Spirits of Place

Probabilities

As with any day, the Summer Solstice sunrise falls over all the planet. We attach a significance to sites where the sunrise lights on this day when it is connected to some other feature, concept, or precept that is known to us.

The fact that the sunrise falls into the womb of a geologic feature that is itself aligned to the solstice, formed naturally from great boulders, with an altar stone lying on the ground between them, itself also aligned to the solstice sunrise, is highly significant.

The probability of the sun falling first into the womb of the space may be calculated as such:

360 degrees of a circle of rotation to which any point could be aligned 365 days of the year to which the site could align to the sunrise 360 x 365 = 131,400 : 1 probability

As I am the only person visiting the site, recognizing the site, honoring and documenting the site, my contribution is unique. Out of 7,300,000 people currently on the planet, the odds of this happening area 7,300,000 :1 probability

The odds of an individual interacting with this unique space aligned to the summer solstice sunrise therefore are 131,400 site/solstice x 7,300,000 world population = 959,220,000,000 : 1
Nine-Hundred, Fifty-Nine Billion, Two-Hundred,Twenty-Million to One (nearly a trillion to one).

As I am photographing columns of smoke, as any one could, anywhere, the probability that there would be recognizable images, as projections of our psyche not only to myself but to others on viewing them is a given. It is a function of our collective unconscious, a vast library of archetypes that inhabit our lives, our culture, and our DNA. Clouds are a good example, or inkblot tests.

Any given body of photographs of smoke, stones, water, light may have recognizable features present in them as moments frozen in time. This phenomenon is known as pareidolia.

Consider also that the images appear as if lit from a source of light, where the shadows and highlights are true to the source, and contour of the form. Not as an outline, or suggestion of form, but as fully formed figures which light can fall upon, describe, and define in space as a physical form. When multiple figures occur simultaneously, the light is true to each individual as well as the whole set of figures, as if in physical form. The image may appear as lit according to the same direction of light as falling on the surrounding stones, as if they are present in the same space and time.

If you figure in the probabilities of these other aspects of imaging and relevant entities, the results are astronomical.

It is apparent that these events and results are not happenstance, coincidence, or randomness, but are self-evident, deliberate, and profound manifestations. It is my experience that contrary to our modern mindset, “Seeing is Believing”, where cognition becomes an impediment, this phenomenon is of a heart-based sight, where believing is seeing.

Open your heart and truly see. You may find yourself looking beyond the limits of this life, as one who is returning to yourself, returning to the Garden.

It is your greatest gift to give.