Chiron Direct at 13 Pisces

Princess Olga Paley of Russia (1904)

by Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret

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That the Sun will have entered Sagittarius two days prior to Chiron going direct at 22:44 (10:44 p.m.) UT/+0 time on November 23rd promises growth. Not necessarily the kind of growth which is easily achieved, but growth... which yes, does include gaining weight - a comment which is timely  considering how this Sun-Sagittarius-Chiron mélange is happening but a couple of days before Americans sit down to Thanksgiving, the laden table of which is very Sagittarian, a sign in which ‘more’ often carries the thematic day.

That our Sun-in-Sagittarius life now presses for ‘more’ fits much of which is - and will be going on in these next days ahead. The issue may be what we do, how we think, what our aims are or the need to take on things we see as wrong or problematic - all such things will be on (or come to) that laden table this solar month typifying all we feel we need to do and all which life is confronting us with.

There’s a lot to take in, to do, to think about - and with Chiron now standing for what we do (or conclusions we adopt, back, act on or reject) which come back to bite us - or which we are concerned will come back to bite us (wanting to correct things being another Sagittarian tactic) we are likely to meet up with indecision. With not know quite what to do.

And that would be natural, as where Chiron is concerned we never know, we never learn the right-versus-wrong of virtually anything except through the doing of it, and that goes for not just what we actively choose to learn, but also for what we don’t know we’re going to be (ahem) caused to learn.

And yes, even sometimes through perils and problems we bring upon ourselves when we don’t learn.

In going direct at 13 Pisces, Chiron is stirring up a lot of variable energetics which are likely to look like indecision, indecisiveness and various kinds of realizations which test us at the heart-string level as something we want very much to be true is proven wrong.

Will we hurt ourselves our our aims or some goal if we change directions? Is is the right thing to do to stand on our own?

Considering this as a basic combination, there is a natural Sagittarian drive to do and know more which is meeting up with Pisces hopes and that human and Pisces tendency to want to see things for the best instead of in reality - and with Chiron on the Pisces side of this dynamic, interpreting situations and figuring out what to do may require investigation to sort truth from fluff and assorted forms of self-serving spin (which may or may not be deliberate) out from the chaff.

The good news here is that if such looking for facts and all that investigating is done with attention to detail and the willingness to face facts (including those which may be uncomfortable, unpleasant or feel invalidating (not that they are...) then a lot of good things can result.

It just won’t be instantaneous, which points to another little concept: though Chiron stations often lead to something good, they generally don’t mark our favorite moment in life. Most often we’ll greet such a series of days with a series of ‘do this - or do that?’ questions as we wonder, ponder and otherwise contemplate which path will get us to our desired result... and which path is least apt to cause complications. (Especially emotional complications, which given Chiron’s presence in Pisces could be more costly than one suspects.) One common challenge now will be dealing with one choice or aspect ‘pulling’ especially hard in one direction even as something deep inside ‘knows’ that’s not what we should do.

And that’s in spite of the fact that we’re not positive about any of it - not as positive as we’d like to be, at least. For some, just the idea of having to make any choice (or needing to face what past choices mean you need to do now) maybe that’s your amplifying force.

Whatever happens, expect some intermittent if persistent rattling to come from somewhere under the back of your psyche as Chiron is all about the difference between our native inclinations and how we can (and could) learn better. The reasons for such lessons are as individual as snowflakes - which makes sense considering how charts don’t repeat but every 25,920 years even without using asteroids, fixed stars and other such ‘extra’ natal points.

But they’re there. Lift the edge of a challenge over this next little while and you’ll find your own Chirotic dichotomy staring right back at you: the thing you know and which comes easily against the potential you have to turn your challenges into ability.

So what’s the rub? Well, the rub is simply this: where Chiron is concerned, the object is to master ourselves while our instinct is to master others - or at least spend all our time critiquing, criticizing and pointing fingers at others as we wax symphonic in explaining (to others or ourselves, whatever works) that we know how to do it - they don’t. And how could they be so foolish? How could they be in a position of power or responsibility when they obviously don’t know how to do what they’re doing?

Meanwhile, the irony of Chiron is simple: we may be talking about them. But while that’s getting sorted out, we are surely talking about ourselves.

With Chiron in Pisces we’re reacting to our own feelings - feelings which are currently being universally stirred by things happening on a universal level without anyone (starting with us) actually knowing what can be done to make everything universally acceptable, to us or anyone else. After all, there are two grand trines in progress...

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... both of which are in fire, implying there are at least a couple (if not multiple) ongoing situations, one or both of which involve disruptions which at some philosophically intricate level asks whether we know what ‘disruptions’ are, and what their cost - especially long term - really is.

What can we afford to do? More importantly, what can we afford to be? That these two trines come together as Chiron goes direct tends to say that it’s things already in motion which are complicating our life, and Uranus (at 12 Aries) is certainly in a semi-sextile to Chiron’s station, so we should expect the unexpected and not be surprised if something doesn’t quite go as planned.

