I dont know how many of you are aware already but we have a new Comet heading our way! Its been designated comet Lulin.

Here is an image of it:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090202.html

Its already swung around the sun, and soon it will be more visible to stargazers, hopefully to the naked eye.

One interesting characteristic of this Comet is its orbit. Lulin is actually moving in the opposite direction to the planets/signs, so its apparent velocity will be quite fast. Estimates are it will be moving about 5 astronomical degrees a day across the sky, so when viewed with a telescope or binoculars, you may be able to see the comet's apparent motion against the background stars. The comet's orbital inclination means it is passing just 1.6? from the ecliptic plane

The Comet has already passed perihelion with the Sun (closest proximity to sun) ,on January 14th. As it moves to its closest approach to Earth on February 24, Lulin is expected to brighten to naked-eye visibility in rural areas, (at best about magnitude 5 or 6) and will be observable low in the sky before dawn.

According to the BBC Sky at Night programme the comet is likely to become visible between the star Regulus, in the constellation of Leo, and the planet Saturn. This will place it in the tropical sign of Virgo.

The Comet was discovered on 11/07/2007 by Quanzhi Ye at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou, China. There is no time available. Still it might be worth setting up a chart for this time approximately to track where the comet was both in terms of constellations and the tropical zodiac.

Personally, I consider the point a Comet first becomes visible as the most significant moment astrologically. To a lesser extent the point it fades out of naked eye visibility.

So assuming the comet becomes naked eye visible how might we interpret it?

Traditional authorities dont tend to have much good to say about Comets.
In addition though this comet is travelling backwards through the zodiac! Although unusual this kind of comet has been observed in the past. Lets say they didn't get a good press astrologically!

This Comet has been called 'the green comet' by some astronomers. To me that brings up associations of Venus. However, I would prefer to see what colour the Comet looks like to naked eye observers before getting carried away on that.

So some themes to ponder regarding comet Lu Lin:

1 Its travelling against the order of signs!

2 Its travelling very close to the plane of the ecliptic

3 Its green (in telescopes)

4 It may become visible near Saturn (?)

5 It may become visble near the fixed Star Regulus (?)

6 It will be in the constellation of Leo

7 It will be in the tropical sign of Virgo ( any countries come to mind?)

So the comet will be first observed travelling through a double bodied, mutable, earth sign.

Comets were often considered in terms of the zodiacal element they appeared in. Thus:

Earth Signs- barreness due to drought, crop failure, hunger

Water Signs- barreness due to excessive rain, flooding

Air Signs- Mighty winds, seditions and pestilence.

Fire signs- terrible wars and slaughter

If we are using the popular Sibly chart for the USA this will mean the Comet may first appear in the chart's 10th house (whole sign houses) ( Data: Sagittarius Rising chart (Sibly): July 4, 1776, 5:10 pm LMT, Philadelphia, PA)

It will also pass through the 8th house of the chart for China.
(The People's Republic of China was formally established on October 1, 1949, 3:01:36 pm CCT, Beijing, China)

As the old saying goes,...'watch the skies!'

Incidentally a skyscript regular Margherita Fiorello (Gjiada) has put out an article on the comet on her blog.
http://heavenastrolabe.wordpress.com/20 ... met-lulin/

So comets aren't too lucky and this one is green and is going backwards.

Don't fancy holding too many dollars then!

I think we need to wait and see where it turns up. Its interesting that despite all our technology astronomers still find it difficult to predict what they will do next. In that sense they are very Uranian!

According to the astronomer David Levy :

Comets are like cats. They have tails, and they do precisely what they want'

MarkC wrote:
According to the astronomer David Levy :

Comets are like cats. They have tails, and they do precisely what they want'

Nothing is truer than this, at least about cats

Margherita

Thanks for the great initial post, Mark!

