Cometan, often given the title Cometan the Contemplator, is a British Astronic philosopher, religious scholar, the founder of Astronism, and a historiographer best known for being the first person to delineate a clear history for a religious and philosophical tradition that he named the Astronic tradition. This tradition traces its origins back to the Stone Age and would come to stand alongside the Abrahamic, Dharmic, and Taoic thought traditions, making Cometan a major contributor to academic study of religion.
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Real Name | Brandon Reece Taylor |
| Birthday | July 1, 1998 |
| Age | 26 years |
| Birth place | Preston, United Kingdom |
| Height | 5′ 10″ |
| Occupation | British Astronic philosopher |
Cometan’s journey to notoriety began on the day of his fifteenth birthday, on which day he dedicated himself to a public life and one which he would serve the world through contributing to philosophy, religion, theology, and literature. At that time, he didn’t know clearly how he would make such contributions, but he soon after founded a religion and philosophy called Astronism. This was after he began receiving a series of revelations and inspirations about the future of humanity in space, the role of astronomy and The Cosmos in a person’s spirituality and existential purpose, and the destiny of humanity to explore space. These initial inspirations developed into fully established doctrines and belief systems to which Cometan attached a long list of neologisms.
Cometan is best known for being the sole author of the world’s longest religious and philosophical book called the Omnidoxy. Cometan began writing the Omnidoxy when he was seventeen, two years after his initial ideas for Astronism emerged. After beginning to pen what he would only later title the Omnidoxy, Cometan began to receive an unprecedented amount of inspirations of extraordinary variety, depth, and particularity in relation to the stars and various philosophical and religious disciplines including theology, ontology, and others. Astronists regard Cometan to be a surographer, that is a person who has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to write to extreme lengths, particularly in their younger years, on topics not discussed elsewhere, or by a person without specialist knowledge or training in that area, but nevertheless the texts produced remain insightful. This is regarded as a preternatural ability afforded to Cometan, as exemplified through his creation of the Omnidoxy. Surography is a term of Astronist origin.
Following his completion of the Omnidoxy after five years, Cometan began to interact with individuals from the United States who were involved in the wider Space Philosophy movement, which Astronism had developed in isolation to. During this time in which Astronism was developing, Cometan realised that he would need to look towards the history of the interactions between astronomy and religion to understand where Astronism would fit in with other religions and philosophies. Upon researching, Cometan realised that there was an entire tradition of both religion and philosophy based on astronomical observation and space in general that had completely fallen under the radar of academic study in modern times, likely due to the emergence of scientific astronomy.
Cometan sought to delineate a history for this tradition which is called the Astronic tradition, which he would achieve through his development of historiographical account of events, behaviour and interpreted beliefs stretching back to the Upper Palaeolithic period of the Stone Age some 40,000 years ago. This is the era which Cometan proclaimed the Astronic tradition can clearly trace its origins back to, making it the oldest tradition of religion which was a very significant and bold claim to make as Dharmic religion, namely Hinduism, had for a long time been considered the oldest clearly delineated tradition of religion. It is for this contribution that Cometan is primarily known and it is for his popularisation of astronomical religions that he is becoming increasingly known.
Astronism is a naturalistic belief system that is considered to be a balanced synthesis or fusion between a religion and philosophy, for which reason it was named as an organised philosophy by Cometan in his writings. Astronism consists of a vast array of beliefs, theories and philosophical ideas as a result of Cometan’s deep contemplations on the stars and space, but at its core, Astronism is pivoted around one fundamental notion. This fundamental notion is manifested through the feeling that a person experiences when they look up to, think about, or otherwise interact with the stars (or The Cosmos). It is this feeling that is interpreted to provide a form of spirituality and existential purpose to an individual, those of whom experience such a feeling are known as Astronists (i.e. a follower of Astronism).
Beyond this fundamental notion, Astronism is structured on two main beliefs manifested as two processes. These processes are referred to as cosmosis and astrosis respectively. Cosmosis is the belief that when a person dies, just all animate beings, they are physically reunited with The Cosmos as the place from which they originated. This process is often interpreted (mainly by the school of
naturalism) as a physical reunion to The Earth as a product of The Cosmos. In other schools of thought, this process is understood via a spiritual dimension, often considered to involve a process called transtellation in which a person physically and spiritually ascends to the stars upon their death.On the other hand, astrosis is the belief that this process of cosmosis is achievable whilst a person is still alive, meaning that cosmic reunion is able to be attained during the course of a person’s life, not just after their death. The achievement of astrosis, again, is interpreted in a multitude of different ways depending on the school of thought. In the school of naturalism, it is interpreted as being achievable through intellectual rigour, through a process which Cometan called enknowledgement, as well as through regular astronomical observation and study of the stars. However, in other schools, a wide variety of spiritual and mystical practices are involved that denote a deeper connection to The Cosmos and proclaim their beliefs and practices to be the way to true astrosis.
Beyond these two processes, there are a plethora of other beliefs, philosophical insights, and theories regarding the nature, patterns and structure of The Cosmos as well as humanity’s future and intertwined destiny to The Cosmos. All of these culminate together to form a branch of philosophy which Cometan named cosmontology, also known as cosmic philosophy. This branch of philosophy forms the basis upon which Astronist philosophical interpretations are made.
Cometan was born Brandon Reece Taylor (later known as Brandon Taylorian) at 5:30pm on 1st July 1998 in what was the Sharoe Green
Unit of Royal Preston Hospital in the City of Preston in the English county of Lancashire in the United Kingdom. Cometan’s parents separated when he was just four years old, leaving the boy struggling with the trauma of growing up without a father present in his life.
His two sets of grandparents, Hilda & Bill Warbrick as well as Derrick & Irene Taylor, stepped into take care of the boy and with whom he would develop a lasting bond. Cometan spent the majority of his childhood at the residences of Brooklands in Hoghton which was owned by his maternal grandparents and 222 Longmeanygate, the residence of his paternal grandparents in Leyland. Cometan’s paternal grandmother, Irene, was deeply devoted to the Latin Rite of Roman Catholicism as a Traditionalist Catholic.
Cometan spent his Sundays going to Latin mass and spent many of his Saturdays with his grandmother, Irene, and his close cousin, Thomas, and other cousins going to different churches across Lancashire, as well as building shrines to the Virgin Mary at 222 Longmeanygate. Overall, Cometan experienced a deeply religious childhood, although this did not seem to have much of an impact on him at the time as he showed little interest in religion. It was only later, during his adolescent years, that he became deeply involved in contemplating religious and philosophical ideas.
Cometan is known to have dated an Armenian girl called Liana Tiratsuyan, who is called Cosma in the context of Astronism and in the Omnidoxy book. Cometan travelled to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to meet Cosma in December 2018, although they seem to have parted ways in their relationship some months later due to Cometan’s commitment to the founding of Astronism. There have been rumours about him taking an oath of celibacy, although these have not been verified by Cometan himself.
Cometan has a total of seven siblings including one older sister,
Cometan’s father is named Sean Frederick Taylor and his mother is Louise J. Counsell, both of whom remarried following their separation in 2003 when their son was four years old. Sean married Nadine Taylor (née Lathrope) in April 2009 and Louise married Julian Counsell in September 2012. Cometan is understood to have had a close relationship with his mother, Louise, but not a particularly close relationship with his father, Sean, most likely due to the lack of Sean’s presence in his son’s life following his split from Louise. Cometan instead looked towards his maternal grandfather, William “Bill” Warbrick for that fatherly figure he craved while his grandmothers, Irene and Hilda, acted as important female forces in Cometan’s upbringing.