(c) John, Rekesh 2004-2007. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced without the author's permission
7 Rhythm - Part 2
(continued from here)
“The answer again is that it can’t. But let me explain by way of an analogy.” Aliyah paused a moment, then continued, “Just this last week was the local kindergarten roundup, you know, when the school district tries to get all the local five year olds registered for kindergarten. Last Tuesday a friend of mine participated in the roundup, to register her little boy for school. I tagged along, curious to see what happened there. Her husband had instructed her to get to the school gym by 3 pm and we were there on the dot, followed the clock exactly. Guess what I found most interesting there?”
“I don’t have any brats and you know I am not too fond of them either. But I expect you went there to gape at the kids,” offered Emma.
“Well, I sure was interested in the kids and was listening to some of the registrations, and then it dawned on me that most of the kids being registered had last names starting with P, Q, R and S. It happened as a coincidence that I noticed, but then it took some time for me to figure it out. I asked some names randomly to make sure, and most names fell into this alphabet range. A few of them did not match though. One had a last name starting with Z, another had a V. However the overall correlation with the alphabet pattern was pretty strong! Now is that amazing or what?”
“Well, I don’t think so!” laughed Emma. “They must have sent out a notice of some sort. Like specific appointment times based on the last name of the kids! Boy, aren’t you gullible!”
Aliyah laughed too. “You’re right! For a moment I was taken by surprise. In fact the school had circulated a flyer asking parents to preferably register kids according to a schedule. The schedule mapped the first alphabet in their last names to certain days and times. Well, all parents could not follow the guidelines as they had their own agendas and appointments that conflicted with these timings. And my friend hadn’t seen the flyer, but simply did what her husband had instructed.”
“Alright! I see what you are getting at. You are comparing those kids’ last names with astrological characteristics associated with birthdates and signs. And the school registration to birth itself.”
“Yes! The characteristics and events described by astrology come about by arrangement, like my friend registering her boy for school. Those rules are not written in stone. Neither the planets nor the schools have any magical powers to enforce them.”
“But that is not what popular interpretations of astrology seem to say. Some imply that planets send out some kind of waves or something and cause such things to happen.”
“Well if you think about it, that line of reasoning is not completely invalid. You know that the moon causes tides, raising the water a few feet through the action of gravity. The land also rises, though it is less obvious. So the planets, at least those close to the earth, like Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Moon can have some tangible effect on matter, even the brain. But translating that to what is popularly claimed about astrology is a singular stretch of the imagination.”
“You mean the contentions of astrologers have no basis?”
“Look at it again, Emma. Planetary positions or movements that are used in astrology are in most cases only appearances. They are virtual positions and movements, not real. The Sun does not actually move through the Zodiac in such fashion. It is only an appearance, much like a tree appearing to move when you drive your car. It would be ridiculous to say that your moving tree hit a pedestrian, or that the “conjunction” of the tree with the pedestrian had a physical impact. Whereas in fact the tree remained where it is, the pedestrian was not close to the tree, and they did not even interact. It is only in your view from the car that they seemed to have come together. How can something virtual or illusory cause a real physical effect?”
“Alright then, let us suppose that you are right. And let us even suppose that astrology does work by arrangement, and that this solar clock drives this arrangement. But you have pushed back the problem. Where did this solar clock come from?”
“Indeed Emma, that is the biggest question. There is the problem of the origin of this solar clock and why the clock would even be consulted at all. Apparently there is a greater order to life that spans though the ages, and there seems to be plans, purposes and deadlines as well, for otherwise a clock is not needed. If you notice, the solar clock can tell time from hours to the great ages, that is, from small durations to years, to a lifetime, and then again to even greater spans of time if you consider the precession of the equinoxes. This means there are plans, purposes and deadlines at the level of individuals, nations, and even for the race itself!”
“Whoa, hold on! That’s stretching things far too much!”
“But Emma, why else would a clock tell time across the ages, unless the human race as a whole has plans, purposes and deadlines that span ages? Just think of that! A clock that strikes for the human race as a whole, as if the race were a single individual!”
“Aliyah, you are boggling the mind now. This is pretty hard to digest. Plans and purposes for the human race? How can there be any? Where can they come from?”
“Where can they come from? There is a hint if you look carefully. Before batteries came along, you were the one who wound up your clock or watch, providing the energy that makes it tick, so that you could order your life. Now consider this great solar clock-work. What is it that created and continues to drive it?”
“The sun, I should think.”
“And what does the sun stand for in our analogies?”
“Your analogies, you mean. Yes, in your analogies it seems to correspond to, what do you call it? the Godhead?”
“Well, religious people do attribute plans and purposes in life to a higher source, don’t they? And isn’t it curious how we keep coming back to this notion of the Sun as an analogue of the Godhead?”
Emma pondered over this. It seemed that Aliyah’s system of enquiry consistently pointed out this analogy with the sun. Was there really a greater order to life as these analogies seemed to hint?
“So you have concluded from your research that astrology is true? That all you have said has a firm basis? Then why do astrologers come out with conflicting predictions and analysis all the time?”
“Hmm, yes, good question. Now how shall I put this?” Aliyah looked down and pondered a while. Then she smiled and looked up.
“Remember the time you told me that Jen had eloped with one of your science instructors? And you were really buzzing all over about it?”
“Sure, I remember,” Emma grinned sheepishly.
