Memories from Earth: First Time Celestial Experiences

The title of this feels a little clunky, but it's as descriptive as I can get for what I want to share. I want to share the first experience I had this lifetime on Earth of viewing various celestial phenomena.

Let's dive in, shall we?

I'll start with solar phenomena and build up to seeing interstellar phenomena.

Eclipses

The first one of these I saw when I was 7 years old. I originally thought 5, but that didn't feel quite right so I went to find the actual date. I'm outside in the sunshine, because it's May. We're having an event in the parking lot of the library. My school was right next to the big public library, so we're there as a collective. Some of us have the pin hole boxes so you can look inside and see. My teacher has one of these she's made especially for the occasion. Some of us share viewing glasses.

I look up and see the sun's corona, while listening to a lesson by another teacher about how eclipses happen, why, and what a corona is. I remember I feel fascinated, but not floored. It's cool. Just not the coolest thing ever.

Meteorites

I have a very specific memory of this. This is not the first time I ever saw a meteorite ("shooting star"), but this is the first time I saw a really big bright one. I'm 12 years old in Middle School, and my brother's friend's dad, Alex, is in the school parking lot with us at night. Our science classes are having a viewing party for a meteor shower. That year this particular event was supposed to be spectacular.

We have Alex with us, because he's an astronomer who works at the local university. A couple years from this moment, both our families will move to the exact same neighborhood and live only 10 houses from each other. I end up becoming their cat sitting whenever they go on vacation, and the first time I go into their new house, Alex's supernova discoveries and hung up all over the walls in the entryway. But for now, Alex has brought a little telescope and he's telling us all about the constellation and meteors that are coming from that direction.

I like being outside under the stars at night. Especially when the school has agreed to turn off all the lights and make it as dark as possible. I'm looking up, seeing little tiny meteors dart across the sky. And as I'm saying something to my brother, a huge meteor slowly streaks across the sky. It's bright blue-white and I have never seen one so big. It even lights up the parking lot for a moment.

This is more magical than anything I have seen. I don't know why this particular moment, but it is. I carry this memory forever as an example of what meteors are "supposed to look like".

Planets

We're going to go backwards in time a little bit. I'm 10 years old. It's springtime and the dogwoods in the yard are blooming. The trees don't have too many leaves yet. It's a clear evening, and the Hale-Bopp Comet is glowing in the sky. Alex is back with us, and he's brought his biggest telescope. I watch him pull it in a red wagon with Andra, his daughter and my brother's friend, and his wife. This thing is the size of a barrel and looks like a canon when put together.

My backyard has become the place for the viewing party for the comet, because we live on a corner lot and have half an acre of grass with minimal obstructions. Plus, my parents like hosting outdoor parties at this time of my life. My dad has binoculars out, since you can see the comet with your eyes unaided.

We're observing the comet, and this is all very interesting to me. Mostly, I like being outside in the dark. Alex is letting everyone look at the comet through the more powerful telescope, then the stars come out. He points it at Saturn as it rises over the tree line, and tells me to come look.

I look in the eyepiece and see Saturn for the first time with my own eyes. I almost want to cry, I'm so moved and delighted. All this time, I've been shown photos in books and in films telling me what Saturn looks like. But now I'm looking right at it with my own eyeballs and it's real. It really looks like that.

That's what I keep thinking as I look in amazement: "It's real. It's real. It's a real place. They weren't just making it up." Another thought drops down into my consciousness, "That means other things are real, too. What else is real?" I feel my body get covered in chills.

Spaceships

Now we fast forward in time. I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again here since it's been a couple of years and the memory is distilled a little more clearly.

It's October 2022. I'm 35 now. Over the last 8 months, I've been having intense dreams and experiences of ETs visiting me. From Pleiadeans to Arcturians to little butterball Orion beings. You name it, I've seen them. I see ships in my dreams. I see lights in the sky in my dreams. All bringing me into complete lucidity whenever the encounter happens.

But I have not yet really seen a spaceship with my own eyes. I've seen glimpses of lights in the sky, but they were far enough away that they could be satellites or drones or actual spaceships.

On this night, I walk outside with no intention of seeing a ship. I look up and see a small dot moving as soon as I do look up, but it's far enough away that I could be mistaking it for something else. Oddly, though, I think at the dot "Hang on, I can't see you because of the light. Let me get out from under it." I get out from under the street light and look up again.

There are two bright stars sitting completely still in the sky where stars aren't supposed to be. I pass them over at first. I had been thinking for a while that if I were to see a spaceship, I would know it was a spaceship because it would act like nothing on Earth can act. Then, the two completely still stars start to move. They fly off to the North and the Northwest...in a curving path. After sitting still. And one decides to do power-ups.

As soon as they go from being still to moving in clearly impossible arcs for Earth craft, I black out. My brain just short circuits. It only lasts 2 seconds, but I understand this is a common occurrence for anyone in an Earth body viewing spaceships for the first time. The Earth mind just cannot handle it. Emergency reboot required.

Once rebooted, I see the ships are still there, cruising at a comfortable speed. Slow enough for me to follow them with me eyes. My whole entire being now goes into an intense argument with itself.

My mind: "We didn't see that. That's not real. That didn't happen."
My body: "The hell we did see that! I saw that with my own EYES!"
My heart: *silently brimming with joy and humming to itself happily*
My mind: "We didn't see that. You're lying."
My body: "Don't gaslight me! Heart? Back me up here!"
My heart: "It's real. *humming happily* Yay!"
My body: "See?"
My mind: "Fine. We see it. It's real. What's it mean?"

​My soul: "We saw stellar beings in craft. That's what it means. They are real."

"They are real" suddenly sobers my whole self and grounds it. This is the same feeling as when I first saw Saturn, and I find myself thinking about that experience as I walk back inside. "It's all real."


I thank you for your time. Adiamas.

​--Kyriel