Interesting question: What to use, the chart for the discovery or when it first becomes visible to the naked eye? The outer planets are invisible but still efficiant in their works. The first naked eye observation could be significant, but the comet has already entered into the realm of our conscious mind.

My opinion on the comets it that whatever once was far away now become close up - so they have the tendency to occur together with extraordinary phenomena.

There is enough extraordinary stuff going on in the World at the moment, so I think we have called for a comet. Say, did anyone order an extra-terrestial pizza??

Hi Andrew,

In the days before telescopes the first naked-eye observation would have been the same thing as discovering a Comet. However, with the advantage of technology we now have several possible times to work with astrologically:

1 The discovery of the Comet by telescope

2 The Comet reaching perihelion (closest point to the Sun)

3 The point when the Comet becomes naked eye visible. (if at all!)


Lets look at these separately:

The discovery of the Comet by telescope

I take your point about the discovery of a Comet being the point when the Comet first enters human consciousness. I would certainly consider the astrology of the discovery time too.

The difficulty is that we often do not have an exact time for such a discovery. Still we can plot the approximate location of a Comet by tropical sign and sidereal constellation.

Both these approaches have a long history and I believe they are both useful. In particular the Roman 2nd century writer Pliny the Elder describes the sidereal approach to interpreting Comets in his work The Natural History. The 2nd Century astrologer/astronomer Claudius Ptolemy set out the basic approach for tropical astrology in his Tetrabiblos.

Although I do use the tropical zodiac I believe Comets present a special case for also working with the constellations/fixed stars. In particular most comets are located nowhere near the ecliptic so collapsing their position on exact tropical zodiac degrees is a little artificial. Plus in terms of symbolism it gives us the whole sky with 88 constellations to choose from rather than just 12 zodiac signs.

Unfortunately, despite a lot of checking I have not managed to discover where Comet Lulin was when it was first discovered. Does anyone else know?

We could certainly cast an approximate chart for the discovery of Comet Lulin. I have found out the Comet was discovered sometime during the afternoon of 11/07/2007 , Yat Sen University,Guangzhou, China.

An alternative allowing us to erect a properly timed chart with angles is to follow Margherita?s suggestion shown on her blog and use the data of sygygy (the Full or New Moon) immediately prior to the discovery of the Comet. This certainly allows a proper delineation.

Another option which would have traditional authority would be to use the immediately prior Ingress chart.

The Comet reaching perihelion

As noted earlier perihelion is the point when the Comet reaches its closes proximity to the Sun. I hadn?t come across this suggestion until I read Jonathan Flanery?s article here on skyscript.

Here is a relevant section:

The message is not delivered until the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun where the message is assimilated into the system. The Sun is author of the System according to modern astronomy and the King and ruler of it according to tradition. These new decrees are issued at perihelion. Perihelion is the sensitive point to watch during the duration of influence of the comet as this is the message. The message alters trade and political arrangements and form alliances into new patterns - it creates new connections. The best recent example of this is Comet Kahoutek whose arrival coincided with the formation of the Oil Cartel and many related crises. As would be expected from a major influence in Sagittarius (perihelion at 27:42, December 1973), Kahoutek also had an impact on large corporations, especially the auto industry, and international trade. Kahoutek was a visitor from the Oort Cloud and although it was not spectacular to view, it was visible and has a very long period of effect. One eighth of a very long orbital period is still a very long time.

When the place of perihelion is transited by Mars or the Sun, effects begin in earnest, the decree is implemented and arrangements change radically.

I am not personally that convinced by this approach but I suggest reading the whole article and making up your own mind. While many comets do reach their brightest point at perihelion this is not always the case. Comet Lulin demonstrates this point.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/comet.html

The Case for Naked eye observation time

Naked eye observation is just as difficult to time accurately. Human eyesight, atmospheric conditions and observer locations are all variable. Inevitably this leads to a rather rough and ready approach which only allows an approximation. It does not really permit a precisely timed chart with angles. We can therefore only plot a Comet?s location this way by tropical sign or sidereal constellation. Still, astronomers do keep a close observation on such issues so we should discover its first naked location within just a few degrees.

