Chiron Direct at 9 Pisces

The Education of Achilles by Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix (1800's)

How should we want to react to that which is all about what we feel least equipped to cope with?

…And never mind that, how will we react to that which is all about what we feel least certain about?

Such are the quandaries presented by any moment one could conceive of as ‘Chirotic’ – or having to do with concept embodied by Chiron the centaur, healer and fallen student. It’s a tough role to think of filling on any level…and yet we each have a Chiron, and for these past months Chiron has been in retrograde, emerging (or maybe burrowing) from/through our lives as a series of burning, aching challenges….the many moments in which you know you must do without knowing how to do. Or when you must do while knowing you must do the needed thing – which isn’t the wanted thing – and the trials we each go through when we’re tested by our ability to bear our own disappointment.

It’s the realization that life is what life is…and it’s neither all bad nor all good – but it certainly isn’t what we imagined it to be, and life always, always seems to have some way of tripping us up with exactly that we would have wished to never have to deal with.

Or do.

Moreover, when it comes to the ‘need’ versus ‘want’ thing – who really can say which is which? Is that judgment just for now, or will we believe something entirely differently tomorrow?

Not one of us will now be sure. And that’s part of the Chirotic Effect as well.

Still, not knowing what ‘good’ in one’s life really is without going through the actual (and possibly breath-taking experience) of it is very Pisces. So while Chiron always represents that we cannot understand the full truth of without living it, Pisces asks us to think all things good until proven otherwise WITHOUT getting too Pollyanna, too rose colored glasses, too blissed, too determined never to feel the chill of our own soul reacting to the innate loneliness of individuality.

And as in the end the mythic centaur dies through acting in a haste which caused him to throw away all the discipline which would have told him how to deal with his own impulses…so at Chirotic times we are forced to learn through some ‘death’ of an idea, an effort, a hope – whatever – through such things are we brought to learn about why there is truth in simple truths.

You know…like we are who we are. When Apollo, god of enlightenment, honesty, music and medicine (i.e., many modes of healing) chooses Chiron as his student, Apollo surely saw the centaur’s ability to be blind to the very insight (enlightenment) which could save him. Thus in the relationship of Apollo and Chiron we have pictured the difference between the completely open and brilliant truth of it all – including us…including those Chirotic adventures we call our life.

We know we have the ability to be enlightened. Within us each and all is a knowing…a sense of the greater Whole we are inextricably part of and in alternating cycles (as Chiron the asteroid) moves on its curious path through our solar system, we either work to bring that energetic – that ‘knowing’ into reality or at least into OUR reality….or we live in a questing, searching mode – the reaching for being more.

Why this would be really only makes sense when we remember that Chiron’s orbit does one very peculiar thing which is perhaps easiest seen in this JPL database diagram:

 image courtesy of JPL's Small Body Database Browser

Basically, Chiron is ‘bridges’ the gap between Saturn and Uranus – which in theoretical terms is sort of like saying between ‘the known and that which takes fate-luck-timing-whatever-you-want-to-call-it.’ Uranus is not any unknown, remember…it’s that thing, that ‘push’ that revelation which fractures our continuity just enough to keep us growing. It’s that energetic which lies between what we can’t predict and that we rejoice in discovering.

So…what? Well, if we believe that What Is (all Existence) is, at some level, an endless series of macro-to-micro (or micro-to-macro) parallels of instance and manifestation as that singular thing called Time unfolds…then we look at the JPL image and see that the orbit – the “wheel” or “process” Chiron describes starts just shy of Uranus and ends just inside the orbit of Saturn.

Saturn

time, reality, achievement, loss, responsibility, dedication, structure, support, severance, social/societal respect, durability, earning, effort, consequences, limit, slow growth

Uranus

breakthroughs-break downs-breakage-breaks with tradition/standard/structure, discovery, rebellion, anarchy, insight, brilliance, escape-escapist-escapism, energy, freedom, integration, individuality, unity, alienation, innovation

Chiron ‘bridges’ this gap between the Uranian world of theory and Saturnine solidity. And if we remember that the veils of that which metaphysics refers to as ‘unknowable’ (Neptune) is the next planet after Uranus, then it makes sense that Uranus represents our ability to ‘break,’ ‘break down’ or ‘particle-ize’ all those things astrology typifies as ”Saturn solidity” – especially as we get ever more speculative and willing to take on the ‘unknown’ (to us) in our thinking or experiencing of life. 

Or…seen in the other direction, Uranus’ connection to Aquarian/11th house ‘unity’ (at any level) is a counter-balance: the taking of the unknown, the amorphous, the ‘broken down’ or ‘broken apart’ and seeing in that the Uranian ‘brilliance’ which leads to unity and the unleashing of extraordinary power.

OUR power.

And that’s the thing to understand about Chiron. Chiron represents a power in our lives which we are capable of tapping into, utilizing – even embodying and standing for as a whole. But to get there, we have to go through challenging times with our Self – and at the moment, that challenge to bridge the reality and the speculation or faith or hope or longing or desire to be protected by…all that is being focused through 9 Pisces.

