Do you know the story of the continents? The oceans? Do you know the story of how flowers changed the world? How humans changed the world? The story of the universe has scene after scene of remarkable transformations. The Earth was completely molten lava. There was no oxygen in the sky while life persisted for two billion years. Fish walked out of the sea onto land. The dinosaurs came and left. Mammals showed up and after epics of evolutionary development, humans emerged.

It is a wonder to go through the eras of life—the first cells and how they survived, the eukaryote and the beginning of multicellular life, the Cambrian explosion and its burst of life forms, the ancient seas with their incredible fish and birds, the  forests that marched across continents, the mega fauna, the primates and us.

The story can be told in many ways, by many people. Every version will likely be unique to the storytellers’ culture and place, to their religious orientation and personal individuality.

The story provides a way in which all people on Earth can come into a common understanding, a way of beginning to see how to move forward in a vibrant way of life.

Do you know some of the stories coming out of the study of sub atomic particles? Photons, electrons, neutrons, and the rest are revealing a world that goes beyond human comprehension.

Have you taken in the galaxies, the starbursts, the supernovae, the beautiful planets of the Solar System, deep space from the Hubble Space Telescope and others? Photos are online and free.

Does the night sky, a rushing river, an ocean wave, a vast prairie or towering mountain peak evoke a sense of wonder? Do things beckon awe?

The story of the universe is available to us. The story has the ability to awaken wonder, engage the imagination, open the mind, expand the heart. It’s the biggest story we have. To develop a sense of the cosmos—an understanding of the universe, Earth, life and human is to enter a new world—one that is fully alive and new each moment.

In Canticle to the Cosmos, cosmologist Brian Swimme takes the viewer through the entire story of the universe. Swimme presents a myriad of examples and insights into the dynamics of the universe, where we are in space and time, the quantum world of elementary particles and waves. He describes the birth of the Earth and its own dynamism, the phases of life on Earth all the way to the emergence of humans.

Cultural historian Thomas Berry was a person who could awaken others to the awe and wonder of the natural world. He also enabled people to grasp the magnitude of the present destruction of ecosystems, species and populations of birds, fish, trees and all. Thomas would speak of the water, the rivers, the mountains, the forests. Listeners would wonder and then ask, “What do we do?” Thomas would reply, “First, learn the story.”

January is a good time to step out of your immediate world and take in a bigger picture. Remind yourself that all life here on Earth is dependent on the Sun. The Sun has burned for 4.5 billion years and will do so for another 5.5 billion. As it expands and heats up the Sun will eventually engulf the Earth but not for another 1.1 billion years or so. That’s a million years 1,100 times! We humans have only been on Earth for 2 million years.

Eons of time remain for us to work out our conflicts and way of life. Take a deep breath. Recall that it has taken life a million years, 3,500 times (or around 3.5 billion years) to develop into what we see today. We’re part of a much larger cosmic adventure than we are normally aware. We can have confidence that given this time we can find our way and achieve our destiny whatever it may be.

From our cozy spot here in the Solar System we remind ourselves we are part of the Milky Way Galaxy with some 200 – 400 billion stars. Our sister galaxy Andromeda is bigger and has on the order a trillion stars (1,000 billion).

Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies rotate around each other forming the Local Group and together revolve around the center of the Virgo Cluster. The Virgo Cluster is comprised of at least 1,300 galaxies each with billions of stars.

Virgo Cluster is just one of a 100 galaxy groups in the Virgo Supercluster which is one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe. Whatever the universe is doing or trying to accomplish (if you think of it that way) it certainly is putting a lot of time and space into it!

Rest assured that we’re part of something mysterious and greater than we can possibly imagine.

Now take the human. Include the entire 2 million years of our time here on Earth and imagine every person that has come and gone. Pick a particular period and imagine what life must have been like. What would your primary concerns be if you lived during the Ice Ages? Life span was shorter. Keeping the fire burning was critical to survival. Food was nearby but had to be hunted and gathered. Injury could be fatal and so had to be cautiously avoided.

Now imagine being one of the first humans on a much warmer savannah in Africa some 2 million years ago. You’re in a small band that is searching for food. Other animals are too and can be deadly.  Your group comes to a clearing, a resting place, and for a moment you have a flash of conscious reflection. There you are with a small group of people under the night sky. What do we do? Where do we go?

These are cosmological questions that have been thought or expressed since the beginning of the human experience. They’re still the most basic questions today.  Reflecting on the universe, it’s size, it’s age, the tremendous journey through time that has carried the elements, the galaxies, the planets, life and us can be an exhilarating release.

Framed in a cosmic perspective our everyday personal issues and challenges are seen in a new light.

And just like the DNA of animal species, our cosmological stories need at times to change. During the 20^th century, scientists learned more about the dynamic processes of the universe, Earth, life and human evolution than in the previous 100,000 years combined. And yet, the cosmological and religious stories found throughout the planet have yet to absorb these hard won discoveries. Because of this gap, it is rare to find someone whose life is rooted in the way in which the universe actually functions. It is even rarer to find an educational system based on the creative dynamics of an evolving universe, or an economy built on the structures of the biosphere. Even in the advanced societies of the European Union, Japan, and the United States, the disconnect between modern consciousness and biological nature has led to anxieties and depressions, violent conflicts, and ecological destruction.

