Posted on 12/17/2010 5:47:07 PM PST by Renfield
OTTAWA — This year's winter solstice — an event that will occur next Tuesday — will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn't been seen in 456 years.
The celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun.
"It's a ritual of transformation from darkness into light," says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto's Wiccan Church of Canada. "It's the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation.
"The idea that the sun and the moon are almost at their darkest at this point in time really only further goes to hammer that home."
Cooper said Wiccans also see great significance in the unique coupling of the masculine energy of the sun and the feminine energy of the moon — transformative energies that she plans to incorporate into the church's winter-solstice rituals.
Since the last time an eclipse and the winter solstice happened simultaneously was just under five centuries years ago, Cooper said she wasn't familiar with any superstitions or mythologies associated with it.
Instead, she said, they can only be interpreted personally.
"Wiccans don't think of things as being good or evil — they just are. Our experience of them makes them positive or negative for us."
The winter solstice also played an important role in Greco-Roman rituals.
"It's seen as a time of rebirth or renewal because, astrologically, it's a time where the light comes back," said Shane Hawkins, a professor of Greek and Roman studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.
For the ancient Romans, it was also a time of great feasting and debauchery.
"If (the eclipse) happened on the 21st, they might well have been drunk," he said.
A lunar eclipse taking place during the solstice is not an event Hawkins has seen in research, but he said it would have been viewed as something special.
"Eclipses could be taken either way," he said. "Certainly it would have been an omen, but it would have been up to the interpretation of specialists of whether it was good or bad."
And that interpretation would likely be based on whatever was happening at the time.
The last time the two celestial events happened at the same time was in AD 1554, according to NASA.
An otherwise seemingly unexceptionable year in recorded history, the darkened moon happened during a bleak year for Tudor England.
Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for treason that year, while Princess Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary of Guise — the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots — became regent of Scotland.
Scientifically, however, it's just a coincidence of natural cycles.
"It's quite rare, but there's no profound significance. It's luck of the draw; you got dealt four aces," said Robert Dick, an astronomy instructor at Carleton.
The eclipse will start just after midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday, with the main event starting at 1:30 a.m. ET and lasting until 5:30 a.m., when the moon reappears.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Solstice+eclipse+overlap+first+years/3983582/story.html#ixzz18QGfH8xL
Ping
p.s.——For those of you who live where the skies are clear in the winter (I don’t), the maximum occult will be at 3:13AM EST on December 21st.
I probably won’t get to see it, as our forecast is for cloudy with a chance of snow.
“spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice”
The what? Is this a serious newspaper?
There is a whole lot of info at this link, plus times for each time zone and some really cool graphics.
Alas, I will be sleeping during the eclipse. I work the early shift and 4am is early.
Here too. However, our fire dept will probably have a call and I will be out on some street telling idiot drivers that you CAN’T go THAT WAY! So I will probably be out there, even if I can’t see it LOL!!!
“[Wiccan High Priestess] Cooper said Wiccans also see great significance in the unique coupling of the masculine energy of the sun and the feminine energy of the moon — transformative energies that she plans to incorporate into the church’s winter-solstice rituals.”
Hmm! Masculine and feminine to be incorporated into the “church’s” new rituals. How would they do that? It is interesting to contemplate.
Real Americans also see great significance in the coupling of masculine and feminine energy. When I look at the next President of the United States and see more masculine energy in her than in 95% of today's men . . . and more feminine energy than in 99% of today's women, I recognize the significance of the opportunity that has been presented to the United States as the greatest beacon for freedom in the history of the Western world. Compare (soon-to-be) President Palin with the duality of her abundant energy to (former) Junior U. S. Senator Obama, with his limited supply of feminine energy and complete absence of masculine energy, and it's obvious that the transformation in two years will be profound.
"Wiccans don't think of things as being good or evil — they just are. Our experience of them makes them positive or negative for us."
Let's rephrase that: "Wiccans don't think." Good and evil are real, and evil is a grave and immediate danger to our country and to us as individuals. What experience of September 11, 2001, could make that "man-caused disaster" anything but pure evil to anyone who sides with God, with Truth, with freedom, or with America?
The Romans never let a good celestial event go to waste...TOGA!!
bump for later wiccan review
The only energy there is in their brains.
Not.
But it's probably representative of most North American news agencies today.
456 years ago was the year 1554. Anything significant happen that year?
After posting my question a few minutes ago I decided to do a little checking for myself. I found this link:
http://www.historycentral.com/dates/1550ad.html
Looks like a lot of the same kind of strife and discord that is going on now.
You had a head-start on me...
:-)
Out of that list of things that happened in 1554, here is the one that rang MY chimes. It occurred on December 19th, just two days before the eclipse.
December 19 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618)
The birth of William of Orange, the man who liberated the Protestants in Ireland. He was the “St. Patrick” of the Protestants. Protestants celebrate July 12th by the wearing of ORANGE, as opposed to March 17th by “the wearin’ o’ the green.” Burl Ives, of Irish descent, had in his repertoire a humorous celebratory song about Irish Protestants titled: THE OLD ORANGE FLUTE.”
In 1554 they were still using the Julian calendar so the dates were 10 days off where they should have been--the solstice would have fallen on or about Dec. 11.
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