For strictly traditional astrologers the naked-eye approach has strong appeal. Many traditionalists reject use of outer planets because of their invisibility to the naked eye. The philosophy of the rays would suggest only naked-eye objects such as the seven traditional planets, the bright fixed stars and Comets are astrologically relevant.

However, if you are not part of this small camp of astrological traditionalists why concentrate on a naked-eye approach?

One argument is that without this approach we cannot separate the wheat from the chaff. There are dozens of cometary bodies bobbing around us all the time. Do we cast charts for all these? No. Its only when a Cometary body looks like becoming naked eye visible that the non-astronomical community gets at all interested. So I would argue the modern discovery of a Comet is its conception but its ?birth? only really happens if it becomes naked eye visible.

Lets take a specific example to demonstrate my point.

Comet Holmes is a periodic Comet discovered covered by the British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes, on November 6, 1892. Although normally a very faint object, Holmes became notable during its October 2007 return when it temporarily brightened by a factor of about half a million, in what was the largest known outburst by a comet, and became visible to the naked eye. It also briefly became the largest object in the solar system, as its coma (the thin dissipating dust ball around the comet) expanded to a diameter greater than that of the Sun.

Where did this expansion of magnitude occur? In the sidereal constellation of Perseus near the fixed star Algol.

For anyone not up on the astrology of Algol check out this article

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/algol.html

In short Algol is traditionally the most malefic star in the heavens! Considering Comet?s have such a poor reputation anyway I would suggest this information alone provided any clued up astrologer with the data to know the world was heading for a very difficult time. If this had occurred in Lilly?s time you can be sure this would not have escaped his attention!

Comets travelling though earth signs have traditional associations with poor harvests, famine , in short scarcity and hunger. Could we not expand that to include in modern terms loss of wealth and shrinking resources? Following this Comet, we had oil price increases, food shortages and of course the full impact of the credit crunch began to take effect.

Before this we had been visited in late 2006 and the early 2007 by so called the ''Great Comet of 2007'' called Comet McNaught. McNaught was amongst the three brightest comets of the 20th century. It was either the brightest Comet since 1965 or 1935 depending on your astronomical source. This Comet was so bright it became visible in daylight! Comet McNaught was a non-periodic Comet named after the British-Australian astronomer Rober H. McNaught.

McNaught discovered the Comet on August 7, 2006, in between the "head" of the constellation Scorpius, and the foot of the constellation of Ophiuchus shining very dimly at a magnitude of about +17.The Comet reached naked-eye visibility in early January 2007. It was visible to northern hemisphere observers, in Sagittarius at the point it became naked eye visible.

In sidereal terms the Comet?s discovery in the location of Scorpius/Ophiuchus brings up obvious imagery associated with both Scorpio and the ?poisons? associated the snake holder ?Ophiuchus?. More positively McNaught has associations with healing so perhaps the long term prospect is some positive transformation emerging from crisis. This would place the Comet in the early degrees of tropical Sagittarius
At the point it bacame naked-eye visbility Comet Mcnaught was in the sidereal constellation of Sagittarius placing it in the tropical sign of Capricorn.

The Comet last appeared naked-eye near the constellations of Centaurus and the Altar to southern hemisphere observers. The former has associations with Chiron the wounded Centaur/healer while the latter implies sacrifices being made for a higher goal. I am perhaps being hopelessly romantic here but to my mind the election of Obama fits this symbolism very well. Its interesting the alpha star of Centaurus ( Rigil Kentaurus) is on Obama?a MC and the Moon was on this degree at the exact time of his inauguration.

