They say our Solar system originated about 4.

6 billion years ago as a

rotating cloud of gas and dust. Gravity caused the cloud to contract,
and it’s central region became denser and hotter, eventually
evolving into the Sun. In the spinning disc (known as a
protoplanetary disc) the gas and dust gradually coalesced to form
small bodies called planetesimals. These collided together many times,
forming the planets we see today ... really? What always bothers me
about these bold, sweeping, authoritative statements is that they are
seldom preceded with the phrase “some people believe”, or “It is
currently hypothesized”–which then implies that these are
established facts rather than just current ‘theories’. Mind you, in
order to fill in the rest of the detail of how all that gas, dust,
gravity and heat eventually produced a complex and finely tuned
living system such as Planet Earth, positioned at a distance from the
Sun that is ‘just right’ for organic life with stable living
conditions. That such things as plant life would develop that were
capable of processes that could convert the suns energy into ‘food’
for the rest of the pyramid of organic life, whilst producing vital
oxygen as a ‘by product’ for us to breathe–relies upon ‘believing’
a whole chain of current ‘hypotheses’ and ‘theories’ to explain
it all! As Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal at Cambridge University,
explains in his book ‘Just six numbers’, “The nature of our
universe is remarkably sensitive to six numbers, constant values that
describe and define everything from the way atoms are held together
to the amount of matter in our universe. If these values were
“untuned” there could be no stars and no life”. By “untuned” we
are talking about things like the value of , which is 0.007 and
defines how stars transmute hydrogen into all the atoms of the
periodic table. If were 0.006 or 0.008, we could not exist. Of course
we are also expected to accept that any discovery made like this–
suggesting that there may have been some deliberate and intelligent
purpose behind the formation of the universe and life–is in fact
just more evidence to confirm how ‘miraculous’ the random,
purposeless appearance of our universe actually is! Fortunately for
those of us who seek a deeper and more meaningful explanation as to
‘why we are here’, there are alternative ‘systems’ of knowledge
and ways of understanding our world that not only have a far greater
historical human ‘pedigree’, but also contain important ideas of
how human life–rather than being the ‘evolved’ randomly mutated
‘love child’ of some ‘primeval goo’–actually fulfills an
important functional role within the processes of the Universe itself.
I personally believe that the most penetrating and insightful system
of this alternative knowledge available, is the work of G.I.Gurdjieff.
A LOST TEACHING ARRIVES IN THE WEST When Gurdjieff arrived in Paris
from Russia with his Students in the 1920’s to set up the
“Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man”. He brought with
him a key teaching that had been missing from Western Religion,
Philosophy and Esotericism for many centuries. Although not fully
appreciated at the time–but since confirmed by decades of diligent
research–this ‘system’ that Gurdjieff brought to the west
originated in a secret Sufi order, that in turn traced it’s lineage
back to Ancient Egypt. In using the term ‘Sufi’ or ‘Sufism’ we
are not referring to ‘Islamic mysticism’, which it is generally The
Ray of Creation the ray of creation 1 Gurdjieff,Immortality and Above:
Sir Martin Rees–the Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge
University–uses the ancient symbol of the Ouraborus to embody the
principle of the far ranging interconnected ‘tunings’ that exist
between everything in the universe. From subatomic particles to the
structures of the furthest Galaxies. (Authors diagram). perceived as.
‘Sufism’ is a term and a concept that existed long before the
coming of Islam. The authority Suhrawardi of the twelfth century, in
his colossal ‘Wisdom of Illumination’, specifically states: ‘the
Sufi philosophy is identical with the inner teachings of all the
ancients–the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks– and is the
Knowledge of Light and the deepest truth, through which man can
attain to a status about which he can normally not even dream.’
Gurdjieff himself hints in his book “meetings with remarkable men”,
that the system had it’s origins in extremely ancient sources. He
relates the story of how he and his companion–whilst staying in an
Armenian Priest’s home–discover a map of Egypt, before it was
engulfed by desert. A ‘Pre-sand’ Egypt. As the story goes it was
this ‘map’ that allowed them to discover in Egypt, crucial pieces
of the puzzle concerning the truth of human origins and it’s fuller
spiritual potential. This in turn, in a most ‘miraculous’ way
precipitated a series of events and further meetings with
‘remarkable men’ that led to Gurdjieff finally being summoned to
one of the secret monasteries of the Surmong Brotherhood in the
Caucasus Mountains. At that time this was the last remaining active
‘school’ of the ‘system’ in the world. What is most interesting
from the standpoint of our own times is that the pioneering work over
the last few decades of John Anthony West, John Hancock, Robert
Bauval, Robert Shock and many others, has unearthed a wealth of
evidence indicating that there was in fact a much earlier Egypt.
