Watching a Full Sunrise - At Least Once a Year

Sunrise over mountain

Prosveta UK


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September 20th Sunrise

It's been very warm and sunny around the northern range of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I woke up at 5:00 AM, and--although I didn't plan it--the time just felt right. I then went out and watched a dramatic sunrise from full darkness from a perhaps an 800-foot vantage point, with the downtown skylines of San Francisco and Oakland in the distance... and far off mountains at a further distance. Initially I could see the many familiar stars above the mountains, away from the urban lights. The far off mountains in the opposite direction were hardly visible amid the darkness. The not-quite-full Almother moon had long moved out of view.

After about an hour, I could faintly make out a very dark reddish color along the far off horizon. Soon, the sky directly above that dark reddish ring became almost like a dark blue and yellow. After about twenty minutes, there was a clear layered ground-to-sky pattern of dark earth, red, orange, yellow, white, light blue, medium blue, dark blue, and dark sky. At a certain point when the reddish layer expanded, it almost looked like the red planet. The massive 3,848-foot Mt. Diablo never looked more formidable as it stood amid the dark red background. I could almost swear that I saw a faint greenish hue mixed in there, but I can't say for certain. I could then see the stars fading, and I felt a momentary silly sadness.

Soon it became quite bright out, even before the actual sunrise. A nearby hawk made its way across the lower hills. Next I could make out one red and orange spot develop above a mountain range. I wished that I had brought my binoculars. The big man, the Alfather, was about to make his entrance. Then as I focused my eyes on that spot, it happened. In an instant, the massive fireball broke over the mountain! In what seemed like less than five minutes, our entire star had moved entirely above the horizon. I then looked at it indirectly, which gave a different perspective in relation to our world. All of the stars were gone. The full transformation was now complete!

To our pagan ancestors, the suns appearance meant the end to the dangers hiding in the darkness. Of course, the darkness of their world would have been more dramatic... a truly black night that one can only experience in very remote areas. The predators retired back to their dens. Man could then become the predator. The Alfather's rays protect us in the day, just like any real father would; while the Almother's moonlight tries to comfort us during the dreaded night, just like any real mother would.

I recall the most dramatic sunrise I ever witnessed some years ago. It was the closest thing to heaven that I ever experienced, mostly due to the weather, location, and view. I can still feel the warmth of that morning in my mind. For some reason I never tried to fully recapture the awe of that morning. All it takes is the motivation to wait for the right weather, and get up very early and make way to any special high point. I believe that making note--as a reminder--of watching a sunrise once in awhile (or hiking up to a special high spot on occasion) is something that we should do.

Whatever the official sunrise hour is, the actual time of some faint light is one hour and fifteen minutes. Therefore if sunrise occurs at 6:30, then you must be at the viewing location prior to 5:15 in order to get the full effect. If you think of it, we wait for supermoons and eclipses; but we have the greatest earth transformation of all every day!

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