Ring of fire!
An eye floating in the sky!
A day of two sunrises and sunsets!
An open mouth where the Sun was!
Time stopped, the sun stopped shining!
The dead flew across the ground as a demon devoured the sun!
How would you
have described a total solar eclipse if you didn't know what was going
on?
A total solar eclipse is an awesome event to behold, even for us today. The sun goes out and is replaced by a black hole surrounded by an unearthly glow that is as bright as the full moon. Small dots of bright, laser red, are seen to slow dissappear or appear. Then the bright light of the sun returns!
Imagine for a moment the impact it could have on a more primitive culture that lacks the scientific instrumentation and know-how to understand what was happening. The panic and fear it caused as the sun went out. The relief that they felt as the sun returned to its brightness in the sky.
There are several well documented instances about solar eclipses in relatively recent history. Knowledge of an impending eclipse has been used for political advantage by demonstrating some sort of divine power. The lack of knowledge could result in tragedy or in a significant shift in the way something is done.
As a result eclipses and references to eclipses can be found in early literature and religious stories. Eclipses can also be used to establish a chronology of events as well as provide new meaning to some ancient symbols.
My own observations of solar eclipses have shown me that this sight would have an impact. The first time I saw one it appeared as a giant eye floating in the sky. With a telescope or binoculars the view was even more striking and even though I know what I am looking at, it is beautiful and wonderful all at once. I've seen other eclipse chasers cry with joy at the beauty while some take a wistful contemplative moment afterwards to reflect on the vision they just beheld. And these are fellow eclipse chasers of today who know exactly what they are seeing, but are still filled with emotion at the event. Cosmic beauty is really something to behold.
Just imagine what this could have meant to a culture that did not know what they were seeing. The pearly corona, the bright red prominences, the sudden darkening and then lightening of the surroundings, shadow bands racing across the sands or walls, sharply contrasting shadows..... what would they have thought?
Are the great pyramids a monument to solar eclipses?
(click on the picture of the eclipse chasers at Giza to learn more!)
The following web page links will explore these concepts further. Eclipse-Chasers.Com takes great pleasure in providing the web space for some of these articles so that you can learn more about how solar eclipses have impacted human history. Remember, ours is the only planet in the solar system with a moon that appears to be the same angular size in the sky as the sun. That means that only from the Earth-Moon system does one see a perfect eclipse where the Moon completely covers the Sun for a few minutes.
American Indians
Aztec
Eye of God - Robin Edgar's animations show the striking relationships
between these icons and a solar eclipse.
Mound Builders
- The Southern Cult Icons by Robin Edgar.
The Shawnee Solar
Eclipse of 1806 - A story of how knowledge of an impending eclipse
was used for political purposes.
The Solar (Eclipse) Gods of Ancient Egypt
Part 1
- A Tale of Two Suns
Part 2
- The Bird of Light
Part 3
- The Black Bird
Part 4
- Her Majesty Hathor
Part 5
- The Million Arms of the Sun
Part 6
- A Tale of Two Lions
Other writings about Egyptian cosmology by Aymen Ibrahem include:
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt1.htm
- Egyptian cosmology: Solar eclipse theories.
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt2.htm
- Egyptian cosmology: Hymn to Aten, an ancient solar eclipse report?
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt3.htm
- Egyptian cosmology: Solar eclipses, mountains in the sky
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt4.htm
- An Eclipse based Hittite Chronology
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt5.htm
- Egyptian cosmology: Solar eclipse theories, part II.
The Scarab Symbol - by Robin Edgar, is the Scarab a symbol for a solar eclipse. Robin's animations may make a believer out of you!
The Eye of God
* The Phoenix
in the Sky * The
Cosmic Cross * Red
Moon Rising * Nazca
Lines and Eclipses * Human
Form Divine
