The sun, the moon, and the World: The Beauty of the Solar Eclipse
A rare and beautiful celestial moment occurred on Monday, April 8. However, people speculated on the significance of the solar eclipse. Was the event rare and special, or were people exaggerating the two minutes of totality that large portions of the United States saw last week?
I, for one, was excited to see the moon, sun, and Earth align. In 2017, I traveled to St. Louis, Mo, to see the total solar eclipse, so my passion for eclipses has been a long-time in the making. With some classes at the University of Texas at Austin and Austin Community College being canceled for the day, Austin was abuzz with events to celebrate. Drift's Instagram highlighted our favorites. But, I chose to go to the Ladybird Wildflower Center. It seemed like the perfect place to look at Native Texas flowers and wait for the eclipse.
The Wildflower Center was full of fun activities while I waited. I started watching a video explaining the scientific, historic and religious aspects of the eclipse. The Aztec people, part of the Nahua people, believed eclipses were caused by a jaguar swallowing the sun, and yelled at it to scare it away. The eclipse can also be seen as a spiritual renewal, creating time to shed old energy. Scientifically, the event is rare — at least in the grand scheme of things — few planets have a sun and moon which appear to be the same size from the surface. Historically, the last solar eclipse in Austin was 600 years ago, so seeing one in the city you live in is rare, although total solar eclipses occur every 18 months worldwide.
Afterwards, I received a tarot reading from Tara Bonner, a psychic medium. I never had my cards professionally read before this, and it was a warm reading. I felt anxious about my future plans, so this was a nice reminder that everything will be alright.
Finally, I did a 30-minute sound bath meditation with various meditation bowls. In the busy times of final exams, I found it relaxing to be present and let go.
Then the big event came. I sat on the grass and allowed myself to be one with the Earth. It was cloudy, which was a little sad, but it was still an amazing thing to see. It slowly darkened and as totality hit, it looked like the nighttime. For those two minutes, I sat with close-to-a-hundred other people, watching the jaguar eat the sun. Just like the Aztec people, we screamed and clapped until the sun came back.
Photography by Sydney Stellato