What does it mean?

by Rain Trueax

If someone is trying to avoid thinking about earthly tangles, whether family or larger, the biggest thing for the month of July has been a rarely seen comet, Neowise. It has an orbit of 6800 years; so it wasn't last seen by humans during the time history was being recorded. To many of us, it came as a bit of a surprise but also an excitement as a reminder of the size and scope of our universe.

Think of it. They believe this comet is 4.6 billion years old, created with our universe. As it is visible here on earth for this month, it is still 100 million kilometers away at its closest approach which will be July 22-23. 

Comets, which I knew little about before this, are made up of ice (water) and dust (earth). Their trail is dust and ice. They have been regarded as symbols in some cultures. Not ours today so much, as we are very science or earthbound for what something means. What can it do for us? Is it dangerous? Can we get there and exploit it? Okay, next question-- can I photograph it? 

Many have tried and succeeded beautifully. We have been out of luck down here as the monsoons arrived with the comet's appearance and that means clouds, even when not storms. Still, it's been interesting to see what others have captured. Some spectacular.

 image from https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/18/comet-neowise-how-spot-comet-when-visible-uk-13008244/

When something happens like a comet, an eclipse, etc., do you think about whether it has meaning for life on this planet? Do you wonder what people might've thought about in the past before science explained it all?

If in 4600 BC, it had been seen as having a mystical meaning, what might it have been? I looked at what the earth might've been like for human habitation. This probably has nothing to do with the comet but it was when writing was developed in Sumer and Egypt making it the beginning of recorded history. Not sure anything was written about the comet-- that i saw anyway. 

How about taking it even further back. What might've happened in 11600 BC that could have felt the comet impacted it? This is currently called the Holcene period because Neolithic and Bronze age are now considered culture specific. This though cannot involve what was going on in the New World since it had no contact with Europeans yet. It might be something is in the stories the peoples told, which was how they shared their myths-- orally and with petroglyphs.

11,600 was a period of global warming, accelerating the glacial retreat. It was followed by a rise in sea levels. 9000 BC has the earliest date recorded for construction of temenoi ceremonial structures in Southern Turkey and possibly the oldest surviving proto-religions site on earth.

Shamans, holy men, who often use the earth cycles for their spiritual power, including eclipses, would not have had even ancestors to tell them this comet would come. That limits

what they can claim-- although there were other comets; so maybe that would've helped gain power. as that seems to work for claiming knowledge in all cultures-- including today. 

I got to wondering what those times would have been like for emotions of the people or did they have time to worry about how they felt? Maybe they were too busy surviving or fighting off wandering hoards who wanted what they had.

Today, someone could describe when it appeared in 2020 as a time of tumult with first a virus that shut down the economy for all practical purposes. Then, has in the US half the workers out of a job. And a virus that can be deadly for reasons that go beyond the illness itself with unknown ramifications to the body. 

Many experts have come to believe that Covid-19 is a created virus that likely got out of its lab in an accident. What came next not an accident when the Chinese government knew it spread from human to human and yet allowed their Chinese New Year to happen anyway. Nor was it an accident that it blocked travel from the virus' epicenter to other parts of their own country but encouraged it worldwide. The world is still paying for it. The Chinese people too as it apparently has now spread to Bejing and other places in China. 

There is more with the concern that we are in the midst of a cold war with China with a hot war even possible given the South China Sea. All of that alone would've been enough but it wasn't the end for 2020.

Right on top of the virus in the United States came the perfect storm begun with the murder of a black man by a police officer, which enabled two political groups, both proudly Marxist, to use it to gain their own larger purposes-- way beyond police reform. 

If you research this at all, using their own words, their goal is a whole reworking of the American system with a going back in history to tear apart historical figures, using the words white privilege as a way to make many afraid to voice their opinion on anything for fear of being called a racist. 

Look what happened to Goya's CEO when he dared say Trump had done some good things. Even though he had earlier praised Obama, the cancel culture struck again. People have been fired or had their lives threatened for saying the wrong thing to some group or another. Violence is apparently okay when it's for the 'right' cause.

What we've had in this time of the comet, is a constant barrage of increasing division in a country already polarized. Is there another side of all that I wrote above? Of course there is, as it's why we are so divided. With as much violence that is going on right now, I can't even imagine what will happen if the wrong side should win again. 

And it is a time of violence, some of it seemingly insane like the lawyer who killed the judge's son over his anger at her. There are too many of these stories, of senseless shootings, like someone shooting at cars and trucks along I-5 in Oregon--. But we can't blame it all on a comet, can we? 

Astrologers do have some opinions on today's meaning when a comet appears. I liked this one-- 

Astrological Thoughts on the Neowise.

For today, and this week-end, the secret of finding the comet is to have no clouds, of course, but then find the Big Dipper-- Finding Neowise.

There is still time and if you do see it, it'll not likely change your life, but it will be a good feeling to see something that represents the majesty, timelessness, and mystery of our universe. This is all bigger than the moment we are going through, but I do wonder if this moment will change everything we've known if enough people want that... I hope those who do are not being motivated by emotions and have thought long and hard about where that will lead. Is it how it will be? We can only try to make sure it is true for ourselves.