You're My Everything

   eXtreme Deep Field, 10 yrs. of NASA Hubble Spactelescope photographs from a patch of sky at the center of the origional Hubble Ultra Deep Field(an area about 1/10 the angular diameter of the moon as viewed from Earth), released Sept. 25, 2012 

Our visible universe is a sphere with a diameter of approximately 92 billion light years. Just that part, what is visible, is awesomely huge. Because of the enormity of this space it is easy to snuggle down in the middle and not have to think about the nature of the reality we are a part of. Regardless of how unfathomably gigantic the universe is, the question remains, "What is just beyond the edge of the universe? What happens at the end?"

   Truman Show, 1998, Truman at the Edge of his World

Wouldn't there have to be a boundary? How could it be possible for the physical universe to be infinite? Is there a wall there? Is the universe an enormous dome? an egg? or a torus? What if you got to the edge and you found a stairway that led to a door? What would be on the other side of that door? It is easy to get caught up in the distractions of everyday life and not conscider the ultimate questions. Contemplating the boundaries of space is like contemplating death. Someday you will die, but it's not now… it is in the enigmatic future. Someday you will reach the edge of the universe as well, if you travel there in your mind, and you will have to walk up those stairs and see what is on the other side of that door… and there is no turning back.

     Flammarion Wood Engraving, artist unknown, first published 1888

Universal is from Latin universalis "of or belonging to all," from universus "all together, whole, entire." The noun usage universum "all things, everybody, all people, the whole world" is where we get the word universe, it is from unus "one" + versum "turned", said to be, literally "turned into one."  This explanation, however, is a bit perplexing. We say that the universe is everything there is. It is all space and matter(at least on this plane of reality) existing as a whole. And the sense of being universal is to be one. So where does this notion of turning fit into the word? In other words why did the Latin universum come to mean "all things, everybody, all people, the whole world" in the first place? Why not just uni-totum "all one" or something like that?

We might think universe to be more like one + verse, "verse" as in, "writing arranged in a a rhythmic pattern." The Word was spoken and the universe came into being along with its order and laws of nature. Not only does versus in Latin have the meaning of "turn toward or against," a form of vertere "to turn, turn back, be turned, convert, transform, translate, be changed", from PIE *wer-(2) "to turn, bend," versus also has the meaning of "a turn of the plow, a line, row, line of verse" as a noun. So couldn't we say the universe is the one verse? Maybe the hymn of the creator? But what does this "verse" have to do with turning either? A verse is a row of poetry, like a plowed line in a field. The soil is turned and it is then ready to take seed and produce growth. The thing about verse is that it seeks to produce more than what is simply written down. It is meant to be fertile ground for the reader or hearer of the poetry to grow the fruit of emotion and experience which the writer of the verse hopes to share.

    A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson 1969 edition

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay,

To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

This word "verse" is connected to words for growth, as in, anniversary which has the meaning of an annual return, the literal spinning/turning of a cycle, and birthdays(a year of growth). Vertex and vertical are from vertere as well. Produce is grown in rows(verses), their growth is often vertical and they are green, or vert / verte in French. Vert is Old French "foliage, greenery," from Latin viridis. Spring, the time of spiraling growth, begins at the time of the vernal equinox. So the turning has to do with cycles and growth. But what of the meaning "versus", as in us vs. them? And the word advert "turn away"? In Latin versus has the meaning of "turn toward or against." 

When the ground is turned isn't it a violence to the ground? However, this adversity is what makes it fertile. Turning is change and change can be perceived as good or bad, i.e. as a growth upward like a plant, or an encounter with a foe which can create heroes, or victors in a match. Often it is the opponent who motivates a person to grow their talents and get better.

    David and Goliath, Edgar Degas, c. 1863, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK

This brings us back to the "turned"(versum) in universe. What was the ancient notion of this one(unum) thing which they saw as the dome of the night sky? Everything in the heavens appeared as if it were revolving around them. 

