One of the many awesome things about solar eclipses is that the shape of the corona changes slowly, making each eclipse different.

When you see it, that eclipse (and no other) is burned into your mind. Hence, when you see eclipse pictures, you see immediately if it’s the one you saw or a different one.

And you often find that the pictures are miscaptioned, giving the wrong year.
Now we see what the 2026 eclipse (left side) looked like – the corona had a deep scoop out of one side, and a bright spot to the left of that!

See how different the 2026 eclipse is from the “star trek badge” shape of the 2017 eclipse (on the right). And 2024 had an asymmetrical 5 point star. You’ll never see an eclipse photo the same again….Are you ready?  What about the next one?  in 2027, which will go through the Valley of the Kings in Egypt?  Wow!

What will the corona look like for that eclipse?  We’ll have to wait and see!

Also, remember that eclipses are married pairs – if there is a Lunar Eclipse (a Blood Moon), then there is a Solar Eclipse which is two weeks away from it (either before or after), and vice versa.   More on that soon!

Links in Time

While Total Lunar Eclipses are more common than Total Solar Eclipses (especially when one remembers that solar eclipses are regional, as mentioned above), they are still uncommon.  Think about what life will be like in some months when the next Total Lunar Eclipse happens – it’s not long, but some things will have changed (and after that, the next Total Lunar Eclipse is of course farther out).  Who, in your life now, might not still be alive?  What new lives may have entered your life?  What else might be different?  This eclipse, like all eclipses, is a moment we and look at time on a longer scale.  Do you want to incorporate this into your ritual?

Ritual ideas

An eclipse is a powerful time that forever strengthens one’s bond to the rest of our Universe, and thus a sacred time for us Naturalistic Pagans – and a good time for a ritual.  Rituals are often more powerful if we feel connected to them.  To gain that connection, it helps to be involved in the writing and planning of the ritual – whether that’s from scratch or just making minor tweaks.  So here are some ideas for rituals – and more can be found with some looking online.  For instance,  this site has several good rituals, and this closing:

With this eclipse, I am made new again.

I am untarnished, whole, and true.

There is nothing weighing me down,

I am free to fly and break through.

One nice thing about a lunar eclipse is that nothing happens horribly fast.  There is plenty of room to go slowly.  Holding the first part of the ritual in the long partial phase at the beginning of the eclipse (between first and second contacts),* and then holding the ending of the ritual in the long partial phase at the end of the eclipse (between third and fourth contacts)* encloses the maximum eclipse within your ritual, while also leaving you fully focused on the eclipse experience during the whatever the maximum of the eclipse will be for your location.

Set up your altar, with a red or black cloth, quarter cauldrons (typical cauldron contents include incense or a feather for East, a candle for South, a seashell or water for West, and a rock or earth for North, many of these on a bed of sand) , and items to be charged by the eclipse reflection of the sunsets & sunrises.  You may want to mark the wider ritual circle with a stone at each quarter (and perhaps each cross-quarter).

Charging Objects

Like other eclipses, anything under the light of the eclipse can be considered to be charged with the power of the eclipse.  In this case, all objects will be charged by the reflected light of all the sunsets and sunrises around the world!  Wow!!

As I write this,   That reminds me that a song or chant would be a nice addition to this ritual, too.  However you celebrate either eclipse, may your celebrations be blessed.

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.