We watched the total lunar eclipse this morning. My husband woke me up around 5 a.m. when the moon was about half covered (what's the word?). I went back to bed and went out again at 6 a.m. to watch until it had completely disappeared. I could not see it in the sky at all, maybe because the sky was too light with the sun already starting to rise. I kept watching and waiting for the lunar rim to peek out again, but I think the moon had dropped below the treeline by the time that happened, so I never saw it.
Did ancient peoples dance, drum, or perhaps sacrifice babies to lure the moon back during lunar eclipses? What did an eclipse mean to them? I checked the Encyclopedia of Religion , 2nd ed. (2005, Thomson Gale) and found this on pg. 8835:
Eclipses of both sun and moon were experienced with great dread.
[However,]...Some North American Indian tribes, on the other hand, believed that
the sun and moon were eclipsed when they held their infants in their arms.
In Tahiti it was believed that eclipses occurred when the sun and moon were
mating.
What wonderful images! What do these images say about the cultures that created them?
