The United States of America has a large X looming on their horizon and it will arrive in less than 2 months time.

Let me explain. 

The first line of the X happened back in 2017. A total solar eclipse that traversed across 12 states, from Oregon to South Carolina.

Space.com, with the help from NASA, provided plentiful details at the time.

The completion of the X will occur on Monday, April 8, 2024 when another total solar eclipse will wind it's way across the states.

For this one, NASA provide the clearest map and short video relating to the eclipse's transit.

NASA explain that the eclipse enters "...the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse."

When we lay the two transit lines (one from 2017 and one from 2024) we get the X across America.

Historical

Whether they all know it or not, eclipses have a special place in the heart of Americans.

The time of the total solar eclipse of 1776 saw Thomas Paine writing his essay, The American Crisis - which began with the immortal words "These are the times that try men's souls."

The whole text was apparently read out to troops the following month when Washington crossed the Delaware, an iconic moment of the American Revolution.

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze (Original at The Met, New York)

Name of Note

Widening the possible significance of the coming eclipse of 2024 we should note the path will cast a shadow over the American town of Nineveh.

It's a strange name for an American town don't you think?

Nineveh was the most important city in the ancient Assyrian Empire. It is said to have been the biggest city in the world in it's heyday (before Babylon took the crown).

Nineveh today is better known as Mosul, Iraq. 

As some of you may remember, Mosul saw heavy fighting by the US-led coalition during 2016-17. Reports vary considerably on the circumstances and sequence of events depending on the writers viewpoint. The total number of local inhabitants deaths were never confirmed, but a British newspaper at the time suggested it was as high as 40,000.  

Biblical

The original city of Nineveh features a number of times in the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments. 

The passage that resonates so heavily with Nineveh though, appears in the Old Testament, in the Book of Jonah.

In the beginning Jonah is told by God to "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."

Jonah faced tribulations while travelling to Nineveh, including being thrown overboard and into the sea to be swallowed by a fish/whale. When he finally arrived in the great city he told the citizens of the judgement passed upon them and that in "...forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Naturally the locals were distraught at the news and they vowed to repent. They genuinely turned from their wicked ways and as a result, in forty days, they were spared destruction.

Although I am describing this from a Christian perspective, the same story appears in the Islamic Quran where Jonah is known as the Prophet Yunus. The order of events differ slightly but the message and end result is the same. 

This article isn't intended to argue the merits of either the Bible or Quran but merely to point out that a place of Nineveh has long held significance in terms of "wickedness" and salvation by genuine repentance. Not faked or half-baked, real heartfelt repentance.

Assyrian Eclipse Beliefs

Several years ago, an interesting article by Sarah Graff, Associate Curator, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Met, laid out some of the Assyrian beliefs concerning eclipses.

Graff states that, "One of the most serious omens was a solar eclipse, which predicted grave danger for the ruler of the area of the world in which it appeared... Once an eclipse was predicted and the area in which it would appear had been identified, the court and the priests took action. If the eclipse took place over Assyria, for instance, the Assyrian king would be in danger, and for the king to be in danger put the entire power structure of the kingdom at risk. So a substitute would be put in his place..."

Graff continues, "The substitute king did not have to look like the real king, but had to be a man. After he was selected, he was dressed in the king's garment, declared to be the king, and made to participate in other rituals investing him with royal identity. He was also given a young woman as a queen. After this, the true king withdrew from public view until danger had passed. The substitute king and queen were offered as sacrifices for the evil fate that was destined for the true king, taking it on themselves while he remained safely hidden. Like the moment of the eclipse, when both moon and sun are visible in the same place, the substitute king and the true king coexisted only briefly. Once the dangerous time had passed, the substitute king and queen were killed, the true king re-emerged, and the ritual was complete."

A substitute leader sacrificed in place of the real one so the danger can pass and the grift on earth can continue? The more things change the more they stay the same?

Eclipses effect Matter

Genesis 1:14 "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs..."

The light of day (the sun) and light of the night (moon) will join to form a darkness, traverse Nineveh and complete the X over America on the 8th April 2024.

Proof of Connection?

I freely admit I don't know exactly when Thomas Pain completed his American Crisis essay during the eclipse of 1776 or who is really leading the USA during the eclipse of 2024. I also have no proof of connection between the Biblical Niveneh and the USA namesake.

If the April 2024 total solar eclipse hadn't been on the calendar and I hadn't followed its expected route, I would probably never have known there was a Nineveh in the US.  

Yet there it is. Lined up along the path of a very narrow total solar eclipse.

Now that I know that this place is there, waiting for the eclipse darkness with its etymology bound to concepts of wickedness, repentance and substitute leaders... it is like an itch in my mind I can't scratch.