WoD: SPACE PARADIGMS 

MYTHIC -- THE CEREMONIALISTS
        The wonder, the mystery of the heavens.  The incomprehensible celestial bodies, weaving their intricate patterns through the velvet swath of night... the Chaldeans knew well the allure and wisdom of the stars and planetes.  The Egyptians knew, and the Greeks... and some few wise ones today, however faintly or despairingly, still bear that wisdom in their hearts and minds.  Some few still keep the ancient secrets, undiluted by the passage of millennia, uncorrupted by human fad and fashion.  Some still feel the pulse of the universe in the heavens as they cycle round the earth, still hear the silent song the gods sing in their spheres across the ages.  Mercury, the swift messenger who so closely follows bright Apollo that he is only seen briefly at dawn or dusk.  Venus, that fickle goddess who trails lazily in their glowing wake.  Mars, the bloody pilgrim, whose cycle is slow and cunning as he looks down upon the wars we wage.  Jupiter, father of the gods, gleaming brightly, radiant with wisdom and power.  The Hidden Planets, thundering Vulcan and rich Pan-Horus, that are obscured from Sleepers by the Stagant Ones who wish to forbid their mystick resonances.  The planetes are their eyes, the lenses through which the gods watch the world from afar... like earth, they are realms, worlds -- shards of the First Reality scattered across the Tellurian.  Between our world and those worlds lies the Void of Spirit, through which only powerful Masters may pass safely.  And when reached, these realms of the gods are vast and strange indeed, filled with all manner of spirits, deities, and creatures.
        Outside the scope of the planetes is the Greater Void, that vast unknowable mystery that has been called Daath, and Abyss, and many other names besides.  The wise one will know of what I speak.  Still, even this spiritual emptiness may be entered by the most powerful and enlightened of Masters, though what lies within or beyond this Abyss may be known only by Archmagi and Oracles.

Ceremonialist Planetary Praxis on the Ceremonialist page

The Shard Realms (a Mythic perspective)
 



STATIC -- THE UNION LINE
        The Masses have long known that the Mythic Philosophy of Astrology and Astronomy is quite flawed, and, well, rather ridiculous.  The Union has told the world -- and the world believes -- that the earth and the other planets orbit the sun.  The rates and speeds at which these orbits occur have been examined and described, the distance between each of the bodies measured, and the basic dimensions of the solar system, and indeed, the galaxy, have been charted and probed by satellites and other tecknological devices.  The planets are nothing more than lifeless spheres of rock, ice, and gases, and the details of their positions and conjunctions certainly have no bearing on human life.  There is no life in space, certainly none on the planets of our solar system.  We are the only sentient beings in our system, and likely the only ones in the galaxy.  This is the only reasonable viewpoint.
        It will eventually be possible to build space stations in significant numbers in orbit around the earth.  The example of the MIR Station shows that we must be careful and prudent when trying to push the limits of our reality, and act only according to approved and proven methods.  We may one day establish small scientific colonies on the Moon, and then perhaps Mars, due to the large ice content of those bodies; it may even be distantly possible to establish similar bases on some of the moons of more distant planets.  Certainly this would be beneficial in the face of the current population explosion and other economical problems.  However, even if and when such progress may occur, the Masses of humanity would have to be restricted at first, giving way to teams of scientists and technicians, then to selected groups whose presence on the foundling colonies would be beneficial.  But this is all conjecture; we must live in the present.  Be reassured, however, that realities such as those described in Star Trek -- however entertaining that show may be (10pm Central Standard time on NBC, weeknights!) -- are not only fantastic, but nearly impossible to attain anytime in the next few centuries.  The star nearest to the earth, Alpha Centauri, is still many light-years away... a ship launched today, even were it capable of such a journey, would not reach its destination for centuries (given the impossibility of traveling beyond the speed of light, which science has proven to be impossible).
        There are currently programs in many countries that boast launches of various shuttles and space-faring probes.  The United States has thus far led them all in frequency and quality, especially since the breakup of the Soviet Union.  We are exploring the surfaces of asteroids now, to analyze them in order to better protect ourselves against them; we hope to put a man on Mars sometime in the next decade or two.  We are now making regular expeditions to the moon, analyzing substances and investigating the less well-known portions, especially the fringes of its dark side.  The asteroid-chain that struck Jupiter with the force of a megaton warhead a few years back were of special interest to us, since we are becoming more and more aware of the extremity of the dangers of an asteroid collision with earth.  Space can be, and is, an exciting and profitable backdrop for the ongoing pageant of humanity, given the proper technical and scientific approaches; just sit back and keep an eye on the evening news.



