There are some things I notice only after they’ve already begun.
This year, apparently, eclipse season was one of them.
Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself making crescent moons. Photographing the sky. Thinking about phases, shadow and light. Releasing new pieces centred around a shape I’ve been drawn to for years.
And only afterwards did I realise we were right in the middle of eclipse season.
I loved the coincidence of that.
Not because I think every creative decision needs some cosmic explanation. Sometimes we are simply drawn towards things.
But every now and then, the timing makes you stop and wonder.
What actually is eclipse season?
Despite the name, eclipse season isn’t an astrological invention.
It’s an astronomical event.
The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly tilted, which means the Sun, Earth and Moon don’t line up perfectly every month.
Around twice a year, however, the geometry shifts into alignment.
For a period of roughly 35 days, the Moon passes through the points in its orbit where eclipses can occur.
That period is known as eclipse season.
Usually, there will be at least two eclipses during one season: one solar and one lunar.
And that is exactly what is happening in August 2026.
When is eclipse season in 2026?
This eclipse season contains two significant events.
12 August 2026 — Partial Solar Eclipse
On 12 August, a total solar eclipse travelled across parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and a small part of Portugal.
Here in the UK, we experienced it as a partial solar eclipse.
For a short while, the Moon moved between Earth and the Sun, obscuring much of the sunlight reaching us.
I went out to watch it from a local dark sky reserve in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
There was something very different about seeing it happen in real time rather than simply knowing it was happening somewhere above me. Watching the light change. Waiting for the Moon to move across the Sun. Being outside specifically to witness something that would have happened whether I was there or not.
I stayed afterwards for the meteor shower too.
That probably sums up why these moments mean so much to me. Not because I think they need to carry some grand message, but because they pull me out of ordinary life for a while and remind me to look up.
Sometimes the wonder is simply in witnessing it.
28 August 2026 — Partial Lunar Eclipse
Then, just over two weeks later, the relationship reverses.
On 28 August, Earth moves between the Sun and Moon and part of Earth's shadow falls across the lunar surface.
This partial lunar eclipse will be visible from the UK.
Which means, as I’m writing this, we are sitting quite literally between the two.
The solar eclipse has passed.
The lunar eclipse is still to come.
There’s something rather beautiful about that in-between space.
Why have eclipses fascinated us for so long?
Long before we understood their astronomy, eclipses must have been extraordinary things to witness.
The Sun disappearing in daylight.
The familiar face of the Moon becoming darkened by shadow.
Something reliable suddenly behaving in an unfamiliar way.
Across cultures and throughout history, people created stories to explain what they were seeing.
Some interpreted eclipses as omens. Others associated them with kings, gods, animals, battles or great periods of change.
We understand the mechanics now.
But I don’t think understanding something necessarily removes the wonder from it.
If anything, knowing that three enormous celestial bodies have moved into such precise alignment makes the whole thing feel even stranger.
What does the eclipse mean spiritualy?
This is where astronomy ends and interpretation begins.
There is no scientific evidence that an eclipse causes emotional change, transformation or particular events in our lives.
But humans have always used the natural world as a way of thinking about our own experiences.
And eclipses offer unusually rich symbolism.
They are moments when something normally visible becomes obscured.
Light and shadow move across one another.
What feels fixed changes temporarily.
And then it returns.
Because of this, eclipse symbolism is often associated with ideas such as:
- change and transition
- revelation
- endings and beginnings
- shadow and illumination
- letting go
- periods of uncertainty
- seeing something from another perspective
Not because the eclipse necessarily makes these things happen.
More because it gives us a language for thinking about them.
That distinction matters to me.
The moon doesn’t need to control our lives to remind us of something about them.
Solar eclipse meaning
During a solar eclipse, the Moon temporarily passes between us and the Sun.
Something small enough to hold in our field of vision obscures something unimaginably larger.
Symbolically, that has often lent itself to ideas around interruption, perspective and the temporary obscuring of what normally feels certain.
I like the word temporary here.
The Sun hasn’t disappeared.
For a moment, we simply cannot see all of it.
There are probably parts of life that feel like that too.
Lunar eclipse meaning
A lunar eclipse happens differently.
Earth moves between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow across the lunar surface.
Because the Moon is so often associated with cycles, the passing of time and changing phases, lunar eclipses have frequently become symbolic of release, culmination and transition.
Perhaps that is why they feel particularly connected to the Full Moon.
Not an ending in the dramatic sense.
More like recognising that something has completed its cycle.
The strange timing of my crescent moons
This is the part that made me smile.
I’ve been creating new crescent designs recently without consciously connecting them to eclipse season at all.
The crescent has always interested me because it isn’t the whole story.
It’s neither darkness nor full illumination.
It exists somewhere between the two.
A phase.
A glimpse.
Evidence that something is changing even when we cannot see the complete shape yet.
And suddenly I realised I had been making them through a period in which the Moon itself was literally moving across the Sun and into Earth's shadow.
Completely accidental.
Still rather lovely.
Maybe synchronicity is simply what happens when we notice two things at once.
Maybe sometimes the noticing is enough.
Watching the next eclipse from the UK
The next event in this eclipse season is the partial lunar eclipse on 28 August 2026.
Unlike a solar eclipse, you don’t need specialist eclipse glasses to watch a lunar eclipse. Looking at the Moon during a lunar eclipse is safe with the naked eye.
Weather permitting, I’ll certainly be looking up.
Probably with a camera.
Almost certainly taking far too many photographs of the same moon.
Some habits are harder to release than others.
A reminder to look up
One of the reasons I want to share more of these celestial events here is very simple.
They’re happening whether we notice them or not.
Meteor showers.
Eclipses.
Full moons.
Planets appearing beside one another in the evening sky.
There’s something grounding about remembering that enormous things are quietly happening above us while we’re making dinner, answering emails, putting children to bed or walking the dog.
You don’t need to believe they are sending us messages.
Sometimes it is enough simply to go outside and witness them.
And perhaps that is what I love most about the moon.
It changes constantly.
And somehow remains completely itself.
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