The Sun and the Snake: Mythology of the Eclipse
Tags: Astronomy, Lunar Nodes, Eclipse, Mythology, Astrology

Ancient peoples on every corner of the globe used mythology to record and explain natural phenomena on the Earth, and in the skies. Among the most shocking of these patterns is the Total Eclipse of the Sun. As the most consistent, reliable feature of reality, the disappearance of the Sun from the daytime sky still absolutely dazzles people who know what the heck is happening, and even precisely when and where. It’s easy to image our ancestors absolutely freaking out as it was blotted out above. But we might also guess that it, more than perhaps anything else, drove the curiosity of homo sapiens to seek to understand the whys of our world.

While we usually discuss myths of the Moon for About That Moon Life, it’ll take a bit of a different role in today’s stories. Of course, each pantheon had their own individual quirks, but across era and culture, the Solar Deities of the world’s mythology struggled with Serpentine adversaries, and we can see this common narrative thread used to represent Solar Eclipses.

India: Rahu and Ketu

We’ll begin with the Samudra Manthan from India, both because it is among the oldest recorded, and because of how precisely it represents the Astronomy of eclipses. Even many Western astrologers refer to the nodes of the Moon by their Vedic names, and the Vedic tradition has been able to track those mathematical points for a mind-bogglingly long time. The Hindu religion is extremely complex and intricate, but for this story you just need to know that the Devas are the more benevolent God-like beings, while the Asuras are their power-seeking opponents.

As the story goes, in ancient history the Devas and Asuras existed among a gigantic milky ocean, and together they worked to churn it for promised treasures. After eons of working the liquid, and after terrible poison and various delights had emerged, they finally discovered what they had all been looking for: the amṛta, a nectar of immortality.

With the help of Vishnu, one of the Supreme beings of Hinduism, who distracted the Asuras, the Devas were able to keep the nectar amongst themselves alone. But the most cunning Asura did not fall for the deception. In a disguise of his own, he entered the procession of the Gods. It was the Sun god Surya and the Moon god Chandra who noticed something was wrong, and called Vishnu for help. She hurled her discus cutting the head off the Asura, but not before a drop of the nectar had touched his tongue.

The Creation of Rahu

Having achieved a partial immortality, the severed head and the body became the shadow planets called Rahu and Ketu, respectively. And now as revenge for their revealing him all those eons ago, he lies waiting in attempt to swallow the Sun or Moon whenever he has the opportunity. He always fails however, as the luminaries are able to pass from his severed throat unscathed.

Egypt: Ra and Apophis

The story from Egypt is quite similar, though perhaps more archaic. After millenia as the ultimate ruler of ancient Egypt, Ra began to show his age, and retired as pharaoh to conduct the business of guiding the barque of the Sun full-time. This job had two distinct sections; the more obvious daytime portion of his ride as he passed through the heavens, and the nighttime section where the Egyptians believed he physically died and had to pass through the underworld to make his way back to the East for Dawn. Many dangers awaited him in this midnight sojourn, but the most ominous of these was the god known as Apep.

Apep, or in Greek Apophis, was most often depicted as a massive cobra and associated with Chaos, the natural opposite to the Light of Truth the Sun illuminated. Some believed him to be an even more ancient God of the Sun, usurped by Ra, and therefore hell-bent on seeing his failure. Other stories say he was born from Ra’s own umbilical cord, a more symbolic message suggesting that the duality of light and darkness must coexist. In any case, Apep waged a nightly attack on the solar-barque by attempting to ingest it whole.

There is evidence that the Egyptians practised both daily prayer and more involved yearly rituals in order to assist in Ra’s task and keep Apep at bay. Depending on the source, Ra also employed the help of several other Gods at different times to help on his journey, the most notable being Set (a punishment for killing his brother Osiris, after nephew Horos retook the throne). Every once in a while, Apep would succeed in swallowing the Sun, but Ra would transform into the natural enemy of the snake, a cat, to cut his way out of the beast, along with Set’s spear.

Here again, we have beautiful imagery for the Total Eclipse of the Sun in the plot-points of this myth. While Apophis is less directly connected to the North and South Nodes of the Moon, I do find it interesting and fitting that the markings of the Cobra so closely resemble their astrological symbols. Apophis 99942 is also the name of the asteroid who is most likely to hit Earth in the next 100 years, an event that would definitely create chaos. (But don’t worry, even the “most likely” case is very tiny, and Apophis is not large enough to cause an cataclysmic event like extinction).

Greece: Apollo and Python

The Greek Olympian of the Sun is Apollo, who was the son of Zeus and the titaness Leto. As that name is not Hera, you can probably guess that she was less than thrilled about this. Upon hearing about the pregnancy, Hera cursed Leto to not be able to give birth on “solid ground’’, forbade the Goddess of childbirth Eileithyia from assisting in Leto’s labors, and sent the serpent-dragon named Python to pursue her.

Once Leto had finally found shelter on the floating island of Delos, and the other Goddesses had helped free Eileithyia to help, Artemis of the Moon was born first, followed by her twin Apollo. As gifts for his bastard but nonetheless glorious children, Zeus commissioned divine craftsman Haephestus to make them the finest of all Bows and Arrows. This act had a long-term effect on Artemis as she would devote her life to the art of the Hunt and archery. But for Apollo, there was a much more immediate cause for use, and as an infant he set out to avenge the terrorization of his mother by their serpentine pursuant.

Python was a child of Gaia, guarded the entrance to her domain, and possessed the gift of prophecy. It was actually a vision of his own death at the hands of Leto’s son which had ended his pursuit of her, and driven back to his home in Delphi. The infant Apollo wasted no time fulfilling this fated encounter, and slew the beast with a 3-arrow shot that pierced its mouth, eye, and neck. Upon his victory, he gained dominion over the ream of prophecy, and established his famous Oracle.

Though python is again not specifically tied to the Nodes like Rahu and Ketu, I it is interesting to regard the similarity between Python’s domain of divination and seeing the future, as the North Node is also associated with one’s future in a natal chart.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — —

If you think about it, we are quite lucky to live in a place and time when Eclipses occur at all. It is quite an amazing and random coincidence that our star and sadelite are proportionally the same apparent size (due to actual size and distance) and even on Earth, the Total variant will disappear in around 600 million years, after which only Annular Solar Eclipses will be possible. While the ancients regarded the phenomenon with dread and superstition, the light of Science has made clear many of the shadowy unknowns that made metaphor necessary, and given us better understanding of how it happens. But, at least from my perspective, the intricacies of how only cause more questions of why to pique my curiosity.

The next Total Solar Eclipse of the Sun will take place on December 14, 2020, visible over the South American continent, with both the Sun and Moon conjunct the South Node (Ketu).