That’s not to say that what happens isn’t a positive - it’s just that it’s likely to catch you off-guard, whatever the net result may come to be.

Uranus in this picture suggests we flex. But while we flex, we need to also maintain our individuality - and that may be just the Chiron question: how to do that?

Plus let’s remember - both of these grand trines (which amounts to ‘a lot’ of what our minds are caught up thinking about) are in fire, with the Sun’s and Venus’ presence in Sagittarius challenging our allegiance to the greater purpose... against our need to be who we are.

And if not validated by others, at least acknowledged by our own sense of being functional in our own life. 

Throughout the days of this station (which gets an allowance - say from November 21st through the 25th) we also shouldn’t be surprised if things which otherwise could be expected to be reasonable are suddenly inexplicably unreasonable. Or being greeted with a lot of talk, little doing, tons of critique and many a ‘if I was in that situation...’ commentaries, all of which are (unfortunately!) a terribly common Chiron symptom.

In short, wherever Chiron falls in your chart by house, that’s where you’re going to encounter some form of stumbling block in your own life... one which usually feels like ‘I don’t know how to do this’ which indeed you may not know how to do, but which you also aren’t likely to find anyone to do for you.

Why not? Because Chiron is a symbol of things we need to learn whether we want to or not. And it’s not like we’re disinterested, as generally the house in which Chiron falls describes areas of life where we would like things to work and be or become a ‘success story’ in our life - or life in general.

We’re even generally knowledgeable - at least to some extent on our Chirotic subject - as natal Chiron (by sign, house and aspect) often describes what we are perfectly willing (just ask us) to comment, critique and otherwise comment on how other people are dealing with the given question.

Given all this, what Chiron operationally manifests as is a irritating made up of a bit of angst, a bit of envy, and a generous desire to just ignore the whole thing - all of which causes us to feel like something has gotten under our skin when in reality the fact that we haven’t dealt with something in OUR own life.

That’s what’s under our skin. We just don’t want to think about it - because if we do, we’ll get all bent out of shape. Or just plain uncomfortable.

And about that 13 Pisces part... referred to as ‘The use of intelligence and mental subtlety as a protection against storms and trials’ by astrologer Marc Edmund Jones, the Sabian symbol for 13 Pisces (read as 14 Pisces) is ‘A lady wrapped in a large stole of fox fur,’ the ‘intelligence’ quotient of which is taken from the reputed cleverness of the fox (though intelligence and cleverness are not exactly the same thing) and yet, being that the reference is specifically animalistic, this would seem to refer to the kind of mentality we use in order to avoid facing our own emotional (Piscean) vulnerabilities - here referenced by ‘storms and trials’ which are anticipated to be of some breadth or duration considering how the stole being talked about isn’t just an ‘ordinary-sized’ stole, but a large stole which is specifically being cited as ‘protection.’

That one word - protection - denotes our vulnerability. And with Chiron taking its turn to direct at this degree, either things take a turn making it easier or more necessary for us to face that vulnerability as a fact. Or because this is Chiron, we may now be need to face what feeling vulnerable does to our thinking in causing us react perhaps in an ‘animalistic’ manner or as a matter of a more basic (instinctive) reaction which causes us to don some other ‘skin’ in, or as we contend with some  specific situation.

From here, Chiron will remain in direct motion until June 24th of 2015 at 21 Pisces in opposition to Black Moon Lilith at 23 Virgo - a tale of whether we’re willing to join in a task and whether we need to ‘go it alone’ which we’ll no doubt be thinking about next June. But for now....? Well, given the Sun’s presence in Sagittarius, we’re likely to have more than enough to do in the present moment.

Will we want to do it? Probably not - and the drive which underlies however we cope will be far more about what we feel uncomfortable with than that we like better. But does that mean we shouldn't do 'it'? That's the Chiron question. So  prepare yourself for excuses - some of which you will make to others, some of which you will make to your Self, and some of which you will make about whatever it is you’re doing while in the course of getting yourself to just go do it.

This station - the actual days of station - are likely to be vague trying. We’re likely to hear and see things which either force us to take a different route (or to change our priorities) or to just wonder how we’re supposed to get anything done, even while we watch people getting away with what we think is not trying. Or only vaguely trying.

Which yes, we’re likely to find quite trying - at least to our nerves or our stock of patience.

But if we stop...if we are able to stop focusing on them or what we don’t know long enough... if we’re brave enough, we’ll begin feeling whatever it is which is fueling some inner (and truly personal) annoyance.

It’s Chiron. Astrologers used to talk about Chiron as some philosophical ‘bridge’ to a more ‘evolved’ form of self - and maybe it is that. But if it is, Chirotic energies function as (and through) whatever it is which gets us to recognize how when Chiron is active either in transit or in our chart, how that’s when we tend to be riled up not by what we’re trying to do - but by how hard it is to get ourselves to do it.

And that would be for whatever reason.

