It’s the night before the lunar eclipse. My cousin has just called to tell me that my Aunt Anna has died.
…………….
I have a close-up photo of my son and daughter standing opposite each other in front of a stand of summer-full trees. It was taken at her back-yard wedding several years ago. In the original photo, they weren’t standing that close; I used a photo editing program to separate them and then put them back together, closer, so that I could fit the photo in the frame I had. You can’t tell that I cut out and then pasted together the trees. branches, and leaves between them. The leaves and branches seem to blend together almost seamlessly. Something about fractals. (From here: A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a smaller copy of the whole. Fractals are generally self-similar (bits look like the whole) and independent of scale (they look similar, no matter how close you zoom in).
Yes. Just like “As Above, So Below” which….embraces the entire system of traditional and modern magic which was inscribed….in cryptic wording by Hermes Trismegistus. The significance of this phrase is that it is believed to hold the key to all mysteries. All systems of magic are claimed to function by this formula. “‘That which is above is the same as that which is below’…Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. The universe is the same as God, God is the same as man, man is the same as the cell, the cell is the same as the atom, the atom is the same as…and so on, ad infinitum.”
Yes, just like the String Theory that I learned more about watching NOVA’s series on The Elegant Universe: In order to solve some of the deepest mysteries of the universe, the rules that govern large objects like galaxies must be combined with the rules that govern small objects like subatomic particles.
According to String Theory physicist Brian Greene
String theory proclaims, for instance, that the observed particle properties — that is, the different masses and other properties of both the fundamental particles and the force particles associated with the four forces of nature (the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity) — are a reflection of the various ways in which a string can vibrate. Far from being a collection of chaotic experimental facts, particle properties in string theory are the manifestation of one and the same physical feature: the resonant patterns of vibration — the music, so to speak — of fundamental loops of string. The same idea applies to the forces of nature as well. Force particles are also associated with particular patterns of string vibration and hence everything, all matter and all forces, is unified under the same rubric of microscopic string oscillations — the “notes” that strings can play.
In the Unified Field Theory, it all strings together. The old Harmony of the Universe thing. Rhythms of Vision (a resonating out-of-print book of which I have a tattered paperback copy).
We’re all tied together. All the more reason to be honest with each other. With whatever Fields in which we find ourselves entangled.
Jessica Lynch is trying to be honest. RageBoy is trying to be honest. Shelley is being honest about being honest.
If enough of us insist on honesty in our little pictures, will that affect that big picture that has been perverted by so much individual, corporate, and governmental dishonor and dishonesty?
Big picture, little picture. Fractals. As above, so below. A Unified Theory of Everything.
Strings.
…………….
Tomorrow night, I will go outside and watch the moon disappear. On Sunday, I drive down with my mother to attend my Aunt Anna’s wake and funeral.
And on Monday, I will put more effort into the little picture.
Sometimes life,
like a labyrinth,
leads you
where you have to go.
You think you make choices —
this man or that,
some child or not.
You set your alarm,
choose your shoes,
gather friends for tea,
count your changes,
until one day a corner comes,
slipping you a glimpse
of those strings of stones
shaping your shadow’s edge.
And sometimes,
perhaps,
on a perfect day
under a perfect sky
a perfect black cat
with eyes like glowing stones
races across your path
and waits in the early ferns
for you to cross hers.
copyright Elaine Frankonis 5/03