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ECLIPSE IN JAPAN (1)

This time I was very fortunate to witness a total solar eclipse in Tokyo, an astronomical phenomenon we can hardly expect to see many times in life. The reason why and how eclipses occur is simple, as the Encyclopedia Britannica explains, a Solar eclipse happens when the Moon comes between Earth and the Sun so that the Moon’s shadow sweeps over the face of Earth. We all are supposed to know and understand it since primary school; nowadays, with so much information from the internet and the media, anybody could become a sort of expert about the basic mechanics of eclipses.



One of the recurrent themes that teachers at school and scientists on the media tend to emphasise when explaining eclipses is the logical cause of this kinds of phenomena; consciously or unconsciously, educators seem to be preoccupied in preserving students and people from superstition and ignorance. Mankind used to be so scared of eclipses and all kinds of catastrophes were attributed to these normal astronomical events.
         
The fact is that no matter how well informed we are about these incidents, the sight of an eclipse, especially a solar one, is a fascinating and unique spectacle. Rational and irrational people, scientists and artists, poets and professors, we all feel the impact of nature. For Scientists it is a golden opportunity for learning more about physics and astronomy; for poets and philosophers, an occasion for experiencing the fragile position of mankind in the universe. During the short time the Sun is covered by the Moon the whole environment in altered, light gets dimmer, birds go back to sleep; even more impressive is the realization of how fast the Earth and the Moon are travelling around the Sun, we live in a planet projected at thousands of miles per hour in its orbit.
         
Admittedly, seen from a modern secular perspective, it is not easy to draw the line between superstition versus deep significance around the notion of an eclipse; for the collective unconscious, the amazement of this kind of prodigy is too intense to be meaningless; the proper word to use in the case (far of the American style) is authentic awe. At the level of superstition, people amalgamate fears, plus popular beliefs with some surviving traditions about heavenly signs; as with any other symbolic event or natural portent, the positive coexists with the negative; bad and good omens are associated to them. For example, they say that in some places in China, the inhabitants produce big noises and shoot arrows at the sky to frighten away the dragon who apparently wants to eat the Sun. I also read somewhere on the internet that in Japan a custom was to cover wells to prevent poison falling from the darkening sky and dropping into the water (though I did not see anybody doing that around Sangenjaya).
         
Anyway, in the above mentioned superstitions as with many other more around the world, the common element that stands out is the image of a dragon in the sky intending to destroy the Sun. We can interpret that in this context, the dragon is associated to the idea of darkness trying to prevail over light. The fact that this short drama of only few minutes happens in heaven, momentarily making the Sun disappear, takes cosmic proportions; the Sun represents life and its source, therefore the subsistence of the world, life on Earth, seems to be threatened.
         
Another aspect that supports the image of the dragon is the notion and experience of cycles and constant becoming; according to the apparent movements of the heavens, Sun and Moon turn around Earth in regular periods; their constantly turning orbits can easily be associated to dragons or snakes; in fact, any kind of activity regulated by cycles associated to life and fertility, as it is the case with months and years (ruled by Moon and Sun), can easily be related to death and birth; this is the constant rebirth of nature. Thence, if suddenly the cycle is altered, night wanting to irrupt into the light of the day, it would seem that some cosmic forces must be quarrelling, or that the gods might be giving a serious warning to mankind.
         
From the point of view of how people experience eclipses, in modern or ancient times, and anywhere in the world, the most important aspect we have to understand is the subjective experience of this celestial phenomenon. Astrology deals with the apparent moments of the planets around Earth, we know that many of those movements (for example the Sun turning around Earth) are not real, but for the human they seem real; those movements provoke a deep impact on the psyche, and that organizes our psychological and spiritual believes about our position in the universe. Those same movements, although only seeming, must have a meaning, they must be signs from the gods, or from the archetypes, or from the universe, and we have to learn how to read them.
         
A more serious approach of a solar eclipse, though still close to the superstitious level, comes from the image of darkness entering into the light, the night trying to invade the day. Many low energies and badly intentioned psychic individuals or groups take advantage of the eclipse to practice black magic or use destructive energy against some other people or even against humanity. I put these practices at the level of superstition because those bad intentioned persons will never prevail against light, they can only succeed momentarily, if at all. Light will always triumph over darkness, as shows us the constant reappearance of the Sun, every morning as well as after any eclipse. I always resisted believing that things like those could happen until l learned more from trustworthy people and spiritual teachers. In any case, the antidote against that sort of danger is to keep praying during an eclipse.
         
It is also possible to take a more rational approach in order to explain the origin of some superstitions; let us take, for example, the Japanese custom (if it ever really happened, I think it must have been in old Japan); the fact that people covered the wells of water during a solar eclipse might be associated to protecting the town or the hamlet from some enemies trying to harm or poison the community while the people were busy looking at the sky.(to be continued)

In Japanese

by xavier_astro | 2012-07-01 00:00 | 占星術  

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