Home Under guidance by stars

There are certain things in this world that somehow have clung unto humanity for what seems to be an eternity. Things that people before us did a thousand years ago, things that we still today are practicing and see as normal. Besides the obvious activities of eating, sleeping and loving, there are moments perhaps more profound and romantic than that of the ordinary living. To take a path into a forest, stop by a cliff near the roaring sea, and stare up the black and majestic night sky, lit by glowing stars, is one of those things.

We as humans have always admired and embraced the stars, longed for them, wished to become one with the endless possibilities of the open space and Universe. Stars are unique, for they present to us a metaphoric scheme of devastation and happiness - destruction and creation. Much like a fallen or born star, human civilizations have been created or destroyed. It is the course of nature, cycle of life, yet we ask ourselves: "What is the cause of a fallen star? When our society is rotten from inside and out, what did go wrong?" We ask, and we look for answers above, like we always have done, after the realization that we as species are just but a tiny spot - a seemingly irrelevant function - of an enormous system of forces, ideas and space.

Our society, stuck in an age of modern technology, massmedia and crowd revolt, is nothing but a result of negative ideas that began to circulate long before the effects were experienced. The idea of an absolute God, upheld as unquestionable to any relative viewpoint, was used in the medieval ages by the masses, to gain economic power equal to that of the nobility. Integrating itself with the structure of society by influencing the King's judgement, Christianity was soon an accepted method of justifying absolute moral behaviour, economic greed and the notion of dualism: to see the world governed by an external force, and let that power in place justify any behaviour linked to that force.

But what Christianity did to the medieval society, was not only to uphold and claim power - but also to use it and strengthen it by means of centralization. This was opposed to the Pagan societies, which lacked any form of national or central power, and instead promoted localization where local chiefs, through a direct form of Democracy, held their power over a village alone. Christianity, being the absolutistic belief system, narrowed these relative points of power down to centralization in the structure of society. The result is what we as moderns today experience; a lowest common denominator normalizing everything in its way, in order to make sure that the illusion of "equality" may prevail over hierarchy and difference in cultural viewpoints.

The idea of equal capability today enforces a governmental system where the voice of the majority is louder than the voice of the lone genius and thinker. Any opposition or dissident is suppressed and branded as deviant or blasphemer, thus, any relative answer to the absolute one already created, is denied. What follows, is a lack of variation, lack of stability and an enforced governmental control through massmedia, bureaucratic law and politicians of "freedom". Through the means of Democracy, countries today use the binary vision of good and evil, in order to affirm tolerance of its own selfish interest, and to hunt down its "evil" counterpart.

People are thus split between their own racial culture, the culture next to them, and the culture in front of them; mainly, that of entertainment and consumerism. What follows, is a hate towards something unknown, instead of love towards something known. This was not originally how Indo-European Paganism viewed relative cultures; Viking raids resulted in war, death and suffering, but never a dualistic justification to hunt down "evil" wherever a devil in red appeared, as seen with self-insecure Christians in the medieval times.

As we stand here today, originally on Pagan ground, we seek for answers to questions deep inside of us. Lost in the modern world of chaotic lifestyles, we as clear thinking individuals long for a more simple, natural and meaningful life, something beyond what the current society may offer us. Most of our people have degenerated into numb robots where temporary self-pleasure is the highest of laws, thinking that by the end of the day, all problems will be solved. But as we continuously wake up in the middle of the night, sweaty and confused, who are we to fool ourselves, to believe in something that died out a thousand years ago?

When a star falls, it dies, and we are by tradition able to wish something that will come true. Perhaps we wish for something or someone to love, for a better economic situation, for many friends in our lives, or just for the moment of stillness and wonder to last a lifetime. In this precise moment, we are positioned within timeless space, for this is the order of the Universe; to create a star, to watch it fade away until it dies and lose all energy and light, only to induce a wish and create something new out of the old.

After such contemplation, one is inclined to raise one's eyes towards the bright firmament and ask oneself this question: "If these stars died a million years ago, but due to the long distance from Earth, cannot see that their light already has passed away - what am I now staring at?"

We see things in this world that we regard as "positive", but finally understand, that these "positive" things are but remnants of the past that died out a long time ago, before we even were born. They are nothing but remains of things failed and miserable. Perhaps we ought to change direction? Perhaps we should look for other possibilities, beyond what a fixed "yes" or "no" may give us in return? Perhaps, we should let our eyes gaze upon the glowing stars, those that still today are alive, and let them guide us throughout our lives until, we too, will fade away and become a wish for tomorrow?

April 30, 2006

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