Yes, it’s annoying, I know. And so does everyone else as Chiron is a truly universal experience - one of those ‘dirty little secrets’ about being human and mortal that none of us like...or at least like admitting to. There’s a subtle sort of undercurrent when Chiron is active which isn’t jealousy but which is definitely begrudged - and again, we tend to project that feeling. We’ll be annoyed with someone else instead of letting ourselves understand that none of us really like learning on the job.

Mastery, we like. Being forced to eat our cosmic vegetables before we get dessert...? That, we’re not as enthusiastic about.

But still...apparently there’s something we need to know. If unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should - whether you call that Fate or Creation or space/time or the workings of God, then no matter how we feel about anything in this moment, the Chirotic object is to learn from it... about it... and what it means that we have the feelings we have about it at this time. We may want to wrap ourselves in some guise, we may need to protect ourselves against some storm. This is ‘not knowing how to get myself through’ something (the Chiron Factor) immediately in the wake of Neptune’s station-direct in conjunction with Fomalhaut - a combination which is water plus water... feelings meeting emotional situation... irresistible change triggering an understanding of inevitable results.

Fomalhaut and its dust ring (photo credit: NASA-JPL)

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Of course, some of us won’t want to see or think about those results - and perhaps we shouldn’t blame them. After all, some things are hard to face and even harder to get through... especially when that Someone not wanting to feel what it’s going to take to get through something is you. 

Being that Chiron is currently heading away from the Sun (towards the outermost point in its orbit) the metaphysical implication is about expansion - about pushing us past whatever we consider the ‘boundary’ of what we know, what we know we can do and who we know ourselves to be. However this works we are going to be exposed to what our own feelings are about a lot of things - which is typical for anything seen in the sign of Pisces.

How we deal with all that will contribute or detract from everything else we are seeking to do, move ahead with or learn about now as the Sun continues moving through Sagittarius. It will also become its own Chirotic moment November 25th arrives and Chiron’s station starts giving way to Arachne’s station, Mercury exiting Scorpio for Sagittarius and Pandora going direct (all of which will be the subject of a next post).

In short, it’s going to be a complicated week which struggles a bit before finding its way...as we feel our own struggles before finding our way as well.
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Typhon/Eurydike - Chiron/Psyche: Minding Stations

A forest of synthetic pyramidal dendrites grown using Cajal's laws of neuronal branching

(photo credit: Hermann Cuntz, PLoS Computational Biology Vol 6, August 2010)

It was something about Mercury going retrograde and the near-instantaneous confrontation with a disruption of body, car and finances which (as I lay there trying to think of things to think about while not sleeping) got me to thinking about Typhon.

(Okay, it’s terribly astrological of me. But what do you think about when it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep?)

Anyway, physicality, money, transportation...these are the most basic of basics in modern survival. Even with all our technology some things just come back to our Self.

And that - plus any event or thing which gets us to think in terms of basics or to experience them (recognize them, etc.) is the essence Typhon. Typhon is the object which brings us back to the ‘instinctual level’...and which in doing so asks us whether we are just instinctual creatures, what instinct is (or isn’t) good or bad - considering our truest aims - to accede to or to resist...

...or whether we are going to ‘master’ not others, but our Self - a Typhon quality which is rather easily seen and quite possibly more of an issue at the moment as Typhon transits airy Libra, sign of relating and (along with Aries) the most ‘projection-prone’ of signs simply because Libra asks us to reconcile our sense of Self to that Self through what we learn or encounter in others or life as a whole.

And this issue of Typhon transiting Libra, that isn’t any short term transit. Typhon’s orbit (around the Sun) is some 235 years in length, giving us an average of 19.5 years in any given thirty-degree sign - of which we have only thus far experienced 13 of those degrees.

...Which brings us back to 13 Libra, a degree which tends to increase focus and emphasis on others with something of an ‘all good/all bad’ sort of ‘black-and-white’ quality which when active tends to react rather purely in terms of whether the good ‘expectation’ has been met without all that much cognizance that the expectations are not only not fact, but they are one of the premier ways humans challenge their Self to be realistic - and thus to achieve that wholeheartedly Libra thing, namely the satisfying of one’s aims through others, interactions, situations and joint/joined efforts.

So as Typhon goes direct on June 19th (UT/+0) we can all expect some sort of experience which is basic. And though the reasons why we do or don’t do something may seem like the object (and may well be important in their own right) the real ‘Typhon question’ is likely to be more about our experience of who we are when all else is stripped away - and how our regards for...or our lack of regard - for others and the world around us can so color all we achieve.

Or don’t achieve, depending.

 A diagram of the orbit of TNO Typhon

(credit: NASA-JPL)

 

Where Typhon is concerned, there’s no doubt but that we will react from instinct. The question is whether we will realize it as such and - if we do recognize that fact - whether we will parse or moderate instinct through the use of more ‘modern’ (as opposed to primal) or intellectual means as we sort through that good old axiomatic metaphysical rule about life: what happens isn’t about ‘them’ so much as it’s about us.

As the old adage says, it’s not what happens, it’s how we respond to it, react to it, and what we learn from it which counts.

