THE CONJUNCTION OF MYSTIC AND MECHANICAL

There’s a once-in-12-generations conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn tonight and so, just in time, the clouds have rolled in to obscure it. Solar eclipses, comets, supernovas, you can pretty much bank on overcast skies in the UK. My guess is that it’ll be cloudy on the day the sun blows up.

Though, not for long, mind you...

It feels significant. I can’t precisely explain how, other than to say that an astronomical event is happening, on a solstice day, and actually at Christmas. How apt! The old theory is of course that a possible conjunction of three planets - rare indeed - was the sign that drove the Magi to the manger; I’ve always found it interesting that they read the stars like astrologers.

To astronomers though, the conjunction is significant only for geometrical reasons. Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn line up - and for a brief moment there’s a straight line connecting the dots. It makes little difference to the workings of the solar system.

Meanwhile the solstice represents the point in our orbit when the polar axis is tilting furthest away from the sun. It’s the ‘bleak midwinter’ for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The only significance (outside of the mechanical) is that from now on the sun starts setting later and the day-times start getting longer - which ought to be hopeful for those of us stuck in the gloom of a global pandemic.

I wonder about these things. Are they signs? Are they prompts to do something, to set out on a wild adventure? Or are they just points on a geometric plane, natural outcomes of a clockwork universe? Is our scientific understanding just a gradual reveal of God’s intricate coding? Is science just mankind’s ongoing progress at replacing the mystic with the rational? I hope it can always be both actually - a conjunction of the physical and spiritual. I’m quite okay with the mystery, and I’m fascinated by the mechanics. I don’t believe one is more important than the other, provided I see it, and maybe gain some sort of significance and some wonder from it.

So long as the clouds get out of the way of course.