Tag: blood moon

The week of 8–14 September 2025

This week opens in the shadow of a total lunar eclipse, a long and emotionally charged Blood Moon that left its mark across much of the world. Eclipses act as turning points, and this one has surfaced deep reservoirs of feeling—grief, longing, unfinished business—and placed them into the collective arena. The coming days are not about gradual adjustment but about sudden closures, reckonings, and visible acts of care or defiance. The eclipse energy insists that what has been hidden can no longer be ignored.

With the Sun still travelling through Virgo, the attention turns to systems, details, and competence. Expect scrutiny of how institutions, governments, and aid networks respond to crises already unfolding—from natural disasters to conflicts that have left populations displaced. Where systems function, relief and order can be restored swiftly; where they fail, the eclipse magnifies the gap, forcing leaders to answer questions they would rather defer. This is a week when logistics and accountability matter more than rhetoric.

On the geopolitical stage, the eclipse sharpens signals. We may see sudden gestures—temporary ceasefires, humanitarian corridors, symbolic treaties—emerging as leaders attempt to ride the emotional current. Equally, some actors may take advantage of distraction to escalate conflicts. Both patterns are consistent with eclipse energy: revelation, disruption, and the attempt to seize narrative control. Nothing settled this week will be final, but the moves made now will carry weight in the weeks ahead as the solar eclipse and equinox approach.

For individuals, the advice is both practical and simple: act where you can make a tangible difference. Donations, direct aid, or local acts of solidarity will cut through more effectively than abstract words. On a personal level, the eclipse’s charge is best handled through ritual, memory work, and communal spaces that acknowledge both loss and resilience. This week is heavy, but it is also fertile ground for repair—private or public, individual or collective.

The lunar eclipse

image by Martin Adams
Image by Martin Adams

On the night of September 7, 2025, Earth’s only satellite, our moon, will glide into alignment with the Sun and our planet, entering a grand total lunar eclipse. As Earth casts its darkest shadow – the umbra – fully across the lunar surface, the full September Moon will take on a haunting, coppery-red glow, the phenomenon is commonly known as a “Blood Moon.” Unlike a solar eclipse that flashes by in minutes, this lunar event will unfold with dignified duration and atmospheric depth, inviting quiet contemplation rather than breathless exclamation.

The eclipse will commence with the penumbral phase as Earth’s faint outer shadow begins to dim the Moon, starting around 15:28 UTC. Gradually moving deeper, the Moon enters partial eclipse a little before 16:27 UTC, until at roughly 17:30 UTC, totality begins. At this moment, the Moon will be fully immersed in Earth’s umbra and its glowing face transformed by sunlight filtered through our atmosphere. This total phase will reach its apex at approximately 18:11 UTC and will linger for about eighty-three minutes, finally ending near 18:52 UTC, as the Moon emerges and begins the reverse shadow dance—partial eclipse until about 19:56 UTC and penumbral retreat completed by 20:55 UTC.

This eclipse is striking not only for its beauty but also for its astronomical rhythm. It belongs to the venerable Saros series 128, being the 41st of seventy-one eclipses, each spaced by approximately 18 years. It occurs when the full Moon lies near the ascending node of its orbit, slightly southward, with a gamma value of about –0.275, denoting the Moon passing somewhat south of the central line of Earth’s shadow. Its umbral magnitude, roughly 1.36, indicates that the Moon delves well into the shadow’s core.

In practical terms, this eclipse will be observed fully across vast expanses of our planet. Viewers in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia will witness the entire spectacle, while those in the Americas will unfortunately miss it altogether – this is an Eclipse of the Eastern Hemisphere. Astronomical visibility is generous: around 85 percent of the global population will see at least part of the total phase, with roughly 76 percent able to catch the entirety of totality, and about 60 percent afforded the full run of every phase from beginning to end.

For observers, the sight will be marvelously safe and accessible – no special eyewear is needed, unlike solar eclipses. With clear Eastern horizons, one might witness the waning silver face of the Moon darken gently and then deepen into burnished red as if glowing from within, before slowly emerging again into ordinary twilight.

And as an astronomical encore, this cosmic choreography is framed by an eclipse season: two weeks later, on September 21, 2025, Earth will experience a partial solar eclipse, neatly bookending the lunar event