How eclipses taught us to be free
Spanish version here. A total solar eclipse is one of those phenomena capable of disrupting our view of the world, at least for a few minutes. Day turns into night, temperatures drop, the landscape takes on an eerie hue, and animals alter their behaviour. The Sun, which had seemed the grandest presence in the sky, disappears. For a society without astronomy, physics or the ability to calculate such events, the disappearance of the Sun was much more than a mere geometrical accident. It was a cosmic threat. Many cultures interpreted eclipses as the attack of a mythological creature or the manifestation of a supernatural will. In Hindu tradition, Rahu devours the Sun. Other cultures tell of dragons, wolves, serpents or celestial jaguars. The stories vary, but they nearly always contain the same element. There is someone behind the phenomenon. This tendency to look for agents does not belong solely to the past. It is a deep-seated feature of our brains. We are wired to detect inte...
