I was thinking… today, the clouds, wind, and rain are the primary way modern people experience the sky. We have lost touch with what guided and inspired countless generations who have walked this planet. In investigating how severe the issue has become, studies I found estimate one-third of the world’s population no longer can see the Milky Way. This includes 60 percent of Europeans and 80 percent of Americans. The culprit, artificial light, which has created a permanent “skyglow” at night that drowns out and erases from our view the distant stars. This light pollution, of course, is concentrated in urban cities worldwide, where the majority of humanity lives.
Before anyone concludes that I am against the progress we have made, which includes the incredible gift of artificial lighting, let me highlight a positive. We no longer bumble about at night, needing a lantern to light the way or need to squint painfully at a book we are reading by candlelight. But sadly, like so many innovations, discoveries, and tools we have been able to create, things have a way going overboard; spawning consequences we did not foresee. There is literally, an entire generation of our species now that has never viewed our galaxy.
Fabio Falchi of the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Thiene, Italy says, “But I am convinced that light pollution is no longer just a problem for astronomers. It is a global problem for everyone. All life on Earth evolved with the dark, with 12 hours of dark and 12 hours of sun. But now we are enveloping our planet in a perpetual glow. And life is affected by that.” And indeed, it is, studies I found have shown exposure to certain wavelengths of light at night can suppress our bodies ability to produce melatonin-disrupting sleep; blue light is particularly disruptive. Another major impact is felt in the world’s wildlife. It affects animals and ecosystems in a myriad of surprising ways.
Being a practicing Astrologer, I am particularly attuned to this issue. Part of my training involves visually connecting with the fixed stars and the wandering stars (aka, planets). Last year in my quest to frequently do this, I purchased a high-end hammock! This hammock isn’t for lounging about idly in the afternoon Sun, but rather lying under the night sky and observing the celestial stage above me. I can tell you that the nights I have been able to do this, are calming, healing, and inspiring.
For our ancestors, night was night. There were no cell phones, no TVs, no radios, no electricity, up until a few hundred years ago. Ancient civilizations believed in a living cosmos, it had a soul. Everything was alive and we could connect with it all. Today, we barely look up. And it seems crazy to many that all that stuff out there could have a soul. My wish for you is as the Sun makes its way back to the Northern Hemisphere, and warmer days are ushered in yet again, you take some time to connect with the stars above us. Experience the awe of realizing we are but a pale blue dot, on a remote corner, of one galaxy, in a vast and endless array of galaxies that stretch on and on. This same night sky has enveloped everyone who has walked on this planet. It has much to teach us, if we listen.
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