Contents:
This analysis treats the
correspondence between the traditional astrological interpretation of the "sun
signs" and their meanings as revealed by their physical correlates in the
unified field theory. The
Grail diagram is the most succinct and powerful diagrammatic expression of the
relationships within and between these physical and conceptual systems; I use it
as the model for this discussion.
The Spacetime Grail Diagram (Fire & Water):
The Particle Grail Diagram (Earth & Air):
The Grail diagram is in two parts; the first treats the long-range
"spacetime" forces, electromagnetism and gravitation, and their astrological
correlates, the Fire and Water signs, respectively. The second part treats the
short-range "particle" forces, the strong and weak forces, and their respective
astrological correlates, the Earth and Air signs. The fractal nature of these
diagrams is to be especially noted; they are composed of 4 identical equilateral
triangles and the particle diagram is an expanded or "exploded" view of the mass
center of the spacetime diagram - it details the composition of that mass
center.
The Universe is a fractal iteration or elaboration of First Principle or
First Cause, its fractal nature the source of its periodic, hierarchal, and
General System character, intuitively expressed by statements such as "as above,
so below", and "man created in the image and likeness of God". The fractal
nature of the Universe is the rational basis for General Systems analysis, which
looks for correlations and correspondences between divergent physical systems,
such as the atomic, biological, and astrophysical natural systems, and human
conceptual systems of world order, such as the rational scientific system, and
the intuitive religious or occult system.
Science demands a cause for every effect; in General Systems we recognize
periodic and hierarchal effects whose causes may be unknown, guessed at, or
attributed to the "emergent" properties of system complexity. The Universe does
not apologize to us for its complexity, and I make none for resorting to this
type of general analysis; it has its own value and utility. The most rational
defense of General Systems is that the fractal nature of the Universe is the
cause of the correlation between the physical system and our various
intellectual modes of conceiving it; we are part and parcel of this fractal and
our mind recognizes this fact, intuitively as well as rationally.
This diagram treats the basic constituents of biological life, the
foundations of the physical system. Accordingly, we associate the fire and water
signs with the instincts and emotions, respectively, and the most basic physical
attributes of life. Although as a fractal the diagram can be analyzed at many
different levels of organization, I treat it at the human level of family
organization, and the physical level of elemental forces.
Correlation of the Physical and Astrological Hourglass Diagrams:
"Let There Be Light"
In physics, light, the primordial energy form; in astrology, Sagittarius, the
philosopher or sage; in human biology, native intelligence, "common sense",
mental capacity, information, inborn wisdom. This is the "sapiens" in "Homo
sapiens". The brain, the mind, mind the light of the brain, wisdom. Indeed,
mental visual images, consciousness, the phenomena of "mind" itself, is a form
of light produced by the electro-chemical activity of the brain. Mental
visualization is a form of abstract thought, but it is not yet symbolic
abstraction; that function we will meet in Gemini.
Sagittarius represents the visual development of the brain - we are visual
animals, sight is our premier sense, our brains and mental processes are
dominated by vision and light. One-third of our brain is devoted to vision; to
see is to believe. Hence we speak of insight, vision in the sense of wisdom,
enlightenment. Light is a metaphor for intelligence and the mind. Light lifts
our spirits; in its absence we become mentally depressed.
Physically, light is a perfectly symmetrical form of energy, carrying no
charges of any kind, and having no associated gravitational field or time
dimension. Light is non-local, being everywhere in space simultaneously, is its
own antiparticle, and is completely anonymous - one photon (quanta of light)
cannot be distinguished from any other. It is this perfect symmetry of light -
its sameness in all physical attributes - that distinguishes light from any
other energy form and identifies light as the most primordial, simple, and
symmetric expression of energy. All other forms of energy are derived from light
and eventually return to its symmetric form. The devolution of light into matter
and matter's subsequent evolution to light is the physical ontogeny of the
Universe and the spiritual allegory of religion.
Light is the basic universal form of energy, and from it every other energy
form of lesser symmetry is created - the world of matter is an asymmetric form
of light.
Sagittarius is ruled by the planet Jupiter, King of the Gods, planet of hope,
happiness and good fortune. The gentle, golden light of a summer's morning
perfectly conveys this feeling. In classical mythology, Jupiter escapes from his
father Saturn, dethroning him and becoming King of the modern era of gods.
Saturn represents matter, and in the beginning of the Universe there is indeed a
struggle between light and matter, a time when light is either bound in matter
as particle-antiparticle pairs, or in thermal equilibrium with it. Eventually
light breaks free as the Universe expands and cools, producing the transparent
spacetime of today. The return of the light that remains bound in matter to its
original symmetric form drives the evolution of the Cosmos.
"And God said, let there be light; and there was light." With these words,
according to Genesis, God began the creation of the Universe. In science as well
as religion, we recognize light as the primordial, initiating energy of the
Cosmos. Light is a physical metaphor for Divinity and the spirit, as well as the
mind.
Sagittarius represents the Sage or Philosopher of Astrology. In humans, I
associate this quality with consciousness, intelligence, information, the brain,
the mind, and wisdom in the sense of elevated mental capacity. The brain is the
light of humanity, mind is the light of the brain, and wisdom is the light of
mind. Man is mind; he is otherwise only another animal. Therefore Sagittarius
represents the genesis of humanity, the light in the mind of God which became
the visionary consciousness of man.
Space, Memory, Communication, Language, Music; the Aural Brain
and Mind
Sagittarius the Philosopher and Sage represents light, intelligence, wisdom,
information, the visual brain and mind. Pisces the poet and musician represents
space, memory, communication, language, music, the aural brain and mind. Both
Sagittarius and Pisces are ruled by the planet Jupiter; both light and sound are
types of vibration to which we are sensually receptive. Together, they comprise
our primary spatial communicative sensorium, our visual and aural world.
Space is the dimensional conservation domain of light; what is this
connection in human terms, as represented in the astrological tradition by the
Sage and Poet? The connection here is through memory: memory is the
informational conservation domain of intelligence, just as space is the
dimensional conservation domain of light. Language is a communicable form of
memory's conservation domain. The poet is using the mnemonic device of rhyme and
meter to enhance and buttress the memorability of his aural communication, just
as the musician uses harmony, melody, and rhythm to enhance the memorability of
his communication (feelings and emotions rather than words). Through the
invention of writing, printing, and electronic storage devices, etc., we have
greatly enhanced our ability to accurately communicate or transmit the
conservation domain of memory through time and space, from one generation to
another, from one place to another.
Memory is the conservation domain of intelligence, perception, information;
language (and music) are communicable forms of this domain (we will meet other
forms in Virgo and Gemini). Writing is a means of transferring sound, thought,
language and memory to a more stable and readily conserved form of
communication. Drawing or painting is the visual analog; photography and sound
recodings are some of many modern enhancements of these techniques.
Intelligence and its information content without memory are useless; the
Philosopher cannot be wise if he has either no information or no memory of it.
In this respect intelligence, information, and memory are linked just as light
and space; they coexist only.
It should be emphasized that space is indeed the memory bank of the Universe;
everything we see in the heavens is but a memory, preserved forever as light
waves in space. The entire history of Earth is continuously being revealed to
new spectators at successively greater depths of the Universe. Conversely, as we
look further into space with our telescopes, we see deeper into the past history
of the Cosmos; we search the memory of spacetime. Nothing that ever happens in
spacetime is lost; a permanent record of all events is kept in the form of light
rays, the gravitational warpage of the dimensional domain, and the information
carried by neutrinos. This information content, or memory of spacetime, was
known to the ancients as the "Akasic Record", and the adept among them
reportedly had access to it.
Sagittarius and Pisces initiate the cosmic system as light and its
dimensional conservation domain, space, and for each we find a Biblical
reference which identifies this primordial role. For Sagittarius it is of course
"Let There Be Light" (Genesis 1:3); for Pisces, "In the Beginning was the Word"
(John 1:1). In the reference from John we see the recognition that the Universe
must have contained information from its very beginning, information which has
subsequently evolved into our spiritual awareness. Yet light and space together
form a perfectly symmetric state; they contain only the potential for
information, since information is an asymmetric form of energy. Information
exists as matter, the asymmetric form of light; in the presence of matter, the
dimensional conservation domain also takes an asymmetric form, time. John's
statement requires that the Universe begins with matter and time as well as
light and space; the rational necessity for this we will consider next in Leo and Aries.
The Universe contains information in the form of matter, information which is
derived from the energy of light. We are born from and composed of this
information source, which intends to convey the spiritual message of our
origins.
Communication
Space is not only the memory bank of the Cosmos, it is also the vehicle which
serves to communicate the information content of this memory. John's reference
to the "Word" implies this communicative function - a "Word" exists only to
communicate its information content.
Light is the "great communicator" of the Cosmos - traveling at velocity C, it
is everywhere in its own reference frame simultaneously - and light's reference
frame is the Cosmos entire. This "non-local" character of light's intrinsic
motion - which lacks a time dimension and is therefore essentially an infinite
velocity - is the means by which the Cosmos maintains communicative contact
throughout its extended dimensional domain. The intrinsic motion of light
requires a dimensional domain for its expression, but this domain must also
remain in contact throughout its vast body, just as our body requires a nervous
system to maintain contact with all its parts. The metrical structure of
spacetime provides the physical means, the neuronal pathways, for maintaining
this contact.
Velocity C is a symmetry condition of the metric of spacetime, the "gauge" of
the metric; this symmetry condition requires the structure of space to transmit
light (as a vibration) in such a manner that it is free of the time dimension -
in Einstein's mathematical formulation of this symmetry, the "Interval" of light
= zero. Hence light is "non-local"; its energy is distributed everywhere
throughout spacetime simultaneously. Other massless forms of energy, such as
gravitation and neutrinos, which also travel at C, share this characteristic.
Due to the symmetry condition C imposed by the metric upon the nature of its
transmission of massless energy forms, spacetime is in contact and simultaneous
communication with all of its parts, no matter how extended. After all, you can
get anywhere in space instantly if it takes you no time to get there. We see
light's velocity as finite, because we cannot participate in its reference
frame, which is essentially 2-dimensional. For we who exist in time, the
Universe has a past and a memory; for light. it has only a present moment and a
temperature.
The conservation of energy requires the Universe to maintain contact with all
of its parts; this is the connective, cohesive, communicative, and conservation
role of the metrical structure of spacetime. This conservation role is
inextricably linked to the symmetry condition C. Through C, the symmetry of the
metric is maintained and the equitable distribution of light's energy throughout
its domain is ensured. But there is more. Because gravitation is a structural
warpage of this metric, the location of every massive particle in this domain is
known; and because neutrinos, which also travel at C, carry the information code
which identifies every elementary particle (neutrinos are the "genes" of
elementary particles), the Cosmos knows what particles it contains - the
location and identity of every elementary particle is part of its structure, or
information content.