“There was even speculation that the fellow had taken all of his wife’s jewels with him. But in truth Jen had simply left without notice to attend her grandmother’s funeral, and all your instructor had done was give her a lift to the airport.”
“That was not my fault at all! I got that bit of news from what I thought was quite reliable sources, but it turned out that she didn’t get all of it quite right.” Emma flushed a crimson red.
“Indeed,” laughed Aliyah, “Such is the very nature of gossip. Information is relayed from one person to another through individual descriptions of what each has understood. Gossip spreads, mutates, combines and regenerates in many forms. What you or I might hear would usually be a caricature of the actual thing or event. So you can think of so many variants of the same information available to different people, distorted, some even absolutely false. This invariably happens when information is relayed through many people.”
“I see what you are getting at. You are saying that the astrological system of interpretation has mutated into many forms the way gossip does?”
“Yes, primarily because the system has been relayed through generations of people who have followed what was handed down, then embellished or distorted it in some way and passed it on, in many cases orally. The truer interpretations are now esoteric and rarely to be found. But many systems are acceptable approximations. At the same time many others are also far from it. The current state of affairs is really no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.”
“And what is a true system of interpretation, if I may ask?”
“Well, I believe that the closer a system is to the right interpretation, the more focus it will give on your soul, its plans and purposes, its goals and failures, its challenges. The farther away a system is, the more it will focus on petty things like whether you will find romance this week, make a pile at the stock market, or get a promotion – which will appear to work brilliantly or fail miserably by virtue of simple statistics. But what is more important, a true system will always focus on the real reasons behind the trials you face and why you have made certain goals for yourself. For you see, without meaning and reason any plan or purpose is lost.”
“Are you saying that astrology is not really meant for predictions?”
“That is right! It is not meant to be used for predictions any more than a clock or calendar is. I can always try to predict by looking at your calendar that next month you will have a surgical appointment. Maybe you will, or maybe it will be postponed or cancelled. What is the point? The information one would seek is really as to why you have that appointment and how you might be able to avoid surgery or at least prepare for it. Such is the information provided by a true astrological interpretation, which is written against your soul calendar.”
Emma felt dizzy. All of this was too much information to digest. It seemed that in a single line of reasoning Aliyah had moved from her watch to the solar system and from it to a greater order.
Suddenly her watch buzzed and she looked at it quizzically. It would soon be twelve noon.
“There’s one appointment for me now! But that reminds me, what do you think will happen in 2012?”
“Nothing, really.” replied Aliyah.
“Nothing? But you said it’s time for some appointment for the race or something?”
“Well, don’t expect anything magical in that year! It is like any of our appointments. At the start of an appointment there is the preparation of entering into some activity. Like when you visit the dentist you go through the process of registering, waiting, going in, settling down, idle chit-chat, while things are being prepared and questions are being asked. Or when you meet for lunch you sit down, look through the menu, order items, make idle talk. And it takes a while before the actual activity commences. Astrologers are aware of this equivalent phenomenon.”
“Equivalent phenomenon?”
“It takes about a few degrees of rotation of the clock hand, a mark of time, until the influence of a previous zodiac sign wanes and the current sign becomes fully prominent. So this means you can expect perhaps a few hundred years or so to go by before the race as a whole fully sees and recognizes that something major has happened. Individuals of course may possibly recognize it much earlier.”
“Well, whatever. I really must leave now. Mom will be waiting at the mall. And she really gets hopping mad if I don’t show up on time. Isn’t that just finicky?”
As she drove, Emma couldn’t help glancing at her watch time and again. Aliyah’s cosmic clock kept coming back to her mind. Was it possible that the cosmos somehow had an intelligent watch maker?
* * *
Holidays came and went. Aliyah eagerly looked forward to seeing Theo again after the break. On the first day of school, she walked quickly to the hall where Theo would be offering his new course. Outside the lecture hall there was a small crowd. She could hear loud conversations and exclamations among the group of students. Something was going on.
“What’s up?” she asked a colleague.
“The course was cancelled! They don’t have anyone capable of handling it.”
“I thought Prof. T was pretty good with it,” she felt tension rise within.
“Oh, you didn’t hear the news? Everyone’s talking about him!”
“News? what news?” a cold dread of fear slipped into her.
“Looks like the guy was some sort of adventurer; worked for the secret service too. They say he went on a mission to South America, chasing drug runners.”
“And?” she questioned anxiously. The description was familiar.
“The last they heard, there was some contract out on him. They tried to help him out of the country, but …”
“But?”
“He never got out alive, the poor chap. Guess those fellows over there are really vicious.”
She hardly heard the rest. Her knees felt weak and her vision turned hazy. Voices around became a rumble and she leaned against the wall to support herself.
The earth shook, thunder clapped and the sky came crashing down. Theo had disappeared from her life.
* * *
In the days that followed, Aliyah moved around in stunned silence and pain, questioning herself how such a thing could ever happen. All her efforts to meditate were futile. It seemed there was nothing she could do to end her pain. She was amazed at herself, that all her spiritual practices and her so-called wisdom were easily negated by down-to-earth human experiences and emotions. And she could do nothing about it. How could anyone be free and enlightened, she wondered, when the onslaught of basic human emotion was so fundamental and overpowering? For the hundredth time she asked herself if there was at all any meaning or purpose to life.
But life never gave her answers in speeches or in letters, for her truths were always meant to be forged within her own being.
And to get there she had to first fall victim to abject and diabolical evil.
* * *
(Next Chapter)