Under Libra we learn about ourselves through external means - and until we reckon ‘cause’ with ‘effect’ we aren’t likely to win our own respect, love or satisfaction in the long run.

Furthermore, since life seems to have a trés bizarre sense of humor (especially of late, she says with an admitted degree of personal concern) this Typhon station isn’t ‘one-and-done’ simple. No, this is not just about Typhon (just?) as Typhon isn’t going direct all by its celestial self on June 19th. Instead, as Typhon goes direct at 13 Libra, Eurydike is also going direct at 27 Libra.

Oh, what an airy, airy world - or at least it’s likely to feel like one as life becomes all about ‘the idea’ or our ‘concept’ of what’s true or not true at all sorts of interesting and variable levels throughout this (June 17-21) joint station.

And when one adds Typhon to the Eurydike ‘know the cost’ (or simply ‘the cost of’) vibe, the results are obvious - the cost of basics...and knowing them, understanding them, accepting them - whether that means having them, needing them or having ignored them...whether in past tense, present tense or something which works out to being happy or rather personally tense about the future.  

In combination, this energy can be personal and pragmatic - but that would seem to require a degree of pragmatism. Why? That would be because 27 Libra has a reputation for things which are difficult to move through in part because they flex and change at every step along the way combined with their tendency to be unmoved by short-term influence - a quality which may manifest as anything from annoyance to frustration to sheer dismay in the charts of those with 13 Libra highlighted.

(Note: this would mean anyone with any planet/dwarf planet, axis or node between 8 and 18 Libra, Aries, Capricorn or Cancer - and/or - those with points or planets between 11 and 15 degrees of Pisces or Virgo.)

If those points are highlighted, the ‘Typhon effect’ will be strong, against which we would expect any astrologically underscored placement of Eurydike would indicate fluctuation(s) which may or may not be important, but which may well seem important - sending us back to that ‘need for internal I/thou’ balance so common with 13 Libra.

(With regards to Eurydike’s effect, look for points between 22 Libra and 1 Scorpio...22 Aries and 1 Taurus...22 Cancer and 1 Leo, or 22 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius.)

There is a ‘stability’ quotient associated with 27 Libra, there may appear to be a promise of the ability or embodiment of some sort of ‘inner harmony’ which is difficult to define if no less real for that. It’s an elusive, hard to pin down quality which when combined with Typhon and 13 Libra’s reputation for difficulties with others based on difficulties with reconciliation of desire against (life’s often rather mundane) realities.

It would seem to be a recipe which may well manifest through eruptions where at the most basic level there may well be the least to worry about - which of course will create rebuttals, reactions and responses from that which is being disrupted in theory or because of theory - much of which reflects the Typhon’s current 13 Libra placement.

Typhon entered 13 Libra (in retrograde) back on June 4th - and because the sign is Libra, and because like Taurus, Libra is ruled by Venus there is (and has been) an ongoing ‘reference’ which sort of ‘ties’ things which have been going on...not always literally, but certainly thematically...with (you know what I’m going to say, right?) the 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse which occurred back in April.

(Just call it the eclipse which refuses to go away.)

Furthermore, let’s also remember that all this not-so-merriment is occurring under Mercury retrograde, so while we need to be working through things which are already on the table (or in action, on our plate, in focus, already challenging us, etc.)...and while there may be perfectly good reasons to be investigating options which either pertain to matters at hand or something you’re thinking of doing as/once Mercury goes direct on July 1st....

In short, Mercury retrograde is yet another way of bringing things home to us as things we need to deal with in terms of how we think, how we operate, how we regard others and in all those many and varied ways we rise and fall, gain or fail, learn or reject others and/or the standards of the world (or you particular ‘audience,’ be they personal, professional, private or public).

And just to make this very plain (even in some cases unpleasantly so), Mercury’s retrograde motion will move it back out of Cancer and into Gemini exactly as the Typhon/Eurydike station comes entirely into play (as opposed to the mental roughing up it’s represented over the past several weeks).

That’s right...Mercury returns to Gemini at 10:05 a.m. on June 17th (UT/+0 time) - setting an alarm clock (of sorts) which re-emphases issues of ‘choice,’ whether that’s the choice we make or have made, whether we will choose to be involved in any given thing, or whether we have simply changed our mind.

Such things do happen, after all. And providing those changes reflect enlightenment and a broadening of the mental basis upon which choice is made, Gemini (and Mercury) generally honor that...give or take all those ongoing post-eclipse upheavals and evolutions of things we didn’t want to hear (see, say, do) and which we surely didn’t want to have to deal with when thrust upon us.

Take heart - Venus will soon (as in next week) be exiting Taurus. No guarantees are being offered on this opinion, but it would be likely that much of the toxic subterranean upwelling (internal and external) will begin subsiding about then.

(And you may be assured I will be among the grateful about that.)

As for the second station pairing of the week, that would involve centaur Chiron and asteroid Psyche. Of these two, Chiron is certainly far the more famous, astrologically speaking. Yet being that in terms of mass asteroid Psyche is fully 1% of the entire known and total mass of all the many thousands of asteroids out there...Psyche’s no slouch in the ‘importance in life’ department.

