Preface to Avebury Stone #16
Whose Henge Outward Face Marks Stars of Virgo
We had a special reason to interrupt our stream of megalithic postings and to interject our Galaxy album songs in the two previous postings, honoring, as they do, not only the universe in which we live, but also the human beings with whom we all share our life here in Earth, a human existence that is by no means perfect, and -- as daily world events in the media show -- a human existence that can be fraught with countless difficulties and dangers
"Survival" is always a watchword and remains a biological necessity that drives humanity in many of its daily affairs. However, our contemporary human world must ALSO deal with the truly significant problem that mankind's understanding of our role in the universe has simply not kept pace with technological advance.
On the one hand, humanity thinks we "know" MORE, and yet, on the other hand, the truth is that we might even "know" LESS than our ancestors.
Consider our astronomical decipherments of the megalithic systems of Stonehenge and Avebury and what they tell us about a comparison of the lives of Neolithic (Stone Age) mankind with our lives today.
The Stone Age ancients were demonstrably and understandably awed by the starry sky of the galactic night and even mapped their own Earth accordingly -- as was taught for millennia by hermetic tradition - as above, so below.
This reverence of the starry night skies by ancient skywatchers led to cosmological belief systems in which the ancients placed their deities -- their "gods", as it were -- in those starry skies above them. Their belief systems made sense -- in their era. They all knew the stars in the skies and thus Heaven was where they placed their gods. The underworld in turn was viewed as the realm of the vast oceans, while the volcanic innards of the Earth gave rise to fiery notions of Hell.
The ancients thus created a logical connection between their visible world and their belief systems.
Moderns have established little connection between reality and religion, which has created enormous difficulties on Earth between rival religious groups, all professing belief systems not capable of proof.
"Belief" has accordingly become "absence of fact" rather than reflecting "what is known". No modern belief system today can be proven, and is merely an act of faith.
Many today know virtually NOTHING about the stars, about THEIR galaxy, or the space beyond, and yet, their professed gods are still seen to originate in a sky that modern astronomy has shown to be far different than envisioned by ancestral cosmologists or theologians. A massive factual discrepancy now exists.
The ancients devised a logical system based upon a world that they could view in their time and that they could represent readily in stone -- with the technology then available.
It was all that they had. No paper, no pencils. No Radio. No TV. No smartphones. People carved their message into the rocks around them, long before they learned to "paint". Painting was a later technological "advance", first in pictures and then in more abstract symbols. Abstraction is a modern invention. Rock carving is old.
Theirs was a much, much simpler world than ours. Mankind was in some ways THEN much more in tune with the "basics" of human survival as also with natural events and happenings on Earth -- much more so than we are NOW. Step outside and look at the sky. How many stars can you recognize? Indeed, due to city lights and environmental pollution, how many stars can you even see?
Just what did it mean THEN and what does it mean TODAY to BE human?
What ARE some of the BASICS of human life and being human?
Did we not all begin our lives being weaned on a woman's breast? That's basic.
In ancient days, a female bosom was not a "pornographic" exposure. Rather, it was NORMAL, and essential to human survival. It marked THE BEGINNING of LIFE AFTER BIRTH. Women were important. Indeed, they always have been.
How we got to the present situation is a strange tale of misplaced conceptions of human morality and religion in a world nevertheless dangerously over-populated by over 7 billion human inhabitants. They all got here pretty much the same way. Talk about a massive gap between morality theory and reality. That's it.
In many ways, our modern world is OFF TRACK. We need to get back on the
right path again. We need to learn to appreciate the BASICS of LIFE
again. Not a woman's bosom is "offensive", but -- in our view -- the evening news IS OFFENSIVE -- to the human spirit, to the way the Earth could be, but is not.
That is our prelude to the next posting at Avebury Stone #16 Whose Henge Outward Face Marks Stars of Virgo.