Comet tales. . .is there a dragon upon us? Elenin cometh!

by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA

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The astronomical, astrological, Armageddon and planet killer (extinction) groups have been on overload in the last few years as our scientists have uncovered more and more of the universe’s secrets. Do not fear…the universe has enough secrets to keep our clever little minds busy for eternity. Mankind is fascinated with anything scary, just look at our choice of entertainment. The end of the world has been touted for millenia.  Look at how many people are caught up in either the wild speculation or the alarmists or the religious groups with millions of believers of one form or another. Supposedly humanity has had many such moments, which have passed into historical (not hysterical) oblivion without even as much as a small ripple. Unfortunately, as these speculations arise, enterprising people take advantage of such fear and belief. “Sell everything or give it to me, I know what is going to happen and I have a plan.” I’m sure they do. When annihilation or transcendence does not work out, they say “Oops” and do not even blink as the faithful lose their faith along with everything they own. Devastating and unfortunately frequent.

As each small piece of astronomical information is uncovered, excitement and speculation run rampant. Pundits of all flavors and those who want to claim a portion of their proverbial fifteen minutes of fame are front and center spewing misinformation. As a long-time astrologer, my phone used to ring off the hook at every headline. Currently my email dumps dozens of questions into my inbox. I dutifully check out all the reliable information I can assemble for the question being asked and the usual outcome is:  relax…this is nonsense and hype.  I am not a conspiracy theorist and I cannot help the religious types; neither group can nor wants to hear me.

The current buzz is Comet Elenin of which I have heard the most amazing claims:

  • Elenin is a monster comet
  • Elenin is a brown or black dwarf star or planet
  • Elenin is coming upon us between the Moon and the Earth
  • Elenin will block out the Sun for days (occultation)
  • Elenin is far denser than Earth and can inflict great damage
  • Elenin can cause a shift in Earth’s tectonic plates and planet-splitting earthquakes
  • Elenin is accompanied by hidden Niburu, a planet killer trailing in Elenin’s wake
  • Elenin has a 12,000 year orbit
  • and on and on and on…

As I researched, I found a bunch of what looks like credible material, seemingly factual, reasonably well documented. I also found an equal number of hoax reports.  Time to find out the real facts. Trust the NASA.gov website to always give you the scientific facts. 

  • Elenin is a rather small comet as comets go, about two-three miles across, with millions or billions of comets possible within our solar system.
  • At that size, Elenin cannot possibly block the Sun from Earth’s view. Our Moon is able to block our view of the Sun temporarily (eclipse), so Elenin would have to be approximately the size of our Moon, about 2500 miles wide, which Elenin is not.
  • Elenin’s closest approach to the Earth is 22 million miles. Since the Moon is ¼ million miles away from the Earth, Elenin cannot conceivably pass between Earth and the Moon …so again it cannot cover the Sun from Earth’s viewpoint
  • Since the Earth orbits the Sun perpetually, that motion itself would eliminate days of occultation. We are moving and our perceptions move and change as well.
  • Elenin is dirty ice with the density of packed icy dirt, typical of most comets (a generic “all” cannot be substantiated). How in the world (ours) can a large, two-three-mile-wide dirty ice ball shift Earth’s tectonic plates or split us in half by earthquake? No logic here.
  • Elenin’s orbit is the usual comet orbit and is not permanently in the Earth plane orbit. Comets have a different orbit plane and travel retrograde (backwards) most of the time.
  • Nibiru is another small comet, traveling closely to Elenin’s orbit, sometimes hidden to the observer, at other times quite visible. It appears to be even smaller than Elenin – depends on distance. Aside from the name which comes from antiquity, not much more is known about Comet Niburu than we “know” about Elenin.
  • On August 19, 2011 Elenin was brighter and more dominant than astronomers anticipated and then disaster (for Elenin) struck. A coronal mass ejection (Sun) the following day (the 20th) caused Elenin to diminish in brightness and observation. Astronomers believe that Elenin might be disintegrating, a common happenstance when comets get too close to the Sun. 
  • Elenin was traveling in early Libra and would have probably been square transiting Pluto and opposition transiting Uranus. With Saturn in Libra as well, this was not a good combination of energies. Which part of the world’s difficulties is attributable to Elenin is anyone’s guess. We certainly have enough troubles from which to choose.
  • Elenin’s perihelion date (closest approach to the Sun was September 10-11, 2011 past) at 44.8 million miles.
  • Elenin’s closest approach to Earth (22 million miles) is October 16th. Elenin will be at 13 Leo 20 that day with its motion at that time almost 3.5˚ daily, retrograde if you would like to check potential activations to personal or global charts. I would put my money on global effect, not so much personal. What would it look like if Elenin were personal? Depends on the aspect that makes it personal. If you have a natal chart, look to the house that contains 13 Leo 20 for the potential personal arena in which Elenin will appear.

Does all that mean nothing will occur with this passage? Does it mean that tragedy is probably not on our dinner plate? That is not quite true from my frame of reference. I am an astrologer. I have mankind’s history at my fingertips (thank you internet) to look at what the passage of comets have illustrated. Astronomy discounts the effects of comets and any celestial body continually. Astronomy measures, astrology interprets. According the astronomy there is nothing to interpret, so we must now leave the sphere of cold, hard fact and enter the realm of “what does it mean to us.” also known as astrology.

 Using Halley’s Comet, which is probably the best-known comet of all, Halley’s has the centuries-long reputation of deposing kings and dictators and providing changes to governments and politics throughout the centuries. The last time Halley’s looped around the Sun (perihelion, the closest approach to the Sun), where it stops coming in and starts going out, was February 9, 1986. Check out your history. This was the time frame in which Haiti’s Baby “Doc” Duvalier was dethroned as well as the Ferdinand Marcos controlled government of the Philippines was in place (data from Wikipedia).

  • Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, 33rd President of Haiti
  • In office April 22, 1971 – February 7, 1986
  • Preceded by François (Papa Doc) Duvalier
  • Succeeded by Henri Namphy

And:

  • Ferdinand Marcos
  • In office December 30, 1965 – February 25, 1986
  • 1st Prime Minister (1978-1981, very ill toward end of term)
  • Wife Imelda ran country to all intents and purposes
  • Cesar Virata (1981-1986) (Marcos controlled Prime Minister)
  • Vice President Arturo Tolentino (Feb 16-25, 1986)
  • Succeeded by Corazon Aquino, 3rd Prime Minister of the Philippines

I disagree with science that comets never affect us – some do. Just know there are many comets that frequent our celestial neighborhood, both short period (frequent) and long period (big orbit like Halley’s). Only a few have been documented as having a specific effect. Which is this one? Will it affect us? Not sure, we have no history on which to base interpretation. Usually the key date is perihelion and we have seen tremendous activity in the Middle East most recently with the uprising and deposing of the dictator in Egypt. War and the rumor of war has always been with us as well as the toppling of governments but we are having a bumper crop of them this year.

In my next article I want to review more about comet tales (pun intended) and their possible effects on planet Earth: “Comet Tails and Meteor Showers”.

Source: Chart from Dark star Astrology

First published on All Things Healing website Sep 2011, republished with slight editing.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.