For almost the entire return distance, Venus was shining brightly in the night sky, seemingly poised over the part of town where my house, and my family, waited for me. I couldn't ask for a better, or more inspiring guide.
On a night like that, with the planet so bright and present in the sky, it's easy to see why Venus was named after the goddess of beauty and love. And it's easy to understand why Venus drew so much attention from ancient stargazers.
In the 1950's Immanuel Velikovsky published a controversial theory on the origins of Venus. He believed our ancestors were so in awe of Venus because it nearly collided with Earth. In his view, Venus had been ejected from Jupiter and had passed close by Earth, disturbing it's orbit and causing many of the catastrophes mentioned in the Bible. No doubt a sure way to get attention.
But a lot of unnecessary bother. I guess Velikovsky didn't spend much time outside looking at the wayward planet of his Worlds in Collision. If he did, on a night like last night, he wouldn't need to postulate any complicated scenario for the ancient's fascination.
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2 comments:
You write very well. And I'm impressed at the time you must be putting into your craft.
I've been meaning to get back to you on this Venus Trek. Reminds me of a Rexroth poem recently introduced to me:
A SWORD IN A CLOUD OF LIGHT
Your hand in mine, we walk out
To watch the Christmas Eve crowds
On Fillmore Street, the Negro
District. The night is thick with
Frost. The people hurry, wreathed
In their smoky breaths. Before
The shop windows the children
Jump up and down with spangled
Eyes. Santa Clauses ring bells,
Cars stall and honk. Streetcars clang.
Loud speakers on the lampposts
Sing carols, on juke boxes
In the bars Louis Armstrong
Plays “White Christmas.” In the joints
The girls strip and grind and bump
To “Jingle Bells.” Overhead
The neon signs scribble and
Erase and scribble again
Messages of avarice,
Joy, fear, hygiene, and the proud
Names of the middle classes.
The moon beams like a pudding.
We stop at the main corner
And look up, diagonally
Across, at the rising moon,
And the solemn, orderly
Vast winter constellations.
You say, “There’s Orion!”
The most beautiful object
Either of us will ever
Know in the world or in life
Stands in the moonlit empty
Heavens, over the swarming
Men, women, and children, black
And white, joyous and greedy,
Evil and good, buyer and
Seller, master and victim,
Like some immense theorem,
Which, if once solved would forever
Solve the mystery and pain
Under the bells and spangles.
There he is, the man of the
Night before Christmas, spread out
On the sky like a true god
In whom it would only be
Necessary to believe
A little. I am fifty
And you are five. It would do
No good to say this and it
May do no good to write it.
Believe in Orion. Believe
In the night, the moon, the crowded
Earth. Believe in Christmas and
Birthdays and Easter rabbits.
Believe in all those fugitive
Compounds of nature, all doomed
To waste away and go out.
Always be true to these things.
They are all there is. Never
Give up this savage religion
For the blood-drenched civilized
Abstractions of the rascals
Who live by killing you and me.
That is one hell of an amazing poem. I enjoyed the way Rexroth starts descriptive and moves into another realm, with Orion as both the written and imaginary key for entry. Thanks for sharing...
Thanks too for your generous comments on my writing in this blog. Since these are often just my rants and quick thoughts (or crude poems), the quality varies, but I try to make them all as enjoyable as I can. And there are times when I am inspired and strive to treat the subject with more care. I am glad to hear that sometimes I do OK.
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