There no window in my bathroom. so once in a while, I go there and turn out the lights to create my own eclipse in the middle of the day. Stygian darkness can refresh my mind.
Not so if DJT should be reelected through some fluke in the makeup of the planets. I will stand in the sunlight and pray that, our fourth and fifth columns, the free press, and staunch government officials who heed their oaths, will continue to be strong. Billserle.com.
I loved that Cleveland Indians post. You write of alternate universes, but you don't buy into my theory that there are non-humans messing with our affairs? (When you guested on my podcast the second time).
So, of course you knew that the astrologers among your audience, myself included, would chime in. When you write these posts with stars and moons in them, I always wonder if you are deliberately provoking us!
Re a total solar eclipse: watch for the fall of some important people over the next 6 months, maybe immediately; that's classic total solar eclipse advice.
I mean, it would certainly explain some of the crazy shit happening...
And thanks for the astrological insights, as usual. I remember something about how the tsarina interpreted a solar eclipse as an ill omen, and then the Romanovs were dead soon after, but I'm not sure if that's true.
As for the ill omen, yes. The ancients viewed the solar eclipse as the light going out of the leader. There are some astrologers who are predicting this is the omen that brings the end of the monarchy in the UK.
For the rest of us hoi polloi, eclipses can mean different things depending upon the neural wiring of the native as indicated in their chart, and how the eclipse impacts their natal planets, etc., but generally, lunar eclipses are endings and solar ones are beginnings of something.
It can also be both. And I suspect that if we were to consider the ancients' view, that the fall of a leader could also be the beginning of a new system.
Very interesting and maybe just maybe the stars and moon will align and some of your (our) fantasies will come true. I will await your report on your first total eclipse experience. We were in the totality area in 2017 and partial this time. We’ve been discussing why this is something that affects us in such a profound way. I don’t know, but your explanation comes close. We really are kin to our ancient ancestors.
What I remember most vividly about the 2017 eclipse was our doofus POTUS staring directly up at it with nothing but his hand shielding him from the sun. That should have told every American what mischief the Electoral College wrought.
"... because the sun is 400 times the size of the moon, and the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun, the two celestial bodies appear to be exactly the same size in the sky. ..."
Cue the Twilight Zone theme...or better...read the Book of Revelation...or...watch Ben Hur again.
But back in time the moon was closer to the earth and each year it advances farther away. So the 400 mile and size thing is flexible. It won’t always be like this.
Mary's right. I attended a presentation on the eclipse at the local library and learned the moon is moving away from earth one inch per year. At this rate, we'll probably be extinct or have evolved into another species. So it doesn't matter much.
“How can he not be terrified at the awesome, awful power of the heavens, blinding him? How can he think anything other than the world is coming to an end?”
I’m still awed by hurtling across the universe on my beloved starship Earth 👽
So glad you found a way to cover the eclipse and found a bit of poetry to do so, Greg. It is a rare thing to see, and I missed totality in 2017 and will again this year -- 95%, but not totality. Our branch manager lives in Indianapolis and earlier in the week I hoped for her that she'd have clear skies for Monday. She came back with that she hopes it rains all day because there'd been "too much hype." What do you say to that? I somewhat gently pointed out (for we are on Microsoft Teams where everyone can read) how rare a total solar eclipse was, 1) across North America, and 2) how even MORE rare it was that all she had to do was go outside in her BACKYARD to see it, weather permitting, and there would be people flying in from all over the world for it, and we wouldn't see another in North America until 2044. Nope, still "too much hype."
I left it, although I might have arm wrestled her if we'd been talking in person! If there is anything in the world that can NEVER have too much hype, it's a total solar eclipse. I will take 20 eclipse stories over one Trump story, "that I can tell you." Earth is the only planet in the solar system that has solar eclipses like we do, where the moon can cover the sun perfectly and reveal the sun's corona as it does. No, I don't have much religion, but that is a miraculous thing when you think about it, that 400 Rule, so I'm here for it! I have had my eclipse glasses for a month, hoping I'd get to use them, and from the most recent weather reports, it looks like the skies over the Chicago area WILL be clear by 2:00 PM CDT, AND it will be close to 70 degrees, UNLIKE the 2017 debacle here -- all I have from that is the t-shirt.
