Can You Do Magic During an Eclipse?

Yes, you can do magic during a solar or lunar eclipse. You’ve probably heard otherwise. An eclipse is a few days away and suddenly your social media feed is flooded with spiritual warnings. “Don’t look at the moon!” “Do NOT manifest tonight!” “Cover your windows and hide under the covers!”

That “wisdom,” which is largely driven by a surge in Hellenistic and Vedic astrology, treats eclipses like a cosmic no-fly zone. But eclipse season isn’t exactly “rare.” There are four to seven eclipses a year. And if you’re avoiding witchcraft during eclipses, when certain planets are in retrograde, or when your Aunt Ellen says the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, you’re going to feel awfully constrained in your magic.

And, that’s the opposite of why you’re a witch in the first place. Right?

Historically, eclipses were considered powerful, destabilizing, and sometimes dangerous celestial events, but eclipse magic isn’t forbidden. The energy and results might, however, be a little more chaotic than during the standard moon phases. Trust your intuition, assess your risk comfort level, and then prepare and proceed accordingly.

Ancient cultures feared eclipses because they appeared to break the laws of nature. Total eclipses were times when the Sun disappeared or the moon turned blood red. But as witches, we thrive in the spaces where the laws of nature get weird. So, let’s take a look at what people did in Ancient Mesopotamia, what the astrologers think, what’s in the Greek Magical Papyri, and why it may or may not be a good idea to cast spells during the next eclipse.

Why People Say Not to Cast Spells During An Eclipse

So, the reason people say eclipse magic is a no-no does actually have some historical backing. Across cultures, the presence of the Sun and the Moon represented the balance of cosmic order. When one disappeared, even briefly, it suggested a disruption in that order.

In Mesopotamia, the omen series Enūma Anu Enlil catalogued solar and lunar eclipses as threats to kings. Court astrologers warned that a solar eclipse could signal danger to the throne. In ancient China, court astronomers recorded eclipses as omens of imperial instability. Failure to predict them could result in punishment. And, in Ancient Egypt, they believed the Sun had been swallowed by the serpent Apophis.

We get the word eclipse from the Ancient Greeks. It comes from the word ekleipsis (ἔκλειψις), meaning to be out, to leave, or to abandon. In Fragment 122, the poet Archilochus of Paros wrote:

No more surprises now, no stunning miracles, no thought
unthinkable, now that Heaven’s father Zeus has wrought
sheer midnight at high noon, and blacked the brilliant sun,
its shining stanched, and fear and trembling fell on everyone.

Through that lens, all the warnings against doing spells during an eclipse make more sense. If the Divine is abandoning the sky for a few minutes, it’s easy to see some astrologists think a bad time to ask for a raise. You’re essentially trying to place a cosmic order when the shopkeeper is on a coffee break.

What Vedic Astrology Says About Eclipses

One of the oldest eclipse references we have is the Rig Veda. A passage in book 5, hymn 40, describes the demon Svarbhānu obscuring the Sun:

O Sūrya, when the Asura’s descendant Svarbhanu, pierced thee through and through with darkness,
All creatures looked like one who is bewildered, who knoweth not the place where he is standing.
6 What time thou smotest down Svarbhanu’s magic that spread itself beneath the sky, O Indra,
By his fourth sacred prayer Atri disoovered Sūrya concealed in gloom that stayed his function.

Later, in Vedic astrology (Jyotiṣa), eclipses occur when the Sun or Moon conjoin the lunar nodes. These are the points where the path of the Moon intersects the ecliptic and in Vedic astrology are known as Rahu (North Node) and Ketu (South Node).

Rahu is associated with obsession, amplification, hunger, disruption. Ketu is associated with severance, detachment, sudden endings. Those don’t sound like the kind of energies you want present when you call in what you want.

What Hellenistic Astrology Says About Eclipses

In Hellenistic astrology, eclipses were omens. This is because the Sun and Moon were the Luminaries. This is because they believed the Sun and Moon provided the light needed for other planets to function properly. When a luminary was darkened, they thought something foundational was disrupted and that there was less stability at both personal and political levels.

This shows up in a few texts. In Tetrabiblos Book II, for instance, Ptolemy writes that eclipses are indicators of political upheaval or shifts in rulers, depending on zodiac placement and visibility. They didn’t believe the eclipse created the events, but that they brought existing conditions to culmination.

If you do a spell during an eclipse, the thought is that if an eclipse completes something that’s already brewing, and you try to force a different intention on top of it, the outcome may not unfold the way you intended. But, if you won’t find a single ancient text warning that an eclipse will make your spell backfire like a cursed wish. It’s just that your Will is not going to be as powerful as the cosmic forces at work.

In other words, you don’t need to hide, but it would be a good idea to work with the way the energy is flowing rather than against it. Sort of like it’s best to cast calling in spells during the waxing moon phase versus the waning one.

