here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, 
here comes the sun, 
and I say it's all right . . .

                 —the Beatles

WINTER  SOLSTICE this year will be marked by a number of simultaneous celestial events. There will be a lot to see in the sky on December 20-21, which will be replete with a full moon, a total lunar eclipse, and the Ursid meteor shower. So it's definitely a time to wish upon a star—I'll start with the brightest and best—the unblinking sun at the center of our solar system.

NOT  SINCE  1638 (372 years ago) have Winter Solstice and a lunar eclipse coincided. The Solstice lunar eclipse will be visible starting in the early-morning hours of December 21st here in the Eastern United States (actually visible late tonight for the Western United States). So, you'll have to be a night owl or an early bird to view it. Visible from four continents, the best views are from North and Central America. It also may be seen in totality from northern and western Europe, some of northeast Asia, Hawaii, and New Zealand.

FROM  BEGINNING  to end, the eclipse will last about three-and-a-half hours. The sight can be spectacular, because refraction of the sun's light by the Earth's atmosphere will color the moon's surface unpredictably (depending on how much dust or the number of clouds in the sky). During past eclipses (see the video of a 2008 eclipse below) the moon has appeared a deep bronze, blood red or even a dark yellow.

WHAT  DO  THESE  celestial events mean in conjunction with Solstice? According to my astrologer friend Cathy Burroughs, this year's Solstice lunar eclipse has the capacity to be "profoundly transformative."  She recommends a reading to help guide you during this time of astrological upheaval and new direction. It certainly can't be a bad idea to get in touch with effects of the more cosmic aspects of the universe by which we are all connected to nature—even if only to view things more philosophically. 

ACCORDING  TO  information Cathy sent me, the Solstice lunar eclipse this year occurs at 29°21' degrees of Gemini with the Sun in Sagittarius, just five degrees from the Galactic Center which speaks of the global impact of its astrological significance on all of us. It is also interesting that aside from being the shortest day and longest night of the year, the sun's daily maximum daily position in the sky is the lowest. And as the days start lengthening and the nights get shorter, interpretation varies from culture to culture, but most hold a recognition of rebirth.

CELEBRATING  such a special Winter Solstice called for decorating my tree with sun ornaments I've collected over the years. Most of these are from the late-eighties and early nineties when all things celestial were all-the-rage in the market. Just as I dug through my past to collect all of these ornaments together again, I'm thinking from what I read and hear that a lot of old stuff will be dredged up by such a strong set of celestial events. After all, the tradition of the decorated tree began in the Old World as a pagan ritual to conjure up the return of the spring sun when the cold and seemingly lifeless winter months began each year. The warmth of spring always followed though, thanks to the sun.

IT  CAN'T  hurt to pay attention to our more humanistic connections with the cosmos and the natural world. The Earth, Moon and Sun influence everything from the birth of babies (more are born during the full moon), to when we plant and nurture our crops, aside from how long our days are throughout the seasons. The transformation marked by this year's coinciding cosmic events signify all that the holiday season is about. From the birth of Jesus as "the reason for the season," for a large part of the world's population, to simply believing in the the promise of the returning light of the sun. We're all connected to nature and the cosmos in the most profound way.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN | (Top) In the cold and sometimes dreary winter months, it certainly helps to think of the sun's warming rays and significance in our Earthly lives, as I have done with this collection of sunny ornaments. I wired fresh balsam fir evergreen branches to conceal a heavy wire tree form and shaped this custom tree that will hold a good number of heavier decorations.

FACING THE SUN | (Above) My widely-varied collection of sun ornaments were the inspiration for this golden tree full of sunny faces.
  

ALL  AGLOW | (Above) A symbolic harbinger of spring is represented by this clip-on bird with a long feather tail. It perches on a branch among a varied collection of ornaments that are direct or indirect reminders of the warmth of the sun.

RAY OF LIGHT | This glittery ornament serves as a spectacular tree topper and evokes the brightest star in our sky—the sun. It could also represent the night star that led the wisemen to Bethlehem.

DOE, A DEER | Alert at the base of the tree among the presents, are two deer purchased this season from Nandina Home & Design in Atlanta. Ornaments included from my collection shown in this photo range from hand made (like one of my favorites—the sculpted sun face surrounded by four metal rays) to a hand blown glass finial and traditional stamped metal, wood and mercury glass ornaments.