Certainly the discovery of the Sphinx enclosure having been weathered
by long periods of rain (rather than wind and sand) shows that there
may well have been a ‘pre-sand’ Egyptian Civilization, being that
around 12,000 years ago the location of Egypt was a semi tropical
environment and not a desert. Gerald Massey, Alvin Boyd Khun, and Tom
Harpur have also shown by close study of surviving Egyptian religious
writings, that Egypt was in fact the original ‘fountain head’ of
the core precepts of the worlds major religions. The teaching of
‘the Divine in man’, the concept of a ‘Saviour’, the
‘resurrection’ and the promise of ‘eternal life’ in the realm of
the ‘stars’ or ‘heavens’ all appear for the first time in Ancient
Egypt. Laird Scranton, a talented computer ‘code fixer’ recently
turned his ‘code’ detecting skills to the various symbols or ‘code
characters’ used in the wide variety of the world’s traditional
cosmologies. In a remarkably fresh and original way, he used the same
approach that scientists had used to trace the specific ‘markers’
in our collective DNA all the way back to a single female that
existed in Africa millions of years ago. Laird was eventually able to
show that the shared symbolic ‘codes’ common throughout the world,
indicate clearly that they had all originally stemmed from a single
‘source’ cosmology. That original source again appears to be ...
yes, you guessed it–Ancient Egypt! THE RAY OF CREATION Although
commonly referred to as “Gurdjieff’s Ray of Creation”, he in fact
never claimed that himself. Instead he went to great lengths to get
people to understand that it was not ‘his’ teaching, but ‘the’
teaching. Not ‘his’ work, but THE WORK, being that the ‘work’ in
the system was the work of what nature had originally created the
human to do. Essentially the Ray of Creation takes the position that
the whole of the universe, its mysterious cause, it’s energies,
powers laws, and matter are all one singular, integrated, multi
leveled, functional whole. Although it holds the view that the
creation is an intelligent, purposeful, evolving system–it does not
venture into conjecture and speculative theology about what the
‘absolute’ may actually be. It takes the the ray of creation 2 All
Worlds: All galaxies similar and dissimilar to our galaxy. All Suns:
Our galaxy. Our Sun: Our solar system. All Planets: All planets of
the solar system. Earth. Moon. Absolute: Unknown beginning of it all.
The Ray of Creation Above: This system gives a scale and a context to
the position of the human in the greater scheme of things. Each level
exerts a ‘governing power’ over the level below it. THE SOUND OF
MUSIC Just as the energy for the processes of life on earth flow to
us from the sun, the sun’s energies flow to it from the level of
‘All Suns’ which receive it from ‘All Worlds’ which ultimately
receive it from the world of the Absolute–the origin of everything
in the universe. This is the second important principle of the Ray of
Creation, which is that each ‘world’ receives it’s energy and
vitality from the ‘world’ above it, much like a power company will
take electricity from a Hydroelectric Dam and then ‘step down’ that
concentration of power through various power stations and substations,
all the way down through the national ‘grid’ until it eventually
reaches your house, or the ‘moons’ in the system. Of course this
makes perfect sense because you wouldn’t want the same concentration
of electricity ending up in your pop-up toaster as the local
Aluminium Smelter receives! Even in everyday life we see this ‘tree
like’ structure fundamental to all organisational and distribution
systems–from the national power grid, to systems of government, law,
communications, business and food supply. It is exactly the same for
these various ‘worlds’ within the ‘power grid’ of the Ray of
Creation. Now one of the key natural laws affecting this flow of
energy down the Ray Of Creation is known in the system as ‘the law
of Octaves’. This ‘law’ states that the rate of frequency of
energy cannot continue to increase or decrease in a uniform manner
because there will be natural points in this progression where there
is a greater resistance to the cycle of increase or decrease. view
that we are so far removed from the level and power of whatever
caused the universe, that it would be impossible for us to comprehend
it. Instead it takes a more practical ‘down to earth’ view of
focusing on what this system reveals as being realistically possible
for a human being in this particular place in creation. The first
principle of the Ray of Creation is that Creation is composed of a
natural ‘Hierarchy’ of interconnected ‘Worlds’. For example; the
Earth being a larger physical body and being more powerful
