Word: comets
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...reaction to Kohoutek is also taking more metaphysical forms. A militant Jesus cult called the Children of God, which claims a worldwide membership, is convinced that the comet is an omen of disaster and is directly predicting doomsday ("Forty days," warns the group's leader "Moses David" Berg, and "Nineveh shall be destroyed!"). A different alarm is sounded by the Italian parapsychologist Astaroth, 52 (real name: Claudio Giannantonio), who counsels members of the Rome political and movie set. Astaroth explains that comets disrupt the "psychomagnet-ic equilibrium" of the planetary system. He adds: "Human beings will be drawn...
Others of a mystical bent feel less threatened by the comet, particularly because of its coincidence with Christmas. "I do not mean to suggest that another Christ will be born," wrote James Grayson Bolen, editor and publisher of the magazine Psychic, "but rather that an inner birth of Christ-like consciousness might occur." Imprisoned Acid Guru Timothy Leary, who was recently the beneficiary of a fund-raising "Comethon" in Santa Cruz, Calif., shares this optimism: "The Comet Starseed [Kohoutek] comes at the right time to return light to the planet earth." Adds Carl Schleicher, whose Washington-based Mankind Research Unlimited...
...Comets (from Greek kométés, for long-haired) have been objects of awe, reverence and fear throughout history. The ancients, at least, had a legitimate excuse for their fantasies: no one knew where comets came from or where they went after they disappeared from sight. (Aristotle suggested that they were fiery "exhalations" in the atmosphere.) Whenever a comet appeared, it was taken as a sign from heaven of impending calamity: a flood, an outbreak of disease or even the fall of a king or empire. Plutarch wrote that a brilliant comet shone for seven nights...
...Hairy Star." According to some biblical interpretations, a bright comet appeared over Judea around 7 B.C. shortly before the birth of Jesus. Oracles told King Herod that the "hairy star" was the harbinger of the birth of a boy who was destined to outshine the monarch himself. To thwart that threat to his supremacy, Herod went on a rampage of infanticide. In A.D. 451 a comet blazed overhead as Attila the Hun overran Gaul on a march that culminated in the invasion of Italy. A comet, depicted in the famous Bayeux tapestry, also appeared...
...comet of 1456 and many of the others that influenced ancient history were one and the same: the celestial visitor that became known as Halley's comet. A 17th century protégé of Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley was convinced that comets travel, like planets, in closed orbits around the sun. Using his mentor's formulas, he calculated the paths of comets dating back to 1337 and found that three-those of 1456, 1531 and 1607 -had roughly the same orbit as the comet of 1682 (which he had seen as a young man). Halley concluded that...