Today is the birthday of the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin (born 1934). In honor of his courage, light a white candle and sit in a darkened room. Meditate on the candle flame. Envision the flame getting larger and holding you within it. Feel the flame's power giving you courage to do what you want to do. Let the candle burn itself out, knowing the flame stays with you on your new adventure.


Historical note:
On 12 April, 1961, Yuri Gagarin piloted the first manned spaceship to leave the pull of our planet's gravity. This achievement is given much less attention than it deserves; part of it is politics, since Gagarin was a cosmonaut for the Soviet Union. Part of it, too, is time; today, space pilots live and work for months aboard space stations, so a simple space flight seems routine. Still, Yuri Gagarin's 108-minute flight in space represented not only a triumph of science and engineering, but also it broke a psychological barrier. It was literally a flight into unknown. "Am I happy to be setting off on a cosmic flight?" said Yuri Gagarin in an interview before the start. "Of course. In all ages and epochs people have experienced the greatest happiness in embarking upon new voyages of discovery. . . I say ‘until we meet again' to you, dear friends, as we always say to each other when setting off on a long journey."