God’s Eye in the Sky

The Pantheon Church in Rome was originally built as a Pagan Temple by Marcus Agrippa, the Son of the Emperor Augustus. It is one of the most fascinating churches in Christendom.
Destroyed by fire in AD 80 it was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian. It isn’t an especially beautiful building. Its round and built of bricks made from volcanic ash. It has however a unique feature.

Imagine my surprise whilst standing in the centre of the circular edifice when I was conscious of rain falling on me. I looked up. Above me was a great circular hole or oculus in the dome through which I could see the sky.

It is related that Hadrian wanted the oculus at the top to reveal the sky so that the temple could mirror the human experience of being exposed both to the infinite universe and also sheltered within its embrace.

On thinking about that opening, I discerned a key to the significance of religion. That is to have a courageous, open hearted appreciation of the mystery that surrounds, permeates and lies at the centre of our lives…God or the Spirit for want of a better name.

Nathaniel Hawthorne writing in the mid nineteenth century referred to the oculus as the path-way of heaven’s radiance. Religion grants to mystery an eternal truth that seeks for ways to contemplate it and give it pride of place in our lives. Science will never replace religion.

The “Oculus” of the Pantheon, focusing the divine eye, symbolized by the sky, reflects the space in our hearts and minds that will never be filled by knowledge –scientific or otherwise. I call that space a “God Space.”

Mystery lies at the heart of religion. Too many people to-day want to prove the existence of God or that prayer works. Traditional religious societies don’t need such proof. They pray no matter what because they trust their own spiritual insights. Genuine faith is rooted in a basic “not knowing” about ultimate things and religion assists us to be in relation to that mystery: to God and Eternity. A few years ago I came across a remarkable paragraph in a book by the Tibetan Lama Anagarica Govinda.

“Just as a white summer cloud, in harmony with heaven and earth, freely floats in the blue sky from horizon to horizon, following the breath of the atmosphere – in the same way the pilgrim abandons himself to the breath of the greater life that wells up from the depths of his being and leads him beyond the furthest horizons to an aim which is already present within him though hidden from his sight.” ( The Way of the White Clouds- page xiii in the Forward.)

I found this little gem of an article some years ago some years ago. Possibly it comes from a Buddhist source.

The fear that impermanence awakens in us that nothing is real and nothing lasts, is, we come to discover our greatest friend because it drives us to ask: If everything dies and changes, then what is really true? Is there something behind the appearances? Is there something in fact that we can depend on, that does survive what we call death?

Allowing these questions to occupy us urgently, and reflecting on them, we slowly find ourselves making a profound shift in the way we view everything. We come to uncover in ourselves “something” that we can begin to realize lies behind all the changes and deaths of the world.

As this happens, we catch repeated and glowing glimpses of the vast implications behind the truth of impermanence. We come to uncover a depth of peace, joy, and confidence in ourselves that fills us with wonder, and breeds in us gradually a certainty that there is in us “something” that nothing destroys, that nothing alters, and that cannot die.

I took the photo of the Buddha in Sri Lanka.

Mysterious Cornwall - Land of Stone Circles & Druid Stones.

I live in a county full of pre-historic monuments. The Stone Circles are the most spectacular.

Most of them date from the Bronze Age, 4000BC. Many of these ancient circles are found in West Cornwall and further up the county on Bodmin Moor. They are often difficult of access and can only be reached by walking. Archaelogical interpretation of these sites is in a continual state of flux, because no one knows for certainty what actually happened in these places. We can say that they were ceremonial centres connected with the winter and summer soltices, the seasons as well as with birth and death.

The Standing Stones, also known as Druid Stones may well be associated with the dead. It is possible that our prehistoric ancestors erected a large granite pillar to stop any occult influences that a dead person might have over the community.

We can almost say with certainty that these ancient peoples, in common with their counterparts all over the Near and middle East, believed in life after death. Jewelry, cooking utensils and other artefacts were found in the barrow graves near the stone circles.
Seen at sunset or sunrise these sites are places of great beauty, mystery and imagination. It is almost as if one tunes in to the vibes of peoples and tribes now long dead. I sometimes think that the very ground on which they stand is impregnated with past events. There is a large Druid Stone just behind my bungalow. On occasions I place both hands on it. It generates a strange feeling within me. Maybe its all in the mind, but its a link with past peoples which I value.