Mass of the Blood Moon Eclipse 2026

 

Lunar Eclipse, photo by Howard Brannen

The Lunar Eclipse will be happening tonight, Thursday, August 27.......it will be what is called a "blood moon" eclipse because of it's copper colored effect.  Here in Arizona (MST) we can witness the eclipse at 7:30– Partial eclipse, and by 9:00 PM it will be the maximum eclipse  showing the dark reddish-brown hue.  By 11:00 it will be finished.  

Poet Denise Levertov imagined the Eclipse as not a phenomena, but as a  Mass, a celestial event that moves us all in its orbit into the sacred, and the mystic.  

MASS OF THE MOON ECLIPSE

Not more slowly than frayed human attention can bear, 

but slow enough to be stately, deliberate, 

a ritual we can't be sure will indeed move

from death into resurrection.

As the bright silver inch by inch 

is diminished, options vanish,

life's allurements. 

the last silver lies face down, back hunched, a husk.

But then, obscured, the whole sphere can be seen

to glow from behind its barrier shadow: 

bronze, unquenchable, blood-light. 

And slowly,

more slowly than desolation overcame, 

overtook the light, the light

is restored, outspread in a cloudless pasture of

spring darkness where firefly planes

fuss to and fro,

and humans turn off their brief attention

in secret relief.

No matter:  the Rite contains its power, 

whether or not our witness rises toward it;

grandeur plays out the implacable drama

without even flicking aside our trivial absence, 

the impatience with which we fail to respond.

                And yet

we are spoken to, and 

we do stop, do, 

do give ourselves leave

to listen, to watch.  The moon,

the moon we do after all love,

is dying, are we to live

on a world without moon?

We swallow a sour terror.  

Then that coppery sphere, no-moon

become once more

full-moon, visible in absence.

And still without haste,

silver increment by silver increment,

the familiar, desired, disregarded brilliance

is given again,

given and given.

 

Denise Levertov, "Mass of the Moon Eclipse"

from This Great Unknowing:  Last Poems, 

1999, New Directions Press

 

A Blessing by John O'Donohue

Ten years ago I passed this poem/Blessing on to a friend on the occasion of her birthday.  My own birthday passed just a few days ago, and this poem by the Irish poet and visionary came again to mind.  This time I would like to pass it on to everyone.  

**************************

 I bless the night that nourished my heart

To set the ghosts of longing free

Into the flow and figure of dream

That went to harvest from the dark

Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me

Welcomes the wonder of this day.

The field of brightness it creates

Offering time for each thing

To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:

The quiet loyalty of breath.

The tent of thought where I shelter.

Waves of desire I am shore to,

And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today

To the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers,

To break the dead shell of yesterdays,

To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love.

To postpone my dream no longer

But do at last what I came here for.

And waste my heart on fear no more.

….John O'Donohue


"Beauty isn’t just nice loveliness. Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming.  I think beauty is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life."  ......John O'Donohue

 interview with John O'Donohue 
on the Landscape of Inner Beauty with Krista Tippett of On Being

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Beauty is before me

Beauty is behind me

Beauty is below me

Beauty is above me

Beauty is all around me

Beauty comes from within me

In beauty, I walk

It has become beauty again

Navajo (Diné) prayer, often referred to as the

"Beauty Way" prayer (Hózhóogo naasháa doo)

the Night Blooming Cereus

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

 

Once again, it was my pleasure and privilege to visit the MENDOCINO COAST BOTANICAL GARDEN in Northern California, and to see the Dalia Garden in full bloom!  This profusion of flowers are absolutely amazing, each bloom a work of nature's art.  I wish I had time to paint even a few of them, to explore that brilliant color and divine symmetry that each offers to life.  Here are a few of them..........

  

 

 

 

   

Well worth a visit if you are on the Northern California Coast!

Quon Yin and Spirit

     

"Kuan Yin, Goddess of  Mercy for all suffering beings, please come to me here and now. You Who hear the cries of the World and do not turn away,  hear also me in my need.  Pour out upon me,  and upon the world, the healing waters of your love.  Flood us with its Light.  In you, I seek refuge, in Your example, I seek the same within me.  Show us Your ters of your love and goodness, and flood us with its light. In you I seek refuge, show us your Great Compassion."

I recently met a lovely young woman who came to see my work.  I showed her several works I've done dedicated to Quon Yin, the Chinese Goddess of compassion, and asked if she would let me take a photo of her for a possible future painting of Quon Yin.  She held vase to symbolize the healing waters Quon Yin is usually portrayed with, and these are the three photos I took.

I was amazed when I looked at them later.  The second photo shows violet and rainbow bands around her hands and forehead.  The third photo............amazing.  It shows a beautiful "halo" around her head! There are also light bands around her hands or the jar she is holding, as well as a blue shape in the lower right of the photograph.  

I did nothing to manipulate this photograph.  I've had other such phenomena in the past when working with sacred archetypes or theatre - and when it happens, I feel it's an Blessing of some kind, and an indication that we are not alone.  Here I share this because I believe it's to let any who see it know that the compassion and healing energy of Quon Yin, of the Goddess, the Divine Feminine is active in the world, and with us. 

In Mahayana Buddhism Quon Yin is revered as a Bodhisattva, an Enlightened One, who refused to enter the divine realms and vowed instead  to remain until all living beings could also attain enlightenment.  Not unlike the Blessed Mother Mary of Christianity, it is Quon Yin Who "Hears the cries of the world", Quan Yin who is prayed to for healing, for aid at times of fear or suffering. She is often shown carrying a rosary of pearls, known as the "Pearls of Illumination"  and shown carrying healing water, the Water of Life.  Just as the Virgin Mary is virtually everywhere throughout the art and iconography of the Christian world, the Mother - so is Quan Yin's image  - sometimes She is shown as the "Goddess with a thousand arms", each hand  bearing wisdom tools, aid and healing to those in distress and need.