The lunar eclipse as seen from Louis Trichardt on Sunday night.
News Date: 12 September 2025
Traditional leaders and healers say Sunday night’s lunar eclipse is a sign of prosperity, good harvests and peace for Africa in the years ahead.
After the weekend’s total eclipse of the moon, African traditionalists, traditional leaders and traditional healers held gatherings to thank their ancestors for showing them signs of success and prosperity in the coming years.
Although a partial lunar eclipse occurs about twice a year, a full eclipse is rarer, happening on average once every two-and-a-half years. A total lunar eclipse takes place when the sun, earth and moon are in perfect alignment, with the earth’s shadow completely covering the moon.
Sunday’s eclipse was also referred to as a “blood moon”, because of the reddish colour of the moon during the eclipse. This visual effect occurs when the earth’s atmosphere filters sunlight and scatters blue light, leaving the moon glowing red or coppery.
According to Mbulaheni Neluvhola, president of the Vhembe District Traditional Healers Association, a lunar eclipse is seen as a sign from the gods that there will be abundant rainfall, good harvests and protection from evil spirits. “A lunar eclipse is a sign from our ancestors that good fortune is coming our way. It signals the end of bad luck and the beginning of a new era of success and prosperity,” he said.
When asked whether the expected good fortune also included the end of wars and diseases affecting people, he said everything became normalised after a lunar eclipse.
Tshivhonammbi Netshivhambe, a well-known traditional leader who often discusses traditional medicine and healing on national radio, described a lunar eclipse as a divine message. She acknowledged that scientists could easily explain the phenomenon and predict when it would occur, but said African belief had a different perspective.
“It is a way our ancestors communicate with us about the changing of times from drought to rainy seasons. I cannot dispute what they [scientists] have learned or know on their side, but we have our own knowledge and beliefs as Africans. Our ancestors have been relying on these beliefs long before those who wrote what you are telling me came to Mother Africa. Let them keep their knowledge, we will keep our ancestral knowledge,” she said.
Indigenous traditional healer and provincial tourist guide Mashudu Dima, an expert in indigenous knowledge systems and traditional healing, believes traditional knowledge is superior to any other.
Dima concurred with the other two traditional healers but added that Africans had been predicting weather patterns and reading the movements of stars, the sun, the earth and the moon long before colonisation. “As I am talking to you now, I predict the weather daily through my ancestors. As traditional healers, we can also see whether there will be rain or not in the coming months,” he said.
He added that another lunar eclipse was expected in December this year, which he believed would open doors for peace processes on the African continent. “The problem we have as Africans is that Europeans dismiss everything we do through our own spiritual powers, and this derails the progress of Africans on our own continent,” he said.
Dima concluded by saying that there would be plenty of rain in the next five years, and that because of the upcoming lunar eclipse, Africa would be saved from poverty and wars.