Theoretically (this being metaphysical theory we’re talking about) all asteroids which reside in the main asteroid belt refer to things we will meet up with on our way from initiation, inception or assertion (Mars) and to understanding all the many things which make things work in the Big Picture rather than in our head, among our friends or (more or less) locally - that being the metaphysical Jupiterian notion.

In going on station at 20 Aquarius, Psyche represents the bridging or separating (the ‘divides’) between the individual and the group or some sub-set of a whole and the whole itself. If you have any planet, dwarf planet, nodal or axis point positioned between 15 and 25 Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio or Taurus...(or) 18 to 22 degrees of Virgo or Cancer, there is likely to be a notable ‘Psyche effect’ in your life about now - not that everyone else won’t be affected, but Psyche does seem to have a quality which works most effectively (in terms of long-term growth and productivity) through hard aspects.

(Translation: tough moments.)

The Sabian symbol for 20 Aquarius (‘A DISAPPOINTED AND DISILLUSIONED WOMAN COURAGEOUSLY FACES A SEEMINGLY EMPTY LIFE’) being less about gender and more about our individual ability/need to respond or accept - which Psyche and Aquarius (in being an air sign) plainly states is about some mental process, concept, thought or judgment (decision) - all of which operates on some societal or social level. And when we add in astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ comment on this image (‘the capacity to meet emotionally upsetting experiences in human relationships with strength of character and personal integrity’) there would seem to be a ringing echo of Typhon at 13 Libra, if from a more mental and less visceral perspective with some emphasis on the experiencing of our own vision or expectation against why it won’t (or hasn’t) worked - or proved true.

With Psyche going retrograde, thoughts turn inward. And seeing as Psyche is going retrograde in tandem with Chiron doing the same thing in Pisces, the Aquarius/Pisces (Psyche/Chiron) combination describes an uncomfortable ‘encounter’ of that which can be conceived of in the abstract and the experience of the human reality, replete with all that often inconvenient (and uncomfortable) emotional vulnerability being human requires.

In this combo, Chiron represents the ‘wounded healer’ - or that we can do, but which we don’t want to (and don’t know how to) get ourselves to move through, even if that’s the only way we can learn our Chirotic truths. Chiron always asks that we ‘own’ something about or in our Self, and that something is always something we feel terribly inept about.

Are we inept? Maybe yes, maybe no - that’s not the Chiron issue. Chiron always involves something we love to tell others how to do but which we’re less than adept with in our own life - and sometimes that can manifest as looking hypocritical. Or even manipulative. When we ‘act out’ in a Chiron manner people tend to wonder why we don’t understand that all we have to do is....(insert concept)...to which we tend to react to with frustration.

Speaking of which (frustration, that is) because Chiron going retrograde at 17 Pisces says we will never be able to depend on others until we find our own inner independence. Those with axis points, nodes or planets/dwarf planets positioned between 12 and 22 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini (along with those with chart points between 15 and 19 degrees of Libra or Leo) will feel the Chiron side of this dual-station more acutely than others, but everyone is bound to get a ‘dose’ of need to act which is strangely confronted by not being quite sure that you know what to do just to that degree which knocks you off your game.

With Chiron, it’s that inner insecurity with ourselves which gets to us...and not making this any more simple is the fact that 20 Aquarius is generally thought of as a problematic degree which needs a constructive outlet, lest pent-up energies, frustrations and in particular, the sense that you’re not being heard manifest as physical illness. 20 Aquarius has a reputation for connections to spinal nervous system (one I can vouch for personally and currently), so if problems arise, have them checked out. Given the centaur nature of this point there is always a tendency to ‘do what’s easy’ and resort to physical assertion (even aggression) rather than requiring ourselves to temper our willfulness with a healthy dose of thinking things through so that we will assert thoughtfully when and where necessary.

These days we are moving through are the last days of Sun in Gemini for 2014. As noted before, there is a common ‘descent into mental pressure’ which occurs at this time as part of the shift from Gemini (the last sign in the natural zodiac’s first quadrant) into Cancer as the first experience of having to (or needing to learn now to) move from mentality into emotionality and from the more egocentric world of personal learning (the I-Me-My Idea orientation towards life) into a world where we need to respond to others as part of learning how to get along - and ultimately achieve in life.

Against all this, 0 Cancer is the degree of the mid-year Solstice: Earth coming into a moment of ‘balanced illumination.’

So all of this...the earliest part of the week with its coloration of Typhon/Eurydike going direct (indicating facing things in the world) against Psyche/Chiron turning retrograde (indicating the need to think through why things mean what they do to us) is all about coming into balance - most of all with our Self.
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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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Dateblog: November 2013

November starts with Saturn, the Sun and Mercury all in Scorpio, with Mercury retrograde….and the big clue to all is that Mercury will not be going direct until November 10^th, meaning it will be retrograde when the November 3^rd Solar Eclipse happens.