If we accept the popular Sagittarius rising chart for the USA (Sibly chart) Comet McNaught first became visible passing through the second house of the USA chart (whole sign). Using the the UK 1927 chart ( also Sagittarius Rising) Comet McNaught was also passing through the second house of this chart when it became visible and the the 4th house of the UK 1801 chart. Looking at Iceland Comet Holmes was passing through the 8th house of the Icelandic chart (1944) when it exploded into visbility. Even more strikingly though Comet Holmes exploded into visibilty exactly on the Moon of the national Chart for Iceland!

I accept this took a bit time to take effect ( approximately a year). However, I would expect a Comet in a fixed sign to have a slower impact period.

Is it just a coincidence that Comet McNaught, Holmes and probably Lulin have all become visible in the tropical earth signs? I would suggest this resonates with the unprecedented financial crisis the world is now in.

Is there a tropical ephemeris anywhere?

I looked around on the net yesterday without discovering one.
Perhaps someone has a link or could provide a table? If it is appearing in tropical Virgo, I think we should note that Virgo is a humane sign, which according to tradition gives an indication of who gets the effects.

Birmingham is ruled by Virgo. They are in 2nd position in the Championship (football) and there is an outside chance that they will come like a comet take over the leading position.

Comet years are also known to produce excellent wines!

Hi Andrew,

I haven't seen a tropical ephemeris but there are a few astronomical ones on the net.

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemeri ... 7N3_1.html

Comet years are also known to produce excellent wines!

Well thats an interesting fact! As this is such a brilliant green Comet and since wine comes under the rulership of Venus this Comet may not be all doom and gloom!

Mark

MarkC wrote:An alternative allowing us to erect a properly timed chart with angles is to follow Margherita?s suggestion shown on her blog and use the data of sygygy (the Full or New Moon) immediately prior to the discovery of the Comet. This certainly allows a proper delineation.

Another option which would have traditional authority would be to use the immediately prior Ingress chart.

Hello Mark, just a quick note.
The sizygy preceding the event is the same method used by Ticho Brahe for the chart of the new star of 1572 printed in De nova et nullius aevi memoria prius visa stella.
and this is Haly comet in Cardano comment to Tetrabiblos
But I believe because they followed mostly Ptolemy; followers of Albumasar would use the Ingress, as you wrote.

To be honest, Brahe cast the syzygy chart but then he differed the effects till the Great Conjunction, a servant of two masters, we would say here in Italy

Margherita

Hello Margherita,

Thanks so much! You seem to be full of astrological pearls like this.

I had been wondering about the use of nova in astrology.

From your reading of Tycho Brahe would you agree with this comment by Jonathan Flanery in his article on Comets cited above? In particular:

Tycho Brahe made use of the Sybilline Prophecies and the Nova of 1572 in predicting the birth of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

I have heard before that Tycho Brahe predicted the birth of a great military leader in the North ( around Finland). However, Gustavus Adolphus wasn't born until 9 December 1594. That seems quite a gap from the Nova of 1572. I had thought I had read somewhere else Brahe actually based this prediction on the chart for a Comet but perhaps I am mistaken?

MarkC wrote:
From your reading of Tycho Brahe would you agree with this comment by Jonathan Flanery in his article on Comets cited above? In particular:

Tycho Brahe made use of the Sybilline Prophecies and the Nova of 1572 in predicting the birth of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

I don't know

In my files I found this. Brahe wrote "a new condition in kingdoms, different from the earlier, and likewise a different order of religious conditions and laws. The comment of Christianson says "In the year 1632 this prophecy was widely associated with King Gustavus Adolphus."
1632 was the year of death of the King.

I did not read all Brahe's book, just the astrological chapter, and it seems to me he was very precise in reading the chart, but very generic in indicating future events. It was the kind of forecast they would do in that time, full of new times, muslims, the Angelic Pope and Antichrists.
It's the same kind of things of Gioacchino da Fiore, in fact.

Margherita

Say, did anyone order an extra-terrestial pizza??

Looks like Comet Lulin is the green olive topping