A total solar eclipse is one of the most unexpected, mind altering, and astounding experiences we humans can have. Science explains it simply as the spectacle that is created when the new moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, temporarily obscuring the Sun’s disk completely. At the moment the Moon covers the Sun, a shadow from the Moon is cast on the Earth, and we call this channel of darkness the Path of Totality. But because celestial timing, angles of orbits and degrees of axis tilt all have to align perfectly for the event to even happen, it is a relatively rare occurrence. Add to the mix that an earthly observer needs to be at the right place at the right time within the Path of Totality, then witnessing a total solar eclipse becomes an exceptionally rare event. Indeed, for any one particular location on our planet’s surface, that exact spot gets darkened by the Moon’s shadow on average only once about every 400 years. Science will further explain that of all the 200 confirmed moons orbiting 6 planets in our solar system, our moon is the only one that is the right size and at the right distance to perfectly cover the brilliant solar disk. We get to experience Totality because the Sun is 400 times bigger than the Moon which just happens to be 400 times closer than the Sun. The result is the two bodies appear almost exactly the same angular size in the sky, so the fit is precise. Change that ratio even a tiny bit and there would be no moment of Totality. Given all the variables, it’s amazing we experience total solar eclipses at all. Yet we do.

Totality is considered to be one of the most awe inspiring spectacles in all of nature.  To witness such an event is a singular experience which cannot be conveyed adequately through words or photographs.  The mind takes in something much greater than the sum total of data during one of these extraordinary events, and what cannot be communicated is the way it affects you. It is a somatically primal, three dimensionally integrated event during which all five senses are observing phenomena never before experienced. It is both unsettling and exhilarating, and can be the catalyst for an internal shift of spiritual proportions.

For two minutes, the norm of our reality is no more. In it’s place is a completely foreign spectacle, a vision that is opposite of everything we have come to know and expect, and earthly surroundings are profoundly “off”. The world we have experienced to be true no longer exists in that moment..the sun that we have seen everyday is suddenly gone, the environment takes on a strange, dream like quality and one becomes humbly aware that there are powers far more vast and incomprehensibly immense running this show. To watch the sun morph into this surreal sight is similar to witnessing an elephant transform into an octopus right in front of our eyes. It’s incompatible with our “normal” experience and definition of reality, and the result is a mind that is stunned into stillness and silence.

August 21, 2017-A Walk into Totality

On the morning of Monday August 21, my family and I set up a make shift camp in a field somewhere near Salem, Oregon. With our NASA approved eclipse glasses securely in place, we settled in for the show of a lifetime. We were not disappointed…this is the story.

Before the Moon began it’s journey across the Sun, the day starts out entirely familiar: the Sun is bright, there is heat in the air and the sounds are routine. At ¼ coverage, there is a notable drop in the intensity of the Sun’s heat and the air gets cooler, although the sky is still at the same brightness. At about ½ coverage, the sunlight gets a little muted, as if there were a screen or filter over the Sun, the air is cool but there is still plenty of light. At about ¾ coverage, the ‘screen’ effect thickens and the light becomes a shade dimmer, and the shadows on the ground go from having fuzzy edges to sharp and clearly defined lines as the light becomes more focused through the narrowing aperture of sunlight. As the Moon progresses, the light grows increasingly more eerie, the environment takes on a cartoonish quality as colors are faded and images appear crisper, as if outlined in pen. Everything has a metallic hue and objects reflect an odd color never seen on earth at any other time. At about 90% coverage, the stars come out and an orange ring around the horizon appears, similar to sunset, but the colors are deeply rich and distinctly stratified: not the usual blurry and diffused merging of pastel shades in a typical sunset. As the Moon moves to center over the Sun, nightfall happens in mere seconds, and the light fades like someone is moving a giant dimmer switch to the off position. There is a bright flash from the left side of the sliver of Sun, the diamond effect, then the environment goes completely dark. The air is cool, the light is gone and the sounds go silent. Then the Sun turns completely black, and enormous white flares 3 times the size of the Sun are strewn off the disk like someone was finger painting with light. This is the Sun’s corona and it is brilliant, a super heated plasma that burns at 2 million degrees, but the white wisps don’t hurt your eyes. It is the only time your can stare directly into the face of the Sun. This is the moment that reaches into your core, when your mind stops, your reality is completely surreal, and the magnificence of this massive cosmic event leaves you dumbfounded. There is a deeply troubling sense from the rational mind that everything is majorly off, this is all wrong, but at the same time there is an incredibly reassuring sense of awe, a distinct impression that a bigger reality is running this Infinite Universe, and It has allowed you to briefly witness It’s workings of unimaginable precision, balance and intelligence, first hand. You feel to your core the authenticity of a power far beyond your understanding or control. As the Moon continues on her path, the diamond effect flashes on the other side of the Sun, and within a fraction of a second, the blinding solar light reasserts itself as the dominate reality in the sky.

American author Annie Dillard calls it a “divinely disorienting experience” and describes it in this way: “What you see in a total solar eclipse is entirely different from what you know. Indeed, the most powerful aspect of the experience is the way it unfirms the mind’s grip on meaning, on humanness, on reality itself — an eclipse, after all, is a visceral reminder of the vast cosmic scale of space and time, on which our own existence is but a speck…”

My experience in the Oregon stretch of the 2017 Path of Totality was a catalyst for an internal transformation because it reminded me of four truths. Firstly, I was made aware that realities do exist that are very different from that which I know, and I need to question at times the validity of “my reality”. Secondly, it deepened my trust of Life, as I saw beyond a shadow of a doubt that Life can and does run itself, and can do so with precision on an incomprehensibly vast and massive scale. Thirdly, I was made privy to the idea that to experience the ultimate splendors of Life, I need to stand in a Path of Totality. For me, that path is one of trust, and the trust has to be total. Lastly it reaffirmed in my heart there is an Intelligence in our Universe and that Intelligence is beautiful, magnificent and good. Einstein once said “There are two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.” I believe there is nothing more profoundly transforming than witnessing a total solar eclipse because it has the capacity to open your eyes to wonder, and inspire you to live your life as if everything is a miracle.