Solar eclipse 2024: Religious beliefs behind the event
The upcoming solar eclipse can evoke all kinds of emotions. It's so powerful, it's bringing together people from different cultures, religions and beliefs.
Solar eclipses have occurred since the beginning of time. They used to prompt fear that God was bringing darkness because he was disappointed with people's actions.
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"The earliest recorded eclipses that we can date are basically those from the petroglyphs. It's true that when you look at those paintings and so forth, you can't help but feel that they are in awe of what is happening," says Dr. David Cook, a religious professor at Rice University.
He has a diverse background as a Christian who studied in Jerusalem for almost a decade and now teaches Islam.
"People are looking for signs, and they like to make those type of associations. The fact about cosmological events is sometimes, especially for a believer, they can feel like the hand of God is upon them, and so it's possible to come up with interpretations," explains Dr. Cook.
He says he doesn't believe most of them, although many religions do take notice.
"When you look at Muslim sources, solar and lunar eclipses are frequently mentioned," says Dr. Cook.
Hernan Castano is a Pastor of Rios de Aceite with his wife and serves on the Houston Area Pastor Council.
"I think we cannot avoid or ignore the fact that God does speak to us, based on the science of Heaven. It kind of reminds us of when the Lord told Abraham to look up into the stars to tell him how He was going to make a great nation. So, signs in Genesis, we find God made the stars and everything that's in Heaven, as signs for us on Earth to see," says Pastor Castano.
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He has been sharing information with his congregation about the path of solar eclipses. Many cities in the path of totality for the eclipse this month are mentioned in the Bible, like Jonah, Ninevah, and terms like rapture.
"It's very interesting. It's very deep, and I do believe by the scriptures and by what has happened in the past, that this is definitely a sign for America, from God Himself," says Pastor Castano.
If X marks the spot this year, the partial solar eclipse in October and the current one land on Little Egypt, in southern Illinois. Egypt is one of the most mentioned locations in the Bible and little Egypt is near the New Madrid fault line. That has theorists predicting earthquakes around the time of the eclipse and some believe this would be God rattling the earth to get our attention.
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Absolem Yetzirah owns a spiritual shop in Houston. He believes this is one of the most unique times in our nation, bringing us all together.
"I get several people from different backgrounds: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, people who are agnostic, or they come from another monotheistic religion. From them, I always get the same thing! It's a sign, it's a sign of things to come," states Absolem.
He grew up with a Christian and Jewish background and owns Absolem's House of Voodoo. He hopes the solar eclipse unites our community. He believes it's a time to pause to think about alignment in our own lives, and to appreciate our lives, as the sun and moon align.
"When we look at it in a spiritual aspect and a religious aspect, it's the wonderment of the world and universe. If we believe in a Divine Creator and we believe the Divine Creator has put everything on this divine clock, then the eclipse, which is the movement of these big celestial bodies that have their own times and orbits, they're coming together in this perfect alignment. There are certain things that are sort of beyond our control and things that maybe we shouldn't take for granted, things as basic as the sun may rise, because for a limited time, it's not going to be there. What if it wasn't and we could extrapolate that and say the same thing about taking that lesson and applying it to our relationships in our family? We could look at that as a reminder not to take them for granted every day, because they could be gone tomorrow," says Absolem.
Regardless of beliefs, everyone we talked to agrees, a solar eclipse is one of the best space experiences anyone can witness, while actually on Earth.
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