So, enjoy totality Greg, I hear it is almost a religious experience, and no one knows why -- maybe that primordial thing that's in all of us; cavepeople fearing the universe.
They showed a clip of Tom Skilling on the WGN news this morning from the 2017 eclipse. He was speaking normally until the eclipse happened and then he started bawling! He was so moved by it!
Well my lucky day is tomorrow as I live right in the middle of totality! I never realized people not only chase storms (tornadoes) but they also chase eclipses! Someone posited that we should embrace this phenomenon and be excited! I am! I will say I’m in Ohio and we never know what weather we will get especially in April, fingers crossed! Enjoy the eclipse everyone!
All the attention is about the visual phenomena, but I think the real experience is the relationship. For a few brief moments in the path of totality, the sun and moon and you will meet in perfect alignment.
I was just thinking, as I’m refreshing the weather app and have my fingers crossed for clear skies, that even if there are clouds, it’s still happening. And that made me smile 🥹
Thanks for acknowledging tomorrow's total eclipse of the sun. It is indeed a miracle -- astonishing to contemplate -- that from our perspective on Spaceship Earth, the sun and the moon are the same size. -- equal in stature -- even though in reality, the sun is ginormous and distant, compared to our teeny moon. Whose idea was it to create this perspective, and why was it imagined so? Seriously. WHY???
Astrologers love this saying: "As above, so below." Whatever is going on in the cosmos must necessarily be reflected in our experience on Earth. Humans in every culture and every age have assigned symbolic meaning to the planets, and astrologers interpret these planetary symbols and cycles as if they were part of a language -- which they are. Astrology is a language which can be used to discuss human experience through time. Let the astronomers have their discussion of human experience through space (insert winking emoji here)!!
In the language of astrology, solar eclipses are like super-charged New Moons. Wherever they fall in your horoscope is an area of your life where seeds may be planted for something new to grow. That which is new may completely override whatever was there before. This often means that an old form must be released.
Sometimes the seeds planted are hidden from view, even though they are germinating in plain sight. This makes sense, when you consider that the New Moon reflects no light. Another way to think of solar eclipses comes courtesy of Douglas Adams, who wrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Have you ever heard of a SEP Field? SEP stands for Somebody Else's Problem. If it's SEP, that means you might not see it, even though it's going on right under your nose. If an alien spaceship landed in Times Square surrounded by a SEP Field, the spaceship would be invisible. Or so Douglas Adams argues.
When a solar eclipse is later activated by a transiting planet, the bottle-necked energy is released and the SEP Field drops. Surprise! There's a spaceship in Times Square. Deal with it!
Solar eclipses ("as above") suggest accelerated progress ("so below"). There is no turning our backs on what is revealed. The genie is out of the bottle. It can't go back inside. Alternatively, the final curtain falls. Whatever is released must be integrated into your life, so we can move forward.
In the language of Western astrology, this solar eclipse will occur when the Sun and Moon meet up (the technical term is "conjunction") at 19 degrees into the 30-degree span of time Western astrologers call "Aries". It suggests seeds planted now -- perhaps hiding in plain sight -- that involve the symbolism of Aries -- e.g., pioneers, courage, self-reliance, crusades for an underdog, and passion (those are upside potentials of Aries; downsides include not looking before one leaps, for one.
Astrologers note that the Moon and the Sun will also be conjunct the asteroid Chiron. In mythology, Chiron was the physician to the gods, yet he suffered from a head wound he could not heal. However Chiron is configured in a horoscope, it suggests ways in which our personal suffering can be a source of great wisdom and compassion in matters of empathy and healing others. So, Greg, you may be on to something when you wonder if the 2017 eclipse and the 2024 eclipse are cosmic markers in the United States for the beginning and end of the madness. Perhaps a healing crisis is on the horizon.
