“In the vast expanse of Space and Time travel I, a lone human, a wonder-struck wanderer.”

- Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Sushmita Mukherjee

The great Bengali mystic-poet wrote these words back in 1896. Today, images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) seem to have brought this wonder smack-dab into our living rooms and our media feeds! How will these images change our perception of ourselves, and of our place in the “grand scheme of things?” And how will we relate to those - human and more-than-human - whom we used to so easily classify as “different,” or “weird,” or simply as “not my problem?”

Come, join us as we sit in conversation with Dr. Sangeeta Malhotra, an astrophysicist from NASA working with the JWST data, and Rev. James Walker, a meditative music composer and graduate of One Spirit, who is deeply touched by these images. We will circumambulate subjects such as… What do these images ultimately mean - both scientifically and metaphorically? And how might they inform the new myth that is trying to be born in this time, out of an uneasy mixing of globalization and Gaia-consciousness on one hand, and fear-driven fragmentation of society on the other?

Rev. Dr. Sushmita Mukherjee, Dean, One Spirit Seminary, will be moderating the conversation.