Ooooh....

Nothing like a lunar eclipse to throw off your sense of things. As a pagan, I tend to notice and keep up with lunar cycles (hence the module on this page), and as someone interested in astronomy, I usually keep up with space news, but I this time I somehow the fact that there would be an eclipse tonight.

A friend made the comment today that things were crazy like at full moon (more on that later) and I remember thinking, well, it should be full, after all. But on the way home the moon seemed, well, waning, which didn't make sense to me, but I thought, gee, you've been busy, you were just wrong--even though a part of my brain was also going 'but the moon's in the east, and it's just after sunset, so that should be full (having paid attention to those lectures in astronomy)...but again, I dismissed it because hey, I have the memory of a gnat--I can look anything up but it's hard for me to pop out total recall. I went in for a few things at the pharmacy across the street and then came out and...lo, the moon is red, a rosey-red you only get during an eclipse. Ergo, the earth is between it and the sun (lunar eclipses only happen during full moon; solar eclipses only happen during new moon, you see--paired, in fact, although the upcoming solar eclipse on November 23 will not be visible here). Mystery solved. Which explains why things feel little oddly quiet for an autumn night. Usually a full moon night is teeming with magical energy, but tonight everything seems to be at ebb, as if veiled. Hmmm...