THIS Sunday, almost six billion people in many parts of the world will witness a total lunar eclipse and blood moon. The strange and eerie darkness of an eclipse has a mystical quality about it that has fascinated human beings since the dawn of time. If the sky is not covered by thick monsoon clouds, people in Pakistan will be able to witness the eclipse as well.

Why a blood moon? As per National Geographic, `During totality, sunlight streaming through Earth`s atmosphere is bent and scattered, filtering out the blue light and letting the redder wavelengths shine onto the moon. ..

Depending on our planet`s atmospheric conditions, the shade can range from bright orange to a deep, rusty red.` The science of eclipses is fascinating but the myths accompanying them and the history surrounding them are even more so.

Eclipses are mentioned in the scriptures, including in Muslim traditions.

Many have interpreted eclipses as a negative sign. For instance, one interpretation of the Talmud is that it is a bad omen for the world, including Israel.

Describing the end times, the Christian Bible mentions them as well: `The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord.` Evangelical Christian and some Jewish religious scholars have linked their reading of eclipses to prophetic symbolism, citing groups of four eclipses taking place during a short period (tetrad). Some may well see Sunday`s eclipse as the second in such a tetrad.

As if this mix of fact and fiction were not enough for those fascinated by the convergence of science and belief, there are chronicles of historical events that supposedly occurred during a `blood moon` eclipse. One spectacular event was the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul). The year was 1453 and the Ottomans had their sights set on Constantinople. They had wanted the city for decades and had carried out severalunsuccessfulsieges ofit.

The Christian city was the last bulwark of the declining Roman Empire in the East. The Ottomans had encircled the city. The citizens of Constantinople were weary of war and they were scared of what would befall them. Apparently, the people believed in an ancient prophecy that the city would fall under the shadow of a blood moon and when such a moon actually appeared they must have been terrified. The Ottomans, on the other hand, must have seen it as a sign of victory.According to some historians, this dual imagery created a potent psychological weapon that had not been present in earlier sieges of the city. In short, the Christians living in the city were convinced that the end of their city was near, despite its strong fortifications.

Conversely, the Ottoman warriors felt that this blood moon would lead them to victory and the conquest of Constantinople. The night sky, with a glowing red moon, resembling the one that will be seen on Sunday evening, could well have contributed to the fall of a city that many had believed could not be conquered.

This was not the only time an eclipse became a psychological weapon. Christopher Columbus, the Spanish explorer who sailed out to `discover` America, managed to calculate the date of an upcoming total lunar eclipse Feb 29, 1504. Since eclipses are always eerie spectacles,he capitalised on thefact andtold the Native American Arawaks that the divine powers were angry at them for denying him and his crew food and supplies.

When the eclipse actually took place a few days later, the people were frightened into giving him and his crewfood and water and Columbus and his men were saved.

For time immemorial, eclipses have also been given an astrological hue, with the water sign Pisces, that is supposed to affect marine events, believed to have a `deep connection` with the cosmic event.

New beginnings and a cosmic reset are predicted by astrologers for those born under the water sign.

But regardless of your zodiac sign, you will be able to witness an extraordinary and spectacular event on Sunday evening if the night skies are uncovered.

When you experience the sight of a glowing red moon against the deep darkness of the universe above, you might reflect on the same haunting spectacle as ancient soothsayers, Ottoman soldiers and the Arawak people, who were duped by Christopher Columbus via an expected celestial event, did. The history of the world is not just told through history books but also through the night sky. • The writer is an attomey teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

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