Over the millennia, starlight has been reaching the earth - actively forming, and developing, and taking part in the evolution of life-forms. Mankind is part of this cosmic process, the very elements of our physical bodies being the result of a super-nova event. At what moment did the life-form called human awaken to the mysteries of the heavens?

"Who am I?"
"What am I doing here?"

Were these the first questions when man began to contemplate - began to reach to the stars to understand his place in the universe? If we were to time-travel back into the medieval ages, we would find these basic questions concerning the nature of humanity in the universe being explored through the nine disciplines or liberal arts: 
The search for wisdom formalized into Philosophy.
Astronomy focused on calculating and interpreting the heavenly shells or scales of reality. 
Geometry was considered a tool for revealing laws that create the universe. 
Mathematics extrapolated those laws through ratio and formulas, and postulated quality to number itself. 
Music was the poetic expression of mathematics, having a foundation in the harmonizing of one scale of existence to another. 
The discipline of Grammar sought for a clear expression of idea, in order to communicate reality. 
Medicine was the method of restoring balance and harmony to the physical organism. And Architecture was the medium for the integration and expression of all these arts.

The Architects of Light took starlight and poured it into the cathedrals. The cathedrals are a gathering of light. 
The light to create...
the light to transform... 
to inspire... 
the energy to go beyond.

Our connection with the universe could have contributed to the impulse that produced the Gothic cathedrals. The cathedrals were meant to be a symbolic model of the universe. They embodied the science, technology and mystical arts of the Gothic era.

The cathedrals perceptually demonstrate the principles of 
the beauty of harmony... 
the elegance of geometry... 
the exactitude of number... 
the majesty of sound... 
the sublimity of light... 
and the power of cosmology.

Few people today realize that the science that built the great cathedrals and the science that uses the planetarium we are sitting in have a common foundation. The mathematics and thinking of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Euclid - to name a few - contributed directly to the development of the Gothic cathedrals and the development of scientific method.

The trigonometry and geometry that was used to calculate 
the trajectory of a space launch... 
the form of this window... 
and the structure of the planetarium,
also built the cathedrals.

The cathedrals have in turn provided inspiration to many great scientists, artists, writers and revolutionary thinkers; among these are Dante Alighieri, Nicholas Copernicus, Ernest Rutherford, Buckminster Fuller.

In the language of the middle ages, the cathedrals based their expression on the principle, "God is Light". In the language of modern physics, how different is that idea from the privileged position that light is now given as the governing constant in our most basic laws, for instance, the laws of relativity?

Behind the intelligence... 
elegance... 
simplicity... 
and precision in these great structures lies a creativity common to both the cathedrals and the vanguard of science.

Here's what astrophysicist Steven Hawking has to say, "If people continue to ask intelligent questions long enough, they will discover the mind of God".

And now quantum physicist David Bohm, "Mind and matter... both unfold from a common ground, which enfolds them and which is thus the basis of their relationship. Ultimately this would be the ground of all that is, the beginning and ending of everything".

Perhaps the Architects of Light are not only those who have broken through old ways of structuring the universe, but also those who have gone beyond the limitations of their own bodies and minds.

Are there any such architects among us here now?