This guest post is by Duane Marcus. You can read a bit about him on the “Denizens” page.

As I was looking at the new image of the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble telescope I was reminded of a thought I had while collecting crystals at Diamond Hill Mine. We had been poking around in the muddy piles for several hours finding some nice pieces. I was on my knees in a spot where I was finding a lot nice crystals. The sun was low in the sky making the crystals sparkle around me. I picked up a nice clear orange piece and held it up so the sunlight shone through it.

I was struck by the realization that I was holding in my hand pieces of a star of unimaginable age that were subsequently forged into this beautiful crystal by tremendous heat and pressure deep within the core of the earth many millennia ago. It also occurred to me that I, too, am composed of that same star stuff. The crystal and I are one and the same. I could feel the exchange of electrons between us at that moment.

The experience was both humbling and uplifting for me. I felt both infinitesimally small and immensely powerful at the same time. I felt I understood my place in this vast universe for the first time in my life. I felt a deep reverence for the privilege of being alive to witness and experience the forces of nature on this tiny blue green rock spinning around that star we call the Sun, which gives us life.

Each morning I wake up and begin my day with a ritual in which I give thanks for being alive. I make offerings and thank the ancestral spirits and the spirits of the upper world, the middle world and the lower world for their guidance, their healing and their teachings. I end the ritual by singing this song that was given to me by one of my helper spirits in the lower world.

I am the Light of the Universe
The Light radiates from within me
The Light reaches in to all the dark corners
Casting the shadows away 

You are Light of the Universe
The Light radiates from within you
The Light reaches in to all the dark corners
Casting the shadows away 

We are the Light of the Universe
The Light radiates from within us
The Light reaches in to all the dark corners
Casting the shadows away

Namaste – Aho – Peace Out