Living with the Outer Planets Prominent

1996 - 2010 by Joyce Mason

Authors Note: This is an update of a five-part series originally published in the 1990s in Mark
Lerners astrology magazine, Welcome to Planet Earth. The Outerplanetary (OPP) People series
has been a timeless favorite that has been housed on the wonderful Australian archive, A Place in
Space, for most of the intervening years. Im ever grateful to Candy Hillenbrand for making me
such a vital part of her magical website. With the posting of the OPP articles, I will have
completed the migration and update of all my articles to The Radical Virgo that still remain on A
Place in Space in their original forms.

Extraordinary Times
We live in extraordinary times. I call them Outerplanetary Times, marked by the discovery in
1977 of a new outer planet, Chiron. Chiron is trans-Saturnian. It acts like any other outer planet
with a similar level of impact.
Chirons discovery heralded a helping hand for human consciousness. (Hand is what the chir in
Chiron means. I love that someone whose birth name is Hand introduced me to this fact. As
Barbara Hand Clow declared in her book title, Chiron is the Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner
and Outer Planets. [1] In its orbit between Saturn and Uranus, Chiron signifies transitions and the
process of evolution, both as individuals and as a collective. The rainbow refers to the seven
colors of our invisible energy centers or chakras. Evolution at the personal level takes place in the
etheric or energy body. As the kundalini life force rises, it causes amplification of energy. As we
grow, we literally get a "tune Up." We vibrate on a higher frequency. The goal, ultimately, is to be
on the same frequency with All That Iswhy people have chanted Om for millennia. Chirons
discovery, complemented by other major planetary alignments in the years since, kicked off a
major evolutionary cycle in human consciousness.
Chirons transitional role is marked further by a common thread in its mythology and astronomy.
For years, astronomers could not definitively classify Chiron as either a comet or a small planet
(asteroid/planetoid). They kept changing their minds. Eventually, Chiron was determined to be
both. Like the mythical centaur after which it was named, Chiron the planet was half-comet and
half-asteroid. This dual nature parallels mythical Chirons makeup as half-man and half-horse.
During the what-is-it period, some of us used the composite term cometoid. Ultimately, the
American Astronomical Union came up with a new classification for Chiron and objects like it. The
AAU called them centaurs in mythical Chirons honor. (I call Chiron a planet when speaking of it in
generic terms, since planet means wanderer.)
Astronomers subsequently discovered that Chiron is the first of perhaps thousands of similar
centaurs beyond Neptune, previously unknown to us, thus the need for a completely new class of
planetary objects. Clearly, Chiron became the precursor of what was beyond our grasp and

astronomical knowledge at the time of its discovery. Chiron gave us a glimmer of deeper space,
literally and metaphorically, in terms of our own capacity for inner growth and evolution.
Prophets like Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce foretold that the cusp of the Third Millennium would
be a major turning point. Since the outer planets are traditionally linked with major cultural shifts,
understanding the planets beyond Saturn has never been more important. As a huge hint of the
important role Chiron would play in these turning-point times, there was an exact conjunction of
Chiron and Pluto at the Turn of the Millennium. Symbols of pain, healing, death, and rebirth
merged like conjoined twins at 11+ Sagittarius on January 1, 2000. The conjunction took place on
the Sabian symbol for 12 Sag: A flag turns into an eagle, the eagle into a chanticleer
saluting the dawn.
After much study of this Sabian, I feel the flag refers to our traditional allegiances to country and
intimates, those people were willing to fight to defend. The eagle is known for its larger view, its
ability to see the big picture from high up. The eagle expands the scope of our loyalty to all
humanity. The chanticleer is a kind of medieval rooster whose loud cry heralds a new day. This
Sabian and the powerful pair of Pluto and Chiron on it portended a new and larger perspective,
the evolving Oneness consciousness. (For more on this planetary pair and their similarities, read
Chiron and Pluto: The Comet Brothers)
Most recently in 2010 Pluto and Uranus have aligned in a T-square including Saturn. And outside
the T-, Chiron and Neptune have been traveling as a pair, essentially making all the outer planets
and their ambassador Chiron prominent in the sky shouting, Change!)
For the past several decades, there has been one agendarapid evolution. Chiron was
discovered, and we became aware of it, when the time was ripe for us to see the personal
influence of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, the outer planets for which Chiron is a go-between.
Chiron came to our consciousness to give us the heads-up on how the outer planets will change
us at a cellular level to become, quite literally, a new species. This is why I call Chiron the
harbinger of homo improvement. The improvement were called to make is to mirror Chirons
composite natureto merge our intellect and instincts, which Chirons human and horse halves
respectively symbolize.
Saturn is a heavy energy, and, therefore, represents dense substances, like the Earth and the
physical body. If Chiron is the Bridge to the Beyond and its discovery heralded our readiness for
change, the Neptune/Uranus conjunctions of the early 1990s further signaled the time for a
quantum leap in consciousness, as the Earthbound crossed the Bridge to new dimensions.
While Neptune and Uranus were in Capricorn (1988-95), we were preparing for this change of
consciousness in our institutions and day-to-day reality. When the Saturn/Pluto square
overlapped during this period, added to Chirons decade-long dance of opposition with Saturn,
this brought all the trans-Saturnian planets into some form of dialogue with Saturn, Capricorn, or
Scorpio. Symbolically, structural transfiguration was being set up on a grand scale. When
everything familiar is yanked out from underneath us (the economy, the American dream, the
family as weve known it, old encrusted forms of government, the patriarchal health care