Christ told us that every hair on our head is numbered, and not a sparrow
falls but the Father knows - sufficient precision for His time. We can now say
that every elementary particle in every hair is numbered, and its location
known; and that indeed, every jot and tittle of the law will be fulfilled.
Communication is therefore linked to conservation through the connective
function of spacetime, clarifying the connection between space and language:
Pisces, the poet of the Cosmos, the musician of the Spheres. Appropriately,
Einstein was born a Pisces; no greater poet of spacetime ever lived. We are part
of a wholly conserved system which has known us from the beginning and tells us
so.
In the physical system, Leo corresponds
to mass, matter, manifestation. Astrologically, Leo represents the King, or
Caesar, the leader or principle figure of the manifest world. The ruling
"planet" of Leo is the Sun, the organizing and life-giving mass center of the
Solar System. For humans, Leo represents the physical body, the manifest life
experience, the genetic constitution, the self, the "I Am", the ego, the heart
and center of the physical experience of individual manifestation. Leo is the
particular and specific, created out of the general, symmetric, and non-local
energy of light and space.
The major characteristics of matter are that it represents a local
concentration of energy (E=MC2) and information. The information is of a very
specific kind, composed of particular atoms, molecules, etc., culminating in
life forms and humanity containing a specific genetic constitution. The Grail
diagram indicates that matter is created from light and space, which in
themselves are purely symmetric forms of energy. Today we know that matter is
indeed an asymmetric form of light, and will return to light if an antimatter
particle can be found to complete its symmetry. Manifest beings are but
asymmetric specifications of a more general energetic symmetry which represents
both their origin and destiny - the physical asymmetry is but a time bounded
interlude between symmetric energetic states which have no local or
particularized expression.
The existential question - why do we exist - is the question of matter, of
Leo, of the self. Matter is not an accidental creation of the Cosmos; indeed,
matter seems to be the whole meaning and reason for the existence of the Cosmos:
without matter, there would be no Universe. Hence, the preeminent position of matter, mass,
manifestation as Leo, the King or Caesar of the material Universe: the self is
the reason for the existence of the Cosmos. It is only through the self that the
Cosmos can gain any experience of itself, for in its unmanifest generality it
exists only as potential. Matter allows the Cosmos to experience the potential
of its energy and information content from the perspective of an "outside"
observer, the observer in time rather than space, the asymmetry of time and
matter being the necessary condition for this vantage point, the dimensionality
of experience which is at right angles to the spatial dimensionality of the
symmetric Ground of Being.
Born into the realm of time, the self develops into the perceptual center of
its Universe, gradually learning to organize sensory inputs in ways relevant to
its survival and reproductive success. The acquisition of fame, power, wealth,
the promotion of the self as typified by the King, have only to do with an
exaggerated attempt of the self to secure its position in the world, an
offensive strategy to protect the self.
The self is the leader, or King, of the physical realm because it is the
central organizing principle, the perceptual center, of this vast social
organization of specialized cells we call our body. The self is both the
perceptual center of the upper, spiritual or spatial realm, and the organizing
center of the lower, physical or temporal realm; the self is therefore the
central reason for being and the focus of both realms. In support of this
central position and its objective purposes, the self has a number of helpers,
specifically, the other members of the Grail Diagram. We have already met
Sagittarius and Pisces, which confer upon the self intellectual, perceptual, and
communicative powers. We will now take up the others in order, beginning with
the constant companion of the self, Aries, the energy principle of
manifestation.
In
physics Aries represents electric charge; in Astrology, the Warrior or
Pioneer-Explorer; in biology, I equate this force to the life energy of the
body, which is wholly electro-chemical in nature. Aries and Leo are superimposed
upon one another at the center of the Grail diagram because the body cannot be
disentangled from its life energy - to do so produces a corpse. Leo is the
physical manifestation, the genetic constitution; Aries is the electrical energy
which brings the body to life; they cannot be separated.
There are two basic forms of energy in our Universe, one active and
electromagnetic, whose symmetric form is light, the other reactive and metrical,
whose symmetric form is space. The two are related as energy and its
conservation domain. Together, light and space create the asymmetric energy form
matter, and its asymmetric conservation domain, gravitational spacetime. The
electromagnetic nature of matter is demonstrated in matter-antimatter
annihilations, which create light, and vanish the gravitational field and the
time dimension of the massive particles involved. This light, in turn, creates a
new conservation domain of space. The process can be repeated by the creation of
new particle pairs, until the expansion of space, driven by the intrinsic motion
of light, reduces the energy of the individual light quanta (photons) below the
threshold energy for particle pair creation. The process then becomes "virtual"
rather than "real", driven by quantum fluctuations within the residual energy
field.
Matter is derived from light; matter is an asymmetric, massive form of light,
lacking only an antimatter partner to complete its symmetry and return to light.
It is the electromagnetic nature of matter that allows it to interact with
light, and light will only interact with an electrically charged particle. All
massive particles bear electric charge, whether internally, as in the neutron,
or externally, as in the proton and electron. Electric charge is a required
condition for the creation and existence of massive particles.
Electric charge is dimensional in character, originating as the symmetry
differential, expressed in terms of electrical potential energy, between the
2-dimensional wave form of light and its 4-dimensional particle form. Electric
charge is specifically intended to produce matter-antimatter annihilations;
therefore, opposite charges attract over infinite distance, ensuring that
matter-antimatter pairs find each other in space and annihilate. Virtual photons
are the field vectors of electric charge; we see light protecting its own
dimensional symmetry in this role. The connection between electric charge and
matter is therefore fundamental, demonstrating again the inseparable linkage
between Leo and Aries, sufficient reason for their superposition at the center
of the spacetime Grail diagram. Electric charge connects matter to light;
gravitation connects matter to space.
Biologically, Aries represents the energy of the body, its electro-chemical
activity and metabolism, and its perceptual ability to interact with light, both
through the senses and the higher functions and intuitive capacities of the
mind. In plants this ability is exploited directly to produce food by
photosynthesis; in animals, food must be acquired through the activity of the
body. Aries therefore represents the warrior or hunter, the pioneer or explorer,
the entrepreneur, the active search for food, for the means of its production,
for money and the wealth to purchase food and personal security, as acquired
through competition, discovery, and even conquest.
Food is the basic energy source required for the maintenance of the self;
Aries services this need, through hunting, through migration, dispersal,
exploration, agriculture, business, employment, whatever activity is necessary
to acquire and maintain an energy source for the self. Aries services the raw
energy needs of Leo. The necessary function of self-defense is a critical part
of Aries' role; Aries is the warrior-hunter-athlete, defending the self, in
competition for food, territory, and mates, giving Leo the competitive advantage
and ability necessary to maintain, defend, and reproduce the self.
The Aries-Leo combination stands at the gate between the manifest and
unmanifest worlds. This central position is the position of the Sun (Leo's
ruling "planet") in the solar system, and the position of the Son in the Holy
Trinity, spirit made manifest. "No man cometh to the Father but through Me" said
Christ. The unmanifest conservation domain of the Father is the upper triangle
of the Grail diagram, which we call "Heaven", ruled by light and space (energy
and conservation); the lower triangle is the realm of manifestation, the
conservation domain of the self, ruled by gravity and time (death and taxes).
The angel with the flaming sword (actually a lightning bolt) that guards the
"Pearly Gates", the entrance to Heaven, is Aries.
We are now in a position to interpret the restrictive religious dictum
attributed to Christ in a universal context - it does not refer to any
particular religion at all, but to the condition of manifestation itself. 1st,
the self must achieve manifestation by passage to the lower realm, avoiding
annihilation by the electric charge of an antimatter partner (we will see how
this is arranged in Gemini). Presumably, the purpose for the manifest self in
the lower realm is to gain the particularized experience of individuality which
is denied to the generalized, symmetric potential of the upper realm. 2nd, the
experience of the lower realm is illuminated by interaction with the light of
the upper realm, an interaction made possible by the electric charge of matter.
3rd, to reenter the upper conservation domain, the self must be annihilated,
giving up its manifest experience to the Father, having served the purposes for
which it was created. The self is conserved as its experience.
In physics, Cancer represents gravitation; in astrology, the
Queen, the Teacher, the feminine principle, the home; in biology, the mother,
Mother Earth, Mother Nature, territoriality.
Although the ruler of Cancer is traditionally given as the Moon, the Earth in
fact is a "co-ruler" of this sign. The Moon of course has the same mean solar
orbit as the Earth, but since the Earth cannot appear in her own sky, the Moon
takes her place in astrology. The royal couple then, is Father Sun and Mother
Earth-Moon; it seems the Earth cannot bring forth alone, but needs the help of
her sister, who acts as mid-wife.
Of course, there are important biological connections between the Moon and
gravity. The gravitational influence of the Moon upon Earth's biology is
profound, most obviously through the ocean tides, where the daily cycles of wet
and dry along the shores have probably been just as instrumental in the
development of life as the cycles of night and day. The rhythm of the tides,
daily, monthly, and yearly, continues to cue and synchronize the life cycles of
the sea, rocking the cradle of life. This ancient rhythm persists in the
fertility cycles of many terrestrial creatures, including ourselves. The
gravitational influence of the Moon upon the geology of the Earth is another
matter, where it helps to stir and heat by friction the Earth's interior, aiding
in the production of volcanism, the development of the atmosphere, the magnetic
field of the Earth, plate tectonics and continental drift, etc. The fact that
neither Mars nor Venus has a significant moon may be the principle reason why
they are today biologically dead planets.
In any event, the counterpoint between the gravitational cycles of the Moon
and the light cycles of the Sun as they have played upon the Earth over the eons
of its geological and biological development are without question the principle
external forces driving its biological evolution. Light and gravity, the Sun and
Moon, King of the day and Queen of the night, they are indeed the royal couple,
male and female, energy and conservation, action and reaction, whose progeny
people the Earth today.
The connection between gravity and motherhood is most readily seen in Mother
Earth: Earth is a gravitational collection of particles. The gravitational
charge is the symmetry debt of light's "non-locality". Light's intrinsic motion
C is a symmetry condition of the spacetime metric governing its transmission of
electromagnetic energy; this symmetry condition vanishes the time dimension of
light, with the result that light is everywhere simultaneously within its
spatial conservation domain. Light is "non-local" - its position in spacetime
cannot be specified; in Einstein's mathematical formulation of this symmetry,
light's "Interval" = zero. This symmetry with regard to the distribution of
light's energy throughout space is obviously broken by mass, which has no
intrinsic spatial motion, and whose location in spacetime can readily be
specified. The "Interval" of mass is always positive, always greater than zero.
