A new comet is sweeping into view this month. Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6), a visitor last seen by human eyes roughly 1,300 years ago has been traveling the long arc of its orbit since around the 7th century, returning rediscovered in January 2025 as it once again approached.
For sky-watchers, Lemmon is expected to shine faintly green as it passes closest to Earth around October 21, moving near the constellation Ursa Major, just in time for the New Moon in Libra. The dark skies will make it easier to spot before dawn or just after sunset low on the horizon hopefully visible to the naked eye.
Comets as Omens
Comets are among the most ancient omens in astrology. Before horoscopes, before even the twelve-sign zodiac as we know it, there were records of “broom stars” and “hairy stars” whose sudden appearance sent ripples through courts and empires.
To ancient astrologers, comets were divine interruptions: rare, unpredictable, and always consequential. They broke the regular order of the heavens. Planets may have moved at different rates and speeds but their cycles were predictable. Comets appeared unannounced, blazing across the sky like cosmic warnings.
In Mesopotamia, China, and later Greece and Rome, astrologers read their color, brightness, and the shape or direction of their tails to interpret what kind of event they foretold. Red or fiery comets might signal war or bloodshed. Pale or green ones were read as disease, famine, or environmental upheaval. The sudden light of a comet often coincided, or was believed to coincide, with the death of kings, revolutions, or great natural disasters.
Chaos and Change in the Astrological Imagination
In modern astrology, comets have mostly fallen out of use.
Unlike planets, they move too erratically to plot in a chart for long. Yet their symbolic language still speaks to something primal: sudden revelation, upheaval, and the exposure of hidden truth.
Astrologer Chris Brennan, in recent discussions about comets and their role in omen tradition, describes them as amplifiers, moments when the veil between cosmic order and chaos grows thin. Because they defy predictability, comets symbolize the unpredictable itself: shocks, ruptures, and turning points in history.
They are neither purely good nor purely bad. Rather, they mark threshold moments, times when what has been building beneath the surface suddenly becomes visible.
The Meaning of Lemmon’s Arrival
Comet Lemmon’s greenish hue (caused by glowing carbon gases) adds another layer of intrigue. Green, in symbolic terms, was associated with Saturn, depending on context, and was thought to represent a process of death and rebirth. A comet like Lemmon might signal a sweeping away of the old, clearing space for something new.
That it becomes visible near the New Moon in Libra adds poetic resonance. Libra seeks equilibrium; comets disrupt it. Their co-presence in the sky reminds us that balance often emerges only after imbalance has been revealed.
Astrologically, one might say: Lemmon arrives as a reckoning, or an inflection point that exposes what can no longer be ignored, both personally and collectively.
How to See It
For the next few nights, look toward Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) just before dawn or after sunset. Under dark skies, the comet may be faintly visible to the naked eye, though binoculars will help. Its closest approach comes just as the Moon disappears into darkness. The symbolic relevance of the darkness of the new moon and the planting of new seeds cannot be overstated.
Even if you never get to see it, it's valuable to reflect on the timing. Comet Lemmon’s return connects us with a lineage of sky-watchers stretching back thousands of years, who also paused, looked up, and wondered what change the heavens were foreshadowing.
A Sign of the Times
Whether you view comets as omens, metaphors, or just beautiful curiosities, they ask us to pay attention. They interrupt routine. They draw our eyes skyward.
Comet Lemmon does mark a shift in the cosmic weather. Something long-dormant is has returned. A deeper dive into the timing might be worth the effort.