As Americans across the country prepare for the upcoming solar eclipse, some in the media have begun to speculate over whether or not there are, in fact, sinister undertones behind its arrival. In a piece for the Atlantic, listed under the magazine’s science section, Ross Anderson described in detail how eclipses were often dreaded by ancient kings and rulers as a foreboding sign of things to come. He then goes on to link this connection back to none other than Donald J. Trump, warning how the current occupant of the Oval Office “should heed the signs. An eclipse sometimes bodes ill for a king.”
After explaining the science behind the eclipse and some of its history, Anderson explained how the sun was often tied into a king’s perception of power and himself:
This close identification with the sun might explain why kings have long feared eclipses. A surprising number of popes and monarchs have died in their wake. Louis XIV, the “sun king” who so loved decadent gold decor that he chose the solar sphere as his emblem, died just after an eclipse hung in the skies above Paris. Some ancient rulers, including Alexander the Great, executed a substitute king after an eclipse, as a kind of sacrificial hedge.
Of all the stories about earthly kings being laid low after an eclipse, my favorite comes from the psychedelic end-times text of Christianity, the Book of Revelation. In a dream, John of Patmos watches as the seals on the book of judgment rip open, each triggering a fresh calamity. After the sixth seal is torn, the sun darkens, as though in eclipse, and nature begins shedding its fundamental features. Stars drop to the Earth like fruit falling from the boughs of a tree. The planet’s crust shakes with unprecedented violence, displacing whole mountain ranges and islands. And all the world’s kings, princes, generals, and the rich slink away to hide among the rocks thrown off by the geological mayhem, or in caves, like Peter Thiel in his New Zealand bunker.
He later brought the negative associations between eclipses and kings back to Trump:
Now, the “Great American Eclipse” is scheduled to darken this country’s skies at a strange hour of its history, when the occupant of its highest office expresses admiration for strongman-like kings, and sometimes acts as though he, too, would like to be king. He should heed the signs. An eclipse sometimes bodes ill for a king.
The Atlantic is not the first liberal outlet to draw comparisons between Trump and the eclipse. Newsweek penned a similar article recently drawing similar conclusions. It is fascinating that, for all its talk of adhering to science, the left chooses to peddle superstition and fictitious nonsense when it comes to this particular naturally occurring event.
