As if Solar Eclipses aren’t magical enough on their own!
This footage of a Solar Eclipse that occurred across North Carolina, USA on May 28, 1900 is the first known eclipse to be filmed. It has just been released to the public with some pretty auspicious timing.
A Solar Eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are in the same zodiacal sign and also occupy the same terrain in the sky as viewed from Earth. This particular eclipse occurred when both the Sun and Moon were in Gemini which happens to be the exact same New Moon that is occurring as it’s re-released!
While Astrology and Astronomy were once synonymous, many in the science fields today attempt to maintain distance from Astrology, yet this film has been held in The Royal Astronomical Society’s archive for 119 years and they no doubt did not intend to time its release to impress astrologers! So, what brought it out?
Filmed by magician Nevil Maskelyne and reworked by the British Film Institute, it’s an amazing view back in time. Watching an old eclipse is like looking at photos of our great-great-grandparents. Every eclipse is part of a larger cycle, or family, that produces an eclipse every 18 years. These families, like yours, have certain traits and characteristics that re-emerge with each eclipse until the family fades out some 1300 years later. That’s a lot of generations carrying one continuous thread.
In her work on these eclipse families, called Saros Cycles, Bernadette Brady says of this particular eclipse:
May 28, 1900: 10 South at 7* Gemini
This Saros Series concerns itself with breaking out of a very negative situation where no hope can be seen to a more positive space containing many options. A worry that may have been affecting a person will suddenly clear. The solution is shown by the Cosmos and needs to be taken up without too much delay. ~ The Eagle and the Lark, p323
There are various points of connection with this films release that pose many questions, principally “Why now?” If each eclipse family has a particular energy and message why, when the state of the world is pretty dire, are we again witnessing this eclipse? What brought this Gemini New Moon back into our consciousness 119 years later on yet another Gemini New Moon?
It’s possible to google the Great American Eclipse and view it from hundreds of viewpoints, but film was only emerging in the 1890’s, and if Nevil was alive today he’d likely be taking refuge in an embassy in London for his public service hacking: He was a public detractor of Guglielmo Marconi in the early days of radio (wireless). In 1903 he hacked into Marconi’s demonstration of wireless telegraphy, and broadcast his own message, hoping to make Marconi’s claims of “secure and private communication” appear foolish. ~ Wikipedia
Not only is this amazing to watch but the synchronicity of its release date coupled with the theme of the eclipse family and Nevil’s trickster ways are timely in this Gemini Season.