system), at long last new paradigms have room to move in.

Next the energy shifted (1995-2004) with Uranus is in its home sign of Aquarius and Pluto in
Sagittarius (1994-2009). Changes from the Saturn/Capricorn groundbreaking and the Pluto
square Saturn ground shaking prepared the reconstruction site. (The metaphors of excavation
and demolition teams are only too real, remembering the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19,
1995, when Pluto stationed before its retrograde dip back into Scorpio.) [2]
As individuals, we may have tense aspects to any one of the outer planets that make their
meanings very personal to us, but being an "outerplanetary person means much more than that
to me. It means that through our individual struggles and victories with these archetypes, we
experience microcosmically, usually just one step ahead of everyone else, what's coming in the
macrocosm of changes in awareness. I call this "channeling the outer planets."

Extraordinary People
I finally realized "why I am the way I am" and the source of my own complexity the day I got the
implications of having a close square between each of the outer planets and my Big Three: Pluto
square Ascendant, Neptune square Moon, and Uranus square Sun. Add to the configuration
Chirons sextile to my Moon and square to Pluto. In astrological circles, I am hardly alone with
this type of contact with outer space. More likely than not, if you are reading this article, you
have intimate natal chart contacts with these planets. We are what I call outerplanetary people.
We channel change.
Not long after my own epiphany about the outer planets, I heard a woman with Uranus conjunct
Ascendant say that the outer planets were personal to her. She couldn't understand her Sun,
Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars until she studied Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. This makes sense,
for people with these planets prominent are the ambassadors for the collective to these exotic
places. (They go where others dare not tread.) Outerplanetary people are the ones who directly
experience and take Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto personally. They are not only in constant
change, unlike their normal change-resistant counterparts; they are also messengers, running
ahead to get information. People with strong outerplanetary emphasis bring news from the fringe,
back to the rest of the community. They also hold out their hand to others as they cross from Old
to New over the deep abyss of the Unknown.
Being outerplanetary is not an easy job (it's lonely out-front), but someone has to do it. The good
news for OPP types: Our time has come and our lifes purpose is to act now on the knowledge we
have gained by constantly interacting with tomorrow. If we do, we will literally change the world.
My sense of humor revolves around word play. For years, Ive was unable to resist calling myself
and others who share a powerful and close relationship with the outer planets PUN people
(Plutonian, Uranian, and Neptunian). Once I got into Chiron, outerplanetary people became
PUNCs with both a healing and healer dimension. Considering how Saturnian fogeys often criticize
young punks with their far-out ideas, and the PUNC pun has always seemed perfect to me.

Of course, evolutionary consciousness can happen for anyone who is one outer planet prominent,
but my observation is that the PUNCspeople with close aspects to them allare hanging off the
leading edge out on a limb.
PUNCs have the strong accent on change and an assignment to catalyze it.
Any close aspect to Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto could mean a tendency to sense the tide of the
times. I am sure that trines, sextiles, and minor aspects "count," but the tension of squares, the
awareness (like it or not) of oppositions, and the sometimes overwhelming power of a conjunction
between the inner planets and the outers tend to produce the most extreme cases.
What's it like to live on the edge when the whole world's on edge and on the brink of change?
Just what are we precursor types to homo improvement supposed to be doing to ease these
transitional times and offer that helping hand?

