Indian astrology treats the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's as planets in their own right — Rahu and Ketu, the head and the body of a demon that was cut in half.

Svarbhanu drank the nectar of immortality, was beheaded for it, and both halves survived; eclipses are the head swallowing the Sun or Moon and the light falling straight out of the neck. It is a myth wrapped around a correct observation: eclipses only happen at those two points, which is precisely why they were worth naming.