Wizard Weekly by Daniel Giamario | August 7 2026 |
This Wizard Weekly comes early, and by the time it gets published, I will already be en route to Spain or even have arrived in the Basque Country. So here are just a few quick notes about several interesting things I recently discovered that I was quite entertained by.
Are You An Umbraphile?
Having seen totality during Solar Eclipses three times so far, along with uncounted Lunar Eclipses, I have described myself as an “eclipse junkie” on many occasions. Thus I was indeed entertained when I came across an article in Sky and Telescope magazine, letting us know that there is actually a condition called “umbraphilia”. In literal terms it means “shadow lover”! And an “umbraphile” being someone who loves eclipses and often travels to see them. Well, that be I! If you ever see one, you are likely to be hooked.
Exeligmos
I also learned about a thing so rare that it’s nearly impossible to do. There is a Greek term, exeligmos, that means “turning of the wheel”. For an umbraphile to complete an exeligmos, they would have to see four successive eclipses of the same Saros. An eclipse in the same Saros that occurs every 54 years and about 33 days repeats with similar characteristics as the first one, in a similar location on the Earth. Here are the dates of this current Solar Saros:
Saros126
June 30, 1954
July 10, 1972
July 22, 1990
August 1, 2008
August 12, 2026
August 23, 2044
All have around 2 minutes of totality.
For me to have done it, I would have had to start at age 6 or age 24, and see the special fourth one at age 60 or 77. Very few umbraphiles have ever done this!
What Experience Might This South Node Eclipse Bring?
As we are now in a post-KaliYuga age, I am really excited and curious to see what our group experience with this imminent eclipse will be. TOTAMS had an event in Ohio for the August 8 2024 Solar Eclipse, before the Aries Equinox 2025 end of Kali Yuga. At that time, all of us experienced a profound heart-opening, without shadow expressions arising in our group of 22! Read more reflections about this here. That was a North Node Eclipse. This year in Spain, it is a South Node eclipse.
Stay tuned for a report!
You may also want to read Susan DeRyder’s article covering this Leo New Moon / Total Solar Eclipse.
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