Things that are percolating in the dark of this solar eclipse may be activated when another planet arrives at the place where the solar eclipse took place. In this eclipse, it's 19 degrees of Aries. Transiting Mercury (information, transportation) gets there on April 16; Venus (who, what, and how we need to love; women, money, values, aesthetics) on April 20 and Mars (assertion, aggression, action) on May 25. The latter is a date to watch for a possible acceleration of bottle-necked energy.
How cool that you will get to experience the eclipse in its totality! I was in NC for the 2017, but my flight to Maine last week was canceled (a reflection of the current Mercury retrograde, no doubt). Enjoy!
There no window in my bathroom. so once in a while, I go there and turn out the lights to create my own eclipse in the middle of the day. Stygian darkness can refresh my mind.
Not so if DJT should be reelected through some fluke in the makeup of the planets. I will stand in the sunlight and pray that, our fourth and fifth columns, the free press, and staunch government officials who heed their oaths, will continue to be strong. Billserle.com.
"No light but darkness visible..."
Greg , your perspective on the Total Solar eclipse tomorrow gave me a new perspective on it. Thank you! And beautiful poem goes along with it.
Ditto, Greg. Thanks, Helen!
Thanks, Lynell!
Thanks, Helen!
I loved that Cleveland Indians post. You write of alternate universes, but you don't buy into my theory that there are non-humans messing with our affairs? (When you guested on my podcast the second time).
So, of course you knew that the astrologers among your audience, myself included, would chime in. When you write these posts with stars and moons in them, I always wonder if you are deliberately provoking us!
Re a total solar eclipse: watch for the fall of some important people over the next 6 months, maybe immediately; that's classic total solar eclipse advice.
I mean, it would certainly explain some of the crazy shit happening...
And thanks for the astrological insights, as usual. I remember something about how the tsarina interpreted a solar eclipse as an ill omen, and then the Romanovs were dead soon after, but I'm not sure if that's true.
Go Cleveland!
I am always pro-Cleveland.
As for the ill omen, yes. The ancients viewed the solar eclipse as the light going out of the leader. There are some astrologers who are predicting this is the omen that brings the end of the monarchy in the UK.
For the rest of us hoi polloi, eclipses can mean different things depending upon the neural wiring of the native as indicated in their chart, and how the eclipse impacts their natal planets, etc., but generally, lunar eclipses are endings and solar ones are beginnings of something.
It can also be both. And I suspect that if we were to consider the ancients' view, that the fall of a leader could also be the beginning of a new system.
We shall see...
Very interesting and maybe just maybe the stars and moon will align and some of your (our) fantasies will come true. I will await your report on your first total eclipse experience. We were in the totality area in 2017 and partial this time. We’ve been discussing why this is something that affects us in such a profound way. I don’t know, but your explanation comes close. We really are kin to our ancient ancestors.
It's just so much bigger than all of us. On a breathtaking scale. I'm excited to see it.
"...which is somehow not the title of a book by Eckhart Tolle ..."
The kind of Olearism I live for.
Steph and I have a joke about his book SOMEDAY EVEN THE SUN WILL DIE. Like, geez, Eckhart, don't be such a pill...
Tolle gives me hives. My sister and her daughter are forever recommending his books.
What I remember most vividly about the 2017 eclipse was our doofus POTUS staring directly up at it with nothing but his hand shielding him from the sun. That should have told every American what mischief the Electoral College wrought.
Somehow I'd forgotten that...and even then, he didn't go blind. No consequeces!
Might say he's not really human
Enjoy your journey to Totality, Greg family. Don't forget to stop and smell the roses along the way!
Thanks! I will.
"Maybe MAGA came to power seven years ago under cover of darkness, when the sun was blotted out of the sky, and tomorrow is the expiration date? "
You sound like a Bible prophet.
Are you sure I'm not? ; )
You fooled me.
"... because the sun is 400 times the size of the moon, and the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun, the two celestial bodies appear to be exactly the same size in the sky. ..."