ADVANCED -- VOID ENGINEERS & ETHERNAUTS
        You've heard about the space program, the lack of life on the planets, the hopes for eventual colonization of the moon and of Mars... and you know nothing.  It's all lies, or at least lies and half-truths, fed to you all your life by a relatively small group of men with a hidden agenda.  And whether you seek to preserve the lies and further the deception, or seek to shatter the illusion and restore some measure of mystery and hope to space-exploration, you are about to learn the truth.
        You have been told that the earth and planets orbit the sun, and they do -- or at least, they do now, since the Union has stabilized its hold on the consensual reality.  Who knows what might have been?  Not that it really matters now.  You have been told that the planets are lifeless; they're not.  I myself have seen things on Titan, Saturn's massive moon, that would shatter all known astrophysics.  You've been told that astrology is a hoax, a shabby mysticism for fools and for the superstitious.  But the planets really do carry a certain metaphysical momentum, and the cycles of the planets seem to bear some unidentifiable influence on the earth and its inhabitants.  Chalk it up to the power of mass belief, vibratory and sonic influences that ripple through the ether.  Does it matter?  As a scientist, I can tell you that there is much beyond what we know and see.
        We have established over twenty functional space-stations orbiting the earth, all manned by specialized, top-secret technicians and scientists.  You didn't know that, did you?  We have had a colony on the Moon's dark side for nearly 100 years -- that's right, since the turn of the century, the early 1900s!  We've got colonies on Mars (since the 1950s), on Jupiter's ice-moons Ganymede and Europa, and on it's stony moon Amalthea (Metropolis2, est.1962).  Titan, one of the most amazingly vibrant of Saturn's moons that also has complex dimensional signatures -- what our mystickal ancestors would have called "strong spirituality" -- is inhabited by an immensely powerful alien entity of unknown origin and intent.
        The nearest and most accessible space-stations are, of course, the Darkside Moonbase and the Mars Colonies.  They all have large crews and fairly constant revolution of staff, with ships coming in from, and leaving for, other locations at least once per week.  The Union has the strongest control of the Moon and Mars, though the rebel Ethernauts have established an orbiting station that hides around the moon, and have established small hidden bases in some of Mars' more rocky and forbidding territories.  Beyond the asteroid belt, however, it's mostly an open game; the war for colonization is on, and we terrestrials aren't the only soldiers!  Not to say that there's life on all the planets, but there are elements and influences out there that we have yet to fully know of, much less understand.  For example, we found a large observation base on Titan about twenty years ago, consisting of such strange and advanced technology that our Scientists could not even begin to decipher the workings of the many systems... and when the secondary crew arrived to help, the base was gone, and our Scientists with it.  People talk of Zeta Reticulans, Pleiadeans, Sirians, Reptilians, "grays", and "blonds".  But we really have no idea exactly what is out there, even us Enlightened Scientists.  I know some older Ethernauts who say that one of the primary reasons we left the Union was because of dealings with the Reticulans, and some sort of conspiratorial plot to sell the earth out to insure the Union's safety.  I wouldn't put it past the Union, but there are quite a few madnesses that afflict the Enlightened, especially those who've made that many trips into the Ether.
 
 


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