Living In The Cosmos: Vignette (2): StarStuff Incarnating

-STARSTUFF-

Recently I spent a fascinating evening at a major science center located near me. The occasion was a presentation by George Coyne, S.J., who lectured about the evolution of the physical universe employing Hubble Space Telescope photos. I might note, too, that Coyne is not only a Jesuit priest, but also a world-class astronomer. He is the Director of the Vatican Observatory.

Coyne especially focused on galaxy, star, and planetary formation. He began and ended the evening displaying marvelous photos of the millions upon millions of galaxies, each holding a billion suns. He showed not only individual galaxies, but photos of galaxy clusters.

And, wondrously, he provided that famous photo of what I call the "Dancing Shiva," part of a mosaic map of the universe being undertaken by Margaret Geller of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory. Years back, I first saw this special galaxy cluster configuration at the Smithsonian--presented by Geller herself. It took one's breath away to see it. There before our eyes was a photo of what appeared to be the gigantic form of a swirling, dancing human figure composed of galaxy clusters.

Coyne asked of this figure, "Is this our God?" No, but it's surely mysterious! At any rate, he provided us with the astronomical name of this configuration: It is called the "Great Wall." This dancing image runs down the middle of the universal map, like a fabulous backbone with lesser galaxy clusters to either side of it.

Coyne also showed photo after photo of star-birth, star- death, the birthing of new stars out of the death of old stars, he stressed that each generation of stars came more fully fueled with the chemical elements that eventually would provide the ingredients for life.

Beyond the descriptive material, this was an evening of "wondering" at this famous Science Center. Wondering and pondering about ourselves. Coyne illustrated quite nicely the ensuing complexity of the universe: of galaxies to galaxy clusters; of ever more complexity with each new star generation; of stars spawning planetary formations; and of the happenstance of life.

Coyne provided an illustration of what he terms the "Tree of the Universe." Using evolutionary astrophysical material, the Hubble photos, he showed the stem of the Tree. It was a stem of what appears to be a progressive complexity. But Coyne was asked: was Life expected in this, our universe? "Not necessarily" came the answer.

Even though his "Tree of the Universe" is suggestive of evolving complexity and consciousness, it could have turned out differently. For Coyne there's both determinism and chance present in the development of our universe. But in the middle, there's *opportunity.* So lucky for us, lucky for Life, our universe proved opportune!

Another interesting point that Coyne made was that the universe is now in our mind. Upon saying this he flipped to an intriguing artist's drawing of the human head, transparent with stars, with a galaxy swirling in our mind. What he meant by this is that astronomy is an "observational science." It is not a science where one can do experiments at the lab-bench. Still, our mind not only observes, but can measure, can comprehend what it sees of the universe. It's as if we can now carry the universe within our head.

As Coyne put it: The universe has evolved a reflective Consciousness of itself, and *we* are it.

In the quiet night I made my way home with galaxies and blazing stars tingling in my head, and such brought to mind yet another thought: We have become "starstuff pondering the stars." [Carl Sagan, COSMOS, Ballantine Books, 1980, p.286.]

-PROTO-CONSCIOUSNESS-

Recently I read a book called "SQ", which is about our spiritual intelligence. The authors live in the UK. Danah Zohar teaches in the Oxford Strategic Leadership program at Oxford University. And Ian Marshall is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist at Oxford.

After quite a scientific introduction, they move far and beyond into the spiritual realm of life. The authors provide a particularly helpful mandala, the Lotus, and via overlays illustrate most of our respective personal and spiritual paths and proclivities onto this Lotus. And, like the flower it is, in this book the Lotus corresponds to our unfolding, incarnating Greater Self. The authors root the stem of this lovely Lotus into the "mud" of *proto-consciousness.*

There is a recognition that our consciousness somehow belongs to a "bigger" story. It's about our "SQ," our spiritual intelligence connecting with a kind of Universal Consciousness-- or, if you will, proto-consciousness.

Cognitive-and-consciousness scholars refer to this proto-consciousness in different, yet similar, ways. For example, to quote:

David Chalmers "suggests that something called proto- consciousness is a fundamental property of all matter, just like mass, charge, spin and location. In this view, proto-consciousness is a natural part of the fundamental physical laws of the universe and has been present since the beginning of time. Everything that exists--fundamental particles like mesons and quarks, atoms, stones, stars, tree-trunks...possess proto-consciousness." [Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall, SQ: CONNECTING WITH OUR SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE, Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 81.]

Further, in his psychological work, Carl Jung considered that "psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another... [indeed it is probable that the] psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing." [Ibid, p. 82.]

According to Zohar and Marshall, "this view that proto-consciousness is a fundamental property of all matter is a weak form of *panpsychism,* the view...that consciousness pervades the universe and all its constituents." Thus "if neural oscillations in the brain were a coherent version of a fundamental property pervading the whole universe, then our human SQ roots us not just in life but at the very heart of the universe. We become children not just of life, but more strongly, of the cosmos." [Ibid, p. 82.]

-THAT LITTLE ACORN-

One of the things I've been noticing lots of late is how very much connected our spiritual quest seems to be with our identity--with who we are, who we are to become, and what we should be doing.

