Warning from Horatio
“A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.”
- Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1.1.113-21)
“and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.”
Shakespeare’s era had ties to the celestial happenings. Noted before, the prevailing sentiment was that “an eclipse would portend no good,” to mangle a marginal notation from The Tragedy of King Lear.
I’ve used that speech from Gloucester, in King Lear, over and over, as a jumping off point, as an introduction, and as summation, plus it speaks to prevailing attitude about the effect of eclipse, one that’s ground into the very marrow of our bones.
The series of eclipse, clearly visible in — literally — my back yard?
What that means? According to some, it spells doom and gloom, and the end is near. To me, it looks the the launch of new cycle, albeit, a new cycle that gets off with tensions and emotions running high, close to the manic and panic side whereas the actual material is still subsumed.
- Political Analysis & Shakespeare
- March 2016 eclipse season
- King Lear in performance
- As an introduction
With a reference to Shakespeare’s own Julius Caesar therein?
“A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun;
The deep red color of the full eclipse? A frightened populace? Perfect Halloween symbolism, too, just observing.
Warning from Horatio
Two of my own observations, from doing this for a few years.
- Predicting bad things will happen never goes out of style. There will always be some self-fulfilling prophecy, “See? I told you it was bad.”
- The Sun, basic self, and the Moon, the emotional self, when those two tangle up? Emotional content frequently overrides the rational mind.
The two, obvious to me, variations on the second? Two expressions easily come to mind.
- “Seemed like a good idea a the time.”
- “What harm could befall us.” (“What could possibly go wrong?”)
Unpacking this in connection with the eclipses up ahead, and then long eclipses season we’re all headed towards, and for me, especially in my own backyard?
Look for trouble, and some will surely find you. Simple as that. Look for a problem and problems will arise. The very nature of an eclipse, a super-new moon? It makes steady foundation items feel less secure. Rattle what we believe. Bothersome, at best. Troubling, to some, but not a killer, in final analysis because the Moon’s phase shifts in a few weeks.
However, in this example, what we’re in at the moment?
“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon”
Juliet in R&J (2.2.190)
It feels like it will be forever. Hence the problem.
Total Eclipse Oct. 14, partial Oct. 28.
Blood Moon, and a Friday 13th.
Horoscopes by Kramer Wetzel
Stay tuned:
