Space and Motion

 

Space and motion

12:4.1 (133.3)All units of cosmic energy are in primary rotation, are engaged in the execution of their mission as they spin along the universal orbit. The universes in space and their constituent systems and worlds are all rotating spheres moving forward along the endless circuits of the space levels of the master universe. There is absolutely nothing stationary in the entire master universe except the very center of Havona, the eternal Island of Paradise, the center of gravity.

12:4.2 (133.4)The Unqualified Absolute is functionally limited to space, yet we are not sure how this Absolute relates to motion. Is motion inherent in it? We do not know. We do know that movement is not inherent in space; even the movements of space are not inherent in it. However, we are not so sure about the relation of the Unqualified to movement. Who, or what, is really responsible for the gigantic activities of the force-energy transmutations currently going on beyond the limits of the present seven superuniverses? With regard to the origin of motion, we hold the following opinions:

12:4.3 (133.5)1. we believe that the Venerable Acting Spirit initiates movement in space;

12:4.4 (133.6)2. if the Enabling Spirit causes the movements of space, we cannot prove it;

12:4.5 (133.7)3. the Universal Absolute does not give the very first impetus to movement, but settles and controls all the tensions created by movement.

12:4.6 (133.8)In outer-space the force organizers are apparently responsible for producing the gigantic universe wheels which are now in stellar evolution, yet that they can function in this way must have been made possible by a modification in the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

12:4.7 (133.9)From the human point of view, space is nothing - negative; it exists only in relation to something positive and non-spatial. Space, however, is real. It contains and determines movement. It even moves. Space movements can be broadly classified as follows:

12:4.8 (133.10)1. primary motion - the breathing of space, the motion of space itself;

12:4.9 (133.11)2. secondary motion - the rotations in alternating directions of successive levels of space;

12:4.10 (133.12)3. relative movements - relative in the sense that they are not evaluated with Paradise as the ground point. Primary and secondary movements are absolute; they are movement with respect to Paradise which is immobile;

12:4.11 (133.13)4. Compensatory or correlative motion intended to coordinate all other motions.

12:4.12 (134.1)Although the present relation of your sun to the planets connected with it shows many relative and absolute motions in space, it gives many astronomical observers the impression that you are relatively stationary in space, and that the surrounding star clusters and streams are flying outward at velocities which, according to your calculations, are increasing as they advance further into space. Yet this is not the case. You cannot see that the physical creations throughout penetrated space are now expanding outward uniformly. Your own local creation (Nebadon) participates in this movement of universal expansion outward. All seven superuniverses participate in the two billion year cycles of breathing space, together with the regions of outer space of the master universe.

12:4.13 (134.2)When the universes expand and contract, the material masses in the penetrated space alternately move against the attraction of the gravitational force of Paradise, or go along with it. The labor performed to move the material energy-mass of creation is space labor, but not labor of force-energy.

12:4.14 (134.3)Although your spectroscopic estimates of astronomical velocities are fairly reliable when applied to the star regions belonging to your superuniverse and the superuniverses associated with it, such calculations are entirely unreliable with respect to the regions of outer space. Spectral lines shift from normal to violet by an approaching star; similarly, these lines shift to red by a moving star. Through the intervention of many influences, it appears that the speed at which the outer universes are moving away increases by more than one hundred and sixty kilometers per second for each million light-years by which the distance increases. When you will have perfected more powerful telescopes, according to this method of calculation, it will appear that these distant galaxies are moving away from this part of the universe at the incredible speed of more than forty-eight thousand kilometers per second. But such an apparent speed of removal is not real; it is the result of numerous factors that are incorrect, including angles of observation and other time-spatial distortions.

12:4.15 (134.4)The greatest of all these distortions, however, occurs because the vast universes of outer-space, in the adjacent regions adjacent to the domains of the seven superuniverses, seem to rotate around in a direction opposite to that of the great universe. That is, these tens of thousands of nebulae, as well as the suns and worlds accompanying them, are now rotating clockwise around the central creation. The seven superuniverses orbit Paradise counterclockwise. The second outer universe of galaxies, like the seven superuniverses, appears to be rotating counterclockwise around Paradise. And astronomical observers at Uversa believe they are detecting indications of orbiting motions in a third belt of distant outer space, which are beginning to show signs of moving clockwise.

12:4.16 (134.5)It is likely that these alternating directions of the universes' successive space processes have something to do with the gravitational technique of the Universal Absolute within the master universe, a technique that consists of a coordination of forces and an equalization of space tensions. Both motion and space are complements of, or counterbalances to, gravity.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book