The gravitational charge identifies the location of mass by warping the
metrical symmetry of spacetime, producing, in terms of metric energy, a
structural map of the location of the center of mass for every particle within
the dimensional domain. Gravity will simply take you physically to the center of
particle mass, essentially announcing in the universal language of metric
energy, "here it is - this is the place".
Gravitation produces a locus, a focus, a center, a specific place in the
otherwise symmetric ocean of space. This universally attractive force - the
reactive opposite of light's intrinsic expansive motion - builds planets, stars,
and galaxies, producing a place, a platform, a territory, a home for life and
humanity in the Cosmos. The self requires a mother, the mother requires a home,
the home requires a territory, the territory requires a planet, etc, etc.
Gravitation is the great conservative, nurturing, mothering principle of the
Cosmos, linking matter to space (a connection which in its absence would be
lost), keeping track of the physical location of all her children (the particles
of matter) via its structural warpage of the spacetime metric, producing a home
for life (Earth), lighting the nuclear hearth of the Sun, and producing though
the nucleosynthetic pathway of the stars the heavy elements required for life.
More than this, gravitation produces the time dimension itself (as we shall see
in Scorpio), the defining dimensional conservation parameter of matter, and
leads life along the evolutionary pathway which restores matter to light and
symmetry to the Universe.
Gravitation is our dimensional umbilical cord to the conservation domain of
our origin. Because of gravitation, we are not "lost" in space - the Universe
"knows" exactly where we are through the warpage of its metrical structure, the
conserving embrace of a Cosmic parent enfolding her child. Earth is our special
place in the Cosmos; gravitation has formed her and holds us to her surface. No
matter where man may travel in the future, Earth will always be our home, our
Garden of Eden in the Cosmic waste, the cradle of humanity, our nurturing and
loving mother.
In the upper triangle, Sagittarius and Pisces, light and space, represent the
Celestial male-female pair; in the lower triangle, Leo-Cancer take their place
as the Adam and Eve of the manifest world, Father Sun and Mother Earth.
Gravitational spacetime plays the same role for matter as space does for light,
providing a dimensional conservation domain. The equality of the forces
represented by light and its reactive spatial metric are most curiously
demonstrated by the ability of the Moon to eclipse the Sun, just as gravity can
produce a black hole.
The intrinsic, contractive, spatial motion of gravitation is but the
inversion of the intrinsic, expansive, spatial motion of light, produced by the
conversion of space to time, a process we will meet next in Scorpio. The planet
Mars is the co-ruler of both Aries and Scorpio, the third male-female pair of
the spacetime Grail diagram, who bridge the upper and lower triangles. Aries
stands in the upper triangle, guarding the gateway between Heaven and
manifestation; Scorpio in the lower triangle represents the children of
Leo-Cancer, the life of the Earth on its time-bound evolutionary journey toward
enlightenment.
In physics, Scorpio represents the time dimension; in
astrology, the Physician, Father Time, the Karmic cycle, Fate, Destiny; in
biology, reproduction and evolution, birth and death, ancestors, posterity, and
the march of the generations.
Scorpio represents the reproductive cycle of biology and the evolutionary
process. Time stings us all to our deaths, even as it brings a new generation
into life. Whereas Cancer represents the place, platform, and home of biological
life, Scorpio represents the reproductive and evolutionary processes of life,
which require competition, struggle, survival of the fittest, death and
regeneration, the glory and despair of life rolled into one Karmic cycle of
evolutionary destiny. While we remember the nurturing environment of our home
with nostalgic fondness, we must leave the place of our nativity and enter the
struggle and competition of life if we are to mature and reproduce, testing the
fitness of our genetic constitution against that of our fellows. This is the
basis of the connection between Scorpio and Aries, both ruled by Mars - the
warrior who triumphs in the struggle of competitive life is the one whose genes
survive. Philosophically, we may not like the spectacle of life fighting with
itself, but it is only through this process that we who wonder at its purpose
have evolved. The control of the evolutionary process is now passing into our
own hands. It seems possible that we may discover a more compassionate path.
This also means we will become the arbiters of our own evolutionary destiny, a
further reflection of the fractal, man on the path to becoming God.
In physics, Scorpio represents the time dimension. The dimensions, whether
spatial or temporal, are conservation domains - they exist to conserve a certain
type or expression of energy. Space exists as the conservation domain of light,
or free electromagnetic energy, imposing upon light the constant and "intrinsic"
motion C, conserving light's energy through the regulation of metrical symmetry
and by containing its energy within a closed and reversible system (as
demonstrated by gravitation). Pisces and space represent the imposition of a
conserving form upon free electromagnetic energy (light).
Time is an additional, "emergent" dimensional conservation parameter which is
required to conserve the energy accounts of the non-intrinsic, non-uniform,
transitory, relative, and random motions of mass through space. The conservation
of matter's momentum, for example, requires the time dimension. Light does not
require (nor does it have) a time dimension because light's motion is regulated
by space - light can only move at velocity C, whereas matter can move at any
lesser velocity. (Mass cannot move at C because it would have to become
2-dimensional to do so, leaving behind its conservation domain, at which point
its mass-momentum becomes infinite - that is, an infinite amount of energy would
be required to extract matter from its 4-dimensional conservation domain - a
telling point regarding the tenacity of conservation principles).
Time, mass, gravitation - these three are inseparable, to which we should add
electric charge, completing the lower triangle of the spacetime diagram. Time is
related to all three of its companions, and through them, to the members of the
upper triangle - to light through electric charge, and to space through mass. We
have noted these connections earlier - electric charge exists to prevent light
from permanently assuming its massive form and entering the asymmetric time
dimension (particle-antiparticle pair annihilations); the existence of mass
requires that an "emergent" dimensional conservation parameter be produced from
space to conserve its energy accounts. Einstein was the first to realize that
time was in fact another dimension related to (and interchangeable with) space
as "gauged" or regulated by the metric constant C - one second of time duration
is metrically or dimensionally equivalent to 186,000 miles of linear space.
After nearly a century we still struggle to comprehend the consequences of this
astonishing fact.
But time is also related to gravitation (as indicated by the connecting lines
of the diagram). The intrinsic spatial motion of gravitation is simply the
intrinsic spatial motion of light as transformed by mass. In turn, gravitation
squeezes the time dimension out of the spatial metric; by distorting the spatial
metric crystal, gravitation causes the spatial dimensions to transform into
their metric equivalent, time. The creation of the time dimensions is the local
conservation role of gravitation, its "reason for being".
Just as our biology impels us to reproduce, it compels us to die. Our
mortality is genetic, not accidental; the old must make way for a new and more
highly evolved generation, yielding space and resources to a new and better
expression of life. Individuals do not evolve, they only develop; species
evolve. The individuals who comprise a species are only temporary participants
in the process, benefiting from the genetic heritage of their ancestors, and
passing on their own genes to posterity. It is only the genes which are
essentially immortal, not their carriers.
But now evolution has completed a fractal loop or reflection in the Grand
Design, for evolution has created a creature capable of understanding and
consciously manipulating the evolutionary process. We are therefore truly
entering upon a new biological era; a new expression of the biological fractal
is developing, created by humans. We are playing with the nuclear fires, both of
the atom and the cell. We are creating artificial intelligence in our computers,
and taking our first steps into the Solar System, our larger home. Having eaten
the apple, we are "becoming as gods". But "fools rush in where angels fear to
tread". Disasters of the biological nucleus may be even worse than disasters of
the atomic nucleus. We cannot turn back but we can proceed with caution. It will
require all our collective wisdom to get it right.
Whereas the spacetime Grail diagram sets the stage for life, establishing its
essential ingredients and foundation, (the family level of human organization;
instincts and emotions), the particle diagram deals with the complexities of
higher organizational (social) levels, and of our interaction with the
environment. I interpret the particle diagram as a description of the human
niche, or how our species makes its living in the world. In humans, these
natural adaptations include (among others) our manual and mental dexterity, and
our social nature.
The particle Grail diagram treats the short-range "particle" forces (the
strong and weak forces), and their correlates in the astrological system, the
Earth and Air signs respectively. These we associate in human terms with the
body (Earth), especially our manual dexterity, and the mind (Air), especially
our ability for abstraction.
Virgo - The Inventor
Manual Creativity - Hand-eye Coordination - Hand-Brain Coordination and
Interaction
Virgo is the Artisan or Blacksmith of the gods, representing the human
ability to invent and use tools; hence the Inventor. This is a combination of
intellectual and manual skills, the creative mind focused on practical,
utilitarian purposes, the source and wellspring of all technology from the stone
axe to the moon rocket. In Virgo, manual skills are placed in the service of the
creative mind, applied to the practical problems of life. We may refer to this
adaptation as "applied" creativity, which includes mechanical drawing and
geometry, the source of mathematics. Mathematics itself is a tool of the mind,
applied to the solution of utilitarian problems.
In physics, Virgo is correlated with the Higgs particle, the principle which
converts the wave form of light to its alternative, massive, particle form.
Although we have a name for the process, we do not know the mechanics of the
transformation. Somehow the free, traveling wave of light is converted to a
bound, standing form lacking intrinsic motion in space but acquiring intrinsic
motion in time, a transformation from 2 to 4 dimensions. It seems likely the
Higgs particle represents a mechanism for tying an inter-dimensional knot in
electromagnetic waves - but we simply do not know. The necessity for this
compact, alternative form of energy seems to stem from the Universe originating
in a tiny space which contained a huge quantity of energy, the Big Bang
cosmological model. Matter is the obvious way to package or compress a large
amount of energy in a small volume of space - E=MC2.
In matter, we find that the metrical structure of space, which functions as
the dimensional conservation domain of light, is transformed into an analogous
"particle metric", including the transformation of space into gravitational
spacetime. More than this, the dimensional metric itself is carried over into
the structure of particles. Particles are not only an alternative form of
light's energy, but also an alternative form of the dimensional structure which
carries and conserves that energy. For example, if particles are in fact light
waves tied into interdimensional knots by the mechanisms of the Higgs and W
particles, then it follows that the dimensions themselves must be part of the
resulting particle structure. In this way the connection between light, space,
and the particles they produce is maintained, and the integrity of the Cosmic
structure, although divided into free and bound energy forms, is never
compromised.
The mechanism which produces particles from light and space is the handiwork
of Virgo, the Artisan or Blacksmith of the gods. Here he functions with the
clever hands of a surgeon, trying knots in the dimensions of spacetime to
produce matter. His most marvelous construction is the baryon, the particle
which is the basis of the manifest world, and without which all others would
remain as virtual potentials only.
