Inspiration for poets and painters, the Milky Way, this “celestial path” appears in practically all mythologies.
In the Indian sacred text of the Rig Veda, this is the path that the Gods take in order to come to Earth and see the sacrifices. This luminous way is also the path taken by the souls in order to reach the after-world.
The presence of milk between the night clouds comes from the Greek Myth : Heracles (Hercules) was being breastfed by the goddess Hera. Given the youth insatiable appetite, the Goddess decides – in a moment of fury – to tear her breast away. The drops of divine milk form then the stars.
In the Mayan mythology, the milky way is seen as the “great white serpent” that each day is devoured by the Eagle of the Sun. In Christianity, this immense ring of luminous matter against the backdrop of night, became the privileged image of Saint James Path, guiding pilgrims until the holy city of Compostella.
Now you take the floor : what do you associate with the Milky Way?
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Saint Jacques de Compostelle
to me milky way is my best friend with whom i can share my secres,worries and heartyfelt things.i just look upwards and begin hey listen!did you say what happened to me today?,,,,look i am very tense due to (this)and i cannot share this so please tell me what should i do? and this my friend reply,dont worry no matterr i am with you and give me solution,hope and courage
Well I see a map home .I look upwardly towards the heavens and say hello to the stars I have given personal names as a memory to lost loved ones.I see the visions of hope and lights that shine on after ours have ceased to shine.
Once on the Isle of Mona I got up in the middle of the night and the sky was as a diamond encrusted promise of something no words can explain.It took my breath away.It was if the heavens were wearing an evening dress.I could believe in anything that night.
To sky watch is to sit in the soul of the universe.
The Milky Way is the 3rd of the 4 gravity wells to which we are subject. Earth, Sun, Galaxy, Galactic
group.
The Milky Way was my first introduction to the greater powers of 10. In, Size, distance, number of unit members, age.
I was 10 when I took my first astronomy course. My first book of stars, I got when I was 5. When I took that course, the first Quasars had just been discovered. Then, little did we know, that a fossil quasar sat only 35,000 light years away at the center of the Milky Way .
I live in a city bright enough to make seeing The Milky Way a rare treat. On those nights that the sky here(Portland Or.) is clear, and there is no moon to dim the stars I am lucky to see 200 stars at a time. Only when traveling to the ocean at night, do I get to see the sky without the city’s night lights. Then along with 2000 stars I get to see the Milky Way.
I know that if I can find Sagittarius then I am looking toward the center of the Milky Way. When I think about the Milky Way I think of an open spiral galaxy, and not the soft glow in the sky. In the last 35 years, I think, that I have seen it glow well maybe 20 times. Do you ever think that when, you, Paulo, see the Clouds of Magellan That the distance to them, is that same as the distance to the far edge of the Milky Way?
Even though I was taught by nuns, I have/had never heard of ST James Path.
Todas las tarde justo al atardecer busco las primeras estrellas, tengo casi cuatro decadas de vida y parezco una niña cuando salgo por las noches solamente a admirar la creación del Todopoderoso…el universo en su hermosa inmensidad. A veces pienso que pequeña soy ante tanta belleza pero al mismo tiempo me siento bendecida por ser parte de ella.
what always meant for me the milky way was what Päivi above wrote,a place to listen to the breathing of the creation,the huge universe where it cannot be described without the inspiration of God.
when i first saw the milky way,i was 14 years old , being in a nighty chilly desert with a warm company , laying on the sand watching it…my breathe was taken , it was a romantic view being with some dear company out stripped under the milkey way…in front of God , in front of the people i cherich much…
it was and it still is the happiest moment of my life…
and this is what it means for me….
Estava assistindo o documentários “Cosmos”, de Carl Sagan no You Tube, quando ele comentou algo que eu já imaginava, mas não tinha certeza. Carl Sagan caminhando sob as areias de uma praia, pega um punhado de areia na mão e comenta: “Imagine que cada grão de areia é uma estrela, se juntarmos todos os grãos de areias de todas as praias do planeta, não chegara ao número de estrelas que existem no universo”.
Fiquei a imaginar as quantidades de planetas, côres, sons, cheiros, formas, vidas e outras possibilidades que existem e ainda não conhecemos…
I often actually stop and really look at the stars at the coldest winternights or in august when nights are velvety and black again, after the light nights of northern summer. The stars are the most powerful sight at those times…I keep wondering about the depth of the universe and the beuty of the milky way. Mind starts to wonder, what´s behind those stars, more stars? When does it end? Does it ever end? Where´s God? Where´s His heaven? Does anybody live there now? (follow a satellite until it disappears…) Often these thoughts just drift, they come and go…Then I talk to God, keep wondering about things and praying for my loved ones, myself and almost anything that is in my mind at the moment. And realize that God really is everywhere, I cannot place him behind stars or above clouds.
