Solar Eclipse Communitas

When the Moon covers the Sun, and the shadows of the Earth surround Her People, silence descends. A moment of reverence is felt; we can hear and sense our breaths and heartbeats. We are all together held under the mercy of heavenly bodies, witnessing the choreography of the gravitational fields that dance our solar system into existence. During solar eclipse, all our differences dissolve. We become one species out of the numerous life forms that inhabit a small planet, safely hidden in the periphery of a galaxy too enormous to comprehend with a human consciousness.

When the Moon covers the Sun, and the shadows of the Earth surround Her People, silence descends. Darkness stirs our primordial fears and rekindles our survival instincts, our urge to protect life. Unlike our human ancestors, we experience the solar eclipse in another part of the world telematically and telepathically. Although we cannot experience the eclipse from afar, our technological connectivity sends us the signal, the sign, the sound, the image, and the symbol, immersing our individual consciousness with that of global and cosmic consciousness. We are all one when the Moon covers the Sun.

When the Moon covers the Sun, and the shadows of the Earth surround Her People, silence descends. The ancient Mayans were terrified, perhaps for a good reason. Maybe they sensed what happened when humans ignored their shadows and filled the silence with noise so that they wouldn't hear the Great Void. The friction the Mayans identified between the Sun and the Moon during a solar eclipse was perhaps a metaphor for the unbalance that tends to play out in human drama. When the Moon covers the Sun, the drama is performed on a cosmic scale, with an auspicious ending. The light returns, though not without a warning: watch out for the shadow of the Moon.

When the Moon covers the Sun, and the shadows of the Earth surround Her People, silence descends. Receive the signal, the sign, and the symbol of a timely and timeless communitas.