If nothing else, this is a sign that this particular solar eclipse is greatly (read: vastly) about how we operate on the inside. Things which happen to us, situations we have managed to put ourselves into – wherever they are producing stress, strain or untoward emotionality (of either the plus OR minus type)…that’s where we should be asking ourselves whether we are being truly realistic about who we are and what shape our personal self worth is in.

This is one of those times when anything we are in denial about…or things which we don’t want to deal with (but really need to deal with) are likely to either cause problems – or cause us to put our Self into some really ‘deep water’ situation which is going to compromise our ability to move forward in our life as we might have wanted to.

There is likely to be a huge amount of free-floating ‘fear energy’ wandering around. Some you should care about, some you should be smart enough to recognize and avoid. The only risks which are advisable as November starts out are those which are based on facts – preferably intellectual facts and thus which are simply about doing that which is known.


It’s the unknowns…that which we are thinking of as ‘possible’…the thing which we crave but which is all about taking a risk our psyche (or other body part) can’t “afford to pay for” which is what’s likely to get us.

That Ceres – a major asteroid – enters Libra about an hour after the eclipse strongly suggests that once our ‘old ways’ and the emotionally non-functional is cleared out of our way we are free to make new plans and new alliances. For those who have used the whole of the eclipse lead-in to get to the root of some issue which is not yet cleared out, this is also a good time to lay groundwork and investigate how to move forward with doing that clearing out or ‘detoxifying’ of that which is so problematic.

As of November 5^th, Venus will move into Capricorn – and this is worth noting because Venus is going to go retrograde in Capricorn come mid-late December (think: Christmas). Considering Capricorn is the third sign (3^rd harmonic) from Scorpio, this lends credence to the idea of making plans on how to move ahead – if slowly. Don’t plan on anything happening lickety-split and look more to intrinsic quality than alluring ‘qualities.’

Think of it this way: the book cover counts. But if the book isn’t any good, not even the glossiest cover is going to get you to the best seller’s list!

Venus’ shift into Capricorn happens just as the ‘window’ for Jupiter’s station-retrograde begins. That happens on November 7^th – a sure sign that we all have enough on our plate for the moment. That Pallas (dispassionate wisdom) moves into Virgo on the 9^th – the other end of the Jupiter station gives us a set of earth-sign “bookends” to this Cancerian Jupiter station, which means some people will be battening down the hatches, some will be clearing out the mental (or life) garage and some of us will simply know where we’re going. Whatever is afoot, it has to be workable if it’s going to work.

And let’s be real here…considering that we just had a solar eclipse in Scorpio, with the ‘choice of personal investment ruler of Scorpio (Mars) in Virgo and the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio (Pluto) in Capricorn, we have a perfect mirror of ‘factoring factors’ surrounding this Jupiter station. Stability is only as good (or as lasting) as we are foundationally. That’s the crux of Jupiter in Cancer – it’s about foundations. Wherever Cancer is in your chart and wherever the Moon (as ruler of Cancer) is in your chart, the good or bad, the easy or difficult of this time is all about how well you deal with those factors.

Mercury goes direct at 2 Scorpio on the 10^th, pushing us to deal with our issues and with whatever may be bollixed up at this point…and there are likely to be a few days of confusion or not knowing as we move through the period of November 11^th through the 15^th which surrounds Neptune station-direct moment on the 13^th.

Considering Neptune’s station ends in the onset of the Leonid meteor shower (a brief if interesting period of possible ‘sparking’ of ideas and realizations) with Vesta entering Libra on the 15^th and a Full Moon in Taurus occurring on the 17^th, this is a really good time to be dealing with matters which pertain to security.

For some of us, that will be securing something or getting it done. For others, this will be a time of working through our insecurities in order to learn the truth of how things work and that we can actually deal with something we were thinking was just ‘too hard’ for us. There will be a few folks who think they’ve ‘gotten past’ (ignored, evaded, successfully denied) the warnings portrayed by the solar eclipse who will come crashing down to earth at this Full Moon, but for most of us this will be an ‘interim capitalization point’ on something which is already in process…and considering this Full Moon is in Taurus, we hope that results are satisfactory.

Those which are will be very satisfying indeed. Those which aren’t will lead to a bit of frustration and then (hopefully) the resolution to try, try again as Chiron goes direct on the 19^th (which means its station-direct influences begin on the date of the Full Moon).

But let’s be pragmatic about this: where Chiron is concerned we have to ‘master’ our emotionality and get that hooked into trying – and whatever it is we’re trying to achieve, it’s not going to be anything we feel we’re all that good at.

Still, we only win through by trying. And that’s part of the Chiron message: we can’t always know how to do something before we attempt it. Some things can only be learned…and mastered…and appreciated…through the doing of them.


Chiron’s station (which is in Pisces, guaranteeing emotionality of some sort, even if it’s denied emotionality) ends on the 21^st – a day before the Sun enters Sagittarius.