We are only now beginning to understand that our ordinary consciousness needs to be transformed in order to embody the new story of the universe. As we learn to embody this story, and as our thinking and acting find their foundation in the ways of the cosmos, we will begin to live lives that are congruent with the cosmos and that are suffused with zest. Central to this endeavor will be the exploration of faith in our capacity to bring forth a vibrant Earth Community.

Brian Swimme

540 million years ago it was the Cambrian Era. The earth was warmer with little polar ice. No life on land yet except for bacteria that covered the desert continents. There was an abundance of shallow Cambrian seas that were relatively warm after the breakup of the supercontinent, Pannotia.  This was the time of the Cambrian Explosion, when life takes off. In this cauldron of biological creativity, organisms poured forth at an accelerated and diversified rate. This is when fish came onto the scene.

The first fish were multicellular creatures with gills and a notochord. They swam. They ate. They reproduced. While there is a long branching list of ancestors and body types of the fish, there is too, a list of attributes developed by the fish over this immense period of time. This list includes jaws, bones, teeth, muscles, scales, cartilage, gills, eyes, ears, lungs, limbs and complex neural pathways. You can recognize some of these in your own body.

All these developments enhanced the life of a fish. Their world of movement, sight, energy and sound deepened. A certain kind of fish, the teleost, reached new levels of complexity in their fins and jaws and mostly populate our oceans today. It was the fish that crawled out of the sea into the line of amphibians, reptiles and mammals. As fish became more and more prosperous and numerous they filled the oceans in great numbers encircling the planet. 540 million years is a long time. All the while, throughout the ages fish survived and prospered.

When humans come onto the scene the oceans are full of fish.

Salmon journeyed down mountain streams and circled the northern Pacific and Atlantic oceans in great schools. Come fall rains they would crowd the rivers and streams to spawn. The only viable remaining populations of salmon are in Canada and Alaska.

Cod covered the outer banks of the continental shelves. Vast in number and relatively easy to catch they become the food of choice for many. No one could imagine their demise. They are now almost completely gone.

Swordfish and marlin populations have crashed. So has the magnificent Atlantic bluefin.

36 species of groupers populated the coral reefs of the South Pacific. They come together in vast numbers (thus the name) to spawn, making them an easy catch.

Sharks and rays roamed the oceans worldwide. They too, have greatly disappeared.

Every population, species or group of fish that we can identify has been significantly reduced. As recently as the 1950, the oceans were loaded with fish. People marveled at their numbers. Nobody ever imagined that we could reduce their populations to small remnants.

Fish populations around the world in all of the oceans have plummeted with the pressures exerted on them by us. We have come to a crossroads in the story of fish and the story of the human. The fate of fish, after 540 million years, is in the hands of humans.

We know the earth is round. We know it’s a living planet. We know humans have been here a couple of million years. We know the phases and changes that human culture has undergone during that period. One can marvel at the modern world of humans with our industries, technologies, communication and transportation systems, hospital, schools, water and food availability, militaries, governments and religious institutions. It’s truly a wonder. But then we are startled or even horrified to learn that the current success of the human species is now altering the very functioning of the planet in harmful ways. We have learned that humans are affecting the natural systems of the earth including the atmosphere and its greenhouse gases; the geosphere with its forests, minerals and topsoil; the biosphere with its millions of species of plants and animals; the hydrosphere with its oceans of fish and coral reefs, its rivers of streams, aquifers, deltas and estuaries. We are changing the structure and balance of the natural systems in a way never before.

In a cosmological perspective the well being of the planet earth becomes a context in which to view and assess. We might want to think about endeavoring to situate the human within the larger natural systems of the earth rather than endeavoring to supersede them. Our modern economy is headed in just that direction.

Altering the course of modern humans might sound like a mountain of work. Thomas Berry calls it the Great Work of our time. The goal accordingly is to establish a mutually enhancing relationship between humans and the natural world.

There are wonderful powers that are at work in our midst and which bring us the water, the air, the soil, the forests and the fish. They can be destructive at times as well. Yet in the larger arc of time, all of the powers of the earth, the living and non living dynamics of the natural world have created the abundant and plentiful world in which we find ourselves. And yet, we discover that we are now destroying the very conditions that brought this abundance forth.

Now within the form of self conscious awareness at least one species is contemplating the destiny of it all.

Proposed by British scientist James Lovelock in 1969 as the Gaia Hypothesis, this depiction of the Earth as a self regulating system at the most basic level, up to the more radical view of the Earth as a living organism, has captured the imagination and intrigue of many. Gaia Theory offers an unprecedented view of the Earth as a whole system. That life works in concert with rocks, water and air to organize conditions conducive for life is a radically new way of understanding the world in which we live.

