It’s an eclipse. No conspiracy theories needed
So we had a total eclipse of the sun last week (depending on your location and cloud cover). For most people, wearing protective eyewear, it was an awe-inspiring sight. For others, despite our modern age and the evidence of science, it caused anxiety, fear and, of course, conspiracies.
One American far-right movement claimed the eclipse was a sign of the end-times. (How far right do you have to be before you fall off the edge of the world?) Their belief is nothing new; it goes back thousands of years. Primitive humans also thought eclipses meant the end-times. For example, the Aztecs sacrificed fair-skinned people, captives and door-to-door salesmen to ward off the impending apocalypse, while mobs succumbed to crying, shrieking and terror.
On the popular TV show “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, a lawyer, opined that the confluence of the eclipse, the 4.8 earthquake that recently hit New York City, and the upcoming explosion of cicadas, were all due to climate change. Either that, or “something biblical” (eg: foreshadowing the end of the world).
Other conspiracy theories predicted major thunderstorms along the path of totality, or earthquakes. (Why not aliens landing during the brief period of total darkness? If they were shape-shifters, who could tell the difference from the humans they replaced? I have suspicions about some of my neighbours …)
One deluded American woman, a self-styled “astrological influencer,” was so overcome by eclipse anxiety that she threw her two children from her moving car onto a freeway where, tragically, one child, an infant, died.
Some folks resolutely stayed indoors with curtains closed, again an ancient practice. Many other people, especially those gathered outside to view the celestial event, made loud noises (harking back to olden times, when loud noises were believed to scare mythical creatures away).
Across all cultures and belief systems, dating back to prehistoric times (yes, before flush toilets), eclipses caused awe, anxiety, fear and panic. A stampede to buy and hoard toilet paper often occurred, a common human fear response.
Early folklore (eg: conspiracies) maintained eclipses meant the gods were angry with us, causing the sun to abandon the earth. In fact, the word eclipse comes from the Greek word meaning abandonment.
In ancient China, a total eclipse meant celestial dragons were attacking and devouring the sun. The emperor had to avoid meat and perform certain rites to rescue the sun.
Norse folklore (conspiracy) believed the mischievous god Loki loosed his two giant sky-wolves to swallow the Sun.
Nowadays, there were concerns that dogs and cats may exhibit fear and confusion prior to and during the eclipse, by hiding, howling, pacing, panting, and watching daytime TV soaps. People owned by pets were urged to keep them indoors, lest they look at the sun and go blind. But what about wild animals? Did they look? If so, did they go blind? Do we now have legions of blind squirrels and chipmunks with white canes, tap-tapping their way across tree branches?
Another time-worn superstition (conspiracy) dealt with pregnancies, such as: expectant mommas should not touch metal during an eclipse, or their child would have birth defects. The Old Farmers Almanac stated that children born during an eclipse would turn into mice.
That same Almanac advised people to wear a red ribbon or underwear to ward off an eclipse’s “negative energy.” Those old farmers knew their stuff.
My last word on this heavenly topic comes from a DQ restaurant’s roadside sign: “It’s eclipse, not apocalypse. Relax.”