Turning has the sense of creating, as in the turning of clay upon the potters wheel to make a pot(which is green until it is fired). Pushing against the clay, i.e., hand vs. clay, on the lathe causes the growth of the pot. Maybe the universe was thought to be one thing, as in one fashioned thing, like a pot that is turned on a wheel. When the clay is being turned(being formed on a wheel) and thus turned into a pot, it grows up vertically and out with the motion. Maybe the universe is "one  turned" in this sense, it is one vessel or pot, we might say a uni-vas/vassa "container, vessel".

The Uni-vase 

Here is a depiction of the ancient Egyptian gods(neteru) Isis, Nut and Nun from the Valley of the Kings. Above the heads of the gods are their hieroglyphic representations / names. 

    Isis, Nut, and Nun from the House of Eternity, Valley of the Kings, reign of Seti I- Ramses II, 1290-1213 BC

The first on the crown of Isis(iSt) is st  meaning "seat, throne, place, abode, tomb, room." On the head of Nut is a nu "pot" with t "bread loaf"(feminine gender indication) and the platform indicating pt "sky". So Nut is nu + t + pt(not pronounced in her name), nevertheless this would make her Nut, Pot (of the sky) visually, and she is in fact the womb or vessel(pot) from which Ra, the sun, was reborn each morning from the platform of the pt "sky." The last figure is Nun/Nu, his hieroglyph is three nu's "pots" on a pt. The tripling is meant to indicate many, and nu was "pot", as in, a container of the waters. His name sometimes has the hieroglyph for "waters" with it as well which is also made of a triplet of three horizontal wavy lines(the wavy line "water" indicating the letter "N" in hieroglyphs as well). 

"Nun" = nu nu nu + [ pt ] + n n n

So he is the many waters, Nu nu nu. Maybe even the big no no no, being too big to contemplate.

Nu / Nun was the ancient Egyptian god/concept of the primordial waters or abyss from which the first land appeared. Nun was what continued outside of the bounds of the created universe, but was also present in the water upon the Earth. Nun is sometimes depicted as a frog or a man with a frog head, as one of the Ogdoad ("the Eightfold" Gk.) of Khmun(Hermopolis), four male gods(depicted as frogs during the Late Kingdom) and four female gods(depicted as snakes), Nu and Nunet(the primordial waters), Amun and Amunet(air or invisibility, hidden one), Kek and Kekut(darkness [the primordial darkness/chaos, also related to transitions between light and dark, called "bringer-in-of-the-light"), and Ḥeḥ and Hehet(infinite space, infinity, eternity. These were the forces from which creation arose.

The sun rises from the mound of creation at the beginning of time. The central circle represents the mound, and the three orange circles are the sun(ra') at different stages of its rising. At the top is the "horizon" hieroglyph with the sun appearing atop it. At either side are the goddesses of the north(Neith?, right) and south(Anuket?, left), pouring out the waters that surround the mound. The eight stick figures are the gods of the Ogdoad, hoeing the soil(turning verses). - 21st Dynasty, c.1075-945 BC, from the Book of the Dead Khensumose 

In the beginning neteru created the heavens and the earth. Ḥeḥ was without form and void, and Kek was upon the face of Nun; Amun was moving over the face of Nun. 

And Seker cried out, "ḥ'r wr!(Horus the Great [Light])"; and there was the first great light of dawn. 

Genesis 1:1-3 [my own trans-concept translation] - the first day / revolution / turn

Turn is from Old English turnian "to rotate revolve," also Old French torner "turn away or around; transform, change; turn on a lathe, both from Latin tornare "polish, round, turn on a lathe," from tornus "lathe", Greek tornos "lathe". When certain matter is turned it is made into something through revolution and applied pressure. 

Nun was sometimes combined with the god Ptah whose name means "create", patron of craftsman, as Ptah-Nun, father of the sun god Atum Ra. In this passage, the heavens, i.e., the dome of the universe, is described as Ptah's potter's wheel, i.e., his turn(versus) table, or tornos.

