On the Other Side of Light—What Did the Ancients Know About the Nature of Dark Matter?
Report Topics:
- Descriptions of the “Darkness” of the Universe in Babylonian, Hindu, Hebrew, Chinese, Egyptian and Hermetic texts
- Greek and Renaissance associations with the nature of the Ethers
- Esoteric link between Dark Matter and the Shadow side of the human psyche
- Relationship between Endarkenment, Enlightenment and the manifestation of New Creation
Full Report:
Recorded among the ancient civilizations was the commonly held belief that something else exists beyond what our conscious mind can perceive and what can be observed by our physical eyes within the Universe.
According to the Enuma Elish, the Creation Story of the Sumero-Babylonians, before everything came into being was Apsu, the Abyss, the Great Waters of Chaos, ruled over by the Dark Goddess, Tiamat.
The Creator Marduk divided Tiamat in half, producing physical reality, the Light World, yet allowing the Apsu to remain as the Waters Below, the source out of which continued creation could come.
In the Hindu Rig Veda's “Hymn of Creation” we find reference to "Darkness there was first by darkness hidden."
Likewise, in the Hymn of the Unknown God are these words: "When the Great Waters of Creation went everywhere, holding the Germ and Generating Light, then there arose among them the Breath of the Gods."
The opening words of the Hebrew Book of Genesis spoke how, before the Earth and everything, there was "Darkness upon the face of the Deep," and the "Spirit of God moved upon the Waters," to declare, "Let there be Light," initiating the process of Creation.
The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu described how "The way is Empty, yet use will not drain it. The Deep, it contains the ancestry of all myriad of creatures. Its wheels move in fixed forms. Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there. I know not of whose offspring it is. It images the forefather of God."
The Incas of Peru formulated the existence of constellations not among the stars but in the dark, blank areas between the stars, believing these regions of deep space to have profound influences upon the fates and destinies of humanity.
This anticipated by several centuries what modern radio astronomy has only now begun to verify, that such dark areas are strong radiation sources.
To the ancient Egyptians the mysterious god Nun was the ruler of the Primordial Waters of Creation, who held aloft the Great Bark of Ra, the Progenitor of all the other deities, and the Creator of all matter and energy.
In the most advanced Egyptian Initiations, during which the Higher Initiates were allowed to travel in the Solar Bark, Ra took them not only into the Heavens but also on a journey into the Duat, the Underworld of darkness, to face and overcome their unresolved fears.
In the Hermetic Virgin of the World treatise, Isis is described giving her son Horus this prophecy concerning humanity's future, now being fulfilled in our modern age today with advances in subatomic physics and deep space exploration:
"Men shall seek out the inner nature of space, where no man can walk, and they will chase up into the heights, desiring to observe the nature of the motions of the Heaven. But these shall be but small things. For them nothing more will seem to remain than the remotest realms of Earth to explore. But then they shall search out and suddenly find out the Night, the farthest Night of all."
The word Night, in the context of other depictions in Hermetic literature, refers to a "light, though it be lesser than the Sun's"— that is, it possesses an energy other than physical light.
Night, or Darkness, also has the property to "weave a web more rapid than light," referring to a hidden universal grid of tachyon energy. It is related to the great Cosmic Ocean, where are "other mysteries, in turn that move in heaven, with ordered motions, and with periods of time, and with certain hidden influences, bestowing order on the things below on Earth and co-increasing them."
Among Greek sources was the belief that Okeanos consisted not only of the physical Ocean surrounding land, but that it included the Great Ocean that encircles both the Earth and the Universe.
Thales, about 585 B.C.E., heralded water as being the basis of everything, since all living things contain it. The water he spoke of was more than physical, yet possessing similar properties.
Anaximander called the fundamental substance of the Universe "boundless, indefinite," distinguishing it from "source substances," of which everything else was composed.
Empedocles identified the Four Elements—Earth, Water, Air and Fire—as combining by "Strife" (to Repel) and "Love" (to Attract) in the creation of all things, through Motion (Space) and Cosmic Cycle (Time).
