Eclipses: Are You Superstitious?

A total lunar eclipse is just days away on April 15, 2014, and will be visible in North America. The totality phase will last 78 minutes, beginning at midnight west coast time and 3am on the east coast. 

This photo shows Lucien Rudaux's painting of how a lunar eclipse might look from the moon. The only sunlight is refracted through Earth’s atmosphere at the outer edges, causing the moon to look red.

This eclipse launches a cycle of four consecutive Blood Moons, known as a tetrad lunar eclipse series. Dates to watch for are April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015. To give you an indication of how rare tetrads are, there were none between 1600 and 1900. In this, the 21^st Century, there will be 9 sets of tetrads.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon, Sun and Earth are all aligned exactly, with Earth sandwiched between Moon and Sun. It can only happen when the Moon is full.

Some ancient cultures interpreted lunar eclipses as the moon being swallowed by an animal. For the Maya it was a jaguar, in Egypt it was a sow, and in China it was a three-legged toad. Others thought a demon swallowed the moon. The lunar eclipse was viewed as a portent of evil or disaster. Even today, many see it as a sign of doom. A prominent religious leader wrote such a book, saying this eclipse period is apocalyptic.

Ancient people were superstitious. It’s easy for us to say they didn’t know the science behind eclipses, but is that an accurate assumption? Look at the precision in such astronomical systems as the Maya calendar, which calculated planetary movements for hundreds of centuries into their future. The Dogon people of Mali, West Africa had a complex understanding of astronomy and stars, as did many others.

Here are some definitions according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary online:

ASTRONOMY: The scientific study of stars, planets, and other objects in outer space.

ASTROLOGY: The study of how the positions of the stars and movements of the planets have a supposed influence on events and on the lives and behavior of people.

ECLIPSE: The total or partial obscuring of one celestial body by another.

LUNAR ECLIPSE: An eclipse in which the full moon passes partially or wholly through the umbra of the earth’s shadow.

TETRAD: An occurrence of four total lunar eclipses in a row with intervals of six lunations (semester). (According to Wikipedia.)

The photo above shows the Blood Moon Eclipse that rose during the Fall of Constantinople, when the Byzantine capital fell to the Ottomans. The siege lasted from April 5, 1453 to May 29, 1453, and the eclipse was on May 22, 1453. It was considered a prophecy fulfilled at the time.

Most people have an opinion about eclipses, one way or the other. Do you see them as omens, purely scientific events, or a blend of the two? Even knowing the science behind them, you may still see them as omens.

I'm currently editing a story I began writing in 1998. The moon, eclipses and rare lunar events feature heavily... it takes place at a castle on an isolated island off the south coast of Ireland...

For authors, eclipses can add elements of suspense, danger, and paranormal excitement to our stories. Have you used an eclipse in any of your books?

GEMMA JULIANA is a multi-published author who lives in an enchanted cottage in north Texas with her handsome hero, brave teen son and a comical dog who is really a human in disguise. She loves making new friends and hearing from readers. Exotic coffee and chocolate fuel her creativity. She writes romance, mystery and suspense with a splash of the paranormal.

Gemma’s books are available on Amazon.  

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VILLAINS-HOW WE LOVE THEM

VILLIANS-HOW WE LOVE THEM


Who doesn’t love a villain? I love villains, both to read about and to write, especially to write. We authors can take our hidden aggressions out on our villains, make them do things we’d never do.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the heroes in my books. Really love them, as in fall in love with each one: Tom, Logan, Dominic, Nick, Daniel, Aiden, and all the heroes in my short stories.

Our romance heroes are larger than life - sexy, sweet, tortured, tough, sensitive - but always willing to sacrifice all for the women they love.

Not so with villains. Villains are out for themselves only. They care only about what others can do for them. What makes villains such fun to write is that we can project all sorts of nasty attributes to a villain and get away with it.

However, the best villains aren’t pure evil but multi-dimensional and contain enough humanity that the reader can say, “You know, he’s really bad, but I sort of understand why he’s doing what he does.”

On some level, we all know we have the capacity to slip into the darkness. Most of us don’t, of course. The villains are the ones who slipped. We look at them with a mixture of relief and gratitude, and a little bit of smugness. Thank God we have enough sense and strength to fight the darkness, we say.

Each of us has several sides to our personality, mostly good, some maybe not so good. The most well-known example of good versus evil is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A classic case of split personality where both decency and wickedness reside in the same person. This story has fascinated readers since Robert Louis Stevenson published it in 1886. Why does it fascinate? Because we can all relate to the fight within us, the fight between good and bad.

Remember the Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk splits into two distinct personalities - one wimpy, one horrific? A masterpiece.

Villains, no matter how evil, should have that glimmer of humanness that shows through at times. We can relate to a villain who is conflicted because we understand him and, on some level, sympathize.

I’ve never seen the TV show, “True Blood,” although I hear it’s good. I’m afraid of vampires which is why I don’t watch it. When I was talking with one of my writer friends about doing a blog article on villains, she mentioned Eric, the tall blond vampire on “True Blood,” as an excellent example of a conflicted villain. He wants the heroine Sookie for himself, and he’s contemptuous of humans. But he has a tender side. He cries tears of blood for his maker. Viewers watch him and wonder if the love of a good woman can redeem him. But then he’ll turn around and do something twisted, like when he tricked Sookie into taking some of his blood. Good conflict and suspense that keep people glued to the TV or to a book.

I’ve tried to give my villain characters some redeemable values. The villain in my romantic suspense, “Logan’s Redemption,” is out to kill my heroine and destroy her father. But in his mind, he’s feels he’s justified. Decent people don’t commit murder to settle scores. But we like to read about others who take that drastic step. It allows us to touch our dark sides vicariously and to know we’re better than someone who commits evil.

The villains in my romantic suspense novella, “Murder, Mi Amore,” don’t have many redeeming values. These villains are very nasty people, motivated to find a stolen diamond before some even nastier terrorists come after them. I made them bad and violent, driven only by the real human desires for money and power, and propelled by fear and self-preservation.

The villain in my paranormal romance, “Cursed Mates,” is a demon. Now, that’s about as evil as you can get. But this demon fell from grace and made a bargain with the devil because of his love for a lady. As a demon, he cursed his political and love rival to life as a werewolf. My demon loved this lady so much that 500 years later, he’s still tortured by her rejection and determined to kill the man who stole her from him. I tried to give him a flicker of humanity, to make him multi-dimensional. My werewolf hero in that story is dark and tormented too. He’s fought for 500 years to stave off the darkness in his soul, and he’s slipping, but he continues the fight. The demon gave in to the darkness. Most of us, like my werewolf hero, fight the shadows. Still, we love reading about the ones who slipped into the abyss.

Can you think of some classic baddies you’ve loved despite yourself?