Today I am thinking about the term SYZYGY. The definition of this strange word is:
- a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.”the planets were aligned in syzygy“
- a pair of connected or corresponding things.”animus and anima represent a supreme pair of opposites, the syzygy”
The reason I am thinking about it is twofold. First, last night my friend R.L. called which doesn’t happen very often. He wanted me to know how significant it was for us to have run into each other at my father’s doctor’s office waiting room a couple of weeks ago. He hadn’t seen my parents for several years and he always asks about mom and dad. He has a real affection for my parents. Especially my mother since his passed away a few years ago. He has lamented that 2022 was a terrible year and he wants a do-over. Back surgery and lung surgery wiped out last year and he is just now starting to feel human again.
Anyway, last night he wanted me to know how special the random occurance of running into me and my parents was. I hadn’t seen him in two years because he was hiding out from Covid and I was working too much. As he talked about our recent encounter I was thinking about the term SZYGY and how it is this special alignment that occurs in the universe.
RL has been an astrophotographer for over 40 years. For at least the last 25 years he would talk to me about solar and lunar eclipses. A few years ago he finally convinced me to join him for a total lunar eclipse that was best viewed from Oregon within the path of totality. I had never understood his passion for astronomy but after so many years of friendship and his pending retirement I decided to go.
As I waited for the eclipse to occur I noticed a flock of bluebirds that landed in a juniper tree behind me. Suddenly everything became silent just as it did the afternoon of the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980. The temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees as the moon passed in front of the sun. I was in complete and total AWE as I witnessed the conjunction of the moon and sun.
I hastily mounted my camera to a telescope and made this image which I later combined with the image of a bluebird on a branch of juniper I had taken moments before the start of the eclipse. In that moment I felt no more significant than the bird. We were equals in the big scheme of the universe.
I call this image WITNESS TO AWE. Everyone who was camped in the forest felt a since of connection to each other and the rest of the solar system at that moment. I felt connected to that bird on a branch. We went from cheering to silence and then back to more cheering to celebrate the moment.
As I thought about the encounter of RL and my parents I was thinking of the unexpected alignment of their paths. Three celestial bodies coming together.
Yesterday I also witnessed another form of syzygy. I was critiquing a student photograph that had powerful symbolism in the composition. It was an image of two flamenco dancers who were performing a dance while manipulating Spanish throw blankets.
One dancer faced towards the camera had their head peering out of the blanket they were holding with their hands high above their head creating an oval opening. The other had their back turned to the camera. Everyone in the classroom instantly recognized the symbolic birth of the dancer who’s head was peering through a blanket birth canal. It was hard to tell if the head was that of a boy or girl and the short hair of a pixie cut implied a masculine quality while the dancer who’s back was towards the camera had long feminine hair. It was as if the dancer was looking at a mirror and seeing their opposite twin. It was a syzygy archetype of the masculine and feminine.
I actually used the term in my critique and explained how it represented the juxtaposition of the anima and animus or feminine and masculine. It reminded me of recent conversations about the power of vulnerability.
I have shared a belief for a long time that we are looking for our opposite in a partner. Many have said that a longer a couple is married the more they look a like. It has been my experience as a portrait photographer that the most compatible couples seem to have a similar appearance. At dinner tonight the woman behind the bar complimented my wife and I for the way we appeared to be best friends. We are best friends and we even look good together in a photograph!
My Ph.D. wife likes to remind me that you start with a hypothesis and gather evidence before your ideas turn into theories. When I first shared my hypothesis she was full of doubt, but over the years as I have shown her couples who are deeply compatible and how they share similar looks to one another she started to agree. I even came across a psychology research paper that said as much. Only I will ever know that I came up with the theory first from my observations as a portrait photographer! After about the 20th time I pointed this out she began to accept that my hypothesis was indeed now worthy of being called a theory.
In religion and mythology creation is described as either a God the Father and/or Mother Earth. I think finding our opposite nature is what engages our secret superhero power. I think the true secret isn’t to find another person but rather find our full range of emotions that balance us out as people. For me it has been about learning to be vulnerable and compassionate instead of always having to be strong.
This came up recently when I presented a series of interviews for my Call Stories project. Many people commented on how open and vulnerable my subjects were in the interview and how powerful it was for them to bear witness to it.. Vulnerability is about aligning our whole self just as a syzygy is .
The Greeks agree with me as they describe the syzygy as being the balancing of the animus and anima. As I continue to care for my ailing father I recognize that it isn’t his strength that triggers my love and care but rather his humility and fragility. I need to provide the strength to balance out his fragility and to achieve a state of grace.
I am grateful to have the knowledge of the term syzygy because the vocabulary allows me to access a deeper awareness of the constant state of flux we are all in and the special moments with we find alignment.
Peace,
Ira