Ancient Rituals People Did During Eclipses and Liminal Times

Ancient civilizations viewed the eclipse and other liminal times (like the Dark Moon) as a critical moment for high-stakes spiritual intervention.

Mesopotamia’s Substitute King Ritual (Šar Pūḫi)

In Ancient Mesopotamia, they treated eclipses, especially solar ones, as urgent omens and often interpreted them as threats to the king. We see evidence of this in the Enūma Anu Enlil, a collection of omen tablets from that era.

Instead of trying to stop the eclipse itself, the court astrologer-priests decided to essentially trick the universe. If an eclipse was interpreted as an omen predicting the death or downfall of the reigning monarch, they sometimes enacted what modern scholars call the Substitute King ritual and simply changed who the “King” was.

In this ritual, a low-status citizen was chosen to be installed as the Substitute King. He was sometimes dressed in royal robes, given the crown, and sat on the throne. Meanwhile, the actual ruler would go into hiding, and would undergo ritual purifications. All the doom and gloom of the eclipse would flow toward the person on the throne, while the true King remained safe.

Once the eclipse period passed, the substitute king was often executed (or in later periods, symbolically removed) to ensure the prophecy was fulfilled and the debt to fate was paid.

Ancient Egypt: Overthrowing The Serpent Apophis

In Egyptian cosmology, the Sun god Ra was attacked nightly by the giant chaos serpent Apophis (Apep) as he traveled through the underworld. Each dawn marked Ra’s victory and the restoration of order (Ma’at).

The Egyptian priests didn’t just trust that Ra would win, though. They performed protective rituals and chanted incantations designed to weaken and destroy Apophis that are outlined in Book of Overthrowing Apophis (The Papyrus Bremner-Rhind). These included defensive magic rituals in which wax serpent effigies were spat upon, stabbed, bound, burned, and dismantled.

Egyptian magical practice also included execration rites that involved writing the names of enemies or chaotic forces on clay figures or pots and ritually smashing them. In magical texts, hostile names were often written in red ink, the color associated with danger and disorder. In modern witchcraft, this would be similar to writing your enemy’s name on a piece of paper, binding it, burning it, and burying the ashes while invoking divine authority to strip them of power.

While we haven’t yet found a reference to an eclipse-specific ceremony, an unexpected darkening of the sun would have been interpreted as a moment of vulnerability and a visible disruption in the stability Ra was meant to guarantee.

Eclipse Magic in the Greek Magical Papyri

While Hellenistic astrologers were calculating omens and advising kings to brace for impact, the ritual practitioners behind the Greek Magical Papyri (a massive collection of spells dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE), were still doing magic.

That included summoning rites, binding spells, necromancy, divination, and invocations of liminal deities like Hecate. They aligned their magic with the opportune timing (kairós) and astrological conditions. And, while the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) does not contain a chapter neatly titled “Eclipse Magic,” it does include spells that require the Moon to be in a particular sign, or during specific planetary hours. Others call for work during the dark of the Moon. It’s sort of how some witches, myself included, work today.

When You Might Want to Avoid Eclipse Magic

Ok, we’ve explored where the fear of doing spells during eclipses came from along with some of the ancient rituals that people would do during eclipses or during other liminal times. But you still might be wondering, should I cast spells or not? Historically, eclipses were not ignored. They were responded to. The question to ask yourself if “What kind of magic is appropriate?”

Honestly, at the end of the day, that is up to you. You need to trust your intuition and also be fine with things unfolding a lot faster than they usually would.

Here are some reasons I would recommend not doing spell-work during an eclipse:

• If you’re feeling anxious about it. If your subconscious is telling you it’s a bad idea, you won’t be able to project a clear intention. If you’re on edge, the best thing you can do for yourself is grounding, a salt bath or shower, and an early bedtime. Or, a glass of wine and a movie.
• If you’re focused on a long-term intention. Eclipses are for powerful culminations. They aren’t great for planting seeds that need slow, steady nurturing. If you’re looking for a healthy relationship or a new career path, wait for a standard New Moon, especially one that is aligned with what you want to call in. (Check out when the next one is in our New Moon Calendar.)
• If your intention is not in the direction things are going or you’re trying to manifest a specific want. As we saw with the Hellenistic view, eclipses are moments where Fate takes the steering wheel. If you are trying to force a very specific, ego-driven outcome (“I want this house by this date”), the eclipse energy might just ignore you. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s probably not a good use of your energy or time as you might just end up spinning your wheels.

Spells and Rituals for Eclipses

If you’ve decided to do magic during an eclipse, you want to choose intentions that align with the energy of the celestial event. These spells and rituals are aligned with eclipses and generally work with their energy instead of against them.

