What Does "Half Moonshine, Full Eclipse" Mean In Taylor's "Clara Bow"?

Now that Swifties finally have Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, all those puzzle pieces she left behind are coming together. Leading up to the album’s release on April 19, the queen of Easter eggs started sharing lyrics from different tracks on social media and in library installations. On the day of the 2024 total solar eclipse, the Midnights singer shared a video to her Instagram story with a line from “Clara Bow,” the final track on the standard edition of TTPD:

“Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine, full eclipse”

As appropriate as the line may’ve been for the April 8 astronomical event, there’s more to Swift’s songwriting than mere coincidence. When you listen to the song, “half moonshine” and “full eclipse” are actually in reference to Stevie Nicks and not Clara Bow. Swift name drops the former earlier in the second verse when she sings, “You look like Stevie Nicks in ‘75,” before mentioning the Fleetwood Mac singer’s hair and lips.

It’s true that Swift’s features resemble Nicks’, but the two artists together also represent a full eclipse astrologically. Swift is a Sagittarius born on Dec. 13, while Nicks is a Gemini with her birthday being on May 26. According to astrology, the reason a total eclipse is important is not just because it’s cool to look at, but there’s a connection happening between the sun and the moon with the North and South Nodes.

TikToker and certified hellenistic astrologer Ivy Underwood (@0degreestaurus) says, “The sun and the moon are like yin and yang — they’re supposed to coexist.” When an eclipse happens, there’s an imbalance, and that’s why Underwood says the nodes are always in opposite zodiac signs.

If you didn’t know, each zodiac sign has an opposite. For Swift’s Sagittarius sun, it’s Nicks’ Gemini, so Swift mentioning a half moonshine before the full eclipse could be in reference to a total lunar eclipse between the two singer-songwriters.

Taylor Swift Likes To Release Music During An Eclipse

This isn’t the first time that Swift has referenced astrology in some way with her writing. She hinted a “twin flame bruise” in “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” “mismatched star signs” in the vault track “Suburban Legends” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), and even a moonstone aura in Midnights’ “Bejeweled.” Both TikTokers @eastereggisland and @lavender.lit have noticed that Swift likes to release new music during an eclipse.

“Eclipses are cosmic portals of beginnings and ends,” @lavender.lit also says, which is why Swift may be releasing new music during this time — to signal a new album era. The Tortured Poets Department was dropped just 11 days after the 2024 solar eclipse (and one day before the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, aka the biggest astro event of the year).

Taylor Is The Sun & Stevie Nicks Is The Moon

TikToker @lavender.lit also notes that Swift tends to prefer solar eclipses over lunar eclipses. She has referenced the sun in several of her songs, like “I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best” in “Peace” and “I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror” in Midnights. If fans are to believe she’s the sun, that means Nicks is the moon — which lines up perfectly with the “Landslide” singer.

If Taylor got anything from me, that’s what she got.

Nicks is known for giving crescent moon necklaces to her friends and family, including one she gifted Swift. The “half moonshine” could be a nod to the necklace Nicks bestowed upon Swift, which she’s worn several times over the years. Mentioning Nicks in her TTPD song shows Swift’s love and appreciation for the comparisons, and the feelings seem to be mutual.

In October 2023, Nicks told Today that Swift got her truthful songwriting style from the “Edge of Seventeen” writer. “I never don’t tell the truth. And I think that’s something that if Taylor Swift, who is my friend, if Taylor got anything from me, that’s what she got,” Nicks said. If Swift is telling the truth, like Nicks says she does, you can believe that these two truly are a full eclipse together.

Going From “Daylight” To “Full Eclipse”

Since Swift is a mastermind, it’s likely the lyrics in “Clara Bow” have multiple meanings, and many fans have pointed out the parallels between her song “Daylight” from Lover. In the song rumored to be about her ex Joe Alwyn, Swift sings at the start of their relationship that she only see “daylight.”

Now that their six-year relationship is over, singing about a full eclipse could mean that her sun is now being covered. Nicks actually penned a poem for The Tortured Poets Department, which has the line, “he’s hiding from her / And he knows — that he’s hurting her.” This could be about Alwyn’s sun now in “full eclipse.”