electromagnetically than the moon, exerts a stronger influence upon
the moon than the moon does upon the earth. This is seen in the
simple fact that the moon orbits the earth and not the other way
around. Then in turn the Sun not only exerts a more powerful
influence over the earth and it’s ‘solar energy dependent life’,
but it also has dominion over all of the other planets in the solar
system as well. If we move on one step further again we see that our
sun is only one of many millions of suns orbiting through the milky
way galaxy, and clearly the milky way galaxy exerts a greater
influence upon our sun than the sun does upon the Milky Way. Moving
on beyond that we see–as in the famous Hubble ‘deep field image’–
billions of every type of galaxy imaginable, logically all under the
controlling influence of a greater power referred to as the
‘absolute’. It is interesting that over the last two decades–in
the great ‘hunt’ for undiscovered planets–it is a very similar
principle that they use to search for them. If they can find a star
similar to our sun, they know it is highly likely to have planets
orbiting it and in turn some of those planets will then have moons .
the ray of creation 3 Above: As the frequency cycles, or Hertz,
increase (or decrease) over the range of the Octave there are certain
natural laws that prevent this happening uniformly. This causes two
points of resistance or ‘retardation’ at A & B. Above: The Hubble
‘Deep Field’ image showing the Billions of Galactic ‘Worlds’
filling the entire Universe.(Image from Wikipedia) Do Re Mi Fa Sol La
Si Do resistance resistance 1000 Hz 2000 Hz A B We can see the
manifestation of this same law in a piano keyboard where there are
two semi-tones in the scale because the tones, or frequencies of the
notes cannot progress through the Octave in 8 perfectly equal steps
because of the two points of ‘resistance’. Gurdjieff also revealed
that the western seven-note diatonic scale had originally been used
as a method of demonstrating this ‘step down’ energy flow system of
the Ray of Creation. What is not commonly known is that the names of
those seven notes: Do, Si, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do are in fact only
the first letters of the original Latin words that actually reveal a
hidden concept of the Ray of Creation. THE PURPOSE OF ORGANIC LIFE
The third important idea in the system is that the whole of creation
is actually in a process of growth and development. That in the
‘digestion’ of these forces flowing down through the Ray of
Creation the whole system grows. With moons eventually developing
into planets, planets developing into suns, and suns into stars. Now
of course this at first seems utterly crazy, but just think for a
moment of the fact that Jupiter emits more energy from within itself
than it receives from the sun. A number of it’s moons are
geologically active, and recent NASA data shows that there is an
increasingly strong ‘plasma’ flow building between Jupiter and one
of it’s moons. Scientists themselves believe that Jupiter and it’s
moons will eventually become a new solar system in it’s own time.
Even our moon has been generating a ‘first stage atmosphere’ of
natrium which already extends to a height of 9,000 km. This wasn’t
detected or recorded during the first moon missions forty years ago.
So in this context the law of octaves means that the forces that
maintain and nutrify the Ray of Creation cannot flow evenly
throughout the entire length of it’s ‘branches’. If we overlay the
previous diagram with the seven notes of the musical scale–Do, Si,
La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do–we see that there will naturally be a point
where there is a resistance to this flow. In this case between Fa and
Mi which is between the world of ‘All planets’ and the Earth. Thus
according to this ‘system’ of ancient knowledge, nature has had to
create a special ‘instrument’ to act as a receiving apparatus so
that these forces can reach the Earth, and from there also reach the
moon. This ‘instrument’ is organic life on earth. the ray of
creation 4 Above: The two semi-tones or ‘points of resistence’ in
the ‘vibrational’ progression up or down the octave. C D E F G A B
C semi-tone semi-tone DO-minus Lord Absolute SI-der Stars All
Galaxies LA-ctea Milk Milky Way SOL Sun Sun FA-ta Fate Planets MI-
crocosmos Small universe Earth RE-gina Coeli Queen of the Heavens
Moon Above: The seven notes of the diatonic scale originally
contained references to the concept of the Ray of Creation. All
Worlds All Suns All Planets Earth Moon Absolute Passage of Forces Do
Si La Our Sun Sol Fa Mi Re Organic Life belong with the element of
water, the mental body with Air, and the emotional body with fire.
