Symbolism of a Total Solar Eclipse

Keywords: eclipses, totality, sun bird phoenix, eye of god, third eye, human eye, iris, second coming of christ, christian, bible, jesus, cruxifiction, resurrection, signs, symbol, symbolic, egypt, egyptian, winged sun, astronomy, sacred dove

The Sun Bird Phoenix
the Eye of God,
the Third Eye
and the Human Eye

Ever since the first solar Eclipse of the New Millennium over Africa on 21 June 2001, I have been searching in myself for the symbolic meaning of this phenomenon, which has inspired most cultures around the globe since the Dawn of Man.

The seed of my fascination with total solar eclipses was sown during my childhood when I read one of the Tin-tin comic strips called "Prisoners of the Sun". In this story Tin-tin and friends were captured by a tribe who practiced sun worshiping. During captivity and before their eminent execution, Tin-tin coincidently (are stories not packed with the most unbelievable coincidences?!) discovers a piece of scrap paper from a recent newspaper on which the date of the next total solar eclipse is reported. It so happened that their location was in the exact path of the shadow of the total eclipse. Tin-tin requested that they should be executed at exactly that time. When the sun disappeared behind the moon and darkness came unexpectedly, the tribe interpreted the eclipse as a divine sign and in the bewilderment Tin-tin and his friends gained not only their freedom, but also divine status. During 2001, the same year that I co-founded the Phoenix Ensemble, I was also seeking a "sign from God" myself and interpreted the eclipse on the solstice (21 June) over Africa as such. (Read more about this experience in my article Confessions of a reluctant messiah.) I was not able at the time to explain exactly why I interpreted the eclipse as a sign, but I did relate it to the Biblical report of the crucifixion of Jesus: "when darkness came over the earth" at the moment of his death. I am sure that I am not the first to suggest that this passage from Scripture is quite possibly a report of a solar eclipse. The 2001 eclipse symbolized to me the birth of a new millennium^[1], the birth of the New Age and the symbolic birth of the Second Coming of Christ. My theological concept was that if the death of Christ coincided with a solar eclipse then the Resurrection or Second Coming should coincide with a solar eclipse too. Another concept I was playing around with was the significance the Christian Church attaches to their interpretation of Scripture that Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection from the dead on the third day. I don't want to engage here in an argument about the reality of the most controversial dogma of the Christian faith, but do want to point out that he actually could have spent only two days in the grave and the reason for this being that the day he died, the day that we now celebrate as Good Friday, is counted as day one, making Easter Sunday morning, the day that he, according to the Gosples, rose from the dead, day three. My symbolic reasoning then was that if the Bible says that a thousand years to God is like one day, then the Resurrection/Second Coming should happen during the "early morning" of the Third Millennium that started in 2001^[1].

I wanted to discover the full meaning of an eclipse for myself and did not consult the Internet as I usually would to find more information about a topic. A year ago the Phoenix Ensemble produced our first combined CD, ictus, at the time of the second solar eclipse of the new millennium over Southern Africa. I would have loved to travel north to view the total eclipse, but we were pressed for time to complete the CD before Christmas. After hiring a colleague to compose backtracks for our new CD I discovered, to my amazement, that the name of the business of the person we hired was "Phoenix B". I did find this quite a coincidence and it was this man who told me for the first time about the Egyptian Phoenix myth, the Sun Bird, but not about the connection between the Phoenix and solar eclipses. On the CD cover we placed images of a solar eclipse, not because of, as I have now discovered, solar eclipses being the origin of the Phoenix myth, but purely because of the coincidence of us recording the CD at the time of the solar eclipse over South Africa, and, from my side, my personal interest in solar eclipses being divine "signs". (You would think that I would have done more homework when choosing a name for a music ensemble! In 2001 when we chose the name it just sounded very good on the ear and I liked the connection with Greek mythology, unaware of the content of this connection! In fact, it was not even my idea, but my colleague's, to call it the "Phoenix Ensemble"!)

The symbolic meaning of a total solar eclipse dawned upon me during November 2003 when I looked into the beautiful eyes of a fellow human being and for the first time, like our ancestors, I made the connection of the visual similarity between the human eye and a total solar eclipse. Coincidently the name of this person is the same as the name of the river that runs through the Freie Hansestadt Hamburg, where I had my bipolar experiences in 1991 and 1993: the river Elbe.

