3954, Rare Total Lunar Eclipse on Election Morning, 3954

Good Sunday afternoon. I’m Still reporting on the coup.
About 36 hours from sunset today on the east coast, the full moon will be dropping down towards the western horizon as it moves behind the shadow of the earth. This is known as a total lunar eclipse.

Some form of lunar eclipse happens about twice a year, but a total lunar eclipse – where the earth’s shadow completely covers the lunar surface – are rarer. The next total lunar eclipse will not be seen until March 14, 2025, as a new president starts trying to repair what’s left of the rule of law in the United States.

An eclipse is a straight alignment of the sun, earth and the moon. This alignment is also known in astronomy as a syzygy. This is a great word for those who play scrabble.

When the alignment is the sun, moon and earth, where the moon casts its much smaller shadow on the earth, that is also a form of syzygy known as a solar eclipse.

As you can see from this eclipse diagram provided by Sky & Telescope magazine, the leading authority in popular astronomy, in the Easten Time Zone, totality will begin at 05:16 am near dawn of election day, and end one hour and 26 minutes later at 06:42 am, remarkably, just 4 minutes before sunrise.

Lunar and solar eclipses have always been associated with major events in the history of nations, and especially the lunar eclipses because of reddish color the moon can take on these occasions, but also because the earth’s shadow is so much bigger than the moon’s, the eclipse lasts longer and can be seen by many more people.

The first lunar eclipse mentioned in ancient texts was found in the Chinese book Zhou-Shu from the Zhou Dynasty. Although it was discovered in a tomb in 280 A.D., it documented the lunar eclipse of 1137 B.C.

In ancient Mesopotamia, a lunar eclipse was very bad news for a king. So much so that the existing monarch would place a proxy king in power for its duration. The real king would go into hiding and wait for the eclipse to pass. When the eclipse was over and the full moon would return to its full brightness, then the old king would reappear, and the proxy would conveniently disappear.

Another eclipse darkened the skies of the Second Battle of Syracuse on August 28, 413 BC just as the Athenians were preparing to sail home. Niacas (Nick-E-Us], the Athenian politician and general was convinced that it was unwise to begin the journey in the shadow of such an omen. The warriors of Syracuse took advantage of this delay and attacked and defeated the Athenians as a result.

Ancient Christianity considered the lunar eclipse to represent the wrath of God and of the utmost importance as it was associated with the death of Christ. That is why Easter is scheduled for the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, ensuring that Easter Sunday will never happen during a lunar eclipse.

On May 22 of 1453, a partial lunar eclipse was seen during the Fall of Constantinople and its defeat at the hands of the Byzantine Empire, which fulfilled a prophecy of the city’s demise.

On June 30, 1503, Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamacia. The indigenous people at first welcomed Columbus and fed he and his crew for 6 months. After the sailors stole from the natives, they cut off their food supply. However, Columbus, like all good sailors of that day, carried an ephemeris which listed all the eclipses for the years 1475 to 1506. Seeing that a lunar eclipse was coming soon, Columbus asked for a meeting with the tribal king on the evening of the eclipse. When the eclipse began right on schedule, Columbus told the king and his people that this was a clear sign of displeasure from his god. When the blood moon appeared, according to the journal of the son of Columbus, the people:

“… with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions, praying to the Admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf....”

By then, eclipse timing was remarkably precise, so Columbus measured the duration of the eclipse with his hourglass and shortly before totality ended, he told the frightened people that they were going to be forgiven and pardoned by his god.

In 2013, a total lunar eclipse was tagged by Christian minister John Hagee as a “blood moon” following the release of his book, “Four Blood Moons”. That year, an unusual string of four total eclipses occurred, and despite Hagee’s prediction of apocalyptic results, nothing happened.

However, there has never been a total lunar eclipse occurring at the dawn of election day – until now. And this eclipse, happening in the hours of darkness just before sunrise is likely to go down in history as marking the defeat of a tyrant and the return of the rule of law.

And so, if resident Biden wakes up early Tuesday morning before dawn, and walks out onto the south portico of the White House residence on the second floor and gazes towards the Potomac river to the west, directly over the Lincoln Memorial, he will see the blood moon in total lunar eclipse that portends the doom of his nascent dictatorship. And if he gazes to the east, he will see the brilliant rising Sun – the dawn of a new day for America - rising directly over the capitol dome, the very symbol of a freedom-loving, self-governing people who will vote in thousands of new representatives across the land just in the nick of time.

I’m still reporting from just outside the citadel of world freedom. Good day.