The Potter's wheel is the wheel of the revolving heavens; and Ptah is addressed in a form which agrees very well with the idea that the perpetual gyration of the wheel generates all things: "O God, Architect of the World, thou art without mother, being born through repetition of thyself." -Creation Records Discovered in Egypt [Studies in the Book of the Dead], by George St. Clair, 1898, ch. VIII, pg. 116

The one-versum(turned), i.e., universe seems to be Nut, the one pot(nu) of water, or womb which turns about the heavens, the space of creation, from out of Nun, and it was believed that one day creation would return back to Nun, the watery chaos.

Back to none?

None is from Old English nan "not one, not any," from ne "not"+ an "one", analogous to Latin non "not, by no means, not at all, not a", from Old Latin noenum "not one".

So maybe we could call Nun, Mr. "no one", or Mr. Nobody. But Nobody is not necessarlily inconsequential, as the Cyclops, Polyphemus, can attest to.  

    Odysseus Blinding Polyphemus, Italian, early 16th century

Then in his turn from out the cave big Polyphemus answered: Friends, Nobody is murdering me by craft. Force there is none. But answering him in winged words they said: If nobody harms you when you are left alone, illness which comes from mighty Zeus you cannot fly. But make your prayer to your father, Lord Poseidon. Odyssey, Book 9, ln. 455

Odysseus, passing himself off as Nobody, put out the eye of the cyclops "circle-eyed" and escapes imprisonment in the cave with his remaining men. Put is from Old English related to pytan "put out, thrust out," from a Germanic stem(related to Old Norse pota "to poke"). Pytan "put out," is perhaps like Ptah-ing[like a potter]. When a potter creates a pot[a pota, a thing poked?] he does poke and push out the clay. Ptah is the potter or poker of the pt "sky".

Poseidon, the father of Polyphemus, is god of the sea, not unlike Nun, therefore, watery and enigmatic, a Mr. Nobody, known as "Earth-shaker". Poseidon is from Poseidaon/Poseidewanos in Mycenaean, and in Aeolic is Potaidaon, Doric Poteidon/Poteidaon/Poteidas, said to be perhaps from PIE *potis "husband, lord". The second element is debated as to whether or not it is related to the word for "earth" da in Doric, from of ge(meaning "earth" as in Gaia), or from Doric dawon "water", as in either "Husband/Lord of the Earth" or "Lord of the Water". This combination of earth and water is a bit like the combination of the two Egyptians gods Ptah and Nun. Perhaps there is a bit of truth in both. Ptah-Nun/Potaidaon the divine potter of the waters of the universe.
[This is also in concept like the Sumerian god called Enki "Lord of Earth" / in Akkadian called, Ea "House of Water," god of crafts, fresh water, seawater, wisdom. As opposed to the a Sumerian, Enlil "Lord of Wind"(like the Egyptian Amun), and the Sumerian, An "sky", like the Greek Uranus/Ouranus, personification of the sky.]

   Horses of Neptune, Walter Crane, 1893

Poseidon was also known as Poseidon Hippios, the god of horses. As a horse he pursued Demeter Δημήτηρ / Damater [Doric] Δαμάτηρ (possibly from da "earth"+ metēr "mother"). She turned herself into a mare and tried to conceal herself in a heard of horses, however, Poseidon turned into a stallion and raped her. Demeter bore Desponia ("Lady / Mistress of the House") and the swift immortal horse Arion.

Neptune is the Roman counterpart of Poseidon. Neptune is said to be probably from PIE *nebh- "cloud", related to Latin nebula "mist, vapor, fog, smoke," Greek nephele, nephos "cloud." Neptune was also associate with horses under the name of Neptunus Equester.

    Horsehead Nebula, DownUnder Observatory, Freemont, MI., by Terry Hankock

So Neptune is the nebh "cloud/mist of heaven"+ tune. The "tune" of the nebula forms stars and produces the music of the spheres. Tune is a variant of "tone", from Latin tonus "a sound, tone, acent", literally stretching, as in stretching, tightening, making a string taught, related to teinein "to stretch". When the right tuning occurs, solar systems and worlds are formed. So maybe it is not a stretch to connect this teinein with the Egyptian god Ta-tenen "risen land", the primordial mound, the rock(petros), that "streached" out of Nun. Ta-Tanen is combined with Ptah(Pee-tah/"Peter") in the Old Kingdom(c.2649-2150 BC) as Ptah-Tatenen. So if we substitute this Ptah "create" for tune, this would make Neptah out of Neptune. 