Now, on Christmas Day 2003, I am writing this article. On 25 December we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the person whose life became the cornerstone of Christianity, the so called "Son of God". Though the date of Jesus' birth is not known the reason why people celebrate his birth on this date stems from the time of the conversion of the Pagan cultures and symbols to Christianity. In the northern hemisphere the shortest day of the year is 21 December (also the day that my sister's child was born, called the Day of the Great Enigma). In many pagan traditions the rebirth of the Sun is celebrated on 25 December. On Christmas Eve I finally did some Internet research about the symbolism in solar eclipses and discovered all the information I needed to complete this article.

I visited a web site called "Treasures of Darkness" by Robin Edgar who in a series of brilliantly researched anthropological articles show "how solar and lunar eclipses significantly influenced ancient humanity's religious beliefs and mythology". Instead of quoting his site extensively, I will only emphasize the conclusions that he makes, the synchronicities between my own life and the web sites I visited and encourage you to study these sites in your own time.

My sincere gratitude to Robin Edgar for granting me permission to freely quote his web site.

The outer corona of the sun displaying a remarkable similarity with the shape of a bird during totality of the eclipse of 11 July 1991 (at the same time I experienced my first bipolar experience). © by Steve Albers

A winged sun symbol graces an Egyptian pyramid's capstone.

The Sun Bird or Phoenix

Edgar has "collected considerable evidence which supports the theory that the ancient Egyptian 'winged solar disk' symbol and the analogous Mesopotamian 'ring with wings' symbol were, in all probability, inspired by ancient observations of total solar eclipses. They were evidently inspired by the Phoenix bird aka 'Bird of the Sun' that is readily perceivable within the sun's corona during the total phase of some total eclipses of the sun. The diaphanous equatorial streamers of the corona, which are most pronounced during total solar eclipses that occur during years when the sunspot cycle is at its minimum phase of activity, bear a remarkable resemblance to the outspread wings of a glorious celestial bird while the plume-like polar rays mimic the fanned-out tail-feathers of a bird. This wing-like appearance of the equatorial streamers of the sun's outer corona was first remarked upon by professional astronomers in the latter half of the 19th century and it quickly became fashionable amongst astronomers to refer to the sun's coronal streamers as 'wings'. The mythological Phoenix bird of classical Greek mythology can be shown to have been inspired, at least in part, by the Bennu bird heron god (Phoenix) of ancient Egyptian religion. There should be very little doubt in modern minds that the enormous cosmic 'Sun Bird', is the source of inspiration for many, if not most, mythical birds.

"Elmer G. Suhr, in his regrettably now out of print book on eclipse lore 'The Mask, the Unicorn and the Messiah', clearly recognized that total solar eclipses were the awe-inspiring celestial phenomenon that, in all probability, originally inspired not only the phoenixes of both the ancient Middle East and the Orient, but also the garuda Sunbird of Indian religion and other mythical Sunbirds:

'There was perhaps no astronomical phenomenon more startling to primitive and early civilized man than the total solar eclipse. Without any warning by way of sound or sight he noticed an eerie and untimely darkness settling over the land, and when he looked at the sun, he saw a menacingly dark circle covered the bright central area of light; from the edge of the darkness a desperate flare of shooting light heightened the dramatic effect of the experience, a flare which tended to take on a feathery texture, so much more spectacular in contrast to the dark centre; in an annular eclipse the light takes on the form of a bright ring. Since the flare of the total eclipse frequently reaches out farther on two opposite sides, the Assyrians and Egyptians pictured this effect as the wings of a mighty bird. The Chinese also developed the bird with outstretched wings in their image of the sun. Then followed the creation of the phoenix, the garuda of India and fanciful birds to represent the sun itself.'

"The primary religious symbols of the ancient Egyptians was the red sun disk. It represented the various Egyptian sun gods including Ra. This sun disk was usually encircled by, or rimmed on either side by, the 'ar'et serpent, also known as the uraeus or 'fiery cobra'. The uraeus cobra was often depicted with a sun disk perched on its rearing head to emphasize its association with the sun. The sun's chromosphere could easily be perceived as a cosmic serpent encircling the sun, with the flaming red solar prominences appearing to the ancient Egyptians to be the rearing heads of flame-spitting cobras. When elongated vulture wings, inspired by the equatorial streamers of the corona, were added to the solar disk stretching out on one or both sides, the sun disk became the 'winged disk'. According to the book 'The Migration of Symbols' by Comte Eugene Goblet d'Alviella, 'It has been said, with good reason, that the Winged Globe is the Egyptian symbol par excellence. According to an inscription at Edfu it was Thoth himself who caused it to be placed above the entrances to all the temples in order to commemorate the victory won by Horus over Set, i.e. by the principle of light and good over that of darkness and evil.'

