I had the opportunity to witness the 8 April 2024 solar eclipse in its totality. By sheer chance, my position was under the exact center of the path of the eclipse as it passed through the area I traveled to, such that totality lasted just over four minutes. I managed to remember to snap a decent photo (above), and experiencing the event made the visual imagination beneath several familiar biblical and parabiblical texts feel much more real.
Isaiah 13.10, 13
the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. […] and the earth will be shaken out of its place
Mark 13.24–25
But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Revelation of John 6.12–14
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.