Comets

by Robert Wilkinson

Since there's such a buzz about Comet ISON, I figured I'd give you what's been written about these visitors who occasionally come to put on a show for us Earthlings.

From antiquity, comets (a.k.a "dirty snowballs") were considered "stellar" visitors to our Solar System. If the great scientist Immanuel Velikovsky is to be believed, one such visitor caught the Earth in its tail and dumped a bunch of various types of mineral deposits all over the world, and even disrupted our rotation. Being caught in its gravitational field, it supposedly created the "three days of night" of Biblical lore, which Velikovsky confirmed by interviewing tribes on "the other side" of the world where their ancient legends indeed described "three days of day."

Ancient superstitions believed them to be "evil omens," associated with the fall of kings and empires and the death of prominent people, as well as the birth of great ones. But as you probably can surmise, I don't ascribe to superstitions. That said, from Nicholas DeVore's classic "Encyclopedia of Astrology," we read that Teddy Roosevelt was born when we were visited by Comet Donati, and it is legend that Mark Twain was born and died at the appearance of Halley's Comet, which returns every 75 years. We also read that FDR's birth was "marked by the appearance of one of the brightest comets of record, which was visible in broad daylight - even at noon."

From DeVore, "the astrological significance of comets has been the subject of much study, but so far no definite conclusions have been reached." And yet in the same paragraph he also states "It is presumed that comets presage history-making events; but operating through individuals whose birth coincides with their appearance, their effects are so delayed as often to be overlooked."

We also read that the head of Holmes' Comet "had a diameter in excess of a million miles," (larger than the Sun!) while "the great comet of 1843 ... with an orbit of 400 years... had a tail 200 million miles in length." There are comets with 6 tails, some with tails that change so quickly it's hard to believe it's the same comet from day to day, and we are told that the Great Comet of 1811 is associated with the most excellent wine that came out of France that year.

Here we must remember that some comets come but once, while others return from time to time. So while in antiquity they were considered "messages from the gods," and "signs of unusually important events," even sometimes "omens of disaster," apparently depending on one's culture they could also be considered omens of fortunate events to come.

And while the people were often in awe of comets, even terrified of them, perhaps if we take the attitude that they are visitors whose appearance has a meaning beyond the old "good-bad" paradigms, we can observe their visitation from the angle that they correspond with the "visitation" of people whose lives will affect their times.

On that note, we'll close with an interesting observation in "The Astrology Encyclopedia" by James Lewis, where it states that Chiron is a comet. If that is so, then just how "bad" could Chiron be? Of course, I wouldn't want to get caught in a comet's tail, since a million mile particle shower could get very strange indeed!

Comments

It seems to me that ISON is a symbol of TURNING A CORNER/SQUARE aspect,because it actually has an exact turning point with the SUN! Have we finally turned the corner with, what I have been calling THE square (Uranus/Pluto)? What exactly happens to ISON could give us a cosmic clue to the 'outcome' of the square...? just a thought...I love that events can be reflected in the planets/stars.

Posted by: gale | November 28, 2013 at 09:56 AM

Robert, dear one, speaking of Chiron, I had the good fortune to attend a talk by Barbara and Gerry Clow this past week. This is by way of saying that I believe the Neptune Chiron passages in Pisces, especially over my north node earlier this year, with a subsequent retrograde over my descendent..have triggered an intense period of deep healing and release.
Somehow, I have assumed that Chiron's return at age 50 pretty much resolved the chirotic wound. My experiences these past several months clearly say, not so. Chiron continues to operate through our entire life.

Because of the 50 year cycle, I got to speculating about its relationship to Saturn (7 x 7). That led to speculation that each septile from the natal position of Chiron addresses one of the seven chakra energy systems. I did some correlation with my personal chart and can see that I am currently working in the sixth septile; that seems to correlate with the healing I've undertaken these past six months.

I've read your Chiron articles of 2006, 2007 and 2008 and am wondering if you have thought more about Chiron lately?

Posted by: Jo Garceau | November 28, 2013 at 12:08 PM