nature's zodiac

Winter’s done, and April’s in the skies,
Earth, look up with laughter in your eyes!

Charles G.D Roberts

As I watch the snow falling this morning in Vermont, it is gigglish to think that in two days I will be outside on a likely sunny spring day watching a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event. We will be out on the deck, with our attention trained towards the skies for far longer than usual. With many other earth-inhabitants that day, we will be looking up! 

The heavens themselves will respectfully show up at this event. In an unusual cosmic event, the eight main planets will align, like guests at a banquet.

It is extremely uncommon for all eight planets to even be in the same part of the sky; this occurs every few thousand years and was last recorded in 949 C.E. Astronomers predict the next planetary alignment will occur on the night of May 6, 2492. 

Like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the gods may become visible to us as the birds pause their songs in strange limbo. 

Holidays unite people in a shared celebration. With an event like this, when day turns to night, and the gods align to look back upon humanity as we look up to them, we are united not only in a shared celebration but also in shared wonder. 

Wonder is nature’s most sophisticated source of renewal. In her book, Sense of Wonder, Rachel Carson writes:

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

Rachel Carson, Sense of Wonder

It may be snowing now, but the forecast shows sun ahead, followed by stars and a healthy dose of wonder.