The recent solar eclipse in Aries was a total solar eclipse whose path of totality ran through serveral states in the United States. As a result, it received a lot of attention by the U.S. media outlets, which called it “The Great American Eclipse.”
In the days surrounding the eclipse, I heard or read comments that —
- “Solar eclipses are rare.”
- “Lunar eclipses are more frequent than solar eclipses.”
As someone who follows the cycles of the Sun and Moon, I knew without a Google fact-check that neither of these statements are true.
Eclipses generally happen in pairs, which means that solar and lunar eclipses occur with the same frequency.
A solar eclipse happens at a new moon and a lunar eclipse happens at a full moon. They can arrive in either order. We generally get two of each in a calendar year, with both arriving in the same zodiacal season.
What causes people to conclude that solar eclipses are more rare?
As NASA explains:
Though solar eclipses happen as often as lunar eclipses, they are visible from such a small area of Earth each time that it’s much rarer to encounter one.
In other words, people draw conclusions about the world based on their own limited experience.
This eclipse example is a perfect example of a principle I learned from Nevine Michaan, the creator of Katonah Yoga:
What you see is true. What you don’t see is also true. – Nevine Michaan
In the age of AI and deep fake videos, you can argue that what we see may not be true. But that misses the point.
Nevine’s point is to remind us that something can be true even if it is not a part of our experience.
In the cases of eclipses, just because we don’t see or read about a particular solar (or lunar) eclipse doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening.
If we rely only on our own experience, we end up with the faulty perception that lunar eclipses are more frequent than solar eclipses.
This principle obviously applies beyond eclipses.
It’s yet another reason why “expertise” is a myth.
Whatever we know about a topic is really only a small fraction of the topic that relates to our personal experience or what we have learned from others.
In evaluating what is possible or “realistic” we don’t know what we aren’t seeing.
We can’t see our own blind spots.
If we want to avoid faulty thinking and conclusions, it’s important to get perspective from people who are outside our experience, who can look with objective eyes and see what we can’t see.
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