In humans, we associate Virgo with the ingenuity of human invention and
manufacture. In Nature, at the very base of manifest creation, lies the baryon,
the primordial particle, "brick", or building block of all matter. In this
particle, familiar to us as the proton or neutron, the handiwork of Nature is
most stunningly revealed. The baryon was originally thought to be an elementary
particle, as it carries the same electric charge (in magnitude) as other
elementary particles, such as the electron. Closer inspection, however, has
discovered the composite nature of the interior of this natural wonder.
The term "baryon" refers to the class of composite particles composed of 3
quarks. There are six known types of quarks (up, down; charm, strange; top,
bottom) which carry partial electric charges of either +2/3 (the u,c,t group) or
-1/3 (the d,s,b group). A baryon may consist of any quark combination whose
partial electric charges sum to whole quantum units of elementary charge,
typically neutrality (0), +1 or -1. Each quark carries a "color" charge in
addition to its electric charge: red, green, or yellow, which are also partial
charges in that all must always be present to produce the whole quantum unit
color charge sum "white". (The term color is only a convenience of reference,
not a real color).
Unlike electric charge, color charges are always mutually attractive. Color
charge is associated with a "gluon" field which carries the force of the color
charge (known as the "strong" force) from one quark to another. Gluons are
composed of color-anticolor charge pairs, in any combination, so there are nine
of them in all, but one (green-antigreen) is color neutral so only eight are
actually effective in producing the field. Gluons are massless particles
traveling at velocity C, engaging in a continuous round-robin exchange of color
charges from one quark to the next. It is this ceaseless exchange of color
charges, and the quantum mechanical necessity to maintain a whole quantum unit
of color charge ("white"), that holds the baryon together as a mutable (in terms
of quark composition) but indestructible (in terms of unit charges) particle.
Gluons have been compared to "sticky light"; the baryon with its 3 quarks
forever exchanging gluons with the speed of light is a particle of incredible
internal complexity. The stability of the baryon is the basis of the stability
of all matter. The baryon is stable because the strong force is so strong; the
half-life of baryons is known only to be greater than 1033 years (ten followed
by 33 zeros). The baryon can decay, but only under extraordinary circumstances.
The ingenuity of humanity is great; but the ingenuity of Virgo begins with
Nature's most marvelous invention, the baryon.
The Hand-Eye-Brain Connection
Just as Sagittarius represents the visual development of the brain, and
Pisces represents its auditory development (language and music), so Virgo
represents the manual development of our brain, specifically with regard to tool
making and the development of technology. Whereas Sagittarius is "Man the
Intelligent", and Pisces is "Man the Communicator", Virgo is "Man the
Tool-Maker".
(Virgo also represents the intelligence associated with taste and smell as
well as touch, another mode of physical contact with, or sampling and
exploration of, the world. These senses primarily serve to inform us of what is
safe to eat; they are adequately but not extraordinarily developed in man, and
certainly not uniquely.)
Our upright stance freed our hands to grasp and manipulate tools, our
intelligence allowed us to create them, our language allowed us to communicate
these skills. Just as our mind is stimulated by vision and language, so too it
is stimulated by the development of manual skills. We are all familiar with the
phenomenon of the development of physical skills with practice; at first a
physical skill (such as swimming or riding a bicycle) seems beyond our capacity;
with practice we "get the hang of it"; eventually the body-brain becomes skilled
and the activity becomes "second nature". This is the development not only of
muscular capacity but of the brain function necessary to coordinate and regulate
it.
The same is true whether we consider an activity requiring gross whole-body
coordination (such as swimming) or more focused activities requiring the
interaction of only the hand and brain. While it is obvious that the learning of
physical coordination is essentially the same for humans and animals, humans
have a special mental connection with our hands, developed over evolutionary
time, just as a bird will have a special evolutionary connection between its
brain and wing. People working in the arts and crafts know through experience
that there is a creative synergy between the hand, the eye, and the brain (in
music, hand-ear-brain), developed through practice; the production of a physical
object, whether tool or art, requires a creative process involving more than
just the brain, it requires the involvement of the hands, the engagement of the
mind-hand synergy that is uniquely human. Sometimes the whole body feels as if
it were engaged in the creative process; still, it is through the hands that the
body must "speak". (Note that the eye-ear sensory inputs are the analogs of the
spatial energy metric being carried over into the particle metric -
Sagittarius-Pisces transformed into the material structures of Virgo.)
The human development of technology from simple tool-making is the result of
the evolutionary refinement and growth of our brain-hand synergy. The
development of geometry and its subsequent flowering as mathematics is a primary
example of the stimulation and growth of our mental function through the
physical manipulation of shapes and figures, pen upon paper. The marvelous and
beautiful construction of a flint arrow-point, a pottery vessel, a watch, a
microscope, a computer, or a rocket ship are all testimonials to the power of
the human hand-mind connection. Would any of them exist, other things being
equal, if we had hooves, flippers, or wings instead of hands?
In physics, the W particle of the
weak force; in astrology, the Twins, the Magician, the Shaman, the Artist; in
humans, the abstract mind, human spirituality, the soul. This is the creative
imagination in its playful or fantasy aspect, an internal reflection of the mind
upon itself, the seat of our ability for abstract thought and the creation of
mental images (perhaps derived from, but more than simple memory). This is the
artist creating physical yet abstract representations of both nature and ideas,
symbolic representations, or "double images" of natural objects, or physical
representations of abstract entities.
Virgo and Gemini are both ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the gods. In
both signs we see the transformation of an abstract idea into physical form: in
Virgo, producing a tool or practical utensil; in Gemini, producing the symbolic
form of a natural object or the physical representation of an idea or ideal. Our
national flag and the Statue of Liberty are examples of Gemini's work,
transforming ideas and ideals into physical, symbolic form. It is through Gemini
that we are led to the shamanic or magical view of the Universe, as containing
spiritual entities or ideal forms which are doubles of physical reality.
Whereas the other Mutable signs represent intelligence connected in some way
to sensory perceptions of the external world - Sagittarius to vision, Pisces to
hearing, Virgo to touch, Gemini seems to represent the brain sensing itself,
playing with itself, exploring itself. More than the other intelligences, Gemini
represents the phenomena of mind rather than brain, the abstracting of
information, not only external information, but information generated by the
internal activity of the brain itself. Gemini is the realm of the creative
imagination and fantasy, unlike Virgo in that it is not primarily devoted to
practical purposes, but to play, fantasy, relaxation, entertainment (perhaps a
neurological, physiological, or psychological necessity for such a complex
brain), and in its serious mode, to the realm of the spirit, that abstraction of
reality which uniquely distinguishes humanity from all other forms of
intelligent life. "Ideal form" is the common ground of Virgo and Gemini, whether
in the geometry and design of Virgo, or the artistic and spiritual realm of
Gemini.
In the physical system, Gemini corresponds to the Intermediate Vector Bosons
or IVB's of the weak force, in particular, the W particle. It is the crucial
role of this particle to transform the identity charges of the leptons
(including the leptoquark) to the form of neutrinos, and the electric charges of
baryons to the form of electrons. The IVBs of the weak force provide a field of
elementary particles, collectively known as leptons, familiar to us as the
electron and its neutrino, which serve as alternative charge carriers for the
electric and identity ("number") charges of the baryons and the other leptons.
Without this field of alternative charge carriers, matter would not exist, as
there would be no way to balance its charges except via antimatter counterparts.
It is these alternative charge carriers - particularly the neutrino - which
provide us with the physical analog of Gemini's abstract thought. These are the
physical twins, double images, ideal forms, and spiritual counterparts which
make possible the existence of matter as an asymmetric entity in the absence of
an antimatter partner.
Identity charges are also known as the "number charges" of leptons and
baryons (in the case of baryons, carried by the leptoquark neutrino). The
neutrino is an explicit, alternate form of number charge which allows the
leptons to exist as single entities of matter rather than only as
matter-antimatter pairs. The lepton-neutrino relationship is the exact analog of
the human concept of body-soul.
Leptonic particles are truly elementary - unlike baryons, they have no
internal constituent parts (quarks). Consequently, they have no color charges
and do not feel or respond to the strong force. The relationship between leptons
and baryons is familial - baryons are part of the elementary leptonic series,
decay products of its heaviest member, the leptoquark. Baryons are derived from
the leptoquark; they are originally leptons which have been "fractured" by the
extreme pressures of the Big Bang. Consequently it is no surprise that baryons
and leptons, as exampled by the proton and electron, possess electric charge in
exactly the same magnitude, or elementary quantum unit. Originally, there were
not two classes of massive particles, baryons and leptons; the baryon became
distinct only when its internally "fractured" nature was revealed as the
expansion of the Universe relieved the external pressure compressing its quarks
to a colorless neutrality.
Leptons are of two sorts: 1) the massive leptons including the electron,
muon, tau, and leptoquark; and 2), the massless neutrinos, which carry the
explicit form of the massive lepton's "hidden" identity charges. The role of the
neutrino is fundamental to the process of manifestation; without this
alternative, massless form of identity charge, elementary particles could exist
only as particle-antiparticle pairs, for without the neutrino, there would be no
way to balance their identity charge except via the opposite charge of their
antimatter partner. The neutrino offers a way out of this impasse, carrying the
identity charge in an alternate form, balancing its identity charge despite the
absence of a corresponding antimatter partner. Hence the neutrino frees matter
to exist in the absence of antimatter; without the neutrino there would be no
independent life for matter, there would only be matter-antimatter particle
pairs and their mutually assured annihilations.
The role of the neutrino is essentially the same as that conceived for the
human soul; the massless soul carries the identity of the individual, allowing
the body to experience a manifest life without subjecting its identity to loss
through biological death. An individual cannot manifest without a soul to carry
and conserve its identity; when the body dies its identity returns to the soul,
or spiritual state.
The art of Gemini is the transformation of identity, the portrayal of an
abstract, spiritual or ideal form in a physical state, an idea transferred to a
painting, sculpture, or physical symbol (including the writing of language,
music, and mathematical notation), the soul or ideal form made manifest,
transferred to an alternative, physical carrier. The artist attempts to capture
the "spirit of the thing", its ideal form, in some physical medium and
representation. This is essentially Plato's idea that behind physical reality
stands a realm of ideal forms; this same idea in religious terms invokes the
realm of spirit as the primary ground of reality from which manifest forms are
produced, and to which they return.
Justice, Harmony, Symmetry, Beauty, Equilibrium, Equality.