*** insert Cross picture***

"The ancient Egyptian bennu-bird or phoenix, their solar falcon-god Horus, and their winged sun disk symbol are completely synonymous. ... A common form of the sun's corona, usually seen when the sunspot cycle is near its maximum phase of activity, is that of a four-rayed star, with the polar and equatorial streamers having similar shapes and sizes. The polar rays in particular fan out in a manner that clearly reflects the wedge shaped arms of a Maltese cross. The cross may also have been used to symbolize the total eclipse of the sun for the simple reason that a solar eclipse only occurs when the path of the moon literally crosses over that of the sun in the skies above.

"The prominent 19th century British astronomer Edward Walter Maunder F.R.A.S. may well have been the first person to publicly propose that the winged sun disk symbol was an ancient depiction of the sun's corona ... In Sunday Magazine for October, 1883, he wrote that, 'the corona of this type was the origin of 'the ring with wings,' the symbol which on Assyrian monuments is always shown as floating over the head of the king, which is designed to indicate the Presence and Protection of the Deity.' He later wrote a much more detailed and more purely scientific article titled, 'An Old Record of the Corona,' which was published in the British scientific journal 'Knowledge' of January 1st, 1897. Rather than trying to paraphrase the highly convincing, and even remarkably eloquent, words of E. Walter Maunder F.R.A.S. I will instead quote quite extensively from this magazine article in the hope that he would be most pleased that his words are once again being read and in the expectation that the copyright on his article expired some time ago.

'But some among the ancients had a very considerable knowledge of astronomy, and there can be little doubt that the Chaldeans - to whom the invention of the Saros, or eighteen years eclipse cycle, is supposed to be due - had a fairly clear idea as to the cause of solar eclipses. And, therefore, as they were able, to a certain extent, also to predict their occurrence, the great overwhelming terror which the ignorant felt cannot have been shared by them to the same extent. Their minds will have been free to receive the impressions which the details of the eclipse would create.

'And what would those impressions have been? We must remember that they worshipped the sun, moon, and planets. We are not to suppose that in doing so the more thoughtful conceived that the actual material sun, which they beheld, was itself the intrinsic Deity. The untaught and thoughtless may indeed have done so, but to the cultured there can be little doubt that the sun was regarded partly as a symbol, partly as a manifestation of the unseen, unapproachable Divinity. Its light and heat, its powerof calling into active exercise the mysterious forces of germination and ripening, the universality of its influence, all seemed to fit the expressions of the yet greater powers which belonged to the Invisible.

'What happened in a total solar eclipse? For a short time that which seemed so perfect a divine symbol was completely hidden. The light and heat, the two great forms of solar energy, were withdrawn, but something took their place. A mysterious light of mysterious form, unlike any other single form, was seen in its place. Could they fail to see in this a closer, a more intimate revelation, a more exalted symbolism of the Divine Nature and Presence? Just as in the various Greek "mysteries" the student was gradually advanced from one set of symbols to another even more abstruse and esoteric. So here, on the broad face of heaven itself, vouchsafed for a brief space of time and at long intervals apart, the Deity revealed Himself to the initiated by a higher and more difficult symbol than ordinarily.'

"Other turn-of-the-century astronomers did not hesitate to refer to the equatorial streamers of the corona as "angels' wings". It is exceedingly ironic, in my view at least; that it is almost certainly the bird-like appearance of the total solar eclipse that inspired the winged anthropomorphic mythical beings that later evolved into the beings what we call angels.

It is easy to also relate the Sacred dove, also a Christian symbol of the Holy Spirit, to the Phoenix and these beings.

The Third Eye

"As an aside I will mention that the Hindu god Shiva is often depicted in the Nataraj (Cosmic Creation Dance) pose with his long locks of hair spread out on either side of his radiant face and wearing a tiara of feathers, which distinctly resembles the tail of a bird. I respectfully suggest that this ancient religious icon may well have been inspired by the total solar eclipse and is thus a variant of the winged sun-disk symbol. The fact that the third eye which is depicted on Shiva's forehead is sometimes depicted with wings would tend to support this hypothesis since the winged eye symbol of ancient Egypt and elsewhere is simply a variant of the winged sun-disk symbol. There is little doubt in my mind that the ancient Hindu sages were as intimately conscious of the symbolism perceivable in the total solar eclipse as their Egyptian and Mesopotamian counterparts were.

