Retrograde Motion

  This morning, May 6, A.D. 2023, many witnessed the coronation of England’s King Charles III. As a devoted admirer of English history, the coronation this morning was something I had been anticipated for months, since the passing of the late Queen Elizabeth II. I was up at four this morning to turn on the tv (or should I say the “telly”) to watch the procession to Westminster Abbey before the coronation began. I have been talking to many of my friends and coworkers in the past week asking if they were planning to watch the broadcast as it went out live. Often, I was met with the same question: “Why do you care? It doesn’t effect you.” It is true, as an American citizen, the rule of King Charles does not have any sway over my daily life, but I would contend that it also does not mean I should disregard the coronation for a number of reasons.      Firstly, America was settled largely by the English and is built on English tradition. Our ideas of liberty, freedom fro...

The light is lower than it used. There was a time when it was near, yet as of late, o’er in the east I’ve seen and felt it move away. The air grows cold and day is turned to night. And now the only light is but the pale reflection from  the sun, whose face we may not see. Yet from the dark, this light reborn will rouse this shadow world to life and westward travels back to us that death may die and light bring life.

  What is Retrograde Motion? As ancient astronomers observed the movement of the heavens they noticed that seven stars moved independent of the others. These they called planets or “wandering stars.” They believed them to orbit the Earth in perfect circular patterns. However, upon closer study they discovered that rather than moving in perfect circles a planet would often stop in its path, loop back on itself, and then proceed forward. This phenomenon of a planet doubling back on itself is what is known as retrograde motion. Why is this blog called “Retrograde Motion?” Man throughout history has sought progress and advancement in his understanding of the world and reality. God designed man to cultivate the world He created, so it is only right and fitting that we should desire to work and discover new things. We cannot live in the past. To progress means we must move on from the past. However, we do not disregard the past. We return to and examine the past, and using the infor...

  In her book The Need for Roots , Simone Weil discusses the needs of the human soul. She says that a soul needs to be rooted, and that there are negative repercussions when it is not rooted. In the latter half of the book, she examines what it looks like to be uprooted, but in the first section she begins by examining the things the souls needs to be rooted. Society has become more and more rootless, and it is not only Weil who has observed this. In his book The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton observes a group as they wrestle with how to maintain stability in society. He follows them through their struggles and to their differing conclusions about the world and its meaning. Likewise, Evelyn Waugh in A Handful of Dust shows what a society is like without roots. He constructs a setting in which there are no truly connected and rooted people and demonstrates the effects that culture has on a society. Three of Weil’s needs of the soul that are very apparent both of these st...

 

Afar the hunter rises to tread the path above, while I stand down below and marvel, bound by my humility. Am I, a man of lower birth, fit to tread his path? He shines above us all, but I am bound below. His thrice jeweled belt is seen by all and children call his name. Oh, who below can rise and follow on such a plane? Ready the ship! Prepare to rise and meet him where he stands. Tonight I’ll meet him face to face upon that plane. The world I know melts away, but still we fly ahead. Afar I see him smile from his perch and laugh. “Oh foolish man who tries to tread my path: to walk where those immortal stand. Mark how far you have  to fall.”

“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations. “Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!” Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”   So he answered and said,  “Must I not take heed to speak what  the Lord has put in my mouth?”  -Numbers 23:8-12 (NKJV) ———————————— I read this passage this morning, and it made me think of our society today. We are constantly told what to believe by the world on issues such as gender, race, abortion, and homosexuality. Often enough, people accept what society tells them over what scripture teaches. It’s easier to live that way. If the wor...