Mar 1, 2008
The Eye Of God
I’ve been going through some of the stuff I wrote for Sunshine (I’m trying for a presenting job on the BBC and have been looking for examples of my writing). It’s been a while since I visited the site and was surprised and delighted by what I read. I wrote that?
Here’s a short one which was pretty cool.
The Eye Of God
Eclipse photos: Wendy Carlos
“I look up. Incredible! It is the eye of God. A perfectly black disk, ringed with bright spiky streamers that stretch out in all directions.”
Jack B. Zirker Astronomer Emeritus Sacramento Peak – National Solar Observatory
Since the beginning of human civilisation, people have connected the Sun with the eye of God.
Animation credit: Robin Edgar.
The right eye of the ancient Egyptian sky god, Horus, was the Sun. In Hindu mythology Surya , the Sun god, is called the eye of Varuna the god of the heavens. The Persian Sun god Mithras was believed to be the eye of Ahura Mazda, the creator god. The Greek god Helios was the god of the Sun as well as the god of Sight, and was portrayed as an eye with rays surrounding it. The Japanese Sun goddess Amaterasu was born from the left eye of Izanagi, the sky-father creator. The chief Norse god, Odin, gave his eye to Mirmir in order to acquire knowledge. His remaining eye was the Sun and is all-seeing and all-knowing. On the back of the American dollar bill there is an eye surrounded by rays of light floating in the sky above an unfinished pyramid. This is the Eye of Providence. As I’ve written before, light itself has been equated with knowledge.
When you see an image of an eclipse it’s not too difficult to see why people believed the Sun was the eye of God.
When you look into the Sun, what do you see?
production 
QR Code DVD 
the sun is the real eye of GOD because the sun see’s anything and kills
germs of any kind causing death of humanity.
I think I under stand it all now. thanks! As I myself will attempt to illustrate …tomorrow actually.
is it true that when the eye of god appears, the end of the world is near?
In the entirety of the 21st century, there will be 224 solar eclipses, 68 of which will be total. Which leads me to believe that there were a similar number in the 20th century, and almost certainly in the 19th. I could go on.
If they mean that the end of the world is near, then it’s pretty near all the time (so I guess you’re right, and Phil Plait possibly agrees with you – http://is.gd/6i7w – but the two things are certainly not linked.)
Hi Gia,
Long time to speak. ;-)
Some credit where credit is due, aka a little honest attribution, as to where you originally found that information would be appreciated. I know that you properly credited me on the Sunshine web site but I would ask you to do so here or anywhere else you share what you found on my eclipse lore web sites which are regrettably no longer extant.
You might want to read what I was in the middle of writing when I found this blog post of yours as a result of Googling “Jack Zirker” and “Eye Of God” in order to post an exact quote of what he said about the symbolic total solar eclipse “Eye of God”. You will find it on Andrew Brown’s blog on The Guardian website here -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/mar/10/religion-psychology
Regards,
Robin Edgar
“my eclipse lore web sites which are regrettably no longer extant”
Hence why there is no link to your site. :) If something no longer exists on the web and there’s no one around to hear it… etc etc Credit restored!
Hi GiaGia,
Just dropping a note to let you know that I am in the process of resurrecting significant bits and pieces of my “eclipsed” eclipse lore websites as blog posts on my new Eclipsology blog.
http://eclipsology.blogspot.com
I expect to add new material in blog post form in the coming weeks, months and years.
Regards,
Robin Edgar