Eclipses Like Ellipses

This morning, I got to see the lunar eclipse that was scheduled to take place before 5am. Luckily I had to  work today so it was a win-win for me. It's amazing how these things happen on occasion and that my goosebumps had goosebumps looking at a hugigantinormous moon peeking through my venetians. It was alsmost like an overdressed tween at a frat party, waiting to be recognized. Being alone on this freakishly cold and freakishly quiet December dawn, I have fallen conducively into a pensive state of mind. Imagine how meager we are and how small of a people we are trying in vain to make sense of the Universe. Observing this huge cosmic happenstance unfolding before me, making me feel so little, so clueless, so...human,  the chill (and the thrill) of a second-grader found me grasping at straws on the purpose of these things. Why do they happen?  Eclipses were in existence way before the Incas, and before the earliest, oldest Sumerian dogmas of the world and the laws that passed as "scientific". Mind you, even  before the suggestion of "ancient aliens" in existence as frequent visitors of the early civilizations. Imagine this phenomenon (eclipse) as a constant witness to all events infinite on Earth, through billions and billions of years before water was sparked the first sign of life, and before it became the basis of all life forms 4.2 billion years in the making. I'm puzzled, in awe, confused, and really just marveling all at the same time. Why is this happening? What is its purpose, in relation to our Earth and the current civilization we have? But more so, what is the significance of an eclipse? Beyond science, beyond fiction? Could ancient tribes have had used them as insignias to interpret certain influences on their culture, like cycles and rhythms and celebrations? I mean, the moon, especially during a lunar eclipse looks so elusive, so mysterious and since it has been a long-standing witness to the events on Earth, it does have that certain secrecy to it, which at the same rate brings that impression of infinity. Parang alam niya lahat ng sagot, alam niya lahat ng sikreto na nangyayari at nangyari na noon. I'm curious. Kaya ba sinasabi nilang "Itanong mo sa buwan?" Ha-ha!

Image has been almost entirely downscaled by my camera phone, cause you know BB's don't take the prettiest/most precise pictures, but that moon was hecka gigantic this morning. 

Back when I was still in college, one of my UP Professors in Broadcasting always reminded us that it was stupid to question a property [of nature]. So much so that to ask why the sun sets and rises is in fact a futile attempt at arriving at knowledge. "Because it IS a property. You don't question why it does that," he argued. But I think there's more to a phenomenon than a when, a how and a what. I think that all things both earthly and cosmic are synced, linked and conjoined to fit a bigger piece of mechanism that runs like clockwork. And maybe we're only looking at a measly portion of the puzzle. To anyone who could ever give me a hunch, an uneducated guess, kahit usapang lasing at hirit-space cookies, hit me up. I'm 401-friendly. Ha-ha.

I believe in reason, and that reason itself may just be perception, trying to own a part of your brain. But the Greeks were pretty progressive in using what "reason" they knew of in their age, interpreting meteor showers as Zeus' way of copulating with mortal women to produce demi-gods or demi-goddesses that gave birth to valiant heroes.I guess this hunger for interpretation is just the Greek in me (na sumobra sa yoghurt). It haunts me consistently, the fact that history may have answers to our present queries. That maybe to move forward we have to look back--and all that's left with me is an insatiable need for enlightenment. Of why things are, beyond science fiction, and science fact.

Take Perseus. The constellation of Perseus is depicted by the Greek as a figure of him in battle, victoriously owning Medusa's head in an outstretched arm. Part of the constellation is a really bright star, close to Medusa's head. The Greeks accounted this to represent the story of the Grey Sisters--the three old witches who Perseus had outwitted in order to get ahead in his game towards destroying Medusa. This star has a categorically unique "twinkling" in an off-set, rhythmic variation. Scientists say sometimes you see it shining ever so brightly, but then it goes out for several seconds, before you see it again. See, the Grey Sisters were all blind. They were only able to see by passing among them an eyeball and taking turns in "seeing". Since they have the vital  information that Perseus needed but they wouldn't volunteer it unsolicitedly, Perseus stole this "eyeball" of theirs for a brief moment until he had them give the information he needed, and then returned the eye just the same, ending their struggle for vision. Matching fact and fiction, the Greeks appointed the momentary loss of light from this bright star to the time of the legend, when Perseus stole their "eye" and they couldn't see. Naturally, they also attributed the shining of the star to when they were finally able see again, as Perseus surrendered possession of it. In other oral traditions, this off-set rhythmic "twinkling" was otherwise attributed to the general "sharing" of the eye among the three sisters. In other words, "now they see, now they don't."

Fable, folklore, fiction or farce, I know this is just an approximation to explain a certain phenomena that no one really knew how to explain. Still, what's the deal with an eclipse?        

Cause the freaky immortality of the moon is a matter of huge question to me. It knows all the secrets of the past, the present, and just histories we have left in the past, it will still stay on to see the secrets in our future.

Dot, dot, dot.