Becoming The Muse

A blood moon is the dramatic red glow of the moon during a total lunar eclipse.

It happens when Earth’s shadow completely covers the full moon, filtering sunlight and scattering blue light through our atmosphere and turning the lunar surface deep red or coppery brown, which gives it the name blood moon.

A lunar eclipse of some kind (partial, penumbral, or total) happens about 2 to 5 times a year. A total lunar eclipse specifically is less frequent, occurring roughly once every 2.5 years at any given location on Earth.

In Zimbabwe, such an astronomical event is known as mwedzi waora in Shona, meaning the moon is spoiled or rotten. It carries deep cultural, spiritual, and symbolic significance, often viewed not merely as celestial event, but as moments of mystery, transformation, and caution with the red hue associated with an impeding calamity, bloodshed or ancestral wrath. Some traditions see the eclipse as part of the cycle of renewal, the Moon “dying” and being “reborn” symbolising fertility, transition, or change, especially for agriculture and seasons.

While modern science explains eclipses as natural celestial events, the cultural memory of their significance still carries weight in Zimbabwean heritage.

The next total lunar eclipse after the 7^th  September will occur in March 2026, and will be visible from North America, as well as Asia, Australia, and Pacific regions.

Whenever there’s an eclipse event, I think about how my grandmother stayed indoors during a Total Solar Eclipse, 25 years ago because “officials” had gone round announcing that anyone who was touched by the eclipsed sunlight would die…

I suppose whoever was in charge of the awareness campaign decided that was the simplest and easiest message to push, than trying to explain how one shouldn’t look directly at the sun without adequate protective gear nor explain on home-made alternatives one could use to view the eclipse.

No one in the village went outside the whole day of the eclipse.