Physical food from the level of our earth sustains our first caranl
body which of course is ordinary food, drink, air and
electromagnetism (again the 4 elements). However the very heart of
any true religious and esoteric teaching is that with the correct
knowledge, training and technique, it is possible to draw into the
human system forces from higher levels of the Ray of Creation, which
then become the ‘food’ that allows the growth of these latent
bodies that exist as ‘seed potentials’ within the framework of the
carnal body. This may well be the reason why there exist curious
‘cube’ statues in Egypt that show another ‘person’ being born out
of a foundational cube which represents the element of Earth. THE
ORIGINS OF ASTROLOGY There is a very simple but deeply profound
maximum that appears throughout the ages in regard to all of this
which is that, “Everything returns to the source of it’s arising”
Because the content of the Mental body is drawn in from a higher,
‘Sun’ level of creation, it means that at the point of the death of
the carnal body, the form of the mental body is able to be ‘reborn’
at the Sun level of creation and escape being recycled, or
reincarnated on earth as the Astral body is. Hence all religious
references to ‘heaven’ or ‘the realms of the angels’ and such
like, are in fact misinterpretations and sometimes deliberate
distortions of this fundamental ancient teaching about the greater
human possibility. This is why the obvious emphasis and focus upon
the Sun common to most of the worlds religions is not because of the
naïve “Cult of Sun worship” attributed to them by anthropologists,
but because the ‘Sun level’ of creation is the first focus in
developing the mental body. As the Buddha once taught–“the central
aim is to escape the eternal wheel of birth, suffering and death.”
the ray of creation 5 THE SOLAR BODY OF MAN Humanity is of course
also part of this ‘film’ of organic life created to receive these
forces. What is different about human life is that the rest of
organic life exists to process the influences of planetary worlds and
the moon, but the human has extra, in built dimensions to be able to
receive and process forces from the ‘higher realms’ of the Sun and
stars. In the third overlay of the ray of creation diagram we see
that each of the seven levels of the ray have the number of laws
designated to them that govern their function, increasing in number
at each level as they mix and combine to give the multitude of
energies, forms and processes that appear in our lower, more
physically dense end of creation. These three other, latent
dimensions or ‘bodies’ of the human organism are traditionally
called the; Astral body (or Blood body), the Mental body and
Emotional body. It is interesting that if we take our physical,
carnal body to be earth, then the astral or ‘blood’ body would The
Four Bodies Absolute 1 All Worlds 3 All Suns 6 Our Sun 12 All Planets
24 Earth 48 Moon 96 Astral Body Mental Body Emotional Body Physical
Body Above: Egyptian ‘Cube’ statue indicating a second ‘life’
being born from the ‘Earth’ of the first, carnal body. many times
throughout history. The Teaching of the Ray of Creation is like a
skeleton or framework based upon an esoteric understanding of how the
natural laws and processes of creation function and operate. It is
interesting that in the last few years the emerging ‘Electric
Universe’ hypothosis fits very well with a number of principles of
the Ray of Creation. For example stars have been shown to not be
thermo-nuclear reactors at all, but instead are more akin to giant
‘light bulbs’ drawing their energy from an external electrical
plasma source. They also form up upon the invisble filaments of
plasma that flow throughout the universe like the branches of a great
cosmic tree–literally matter condensing out of energy. Hence the Ray
of Creation, in these paradigm shattering times, may well turn out to
be far more ‘scientific’ and vital than anyone ever realised. At
the heart of it all the system that Gurdjieff taught and lived is
essentially the same as that taught in the inner mystery schools of
ancient Egypt, and in fact all esoteric teaching, should it be
genuine, because as Gurdjieff himself said “this is not just ‘work’
it is the ‘work’–the work that humans were originally designed to
