On a number of occasions I have drawn your attention to the Milky Way, that great galaxy of which our solar system is a part — and consequently this earth, is a small part. I found an article which to me was very interesting, and I thought perhaps you would like to share tonight in a little meditation on this remarkable article entitled, The Milky Way: Mysterious Marvel, by Norman and Madelyn Carlisle.
“The astronomer sees the Milky Way as a gigantic flattened disk, so huge that to cross it from one side to the other at the speed of light — more than one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second — would take one-hundred thousand years.” Now this is just about our own galaxy, the Milky Way, that of which we are a part. With respect to our own home, our own part of the cosmos, it is pictured here as a gigantic, flattened disk, so huge that to cross it from one side to another at the speed of light — which is to say more than a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second — would take one hundred thousand years. That is quite a distance. “Inside this great wheel are those swarming hundred billion stars, some tiny ones, a fraction the size of our sun, some giants one-half billion times larger” than our sun. In other words, five hundred million suns like our own, to make the size of one of the stars or suns out of this hundred billion in our own galaxy. “There are old stars and new ones, red stars, blue stars, hot stars and cold stars, and invisible mystery stars no one has ever seen. Between them is space.” Between all these billions of stars is space.
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Now in our classwork we have been considering the fact that between the cells of the body there is space — a great deal of space within the body. “Between them is space ... so much space that … in it could readily be stored a million times as many stars” as there are, “without much chance of any of them colliding.” He figures there could be a million times more than this in the same space without much chance that any of them would collide. Now we have noted that with respect to all matter there is space between the particles which make up the body of that substance, and we see that here, whether it is the physical body with its cells or the body of — the universe, shall we say? — this galaxy, the Milky Way, with all of its hundred billion blazing suns.
“This whole system rotates endlessly around a central spot that is like the hub of a wheel. So huge is the galaxy that, though the speed of this rotation,” — of the galaxy itself, the huge wheel — “though the speed of this rotation is more than nine thousand miles a minute,” not an hour, or a day, but the speed of the rotation of the galaxy itself is more than nine thousand miles a minute. Now, our earth is revolving around our sun at a speed that requires one year to complete the circuit. But while it is revolving around the sun, and the sun is revolving around something else, this whole is contained in a wheel that is moving at a speed of nine thousand miles a minute. “Though the speed of this rotation is more than nine thousand miles a minute at the distance our sun lies from the hub,” — that is, in our area. And, though we are travelling nine thousand miles a minute at the distance our sun lies from the hub, “it takes more than two hundred million years” for this wheel “to complete a single revolution.” Two hundred million years, moving at nine thousand miles a minute, for this wheel to complete a single revolution.
Now this gives you some idea of the reason why I have drawn your attention to the Milky Way on occasion — “a single cosmic year in the life of the Milky Way” — two hundred million years. “And, as it turns, this whole stellar merry-go-round is also hurtling through space toward some nameless destination in the cosmos.” Now do you see some wheels within wheels? Our earth revolving around the sun, our sun in its own movement inside of the galaxy, the galaxy itself revolving at nine thousand miles a minute on a pattern that requires how long? Two hundred million years for a single revolution. And then this whole thing is moving at tremendous speed, in relationship to other galaxies, around another central spot, somewhere. This other central spot that forms the center of the galaxies is what I refer to as the Central Sun of Suns.
“For many years, our sun was believed to be very near the center of the Milky Way. Then astronomer Harlow Shapley, using the Mount Wilson telescope to probe the mysteries of the strange globular clusters of stars in the galaxy, made the astonishing discovery that one-third of all these clusters were packed into only four percent of the sky. What could it mean? The young astronomer and other scientists could reach only one conclusion: the spot where the clusters were massed together must be near the center of the galaxy … showing that our sun, far from being at its center is actually located near the edge of the great rotating disk. Yet other secrets of the Milky Way have yielded to a powerful tool that ‘sees’ invisible stars. It is the radio telescope, a device that collects strange radio waves from space. As its operators checked their first results, they made an historic announcement: the Milky Way is full of radio-wave sources that are totally invisible … astronomers have discovered many of these invisible stars give off radio waves … studies reveal that, if we could see them and others like them, the Milky Way would blaze forth with dazzling splendor. For these stars are incredibly big — thousands of times bigger than the visible stars.” That is interesting. The largest of the stars, in our galaxy, are invisible — thousands of times bigger than visible stars. I thought perhaps this would help you to a deeper realization of what I mean when I talk about the visible and invisible realms. It should.
I suppose that this article must surely leave you with a sense of something incomplete — one such idea is this one about populations in the galaxy with respect to visible stars [and] invisible ones. Now it occurred to me to wonder — and it is not for me, at the moment at least, to undertake to make a dissertation on this subject — but it occurred to me to wonder, could it be that the scientists are observing the evidences of the positive and negative aspects which would correlate to the male and female formation in the realm of the galaxies? I suspect something of that sort.
