The air around us is a chaotic superhighway of
molecules whizzing through space and constantly colliding with each other at
speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. Such erratic molecular behavior is normal
at ambient temperatures. But scientists have long suspected that if
temperatures were to plunge to near absolute zero, molecules would come to a
screeching halt, ceasing their individual chaotic motion and behaving as one
collective body. This more orderly molecular behavior would begin to form
very strange, exotic states of matter—states that have never been observed in
the physical world. Now experimental
physicists at MIT have successfully cooled molecules in a gas of sodium
potassium (NaK) to a temperature of 500 nanokelvins—just a hair above absolute
zero, and over a million times colder than interstellar space. The researchers
found that the ultracold molecules were relatively long-lived and stable,
resisting reactive collisions with other molecules. The molecules also
exhibited very strong dipole moments—strong imbalances in electric charge
within molecules that mediate magnet-like forces between molecules over large
distances. Martin Zwierlein, professor of physics at MIT and a principal
investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics, says that while
molecules are normally full of energy, vibrating and rotating and moving
through space at a frenetic pace, the group's ultracold molecules have been
effectively stilled—cooled to average speeds of centimeters per second and
prepared in their absolute lowest vibrational and rotational states. June 10 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-absolute-molecules-exotic-states.html
By
adopting categories in which
apparently very dissimilar things were
lumped together under the name of the same planet, the old astrologers made an audacious
statement about the way reality was structured. For instance Saturn was
associated with the skeleton, gravity, cold, isolation, the laws that held a
people together, and many others besides. Strange bedfellows! Saturn was understood solely in terms of its outward appearances or
effects. What was missing in the old literature was any perception that all these diverse phenomena were end products of more comprehensive
principles, or that they may even be united in a single principle. It was
completely foreign to the old way of thinking to describe Saturn abstractly, as
it often is today, as the planet of structure, self-reliance, limitation,
restriction and boundaries [1].
The news
from MIT comes to us as Mercury stationed
to go direct on June 11. A chart for the event at Cambridge, MA is shown here.
Notice that it puts a prominent Saturn-Admetus
opposition on the horizon with the two ends in hard aspect with the TNP
Zeus. The TNP Admetus [2] is directly linked to literal or behavioral “cold” in which
isolation, voluntary or otherwise brought
about through obstacles to interaction
with others in general takes place. On the other hand the TNP Zeus is associated with fire, energy,
enthusiasm, heat etc. Here we need to remember
that hard aspects in astrology are linked to crisis preceding the potential
formation of new states of matter or consciousness. So couldn’t this combination be hinting at the
possible “exotic states” that are produced when activity is brought to a near halt by lowering
the “temperature”.
Halfway
across the globe from MIT, Cambridge, MA is the town of Ajmer in Rajasthan,
India from which Swami Kapri [3] put up a blog on Patanjali’s Yoga at Mercury SD. A chart for the Mercury station at
Ajmer has the same combination on the horizon axis simply inverted. Swamiji explains how a new state of
consciousness is born as one practices nirodhah , the quieting or stilling of the mind, as it detaches itself from all others and
begins witnessing its own inner processes. The analogy to the physics discovery
is quite obvious and needs no further commentary.
Finally,
let us notice that in the Mercury SD charts for Cambridge as well as Ajmer, the
Uranus-Pluto square connects up through hard aspects to the
Mercury-Saturn-Admetus-Zeus combination. By now regular readers will be aware
that the Uranus-Pluto square is about a breakthrough with the end of the established way of seeing things and the beginning of a new one.
[1] Cosmic Loom; Dennis Elwell
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