These short moments in life are valuable but rare…at most of the beutiful nights I just rush inside and do my ordinary things. So, I associate the milky way to the peaceful, meditative moment that gives me great comfort and sense of harmony. And sense of being small. Hope to see it someday in somewhere totally different peaceful place in the world.
Love and harmony to you, Päivi
i associate with the milky way the face of my beloved because it is forever glowing and eternal
You have such an interesting mind Paulo. I always think you are going to run out of associations (because I know I would probably after about three lol). You are very inquisitive about life and the magic of it.
Love Kathleen xx
Emotions cannot be counted in any know way, because we hasn’t this yet. In some way I have discovered a way to measure this, because I have put together all science I know about, not found any other answer than emotion can be counted in beauty, or in my terms aesthetics. My aesthetics did I find in astrology. A picture or movie can be told in how much we like it in beauty, anger, cry and so on. How much heart du you have? I have a great for the world, and all people around me.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5621226325041057058
The Galaxy.
LOVE,
THELMA
sido
Your words to me make a huge comforting difference.
Merci beaucop
a joy to spend time with these inspired thoughts of love and peace…internet revealing the connectedness we truely are. jessica, your photo evokes for me milky way as a universal third eye. our ajna chakra eye of wisdom leading to inner realms and enlightenment. sharing this mystical gate we are intimately one and together called to relate to the teacher inside. a cosmic confirmation of connectedness. another picture:
http://www.ilchileefan.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/6chakra1.jpg
blessings to all you beautiful souls
planets are somehow controlling our universe. i got great intution and willpower in fullmoon. i dont know if it is angels or what but I want to believe, but it is like religion at the moment, to many people againts and that keeps war going on. we need to work together not against each other, to save our planet, nature on our planet is made from the same god as the milkyway, an we are only a small part of it.
Peace
The key to our world
When we have peace with ourselves
The goal of peace in world is in sight
Earth is perfect
We are not
Emotions are good
Feeling are in harmony
Earth is perfect world
Winter sky over my village at Christmas time !
Nah de l’ariège ,
de tout coeur avec vous pour cette difficile épreuve
AMOUR AMOUR pensées
Tank you Jessica for this beautiful picture!
Milky Way is for me,the place our birth,the Uterus where our planet is becameing a material body, and the mother milk witsch nurth and contain all basic informations that are ingraved in our destiny .Like the genetic spiral in microcosmos,is this spiral the same in macrocosmos of our galaxy.
Love
Mirela(the woman in lift)
Milky Way,
Comfort. And as it may symbol a path in afterlife, today it is something that leads my down a path of good. A constant reminder that someone is observing your means, may it be yourslf with
your coinsence or a higher power.
It also represents purity and cleansing.
Paolo
Hakan and Sahra(she is growing up, beautiful and pure like a real Princess of Desert) send a lot of kisses for you, from Turkey, from their soul… Somewhere in time we will meet in OUR THE MILKY WAY…
My Dear friend,
I receive with infinite pleasure all gifts from you. Thank you! Your magic words can color our dreams not only sustain them. Milky Way is for me that shining “route” who send me directly to my treasure. I follow my way – The Love Way, the need to exit out from myself…Once, a precious person who like to call me “My Sky”, opened for me a gate, a new lighting guidance, a hope. So, now i am free traveling everywhere with the power of brain, and Milky Way is the favorite tour to our dreams. I exit out to myself and i float now between earth, sky, water, desert, snow, fire and thoughts… I love to listen you
Hi
The Milky Way is seen so different depending on where on earth you view it from. The first night in the Atacama desert in Chili, I could not believe the sight. All night in the garden, totally amazed. It really looks like a autopista of stars. They light up the night. Abundance. In Europe you see less – at Spitzbergen where I am right now – the few stars in the endless polar night make me think of my son who died resently. Of shining hope, of meeting again, of endless loneliness. Of mercy.
well done with your blog :-) love you to visit mine and give me some tips
Hola me vuelve a la memoria una canciòn :”penso que un son’o parecido no volverà màs…..Volare oh oh….”
