Comet A3 Tsuchinshan & You!

You’ve probably heard all about Comet A3 Tsuchinshan (the name means Purple Mountain) or you may even have spotted this interstellar visitor whizzing through the sky recently. The brightest comet in over a decade, it’s currently approaching maximum visibility. 

But what does it mean astrologically? This is not a whimsical question. Many ancient cultures studied comets assiduously, crediting all manner of outcomes to these phenomena.

The Ancient Chinese, for example, saw them as shifting the Yin/Yang and/or Five Elements balance whilst the Egyptians connected them with divine messengers and the souls of illustrious beings. The winged discs of the Mesopotamians may be a depiction of a comet and generally everyone agreed that they portended unusual events.

So, you can see the astronomical ephemeris below but for simplicity’s sake, the constellation degrees that Comet A3 Purple Mountain will traverse for the week from now are:

Tropical Zodiac: 11° Libra to 15° Scorpio
Sidereal Zodiac: 16° Virgo to 19° Libra

More simply, if your birthday is between October 4 and November 7, the comet is about to be conjunct your natal Sun. Or, if you were born between November 1975 and December 1989, your natal Pluto!

Even more interestingly, there is a high chance it will connect with your natal Jupiter if you were born between September 1969 & Nov 1970, January 1981 to October 1982 or December 1992 to September 1994.

The image above, btw, is not the Purple Mountain comet but 1997’s stunning Hale-Bopp comet. It’s my personal fave because the first MM column appeared in the The Australian newspaper a month after I had a kind of mystical encounter with the comet.

The craze around the Hale-Bopp was nuts – you may recall that there were cults and conspiracies galore. I didn’t care about any of those but I was fascinated by the time period it had apparently last visited Earth (2215 BC, estimated). I’d also figured out that the comet would be in my 5th house and conjunct my North Node at the time it was most visible where I live.

So I went to a comet-viewing party that turned out to be absolute merde. You know how when you have high hopes for an event and it turns into a string of micro-absurdities?

Every conversation seemed awkward, I managed to get drunk but skip the euphoria stage, bicker with my then partner and then – upon visiting the bathroom adjust a new bra that had turned rogue – the comet flew by overhead.

I emerged to all the cheering, trod on the tail of the host’s cat (by mistake obviously) and decided to call it a night. Skulking home in one of the most foul moods on record, I took off my uncomfortable boots and decided to donate them to a worthy someone by arranging them neatly in the gutter.

A few minutes later, walking gingerly up the early A.M. middle of the road because my feet were being cut by the gravel, I wondered if the bra too should be discarded. As I was pondering this move, I felt a presence, something profoundly magical and – I felt – violet.

The air around me seemed tinged with violet and, as the clouds cleared, I looked up to see the Hale-Bopp not only passing magnificently overhead but seeming to slow and shimmer for a second. Yes, I know it moves at 150,000 kilometers an hour or whatever but I swear it stalled and spoke to me.

I couldn’t tell you what it said but my feet miraculously stopped hurting and the next day I was asked if I’d like to write an astrology column. As astrology was my passion long before journalism, this was of course, beyond.

Hale-Bopp is no longer visible to the naked eye but this most iconic of comets is hanging out in a constellation named Octans, near the South Pole. I can’t see the Hale-Bopp but I’m happy it’s there.

So who knows? Perhaps Comet A3 will pull a magical trick or two for you this week?

Thoughts?