The Eye of God

"In his chapter devoted to the winged globe, the caduceus, and the trisula, Compte d'Alviella writes, 'In Egypt itself the sun appeared from remote ages as the essential manifestation, the visible face, the 'Eye' of the One and only God.' While one does not have to be overly imaginative to perceive the resemblance of the sun's corona to a gigantic cosmic bird it is equally true that the overall appearance of the totally eclipsed sun usually bears a distinct resemblance to a "radiant divine eye." The priests and rulers of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were perfectly cognizant of this profound symbolism in the total eclipse and both of these ancient cultures had a variant of the winged sun-disk symbol, which incorporated this "eye" symbolism.

"Can there be any reasonable doubt that the ancient Assyrian priests and royalty were perfectly cognizant of the similarity of the totally eclipsed sun to a "radiant divine eye" looking down from the sky? I think we can safely conclude that they might well have understood the total solar eclipse to be a form of celestial allegory that signified the omniscience of their supreme deity.

The Serpent-Bird

"Herman Bouman's fig. 27 from 'Forgotten Gods' compares the Ocosingo and Tikal 'Serpent-Bird' symbols to the ancient Egyptian 'Winged Disk' symbol and in it he clearly indicates where, in his opinion, the head and/or tail of the serpent appears in them. It is noteworthy that Bouman refers to the fusion of the serpent and bird in this ancient and apparently ubiquitous solar symbol as a 'Mystical Marriage' since it is the mystical marriage of the Earth's sun and only moon during the total solar eclipse which originally inspired it. It is easy to understand how these two elements, serpent and bird, are so intimately interwoven in the symbolism of the total solar eclipse.

"The serpent was a creature that the ancient people associated with solar eclipses fora variety of reasons but perhaps the most universal reason for the snake to be associated with eclipses of the sun is that, because of its unique ability to dislocate its jawbone, it is one of the few creatures which is capable of swallowing another creature considerably larger than itself, thus it was perfectly logical for our ancient ancestors to assume that a gigantic cosmic snake was swallowing the sun during a solar eclipse. As the respected American archaeo-astronomer Dr. Anthony Aveni, describing the stone reliefs that are carved into the facade of the Temple of the Plumed Serpents at Xochicalco, in 'Ancient Skywatchers of Mexico', writes -

'The astronomically related relief decorations on this temple add to its distinction from surrounding structures. Here we see serpents swallowing the sun disk, an obvious allusion to eclipses.'

"It is known that our ancient ancestors imagined that a gigantic cosmic serpent was gradually swallowing the sun during a solar eclipse. This would have instilled an awful dread and even terror in them. When, at totality, this cosmic serpent had completely devoured the sun, and all seemed to be lost, with what they perceived to be a gaping black hole, or perhaps a blackened burnt-out ember, replacing the luminous disk of the sun in the sky, a radiant cosmic bird would suddenly burst into view surrounding the black disk in the sky and, to those observing this calamitous cosmic event in awe and terror, it might appear to be attacking the cosmic serpent who had just completely swallowed the sun. After several suspenseful minutes, which might have seemed to last for hours to the bewildered or even terrified observers of the solar eclipse, this ethereal cosmic bird of prey would vanish every bit as suddenly as it had flashed into existence, but at the very same moment the sun would be seen to be emerging from the 'hole in the sky' and, after several more highly suspenseful minutes, the refulgent orb of the sun would be completely restored to life and would continue in its regal daily course across the sky.

The "mystical marriage" between the serpent, also a Biblical symbol of Satan, and the bird, also a Christian symbol of the Holy Spirit, is to me one of the most beautiful and powerful ways to express my faith that good and evil share the same source and hence are one.

"The periodic resurrection of the phoenix bird from its ashes was often adduced as sure proof of the resurrection of the dead in general, according to authorities of the church. In A.D. 386, Cyril of Jerusalem proclaimed that God had created the phoenix in order to help men believe in the resurrection of Christ.

