Orienting myself

Whenever I arrive somewhere new, whether it be a campsite, and organisation, or a party, I notice my immediate inclination to orient myself.

At a campsite I will wander off in random directions, understanding the lay of the land, experiencing its sounds, temperatures and smells.

At a party I do a sweep of the space, noticing the vie, the people, and of course the exits.

And at an organisation I book in as many 1:1s as I can, from as diverse a group of people as possible. Leaders, old timers, new-starters. Those with internal-facing roles; those with external facing roles.

And now I have noticed a new level of orientation I am craving. Where am I in relation to the mooon and sun? Where am I in relation to the other planets? And where am I in relation to my galaxy?

IT is a mind-trip if you want to try it. I’m slowly becoming aware of the moon’s location at any one time. And I can sense, if I stop to imagine long enough, the solar plane I am on and how this aligns with the other planets.

My newest exploration is feeling into where I am positioned in relation to our galaxy.

For those of us who live in the cities, is can be difficult to remember we are even part of a galaxy. We do not get the daily, or nightly, reminder of those living in darker places. I’m finding tools like Night Sky a big help as I orient myself to larger contexts and cycles.

From where I am located in the southern hemisphere, the plan of my orbit around the sun varies with the seasons, but is always east-west ish. Right now the planets appear (Venus and Jupiter spectacularly so in the early morning sky) to be in a plane to the north of where I am.

And our solar plane is around 60 degrees to the plane of our galaxy. Which means the Milky Way appears to traverse something closer to a south-north axis. And in relation to the galactic plane, we are on our own cycle, sometimes below and sometimes above, traversing this over millions of years, and currently sitting a little north.

So what? Well, if nothing else, I’m loving this larger sense of where I am within our universe - it fills me with awe as I comtemplate it. It calms me and settles me, taking me away from the micro-concerns of this moment.