Comet Neowise and the Great Bear

A new comet has appeared in our skies this month. This comet was named Neowise, for the space telescope that first spotted it. She first came into our consciousness on March 27, 2020. At that point, she could only be seen by telescope. This comet spun around the Sun on July 3, 2020, and as always with comets, there was some uncertainty as to whether she would survive this passage. She did, and she is now visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye. She is the brightest comet we have seen in over 30 years.

Traditional View of Comets

Comets were seen as omens and harbingers of important events. Unfortunately, these events were usually tragedies. In most cases, they warned of famine, floods, invasions, war, plague, and things of that nature. They could also indicate the death of a great Ruler and an overthrow of the current power structure.

In the sense that comets are usually considered bad omens, they are like eclipses. On the other hand, unlike eclipses, there does not seem to be any prohibition against looking at them from what I can tell. I think that this may be because eclipses represent a time of choice for Axial Beings.

In contrast, comets are seen as a warning of Divine intention to intervene in worldly affairs. Indeed, there are many stories of kings and rulers who have redoubled their efforts to consolidate their power after seeing a comet and lose it anyway to an unforeseen event. This makes it seem like it does not matter whether we look at the comet or not. Comets foretell an act of Divine Will, not an opportunity to exercise our own Free Will.

The belief that comets represent Divine Intervention and are usually seen as bad omens raises a difficult question. Does Dea intervene to do us harm? This is a particular problem for monotheistic religions and invokes the old paradox, “if God is all-powerful, God cannot be good, and if God is good, God cannot be all-powerful.”

In one sense, all true religious traditions believe in One Ultimate Source. Outside of the Abrahamic faiths, however, many also believe in a pantheon of deities, which can also be seen as aspects of the Ultimate. Not all of these deities are nice or friendly to human beings.

The Deanist/Filianist answer to this is that this is one of the things that we cannot truly understand from an unEnlightened state. Pain, sorrow, and tragedy are a part of manifest existence, and everything other than Ultimate Reunion with Dea is temporary, even Paradise. Death and destruction are a part of life, even though we experience these things as negative.

Interpreting Comet Neowise

An astrologer’s job when it comes to comets is to do her best to interpret the Divine intent and help people prepare accordingly. To interpret the meaning of a comet, astrologers use everything about it, including its color, direction, and the constellations and fixed stars in its path.

It can be tempting to get complicated about the interpretation of a comet. Yet, if we understand it to be a message from the Divine, we can probably assume that the Divine wants us to understand it, so at least on some level, the message will be fairly clear.

Details about the current appearance of Comet Neowise

In traditional times, a comet would be considered to arrive when we could see it with the naked eye. Now, we can detect comets with telescopes much sooner than we would be able to see them in the night sky.

Comet Neowise was first spotted on March 27, 2020. This is when many places around the world started to go into lockdown because of the virus, Covid-19. She went around the Sun on July 3, 2020. It seems that she could have gotten burned up by the Sun, so it was not until after she passed that it was certain that she would come and visit our skies.

She was first visible on Earth on around July 12, 2020, and she will be visible until at least July 23, 2020, in the Northern Hemisphere. She may be visible longer, though. Comets tend to be rather unpredictable, even to modern science. She will not be visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Comet Neowise is multi-colored, but the main ones are gold, orange, and yellow. With respect to comets, these colors relate to the Sun, Jupiter, and Venus. This comet also has two tails, and the second tail has just appeared. The direction of the comet is downward, and she appears to be falling from the heavens to the Earth.

This comet first became visible in the constellation Argo, the Ship. She is moving retrograde or in the opposite direction of the planets, and her path will take her through Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, and Canis Major.

Ursa Major, the Great Bear

Of all of the constellations that Comet Neowise will pass through, as a Filianist, the most interesting is Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

Ursa Major is probably the oldest constellation that has been passed down into modern times. In recent times, there is a uniform system of classifications for the constellations, but this was not always the case. Different cultures had different groupings and mythology for the various stars. Ursa Major, however, is uniform throughout many cultures, including indigenous Native American cultures. Almost universally, Ursa Major is seen as feminine.