Aristotle, went one step further and declared the existence of "quintessence" or a Fifth Essence as being something that pervaded the entire Universe, contrasting the first Four Elements which have specific form and place.
It was Homer who first used the term "Aether" to identify this unknown quality, a word later carried through by Galileo, Descartes and Newton.
In 1645, Descartes stated that there was no such thing as a Void, that everything is subject to invisible eddies, vortices and interfacings among specific regions of energy that bring creation into being, all within the common background of the Aether.
The Dutch Huygens in 1660 also wrote that the Aether pervades the Universe, and that all matter, energy and light were the result of wave motion in the Great Aetheric Ocean.
Later, in the nineteenth century, Hertz and Maxwell attempted to explain electro-magnetism in terms of the Aether's existence. This eventually led to the famous Michelson-Morley experiment of 1905 which was done to find the Aether by measuring the speed of light in different directions relative to the motion of the Earth.
Unfortunately, when the experiment failed to produce the desired results, demonstrating instead that the speed of light is constant in all directions, this was mistakenly taken as proof that the Aether does not exist, and the entire concept of the Universal Aether was abandoned.
It is now recognized that the speed of Light is constant everywhere, as Einstein was later to demonstrate in his theory of relativity. But as the Ancients so often noted, light and its properties, to a large degree, appear to be separate and independent of the Aether, which also is universally present.
Light belongs to our conscious, physical reality. The Aether is of the dark, unknown, unconscious aspect of the Universe—acknowledged but never fully understood.
In 1964 early radio astronomers discovered that an all-pervading cosmic microwave background fills the Universe, a leftover from the primordial Big Bang of Creation, and that there exists a Doppler Effect caused by the Earth's relative motion to it—elements which could not have been detected in 1905.
This, coupled with the more recent measurements and findings of astrophysics, has led today's researchers back to the ancient concept of a Voidless Universe.
What has astounded them is the further realization that, to account for all matter existing in the Universe, and the energies that appear to be still spreading it apart, at least ninety percent of it is missing or is unseen.
The researchers surmise the existence of Dark Matter, a substance that has presence and gravitational pull, which exerts influence on the formation of stars and galaxies, but which for the most part does not interact with light and therefore remains largely invisible.
What can be observed, looking at distant galaxies, is the presence of curious dark areas along the galactic rims, and dark rings and haloes encompassing nebulae and other celestial objects.
Also, photographs of the farthest known objects in the Universe show bent light patterns, indicating the presence of other undetectable matter shaping and holding together the stellar matter that can be seen.
Today's leading edge researchers are now attempting to find new ways of observing the Dark Matter, which they believe exists everywhere side-by-side with light-matter, yet is ten times more in quantity, extends ten times farther out, and gives an age to the Universe ten times older than previously thought. Amazingly, everything modern researchers are discovering only confirms what the Ancients already knew and described.
When we go back and re-read the Ancient literary sources, it becomes clear that they not only understood the properties of Dark Matter we are just now beginning to comprehend, but they also went several steps beyond. Those who came before us so very long ago also spoke of mysterious ways of being able to combine the Light and Dark sides of the Universe in a forgotten process of bringing about new Creation.
Even more surprising, the Ancients also linked the Light and Dark sides of the Cosmos with the Light and Shadow natures of the human psyche. In effect, they believed the two aspects mirror one another, and as we will learn more about one, it will reveal the answers to the enigmatic workings of the other. The old Hermetic maxim states, “As above, so below; as without, so within.” The Dark Matter of the Universe is but a macrocosmic reflection of the Dark or Shadow nature of our own inner selves.
In the Eastern symbol of the Tao, half the symbol is a swirl of white and the other half is an equal swirl of black. Yet within the white is a single black dot, and in the black is a single white dot. This in Taoist thought represents the Darkling Light and the Shining Dark.
The Buddhist poem Sandokai notes: "Within the light there is darkness, but do not be attached to this darkness. Within the darkness there is light, but do not look for that light."