We now come to the mass center of the particle diagram, which represents
society, the social nature of man, and his social institutions. The particle
diagram represents the biological niche of humanity, the way our species makes
its living in the world, the practical aspects of our lives. The spacetime
diagram refers to a more basic, individual level of our biology, the fundamental
ingredients of personal existence: male, female, family, the emotions,
instincts, the physical and genetic essentials of life. Just as
Sagittarius-Pisces sets the stage for humanity's personal and family life: "Man,
the intelligent communicator", so Gemini and Virgo set the stage for our social
life: "Man, the abstracting tool-maker."
The center of the spacetime diagram is the body - manifest, framed, and
constituted as Leo - energized, activated, and enlivened by Aries. The
organizational level of description in the spacetime diagram is that of the
nuclear human family (also elevated through monarchy to the royal family, and
military). In the particle diagram the organizational level of description is
that of society; the center of the particle diagram is the institutional social
body, the government. Here Capricorn is the analog of Leo, representing the
central social authority, governmental institutions, officers, bureaucracy, and
law-making bodies associated with it, the physical, "genetic" basis and body of
the government, whether religious or secular. Libra is the social analog of
Aries, in this case representing the principles of social government which
energize, activate, and bring to life the government and its institutions. We
are a social species, our biological niche is a social way of life: an
individual family may eke out a temporary subsistence, but humanity comes into
its own and flowers in its full potential only in large social groups with
continuity through many generations.
Whereas Leo-Aries represents the human body and its activity, Capricorn-Libra
represents the social body and its motivating principles. Libra represents the
principles of the social justice system, the principles of the system of
government - for example, the notion of the equality and accountability of all
people under the law. In physics, Libra corresponds to the number or identity
charge of the elementary particles; the number charge insures that every
elementary particle is accounted for in spacetime, much as society issues social
security numbers, names, and birth and death certificates to its citizens.
In physics, Libra refers to the conservation of number charge, a charge which
conserves the property "identity" of the elementary particles. Only three
massive elementary particles are known: the electron and its two heavier
relatives, the muon and tau. The hypothetical leptoquark is presumably a 4th
(and the heaviest) member of the elementary leptonic mass spectrum, or particle
series. Each member of this elementary series carries an identity charge called
"lepton number"; (presumably, all baryons carry the same leptoquark identity
number, known as "baryon number"). Neutrinos are the massless, explicit form of
this identity charge; the massive leptons carry it implicitly, in "hidden" form.
Identity charge is a symmetry debt which accrues from the photon's complete
anonymity, or lack of any distinguishing identity - all photons are alike and
indistinguishable from one another, a condition of "identity symmetry". The
massive elementary particles, however, are not alike, they are quantum
differentials of one another, distinguishable by their discreet mass differences
(or spins, in the case of antimatter), which occupy different rungs on the
quantum energy "ladder" or spectrum of allowed energy states for the elementary
masses. Hence they break the symmetry of the photon's anonymity and carry an
identity charge as a form of symmetry debt; the debt must be balanced or
neutralized (by neutrinos), or repaid (by annihilation with antimatter).
The Cosmos records the existence of every elementary particle within the
conservation domain of spacetime by means of its specific neutrino, which
carries the identity charge in explicit, massless form; no elementary particle
can enter or leave the manifest realm without the appropriate neutrino recording
its entry or departure. Add to this the location (gravitational) charge carried
by every massive particle, and spacetime "knows", through its structural and
informational asymmetry, both the location and identity of every massive
elementary particle within its domain. "Every hair on your head is numbered and
not a sparrow falls but your Father knows". As noted in Gemini, the relationship
between the neutrino and the particle it codes for is the analog of our
conception of the relation between body and soul.
Libra is ruled by the planet Venus, goddess of love, beauty, and harmony, all
expressions of symmetry. The great mathematician Emmy Noether proved a theorem
("Noether's theorem") of pivotal importance in modern physics: in a
multicomponent field (such as the electromagnetic field), where one finds a
symmetry, one will find an associated conservation law, and vice versa. This is
simply the mathematical formulation of the Poet's (Keats) assertion that "Beauty
is truth, truth beauty", where symmetry equals beauty and conservation equals
truth.
Libra is associated with Capricorn just as Aries is with Leo, but Aries
represents a symmetry charge involving force (electric charge), whereas Libra
represents a symmetry charge which does not (identity charge). This is not to
say that Libra lacks power; rather, Libra represents "the principle of the
thing", and it is the principles upon which government is founded that
motivates, activates, enlivens, and energizes its regulatory structure and
function - principles are the life force of the body politic. It is principles
which provoke revolutions and for which men die, not governmental institutions.
The instrument of government with which Libra corresponds is the constitution
and the body of social law which sets forth the principles upon which the state
is founded, from which it derives its legitimacy, and upon which it operates. In
the case of a religious state, this would include Holy Writ.
Libra does not use force; in terms of the symmetry principles of the identity
charge, Libra simply asserts the equal rights of every individual under the law
and before God, and to the degree the constitution and government embrace this
principle of equality the social system will be either enlivened or poisoned by
Libra and the convergence (or divergence) of social and natural law, just as is
Leo by the constructive or destructive energy of Aries. The enforcement arm of
the law - the courts, police, and corrections - belong to Capricorn. Libra is
the principle of equality and justice, not a structure or institution of
government. In this respect Libra differs significantly from its counterpart
Aries, which represents the military and self defense, forceful aspects of
energy.
All social animals obey rules governing individual behavior which allow their
groups to function harmoniously, effectively, and efficiently as a composite
unit; humans codify these rules, write them down, and form institutions around
them. Failure to obey these rules results in punishment in either animal or
human society.
The connection between social, religious, and natural law is a study in
itself. Much of "religious" law is either social or natural. For example, the
last 6 of the Ten Commandments deal with social law - how to behave toward your
neighbors; the first four are religious, how to behave toward God. Other
religious rituals and customs, relating to the preparation of food, personal
cleanliness, burial of the dead, etc., have a relationship to natural law, the
prevention of disease.
Whether valid or not, there has always been an implied or threatened
connection between natural and religious-social law; since God controls nature,
failure to obey religious law could result in social punishment through natural
disaster - fire, flood, drought, storm, famine, disease, earthquake, volcanic
eruptions, plague, war, etc. Sacrifice, including human, might be required to
please or bribe the gods, or atone for sins, averting natural disasters; the
Aztecs of precolumbian Mexico apparently believed human sacrifices were
necessary for the Sun to rise and the rain to fall.
The calendar, the cycle of the seasons, day and night, the phases of the
Moon, and the motions of the planets have been a natural focus for the
convergence of social, religious, and natural law. Religious and social holidays
tend to mark the equinox and solstice, and it is indeed the study of astronomy
and cosmology that first forced the general recognition of the fundamental
difference between natural and religious law in the modern age, beginning with
Copernicus. Darwin added the challenge of evolutionary theory to the religious
doctrine of his day, while the rise of the quantum theory revealed a world of
uncertainty which offended the religious beliefs even of scientists such as
Einstein, himself a father of the very theory he came to disavow.
Let us look at a few examples of the convergence - or divergence - of social
and natural law from the perspective of the Libran principles of symmetry and
number conservation - the equality, accountability, and identity conservation of
every elementary particle.
1) Monarchy vs Democracy. Leo-Aries represents the King and the military, a
family-based power center which competes with the socially based (elected,
representative) power center of Capricorn-Libra. The problem with the King is
that he tends to recognize only himself as a divine figure, and does not extend
this distinction to others. Furthermore, his family is genetically privileged
above all others. The good attribute of the King is his capacity to recognize
his own self worth, something we all need to achieve. But Libran principles
require that what we claim for ourselves we must also claim for others. The
people's government is based on the intrinsic worth of every individual - one
person, one vote - whereas a monarchy is based on the intrinsic worth of a
single individual or genetic royal family.
2) The Aztecs. Despite having achieved a perfect celestial calendar and the
ability to predict lunar and solar eclipses with extreme accuracy, the Aztecs
nevertheless embraced a monumental mismatch between social and natural law in
their belief system - the Sun will rise, the seasons will turn, and the rain
will fall without human sacrifice.
3) Confucius. The Confucian system is biologically natural, in that it
generally treats all relationships, whatever their level of social organization,
in terms of a family hierarchy. The state is simply a large family and everyone
in it performs the normal family duties, pulls their own weight, and respect and
services flow up and down the family-state hierarchy as from parents to children
and the reverse. Although this system accommodates monarchy as a sort of "first
family", the monarch is expected to exercise parental responsibilities toward
his children, the people of the state, and may be deposed if he does not.
4) Christian. The Christian system is based on the spiritual equality of all
people. The Old Testament system is much more Confucian, in that it is
essentially based on the family hierarchy model. The Christian system, while
encouraging "family values", is more individualistic in that it places the
spiritual worth of humanity above and distinct from family obligations. The
individual's spiritual relationship to God is more important than genetic
relationships to family - thus the stranger is as important as any family
member. "Who is my brother? Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these,
you have done it unto me". This is social symmetry in its broadest context - the
Good Samaritan. The convergence of social, religious, and natural law in the
great symmetry statement which "sums up all the law in one sentence" - the
Golden Rule - is straightforward: "do unto others as you would have them do unto
you". The system accords no special spiritual status to royalty.
5) U.S. Constitution. Rejecting the privileged status of royalty completely,
our Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal before God
and the law, representing another grand convergence between social, religious,
and natural law. These are the principles of Libran symmetry that have motivated
this country. Unfortunately, we still struggle to move these principles from the
Declaration to the Constitution, and give them the full force of law.
As social, political, and religious systems recognize and protect the equal
rights and intrinsic worth of every individual, they converge upon the symmetry
principles of natural law inherent in the Libran principles of identity and
symmetry conservation. The evolution of this convergence has recently embraced
an even wider perspective - the natural rights of the other species which share
our planet.
Capricorn represents the
rules and regulations which produce structure and stability in any composite
entity. Capricorn has no reference to elementary entities, since they have no
structure. In the human body, Capricorn is traditionally associated with the
skeleton and the sinews which bind it together. Physically, Capricorn refers to
color charge (and the field vectors or force carriers of color, the "gluons"),
the source of the "strong" force which permanently binds three quarks into the
stable composite structures known as baryons (familiar to us as protons and
neutrons). In the particle diagram, Capricorn and the color charge are
associated with the leptoquark, the central massive particle created by the
convergence of the Higgs (quark producing) and W (lepton producing) mechanisms.
The leptoquark, in turn, gives birth via its decay, to both the leptons
(electrons, neutrinos) and baryons (protons, neutrons) of ordinary matter. The
leptoquark itself has only a fleeting existence during the very first instant of
the Big Bang.