In Norse mythology the spring Hvergelmir "roaring kettle / bubbling boiling spring" is the source of the eleven rivers and was the origin of the causes of creation. This seems to be similar in concept to Nun(primordial waters of the universe). Its forces flowed south from Niflheim (from nifil "mist," cognate with Gk. nephele "cloud" + heim "home", similar to the abode of Neptune and Poseidon) to Ginnungagap "mighty gap" called the Yawning Void. Ginnungagap was the vast primordial void prior to the creation of the manifest universe. Ymir, the first proto-giant came to be from the interaction between the nebulous realm of primordial cold, ice, and fog to the North, Niflheim, and the realm of fire to the South, Muspellheim, in this mighty gap. 

Audhumla, the gigantic cow, uncovered the first man, Buri, in this void by licking the salty stones around Ginnungagap. Ymir was nourished by Audhumla, and in the Poetic Edda it states that the world was eventually made from the body of Ymir. 

From Ymer's flesh, in the dawning of time, was made

The earth, and from his blood the raging sea,

The rocks from his bones, and from his hair 

the trees, and plants; his skull became the vaulted heaven;

And Midgard, from his fringed lids, the gods

Kindly have fashioned for the sons of men;

And from his brain, the clouds that dress the sky

Of Summer, or dart their lightnings in the storm,

Their first substance had. - The Song of Grimner, C.P. 1851

    18th Century Icelandic Manuscript, Danish Royal Library- Adhumla licks the salty stones around Ginnungagap and Buri emerges.

Nut is also sometimes portrayed as a great cow of the sky, as well as in her other forms(a sycamore tree, starry sky lady, sow). Hathor was commonly portrayed in the form of a cow. Nut and Hathor personified the appearance of the Milky Way in ancient Egypt.  

She[Hathor] was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow (linking her with Nut, Bat and Mehet-Weret). Hathor, Ancient Egypt Online

Nut, Nwt means "[night]sky" and Hathor, ḥwt hr, "House of Horus"(the abode of the ḥr.w "sky"; "one who is above / Falcon" god, Horus). So they are similar aspects of the same archetype.

This gives some context to the term, galaxy, which is from Late Latin galaxias "Milky Way," from Greek galaxies kiklos "milky circle", from gala(galaktos genitive) "milk". 

    The Milky Way, from The Center for Planetary Science, Photo from NGC.

Cosmos is the Latinized form of the Greek kosmos meaning "order, good order, orderly arrangement." Pythagoras was first to use it for "the universe." Kosmos does have a secondary meaning of "ornaments on a woman's dress, decoration" like the starry mantle of Nut perhaps. We might say someone is "put together," kosmos, when they dress in a fine clothes and have their hair done(kosmokomes "dressing the hair") and all is in good order and neat arrangement.

    Our Lady of Guadalupe looking stellar in her Cosmic Cloak, 1531

Kosmein had the meaning "to dispose, prepare", especially with the meaning of "order and arrange(troops for battle), to set (an army) in array". God is one who orders(kosmein) the Cosmos. They are not a random bunch of gasses and rocks strewn around the universe. 

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host(army) by number; calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Isaiah 40:26

Why would one be "missing" unless they were in a particular order for a particular purpose? And why would the stars be named unless they had a particular purpose and nature?

The saying, "You look stellar," takes on new meaning. The universe is cosmic. Like the most intricate amazing arrangement to produce life and variety while still being ordered to a good end.

    A Cosmic Looking Image of a Border Feature Inside the Mandelbrot Set, by Binette228, Wikimedia

We imagine that here on Earth we stand on solid ground and the great oceans are supported by the land. And so it is the case in a sense. But actually our precious Earth is just a giant starship in the fathomless ocean of space. The vastness of space, time and existence can be scary to contemplate. We might feel as if we will get lost or swallowed up. However, we can take comfort in the fact that no matter how far we travel either in or out, the cosmos is well ordered and we will be at home in it. Let's not be afraid to explore. Engage!


You're Everything.