Of course this idea is nothing new, in that it is religion and philosophy's "ontological quest." We not only have the cosmology, but the ontology in these pursuits. Another way of putting it is well-worn: what is this world, this universe? And what is the nature of Being, of be-ing, in it?

As for our "be-ing" in it, this raises even further questions. Like how do we understand ourselves, in terms of mind, consciousness, and soul? We are still very much groping in these areas, but a little later I will post some small items that show the richness of our efforts in this area. Also the confusion!

Most mothers will tell you, however, that they observe their babes coming into this world with fairly set characteristics. There's the environment, of course, that can turn or twist us; but, it seems we also possess in-born traits and proclivities. Indeed this observation has spawned all sorts of "typology" theories and tests, which governments, corporations, and even religious orders employ for their respective purposes.

Interestingly, the premier psychologist James Hillman has taken "type" a few steps further--in his book, THE SOUL'S CODE. Hillman comes out of the Archetypal School that examines those inner energies that propel our psyche. In his above-mentioned book he broaches the idea of these in-born traits, proclivities and psyche energies, as "acorns." In his Acorn Theory he sees these in-born energies, traits, as seedlings to the tree--or as code that requires the need to unfold.

For me, first understanding "who we are," understanding what energizes us, coming to know our inner world and our archetypal construct, is of prime importance spiritually. It's ever that clarion call to come to "Know Thyself." It's about bringing our subterranean world out into the light of consciousness! This is a spiritual prerogative that many of us realize. We need to understand the configuration of our "acorn."

But this is only half of our spiritual requirement--at least as I see it. We have to bring forth our inner talent, our acorn, out into the world and work hard to assure its growth into a tree. And this tree of our talent is not just for us, but for the world in some special way.

Another perspective to all this is that we are consciousness- points in this world, that we are *sprouting,* evolving talent, ability, and coming to greater knowledge. By steadily honing our "acorn," both quantitatively and qualitatively, we are developing the Earth and bringing it into more light. So, in my view, this is a penultimate spiritual quest. We must bring forth our "inner" to play, to contribute, into the "outer."

-INCARNATION-

In Western Civilization, from the Presocratics through the Stoics right into Early Christianity there was this deep intuition of the LOGOS. We most often interpret the Logos as the "Word," but the idea of the Logos is far more. The Logos is that special Plenum and Energy that that supports and powers this universe.

Some of the gods of the Greek Pantheon were declared incarnations of this great Plenum. And in Early Christianity, the Christian Fathers declared Jesus the "Incarnation of the Logos."

In Early Church motifs, in their ancient cathedrals, you can see Jesus represented as the "Pantocrator," the Incarnation of the Logos, the King of the Universe. This idea is still around in Christian theological circles, but it's mostly lost amongst general Christianity.

Now getting beyond History and on to my view, if there *is* an Universal Spirit--the Logos, the Pneuma, if you will--and if it does "incarnate" into this world (or in other consciousness-points in the cosmos), than it's very much conceivable that it is CONSTANTLY incarnating in all people, all the time, at varied levels of their acceptance.

So, thinking along these lines, of the Spirit or the "Word" of the Logos almost as a seed dwelling within us all, bursting forth noticeably from time-to-time in unique persons, it's perhaps indicative that eventually ALL of us, everywhere, will become "Incarnations of the Logos."

Looking at this from the above perspective, we consciousness- points are the "seed-bed" of the Logos, the soil from which it can incarnate. How might this happen?

Modern psychologists have talked of our ego-self as only a part of our personality. The ego-self is what is up front in our lives, it is our immediate "I". But great underlayers of our personality have been discovered throughout the 20th century, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. And need I say there have been a variety of interpretations about these underlayers of our psyche ever since!

But Jung's interpretation infers that standing behind our more immediate ego-self is the Greater Self. Some have considered this Greater Self as our OverSoul, perhaps part of an even more vast "soul system." Others, however, have pondered that the Greater Self is of a *numinous nature* present within us. It is an Imminence that is always with us.

Okay--if true--the ego-self is required to work through towards the recognition of the Greater Self which resides in our psyche. In psychological lingo this working through is labeled the "Individuation Process." Currently, psychologists only count an extremely small percentage of the population having gone through individuation.

Anyway, if one does come to recognize the Greater Self within--what happens? Well they can ignore it, of course. But that's not such a great idea. But it does illustrate that our ego-self has freedom of will. Better, however, is for the ego-self to begin to communicate and eventually cooperate with the requirements of the Greater Self.

Now if we consider the Greater Self within our psyche as of a numinous nature--and if we work hard to express that Greater Self, in it's uniqueness in our person, and "live it" out in the world, we are *incarnating* the Numinous! And from the psychological perspective this possibility of incarnation is present, seeded if you will, and awaiting unfoldment in every person.

But back to our ego-self. It's a necessity! It takes our ego to recognize the Greater Self. It's our ego that must walk the path of its individuation, coming not only to recognize but commune with the Greater Self. This takes a lot of effort. Still, if a person reaches these deep levels of insight--then, they will begin to realize that they must present their ego, their life, in *service* to that which is Higher, to the Greater Self.