And interestingly enough….that’s pretty much the last astrological announcement for the month. So everything which has happened during November leads into this 21^st-through-the-30^th period of finding out how well things work…or don’t work…and learning better in the process.
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Chiron’s Station: Check Point Critical

 Shivering Girl with a Blue Ring by Jozself Rippi-Ronai (1916, pastel on paper)

I got into an email conversation about Chiron just the other day. Here’s an excerpt…

Chiron (at it’s basic process level) is about mastering our own instincts, good, ill, selfish and altruistic. And the thing to remember is that the centaur’s body joins the human genitalia to the horses heart. (At least until they got Disney-zied in “Fantasia”.) So here’s the question: will we rise above our ‘animal instincts’ which so ‘beat’ within us as a force of life? Or not?

The optimal with Chiron is to understand how to combine our animal (instinctive) skill and strength with our mind in harnessing ourselves and our life and our abilities to the service of some truth. That we know from Chiron having been the student of Apollo (enlightenment – the light which comes from the Sun/life). Apollo was the god of truth, enlightenment, music, art and medicine. Of these, he taught Chiron – his first protégé - only medicine. That says something about Chiron (and all centaurs – mythic and in the chart) too. Apollo, in making this choice, prioritized the healing of our divisions...the reality and the projection, which brings us to the saying ‘healer, heal thyself.’

Chiron failed this test. When push came to shove he gave in to his animalistic instincts and was killed. The lesson for us is that when we know better, we should do better and hold ourselves to that.

This wonderful sculpture of Chiron instructing Achilles by Rinaldo Rinaldi (c 1817 housed in Venice, Italy) shows the original centaur construct - the human body being merged with that of the horse's power at the horse's heart and the human's genitals. (How much more poignant than that does it get?)

The 'centaurs' out there in our solar system (and thus in astrology) are all variations on comets. Comets like Comet Halley and Thatcher take anywhere between 75 and 415 years to go once through their cycles. But the centaurs all originate from a place which is far closer in towards the Sun - and even more interesting than that (at least to this brain) is the fact that centaur orbits aren't precisely governed by the Sun - they're governed by planets. So when we talk about centaurs, in metaphysical terms we need to think not in terms of 'life' as a whole ('life' is symbolized by our Sun), but rather in terms of the planets the centaur metaphorically 'connects' as a cyclic facet which is specifically representative of the combination of planets which affect (govern) that centaur's orbit.

At the outermost point in its orbit, Chiron plays something close to solar sytemic footsie with Uranus. So we know that Chiron 'brings' to us - or represents - some change, need for change, some sort of breakthrough...or the urge to cut and run. With Uranus, many of the changes and discoveries timed out by transits are sudden and startling, whether they're devastating or delightful.

But unlike comets like Halley (which come all the way into the inner solar system) Chiron only comes 'in' to around 8 AU - which when you consider that Mars' outermost orbital point is at around 1.6 astronomical units (AUs) isn't all that close. In point of fact, Chiron only comes to a point just inside the orbit of Saturn - meaning it doesn't come in as far as Jupiter.

So are we surprised that Chiron is known as something we need to do (Saturn = effort) without really 'knowing' (Jupiter) how to do it until we do it?

Chiron forces us to go just beyond the very edge of what we conceive of (Jupiter) knowing. And in doing so, it teaches us what we are capable of (Saturn) achieving - which for many a person is a huge discovery.

And yes, maybe a relief. When we realize we can get through and achieve without having 'known' how to do it going in, we feel strangely (Uranus) liberated and freed in some way which isn't connected to all the 'should's and long term planning.

In other words, we have willed ourselves to undertake and (Saturn) master the task presented without guide rails, hand book or training.

That is utterly Saturn-Uranus. And the willing ourselves part is entirely in keeping with the mythic centaurs, who all had a problem with keeping themselves under control. Thus in parallel, the challenge with any centaur, be it Chiron, Pholus, Asbolus, Nessus, Typhon or whichever, involves using the energy knowingly for a good purpose.

The enemy of a centaur was their impulsiveness, occasional disastrous carelessness and their tendency to be completely driven by overblown emotional urges.

Could that possibly be (ahem!) true of us too? 

(I'm thinking yes. Alas, but yes.)

  This diagram is just a little misleading in that it appears that Chiron's outer orbital reach

 goes beyond Uranus, where in reality, while Chiron does come fully inside Saturn's closest

approach to the Sun, Chiron's outermost reach (it's 'aphelion point') is within the inner-and-outer

(perihelion and aphelion) orbital range of Uranus.

So what does this mean for us as Chiron goes retrograde at 13 Pisces come 9:17 in the morning on June 16th? Pisces being the sign all about our internal ability (read: willingness) to adapt to realities – as opposed to the ‘what we’d like to be true’ parts of life, Chiron’s turn to retrograde suggests that we’ll be experiencing less external prodding which provokes our Piscean debates and more reasons to be a bit more challenged by why we adapt… or why we don’t adapt… and what it is in us (or our belief system) which keeps us from accepting life’s realities simply for what they are.

So many folks have such a hard time dealing with life. Those having a hard time rail about not knowing how to fix things while those for whom things are pretty good don’t want to ‘see’ anything which would cause them to feel much that they’ve tried to protect themselves (or their families) against.