And 9 Pisces is not the least daunting of all degrees – which should tell us that during these days ahead (call it November 17th through November 21) in particular we should not be surprised to feel unusually tested as we try and think about what to make of ourselves…our life…and whether it’s possible to be who we really are.

Or even…well, should we just leave well enough alone? Is it worth all that hassle? Do we really need to be that person we know we are, deep inside?

That would seem to be at least one tine of the Chirotic fork we poke…or are poked with.

And yet…with that comes a sense of resolution and replenishment as we recognize that our challenges are ours for a reason. In being ours, surely they are fit and shaped by our Existence as part of Time Manifest, right?

So our challenges are ours for a reason. It isn’t willy nilly. It isn’t chance.

  From the world of..."We Know She Must Have a Crib Sheet"...

this is a screen shot (and a fuzzy one at that - why, I do not know) of part of a pretty extensive Excel file

I've created showing planets, comets, dwarf planets, asteroids (and anything else out there) in a

line-by-line order according to orbital distance from the Sun. That means that every object/planet/asteroid

gets two lines...its innermost point (the perihelion) and the outermost point of orbit (the aphelion).

By having such a spread sheet, we are able to see 'what orbits with what' and assemble an

entirely separate (and evocative) perspective on how "mythic" images are interwoven on an astronomical

level...which should, one would think reflect in the microcosmic manifestations of All we each call

our Life. Above is a small segment of said worksheet detailing the section including Saturn and

Uranus. (Saturn's inner orbital 'band' is off-screen at the top). That Chiron's 'orbital band width'

(the breadth of its energetic is inter-threaded with where Pholus 'comes to us' (the good and bad

of self concern), at Saturn's outer reach (how the good or bad of self concern affects our accomplishments

and what we are able to get ourselves to accomplish in life, be that in a personal or worldly sense)

plus the inner orbital points of Nessus (poisonous issues revisited), Pelion (huge undertakings), Typhon

(primal instinct/drives) and Uranus (change) would seem to say that Chiron's stations are times when we

wrestle with our ability and/or willingness to get past  self-limitation...provided

we aren't so blinded by "survival fears' that we are unable to even know how we limit ourselves.  

  

Looking up the Sabian Symbol, it would seem to echo this thought: AN AVIATOR PURSUES HIS JOURNEY, FLYING THROUGH GROUND-OBSCURING CLOUDS. And given Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ added keynote…‘man’s ability to develop powers and skills which by transcending natural limitations allow him to operate in mental-spiritual realm’…the sheer harmony and parallel of this idea with Chiron’s function would seem to say many of us – in particular those whose charts would directly answer to 9 Pisces – will now encounter opportunities.

Or at least the notion that the creating of an opportunity (or success) is possible.

And yet…probably all will not come to fruition just yet, even if you make your most sterling effort.

Why not?

Answer: Uranus and Saturn – as stated above. Chiron energetics…at some level…connect some of the functionalities of Uranus and Saturn, as attributes and in cyclic timing.

Chiron will go direct on November 19th at 12:06 in the afternoon (UT/+0). Uranus will be going direct on December 17th.

Uranus is (by far!) the bigger object here. And astrologically we would say any planet denotes basic traits or individual personal attributes where objects like Chiron represent ‘factors,’ efforts or choices made along the way.

As for where that ‘along the way’ is headed at the moment, again thinking in terms of the JPL diagram (above) Chiron is currently on its outbound path – which is to say, it’s moving towards Uranus. And that implies that we are in the process of taking things apart so that they can then change.

Perhaps radically.

Not that all that changing will happen quickly. Chiron doesn’t reach its aphelion – the point farthest from the Sun, which is also Chiron’s closest approach to Uranus – until the year 2021. Until then, we get to achieve our greater…and perhaps greatest understandings of and enlightenments about our own ‘Apollo’ traits by ‘taking things apart’ and clarifying our understanding of them.

Given that Uranus' orbit ranges from being 20.083 AU from the Sun (at its farthest) to

18.375 AU from the Sun at its closest...which means that Chiron's 18.846 AU aphelion

(Chiron's farthest point from the Sun) falls right in the 'thick' of Uranus' orbit.

(image courtesy of JPL's Small Body Databank Browser)

  

Surely once we reach our Uranian stage, those of us who have done our Chirotic work will find ourselves reforged and reformulated as our more 'potentiated' Self.

But until we get there, we take our cues from that which surrounds us for the ‘phase’ or stage of the process we’re in at the moment. Considering this station takes place with Neptune having just gone direct and just after a Full Moon in Taurus, one would suspect our sense of satisfaction is being throught through. Considering that as Chiron goes direct Venus enters the shadow of its upcoming retrograde, one would also expect many of us to be thinking along the lines of ‘less risk, more focus on what’s important’…even though we may not yet know what that really means.

And then there’s the ambient throb of life. The last few degrees in Scorpio are all about how power gets used – and why one would use it.

Which really points to the crux of the entire matter: the idea that there’s something we need to deal with, and that’s about who we are.

Or if we’re even capable of being who we really are.

Or for that matter, willing to be our honest Self.
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