As we long to join together with the Light within us, so there is also a longing for Darkness, to find one's Shadow places within. We are not to be obsessed with one or the other, but to always seek balance first, then eventual fusion between the two. Neither Light nor Dark are ends unto themselves, but together are means toward greater Realizations.
In the Old Testament writings of the Book of Psalms, chapter 139, verses 11 and 12, we can read these words which have relevant meaning:
“Darkness shall give light to you. And night shall shine upon the face because darkness will not be dark to you. But the night shall shine as the day, and darkness as it were light.”
The Ancients fully understood that it is the interaction of the Light and Dark aspects of the self from which Creation itself proceeds. Similarly, in the Cosmos it is the Darkness of space that implodes into Light that creates matter and energy.
It is also in Darkness where one finds the source of the powers of conception, germination, incubation and birth from the womb. But Darkness in and of itself is not complete without the Light. Light shining in Darkness is the sign of new Creation coming into being complete and whole. It is Light and Darkness first uniting, and then transcending each other to a new level of being. From this great Union is produced the primordial energy that first integrates all and then, in turn, gives birth to the quality of transcendence within us.
In ancient alchemy the transmuting substance turns into nigredo or blackness before turning into gold. In Tibetan Buddhism blackness is recognized as the stage before Enlightenment. To the Sufis one must go through blackness for the soul to achieve its Beatitude. In Turkish the word black symbolizes purity. In Celtic it stands for fertility. In our own language the word black originally came from a root word which means gleaming.
Many schools of Ancient philosophy envisioned that the Shadow exists on the border between Light and Dark. It is on the edge of Darkness that Light arises. Light shines from Darkness. Darkness engenders the Light. Light and Dark interweave in the act of becoming. In Light the Dark dies, giving birth to new Light. Light dies first in order to touch Darkness, and return to Light.
Darkness thus fulfills the Light, while the Light transmutes the Dark. Just as all Darkness is blinding, so is all Light—we need both Light and Dark to offer enough contrast to be able to see what is Real.
Shadows dim the Light so that Reality can be observed. Light dispels the Shadows yet does not take away its energy. Only together do Light and Dark transcend to bring Creation into being.
When the adepts attain a state variously called nirvana, samadhi, and by many other names, they are sometimes mistaken in believing they have reached the final level of consciousness there is. However, only as we can achieve the highest aspect of who we are, are we then ready to face the lowest depths of ourselves, to fully release our last attachments—to enter into the Dark Night of the Soul.
Accepting the Light aspect of ourselves is not in and of itself Enlightenment. First we must also embrace and nurture our Dark portions as being a real and meaningful part of who we are. This is true Endarkenment. Then, it is by the applying of the Light to see into the Darkness of who we really are at our inner core of being that Enlightenment finally comes. “At the darkest moment comes the true Light”—the birthing of our own inner wholeness.
It is only through the combined action of bringing Light into and transmuting the inner Dark aspects that an individual can make the quantum leap of transforming into a true state of oneness. This is the final summation and culmination of who we can become before eventually fully awakening to the next great step in our individual and collective evolution.
What can happen on the individual level can also begin manifesting on the collective level of all humanity. World peace among nations must first begin with peace exercised within ourselves. The true peace-makers will be those who did not face an outer enemy, but first had the courage to face their own “enemies” inside. Only when a true integration between Light and Dark aspects happens within the individual, then the outward projections that are falsely made onto others of who is “good” and who is “evil” will end.
There can no longer be any investment in trying to determine who is worse or better than anyone else, only a taking of responsibility for our own Light and Shadow experiences. The illusion of separation will fall away and understanding and compassion for each other can be exercised to the fullest on a global scale.
The interaction and integration of the Light and Dark within us, and as it exists and can be fused together as matter throughout the rest of the Universe, is the Great Mystery of Mysteries that gives birth to direct Creation itself.
For as we begin to exercise this fusion process within us, will we likewise remember once again how the Ancients were able not only to understand the true nature of light-matter and Dark Matter within the Cosmos around us, but how to bring these two together in the process of Manifesting new Realities.
[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]
