The Northern Lights is an impressive natural phenomenon. But it does not stand alone. There is a connection with Nov. 9, the day of the descent of the foremothers of the earth as described in Goethe’s Faust, at Pentecost, the Feast of the inner fire, the Kalevala, the Finnish epic, and Rembrandt’s painting The Polish Rider. Theodor Däubler Also, a little-known poet, let himself be inspired by the aurora. However diverse these connections may be, two things in common: their focus on the light and the future.

Years ago I first made a trek in Lapland alone. It was September and I walked from hut to hut in the northwest of Finland, near the border with Sweden. Day and night were long and I had to make sure the darkness have reached the next hut. That worked. Since the wood stove quickly spread a warmth and also served as a stove for a simple meal. It asked later in the evening some courage to warm and safe housing to leave the hut – the toilet was outside. As the wind rustled through the pines and birches been virtually bare. Suddenly my attention was drawn by a glow between the trees.I was surprised. My first thought was that it should come from a more distant residential areas. But I realized immediately that this could not, because there was no place in the wider area of ​​any significance. I climbed a hill to see the glow better. When I clear view to the north had been, it dawned on me that this was my first experience was with the Northern Lights. In the silence of the frosty night veils of light moved across the sky, mostly in shades of green, but also infused with red and yellow. As I watched, I felt the flowing movements out there not only played out in the sky, but inside myself. I stood silent and amazed. A feeling of warmth and happiness spread in me a deep religious feeling of respect and gratitude. I felt included and one with this mysterious weaving. The stars were visible through the colorful veils.
I do not know how long I am there still. At one point I noticed how cold I had become. I tore myself loose from the scene and hurried to the warm shelter of the hut. With a feeling of deep satisfaction I fell asleep, knowing that the best thing I have ever seen in my life was out there over the roof thriving game continues playing and that I would soon become a part of would be after I would have fallen asleep .
In this article I am not so much concerned with the theories developed by science for the northern lights (aurora borealis = dawn of the north) to explain. These theories are almost always boring and not very creative and do not reflect the reality of the experience. Aristotle, the founder of natural science, was his conception are close to this reality. His ideas are imaginative vision and scientific interpretation is closely related. This is reflected in Aristotle’s description of the aurora displays. He thought that the earth is releasing a vapor, at high altitudes in the solar fire ignites in contact and there, so the colorful flames of the aurora to spread.
We will see that Aristotle’s understanding of the key of a contemporary view by state humanities.

The sixtieth latitude

Norwegian priest and author of The Christian Community Harald Falck-Ytter describes in his book Kalevala the sixtieth latitude as a threshold for humanity. Our civilization is reduced to this threshold, facing a future where space inside. The people north of this latitude, including Alaska and in northern Europe, live under conditions in which only the future of humanity can be apprehended consciously.
Cities like Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and St. Petersburg are at or near the sixtieth parallel. In what way is this a limit or threshold? North – and south in the southern hemisphere – the sixtieth parallel, we find an area that ethereal, atmospheric constitutes a self-enclosed world. South of this boundary move the air and water flows from west to east, north of it the other way around. Since air and water to move from east to west. Where oppositely moving water and air flow to each pass, and friction creates the impression of a grinding operation. The borders of these opposing currents and eddies created whirlpools. These form a hollow space in which life forces can be yielded and again.
The sixtieth latitude is also a light border. It is the southernmost border where during the midsummer light around the midnight hours the intensity of the Dawn. The sun moves close to the northern horizon and only one hour long off: dusk becomes dawn. The area north of the sixtieth parallel constitutes a kind of skullcap, a cap on the crown of the earth, which the experience of time changes. Time here becomes expensive, especially in summer and winter. The more north you get, the more the years dividing itself into a long day and a long night, with the character of spring and autumn dawn and dusk take. Here unfolds a process of time to space, the ethereal, the world of life forces, only by a gossamer veil of sensuous phenomena covered up. At the edge of the polar ice creates a kind of rotating, sliding motion and thus model the dome with his small force impulses to continually move the air around poolkalot those inherent therein.