Ursa Major is one of the circumpolar constellations in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning that she is always up in the night sky, never rising or setting. The southern parts of this constellation can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere as well.

Bear worship was common in prehistory, and there is evidence that it was a part of Neanderthal cultures. The Sami in Northern Scandanavia and the Ainu in Japan still worship the bear today.

She can be seen as a Mother/Protector Deity. She can be fierce but her devotion to her children is absolute.

Orbit of Comet Neowise

Comet Neowise is thought to originate in the Oort Cloud, meaning that she comes from the very outer edges of the influence of our Sun. The outer edges of the Ort Cloud are 3.2 light-years from the Sun. This makes her a long-period comet. Long-period comets have orbits of thousands of years.

While planets have regular orbits, the orbits of comets can be complicated. There are some, like Halley’s Comet, which have a regular orbit. For others, the passage around the Sun warps and changes their orbit. Some have there orbit changed so much that they fly out of the solar system.

Many articles state that Comet Neowise has an orbit of around 6,800 years. This is not quite accurate. It will be 6,700 years before she will be visible on Earth again, but the last time she was seen would have been around 4,400 years ago. See the Wikipedia Article about this comet.

This means that she would have been visible sometime around 2400 B.C.E. This was the time from which we have the earliest written records of the history of this planet. This is the time when it is currently believed that Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid were built.

The oldest recorded comet is from China in 2296 B.C.E. It is interesting to speculate that maybe this comet was Comet Neowise. The records from that time seem to be vague, though, and I was not able to find any evidence that would either support or refute this speculation.

Interpretation Thoughts

I think that it is very likely that this comet relates at least in part to the current Covid-19 crisis. She came into our consciousness at about the same time as the pandemic was taking off on a global scale. Her appearance in the sky coincides with the disease spreading like wildfire in many places, including the United States.

Comets are often associated with a change in rulers. Some speculate it might have to do with the current president of the United States. While that may be the case, a comet is too large of a sign to be associated with the regular transfer of power as a result of an election.

I do think that the symbolism is pretty clear that there will be a rise in the Divine Feminine, and that patriarchal structures based on war and military force are going to fall. The symbolism of the Mother Bear deity coming to Earth seems quite powerful.

One of the interesting things about the coronavirus pandemic is that the way to combat it is through mutual cooperation. The most effective tool in preventing the spread of the virus is mask-wearing, but the mask only offers limited protection to the mask-wearer. Instead, we are protected only if others are wearing masks when they are near us. Governments that can convince or compel their population to wear masks for the common good are getting the virus under control. Places that have governments that are unwilling or unable to do this are being devastated.

I also think that this comet is another sign that changes on a scale that is difficult to imagine are coming. We are already headed for a change from an era dominated by Earth to one dominated by Air.

See 2020 – An Earth-Shattering Year

The appearance of this comet that we have not seen since the beginning of recorded history seems to indicate that the changes will be even more substantial and fundamental than I previously thought.

For more information about Comet Neowise from a Traditional/Classical perspective, please see the article linked below which was written by my mentor in Classical Astrology, P. James Clark.

Musings on Comet Neowise

Recommendations

Below are my thoughts and recommendations in light of the appearance of Comet Neowise.

1. Feel free to look at her if you would like. Right now Comet Neowise can be spotted near the Big Dipper in the Northern Hemisphere. It might be hard if you live in a city, and you will get a better view with a telescope or binoculars.
2. While comets are usually bad omens, they are also indicators of Divine interest in our world. Try to set aside fear. The changes that are happening have passed beyond human control, and it is best to put your trust in whatever Higher Power that you believe in.
3. Let go of your attachment to what you have always known. The less you are attached to the familiar, the easier the transition will be to what is to come.
4. Nurture virtues within yourself such as caring for others and the common good. Resist urges such as selfishness, combativeness, and competitiveness.
5. Rather than fear the loss of the structures of the past, foster hope that the future will be better.