I’m not really religious. I have a faith in karma but I grew up in a house of no real organized religion. So ever since I started stargazing as a child I associated the Milky Way not as anything like “the heavens.” I’ve always looked up and seen those vast arms of stars and thought of these things.
Promise. Exploration. Future. Dreams. Awe. Unconquered. Pure. Vast. Wonder.
and most importantly to me, Hope.
What do I associate with the Milky Way?
I associate it with the supreme self…………..the transcendent GOD who is support of all & also my existence in this creation is nothing but just spark among zillions of others!
Asocio la vía Láctea a una autopista galáctica, con su luminoso rastro, en un fondo negro, contrastando que muchos caminos hay aún, sin explorar.
Home :)
I think of camping trips to a lake, high in the mountains. At night we build a big campfire and set our propane lamp next to the shore to guide us back to land before we climb into our canoe and go out on the lake in the dark. In this place, the Milky Way arcs over our heads and also is relfected in the water surrounding our canoe. When we stop at a certain place, all is quiet, all is peaceful, and it feels like we’re literally floating on the Milky Way.
Even now, as I write this to you, I’m filled with a profound feeling of peace that this remembrance evokes…
Birth, Gate, Nexus, Portal, Divine, Wisdom, Belonging, Connection.
Light.
cher cheri ,
les étoiles sont remplies de promesses …(et personnellement je ne manque pas de regarder le ciel pour penser à celui que j’aime et qui est loin de moi ),
il faut regarder le ciel et la beauté de la nuit ( jolie votre image de la voie lactée comme une robe du soir , j’ai bien aimé la métaphore )
Je vais vous raconter mon histoire :
quand nous nous sommes rencontrés à 8000kms d’ici 5 mn avant mon départ ( et oui les contes de fée ça existe ! ) je lui ai dit ensuite “de regarder le ciel , de regarder l’étoile du berger , Vénus , car je viens de là-bas ” et moi je regarde la lune en pensant à lui ( et dans le ciel où que je sois , je regarde la lune et “l’étoile” vénus qui sont réunis ) car nous sommes séparés aujourd’hui , nous n’habitons pas au même endroit mais dans le ciel nous sommes réunis ( une belle histoire pour réchauffer le coeur !! )
En novembre , un renouveau , une 2ème naissance pour moi … et dans le ciel une étoile brille à côté de l’étoile du berger .. voilà dans le ciel 2 étoiles qui sont un signe pour lui : un signe d’amour et d’espérance ….
Le ciel , les étoiles : un guide pour chacun , un guide pour tous
Dear cheri ,
the stars are filled with promises …(and personally, i no lack of look at the sky to think that I love and which is far from me ),
it must look to the sky and the beauty of the night ( pretty your image of the Milky way like a gown evening , i liked the metaphor )
I will tell you my story: when we met to 8000kms from here 5 minutes before my departure ( yes fairy tales that exists! ) I told him then “to look at the sky , to look at the star of berger , Venus , because I have just there” and me I look at the moon in thinking about him ( and in the sky where I am , i look at the moon and “the star” who are gathered venus ) because we are separated today , not live not we in the same place but in heaven we are gathered ( A beautiful history to warm the heart !! )
In November , a renewal , a 2nd birth for me … and in the sky a star shines in side of the star of the berger .. that is in the sky 2 stars which are a sign for him: a sign of love and hope ….
The sky , the stars: a guide for each , a guide for all
First of all thanks for information,I didnt know those details,or some I forgot.I associate milky way with peace,because one can see it only in a clear night,so a blue sky to me is a symbol of peace,romanticism.
I’ve always enjoyed knowing the Milky Way is an arm of the universe in which I live and which encircles my solar system. I understand from looking at it that I am wrapped in the arms of something greater than I am.
milky way is a path to heaven, it has diamonds scatterd on its way..
only the the person with good conscience will pass the way.The rest of the soul forget the heaven and try to pick as many diamonds as possible, so never reach to the heaven..
One of my favorite children’s books is called the Moon Maiden ,and at the end when she takes her daughter back up to the sky ,after lending her to and earth couple ,the moon mother and maiden her daughter walk back over the moonlight bridge and the little girl cries as she will miss the farmer and his wife after spending many years with them ,her tears take flight and turn into fire flys .
I see the sky and the milky way as a blanket that tucks us in at night keeping us safe ,warm and giving us the sensation in our senses that we are part of an amazing galaxy of mystery and wonder .Blessings Tania
greek mythology is so interesting… nvr heard that before.
