of orbits and trajectories. One needed to disentangle the vast deep-space-time relationships that bound farflung worlds to each other in an timeless embrace in order to make sense of it all. Soft-landings on the Moon were much more enchanting than two lovers throwing kisses to each other between passing trains.  One appreciated the elegance of Space-Time Physics and the precision of the interconnecting laws of nature. I slowly began to understand a little about concepts such as the "dilation of time" and "time slips" and its significance to faith and spirituality, prayer and meditation These were ideas which some have developed further such as Gregg Braden in his book The Isaiah Effect. At Hartebeesthoek I found my deep-space eyes. As Yuri Gagarin once said, "I could have gone on flying through space forever."

But there was more. As observed in a previous blog, not far from Hartebeesthoek were...

The Sterkfontein Caves

In close proximity to the Tracking Station are the Caves. Everyday on my way to work and home again we would drive by Sterkfontein. One cannot drive past these caves without being affected. Whereas at Hartebeesthoek we looked up into the sky here one looked down deep into the earth. Here was a constant reminder that our biological histories goes far back to the dawn of evolutionary time, more years than one can easily imagine. Perhaps not the deep-time of deep-space but here, right on my door-step in Southern Africa on my way to work, was a place where biological and geological time had coalesced the very star-stuff of cosmic space and time and brought forth hominid life and eventually of us all! For me this was a daily engagement  with the huge questions of life, existence, being, and the ongoing passage of time. One just had to cultivate the "deep-time eyes" that Michael Dowd speaks about.

Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for Strong Spring) is a set of limestone caves of special interest to paleo-anthropologists located in Gauteng province, Northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa near the town of Krugersdorp. The archaeological sites of Swartkrans (Afrikaans for Black Cliff) and Kromdraai (Afrikaans and Dutch for Crooked Turn) (and the Wonder Cave) are in the same area. Sterkfontein was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 and the area in which it is situated, was named the Cradle of Humankind." -Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterkfontein_caves

It was here at the Sterkfontein Caves that I found my deep-time eys. There I first saw into the beckoning eyes of the Taung Child, Mrs Ples, and Little Foot. It took the Caves of Raymond Dart and Robert Broom to open my own evolutionary-eyes as I gazed with them into the fossil record that was being uncovered.

Two Places... but there were also Two People whose thought affected me: Teilhard de Chardin and Jan Smuts. I was only one year old when, in 1947 at the invitation of Smuts, Teilhard planned to visit South Africa. Unfortunately a serious heart attack prevented him but he was able to visit South Africa in 1951 and again in 1953. Just two quotes will suffice:

Teilhard de Chardin

In his, The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard has a marvelous section on "the perception of space-time" (p.238ff) in which he speaks of our difficulty with depth perception. He says...

"We have all forgotten the moment when, opening our eyes for the first time, we saw light and things around us all jumbled up and all on one single plane. It requires a great effort to imagine the time when we were unable to read or again to take our mind back to the time when for us the world extended no farther than the walls of our home and our family circle.


"Similarly it seems to us incredible that men could have lived without suspecting that the stars are hung above us hundreds of light years away, or that the contours of life stretched out millions of years behind us to the limits of our horizon."

He then makes this profound statement...

"The least molecule is, in nature and position, a function of the whole sidereal process, and the least of the protozoa is structurally so knit into the web of life that its existence cannot be hypothetically annihilated without ipso facto  undoing the whole network of the biosphere.... Time and space are organically joined again so as to weave, together, the stuff of the universe." (p.240)

The other influence was...

Jan Smuts

Smuts, writing in Holism and Evolution (p.336f)  shares similar deep-time thoughts...

"For we are indeed one with Nature, her genetic fibres run through all our being, our physical organs connect us with millions of years of her history; our minds are full of immemorial paths of pre-human experience. 


"Our ear for music, our eye for art carry us back to the early beginnings of animal life on this globe. Press but a button in our brain and the gaunt spectres of the dim forgotten past rise once more before us; the ghostly dreaded forms of the primeval Fear loom before us and we tremble all over with inexplicable fright. And then again some distant sound, some call of bird or smell of wild plants, or some sunrise or sunset glow in the distant clouds, some mixture of light and shade on the mountains may suddenly throw an unearthly spell over the spirit, lead it forth from the deep chambers and set it panting and wondering with inexpressible emotion. For the overwrought mind there is no peace like nature's, for the wounded spirit there is no healing like hers. There are indeed times when human companionship becomes unbearable, and we fly to nature for that silent sympathy and communion which she alone can give. 


"Some of the deepest emotional experiences of my life have come to me on the many nights I have spent under the open African sky, and I am sure my case has not been singular in this respect. 


"The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear."

Teilhard and Smuts shared the same view. Over time such has also been my experience. The conversations at "Evolutionary Christianity" develops this further and has provided us with a much needed theological and scientific framework with which to look with renewed confidence into the future.

Conclusion

I opened with the verse from William Matson's hymn, "Lord, I was blind! I could not see / In Thy marred visage any grace". Deep-time eyes are not blind to our apparently fractured universe. There are fault lines that appear to be intrinsic to the very fabric of Nature. One need not look too deep into space before one encounters violent solar reactions, barren sterile worlds, and battered and inhospitable planets like Venus and Jupiter. One is ever mindful of tragedies that have cost the lives of Astronauts and Cosmonauts. Similarly Sterkfontein is not without its stories of woe. The Taung Child may have been the victim of some prehistoric bird of prey (See http://www.profleeberger.com/files/Taungbirdofpreybc.pdf). More recently, a diver tragically lost his life in the Caves. Without deep-time Gethsemane eyes we may not see the signs of grace in these marred images of cosmic tragedy and loss, death and decay.

Will we ever plummet the mysteries of our deep-space, deep-time experiences? Probably not as long as we are myopic in our theologies of Nature and Creation.  We may well lament the loss of our deep-time, deep-space eyes, as Adam and Eve did, as described in the apocryphal book, once they had been banished from the Garden...

And Adam said to Eve, "Look at thine eyes, and at mine, which afore beheld
angels in heaven, praising; and they, too, without ceasing.

"But now we do not see as we did; our eyes have become flesh; they cannot
see in like manner as they saw before."  (I Adam and Eve 4:8ff)

Deep-time eyes, redeemed eyes, invites us to look deeper and further into the evidence that is before us than we may have hitherto. As Michael Dowds would remind us, deep-time seeing leads to a long-time hope.


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za