July-August 2017: "In the Wake of the Eclipse"

Astral Facts, July-August 2017

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

In the Wake of the Eclipse

As usual, lots of things are changing – statues are coming down, tempers are flaring up, and on August 21 the sun will (or did depending on when this is being read) go dark. What and who will be saved in this process and how will the changes and unchanges emerge once we find the light at the end of the tunnel, or eclipse?  Will the “wake” provide some kind of “awakening” in the future?

Literature and the extension into associated fields in the Humanities Sciences can be a means for addressing, understanding, and imagining potential causes and effects. 

They say we study history and its lessons “to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.”  Certainly I’ve learned from studying Hannibal’s experience not to try to cross the Alps with my elephants, but I’m more interested in building upon the successes of the past.  Regarding the experiences of the history of eclipses, the experience of Columbus is one expanded upon by writers and other humanities scientists and artists (before and after).

In 1504, Columbus and his crew were stranded in the Caribbean and the local inhabitants of the area had become hostile toward the Europeans due to previous mistreatment by them and others.  As a result, the food supply had been cut off and Columbus and his crew were in danger of starvation and/or being killed.  Columbus had a copy of an astronomic and astrological text, Ephemerides, (literally meaning "astronomy chart”) written over 30 years earlier by Regiomontanus (the Latin name used by Johannes Müller, a German astronomer and mathematician [1436-76]) which predicted a lunar eclipse at that time (February 29, 1504).  On February 28, Columbus warned the local natives that he would turn off the moon if they did not resume the food supply.  When they rejected the threat, the moon was blackened and the rest is history.

I can understand how frightening that must have been. 

In 1977,  I was working in sales on the East Coast.  I had been out on “the road” for over a month travelling from town to town selling herbal products to small health food stores.  Because I was on commission sales with a limited expense account, I mostly stayed in campgrounds and state parks – my sleeping bag and tepid showers were the norm. 

However, on July 14^th the sales people were to gather in New York City for a sales conference.  I remember arriving in my car late on the hot evening of July 13.  Seeing the bright lights of Manhattan in the distance as I approached the Hudson River and entered the Lincoln Tunnel filled me with joy at anticipating having a hot shower and sleeping in a comfortable bed.  I emerged from the tunnel and the city was in darkness!  While I had been driving under the river, the city experienced a massive “brown-out” with no power for two days! 

Frankly, it was extremely spooky to be surrounded by all the tall buildings with no traffic signals, no street lights, no lit up building, and so forth as I cautiously drove to my hotel.  Only the headlights of my car and other vehicles were penetrating the gloomy atmosphere and crowds of astonished people stumbling around us in the dark.  (It might not have been so “spooky” for everyone; nine months later the hospital maternity wards experienced a “spike” in new births.)

But getting back to Columbus and the Astral Facts – how fortunate that Regiomontanus had done the scientific research in the natural world, but even more important was that it had been written in a text that Columbus could have handy!  

Many other Humanities Scientists have used eclipses in their writings – most similar to the experience of Columbus was Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1889) now perhaps more familiar to the general public as presented in the 1949 musical film starring Bing Crosby as the “Yankee,” although many other earlier versions had been done, including the stage version A Connecticut Yankee by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart performed on Broadway in 1927.  

Even Tintin is able to use a Columbus technique during a solar eclipse to escape death from the Incas in the story Prisoners of the Sun by Hergé.

Many other literary works have also featured an eclipse (solar and lunar) as key factors, including:

The Odyssey (Homer) probably based on the actual eclipse of 1178 BC.

King Lear (Shakespeare)

“The Sun Rising” (John Donne) – perhaps population growth nine months later as well?

The Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy)

Dolores Claiborne (Steven King)

Eclipse (John Banville)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/19/how-the-solar-eclipse-and-vernal-equinox-have-cast-shadows-across-literature

While the so-called “civilized” people of New York understood what was happening when the power went out in 1977, my experience a few years earlier was quite different:

When I was in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, I did experience a lunar eclipse – unexpectedly – on “Thanksgiving Weekend” 1974.  My roommate Ed and I were the only two westerners in the village of Jalalabad (near the border with Pakistan). Since this was a Muslim culture, this Friday, November 29^th, was the Sabbath day with no school and we were celebrating our own Friday after Thanksgiving along with some other volunteers visiting us at the time.

We were in a warmer climate with school summer vacations, while the northern areas had school vacations during the extremely cold winter. Thus, our area 90 miles from Kabul, the capital city, was like the “Palm Springs” of the eastern half of Afghanistan, and those other volunteers teaching up north often traveled down where we were (they brought our mail from the Peace Corps office in Kabul, which made them quite welcome).  Jalalabad had a population of about 3-4 thousand in summer, with temperatures regularly over 100 degrees. From November to March the temperatures were in the 40-80 degree range, and the population swelled to an estimated 36,000.

That evening we had just finished dinner and were enjoying tea and conversation when we heard some unusual noises outside. When we went out, the full moon had a strange orange arc along the edge, and we realized a lunar eclipse was occurring. We moved to the roof of the slightly taller of the two buildings in our compound, dragging a table and chairs up to enjoy the event.

The warm evening air was filled with an eerie combination of the voices of groaning men, wailing women, and agonized children. In addition, the local mullah was using the loud speaker that normally called everyone to prayer, and his voice vibrated along at a lower octave. We asked Ghrafar, our live-in “servant” who took care of the cooking, cleaning, shopping, and such, what was happening. He said the people were saying that God was punishing them by eating the moon and they were all promising to repent and be good from now on if God would stop.

Ed ( originally from New Jersey but more recently a faculty member at Seattle Central College) then held up a grapefruit and an orange to explain and demonstrate how the moon was merely moving into the shadow caused by the larger Earth, using the ceiling light to represent the sun. As we explained all this, Ghrafar was nodding his head in understanding and agreement. So Ed asked Ghrafar what he believed was happening. Ghrafar pointed to the fruit and agreed that he accepted the scientific explanation. Then Ed asked him, “What makes the Sun, Moon, and Earth do all this?” Ghrafar didn’t have a clear explanation, so Ed supplied it:  “God makes it happen!” which thoroughly pleased Ghrafar.

So we went up on the roof to watch the progress of the color change on the moon while Ghrafar prepared more tea for us all. After a while, I realized Ghrafar was not watching the progress with us. I went downstairs and I saw Ghrafar in his room – frantically kneeling and bowing on his prayer rug.

Fortunately, all the effort was very effective, and the entire city reverberated with cheers once the original moon began to reappear again over the repented community. 

In addition, I can say that I experienced “Black Friday” long before Madison Avenue began to use the term to get us and our credit cards to the Malls in the wee hours of the morning!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.