America's Total Eclipse of the Sun

Image Source: Travel and Leisure.

Other countries have solar eclipses cross their territories all the time. But America never does things by halves, and 21 August 2017 is no exception.

Jalu, Libya: 2006 Total Solar Eclipse (29 March 2006). Video Source: Youtube.

Total Solar Eclipse in Svalbard 2015 (Crowd Reaction) (20-21 March 2015). Video Source: Youtube.

Alaska Airlines Solar Eclipse Flight #870 (8-9 March 2016). Video Source: Youtube.

This is the first time a total solar eclipse will exactly span the United States in nearly a century; the last such eclipse took place on 8 June 1918. The moon’s penumbral shadow will produce a partial eclipse visible from most of North America. The most recent total solar eclipse prior to this one, which crossed parts of the USA and Canada, occurred on 26 February 1979.

Video Source: The Weather Network.

To celebrate this Monday's eclipse, there are family road trip eclipse maps; viewers which fit over your iPhone; shades and special eclipse binoculars; glow-in-the-dark t-shirts and other apparel; tote bags; travel mugs; and commemorative Californian wines called Umbra and Totality. The company Possets released a dedicated perfume:

"On a bed of gentle sandalwood rest two softly animalic musks that encompass a suggestive intermingling of a spot-on lilac accord and a measure of sweet hawthorne. This is one sexy and classy perfume that will invite dimming of the lights..."

There is even a 2017 book about the 1878 solar eclipse: American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World. Bonnie Tyler will sing her 1983 pop classic, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas off the coast of Florida.

A total solar eclipse sweeping across the US- BBC News (21 August 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Image Source: NASA.

Image Source: Amazon.

Image Source: Amazon.

Image Source: Etsy.

Image Source: NASA.

The totality will be visible from fourteen states, spanning Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. The specifically affected states are: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina. You can see a chart with local times for viewing totality, here. Local weather for eclipse viewing is here. The shadow of totality will be about 70 miles wide. NASA's dedicated page is here. A good map, showing the times for viewing of the partial eclipse in the rest of North America is here. There is a live video stream from NASA here.

NASA: Get Ready for the 2017 Solar Eclipse (June 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

The path of the eclipse, including towns. Click to enlarge. Images Source: Great American Eclipse.

Solar eclipses signify endings and beginnings. Symbolically, as everything goes dark, one confronts one's shadow and most negative qualities. Everything stops during totality in a moment of emptiness; with this eclipse, astrologers highlight anger and violence (Mars). But one is offered the opportunity after the shadow passes to set one's fate on a new path, and that opportunity is informed by connections to nature and love. It is a deep breath and reorientation.

Rick Levine: This Eclipse Will Be "The Performance of Our Lives" (16 August 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

American astrologers (here, here, here, here, here and here) counsel their followers to ignore crazy news headlines, meditate and "create your own relationship to reality." I think many people were already doing that! But what the astrologers mean is that a solar "eclipse is a new moon on steroids." A new moon is a new start; it plants seeds for the future. So this is a 'Jack and the Beanstalk' moment, and since the eclipse takes place almost at 29 degrees of Leo, and it spans America, this eclipse symbolizes the evolving maturity and selfhood of the United States, and the New World in general. For a broader astrological message, applied to everyone on earth, go here, here and here.

Traditionally, the geographical area covered by a total solar eclipse is considered the epicentre for change for months to come. That change can be good or bad; but the long-standing superstition is that a total solar eclipse is inauspicious. In an earlier post, I noted that Europe, and especially Austria, were shadowed by a solar eclipse at the start of the World War I (the total solar eclipse of 21 August 1914), which led to the fall of the Habsburg Empire.

The eclipse will take place in the constellation of Leo and the eclipse is also a new moon in Leo, signifying the heart, creativity, and regal strength associated with the sun. This is the second new moon in Leo in a one month period. Image Source: Shadow and Substance.

See all my posts on Eclipses.