A Lunar Eclipse

A Lunar Eclipse

Amongst the many mysteries of the celestial architecture, both Solar and Lunar eclipses stand out on Earth, and have throughout human history, for their power as portents, and the profound changes they make in the sky. A solar eclipse is the partial or full obscuration of the Sun by the moon passing between it and us. At the moment of totality in solar eclipse, the land goes dark and the disc of the sun is hidden behind the moon. A lunar eclipse, by contrast, happens when the shadow of the earth blocks the light of the Sun from reaching the moon. This lunar eclipse, which happened during the force of the full moon, gives what is called the Blood Moon or red moon, so named because of the reddish cast that falls over the face of the moon during totality. This is a bit like a sunrise or sunset phenomenon, where the moon's color is shaded by light passing through the earth's atmosphere. Sunlight contains all colors of visible light. The particles of gas that make up Earth’s atmosphere are more likely to scatter blue wavelengths of light while redder wavelengths pass through. This is called Rayleigh scattering, and it’s why the sky is blue and sunrises and sunsets are often red.

The video above begins at 3:30 am, and carries on until sunrise, through timelapse and intermittent video, documenting the progression of the moon through the eclipse.

A moment after totality, an energy that is hard to describe in words settled over the land. Watching it my chest began to vibrate, and pins and needles ran through my hands. It occurred to me that ordinarily we see the moon by the sunlight reflected off of her face, but in this moment where there was no reflected light, what I could see was her mass–her force. Perhaps it was this that I felt, perhaps something more mysterious. May it inspire you to seek out and experience a lunar or solar eclipse for yourself, with awareness, tracking what arises in your own felt sense.