Capricorn represents the government, the law-making body (parliament,
congress, etc.), the bureaucracy, the courts and police which enforce law and
regulate society, whether religious or secular. Note that it does not include
Leo, the King, nor Aries the military. This latter power center, situated in the
spacetime diagram, is personal and family level (as in a royal genetic lineage)
rather than social, with a single authoritarian leader, and stands apart from
social parliamentary government. Typically there is a power struggle between
these two power centers. The situation may be further complicated if there is a
division between the religious and secular state.
Like Leo, Capricorn represents the massive component at the center of its
diagram, in this case the composite body or nucleus of social government. Libra
represents the principles upon which the state is founded - its constitution,
body of written law, and often certain religious texts. If the state consists of
only the king and military, then there is no Capricorn, no social center, no
parliament, no voice for the people, and no Libra, no social principles, only
the whim of the dictator. The written constitution of the people is replaced by
the genetic constitution of the royal line. "I am the State", says King Louis,
and he rules by Divine Right.
The centers of the two Grail diagrams represent a division between the family
and the state, in which the family is primary, being situated in the spacetime
diagram. The state evolves from the family and the extended family group.
Furthermore, since the particle diagram is but a fractal elaboration of the mass
center of the spacetime or family-level Grail diagram, it suggests not only that
society flows out of the family structure, but that the King-military
combination is really a potentially complete society in itself, as it contains
the ingredients for the whole particle or social-level diagram. We indeed see
this self-sufficiency or internal social structure in the military, with its own
laws, legal system, organizational structure, hospitals, mechanics, engineers,
chaplains, architects, etc, and as military dictatorships too often prove, this
combination is quite capable of taking over the entire government.
Capricorn is the sign of boundaries, rules, regulation, and confinement. It
represents the social order, its structure and infrastructure, and its
regulatory effect upon the lives of ordinary citizens. Capricorn is ruled by the
planet Saturn, whose rings, like the wedding band, symbolize the regulation of
behavior. Just as Leo and Aries represent the body and its energy, (or the king
and military), and are difficult to distinguish, so Capricorn and Libra, the
social system of government and the principles upon which it is founded, are
thoroughly intertwined.
Historically, the King, military, and religion (religion providing the
Libra-principles) have dominated human social structure with the King being at
once the commander-in-chief of the military, the religious leader (often a
semi-divine figure), the chief law maker, and the high judge of the legal system
- all powers concentrated in a single individual. Even in our own democracy, the
President retains at least vestiges of these several powers, appointing supreme
court judges, retaining the power of pardon, initiating laws and issuing
executive orders, commanding the military, and is at least expected to set a
strong moral and ethical - if not religious - example for the nation: George
Washington's "I cannot tell a lie" is part of our national mythology.
In a religious state, the Libran principles upon which the state is founded
will be in part based upon Holy Writ and in part based upon the secular,
practical concerns of life, introducing a level of confusion (who is boss here,
anyway?) which we have only partially circumvented through the separation of
church and state. Others (Israel, the Arab states), embrace the church-state
marriage completely, and still others (communist states) have simply divorced
religion as a competing - and therefore intolerable - constitutional ideology.
Gradually we have evolved away from the personal (and usually family or
genetic line) concentration of power represented by Leo-Aries and the Arthurian
model (King-Knight-Counselor), toward the Capricorn power center, a more
socially based representative structure dominated by legislative bodies and the
people (Parliament-Magna Charta). Separation of powers, separation of church and
state, civilian control of the military, and the popular election of parliaments
and presidents have all reduced the personal power of the executive.
Nevertheless, the social need for strong, clear, and effective leadership
remains as great as ever, for the social way of life requires leadership to
coordinate public effort toward a common goal. While the king may have been
deposed, the personal leadership function he provided remains a preeminent
social necessity, provided nowadays by some sort of chief executive, prime
minister, president, executive secretary, etc.
The Physics of Capricorn
Capricorn is identified with the color charge of the strong force. Color
charge refers to the force which holds the quarks together in baryons, the class
of heavy particles containing 3 quarks, familiar to us as the neutrons and
protons of atomic nuclei. In the particle Grail diagram, Capricorn is identified
with the color charge of the leptoquark, the very massive progenitor of the
baryons.
Like electric charge, which is either positive, neutral, or negative, there
are three types of color charge (red, green, yellow - names of convenience only,
not real colors) which can also be thought of as positive, neutral, and
negative, but unlike electrical charge they are always attractive. Each quark
carries a color charge which it exchanges with the colors of the other quarks
via a field of "gluons", virtual particles which consist of a color-anticolor
charge, in any combination. There are nine color-anticolor combinations
possible, but one of them (green-antigreen) is doubly neutral, so there are
effectively only eight force carrying combinations in the virtual gluon field.
Gluons are massless vector bosons (force-carrying particles) traveling at
velocity C and have been compared to "sticky light". It is the constant exchange
of color charges between the quarks via the gluon field which holds the baryon
together. Neutrons and protons were once thought to be elementary particles but
upon closer inspection they turned out to be very complicated composites.
Matter is indeed complex; it is part of its wonder and mystery. Both God and
the devil have been accused of hiding "in the details"; if true, they hide in
the marvelous mechanism of baryons. By comparison, spacetime, light, and
gravitation are starkly simple.
Because the gluon field is composed of color-anticolor charges in every
combination, it can be seen that in total it must sum to zero color. This
condition underlies the experimental observation and hypothesis termed
"asymptotic freedom" - as the quarks move closer together, they are less tightly
bound by the strong force and move more freely (under compression, the color
field physically begins to sum toward zero); conversely, as quarks move further
apart (repelled by their partial electric charges and the quantum mechanical
repulsion due to Pauli's exclusion principle) they move less freely and are
increasingly constrained by the strong force (the color field becomes more
explicit as it expands, since it becomes less self-neutralizing).
Like the elastic pull of a rubber band, the strong force gets stronger with
distance, quite the opposite of gravitational or electrical forces. One can see
that the gluons will have more and more difficulty completing their round-robin
charge exchange at the fixed speed of light as the distance they must travel
between quarks increases; this is the reason for the increase in binding
strength with distance. So a balance is struck between the ability of the gluon
field to complete its rounds and the strength of the repulsive forces, this
balance determining the size limits of the baryon. The baryon exists in a
continuous state of tension, like a strung bow quivering under the influence of
both repulsive and contractive forces.
The leptoquark, its derived baryons, and the color charges of the quarks and
gluons form the material basis of manifestation. They present a picture of
opposing forces acting upon the composite structure of an entity, producing the
stability of matter, which in their absence would disintegrate to light or
chaos.
The color charge is the analog of the restraining forces of governmental
structure which acts upon the composite body of society, which in their absence
would disintegrate to anarchy, a social catastrophe which we have witnessed all
to often, both historically and contemporaneously. It is this constant threat of
anarchy, due to the repulsive and competitive forces between us, which drives us
to embrace the governmental structure of social law, giving up our individual
freedoms in exchange for social stability. Change in an existing system of order
is only possible if some new plateau of greater stability is perceived as the
end result. The constraints of Saturn represent the rules and regulations of
social behavior, which we institutionalize as government, whether religious or
secular.
The world of matter could not exist without baryons and the quarks of which
they are composed. This is because light can only create the elemental leptons
in particle-antiparticle pairs bearing opposite electrical charges, ensuring
their mutual annihilation. Because baryons are composite particles, however, the
internal arrangement of their quarks, which bear electrical charges in
fractional quantum units, can sum to electrical neutrality; hence
leptoquark-antileptoquark pairs can escape immediate electrical annihilation,
allowing time for one of them to decay leptonicly (via the W and leptoquark
neutrino), leaving the other without an annihilation partner.
Here we must understand the crucial difference between a leptoquark and a
baryon: the leptoquark is simply a baryon whose quarks have crowded so closely
together that the color charges they carry neutralize each other, summing
completely to zero (the end-point of "asymptotic freedom"). These crowded
internal conditions are simply the consequence of the extreme external pressures
of the initial instant of Creation, the Big Bang. It is just this color
neutrality combined with electrical neutrality which allows the leptonic decay
of one member of the leptoquark-antileptoquark pair. The mutual repulsion of the
quarks in the surviving leptoquark drives them apart, revealing the color
charge, hence trapping the baryon forever in the time dimension, since with an
explicit color charge it can no longer decay leptonicly - the leptoquark
neutrino cannot cancel color charge. This is the probable path of the birth of
matter into the Cosmos, the asymmetric decay of a matter-antimatter pair of
electrically and color neutral leptoquarks.
Conclusion
The final product of leptoquark decay is the production of the familiar
protons, neutrons, electrons, and neutrinos of ordinary atomic matter from free
electromagnetic energy, or light. These represent an asymmetric form of bound
energy in that they exist (thanks to the W, and its leptonic field of
elementary, alternative charge carriers) without antimatter partners. The
problem the Universe must now solve is how to return its energy content to the
symmetric form of light in the absence of antimatter, a process guided by the
charges of matter (which are the symmetry debts of light), and whose initial
stages we see underway in our Sun, for one example.
One of the interesting aspects of the strong force is that it grows stronger
as the quarks try to escape its influence, expanding their boundaries, and
weaker when they do not, crowding to a common center ("asymptotic freedom");
this is just our experience with social law, whose effects are felt most
forcefully when we try to live outside it, and least when we live within it.
The combination of Capricorn- Libra is most curious and instructive. We have
on the one hand the planet Saturn (ruler of Capricorn), the symbol of law,
order, and regulation, and on the other the planet Venus (ruler of Libra),
symbol of love, harmony, beauty, and symmetry. The message here is unambiguous -
stability through law is accomplished by equity, symmetry, and compassion.
Modern telescopes have revealed Saturn to be the most beautiful planet of the
solar system. Everyone who has experienced the blessings of a harmonious family
life and a peaceful, productive society will understand this message of beauty
combined with stability, harmony combined with law.
Taurus represents
the social building instinct in humans, including works such as our great public
buildings, religious and secular, but especially the development of cities and
centers of population, commerce, authority, and "civilization".
There is a building instinct in humanity at the social level of organization
that goes far beyond our need to provide shelter for our families. Some of it
stems from our need for self-defense; some of it relates to our religious sense,
a desire to please the gods, or our quest for immortality; some of it seems to
be a need to express a social personality and identity architecturally through
permanent structures - a statement to the world of who and what we are, an
advertisement of social power, wealth, culture, skill, and sophistication; but
beyond all this is the need to provide a physical structure for the purpose of
social organization
A city is not just a collection of individual homes and shelters; it is the
home of society; if great enough, the home, shelter, and expression of a
civilization. "All roads lead to Rome" - a statement expressing the development
of the city as the physical locus, focus, and nucleus of society and
civilization, the organizational center of social power, order, and wealth.
