The Sun is Human Too…

I woke up this morning, semi-excited about the solar eclipse, and did what all good Boy Scouts do…I found the instructions to make an eclipse viewer. I got an empty shoe box, grabbed some aluminum foil, white paper, tape, scissors, and a thumbtack. I finished my duct-taped-together project, and an enthusiastic me went outside to “watch the show.”

And there I stood, like a complete geek, walking in circles, trying to get the little pinhole aligned with the eclipse. People drove by in their cars, seeing the weird lady peering into a shoebox. Me?

I’m focused…I’m trying to get the damn pinhole aligned…I’m on a mission! I’m moving around, tilting my head, and finally see a little glow of a half-moon…and then it’s gone again. After a few minutes of trying it this way and getting a neck ache, I went back inside to find some different instructions (apparently, I am not a Boy Scout), which I did, which worked much better.

So back outside, and I’m sitting on my little lawn chair with my back to the solar eclipse (which just seems weird), watching (through my state-of-the-art viewer) the moon drift over the sun and smother its light.

I’m curious what this eclipse means to me.

I’m told (by many YouTubers, which means it’s true) that this eclipse has significant meaning. Is it a new beginning, as some are saying? Is it an ending to something old, as others profess? Is it a message from a faraway land to bring the world into a deeper consciousness? I’m like, “Whoa…Is it all of that?”

What literally happened today was the sun drifted behind and fell into, for a moment, the moon’s shadow. Metaphorically, I believe sometimes we can give way to the shadow that is trying to make a stand and take over our light. But it’s momentary…the light always comes back to reclaim its natural place in the universe, just as the sun did today. The shadow is still there, but it’s submissive again…it requires the light to survive and can’t dominate…it must shift and move and dodge and adapt to the presence of the light.

There are an extraordinary number of “light-workers” out here who want light, freedom, equality, and a humane, peaceful and loving world.

And sometimes, just like the sun, those of us who want these things for the world fall into the shadow, I believe out of frustration, fear, anger, and a shame that what we’re trying to do isn’t getting through. So, I’m sitting there, looking geekily into an old shoebox and receiving my eclipse lesson for today.

Sometimes even the sun falls into the shadow.

The brightest and most powerful light in the world, the one that keeps us alive and warm…even it, on occasion, falls into the shadow, for a second…and then that amazing and brilliant sun comes out the other side, retaking its rightful place as the light of the universe, while also honoring that the moon also has its purpose. Both are necessary for balance of the universe.

Sometimes it’s not easy staying out of the dark; falling into judgment, fear, criticism, and anger, and eventually projecting that darkness, that thing we’re upset about, outward onto others. I also know that it’s necessary to experience life as it unfolds and understand that, as a “human BEing,” navigating our own perceptions of this life, it will not always be bliss and peaches.

As Carl Jung would say, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

It’s a daily practice of bringing awareness to the darkness, having self-compassion, coming back to center and away from the extremes, and staying the course to co-create the world we envision.

So today, the sun fell into darkness…I guess that makes the sun human too.