"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder who you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky

The stars have always been a mystery to humanity and, once they had conquered everyday life so they could live in communities and not be too bothered by wild animals, the stars were the next to receive the attention of early man. It is not surprising I suppose because living without artificial light, the heavens provided a majestic nightly display which they watched, not only with increasing wonder but also with intelligence. They noticed how the stars seemed to move as the seasons of the year passed, they noted the patterns groups of stars made and gave them names, for human beings throughout the ages have sought, by anthropomorphism, to humanise any natural phenomena that seemed to emphasise humanity’s insignificance. Because the stars moved from month to month, early man also began attributing the personal characteristics of people born when the stars and planets were in a certain position, to the stars under which they were born. Thus astrology came into being.

Today, we can only imagine just what a marvellous spectacle the heavens provided to those early humans. So beautiful and wonderful was it, there is small wonder that human imagination took flight on the wings of the stars. Deep within all people there has always existed a conviction that this physical life is not everything, that in some mysterious way, we are eternal beings and that when we leave this Earth through death we do not just disappear but continue in a higher realm. It was always considered higher and consequently associating the stars with the after-life was a natural step to take.

The Egyptians saw their earth as a reflection of the heavens. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, was seen as the River Nile upon which they depended for their very lives, and their Gods, who had once lived upon Earth, were now the stars and planets that nightly danced about the Milky Way. Each Pharoah was considered to be a god and when he died, his physical body was preserved, for just as Christianity today will not publicly accept that we have a separate spiritual body that takes over when the physical one dies, the Egyptians believed if their Pharoah-God was going to ascend to the stars or the heavens, he would need his physical body in order to do so. The Pharoah’s body was richly clothed in gold and precious jewels and buried in a sarcophagus in the centre of a pyramid which was then sealed so no living human being could disturb the God. With this star-based religion the Egyptians provided the longest ever succession of dynasties ever to rule over one nation.

The Egyptians were a fascinating race that appeared to move from primitive conditions into a highly organised and technically skilled people virtually overnight. Not surprisingly this sudden change has given rise to speculation that they must have had help. People advancing this theory talk about the ancient continent of Atlantis that disappeared in some almighty cataclysm; they say some of their high priests and scientists escaped and made their way to Egypt where they became looked upon as gods because of their skills. Using these skills they created the first pharaonic dynasty and passed their knowledge and skills on to a few chosen natives before they died.

Of course it is only in recent times that astronomy has shown us just how huge individual stars and planets can be, how puny our own Earth seems next to them and how almost constantly, old planets and stars are exploding and new ones are being formed from inter-stellar dust particles. Modern knowledge has done little to dispel the mystery and wonder we attach to the stars. Even with the huge technological advances that have enabled us to put men on the moon, it is clear that distances between stars, let alone galaxies, is so enormous, until some totally unknown means of propulsion can be discovered, we will never be able to venture beyond the closest planets in our own solar system. Modern knowledge has also led to much speculation (for that is all it can be) about the origin of the universe. Theories abound concerning the universe – it is said to be expanding, it is claimed as being finite, it is claimed that it all began with one “Big Bang.” The only thing that is clear to anyone who examines the evidence objectively, is like life itself, the universe seems never-ending. Each new advance in telescope technology just shows us more and more detail, further and further away from us – nowhere is there any sign of an end to either ‘space’, as the far from empty area between stars and planets is euphemistically called, or the universe comes to an end


Eventually I hope and expect, the investigations of space both inner (particle physics) and outer (astronomy and astrophysics) will do no more than confirm what poets, seers and Spiritualists have long known. Life is not a physical but a spiritual and mental phenomenon and that all matter has been and is moulded by the power of the mind and the spirit to produce what physicists of all disciplines see and investigate as their reality. When we begin seriously investigating the mind and the spirit – ah, then we shall truly begin to learn what reality is.