Cue the Twilight Zone theme...or better...read the Book of Revelation...or...watch Ben Hur again.
But back in time the moon was closer to the earth and each year it advances farther away. So the 400 mile and size thing is flexible. It won’t always be like this.
Mary's right. I attended a presentation on the eclipse at the local library and learned the moon is moving away from earth one inch per year. At this rate, we'll probably be extinct or have evolved into another species. So it doesn't matter much.
Beloved Greg, a masterpiece...
Thank you, Sharon!
This will be my second eclipse in totality, the first being in Chesapeake VA in 1970 😀 I’m so excited to experience another, and in New York!
Thank you for sharing Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Just lovely.
That's great you saw one before! I love that poem. The last two lines hit hard, as the kids say.
“How can he not be terrified at the awesome, awful power of the heavens, blinding him? How can he think anything other than the world is coming to an end?”
I’m still awed by hurtling across the universe on my beloved starship Earth 👽
Me too!
You’re a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton, made from stardust, riding a rock, hurtling through space.
Fear nothing. 😀
Eek!
I get dizzy just thinking of hurtling through the universe, but our starship commander likes to go full throttle so hang on tight. 💫
So glad you found a way to cover the eclipse and found a bit of poetry to do so, Greg. It is a rare thing to see, and I missed totality in 2017 and will again this year -- 95%, but not totality. Our branch manager lives in Indianapolis and earlier in the week I hoped for her that she'd have clear skies for Monday. She came back with that she hopes it rains all day because there'd been "too much hype." What do you say to that? I somewhat gently pointed out (for we are on Microsoft Teams where everyone can read) how rare a total solar eclipse was, 1) across North America, and 2) how even MORE rare it was that all she had to do was go outside in her BACKYARD to see it, weather permitting, and there would be people flying in from all over the world for it, and we wouldn't see another in North America until 2044. Nope, still "too much hype."
I left it, although I might have arm wrestled her if we'd been talking in person! If there is anything in the world that can NEVER have too much hype, it's a total solar eclipse. I will take 20 eclipse stories over one Trump story, "that I can tell you." Earth is the only planet in the solar system that has solar eclipses like we do, where the moon can cover the sun perfectly and reveal the sun's corona as it does. No, I don't have much religion, but that is a miraculous thing when you think about it, that 400 Rule, so I'm here for it! I have had my eclipse glasses for a month, hoping I'd get to use them, and from the most recent weather reports, it looks like the skies over the Chicago area WILL be clear by 2:00 PM CDT, AND it will be close to 70 degrees, UNLIKE the 2017 debacle here -- all I have from that is the t-shirt.
So, enjoy totality Greg, I hear it is almost a religious experience, and no one knows why -- maybe that primordial thing that's in all of us; cavepeople fearing the universe.
They showed a clip of Tom Skilling on the WGN news this morning from the 2017 eclipse. He was speaking normally until the eclipse happened and then he started bawling! He was so moved by it!
The chances of me not crying are less than 10 percent.
A deep cleansing of many years of built up frustrations! A new dawn....
There will be no New Dawn with the election of Grand Moff Tarkin!
Wait until you're in your 60s -- the crying never stops! Fucking "BARBIE" had me tearing up at points! 😂
I'm almost there, Steve (60's)!
I was just crying listening to the NYS parks people discuss it 🥹
Eh, I don't know...I think your branch manager convinced me. Too much hype. ; )
I wonder if the temperature will noticeably drop during the coverage time. I'm very excited for it.
Well my lucky day is tomorrow as I live right in the middle of totality! I never realized people not only chase storms (tornadoes) but they also chase eclipses! Someone posited that we should embrace this phenomenon and be excited! I am! I will say I’m in Ohio and we never know what weather we will get especially in April, fingers crossed! Enjoy the eclipse everyone!
Excellent! Enjoy!
All the attention is about the visual phenomena, but I think the real experience is the relationship. For a few brief moments in the path of totality, the sun and moon and you will meet in perfect alignment.
