One of my favorite board games as a kid was Space Hop.
Yours too?
Space Hop is a game all about astronomy and our solar system.
So, these days any time there’s a cool tv show on about space, I watch it.
And if by some miracle there’s a cool show about the friggin synesthesia of space, I do a dance while I’m watching it.
Imagine my delight upon discovering Listen to the Universe.
This program describes the process of depicting the solar system using sound.
As I was watching it, I realized there was a major Wisdom Keeper aspect to this process.
To create these accurate sonifcations, data from multiple telescopes was used.
These are the serious telescopes, like the James Webb, the Spitzer, and the Hubble — they measure with dead-ass accuracy.
And, these telescopes each measure something different.
Some measure UV light, while others measure things like heat, x-ray light, optical light, radio waves, or gamma rays.
So, imagine that you’re the telescope that measures UV light.
You’re the best at measuring UV light in the world. You are excellent and thorough.
Lots of people tap your expertise, impressed by your data and grateful for it because they’re applying it to their own projects and hypotheses.
Your lens is helpful and trustworthy.
But then someone comes along needing data about gamma rays.
And because you don’t read gamma rays, they determine that you’re wrong about the universe and a crappy telescope.
Wrong.
About the Universe.
But…but…that’s not fair, you protest, in that cute telescope accent of yours.
And all of your fans, the ones whom you’ve helped with your expert accuracy about UV light, champion around you and tell that gamma ray person that they’rewrong.
This is a lot like the famous parable about the group of blind people each describing an elephant using touch.
One says, this creature is a like a snake, because they’re feeling its truck.
Another disagrees immediately and says, no no you’re wrong. Obviously, this creature is like a tree, because they’re feeling the elephant’s big legs.
Both right. Both wrong.
The same could be said for North Carolina, a state that includes shore, inner coastal waters, a piedmont, foothills, and some of the tallest peaks east of the mighty Mississip.
If you’ve been to the NC beach, have you really been to NC? Of course you have. But not all of it.
If you accurately read the UV light of the universe, have you built intimacy with the universe and know what you’re talking about? Of course you have. But not all of it.
And with astrology, there’s a wonderfully entertaining arm-wrestling match about which system is best; western, vedic, or sidereal.
I asked a professional astrologer whom I really admire about this, and she said, we will never corner the market when it comes to the design of universe.
So, back to the Wisdom Keeper and the sonifications.
These miraculous soundscapes were designed using all the telescopes, plus scientists, artists, seeing folks, non-seeing folks, etc.
There are two points I’m hoping to make with this example.
First, your Wisdom Keeper function allows (and requires!) you to be a collector of perspectives, curating “data” from all the best “telescopes” for a more complete understanding of…whatever it is you’re interested in.
Second, aligning with the “telescopes” that are providing you with the most useful “data for your projects” is not to be confused with bias and small mindedness.
If you’re doing a project that needs gamma ray info, don’t be all mad at the UV telescope, you know?
It’s your Wisdom Keeper intelligence that helps you collect your data via teachers, books, traditions, and etc. by Knowing the data you resonate with and understand.
For example, I’m a “telescope”.
I have a specific lens through which I see, glean insight, then share “data”.
My data includes scent, archetypes, seasons, creative writing, personal growth, and ritual.
If your “project” (your life) would benefit from my lens, great! I’m at your service.
But if my data is not useful to your life, it doesn’t mean I’m a crappy telescope.
Oh wait, hang on.
There were three points I was making.
The third and most important point is…you’re a telescope, too.
The way you see, compile “data”, and offer it to the world is relevant…to the people needing that data.
Your Wisdom Keeper intelligence is your lens, and you’re living a life collecting and compiling specific data that somebody’s gonna need.
But, probably not everybody.
If not everybody is interested in your lens, should you give up “seeing”?
No.
Because other telescopes exist, should you hang it up and quit?
No.
If other telescopes see things you don’t, does that means you’re a crappy telescope?
No.
What if you have a really great lens, but you also look through other lenses for inspiration and guidance?
Great, and good news, you’re not a know-it-all.
What if you found a lens you really like and so you tell everyone that you have the right lens and their lens is wrong.
Ummmmm, you’ll probably wanna re-think that.
In Listen to the Universe, one of the scientists describes the collection of telescopes they used as “super friends”.
Meaning, we need all the lenses.
Including the data from yours.
We need you to do the thing you do and add it to the mix so we can keep building and building an ever more complete picture of the miracles that surround us (and that we are); even when there are tons of lenses, when your lens isn’t on trend, and when not every single person in the world is interested in your lens.
It can be like the breath.
Breathing in, we take in data from other people’s lenses.
Breathing out, we offer data from our own.
Be a lens. Be a super friend.
And marvel at not only what you get to see, but who steps up, puts a quarter in the slot, and looks through your lens at something they woulda never seen on their own.
love and lenses,
xo
kv
PS: Meet Sharon! She invited me to lead a Wisdom Keeper ritual at her wonderful Fall Women’s Retreat last weekend. “Super Friends!”
Leave a Reply