Lessons from Milankovitch, Swedenborg, and Cold, Obnoxious Winters
Lauren Anderson | Friday, August 5, 2011 After months of dull and overcast weather, Lauren is driven to perform an interpretive dance representing the orbit of the earth around the sun. She compares the seasons to the changes of state we undergo in relation to our center of love and wisdom (the Lord). We could even weary of ecstasy if it were allowed to linger too long. -Editor.
Scenario: What do you do in a small restaurant with adults in your party engrossed in deep conversation and an energetic three-year-old who wants to move?
Solution: The Milankovitch Dance.
What is the Milankovitch Dance? It is an ingenious way to keep that spritely 3-year old content in a rather confined area, provided that your back is good and your memory of the Milankovitch Cycles better. For those of you unfamiliar with the latter, please rejoice in the knowledge that you are about to receive.
The Milankovitch Cycles describe three phenomena of the Earth’s movement around the Sun that affect the amount of energy received by the surface of the Earth, and thus Earth’s climate. Eccentricity, the shape of the Earth’s orbit, is the longest cycle and varies on time scales of 100,000 and 400,000 years. That means the shape of the orbit will become more ellipse-like and back to more circular in that amount of time. Changing the shape of the orbit makes the perihelion (closest to the sun) point closer to or further away than previous times, and therefore affects how much energy gets to the Earth. Obliquity, the amount of tilt in the Earth’s axis, changes on time scales of about 40,000 years. Currently the tilt is 23.5º, but this angle changes by approximately ±1º. This cycling changes the latitudes of the Earth that receive more or less energy and consequently, in the more recent (geologic) past, has thrown our cute little planet into and out of the throes of ice ages. The last is precession, which is the wobble in the rotation axis (think of a large toy top that is losing angular momentum and thus losing the very vertical, stationary position of its original spin). This amount of wobble varies on timescales of about 20,000 years, which beats within the periods of obliquity and can amplify certain climatic effects of the latter.
If you made it this far, you’re probably thinking, why should a 3-year old (or anyone for that matter) learn about Milankovitch? You may not think that the Milankovitch Cycles are worthy of acknowledgement, but Swedenborg did. [Finally, we see why the editors allowed this science-crazed author to post her article on NCP!] For those of you acquainted with Heaven and Hell (the book, not the locales), this passage should look familiar:
Heaven and Hell 158.2. The angels added that their changes of state are not caused by the Lord, since the Lord as a sun is unceasingly flowing in with heat and light, that is, with love and wisdom; but the cause is in themselves, in that they love what is their own, and this continually leads them away. This was illustrated by comparison with the sun of the world, that the cause of the changes of state of heat and cold and of light and shade, year by year and day by day, is not in that sun, since it stands unchanged, but the cause is in the earth.
a.k.a., Milankovitch Cycles!
How does this help us? What I read is this: obnoxious, cold, LONG winters can have some use in reminding us of Heaven and the Lord. Earlier in the passage, Swedenborg writes:
Heaven and Hell 158. I have been taught from heaven why there are such changes of state there. The angels said that there are many reasons-first, the delight of life and of heaven, which they have from love and wisdom from the Lord, would gradually lose its value if they were in it continually, as happens with those that are in allurements and pleasures without variety.
Real-world example: I spent my summer in southeastern Alaska. July forecast: rainy and overcast with temperatures in the 40’s to mid-50’s (ºF). I subsequently moved to Seattle in September. Fall forecast: rainy and overcast with temperatures in the mid-50’s to 60’s. Winter forecast: rainy and overcast with temperatures in the 30’s to mid-40’s. Spring forecast: rainy and overcast with occasional days of sun but temperatures always hovering unseasonably under 60ºF (thank you La Niña!).
Are you starting to see a pattern here? I won’t pretend that I didn’t LOVE biking to school all year long without having to put up with heaps of snow, thick persistent layers of ice, and bitterly cold winds. I wouldn’t have traded my first winter without snow for all the sunny days in Jamaica. But now with “spring” here, which looks and feels a lot like all the other “seasons” I have experienced since last July, I am starting to understand the wisdom in the angels’ changes in state in Heaven. The mild temperatures of the West Coast have lost their value to me because there seems to be no improvement in the state of the weather. Sure I didn’t have to put up with much snow and cold in the winter, but I don’t have the wonderful feeling of rebirth, rejuvenation, and self-growth that comes with the spring. Spring in Seattle, quite contrary to her name, has sluggishly rolled over on the mattress pushing Winter aside without bothering to push him off the bed entirely. (I realize that if this analogy is continued for all four seasons, there is a very odd and not entirely God-like marriage of persons… so it’s a good thing seasons aren’t people.)
The point I want to make here is this: For those of you living in areas of extreme seasons and hardly surviving dark, depressing winters – rejoice in the fact that you are able to feel the turning of the Earth (or more accurately, the Northern Hemisphere) back towards the Sun. It is this approach to the heat and light of the Natural Sun that reminds us of the importance of our reception and return to the Spiritual Sun in Heaven, the Lord. For those of you faring milder weather and a complete lack of sun save on exceptional days of Providence, as I am – Vitamin D supplements and full spectrum sun lamps. They are beautiful things.
How to do the Milankovitch Dance:
Congratulations! You are now the Earth.
Step 1: Put the 3-year old, or monkey (whatever he prefers to call himself), on your back and inform him that you and he are the Earth spinning around in space. Start spinning. (I would suggest you begin spinning slowly, unless by chance you are a veteran ballerina or figure skater, or this game won’t last very long.)
Step 2: Here is where a good back really becomes important (for best results, bend at the waist and keep your spine straight). Bend forward while spinning and explain that this is the natural tilt of Earth’s axis (currently 23.5º, but there is no need to be precise in your own body’s angle), or its obliquity. If you don’t care about any of this but are looking for some entertainment yourself, have the 3-year old try to say “O-Blick-Quit-Tea.” It’s fantastic.
Step 3: Here’s where it gets a bit trickier. While you are spinning with that slight bend at the waist, rotate your upper body around using your pelvis as the stationary pivot point such that you would be burning a circle in the ceiling were there a laser pointing straight out the top of your head. You are now representing precession in your interpretive dance in the middle of the small restaurant.
Step 4: The last element to add to the Milankovitch Dance is eccentricity (as if you weren’t behaving eccentrically enough already). This will not work in an extremely small restaurant, but you will need to (while spinning and wobbling in a mock-23.5º angle) begin to move in an oval pattern around the floor. This is the Earth’s path around the Sun, which as you know is not perfectly circular.
Step 5: Prepare for a fair amount of odd looks and screeching laughter from the monkey on your back.
Lauren D. Anderson
Lauren is currently Vitamin D-deficient and wondering if one actually can see Mt. Rainier from the University of Washington campus’ Rainier Vista or if it’s just a grand conspiracy. She has recently finished her first year in a PhD program that combines four very useful sciences into a near religious pursuit (geochemical applications for astrobiology, a.k.a., trying to solve the mystery of life) and is planning on trying her hand at a Southern Hemisphere winter next year. Lauren dislikes bad internet connections, water fountains that make it sound like it is raining ALL the time, and purple jellybeans. Lauren likes watching grown men throw logs in large puddles of water, iced coffee, and convincing people they should move to Seattle to be a part of the fabulous Light for Life New Church congregation and their endeavors in fixing up a new church building.Wondering about the inspiration for this article? Look up the New Church, which is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Reader Comments (8)
I've seen the dance, its a good one. I never thought that the earth's rotational features could be taught in a tangible way. Brian
What a good way to represent to ourselves our changes of state -- especially with innocence shrieking with laughter on our backs. Next time I'm depressed, I might try it!
I know a new title for your essay: "Developing Strange New Rituals for a Strange New Church." Love your approach!
Thank you, I needed to hear this and I loved the humor and spunk with which you put forward your ideas.
Lauren,
Great article - reminds one of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons .
High and low states are relative. I would think that the lowest low in the lowest heaven is higher than the highest high in the entire physical universe.
If I may digress to another kind of gear-shifting from hot to cold to hot to cold: Swedenborg's Conjugial Love states that angels do not feel sexual desire except with their spouses. In other words, they are asexual outside the marriage chamber. This fine tuning has been lost in modern culture (except, perhaps, in the Muslim world). Everything is sex, and sex is used to sell everything. If everything is sex, then nothing is sex. Maybe modern people have less sexual pleasure and greater frigidity/dysfunction than their Victorian forebears.
My personal experience has been that whenever my wife and I have had good sex, we have been totally free of sexual thought outside the marriage bed. In other words, sexually satisfied people (and angels) do not think or obsess with sex and can enjoy interregnums of asexuality as much as they enjoy their sexuality in its lawful context. This variation is what makes sex pure and pleasurable and never boring.
Thank you, Lauren, for your article! I am going to try that dance with my two-year in the near future.
And William, I appreciate your comment and agree. It is a good insight and interesting to apply the ideas of states and cycles to human sexuality in and outside of marriage. Care to flesh out your ideas into an article for NCP? I'd read it!
Chelsea,
Thanks for your kind words. I would love to write an article for NCP on this matter! I need to find the time to do so. I might be able to send a draft to the editors some time towards the end of the year - the Lord willing!
Wonderful, William! That would be fabulous.