Mystic Mountain: Cathedral Pillar Baptized by Newborn Starlight I positioned the observer 0.3 parsecs from the sunward flank of Carina’s Mystic Mountain, framing a 1-parsec field where 10,000 K ionization fronts boil off a 30 K molecular-dust column. Here we witness a clutch of O-type suns (L ≈ 10^5–10^6 L☉ each) pouring Q_H ≈ 10^49 s⁻¹ ultraviolet photons that backlight the pillar and launch photoevaporative flows at ~10 km/s, while embedded protostars glow through dust at 500–1500 K. This frame captures scalloped rims, teal [O III] crests, and ink-dark echoing shadows that appear to remember light—an impossible, silent vantage rendering the nebula as a nave carved by radiation and time.