Patterico's Pontifications

12/20/2010

“And the Dark Night Has the Strongest Pull”

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 1:56 pm



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Update: Thanks to the other Aaron and others who point out that the timing of the eclipse is sooner than I realized.  It’s tonight, meaning early, early in the morning on the East coast, moderately late on the west.

As a point of reference, the lunar eclipse December 2010 time will occur on the East Coast somewhere between 1:29am and 5:00am.

The lunar eclipse December 2010 will last for 72 minutes, and will make the moon completely red. An estimated 1.5 billion people around the world should be able to see it, but considering how late it is happening in the United States, most kids and worn-out parents will probably miss it, as they will be fast asleep!

(Source.)  Sorry for (my) mixup.

That’s a line from the very excellent Matthew Sweet, in Smog Moon, from his album 100% Fun, which like most of his music is a hummable song about bitterness and depression (yes, really).  And I thought of that when reading that tomorrow  tonight is the Winter Solstice which is all kinds of important to hippies and Wiccans Witches, and on the same night we are going to have a lunar eclipse—the first combo like that in about 500 years:

This year’s winter solstice — an event that will occur [this] Tuesday — will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn’t been seen in 456 years.

And lay on me that hippie/witch talk:

The celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun.

Wow.  That…  that has to be the most nonsensical paragraph committed to writing since, well, this:

The foregoing cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.

Anyway back to the hippie/wiccan talk:

“It’s a ritual of transformation from darkness into light,” says Christine O’Donnell, a high priestess at Toronto’s Wiccan Church of Canada. “It’s the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation.

“The idea that the sun and the moon are almost at their darkest at this point in time really only further goes to hammer that home.”

Oh, wait, did I get the wrong name for that hippie/wiccan?

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

28 Responses to ““And the Dark Night Has the Strongest Pull””

  1. I hope so!

    ukuleledave (19a833)

  2. here is a music about the dark night

    damn I have good taste

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  3. Heath Ledger came back from the dead?

    JD (07faa1)

  4. Expect an exciting night on the police scanners.

    gp (a7eb74)

  5. Another moronic convergence?

    Pat Patterson (56dc55)

  6. the constant rain and heavy cloud cover here in the LA Basin will keep most of the wingnuts home in their green hovels.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  7. #4, You do know that crime doesn’t really peak at full moons, don’t you? Nor does any other kind of behaviour.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  8. I don’t know if it’s anecdotal and right, anecdotal and wrong, or just another bit of urban legend, but I’ve heard many an ER doc swear that they see more trauma cases — including not only motor vehicle and other accidents, but also criminal injuries — on weekend nights with full moons than at any other time.

    Beldar (8a2ab2)

  9. Beldar

    That and werewolf attacks, right? 🙂

    Aaron Worthing (b8e056)

  10. Beldar

    What about really flakey legal reasoning? Are opinion’s like Douglas’ more like on a full moon?

    Aaron Worthing (b8e056)

  11. FWIW, the last time I was visiting family in Wisconsin at Christmas time (some years ago now) the main Madison paper had front page coverage of the Wiccans and their Winter Solstice celebrations. Coverage of Christmas festivities was relegated to somewhere farther back in the paper. Meanwhile, the high school choir my wife was part of as a student was no longer allowed to present a “Christmas Concert”. (Historically much choral music had been written for the Church). Apparently the students met and sang Christmas songs anyway, reportedly no arrests were made.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  12. Beldar, this is a common myth among emergency workers, and yet if you look at the numbers you find that it doesn’t exist.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  13. Tomorrow morning on the east coast (1:30-5:30). Tonight on Patterico’s coast (10:30-2:30).

    Aaron (2e0535)

  14. Milhouse, I don’t know one way or the other. I just like listening to police, fire, ambulance, and our big sparkling new jail. “Twenty-two-thirty! Lock em down!” The pulse of the city.

    gp (a7eb74)

  15. There is a logical, rather obvious, reason why some nocturnal activity would increase–there’s more natural light at the full moon, and therefore more visibility–which may translate into people not being as careful when driving or doing other activities as they would be when there was less moonlight.

    Of course clear vs cloudy weather would factor into this. And one would expect that at least some criminal activities would peak at the time of the new moon, when there is less visibility, and not at the time of the full moon when there is increased visibility.

    kishnevi (49c4be)

  16. #
    here is a music about the dark night

    damn I have good taste

    Comment by happyfeet — 12/20/2010 @ 2:35 pm

    Yes you do, feets — which is why I was hoping for a great techno song. But this is gorgeous, and a nice surprise. Thx for posting.

    no one you know (b5428c)

  17. sometimes when there’s a new moon Bela loves Edward so much she makes him get all sparkly even without sunshines and that, my friends, is True Love the like of which you may only know once in your whole life unless you’re Bela or Edward then it’s pretty common actually

    happyfeet (fd4f3b)

  18. Er, note that “Tuesday’s” eclipse holds for EST. For those of us on the Left coast, it’s tonight.

    According to the Nasa blurb the festivities start at 10:33PM PST. Totality occurs at 11:41PST and lasts 72 minutes.

    Not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, but fun to watch.

    Red County Pete (5d9314)

  19. oh Hi thank you – I was just kidding about the good taste cause of Mr. P gives me a hard time a lot about my musics but I’m glad you liked that

    happyfeet (fd4f3b)

  20. I heard Josh Groban sing O Holy Night, and is was beautiful, beyond words. Then they played Celine Horseface sing the same song, and it was even more spectacular. My man card got pulled.

    JD (07faa1)

  21. It is nice to know that the federal government is only working 364 days a year to keep us safe.

    JD (07faa1)

  22. Because the night is dark, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Anchoress had this. Strong and eloquent.

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  23. it’s raining like a mongolian rat bastard here in the Valley so i doubt we’re gonna see sh1t.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  24. After four days of rain, I’d trade it for Moon-bats running in the streets in a heart-beat.

    BTW, in a confrontation between Moon-bats and Zombies, who would win (other than the rest of us)?

    AD-RtR/OS! (c0ea0d)

  25. And the moon will be as blood. When the eclipse passes, Obama will claim credit.

    Jones (72b0ed)

  26. I just heard horseface’s version of “I Drove All Night” for the first time a couple days ago and … it was stunningly bad really – she has this tendency to over-emote and flagellate herself like a shiite and this was one of those

    happyfeet (fd4f3b)

  27. BTW, in a confrontation between Moon-bats and Zombies, who would win

    the Zombies would starve out an a steady diet of moon-bats, since there would be no brains to eat.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)


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