Do greek gods feel pain? i hope not…
The milky way… I see it as a fluid connection of some kind, like a mystery and also something very real… something that happened without anyone quite knowing how it occurred.
What do I associate with the Milky Way?
In my imagination it’s smth. like a silver ribbon or a train of a bride’s dress. It’s smth. soft, silken, bright and light! It’s like touching your dreams…
I allways feel calm and peacefull when I look up at the stars. There is both a feeling of being small and insignificant, and the feeling that there is a plan for everything. No mater what I do, the stars will be there probably without even noticing my existance, but still I have the privelege to see them and enjoy their beauty.
And I really liked cheri’s words – “To sky watch is to sit in the soul of the universe.” – it’s exactly how I feel
A big moviment that shows the stage of the universe… it also shows the struggle of the nature throughout God’s force, what has the same in meaning in anywhere in the universe.
Well I see a map home .I look upwardly towards the heavens and say hello to the stars I have given personal names as a memory to lost loved ones.I see the visions of hope and lights that shine on after ours have ceased to shine.
Once on the Isle of Mona I got up in the middle of the night and the sky was as a diamond encrusted promise of something no words can explain.It took my breath away.It was if the heavens were wearing an evening dress.I could believe in anything that night.
To sky watch is to sit in the soul of the universe.
The Chinese name “Silver River” (銀河) is used throughout East Asia, including Korea and Japan. An alternative name for the Milky Way in ancient China, especially in poems, is “Heavenly Han River”(天汉). In Japanese, “Silver River” (銀河 ginga) means galaxies in general and the Milky Way is called the “Silver River System” (銀河系 gingakei) or the “River of Heaven” (天の川 Amanogawa). [source: Wikipedia]
…”In Christianity, this immense ring of luminous matter against the backdrop of night, became the privileged image of Saint James Path, guiding pilgrims until the holy city of Compostella” …
Autrefois , la voie lactée guidait les pélerins de Compostelle …
Durant ces 3 derniers jours , j’ai repris mon bâton de pélerin pour méditer en montagne et aussi à Lourdes , afin de comprendre certaines choses , avoir une réponse et aussi pour être mieux guider:
En montagne , j’ai appris que la réponse n’était pas dans la roche et dans le silence et la beauté de la nature ( qui apportent seuls recueillement et paix de l’âme ) ; à Lourdes j’ai appris que la réponse n’était pas dans les lieux , seuls les lieux permettent les rencontres ou sont le témoin du passé ( tous les lieux peuvent vous apportez .. près de chez vous et ailleurs ..partout )
mais en chemin , j’ai appris que la réponse est en l’homme lui même ; et que le guide est aujourd’hui différent que par le passé : il n’est plus l’étoile du berger , ou la voie lactée , mais bien plus dans les SIGNES ( que chacun peut comprendre avec les “dons” qu’ils possèdent )
et parfois le chemin que nous avions choisi , n’est pas forcément le chemin que nous devons prendre
soyez attentif , aimer , laissez-vous guider
In the past , the Milky way guided the pilgrims of Compostela …
during these last 3 days , i have resumed my stick of pilgrim to meditate in mountain and also in Lourdes , in order to understand some things and to be better guide :
In mountain, I learnt that the answer was not in the rock and in the silence and the beauty of the nature (which bring only meditation and peace of mind); in Heavy I learnt that the answer was not in places, only places allow the meetings or are the witness of past (all the places can you bring near at home and somewhere else everywhere)
But in path , I have learned that the answer is in the human itself; and that the guide is different today that in the past: it is no longer the star of berger , or the Milky Way , but much more in the signs ( that everyone can understand with the “gifts” that they possess )
And sometimes the path that we had chosen , is not necessarily the path that we must take
Be careful , love , let you guide
Today: end 2008 , soon 2009 –other things we guide…
The intuition is a good guide .
This weekend , i went to the Hautes pyrénées toward Campan and mountains … in way i perceived “something” ( the same sensation that I have been able to describe on this blog ..and that I call the sensation of energy of the love )
Of new , after my walk in the mountains( pierrier snow ice /crampons walking shoes to ) , I again felt the same sensation to Loucrup …
I then left guided on the path
Sometimes the stars will guide you , sometimes the Milky Way galaxy shows you the path … and sometimes at something else: that may be the intuition and what you are able to feel you leads on your path , your path of life let you guide , do not seek to any price a guide , be alert for signs that is put on your way and feel