Who are we really afraid of? Probably our Self - and all our Self needs to feel and understand and accept in order to grow into a fuller, most human if universal form. 

Neptune’s years-long passage through Pisces is going to erode whatever defenses we try to put up. And that – in time – is probably going to force us...singularly and by family, by community, by profession, by nation...to recognize how much more we all have in common with others (even those we think are ‘not like us’) than not.

Thinking through how our solar system is organized (as every smaller concentric orbital rings) there is both the idea that our life – the Sun at the center of our ‘life system’ – grows outward. And as we do that, forces from beyond our personal life reach (as represented by Saturn, that being the last planet we can see with our unaided eyes)…those forces shape the world around us – that which we have to work with, and the challenges that we face.

So here we are. Mercury is heading towards a station on June 26th in Cancer, which elevates our emotional sensitivity, to some degree our reactivity, and the need to think plans through as we begin to construct more of the life we want to have. We know that the days leading up to any Mercury station tend to feel a bit rushed. Some things end naturally. Some things move on to a ‘next phase’ which will take some time to work out. Plus there’s a marked tendency to feel frustrated with whatever isn’t coming to fruition as quickly as we’d like. Or as we might have anticipatedon some pre-established schedule.

In honor of Cancer (today's Mercury and a soon-to-be tomorrow's Jupiter ingress) here's a

grand sort of photo of the Crab Nebula as taken by the Chandra Telescope in x-ray, radio and infrared

(photo credit: NASA, JPL Chandra, February 2006)

MakeMake has just moved into direct motion, so not only do we have some feeling that we need to ‘make things happen’ but life is bringing new things to the surface - in life and in our consciousness. And while all this is happening, expansive and ‘expansionary’ Jupiter is moving through the last degrees of Gemini. As this post goes up on the 15th, Chiron is already on station as Jupiter enters 27 Gemini – the degree which in opposition to the Galactic Center stirs up a lot of issues having to do with our relationship to the world around us. The “GC” (as the Galactic Center is known generally among astrologers) is a point which represents where we ‘contribute to the process.’ Sagittarius being about ‘how well things work’ (“application of information” and “viability of choices” seem two apt ways to put it) Jupiter at the opposition point can either represent the sinkhole or the jackpot, whether that’s mental, financial or experiential.

Before another week passes, Jupiter will have reached 29 Gemini. And that’s not just a really quick transit for such a massive planet (in our solar system Jupiter is second only to the Sun in size) but we can expect that to represent quick moving events, and things which ‘blow up’ quickly. Literally or figuratively, whether exciting or dismaying, this doesn’t seem to portend a settled time.

Chiron going retrograde on June 16th with Jupiter sitting in opposition to the GC in the zodiac’s chief sign of mentality may well manifest as a moment of critique – hence my calling this post “Check Point Critical.” Whether we’re doing due diligence as a matter of course or being ‘given notice’ of some problem or gap in our plans, it would be natural to take things either too seriously or not seriously enough.

Oppositions always represent balance points. And to have Chiron’s station occurring as Jupiter and the Galactic Center ask us to ‘balance’ what we’re doing, what we’re aiming at, how we’re going about living our life and all such suggests that many of us will find that we’ve either failed to ‘rise above’ our more base or basic instincts (or instinctual allegiance to something we’ve been taught) or that we’ve been all mind and not enough heart.

But while we’re doing that, it may be useful to think through what we know about 13 Pisces. The Sabian for this degree is ‘a lady wrapped in a large stole of fox fur’ which astrologer Dane Rudhyar has a very interesting interpretation of. Rudhyar points out that the symbol is about fox fur, and that foxes have long been regarded as clever and cunning creatures. To ‘wrap’ ourselves, he says, in a ‘fox fur’ is to try to garb ourselves or adopt a mask which is – again – animalistic and thus instinctive, and here used to protect the lady’s ‘soft’ flesh.

An orbital diagram of Chiron as of June 15, 2013

(courtesy of JPL) 

So given that this is Chiron we’re talking about, is this a restatement of the Jupiter opposition to the Galactic Center ‘framed’ so as to point out that the issue is really our willingness to feel vulnerable without some Gemini, Sagittarian or Piscean ‘mask’?

All three of these signs are mutable, which is to say they represent a process of learning which is incremental – an idea which in itself can be seen as an ‘echo’ (of sorts) of the native Piscean strength, that of eternal adaptability, in the form of a vulnerability?

This brings us to what may be the ultimate Piscean quandary. If there’s one thing people aren’t good at, it’s not knowing. By and large we’d rather believe a lie than not know – or to have some basic concept of how life works be proven invalid.

Yet ultimately, the Piscean lesson is to accept. This is not about accepting what we are ‘handed,’ it’s about accepting that we are who we are supposed to be, give or take our willingness to balance mind against heart, instinct against intellect and to create light through metaphorical fusion, not metaphysical fission as the difference between self-destruction and becoming a vessel of light.
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