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE | (Added December 21, below) A brilliant time lapse of the December 21, 2010 total lunar eclipse illustrates its dramatic presence. I saw it progress until the clouds covered it just before the total eclipse (only a sliver of the moon was lit), so I didn't see the red/orange moon, but there were pinkish clouds in the sky from the refracted light of the sun. This morning's eclipse was brilliantly photographed by William Castleman in Gainesville, Florida. [©2010 by William L. Castleman, 1:10 AM EST (6:10 GMT) to 5:03 AM EST (10:03 GMT). Music is Claude Debussy Noctures: Sirènes]. Double-click on the image below to view widescreen or full screen on the Youtube website.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Photography, collecting and styling by Darryl Moland

twilight moon

THE  YEAR  I was born (1961), the song "Moon River" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was Audrey Hepburn's theme song in her role as Holly Golightly in the the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" adapted from the Truman Capote novel of the same name. I remember singing that song out loud when I was a little boy. I knew the lyrics by heart. Johnny Mercer wrote them using word imagery inspired by his childhood in Savannah, Georgia, which resonated deeply with this Southern boy. I grew up in a house on a bluff across from the Coosa river in Alabama and dreamed of "crossing it in style, someday."

A  FITTING end to summer and beginning of the autumnal equinox this year was the Super Harvest Moon. Usually, the Harvest Moon is the closest full moon to beginning of the fall season, but this year it actually coincides with the changing of seasons, making it "Super." It was 1991 when this last happened. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun set on the Western sky while the full moon rose opposite to it in the Eastern sky, creating a magical twilight that was illuminated by the sun and the moon at the same time, hence the name "Harvest Moon." It was named such because the farmers could harvest their crops by the light reflected by the moon from the sun. My photo below was taken after the moon had risen in the sky. I didn't make it to the park in time to see the gigantic, low-to- the-horizon Harvest Moon, which is due to a perceptual effect called the Moon illusion. Even so, as fall begins in the Northern Hemisphere, spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere.

HAVING  REDISCOVERED one of my all-time favorite tree decorations in storage a few weeks ago—a large hand-blown amber mercury glass moon face ornament—I photographed it in its singular beauty with a small branch from the large evergreen in the photo of the full moon below. I had never encountered this beautiful evergreen in a park I've been to on numerous occasions. Actually, I had a completely different blog post planned, but I felt this event had some sort of special significance.  

ACCORDING  TO my friend who is a psychic and astrologer, Cathy Burroughs, "this [lunar event] is an earth-shaking combination with the Sun and Saturn in Libra, Pluto and the North Node of Life Path in Capricorn, the South Node of past life gifts in security-minded Cancer, together with Full Moon in Aries with Uranus and Jupiter in Pisces is enough to tear us apart—hopefully to be reassembled in accordance with our higher evolutionary path." I don't know enough about astrology to make complete sense of all that, but it sounds like something quite out of the ordinary. According to Cathy, "it's a perilously, mercilessly rocky ridge around this bad boy."  

HERE'S  HOPING all this upheaval still signifies a fruitful harvest from the abundance the universe holds for all of us. And with the rarefied light reflected back gloriously by the full moon, this year's holiday magic begins!

MAN IN THE MOON | (Top) This beautifully evocative amber mercury glass ornament was hand blown and is quite large (about 5 1/2 inches in diameter). It was distributed by Department 56. I've had this ornament for well over a decade—it has always seemed to me to have such a serene personality and its face always reminds me of "my Huckleberry Finn" (Lowell, in the Polaroid picture at right, who lured me from my home state of Alabama to my life in Atlanta). Never failing to make me smile, we always hung this ornament on the trees we had together. Talking to him tonight at dinner, I came home afterward and photographed it. Lowell and I are still friends after a 6-year relationship back in the 90's. Being such a nester, I am still in Atlanta, but he—ever the adventurer—is now living in San Carlos, California with partner Frank.

TWILIGHT TREE | (Above) This evergreen tree frames the Super Harvest Moon after it has risen in the sky at twilight on September 22, 2010 at Freedom Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

©2010 DARRYL MOLAND | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

photography, collecting and styling by Darryl Moland,
photo of Lowell by unknown photographer