Rebecca Lindell
Montreal Gazette
This year’s winter solstice 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.
...OR 632 YEARS...
Published December 17, 2010
In 2010, for the first time since 1378, a total lunar eclipse of a full moon falls on the winter solstice—a stargazing event almost anyone in North America will be able to see tonight, weather permitting.
Occurring at 6:38 p.m. ET Tuesday, the 2010 winter solstice marks the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The shortest day of the year boasts the year's longest shadows and fewest daylight hours.
It's all due to the Northern Hemisphere being tilted farther from the sun than at any other point during the year. As a result, the sun follows its lowest arc of the year across the sky. (Get more winter solstice facts.)
In the early morning hours of the winter solstice day, many sky-watchers will see the first shadings of a total lunar eclipse.
The entire lunar eclipse will be best seen from North America and western South America. In most of Europe and Africa, the moon will dip below the horizon in mid-eclipse.
Unlike, say, last week's Geminid meteor shower (pictures), a lunar eclipse represents "one of the few times that an astronomical event is easily visible from even the heavily light polluted cities," said Raminder Singh Samra, resident astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.
"Lunar eclipses are special, in a way, as the observer that is always in the city or too busy to get away can see this from his or her own backyard."
That assumes, of course, that you're in the right place at the right time.
Clouds, for example, can spoil any sky-watcher's night. And the lunar eclipse will be completely invisible to observers in southern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, or southern Asia.
Lunar Eclipse 101
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, Earth, and the sun all line up, with Earth in the middle.
During the eclipse, Earth's shadow is cast onto the full moon, dimming—but not completely obscuring—its surface. Unlike solar eclipses, the lunar varieties are safe to view without any special eyewear.
Lunar eclipses occur twice a year. The previous one fell on June 26, 2010. (See "Lunar Eclipse Saturday to Appear Red?") But the June event was only a partial lunar eclipse.
The winter solstice lunar eclipse will be the first total eclipse of the moon in nearly three years, the last one being on February 20, 2008, according to Singh.
(See solstice pictures: fire rites, druids, and more.)
...MORE HERE...
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