Two days from now, in the early hours of Thursday morning, 13 August, the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun.
Today I want to show you how that works, because the mechanics carry their own teaching.
Every month the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. That is all a New Moon is. But most months, the Moon passes a little above the Sun or a little below it, and nothing blocks the light.
The Moon’s path around the Earth is tilted. It only crosses the Sun’s path at two points, and we call those points the nodes.
When a New Moon happens right at one of those crossing points, the alignment is exact. Earth, Moon and Sun in one straight line. And the Moon’s shadow, usually cast harmlessly into space, falls on the face of the Earth.
That is a solar eclipse. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Think about what that actually means.
An eclipse is not a disruption of the sky’s order. It IS the sky’s order, at its most precise.
The ancients feared eclipses because they did not know they were coming. We know better now, and yet every eclipse season the fear gets dusted off and sold again.
Your feed will fill with it this week. Doom, dire warnings, lists of what you must not do. Let it scroll past.
A rhythm that can be predicted to the minute, centuries in advance, is not an omen. It is a clock.
And the teaching of a clock is timing.
Eclipses mark the moments when beginnings are exact, when the line up is real, when what starts has the whole sky behind it. That is why I treat Thursday with respect and not with fear.
What were you taught to fear that turned out to be a rhythm?
Please share your thoughts.