In January, two scientists a half a world apart, discovered the same thing at roughly the same time - that our sky's fifth brightest star, Vega, has always had a planet orbiting it - and we never knew it. Twenty years ago, other astronomers suspected it was there, but they weren't able to prove it.

Vega is bigger and hotter than our sun. But it is twenty-five light years away and the hidden planet that has been in its orbit all of these years still hasn't actually been "seen." Imagine that. These two scientific teams now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this "hidden planet" exists even though they've never seen it.

The discovery was made not by actually seeing the planet that rotates around Vega. Rather, they located clumps of dust with special equipment that identified the manner in which the dust was structured as possible only through the "gravitational influence of a giant planet in an eccentric orbit."

While I was reading the article (which you can read at http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_310_1.asp) I found myself asking what about the hidden planet keeps it so dark that it cannot reflect the light of Vega, which is 50 times stronger than our sun?

I couldn't help but to see it as a metaphor. So often we live our lives assuming that things are the way they appear, even if we need to convince ourselves of it. We can also allow fear to "blacken" our world, making it impossible for the light of God/dess to make other options known to us.

We stay in jobs, relationships, friendships, living environments that don't honor us because we only allow ourselves to see what is in front of us. So we feel like there are no other choices, no other options.

But there are always "hidden planets." If you can't see the hidden planet in your life right now, can you at least look for the clumps of "dust?" There are signs all around you, presenting you with options - with opportunities to honor yourSelf. The good news is that you don't need expensive equipment to see your hidden planet. All you need is to access your Spirit.

Are you willing to affirm your awareness? Are you willing to see that there may be other solutions, options, choices to the issues in your life? If you're doubting that they exist, remember David Koerner and David Wilner. Their work has proven scientifically that what exists is not necessarily seen with the human eye. But those of us who are on a path of conscious evolution have known that all along.

Copyright 2002