I was just thinking, as I’m refreshing the weather app and have my fingers crossed for clear skies, that even if there are clouds, it’s still happening. And that made me smile 🥹
It's true. The other stuff happens even if the view is lousy.
Beautifully put, Rick.
Thanks for acknowledging tomorrow's total eclipse of the sun. It is indeed a miracle -- astonishing to contemplate -- that from our perspective on Spaceship Earth, the sun and the moon are the same size. -- equal in stature -- even though in reality, the sun is ginormous and distant, compared to our teeny moon. Whose idea was it to create this perspective, and why was it imagined so? Seriously. WHY???
Astrologers love this saying: "As above, so below." Whatever is going on in the cosmos must necessarily be reflected in our experience on Earth. Humans in every culture and every age have assigned symbolic meaning to the planets, and astrologers interpret these planetary symbols and cycles as if they were part of a language -- which they are. Astrology is a language which can be used to discuss human experience through time. Let the astronomers have their discussion of human experience through space (insert winking emoji here)!!
In the language of astrology, solar eclipses are like super-charged New Moons. Wherever they fall in your horoscope is an area of your life where seeds may be planted for something new to grow. That which is new may completely override whatever was there before. This often means that an old form must be released.
Sometimes the seeds planted are hidden from view, even though they are germinating in plain sight. This makes sense, when you consider that the New Moon reflects no light. Another way to think of solar eclipses comes courtesy of Douglas Adams, who wrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Have you ever heard of a SEP Field? SEP stands for Somebody Else's Problem. If it's SEP, that means you might not see it, even though it's going on right under your nose. If an alien spaceship landed in Times Square surrounded by a SEP Field, the spaceship would be invisible. Or so Douglas Adams argues.
When a solar eclipse is later activated by a transiting planet, the bottle-necked energy is released and the SEP Field drops. Surprise! There's a spaceship in Times Square. Deal with it!
Solar eclipses ("as above") suggest accelerated progress ("so below"). There is no turning our backs on what is revealed. The genie is out of the bottle. It can't go back inside. Alternatively, the final curtain falls. Whatever is released must be integrated into your life, so we can move forward.
In the language of Western astrology, this solar eclipse will occur when the Sun and Moon meet up (the technical term is "conjunction") at 19 degrees into the 30-degree span of time Western astrologers call "Aries". It suggests seeds planted now -- perhaps hiding in plain sight -- that involve the symbolism of Aries -- e.g., pioneers, courage, self-reliance, crusades for an underdog, and passion (those are upside potentials of Aries; downsides include not looking before one leaps, for one.
Astrologers note that the Moon and the Sun will also be conjunct the asteroid Chiron. In mythology, Chiron was the physician to the gods, yet he suffered from a head wound he could not heal. However Chiron is configured in a horoscope, it suggests ways in which our personal suffering can be a source of great wisdom and compassion in matters of empathy and healing others. So, Greg, you may be on to something when you wonder if the 2017 eclipse and the 2024 eclipse are cosmic markers in the United States for the beginning and end of the madness. Perhaps a healing crisis is on the horizon.
Things that are percolating in the dark of this solar eclipse may be activated when another planet arrives at the place where the solar eclipse took place. In this eclipse, it's 19 degrees of Aries. Transiting Mercury (information, transportation) gets there on April 16; Venus (who, what, and how we need to love; women, money, values, aesthetics) on April 20 and Mars (assertion, aggression, action) on May 25. The latter is a date to watch for a possible acceleration of bottle-necked energy.
How cool that you will get to experience the eclipse in its totality! I was in NC for the 2017, but my flight to Maine last week was canceled (a reflection of the current Mercury retrograde, no doubt). Enjoy!
Thank you, Elisabeth! Happy Eclipse! I'm looking forward to the release of built up energy!
Thanks for this! I linked to your "forecast" page in the piece, thinking you'd probably update it tomorrow, so it's nice to read his here!
The fact that they appear the same size is crazy, and so so SO unlikely.
So on May 25, Mars attacks!
I have to check and see what planets might be where in my chart. I am feeling optimistic about it for sure...
Enjoy!