The Night Sky "Smiled" Upon Us...Albeit, Briefly

Priorities anyone? This wondrous sight happened last week. And now I'm just writing about it? No worries. The next such conjunction will happen in 2052, so there's still time to wax poetic about those few nights in December 2008 that our neighborly planets and Sister Moon smiled upon our distressed planet. When I noticed this smile, I was in the parking lot at Target awash in light pollution and loading my patriotic share of consumption in the car. Slackjawed at such beauty and feeling certain this must be a hopeful sign, I wondered if this bright planetary arrangement might mean that things here on Earth are on the upswing? Lunar eclipses, of course, were understood by civilizations of yore to mean that all hell is soon to break loose. But could this heavenly trillion, perchance, be a good omen?

According to our fear-mongering media we're all grasping at straws. A contest is now afoot to see who will drown first, the foreclosing homeowner or the brink-of-bankruptcy domestic car business. Politicians are newly impressed with the drama of a scale that increases from one day to the next. Many continue to be seduced by the comparison that one desperate homeowner can't possibly compare to the downfall of an auto company or investment bank or the vastly tentacled AIG. Besides, that homeowner invited disaster by signing for, as Shakespeare would put it, a loan more costly than the purse. Nevermind that the big business pushed these loans at the behest of a presidential directive and then, to Wall Street's delight, gloried in their profitability a la Enron. It all sounded happily prosperous and many of us homeowners, new and old alike, couldn't wait to invest our IRA monies, fatten the nest egg, and plan on the comfy retirement our Eisenhower Era parents enjoyed.

Such is the pain of seduction. In reality, it's been a Seven Deadly Sins fest for the past several years. I don't mean those sins of the early Catholic Church, I mean those sins Mahatma Ghandi warned the modern world to beware of, although I'd be the first to admit there's been increasing trade in gluttony, lust, pride, greed, envy, sloth, and even anger masquerading as social benchmarks lately. I would ask you to consider that maybe our Sin fest has resulted in the worst plague yet, global warming. But back at the home-front recessions, even depressions, come and go throughout the world's history, and oddly enough, are self-checking because they can only get so big before imploding. Each time, the resulting mess is a chance for self-reflection. So whose problem is worse? Whose collapse, implosion, disaster is worse? The mass of the One is nothing compared to the mass of the Big. Perhaps, except that on the shoulders of the One the Big has been built.

Anyway, I was curious if smiling planetary conjunctions might have a meaning. You may find it hard to believe but Copernicus, the fellow that proved our solar system to be heliocentric rather than terracentric, had a day job of astrologizing for people in need, usually royal types. So here is his interpretation of what I saw in the night sky above Target:

The pursuit of wisdom should parallel the pursuit of the expression of love.
Any conflict between the two causes you to consider your spiritual values all over again.
Whenever you lack wisdom, you have really lacked the ability to love.
You fall in love instead with ideas that don't work and do so many times
Until you establish a solid foundation that unites wisdom and love.

Interesting, isn't it? May you peace together what has, up to now, been a big gap.