posted

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Laura:


Head to the desert, the view should be great

---

i can't go out my cave now i need prepare my stuff iside the cave for tomorrow.
 

posted

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ayisha:
I can see it starting here now, like a black shadow starting to cross the moon

---

posted

---

Good morning ladies and gents. I'm glad we shared the experience around the globe. It was magnificent to watch here too. I asked hubby to wake me up when it would have started and I watched until it went dark while sitting at the edge of the window with my legs dangling outside and wrapped up in a thick blanket.

I don't want to sound like anything but I have to say that it made me go through a very spiritual and emotional experience. Last time I saw a lunar eclipse was in Luxor 10 years ago. I went on the roof and dragged a mattress and a mosquito net along and I lay all night to watch the moon and the stars that felt so close like they were in a children's story book. Last night, I remembered that night very well, and I remembered the little beautiful girl in a West Bank village who told me to think of her whenever I saw the moon. I remembered that I was saying goodbye to Luxor and to Egypt for I had decided to start a life in Holland. Last night I said goodbye to Holland's moon in the same manner. It seems that I move country every lunar eclipse.

It was nice to have the moon bring up the memories.

Nowadays the eclipses mean nothing but a perfectly explained scientific phenomenon, but in the past they had a more fun explanation. People would literally panic and think it's the end of the world in come cultures.

Here's an explanation from the Ancient Egyptian point of view:

quote:

---

Egyptian mythology attributes an eclipse of the moon to Seth's having stolen the Moon Eye of Horus. Thoth, god of learning and mathematics, searched in the darkness and restored it to its place in the heavens, becoming a lunar deity himself.

Two weeks or so before a solar eclipse, the priests of Ra, the sun deity, would admonish the people of Egypt saying that they were sinners. People would then contribute to the temples and offer sacrifices in hopes of appeasing Ra, but of course, their devotion was not rewarded. During the unsettling moments of the eclipse, people would redouble their efforts and then see that the priests were true links to the will of Ra as generosity and obedience were rewarded with the re-emergence of light.

Eclipses were often associated with outbreaks of illness. There was a widespread fear, also, that the earth itself could get sick and die. In Babylon, the priest would bathe the King [source of fertility and all good] in a preparation of cedar oil and myrrh in hopes of preventing this greatest of catastrophes.

~ acknowledgements to M. Moreau [1997].

---

posted

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by With a name like Smuckers:
can someone please explain why the moon goes black? where is the earth in relation to the moon during a lunar eclipse?

---