Name Your Dragon, Name Your Light

I was in high school the last time I remember it happening. Bored in Psychology class, we were let out onto campus in the eerily, near-totality grey light. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and while solar eclipses are fairly common, to be in the path where the sun is swallowed whole is a rare sight. We students wandered for a few minutes feeling as if the world we knew was not our own until, finally, the sun came forth again. While it was brief, it had an impact on me. I do not remember too many high school moments with such clarity, and this is one of them.

Here in the USA on August 21st we have a sweeping solar eclipse across the continent, starting off in Oregon and moving southeast, finally leaving us in South Carolina. Some places will have nearly 3 minutes of totality. Not be repeated for another 17 years.

Solar eclipses have played a fundamentally important role throughout human history, often portending God's displeasure--foretelling disease, famine, and general calumny. 
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Solar eclipses have also fueled scientific inquiry, helping to confirm Einstein's theory of relativity as well as understanding gravitational variations by large objects.

Pre-Enlightenment, many cultures thought that an eclipse meant that the sun was being actively swallowed. The Vietnamese believed the Sun was eaten by a frog for example, the Vikings: consumed by wolves, and the Chinese understood that the sun was being swallowed by a celestial dragon. 

Metaphorically, these stories are important to the human condition. It is interesting to me that cultures many, many miles apart developed similar mythological conclusions about a celestial event. As a tarot reader, narratives are important: they help us find the commonality of what it means to be human, and as humans, how we make meaning. 

So I propose a very simple two-card spread to celebrate and investigate what an inner eclipse feels like in your own spiritual and emotional landscape. 

Want to download and share? Feel free, here is a file for you to do just that.

​As always, I love your stories, tell me yours, what is the nature of your dragon, and what does he wish to hide?
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