Eclipse and Alignment of 8

NASA picture of the solar eclipse just completed:

Jan. 8th, 2008 I drew this line from Tokyo to Kilimanjaro, over Xi'an, Lhasa, and Everest:


During the last quarter of 2007, because some close friends were moving to China in July '08, I began studying a few places I wanted to travel to in and around China. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun to land in Hong Kong and visit my friends, see their new homes and offices, then we could take the train together from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet." It was just an idea and I began researching.

It was in my research of the Chinese train lines etc. that I first came across the city of Xi'an, the first Emporers city and the resting place of his Terracotta Army. So I marked Xi'an with a pin in early December 2007. Then a friend emailed me about the August 1, 2008 solar eclipse. I checked with NASA maps of the eclipse... and noticed that the path of the eclipse was passing right over the Terracotta Army... at sunset in China (under an hour ago here).

So, all this to say... that for the last eight months I have been thinking a lot about this eclipse (and past ones) in China. I wanted to be there today. I wanted to witness this eclipse while standing over that Terracotta army. I was driving into the office this morning during the whole eclipse. It was a bright beaming Sun into the Jeep... but my heart was in China the whole drive.

What I find ironic today is that the same day as this solar eclipse over a dead emporer and his terracotta army this movie would be released today, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer"... I read recently that the ancient Chinese believed a solar eclipse was a dragon trying to eat the Sun. The plot of the movie from Wikipedia:

Explorer Rick O'Connell, his wife Evelyn and brother-in-law Jonathan are now retired. But with their son Alex, they must stop the resurrected tyrannical Han, the Dragon Emperor, a mummy awoken from a 2,000-year-old curse, and whose army was found by 18-year old Alex. The Emperor now wishes to rebuild his empire, and threatens to plunge the world into his merciless, unending service with his Terracotta Army.

The O'Connel family's hope now lies with a mysterious century old sorceress Zijuan, who has an old rivalry with the Emperor, for two thousand years ago the Emperor summoned her to his court, for she possesses the secrets of immortality. Instead of blessing him though, she cursed him, sending him and his army into a 'permanent' suspended animation.

She now is back to help the family, by raising up a smaller, undead army made of the Dragon Emperor's enemies, who were buried under the Great Wall of China.

From the first news article I read in the office this morning:

Darkness fell over the last outpost of the Great Wall of China on Friday, where a rare total solar eclipse ended its journey across the earth, delighting skywatchers one week before the Olympics open in Beijing.

So the Chinese consider 8 a lucky number. An eclipse on 01.08.08 and the olympics launch 08.08.08. I'm not a numerologist or an astrologer but I'll jump in just this once (for fun). On August 28, 2007 or 28.08.07 I turned 37 years old while taking pictures of a full lunar eclipse (on my birthday)... It was 3 am till 6 am... there I was all alone with God on top of Scott Lake Hill, on the border of the Stoney Indian Reserve, the highest point on the TransCanada Highway. There I was in the still dark night taking pictures above the fog of a lunar eclipse... It was like God's birthday present to me... Well here we are nearly a year later... I'll be 38 years old on 28.08.08.

Lots of 8's to go around... and I now have China fully in my sights.

CAST YOUR bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, yes, even [divide it] to eight, for you know not what evil may come upon the earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-3 (Amplified Bible)