Lichfield Cathedral, What If We Rewrite the Stars?
“So why don’t we rewrite the stars?
Maybe the world could be ours,
Tonight” Lyrics by Benj Pasek / Justin Paul, from ‘The Greatest Showman’
Introduction
In this article, we explore the galactic alignments of Lichfield Cathedral, dedicated to St Chad of Mercia. At midnight on the day St Chad was consecrated, the cathedral’s axis at the Lady Chapel aligned with the Galactic plane of the Milky Way as it intersected the Earth’s horizon. A binary star is now predicted to go supernova in 2083 and will rise each day just after midnight on the horizon at the same celestial point, becoming the brightest star in the sky. Sirius, the current brightest star, will be set perfectly aligned to the westerly Cathedral axis on the opposite side of the celestial sphere. The Cathedral will then be a central terrestrial observer of this cosmic stellar pirouette between the sky’s two brightest stars.
Lichfield Cathedral & St Chad of Mercia
“One need not scale the heights of the heavens, nor travel along the highways of the world to find Ahura Mazda. With purity of mind and holiness of heart one can find Him in one’s own heart.” Zoroaster
Lichfield is a small city in the middle of England and has a rich history. It is blessed with a magnificent medieval Cathedral, the only one in the UK with three spires. It was consecrated to St Chad of Mercia in 664 AD, who brought Christianity to most of England at that time. It is the birthplace of Dr Johnson and Elias Ashmole. Erasmus Darwin lived there and likely enthused his more famous grandson, Charles, with early ideas about evolution.
The Galactic Plane, A Future Supernova and Sirius
“The kingdom of heaven is within you, and whosoever knows himself will find it.” Ancient Egyptian Proverb
A few minutes past midnight on 2 March 664 AD, the Galactic Plane of our Milky Way rose, intersecting the Earth’s horizon in the precise compass-bearing alignment of the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral. The builders of the cathedral and earlier shrine on the same site must have been aware of this. Whilst we cannot see the Milky Way in the night sky with the naked eye now due to light pollution, it would have been very clear in St Chad’s time, allowing them to make such precise alignments.
The Central Spire of the Cathedral has a vertical angle that is identical to the orientation of the Earth’s tilt (23.4 degrees) on the ecliptic plane (the orbital plane around the Sun) and the angle of the Galactic disc to the solar system (60 degrees, in total 83.4 degrees). The twin spires at the West end have the same vertical angle. The Milky Way would have been visible to the later mediaeval builders, and the combination of these two alignments would have been known to the Cathedral architects.
In addition, on St Chad’s Day in 664 AD, the star V Saggitae in the constellation Sagitta appears over the horizon. V Sagittae was not discovered until 1904 and so was unknown in his time. Unlike our own Sun, it is a dual-star system, which is actually more common in the Universe than single-star systems like our own Solar System. It is predicted to go supernova in 2083, give or take 11 years. This will be the first supernova in our galaxy since the Kepler’s supernova of 8 October 1609. At that time, it will become the brightest point in the Milky Way for about a month, superseding the current brightest star Sirius, also a binary star system. In 2028 AD, Sirius will set at around 00:39hrs on St Chad’s day, 2 March. This point is directly opposite the Lady Chapel alignment of nearly 60 degrees.
“Do you think that stars grieve when there is a supernova in the sky?”
This means, quite remarkably, that the new brightest supernova of V Sagittae will rise just after midnight every night in alignment with the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral just as the previous brightest star, Sirius, sets on the opposite SW horizon, in alignment with the western longitudinal axis of the Cathedral.
For a time, these two brightest stars will be at opposite ends of the celestial globe, passing through the central longitudinal alignment of the Cathedral every night.
The Galactic Supermassive Black Hole
“Ecstatic Love is an ocean, and the Milky Way is a flake of foam floating on it.” Rumi
Again on St Chad’s day in 664 AD, this time at 3:33 hrs (and 33 seconds), Saturn rose over the horizon in astrological alignment with Capricorn at 130 degrees. The position of this planet was very close to what is now known to be the Galactic Centre, Sagittarius A*.
This is the point around which the entire galaxy of 100,000 million stars revolves. At this centre is a supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A*) with the mass of 4 million of our own Sun. It is so dense that its gravity can keep together a galaxy 100,000 light-years across. At the time of St Chad, astronomers may have accurately estimated this point based on their observations of the time.
Intriguingly as Saturn dropped below the horizon on that day, it did so, bearing 130 degrees. As discussed in an earlier article, a terrestrial line along this bearing passes through Jerusalem.
One current scientific view is that the universe itself has a consciousness of its own, of which we are all microscopic parts in time and space. If this is truly the case, then the integral parts of the universe, the galaxies, would themselves have their own parts to play in this consciousness. One theosophical view is that our mystical experience of God is, in fact, our awareness of the consciousness of our galaxy.
Could it be that the ancient astrologers and priests, who were known to be highly proficient in the study of the stars, have come to a similar conclusion and, in so doing, sensed the totality of God in the Milky Way? The Zoroastrians, from which many of today’s monotheistic religions have evolved, believed the soul itself resided in the stars. Perhaps they also discovered its central point, just as we in Judaism and Christianity pinpoint Jerusalem as the holiest place on earth. Could it be that St Chad was aware of this and, as a result, chose the 2 March 664 AD and this site in Lichfield to consecrate and align a Cathedral so that we might discover these things for ourselves?
Dr Nick Stafford
Eye of Heaven. Lichfield Cathedral a Theory of Everything
Unicordia Forest Publishing UK.
The ideas expressed in this article are pure speculation, and the author does not claim any truth or originality.
“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”, Shakespeare, Sonnet 18.
Footnotes
All astronomical calculations with RedShift Premium.
Lichfield Cathedral: 52°41′08″N 1°49′50″W / 52.6855°N 1.8305°W / 52.6855; -1.8305
The galactic plane of the Milky Way crosses the Earth’s horizon (Alt: +00) from the site of Lichfield Cathedral, bearing 60 degrees (Lady Chapel) at 00:13 hrs, 2 March 664 AD.
V Sagittae rises above the Earth’s horizon (Alt: +00) from the site of Lichfield Cathedral, bearing 60 degrees (Lady Chapel) at 01:39 hrs, 2 March 2083 AD.
Saturn rises above the Earth’s horizon (Alt: +00) from the site of Lichfield Cathedral, bearing 130 degrees (Jerusalem) at 03:30 hrs, 2 March 664 AD.
Sagittarius A* (the supermassive black hole at the galactic centre) rises above the Earth’s horizon (Alt: +00) from the site of Lichfield Cathedral, bearing 143 degrees (South Transept) at 04:08 hrs, 2 March 664 AD.
Sirius sets below the Earth’s horizon (Alt: +00) from the site of Lichfield Cathedral, bearing 241 degrees 36 minutes (The West Face) at 00:43 hrs, 2 March 2083 AD.
Photography of Lichfield Cathedral by the author.