Humans have recently entered the Earth community (2 million or so years ago) and have more recently become an influential part of the Gaian system. Hugely successful, particularly over the last few hundred years, humans have risen to powers that are on a par with anything else on Earth. We can alter the chemical composition of the sky, divert the rivers of the world, pump oil and water from beneath the surface, eliminate other species, and completely transform the landscape of a region.

This newly founded power has both its positive and negative aspects. Look around you and marvel at the cities, the cars, the airplanes, the supermarkets, the hydroelectric and coal power plants, the homes, landscapes, parks and golf courses. Reflect for a moment on the miracles of modern medicine and its capacity to heal and extend our lives. It’s really something! Just imagine bringing someone from another century into the present time.

Yet, in the midst of this progress and human advancement is the startling realization that we have over extended ourselves. We now discover that our ambitious human agenda is so big and powerful that we are exerting overriding pressures on the rest of the Gaian economy. Can we continue to do that and remain prosperous into the future?

Gaia Theory gives us one way in which to gauge our activities. If the temperature and chemistry of Earth has been balanced for billions of years by non humans, i.e. the cells, molecules, plants, animals, rocks, water and air, maybe we need to seriously consider joining the game as opposed to thinking of ourselves as independent and autonomous entities. If not, our hubris and arrogance may lead us down a path of self-destruction.

Berman explores sunspots, magnetic fields, carbon, invisible and visible light, skin cancer and vitamin D, astrology, color, sub atomic particles, eclipses, auroras and anthropocentric climate forcing (a.k.a. as global warming). And then further reveals the nature of coronal mass ejections, gamma rays and the future of the Sun. Mind boggling! Highly recommended for those that want to get in touch with the Sun.

In his DVD, Canticle to the Cosmos, Brian Swimme explains how we are a solar event. The chlorophyll molecule captures the sun. Complex life flourishes because of this activity. For example, our vision is dependent on the chlorophyll molecule; it enables us to see. When you look out at the Sun (not directly please!) you are the Sun seeing itself.

In The Powers of the Universe, DVD Swimme describes the interaction between the Sun and the Earth. Particles from the Sun, gravitons and photons, enable the Earth to stay in relationship with the Sun via gravity (gravitons) and provide the energy for life to emerge and develop (photons). This power of the universe Swimme refers to as Radiance. It’s a beautiful way to understand ourselves as a solar event.

Thomas Berry used to say that we are primarily cosmological. Everything else, whether it’s your race, nationality, occupation, role as a father or mother, all of these identities comes out of the billion year development of the universe, of the Sun and Earth. We are a cosmological event of the universe just like the galaxies, stars and planets. We are a solar event as are the single cells, jellyfish and birds. We are an Earth event as are the mountains, oceans and air. Our challenge is to see ourselves as a mode of being in a developing and powerfully creative universe.

The story of the universe is based on the scientific discoveries of the past few centuries. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Freud and Einstein are but a few of the familiar names associated with the most significant undertaking in human history—the scientific endeavor.

Brian Swimme in his DVD series Canticle to the Cosmos describes from a scientific perspective how we humans came to be.  It’s a fantastic account of time, space, energy, matter, stars and people. The Canticle includes the earth and the life around us and places the human in the context of a cosmic event.

In The Earth’s Imagination DVD Swimme depicts the human species on a commensurate level with the atmosphere, the oceans, the continents and the biosphere. We are now a major player affecting all life. This is our challenge and our opportunity.

In The Powers of the Universe DVD he shows how the dynamics that organized the universe are alive within us. Allurement, Emergence, Cataclysm, Radiance course through the stars, the earth, nature and humans. We find our way by learning about these powers in our lives.

Dr. Brian Swimme is a cosmologist, professor, author, producer and public speaker. His work in cosmology, the study of the universe, has resulted in 3 DVD programs: Canticle to the Cosmos, The Earth’s Imagination and The Powers of the Universe. And most recently, Journey of the Universe, a 60 minute film for television which debuted on June 11^th, 2011 on PBS, KQED San Francisco.

Massive clumps of atoms form into majestic spirals and ellipses. Stars burst forth in the newly formed galaxies.

Supernovas blast the galaxies with new elements.

Cygnus Loop Supernova

Out of one supernova blast comes our Sun and Earth.

Life emerges on Earth.

Cells organize and fill the oceans.

Oxygen is produced and metabolizes life.

Cells complexify into plants and animals such as seaweed and jellyfish.

Brains and the nervous system are developed.

Out of the reptiles come the mammals. It is not until the dinosaurs were eliminated that the mammals could blossom.

Flowering plants appear.

And then come humans.

In the DVD series, Canticle to the Cosmos, hear Brian Swimme describe these and many more significant moments in the story of the universe. Canticle to the Cosmos takes you on a journey into the quantum realm of matter and energy and out to the large scale structure of the universe. He tells you how the earth was formed, life emerged and humans developed. It’s a breathtaking account. It’s our story.