We spend a lot of time from the perspective of looking outward from ourselves.
We take things into us from the outside; we try to reach out to understand things from our own perspective. It would seem each of us is so separate, so specifically concrete. The things that are external to us, are simply exterior, not us. However, I cannot help but wonder, ponder, how my perspective would change if I were greater than my body. I wonder what it would be like, if instead of trying to fit things into my perspective I tried to see if where I was in the larger perspective.
In many movies about space, we find sequences that exemplify the vastness of space and the Universe. These have become almost superfluous, yet they always seem to hit home with me. The sequences where they are panning out from Earth, farther and farther backward, shows our planet, our solar system, our galaxy. These scenes show how we are all a part of vast systems of matter, orbits, rotations, and in the end, are part of someone else’s constellation. While some see this as a bit nihilistic, being so bitty in such an infinite universe, I think they forget to see things from the opposite perspective now and again. Reflected in that pin prick of light in someone else’s constellation, is not only in our single life, but the life of our whole galaxy. That little point of light twinkles and pulsates at its particular distinct rhythm, it produces its individual variation of light from the combination of different suns and systems. Each pin prick of light is a world quite unique, much like ourselves.
Reverse this perspective from that far-out cosmos scene to the smallest cell. Within the microcosm, we also see distinct systems, unique unto themselves. On the cellular level, we can see more clearly how the health, inter-rhythms, and relationships between cellular systems can affect each other. If one group of cells cannot function optimally, then the dysfunction will affect the other cell systems, the functioning of the whole system, and, in the end, affect the entirety of the organism. While this interrelationship is not easily experienced on our daily level of consciousness, nor perhaps on the Galactic level, I believe, the Hermetic principle of “as above, so below,” (the law of correspondence) exists on all levels. I find myself asking, is there some point when one of us…a few of us…or more, can stop seeing through our eyes alone and realize we are part of a larger system, a system conceivably even greater than the Earth or our solar system? Rupert Sheldrake is a modern natural philosopher, in the same sense as Euclid and Aristotle were natural philosophers. He believes that all living systems are encompassed within a field that is larger than the system itself and contains a type of “neural network” of energy and light to all parts of the systems. He uses this theory to explain how and why cells know when and what position it migrates to in fetal development and even”supernatural ” phenomena like telepathy. Taking the latter example, there might not be any real “paranormal” phenomena because things, which seem inexplicable on our level of knowledge, might very well be a common, or built-in feature of the fields which surround our world or planet. Those intuitions and hunches we have are perhaps echoes of the heart and syncopation of the greater system around us. I have pondered, that through these larger fields and systems is how we experience God.
Maybe we are a cell or perhaps sub-atomic particle (I do not mean this literally) within the Divine body, the Divine universe. Personally, I do not think God or the Gods are outside of us. Instead, I believe we are in God, in Creation, Her Will, her Body. God or the Divine might be that larger system which encompasses our world and level of reality. From this perspective, every time we take communion, in nature, in the stars above, with our friends and loved ones, and even in church, we partake in “God”. This communion could be seen as synching ourselves to the Divine rhythms, beat, and syncopation of the Divine body and systems around us. Those fields and systems envelope us, consume us. Perhaps we literally breathe God with every breath. This brings to mind one of the original first monikers of the Divine, ”The Breath of Life.” I wonder if there is a connection between the two?
