night

Jacob’s Ladder

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“Jacob’s Ladder” | Anthony Satori

“And Jacob went… toward Haran. And he lighted upon the place, and tarried there all night, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and beheld a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and he beheld the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. And, behold, the Lord stood beside him, and said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.” And Jacob awakened out of his sleep… and he said: ‘How full of awe is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and he set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.”

– Genesis 28:10-19

Jacob took the stone that he had slept upon and used it to create a shrine in the place where he had experienced a vision of God. What he did not realize, however, was that the house of God – and the gate of heaven – are not bound to any physical location, at all. The house of God and the gate of heaven are within each of us, wherever we may be. We need only search within ourselves with a pure heart, and we will find a direct channel to this very Source of Light and Love.

A Single and Eternal Flow of Energy

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“Lightning Storm” –|– Anthony Satori

“The sensation of ‘I’ as a lonely and isolated center of being is so powerful and common-sensical, and so fundamental to our modes of speech and thought… that we cannot help but experience selfhood except as something superficial in the scheme of the universe. I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time – a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multi-colored drops that gleam for a moment only to vanish forever. Under such conditioning, it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that my ‘self’ does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body. At this level of existence… my forms are infinite, and their comings and goings are simply the pulses or vibrations of a single and eternal flow of energy.”

– Alan Watts

The Stillness Underneath

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“Tree of Light” –|– Anthony Satori

“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Jupiter and Saturn in Conjunction

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“Jupiter and Saturn in Conjunction” –|– Anthony Satori

“The ninety and nine are with dreams content.
But the hope of the world made new
Is the hundredth person who is grimly bent
On making dreams come true.”

— Ted Olson

I took this photograph just a few weeks ago, on December 21, 2020. At first blush, it may not be evident why this image might be of particular note. The two lights in the sky, however, are the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and they are in “conjunction” — which means that on this particular night these two celestial bodies were visibly closer together in our sky than they have been in nearly 800 years. The last time they appeared this close (0.1 degree apart) was 1226 AD. Merely to be alive to witness the recurrence of such a phenomenon is quite amazing. To top it off, however, this incredibly rare event occurred on Winter Solstice (for the Northern Hemisphere), which feels doubly auspicious.

Winter Solstice is the longest, darkest, and often coldest night of the year. In this moment, we are the farthest from the Sun than at any other time. It also means, however, that a shift is occurring. Things are now beginning to turn around, and to move back toward the renewal of life, toward the expansion of light and warmth, and toward the rejuvenation that comes with springtime.

Keep faith, everyone. The planets have aligned.

(See below for a more close-up photograph of the conjunction!)

“Jupiter and Saturn in Conjunction (with moons visible)” | 2020-12-21 18:40 (PST) | Anthony Satori

The Sight of the Stars

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“Festive” –|– Anthony Satori

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” 

— Vincent van Gogh

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, as we dream our way into the new year.

The Golden Link

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“Cityscape” –|– Anthony Satori

“Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.”

— Petrarch