There is not much use of attempting to compel the mind to grasp these concepts of great distance. Distance is, as mankind thinks of it, a very misleading factor in the equation essential to understanding; for distance is a completely relative thing. Man, hampered by his own smallness, not only physically but mentally, feels that he must measure everything on the basis of his concepts of distance as he has established them with respect to the measurement of surface factors on this earth, and yet, distance is a relative thing. If we attempt to conceive of distance on the basis that man uses here we develop a completely distorted concept or picture with respect to the cosmos; for distance as man sees it is not distance as God sees it. Let us remember that all of these things are relative; and in actual fact, while I would not deny in any way the vastness of the universe nor detract one iota from its greatness, that vastness is something which is no greater to the Beings who function in relationship to it than the distances on the earth's surface are great to us. If you will bear that in mind, I think it will make it easier for you to comprehend some of the significant factors in this pattern of meditation; for the distances in the galaxy itself, which is conceived to be one hundred thousand light-years in diameter, are no greater from the standpoint of the Beings who function consciously in relationship to those distances than are the distances to us on the surface of the earth.
The point is, that while these distances are vast, and the Body of God is great — and all of this is a part of the Body of God — man is supposed to provide the intelligent factor, the intelligent, sharing, working factor, the directing, controlling factor of the Body of God on earth — men and women are supposed to provide the intelligent, controlling, working factor of the Body of God on earth. But once we begin to comprehend ourselves as a part of the Body of God, and begin to establish a level of consciousness that recognizes the correlating factors here, we begin to realize that the Body of God is not all head any more than you are all head. You have a great toe, you have feet, you have other parts of the body which do not particularly focalize the centering of consciousness. The same is true in the Body of God. We see these levels worked out in relationship to the surface manifestations of the earth from the standpoint of the kingdoms of the earth — man, the human kingdom, the animal kingdom, we could say the fowl or bird kingdom, the fish kingdom, the insect kingdom, the gas kingdom which includes the air, the envelope of atmosphere in which we live, and the mineral kingdom — all of these different kingdoms providing different factors in the Body of God right here. And we still could explore the realm of the mineral kingdom more extensively from the standpoint of the earth itself.
And if the earth itself is conceived to be a planet, a visible planet, we can perceive the fact that there is a larger invisible planet which relates to this particular part of the solar system; for with respect to every visible sun there is what we might call the invisible counterpart; with respect to every planet that is conceived to be visible, there is the invisible counterpart. And this is not to be confused with the idea with respect to the visible aspects in a particular level of form, and consciousness to perceive that form, where I suggested the possibility of the positive and negative aspects of form. But, in addition to this, we have the vast bodies which are invisible forms insofar as our particular ability to perceive is concerned, at this level of consciousness, with respect to what we conceive to be form; for there certainly is form beyond the range of our ability to perceive form. And yet, by instrumentation, we are, it appears, scientifically determining that there is form where man did not know there was form, in the universe, and that the invisible forms are larger, or more vast in scope and area, than the visible forms.
Well, that correlates with the basic factors which you have been considering in our School program, and our whole background of study in the Third Sacred School. And I trust that this meditation upon the scientific findings and conclusions and ideas will have value to you in relationship to the development of your ability to perceive and comprehend the factors which are at work in relationship to ourselves, from the standpoint of what we have consistently called the visible and the invisible realms of being.
Let us not waste time trying to comprehend concepts of vast distances, for the ability of the mind to comprehend is staggered by such things. It is not the vast distance, nor yet is it the cosmos itself, upon which we need to meditate; for if we begin to think of the cosmos, we at once back down, as it were, to the universe. And even here we must be careful not to be arrogant and presumptuous. We need to be careful of conclusion and to avoid meaningless imaginations. Therefore, while we note the vast splendor, and something of the principles there revealed, we back down to the solar system. And even here we need to be careful not to be arrogant and presumptuous; for who, among the children of men, can comprehend all of the mysteries of our solar system, the sister planets of our earth, and the sun around which we revolve? And while we may meditate upon some of the things which we see there, we avoid fantastic conclusions and back down to the earth upon which we live. And even here, who among us can say that he has comprehended all the mysteries of the earth itself? And while we may see and know many things, we come back to ourselves as human beings; and who can say that he comprehends all the mysteries of his own body, to say nothing of his mind and his heart? And so, we find, that there are layers of mystery, layers of wonder upon wonder.
And here, where we have a centering in consciousness, we can meet the Spirit of the One — yea, and of the Ones — who have a centering in consciousness with respect to the solar system; and those who have a centering in consciousness with respect to the universe; and through them we know we have contact with those who have a centering of consciousness in the cosmos. But rather than seeking, through vain imagination, to comprehend some supposed mystery in these vast fields of being, let us be content to trust those who provide this centering of consciousness in these vast fields, and make certain that we ourselves, in our field, provide the correct centering of consciousness at the places where we are, in relationship to the whole. So let it be, and so shall we serve to the Glory of God and to the Blessing of the children of men.