do. It has been said that a picture is worth ten thousand words, so I
will include this curious illustration recreated from a plate in
West’s book ‘Serpent in the Sky’. It illustrates the process of
passing through a star door after death to the next life. Surely the
history of all the worlds Religions are but only ever weakening echos
of this one aim? It was said by those who were there when Gurdjieff
died, “That he died well.” This, and the fact of organic life
having been created to bridge the ‘gap’ at this end of the Ray of
Creation– combined with the Sun level worlds operating under the
mantle of 12 laws–makes a great deal of sense as to why Astrology
was developed in the first place and explains why the Zodiac is based
upon 12 archetypes. As John Michell and Christine Rhone show clearly
in their study of “Twelve-Tribe Nations”, there were in fact many
ancient civilizations, from Egypt to Greece, from Ireland to
Madagascar–where city planning and civil practices were all
established around the 12 fold astrological divisions. Ceremonies and
social gatherings took place at specific points of the year to
collectively ‘harmonize’ and ‘tune’ society to the prime incoming
astrological influences. This of course indicates that humans must
have once been guided by an inner circle of ‘teachers’ who
possessed this deeper understanding that the human was created by
nature to be a ‘processing media’ for the planets, Sun and Stars of
this branch of the Ray of Creation. EGYPT & THE SCIENCE OF
IMMORTALITY Although on the surface there may appear to not be any
evidence of a direct link between the ‘system’ Gurdjieff brought to
the West and Ancient Egypt, what is clearly at the core of both is
the knowledge of a practical science of achieving eternal life, not
as a self glorifying obsession, but as part of an anthropocosmic way
of living where the human being is understood to have the possibility
of developing to become a functioning part of a higher, eternal realm
of the universe. These concepts are even contained in the “Book of
Coming into Light” more commonly known as the ‘pyramid texts’ of
Unas. One can still see them today indelibly incised in stone as they
originally were some 5000 years ago, without one word or letter being
changed. This is a far cry from most of the worlds scriptures which
have been copied and reinterpreted the ray of creation 6 Horus Buddha
Krishna Christ Helios Mohammed Above: Esoteric tradition holds that
‘Sun level’ forces cause the pineal gland to become active, giving
rise to an ‘illuminated’ mind. Hence classical Iconography depicts
these ‘Solar Heros’ with ‘Sun discs’ or Solar ‘Rays’ emanating
from their ‘developed’ ‘Mental Bodies’. Above: Star-Power Energy
shown entering through the forehead of the pupal or mummiform Osiris,
archetype of all humans. The word “star” also means “door” and,
with the determinative for “walking” it meant “passing through a
star-door. 7 THE COMING NEW ASTROLOGY What is important to see about
the ‘Astrology’ that has been handed down to us over several
thousand years is that much like a ‘Chinese whisper,’ the deeper,
inner teachings and fuller explanations of it’s mechanics have been
lost along the way. An example of which is this not commonly known
astrological significance of the Ray of Creation. It’s not just
Astrology, of course, it’s in everything– from science and religion
to medicine, architecture, law, and education etc. One has only to
pause and think for a moment, “How exactly did we go from being a
civilization that once consciously arranged itself to be a
functioning part in the growth of the universe–to a civilization,
where for the most part, the very idea of there being any other
purpose than “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” is
held to be deeply offensive and morally repugnant? Well some may be
pleased to know that this state of affairs is, without a shadow of
doubt going to change dramatically over the course of this new
century. The following is a brief outline of some of the many
extraordinary changes taking place in our local galaxy and solar
system, that may well be catylist to the arising of a new Astrology
that will have a vital role to play in mankind’s future. THE SOLAR
SYSTEM COMES OF AGE In 1995 a Russian scientist, Dr. Alexy N.
