The eclipse is approaching fast now – just a few days left!  As described earlier, you have to be in the path of totality to experience this total solar eclipse!  Don’t miss it!  The next total solar eclipse in the United States isn’t until 2044, and even that one is only visible from a small area.  Perhaps most important – can you show a child this eclipse?  All the details you need are below.

Still not sure?  Here are some thoughts from people after seeing the 2017 eclipse.  Even though words fail, they are at least an attempt – and if you can share this experience with a child, it will help our world far beyond yourself.  For me, I wouldn’t miss it after seeing the 2017 eclipse (which itself I was anticipating since Ronald Reagan was president – story here).  The eclipse is, after all, a reality based spiritual pilgrimage.  I think spiritual pilgrimages are yet another religious technology that fits well with Naturalistic Paganism.

Practical Details

Well before the eclipse, get anything you need (especially anything needing advanced ordering).  Got eclipse glasses?  Do you plan to take any photos?  Are you going to be camping?  Now is the time to order things.  Also, download and check out an Eclipse Timer App for your phone.  It’ll use your location to know and say what the phase of the eclipse is, in real time – freeing you up from checking the time, etc.  Perhaps the most important prep is to prepare your ritual  – See below for that.  Maybe go to an eclipse party?  Here are a whole bunch!

Location, Location, Location…..

First, get familiar with where the path of totality will be.  It’s a ~100 mile wide path from Mexico through Maine.  Here is a zoomable google map of the path.  You’ll need this to find the best place for you to go to be on the path on April 8th.  Don’t bother trying to get a hotel in the path.  Those have been sold out since last year, and the very few left are ludicrously overpriced.  You don’t need a hotel in the path anyway.  Simply get a hotel a little off the path – like 50 miles off, and drive to a park, field, or even just a street in the path on the morning of the eclipse.  It’s not until after noon anyway (though plan for heavy traffic).  While planning where to go, keep in mind the average probability of cloud cover.  You can get good weather information the day before, but for planning before that, use this handy graph of cloud cover along the path (on the left – the higher the number, the worse – greater chance of clouds).  Copy the cloud graph to another document if you need to enlarge it to read the city names.  I came across one very unique viewing location – Cedar Point amusement park!  Here is the special they have going for eclipse day – The Total Eclipse of the Point!  Another really cool, unique location (in the path of totality) is the Garden of the Gods park in Illinois.  One of the most awesome locations for Naturalistic Pagans is Mounds State Park in Indiana – a literal circular monument like Stonehenge (!), made here in the United States (of Earth, as large stones are harder to come by in Indiana)  – and it’s right in the path of totality!

Be Flexible!

OK, but even in Texas, there’s a good chance it’ll be cloudy (and even more likely in places like Ohio).  So on April 6th or 7th, check the weather.  Be ready to adjust your plans if it’s going to be cloudy in the place you initially picked.  On  the day of the eclipse, when you know for sure where you will be, you can make a final check of the times at a site like this one: This page is a great resource – you can type in your target city on the right, and it will give the exact times of the start of the partial eclipse, the time and length of totality, and the time to the end of the partial eclipse.

The Eclipse!

Don’t let the fear of eye damage stop you from going – simple precautions are all that are needed to guarantee safety.  Will you be doing a ritual?  You can prepare a ritual just as you want it, or feel free to take and use this one here, ready to go!  Remember to bring objects to charge (such as your Cosmala, if you have one – or a special bead to put on your Cosmala when you make it).  One of the things I’m especially eager to charge with Eclipse Shadow is a lot of granulated salt – making a ritual tool, by which I can place just a tiny pinch of this salt in ritual water to make as much eclipse water as I want, at any time.  Also, you might want to snap a picture of all you’ve charged – both to commemorate the event as well as for reference (notice the weird, waning sunlight in my picture, at right).  Similarly, setting up video of the eclipse area can give a neat way to look back at what you did.

After the eclipse, it’s probably better to relax instead of trying to get on the road right away.  It can take a little while to come down from a spiritual experience before being safe to drive – and the slow partial eclipse as the Moon uncovers the Sun naturally supplies this time.  Plus, nearly all locations will be backed up with huge traffic jams anyway – so you can either relax at your site as the partial eclipse naturally brings you back, or you can be stuck in traffic (see picture at left after the 2017 eclipse).

Pagans who can’t make it (including those on other continents than North America), might want to hold a ritual at a chosen moment during the eclipse.  All religions have sacred times and sacred places.  For those of us with a naturalistic spirituality (as well as for many others), reality itself – and especially our Earth, Moon and Sun – show us those sacred times.  For many of us (and certainly me), this April 8th will be one of those most sacred times.  What will those ~180 seconds be like for you?  I don’t think that can be predicted – we can’t decide when the sacred will touch us, but we can give it more opportunities.  Blessed be.

The Author: Jon Cleland Host

Starstuff, Contemplating: We are assemblages of ancient atoms forged in stars – atoms organized by history to the point of consciousness, now able to contemplate this sacred Universe of which we are a tiny, but wondrous, part.

Dr. Jon Cleland Host is a scientist who earned his PhD in materials science at Northwestern University & has conducted research at Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning since 1997.  He holds eight patents and has authored over three dozen internal scientific papers and eleven papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the journal Nature.  He has taught classes on biology, math, chemistry, physics and general science at Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University.  Jon grew up near Pontiac, and has been building a reality-based spirituality for over 30 years, first as a Catholic and now as a Unitarian Universalist, including collaborating with Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow to spread the awe and wonder of the Great Story of our Universe (see www.thegreatstory.org, and the blog at evolutionarytimes.org).  Jon and his wife have four sons, whom they embrace within a Universe-centered, Pagan, family spirituality.  He currently moderates the yahoo group Naturalistic Paganism.

See Starstuff, Contemplating posts.

See all of Dr. Jon Cleland Host’s posts.