"First, I have clearly demonstrated that the overall appearance of the totally eclipsed sun does in fact bear a genuinely striking similarity in appearance to an eye in the sky. The readily perceivable 'hole in the sky' that is formed by the occulting disc of the moon constitutes the 'pupil' of this remarkable celestial oculus while the sun's corona, shining out all around the darkened lunar orb, forms the iris of this 'radiant divine eye'.

"Second, I have convincingly demonstrated that human beings have perceived this striking similarity of the totally eclipsed sun to an eye (human or otherwise) both now and in the remote and dimly remembered past. I have clearly shown that human beings have in the past regarded this phenomenal celestial "Eye of God" as a very significant "Sign in the Heavens", a celestial allegory of their sky god's divine omniscience, or even an actual visible manifestation of a sky-dwelling god.

"Third, I have presented convincing arguments that the ancient human perception that the totally eclipsed sun was in fact a 'radiant divine eye' has contributed in an extremely significant manner to the virtually universal concept of a supreme sky- dwelling deity who periodically looks down from its abode in the heavens to behold the world. I have argued that, through a simple process of transference from the total solar eclipse to the two celestial bodies whose conjunction it results from, this concept led to the all but ubiquitous ancient belief that both the sun and the moon were the sky-traversing 'eyes' of sky gods or even the Supreme Being.

"It should be abundantly evident to the reader that very concept of an omnipotent and omniscient Supreme Being, a God who is completely aware of what transpires in the world, has been significantly reinforced by the readily verifiable fact that the unique, and genuinely awe-inspiring, celestial phenomenon of the total eclipse of the sun bears a distinct and truly remarkable resemblance to a 'radiant divine eye'.

"The ultimate question that might remain to be answered in some people's minds would be whether the distinct similarity of the totally eclipsed sun to a 'radiant divine eye' (a similarity that is so striking that it even inspires modern astronomers to metaphorically refer to it as the "Eye of God") is a remarkable but completely meaningless "cosmic coincidence" that results solely from 'mere chance' (and is thus nothing more than a remarkable cosmic accident) or if this absolutely phenomenal correspondence between the macrocosm of the total solar eclipse and the microcosm of the human eye is in fact the result of divinely inspired intelligent design and creation. If the latter is true, the total solar eclipse must surely rate as one of the most spectacular pieces of concrete physical evidence for the existence of God. It would also constitute a veritable 'Sign in the Heavens', a creative expression of the Supreme Being that is fully intended by God, the Creator of the Universe, to hold profound symbolic significance for human beings.

"Those people who genuinely believe in an omnipresent and omniscient Creator of the Universe, and indeed those people who have undergone some variety of religious experience that has brought them from belief or faith in God's existence into the realm of direct personal experience of God, should have virtually no reason to doubt that the very precise correspondence in the apparent sizes of the Earth's sun and moon is by no means the variety of 'coincidence' or 'accident' that results purely from 'mere chance'. On the contrary, those people who believe in God have very good reason to be quite assured that the total solar eclipse not only results from "divine design" in the creation but that it is fully intended by God to resemble a 'radiant divine eye' in the heavens above our planet Earth. Such human beings may justifiably believe that the total solar eclipse's striking similarity to a human eye or "Eye of God" is intended to serve as a celestial allegory whose primary symbolic function is to remind humanity of God's divine omniscience.

"Perhaps the ultimate question that remains to be answered is whether or not the profound religious symbolism that is readily perceivable in the total solar eclipse is intentional or if it is simply the product of a 'mere chance coincidence'.

"On this point I will say only the following:

"An omniscient Creator could have avoided most of the profound symbolism that is clearly evident in the singular cosmic event of the total eclipse of the sun by creating a solar system in which the diameter of the Earth's only natural satellite was about five percent smaller than its present magnitude. The genuinely remarkable cosmic 'coincidence' that results in the angular diameter, and thus the apparent size, of the Earth's moon being virtually identical to that of the sun is either the result of a tremendously rare 'mere chance coincidence' or it is the result of remarkably intelligent 'divine design' which combines both an extraordinary flair for precision design and aesthetic proportion with profound allegorical symbolism on a cosmic scale. While I will leave it to the individual reader to draw their own conclusions about this, I will borrow a phrase from E. Walter Maunder and say that, 'If this be a mere chance coincidence it seems to me to be a most extraordinary one.'

^[1] 2001 was indeed the first year of the new millennium! Read this article about the dating of the beginning of millennia: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/millennium.html.

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