Dmitriev–who heads the Russian National Academy of Science–
published a paper entitled “Planetophysical state of the Earth and
Life” which so far has been entirely dismissed by Scientific and
Academic bodies in the West. Now of course I have no idea of knowing
wether Dr. Dmitriev or some of his colleagues are well versed in the
teaching of the Ray of Creation or not. What I can say is that in my
opinion this paper is a virtual scientific verification of the
teaching of the Ray of Creation. Below is the introduction to his
paper; “Current Planetophysical alterations of the Earth are
becoming irreversible. Strong evidence exists that these
transformations are being caused by highly charged material and
energetic nonuniformity’s in interstellar space which has broken
into the interplanetary area of our Solar System. This “donation”
of energy is producing hybrid the ray of creation Above: NASA Diagram
showing the highly charged ‘plasma’ bow wave building up against
the edge of the Solar System–and the new interstellar material
transferring in to it–as we move into a more highly charged level of
the Milky Way galaxy. Bow wave Direction of Solar System Flow of
highly charged interstellar material Helio Pause Solar System Helio
Sphere 8 processes and excited energy states in all the planets, as
well as the Sun. Effects here on Earth are to be found in the
acceleration of the magnetic pole shift, in the vertical and
horizontal ozone content distribution, and in the increased frequency
and magnitude of significant catastrophic climatic events. There is a
growing probability that we are moving into a rapid temperature
instability period similar to the one that took place 10,000 years
ago. The adaptive responses of the biosphere, and humanity, to these
new conditions may lead to a total global revision of the range of
species and life on Earth. It is only through a deep understanding of
the fundamental changes taking place in the natural environment
surrounding us that politicians, and citizens alike, will be able to
achieve balance with the renewing flow of PlanetoPhysical states and
processes” – Dr. Alexy N. Dmitriev What he is saying–and goes on
to extrapolate in great detail–with page after page of new
scientific data and examples–is that all the dramatic changes
currently happening on earth, from the unprecedented rates of natural
disasters, to the failure and breakdown of long established social
systems, ecological deterioration, illness, disease and even global
warming–are all attributed to the massive increase of energy now
flowing into our solar system from the more highly charged galactic
energy zone we have recently entered into. From unexpected changes in
the nature of the Sun’s radiation effecting the composition of
matter on earth, to the doubling of the intensity of Jupiter’s
magnetic field, to a far denser Martian atmosphere than expected, to
the migration of Neptune’s Dark Spot and bright Aurorae appearing on
Saturn’s poles–Dmitriev lists numerous instances of how the solar
system is currently beset with a multitude of unprecedented state
changes–almost like a teenager going through puberty! He is also
making the point very clearly in his paper, that it will be crucial
that organic life on earth, including humans not only adapt to this
increased energy flow into the earth, but that they evolve to a
greater state of awareness and consciousness in order to be able to
intelligently ‘harmonize’ ‘process’ and ‘balance’ it! Although
not explained directly in the records left of Gurdjieff’s ‘system’,
there are numerous clues to suggest that as the Ray of Creation
develops, each level will become more highly charged as it grows and
receives new forces from ‘higher’ levels of creation. Thus because
organic life is a medium of transference between the worlds above it
and planet earth, it would need to change form accordingly, in order
to adapt to these new incoming energy levels. There is new evidence
coming to light that shows the genetic code of any form of organic
life is altered by higher doses of radiation or electrical charge
flowing into it than is normally the case. The Chinese discovered by
experimentation, that taking ordinary Pumpkin and Tomato seeds into
space–where they were outside of the earth’s protective shields–
and exposing them to higher concentrations of cosmic radiation,
altered the DNA in such a way as to cause them to grow into giant
Pumpkins and Tomatoes when replanted back on earth. Drs Robert Muller
and Robert Rohde discovered that there are clearly discernible
patterns over millions of years where the cycles of galactic energy
waves sweeping across earth, tie in with whole new species of organic
life appearing, whilst others disappear in mass extinctions.
Therefore I see that in the very near future there will have to be a
‘renaissance’ of Astrology, simply because it was the original
science of “Cosmic Feng Shui”–if you like. Where humans were able
to learn the ways of becoming ‘plugged in’ to the flow of these
evolutionary forces of creation. It also seems that there is now a
new drive becoming ever more urgent in the human race. That drive is
to seek out and regather all the important knowledge of the past in
order to rediscover that which we will need, to be able to adapt to
these new ‘cosmological’ conditions. At the same time work is going
on to also synthesise this ancient knowledge with the new ‘science’
emerging–to create a brand new ‘future based knowledge system,’
that places the earth, it’s people and it’s myriad forms of organic
life back into the harmonious relationship with the Universe that it
once had in the remote past. n D.J.Carville © 2014 the ray of
creation Above: Some researchers believe that because our universe is
electrical in nature–rather than being gravity based–we are now
seeing new atmospheric phenomena driven by an increase in the potency
of cosmic weather conditions.