Civilizations advance with the development of cities, and decline as they decay.
>From Stonehenge to the modern megalopolis of London, the march of civilization
is measured by the size, complexity, and number of its public buildings. We
marvel at the cities and temples of the ancients, in both the old and new world,
civilizations long extinct whose bones survive as the massive ruins of their
public works. What is the instinctive force that raised the tombs, temples,
walls, and monuments of the Mediterranean, Asia, and Central America? It is the
force we identify with Taurus, the need to develop physical centers of social
organization.
The development of cities follows the development of agriculture and a
settled rather than nomadic way of life; with agriculture comes the capacity for
the production of surplus food, energy, and commercial goods, and this results
in population growth. The accumulation of surplus wealth and population
dramatically increases the need for social regulation, defense, sanitation,
planning, etc. The city develops as the seat of social authority and defense,
the residence of the king, parliament, courts, religious leaders, and the
military. This is the development of the "Capitol", the physical center of
social authority, power, wealth and population of a region, state, empire, or
even (as in the case of Rome) a civilization.
The develop;ment of the city as the nucleus of social organization
recapitulates the development of the biological nucleus in the organization of
cellular life, and parallels the general development of massive centers of
organization at every level of system expression. Central organization is the
"least energy" solution to social organization. Cities arise and flourish
because they are the most efficient means of accomplishing this necessary end.
As cities arise, this same tendency toward centralization is repeated in
religion as the development of monotheism and Catholicism, in science as the
development of rationalism and the search for a unified field theory, in
political systems as the concentration of power in a single individual,
institution, or state, and in commercial systems as the development of
monopolies - in general, a disturbing pattern of uniformity and conformity in
every field as power, wealth, and authority become concentrated, centralized,
and consolidated.
The message of Taurus, however, in not limited to the efficiency of
concentration, but includes a necessary diversity of many stable nuclear
configurations; and as we see in the radioactive elements (and our largest
cities), even the virtue of community has natural limits.
Taurus and Libra are both ruled by the planet Venus, symbol of symmetry,
balance, and equity, principles which apply equally to the construction of laws
or buildings. There is a wonderful phrase in our national hymn, "America the
Beautiful": "...thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears..." This
expresses the architect's ultimate goal; the fact that we still have slums amid
the alabaster shows how much we have yet to achieve.
As the particle diagram indicates, Taurus can be viewed as a social
transformation of Virgo (the Inventor and tool-maker), the transformation being
accomplished by the massive cultural center of the diagram, the government. In
this sense, we see public architecture and the development of cities as a
complex social tool, dominated by government (through the collection,
allocation, and regulation of public funds and plans), intended to physically
express, give structure to, and facilitate a particular social order. Here we
see in physical form the influence of Venus in both Libra (the Law) and Taurus
the Architect, for a glance at the public buildings, works, and cities of a
society at once reveals the inner values of the system which produced them.
The fortress of the Kremlin, the rows of factory-like, utilitarian, public
housing apartments, the great public display plaza of red Square, all contrasted
with the mystical beauty of the fantastic onion-domes of the Orthodox church,
tell us at a gut level all we need to know about the conflicted personality of
Russian society.
In our own case, we see the classical Greco-Roman influence everywhere in the
domes and columns of our capitol buildings - even an Egyptian influence in the
obelisk of the Washington monument. These are the signs of classical
Mediterranean Empire, which included the Coliseum and the institution of
slavery, as well as the rule of classical law and reason, democratic and
republican principles. In the murderous slums surrounding theses utopian symbols
of promise, we see the conflicted personality of our own system, alarming signs
that something is wrong with the balance of Venus.
The Physics of Taurus
In astrology Taurus is the Builder or Architect, and in physics the baryon is
the builder and stone-mason of the material world, providing the foundation for
the electronic superstructure of nature by constructing the compound atomic
nuclei of the heavy elements.
The baryon itself is a wonder of construction, containing 3 quarks
permanently bound together by 3 "color" charges mutually exchanged through the
agency of a "gluon" field. This field contains eight gluons, each composed of a
color and anticolor charge, massless "virtual" particles moving at velocity C;
it is the round-robin exchange of color charge between the quarks via the gluon
field that permanently binds the quarks into the composite entities known as
baryons. The baryon is a particle of incredible complexity, beauty, and
stability, the material unit of the manifest universe. Without this marvelous
particle the universe would remain light and space, with no massive expression
at all.
The color charge of the quarks and gluon field is always attractive, and if
two baryons can get close enough to "touch" each other, they can "stick" to each
other's color charges, reduce the combined binding energy of their gluon fields,
and form a semi-permanent bond whose stability depends upon the amount of energy
the new combination can release. By this means all the elements of the periodic
table are produced, some with nuclear combinations containing well over 200
baryons (protons plus neutrons). The nucleus of U-238, for example, a well-known
isotope of uranium, the 92nd and heaviest natural element, contains 92 protons
and 146 neutrons.
Without the ability of baryons to stick together and form complex atomic
nuclei, the Universe would consist of hydrogen only, and be utterly devoid of
life. The baryon, through the production of the nuclear species of the periodic
table of the elements, provides the basis of elemental diversity upon which the
biological realm depends for its existence.
The process of element production takes place in the interiors of stars, and
is referred to as the nucleosynthetic pathway. The process is very complex, and
I touch here only upon its major features and general system properties. The
first step is the most important, the production of helium from hydrogen, the
process that fuels our Sun. The helium nucleus contains 2 protons and 2
neutrons, and is referred to as an "alpha" particle (meaning first, or most
important). The alpha particle is the most stable nuclear combination known, and
becomes the nuclear "brick" of the periodic table, as elements containing
multiples of alpha particles are energetically favored in the production
process; elements with even atomic numbers (numbers of protons) are more
abundant than those with odd numbers (atomic mass numbers refer to protons plus
neutrons).
The alpha particle is a 4x3 configuration (4 baryons each containing 3
quarks) and is therefore of central significance in General Systems theory (see: "The Fractal Hierarchy of Nature"). The next major step in the nucleosynthetic pathway is
carbon, a double 4x3 nuclear combination (3 alpha particles each containing 4
baryons). Carbon is of course the foundation element for all organic and
biologic chemistry and life forms, and has in addition to its double nuclear
resonance a 4x3 structure in its electron shell - 4 valence electrons in the
third shell, the only element in the periodic table with both a nuclear and
electronic 4x3 resonance. The third nuclear resonance of the 4x3 system would be
4 carbons each of 3 alpha particles, atomic number 4x6 = 24 or chromium, but
this fails due to overcrowding of the repulsive electrical charges of the
protons, and settles at iron 26, with the addition of one alpha particle and 4
extra neutrons (mass number 56). Beyond iron, element building requires energy
rather than yielding energy, taking place mainly during the explosion of
supernovas. Hence with the failure of the 4x3 system combination, we find a
corresponding failure in the energy yield.
An essential ingredient of element building is obviously the ability of
baryons to assume the form of either protons or neutrons, which requires and
"up" quark to change to a "down" quark or vice versa (uud = proton, ddu =
neutron). This transformation requires the intervention of the weak force, since
it involves a change in total electric charge from zero to +1 (or the reverse),
hence requiring the production of an alternative, elementary charge carrying
particle, the electron and its identity coding neutrino, both provided by the W
particle. Leptons are produced from the excess mass energy of baryons,
"midwifed" by the W; the line connecting baryons and leptons in the particle
diagram indicates this relationship.
Of the 92 naturally occurring elements, 21 are commonly found in life forms,
another 9 are rare, and another 16 occur but are of unknown function. As in so
many other areas, humans have begun to do the work of nature, creating the
transuranic or man-made elements (about a dozen).
The diversity of elements available to living forms allows for the
development of complex structures and specialized functions; we need only think
of the heavy iron atom dominating the center of the hemoglobin molecule, and its
counterpart, magnesium, organizing the center of the chlorophyll molecule. The
special properties of carbon, with its ability to form complex "organic"
linkages, and water, the universal solvent, are well known. The roles of other
elemental species include the formation of the principal organic compounds of
life: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, chlorine,
bromine, iodine, and others. The regulation of water exchange and electrical
activity involves hydrogen, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chlorine,
sulfur, carbon, oxygen, and perhaps boron. Skeletal structures utilize silicon,
calcium, magnesium, strontium, barium, iron, manganese, aluminum, carbon,
phosphorus, fluorine, and others. Elements serving biocatalytic functions
include iron, manganese, copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium, molybdenum, cobalt,
and possibly gallium, boron, vanadium and scandium. There is in addition a long
list of elements found in life forms whose function is completely unknown
(source: Encyclopedia Britannica).
The point is that without elemental diversity there would not be the
possibility of biological diversity; that all depends upon the nuclear
foundations laid by Taurus, the nucleosynthetic pathway of the stars, and the
dispersal of elements into galactic space by multiple generations of supernovas.
And all this depends upon the ability of one quark "species" ("flavor" in the
parlance of physics) to change into another, on the availability of the
elementary leptonic field of alternative charge carriers, (electrons and
neutrinos, provided by the W particle) and the proclivity of baryons to stick
together, share their gluon fields, and achieve stable energetic "communities"
of protons and neutrons, built with the "brick" of Taurus, the alpha particle.
The complexity of life depends upon the diversity of elements, and for all we
know, not a single one is without utility in some physical process somewhere in
the Universe. Without the nucleosynthetic pathway, there would be no life, no
Earth, no Sun, no steady source of light from the gradual release of nuclear
binding energy as the elements are produced. Our Sun and the stars of the night
sky are the furnaces of Taurus, the forge of the elements, dispersed into the
galaxy by supernovas, gathered again by gravitation into new stars and planets,
and warmed by the same nuclear hearths, brought to life in a grand realization
of the very diversity of their properties. Just as it takes a whole community to
raise a child, it takes a whole galaxy to produce one. But the living world is
the realm of Aquarius and the electron shell, our next and final topic.
(Perhaps we need here to differentiate the role of Taurus from that of Leo,
whose planetary ruler is the Sun. The role of the Sun is not to produce the
elements necessary for Earth-life; that function has already been performed in
the past by Taurus in the nucleosynthetic pathway of many other stars. The Leo
role of the Sun is simply to provide light, energy, and heat for the planets
(the conversion of Leo's mass (the royal treasury) to energy: E=MC2). The
orbital motions of the planets are regulated by Leo's feminine counterpart,
Cancer (gravity).)
