“.He casts down to the depths of the nether world, and he brings up from the great abyss…” Tobit 13:2 Pluto has been quite the celebrity of late. Although it’s been around for the last 4.5 billion years, it was only on July 15th of this year that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made a spectacular […]Read Post ›

” ‘Tis thine…to survey, well pleased, the monsters of the ocean play…and with prosperous gales, waft ships along, and swell the spacious sails; add gentle peace, and fair-haired health beside, and pour abundance in a blameless tide”. Greek Orphic hymn to Poseidon The three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, circling out there beyond the boundary […]Read Post ›

“Some mornings I walked out into the courtyard and every living thing there, the seagulls and wagtails, the small trees and even the stray blades of grass seemed to smile and shine in the sun. It was at such times, when I perceived the beauty of even this small, closed-in corner of the world, that […]Read Post ›

” ‘Tis thine to brandish thunders strong and dire, to scatter storms, and dreadful darts of fire; with roaring flames involving all around, and bolts of thunder of tremendous sound.” Orphic Hymn 19 to Zeus of Thunder NASA Tonight is a “really big show,”to borrow a line from Ed Sullivan. On our stage is Jupiter, […]Read Post ›

” Understand that thou art a second world in miniature, and that the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars.”  Origen, Homiliae in Leviticum Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and has the largest dust storms in the solar system. The iron oxide dust on its surface gives it […]Read Post ›

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Song of Songs 6:3 We draw near to Venus, the bright celestial beacon associated through time immemorial with beauty and love. Further associations include: romance, sensuality, pleasure, peace, harmony, even laughter and relaxation. For the men who are reading this – although […]Read Post ›

Great are the works of God, to be pondered by all who delight in them. Psalm 111:2 This beautiful 12th century mosaic of God at work creating the cosmos is from the Monreale Cathedral in Sicily. Uranus, let’s face it, is a little different. It’s the only known planet that rotates on a horizontal axis […]Read Post ›

O swift winged Mercury,“who flies as fleet as thought to do the bidding of Zeus….off into the sky, unapproachable, twirling in the air the windswift soles of his shoes.” Greek epic Nonnus, Dionysiaca   Our celestial Mercury is the smallest of the major planets, heavily cratered, closest to the sun and visible at night after […]Read Post ›

“When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you set in place…” Psalm 8:3 Oh the beautiful moon! I found a lovely Finnish myth. A teal laid its egg on the knee of the moon goddess Kuu as she sat in the abyss. The egg fell and […]Read Post ›

“God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night. And the stars.” Genesis 1:16 We’ve been exploring myth and symbol in relation to each of the planets, I’m delighted to share three images that caught my interest as I worked with the archetypal […]Read Post ›