Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
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
The Protestant settlement of northern Ireland was in the early 1600s.
Please explain that diagram; it intrests me.
456 years, how many months and days. I hate incomplete information. I’ll bet the author wasn’t there to see it. 456 is just a guess, I bet.
Huh?
Prince William Philip of Orange (1554-1618) is a Catholic, according to Wikipedia. That’s not to say you’re wrong, though. But I wonder if you mean his father, William the Silent of Orange, who’s better known because helped instigate the 80’s year war in Belgium against the Catholic Spaniards?
Quite possibly 456 years to the day, since we're talking about the last eclipse to happen on the Winter Solstice.
Just goes to show, the world ain’t getting any better or worse.
Like the Wiccans say...it just is.
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As Lord of Diest and a pious Catholic at the time of his death, Philip William of Orange commanded that the parish church of Saint Sulpice in the same city, should celebrate a yearly Requiem Mass for his soul. [Wikipedia]
Wow, that Mr. Eclipse site is really neat.
There isn’t much to go on in the main post, but the last sentence helps a bit. Leave it to the FReepers to provide the important information. They come through every time.
I thought the moon in general and eclipses in particular are on an 18 year cycle that has some sub-cycles built in.
So any sky minded folks want to tell me why this isn’t an exact multiple of 18?
Just curious, and I ain’t got a date...
HMMMMM
December 21, 2011 ... and then the Mayan prediction exactly a year later???
We are all so going to die.
Run away! Run away!
i hate to tell you but they didnt have wikipedia 456 years ago so how could he be in it? eh?
I am wondering if it has any particular significance to the Muslims and if it does, what that might evoke.
SC, here is another astronomical link which you might wish to post as a separate item:
when did our current calender come into use?
when did our current calender come into use?
Ridiculous, I know, but....
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