The Aquarian electron shell is the
physical information system that forms the elemental basis of the mystery of
life. In Taurus, the realm of the atomic nucleus, we saw that nuclear reactions
were the controlling interactions in stars, where element-building takes place
following the nucleosynthetic pathway. But nuclear interactions are very
high-energy reactions, requiring an environment typically found only in the
interior of stars. In such circumstances the electron shells of atoms are
stripped away and are of little or no consequence in the construction of the
nuclear information system of the heavy elements. In the cold, low-energy
environment of planets, however, it is the electron shell that takes up the work
of information building.
We have two parallel, interconnected, and interdependent information systems
building up through the evolutionary development of stars and galaxies, one in
the atomic nucleus and one in its electron shell. The information they contain
is the physical basis of all that is to follow in the evolutionary pathway to
life and human thought - higher expressions of these information systems. But
what is the physical purpose of information systems? Physically, the universe is
dedicated to returning its energy content to its most symmetric state, light,
and light, due to its symmetric state of intrinsic motion, is dedicated to
expanding its spatial domain, which by energy conservation, results in cooling.
In the cosmic thermodynamic drive toward the total entropy of cold light, we
have to wonder if information building, which constitutes an apparently separate
thermodynamic realm - since it is essentially anti-entropic and against the main
thrust of physical cosmic evolution - is anything more than an eddy, a
countercurrent downstream of the rock of matter in the universal thermodynamic
flow. Is it just turbulence, or is it purposeful? Do they have a separate
meaning, entirely circumscribed within their own domain? Or do information
systems eventually become entropic, participating in the general flow, and
release more energy than they consume at higher developmental and evolutionary
levels? Are they part of a greater cosmic plan, connected to the whole - even,
just possibly, the key to the entire exercise?
The information stored in the charges of matter is in fact the very
information the Universe needs to return matter to the symmetric state of light
in either the presence or absence of antimatter - hence information systems are
fundamentally necessary to the success of the thermodynamic drive toward total
entropy. The process of proton decay and the quantum radiance of black holes are
primary examples of this fact - they require the information contained in
charges to make them "work", as do matter-antimatter annihilations.
The Universe comes with an information system built into its elementary
material structure; matter is both a storehouse of energy and a storehouse of
information, right down to the 6 species of quarks and their incredible gluon
field, and the various leptons (electrons, neutrinos, and their kin) which
facilitate the transformation of one quark into another.
Matter is not just mass; it is energy stored in a package of very specific
information - cleverly, intricately, complexly, marvelously - wrought; the lowly
atom is the absolute master work of the Creator and the Creation Event. The
thermodynamic purpose of the Universe is to return the energy of the proton, the
hydrogen nucleus, to the symmetric state of the light which formed it, but the
Universe is so arranged that this cannot be done (in normal stars) except by
climbing up the information ladder of the nucleosynthetic pathway, helped along
by gravitation. Ironically. gravitation's real purpose is to squeeze the light
out of matter and destroy its information content entirely in a black hole. But
this is a slow process, and along the way information is building up and
creating an inverse, anti-entropic realm all its own, aided and abetted by the
very energy which seeks to destroy it, not only by the gravitational push up the
nucleosynthetic pathway in stars, but also in the planetary environment where
the electron shell builds information from the energy released by this same
process of element-building.
Although the atomic nucleus takes the prize for its combination of incredible
complexity combined with incredible energy, the electron shell is also a marvel
of construction, and is capable of storing much more information, as it has a
much greater capacity for combination. It is also much better understood, being
much simpler and more accessible to experiment. It is composed exclusively of
electrons which are bound to the nucleus by the electrical attraction of the
protons. At "normal" (biological) energies, there is always one electron for
every proton, and the electrons lie in well defined orbital "shells" and
sub-shells of specific geometric configurations at various distances from the
nucleus, depending on the number of protons, or what comes to the same thing,
the element in question.
All atoms, with the single exception of hydrogen, can be characterized as 4x3
systems, involving three massive components, the proton, neutron, and electron,
and 4 "information" parameters, the 4 quantum "numbers" which define the
electron shell: N (energy level), L (angular momentum), M (magnetic axis), and S
(spin). We have already noted the prevalence of this 4x3 "metric" in the
particle and atomic realm - the 3 families of 4 elementary particles, the 3
quarks of the baryon (whose orbits are also controlled by 4 quantum numbers?)
the alpha particle, or helium nucleus, which functions as the "brick" of the
nucleosynthetic pathway (4 nucleons each composed of 3 quarks) and carbon, the
second major step of the pathway, composed of 3 alpha particles each of 4
nucleons, making carbon a double (or even triple, if the baryon itself is
included) nuclear resonance of the 4x3 system metric. In its electron shell,
carbon displays yet another 4x3 resonance - 4 "valence" electrons or bonding
sites, in its third (2p) electron shell.
Carbon is the only atom in the periodic table with both a nuclear and an
electron shell 4x3 configuration, and this is the atom which is the key and
pathway to the information system we call life. What clearer example could we
have of Chardin's "within" or "radial" information manifesting in the "without"
or "tangential" shell?
We do not, and perhaps never will, know what intermediate steps were taken
between carbon and the first molecule of DNA, but we do know that DNA is itself
a higher molecular resonance of this same 4x3 system, both in its molecular
composition (4 nucleotides each composed of three molecular groups - a
phosphate, a sugar, and a nitrogenous base), and in the form of its genetic code
(4 nucleotides code in triplets to produce amino acids). The four bonding sites
in carbon's outer shell allow it to form long chains, rings, loops, and other
closed systems with itself and with a variety of other elements. In DNA we see a
higher resonance or involution of this same ability: we see polymerization
extended to replication, and closed molecular systems extended to cells.
The jump from carbon and polymerization to DNA and replication presumably
required oceans of molecules and millions of years, and while we may grant that
the process was mostly random, the 4x3 resonance between carbon and DNA leads me
to believe that it was not entirely a chance process. Further, the very
existence of a higher resonant form changes entirely the prospects for success,
for it becomes a molecular version of the lottery, in which the winning number
or combination is already drawn and known to the "authorities" (in this case,
the physical laws of Nature), and it is only a matter of time and the number of
players until someone gets lucky. The process may be mostly random, but the
outcome is never in doubt; eventually, someone always wins the lottery.
DNA is the winning combination of the molecular information lottery, a
preexisting combination, in that it is a resonant form, known and chosen by the
laws of nature waiting for the lucky winner to solve the puzzle and present the
ticket - the correct molecular resonance of the 4x3 metric contained in carbon.
Once this resonance is achieved and the puzzle solved, all the rest, as they
say, is evolutionary history, for with the advent of a stable, replicating
molecule the competitive basis of evolution is in place - the competition for
limited resources (complimentary amino acids with which to replicate itself)
will drive the molecular information system into competition with its own
progeny, thus setting up the crucial "intraspecific" (within species) race to
ever more efficient reproduction. A cell is the natural outcome of this process,
for what is a cell if not a fortress defending the replicating molecule from the
attacks of others of its own kind, and safeguarding a store of amino acids which
DNA needs for its own replication.
While building such elaborate information systems requires a surplus of
external energy, there is nothing in nature to prevent the "gratuitous" use of
such energy by an evolving system. Even the nuclear system overruns its
exothermic limits (precisely when the 4x3 system fails in the unstable chromium
48 nucleus, settling at iron 56), building endothermic nuclei up to uranium from
the excess energy of gravitational implosions and supernovas. On the one hand,
the "play" of molecules in the light of a summer's day appears to be a frivolous
experimentation, doomed to failure, producing "sand castles" which fall to
pieces overnight; yet, it is probably precisely because of this cycle of day and
night, heat and cold, high and low tide, wet and dry, that a robust and stable
system was selected and evolved. Each day a new lottery is drawn; each night the
losers tear up their tickets; but the cycle does not return completely to zero,
for some combinations will survive the night, the cold, and the desiccation, and
these will be concentrated day by day and tide by tide. Those who do not survive
will yield both place and molecular supplies to those who do. Hence each cycle,
acting like a sieve, increases the population of partial and potential winners,
and the likelihood that the next cycle will produce the Grand Prize winner -
DNA.
Life is no "patsy" - its information system is strong because it has been
tested since the beginning. Nothing less could survive under the harsh physical
conditions of its birth and subsequent competitive evolutionary development. But
what are we to think of this marvel of the information pathway that continues to
evolve resonances of itself in terms of cells, organisms, species, ecosystems,
Gaia, and finally, human thought and our own abstract and "artificial"
information systems? An ancillary phenomenon, or simply another expression of
the principle evolutionary axis of the Universe?
Because the charges of matter constitute the information which the Universe
needs to return to its symmetric state, we might expect that the electron shell,
or biological information pathway would eventually produce its own solution to
this problem. The evolution of animals is of course a partial solution, in that,
unlike plants, animals do not simply build up information from sunlight, binding
free energy into information systems. Instead, animals break down the
information energy stored by plants and release it as heat, especially the more
highly evolved warm-blooded species. In man, this process is accelerated, not
only through his release of chemical energy in the burning of wood and fossil
fuels, but also in the release of nuclear energy in the explosion of fusion and
fission bombs. Here we see the information pathway converging with the main line
of the nucleosynthetic pathway. Obviously, we can hope that some peaceful use of
this energy release will evolve, but at least in man the information pathway of
the electron shell is beginning to pay dividends in terms of the conversion of
bound energy to free energy, putting even biology back in the mainstream of the
cosmic thermodynamic flow toward entropy. It is simply our evolutionary and
thermodynamic destiny to become ever more efficient energy releasers.
If our view were wider, we would realize that Earth life is not an isolated
phenomenon, but that the electron shell, or biological information pathway is as
universal as the nucleosynthetic pathway. All over the galaxy, all over the
Universe, the same lottery is being played, and where conditions are suitable,
there will be winners. The Cosmos is becoming, undoubtably has become, alive and
is waking up to itself. The information pathway allows the Universe to
experience itself in myriad ways, to understand itself, to become self aware,
even to become more fully itself, just as we have become self aware and through
the abstraction of thought have become more fully ourselves in the sense of an
ever greater realization of our human potential. Our control of evolution, if
wisely pursued, will only further this process, and constitutes in itself
another involution of the resonant evolutionary form.
Gaia is the phenomenon of Earth life, but there are many others like her. She
is now in her reproductive phase; we are her seeds, the agents of her dispersal
into the solar system and the galaxy beyond. Gaia is in competition with others
of her kind for new territory; evolution does not end with man; it begins a new,
extraterrestrial phase with man in charge. We will reenact the story of Noah's
ark with our spaceships, and the exodus from the Garden of Eden, our own - our
beautiful - Mother Earth. In the process, we will learn to release a lot of
energy.
Tables and diagrams revelant to this "SunSign Analysis" paper:
John Gowan's General Systems Home Page