1. Shadow Work

An eclipse is the perfect time to identify the parts of yourself you usually keep eclipsed or hidden from view. A witch’s job isn’t to hide from the shadow. It’s to navigate it and use what you find there to grow stronger. A simple way to begin this work is through moon water scrying, meditation, or a shadow work journal that focuses on the uncomfortable truths you usually ignore.

2. Banishing

Eclipses are combinations of massive energy. Work with it to tackle things that feel too heavy for a waning moon or dark moon. This could be a bad habit you haven’t been able to shake, but also think bigger. This could be generational cycles, addictions, breaking patterns that hold you back, banishing certain energies or people, or shedding an old identity that no longer fits who you are becoming.

3. Protection Magic

This is a prime window for setting up apotropaic or defensive barriers and wards. Because the cosmic order is disrupted, it’s an ideal time to cleanse your space and reinforce the energetic shields around your home or your collective. Our guide to protection spells can help.

4. Cord Cutting

If you have a tether to a person that has refused to shift, use the “severing” energy of the Nodes and the culminating energy of the eclipse to cut the cord for good. The suddenness of an eclipse provides the energy needed to finally disconnect from what is draining you. (Here’s a step-by-step cord cutting spell.)

5. Work With Liminal Deities

Rituals performed now to honor liminal deities such as Hecate (the goddess of magic and the crossroads), Hermes (the messenger who travels between worlds) or Persephone (the Queen of the Underworld and judge of souls after death) would be powerful.

6. Gather Moon Water

If you want to charge water with the energy of the solar or lunar eclipse for later spellwork connected with banishing, binding, or hex-breaking, gather moon water during it, go for it.

7. Do Divination

From the court astrologers of ancient Mesopotamia who scanned the darkened sky for omens regarding the fate of kings, to the PGM sorcerers, the eclipse has been used for divination. It is easily one of the best times for scrying, tarot, dream work, or bone throwing.

FAQ

Should you manifest during an eclipse?

Is your Will aligned with the direction things are heading in already? Then, sure. Eclipses tend to culminate existing trajectories rather than initiate clean, stable beginnings. If your intention aligns with changes already unfolding in your life, manifestation work may flow naturally. If you’re trying to force something brand new into existence, especially something that requires long-term stability, it may feel volatile. Eclipses reveal and rearrange. They don’t always build gently.

Can I charge my crystals during an eclipse?

You can, but if you want stability, abundance, or long-term attraction energy, I would charge them under a Full Moon or New Moon aligned with your intention. If you want to use the crystal later for banishing, shadow work, or endings, eclipse energy may be appropriate.

Are eclipses dangerous?

Historically, eclipses were treated as destabilizing omens, particularly when it comes to political events or power. They are intense and correlate with the endings and course corrections, but there is no historical evidence that simply being present during an eclipse causes spiritual harm.

Can You Do a Love Spell During an Eclipse?

It’s not ideal for attraction magic. Eclipses tend to expose the underlying patterns in relationships and could accelerate endings or turning points. If the connection is solid, it may deepen. If it’s unstable, it may unravel. The Waxing Moon in Taurus is a better choice for a love spell.

Is it bad luck to look at an eclipse?

Spiritually, no. Astronomically, you should never look at a solar eclipse without proper eye protection. Many ancient cultures feared eclipses, but there is no evidence that witnessing one invites misfortune.

What if the eclipse falls on my birthday?

In Hellenistic astrology, an eclipse coinciding with your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant sign acts as a catalyst. It’s not bad, but it could signal a year of significant culmination in an area of your life. Instead of doing a spell to stop it, do a ritual to work with the transition. You could also ask the deities of the crossroads to help you navigate the change with ease.

How many eclipses happen in a year and how long is eclipse season?

Most years have four eclipses that occur in two distinct pairs. Each pair usually consists of a Solar Eclipse (New Moon) and a Lunar Eclipse (Full Moon), spaced exactly two weeks apart. Astronomically, an eclipse season actually lasts about 35 days, when the Sun is close enough to the Lunar Nodes for an eclipse to be physically possible. When you hear about Eclipse Season on social media, they’re usually referring to the two weeks between the Solar and Lunar eclipses.

Sources and Further Reading

Enūma Anu Enlil
Book of Overthrowing Apophis (The Papyrus Bremner-Rhind)
Magic and Religion as a Performative: Theological Unity: The Apotropaic “Ritual of Overthrowing Apophis”
The Book of Gates
Greek Magical Papyri
The Rig Veda translation by Ralph T. H. Griffith
The Art and Science of Vedic Astrology: The Foundation Course by W. Ryan Kurczak and Richard Fish
Tetrabiblos by Ptolemy
Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune by Chris Brennan
Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice: A Manual of Traditional Techniques, Volume I: Assessing Planetary Condition by Demetra George