Between Two Eclipses: The Long Time of Saros Cycles

Something curious happens the day after an eclipse

For weeks we talk about itwe wait for itwe photograph itwe give it meaning

Then the shadow passes

and it seems as if everything is over

But astronomically, an eclipse is almost never an isolated event

It belongs to a family

A story that can last for more than a thousand years

These families are called Saros cycles

The Saros: when the sky almost returns to the same place

A Saros cycle lasts around 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours

After this interval, the Sun, Earth, Moon and lunar nodes return to a very similar geometry and another eclipse from the same family occurs

Not in the same place on Earth

Not in the same historical moment

But with a precise astronomical relationship

It is as if the sky continues a conversation that was left unfinished eighteen years earlier

Every eclipse family is born, grows, changes form and eventually disappears

Some series last more than 1,200 years

A human life therefore witnesses only a few chapters of these enormous celestial stories

The eclipse of 12 August 2026

The total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026 belongs to Saros 126, a family that began in 1179 and will end in 2459

The 2026 eclipse is the 48th of the 72 eclipses in this series

And there is a fascinating detail

Saros 126 is now in the later part of its evolution

For centuries its eclipses were partialthen annularthen hybridand finally total

The most recent total eclipses of this same family occurred in

1918193619541972199020082026

and only one more remains

the eclipse of 23 August 2044

After that, Saros 126 will continue for centuries, but it will never produce another total eclipse

Astronomically, this is simply the natural evolution of the series

Symbolically, however, the image is beautiful

Not something appearing from nothing

but something that has reached its fullest expression and is slowly beginning to leave the stage

2008 → 2026 → 2044

Every Saros also invites us to look at time differently

Eighteen years is a long time

Who were you in 2008?

What were you beginning?

What filled your world?

Which version of yourself existed then?

The previous eclipse of Saros 126 happened on 1 August 2008

The next one will arrive on 23 August 2044

We are standing in the chapter between them

And this changes the way we can look at an eclipse

Not simply as one extraordinary day

but as one point inside a much longer story

From Leo to Pisces

Astrologically, the solar eclipse of 12 August occurred around 20° Leo

Leo symbolically speaks about identity, expression, creativity, the heart, visibility and the courage to occupy our own space

But August does not end its story on the 12th

Sixteen days later, another door opens

On 28 August 2026, a partial lunar eclipse takes place around 5° Pisces

And one thing is important to understand

The two eclipses do not belong to the same Saros

The solar eclipse belongs to Saros 126

The lunar eclipse belongs to Saros 138

They are therefore part of two different astronomical families

And yet they belong to the same eclipse season

And it is precisely the space between them that interests me

The corridor between two doors

I like to imagine these sixteen days not as a magical period in which something extraordinary must happen

but as a space for observation

On 12 August the Sun is eclipsed

On 28 August the Moon enters the Earth’s shadow

First the principle of light and identity

Then memory, emotions and the inner world

Astrologically we move from Leo to Pisces

From fire to water

From the self that wants to exist fully

to what may need to dissolve

Leo may ask

Who am I becoming when I stop hiding?

Pisces may answer with another question

What can I no longer carry into the person I am becoming?

Perhaps this is the real meaning of the corridor

Not necessarily doing more

but listening to what emerges between one door and the next

The 28 August eclipse and Saros 138

The lunar eclipse of 28 August also has its own story

It belongs to Lunar Saros 138

It will be a very deep partial eclipse, very close to totality

And this image is fascinating too

Something enters almost completely into the shadow

but not entirely

Perhaps not everything that ends needs to be destroyed

Perhaps some things simply need to change form

Eclipses do not ask us to be afraid

For centuries eclipses were interpreted as omens

They were suddenmysteriouscapable of turning day into darkness

Today we understand their mechanics

We can calculate them centuries in advance

And perhaps because of this, we can allow ourselves to have a different relationship with them

We do not need to give the sky the power to decide what will happen in our lives

But we can use it as a mirror

An ancient way of stopping and looking at time from a wider perspective

Because while we measure our lives in appointments, weeks and calendars

the sky measures some of its stories in thousands of years

And every now and then, an eclipse simply reminds us of that

Between 12 and 28 August

perhaps we are not in empty time

We are between two shadows

between one story revealing itself

and another asking to be released

Just like during a sound bath, sometimes the deepest moment is not the sound of a singing bowl, but the silence between one bowl and the next

That suspended space where something continues to vibrate, even after the sound has already disappeared