The heavens. The stars, the sun and the moon.
They have been pondered over and used by man over the millennia. They loom large in our creation stories; stories which tell us of our beginnings, our journeys, stories that seek to explain the wherefore behind our human experience and, often, the stories of what is to come.
It has been said that, in one sense, the heavens, the stars, the sun and the moon are symbols that represent those institutions and systems of governance and guidance that have been at the core of human civilization from time immemorial. Systems that represent the 'heaven of mankinds understanding' at any given point in history.
Through time, through the birth, life and death of these various systems, we have, in a sense, witnessed, many times, the unfoldment of new heavens, new stars, new suns and moons. For where once faith-leaders inspired vibrant life, kings dealt justly with those over whom they governed and human agencies cared for the well-being of their citizenry, we have witnessed these agencies fall from their once glorious heights of clarity and purpose and fall to places of darkness and confusion, ceasing to be sources of light and guidance. Then, always, followed the slow but certain death of a way, a people, a civilization.
But, also always, seemingly out of nowhere, from places and sources unexpected there appeared new ways of understanding, new sources of light and guidance - a new heavens by which we set out on our journeys, a widening and deepening of vision in the hearts and minds of people. A rolling up of the old and the spreading out of the new. An arching sky full of heavenly bodies providing orientation, lighting the way, shedding illumination.
This process we have seen repeated time and again, like the cycles of a great movement of man, and running through it all, like a thread connecting the disparate parts, a promise, an assurance that there would come a time on this planet when this pattern of night following day, collapse following an effort of building would cease.
That time has come.
“Hear Me, ye mortal birds!
"In the Rose Garden of changeless splendor a Flower hath begun to bloom, compared to which every other flower is but a thorn, and before the brightness of Whose glory the very essence of beauty must pale and wither. Arise, therefore, and, with the whole enthusiasm of your hearts, with all the eagerness of your souls, the full fervor of your will, and the concentrated efforts of your entire being, strive to attain the paradise of His presence, and endeavor to inhale the fragrance of the incorruptible Flower, to breathe the sweet savors of holiness, and to obtain a portion of this perfume of celestial glory. Whoso followeth this counsel will break his chains asunder, will taste the abandonment of enraptured love, will attain unto his heart's desire, and will surrender his soul into the hands of his Beloved. Bursting through his cage, he will, even as the bird of the spirit, wing his flight to his holy and everlasting nest.”
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 320)
The Players:
Eugene Smith - Drums
Mike Ward - Bass, & Accompanying Vocals
Auberte Campeau - Keyboards
Laurel Dewitt - Backing Vocals
Bob Ryan - Electric & Acoustic Guitars and Lead Vocal
Recorded in 1997 at Lightkeeper Music Recording Studios
Rune-Like
(Lyrics)
Words & Music by Bob Ryan (C)1982
The sparkling light of stars shine
in a blue/black haze
that envelopes this shining globe
And inner-sight revelas their rune-like light
Probes of flame from that Invisible Sun
But I just don’t believe
That eyes will not behold them
Their shining voice alight
Calling from eternity!
We move a faltering step
as all infants can
Potentially a full grown man
Again we’ll raise our eyes
to those sparkling heights
Our clumsy ways are left behind
Illuminating heavens as black as night
Pinpoints of guiding light
From which, direction’s known
From left or right
From right or wrong the shadow’s known
Can you hear them calling?.......
Upon the growing daybreak
their light seems naught
To the blazing of the Mother Sun
But when she sets below the horizons of men
They’re signs of this One encircling Light!
