Pssst! You. Yeah, you. Are a passenger on a planet. On a blue-green planet that's orbiting a golden star. And if you keep your eye on the sky now, you'll see why our ancient, sky-watching ancestors did so much celebrating at this time of year --- and why we're still celebrating today.

In the book of Genesis, "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven ... and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." These heavenly lights that the Bible calls "signs" are road signs on the road of life. The road of life is our 600-million-mile orbit around the sun. The road of life is the cosmic journey that the average person just calls "a year."

If we want to know where we are in our cosmic journey, we need to keep our eye on the sky. When we do this, we see that over the course of our yearly journey, our star scenery changes. The stars we see tonight are not the same ones that we'll see half a year from now because half a year from now we'll be on the opposite side of our orbit, looking at the opposite half of the heavens. The constellations we see tonight are the same ones we saw on this date every year in the past, and they're the same ones we will see on this date every year in the future. So, we can tell where we are in our cosmic journey by reading the star signs. And if we don't know where we are, we are lost.

But... what if we don't know how to read these signs because nobody taught us this in school? What if we can't even see these signs because of light pollution? We can turn to our ancient ancestors because in ancient times there were Magi -- wise ones -- who knew how to read the sky. And not all of their knowledge is lost. Of course, the Magi lived before we had light pollution, back when everybody could see the stars. So the gift of guidance was available to everyone free of charge. Yet, not everyone knew how to read the sky map. Only the Magi did.

The Magi appear in our holiday celebrations now, when we decorate trees, buildings and bushes with little artificial stars. Of course, the stars that actually guide us are visible only at night. And the longest nights in our year are now, at the winter solstice. So, the Magi re-appear each year at this time, reminding us that we don't have to be lost. We can look around and learn how to tell where we are in our cosmic journey.

If the stars were not surrounding our orbit and serving us as orbital mile markers, we'd have no way of seeing that our Earthly existence is a heavenly journey. And when we do get our bearings from the heavens, we're prone to moments of ecstasy. (By the way, our word, ecstasy, comes from the Latin, ex stasis, meaning "to stand outside of yourself.") Since ecstasy expands when we share it, we gather together in celebration at this time of year! And my way of celebrating is to give you this gift of words.

This is Harriet Witt, your guide for this little ride on our passenger planet.


If you have any questions, drop Harriet an email: harriet@passengerplanet.com


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