The Job at Hand

Sorry, you cant sit this one out. Youve been groomed to share what youve learned from these
outer planetary forces. If you think you're a little shook up these days with lifes uncertainties and
scary news on every broadcast, imagine how those poor folks in the middle of the bell curve of
consciousness feel who may be clueless about a larger plan. PUNC types are often light workers,
as in enlightenment. Our work is to tell people what were learning about: how to become whole
(Chiron) and free (Uranus) through networking, sharing information, and breaking out of the
bonds of the old ways that no longer work (going beyond Saturn); how to be compassionate/One
(Neptune); while cleansing and transforming (Pluto) ourselves and the Earth to the core.
The role of the PUNC or OPP is much like an adult whos flying with a child. The flight attendants
tell you to put on your oxygen mask first in case of emergency, then your childs. Your life isnt
more important than the kids to save; you just have more experience with crisis and wherewithal
in an emergency to deal with it.
Save yourself first. Then you can save others.
For me, the message of the outers has been dramatic: Get it or die, evolve or be destroyed. That
sounds dismal at first like Luke Skywalker meeting the mega-Plutonian Emperor that Struck Back,
but in retrospect, it actually has been an incredibly gratifying process to be forced to grow by
these powers. After more than six decades on the planet, constant irritation by the PUNC planets
has led me down a long path to a place where, now, I am finally beginning to reap the rewards of
being astrologically unusual. This pain for gain feels somewhat akin to how oysters give birth to
pearls. I hope that you will find some gems in these ideas. Perhaps theyll provide comfort when
we reread them during a phase when the more difficult aspects of the outerplanetary archetypes
make tough demands on us, and we temporarily forget everything we know.

The Best of the Outer Planets: What We Can Learn and Share About Them?

Since Chiron, by its astronomical position, is a bridge between the inner and outer planets, lets
start on the Bridgeand come back to it later, in the concluding article in this seriesfull circle.
As I share what Ive learned from channeling the outer planets, I will focus on what Ive found to
be their most positive expression, while contrasting the pluses to the pitfalls, the pits being the
part most of us know very well.
ChironMentor, Wounded Healer, and a New Astrology
Many people stay stuck in the wounded healer dimension of the Chiron mythas stuck as
Chiron was by his wound itself. We forget that Chiron had a big job he continued to perform and
take seriously, after and in spite of his lingering wound. Chiron was an astrologer who mentored
countless heroes, among them Jason, Hercules, and Asclepius. His students included some of the
strongest, most talented, and most altruistic human beings in Greek mythology.
We can reasonably assume that Chiron knew how to accomplish the formidable task of turning his
young punks into heroes (presumably most of them came to him as adolescents) by casting
their charts and creating the equivalent of individual development plans. As a mentor, Chiron is
known for his well-rounded educationeverything from the martial arts and warrior training to
the fine arts, including music. (He mesmerized others by playing the kithara, an early lyre that is
the predecessor to the guitar.) [3] In the gamut between the more Martian and Venusian
pursuits, clearly encompassing the full range of what we consider yin and yang or masculine and
feminine, the right dose of teaching had to match the talents and interests of each wound-be
hero. The right blend of training was customized to round them out as individuals.
One implication to us as human beings and astrologers is that we are to mentor the hero, within
others and ourselves. Heroism is not a selfish role, although heroes obviously become heroes
doing what they love and do best. My definition:

A hero is someone who acts unselfishly from his or her Higher Self in urgent circumstances.
Today, everything is urgent. Time is running out to heal our ecological crisis. The New American
Heritage Dictionary defines mentor as a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. Our job is to bring
out the best in people. Here are some examples of how to do it and how not to do it.
Positive Chiron: This person gives to the collective (helps others) despite his or her own pain.
By being vulnerable and serving others despite lingering wounds, the Chironic individual
demonstrates, by example, that healing comes first from acknowledging pain and offering up to
the community both the suffering and the learning that comes from it.
This is one meaning of Chirons offer in the myth to trade places with Prometheus, who
represents Uranus or the collective. Without being egocentric or an emotional exhibitionist, the
most positive expression of Chiron is to admit openly to being a work in progress and to help
others on their own quest for self-fulfillment. They say the best teachers are just a few steps

ahead of their students in their learning. Positive Chiron represents the epitome of this
nonhierarchical way of helping others. In her book, Chiron and the Healing Journey, Melanie
Reinhart conveys the concept that a shaman is not a really a shaman unless the community
accepts that s/he has gone to the underworld and survived. [4] Unless a Chironic healer, the
modern-day version of a tribal shaman archetype, can overtly convey to others having been
there, he or she will not be well accepted in this role. This also has to be done in a way that
doesnt focus too much on the personal drama of the astrologer or healer, taking the spotlight off
the clients concerns. Chironic astrologers recognize this healing, process-oriented, eye-to-eye,
mentoring style of helping others.
Chironic astrologers realize that astrology is simply a head-trip unless intuition and practical
application is part of their practice. Chart reading is customized and in the moment with the real
person behind the chart.
The Chironic astrologer not only empowers but also offers tools and teachings, so that in any of
lifes emergencies, the skills to handle them have been fostered. Finally, this breed of astrologer
has little ego. S/he thinks of him/ herself more as a midwife than an authority (a position that
slips so easily into know-it-all). This astrologer knows s/hes as much a learner as a teacher in a
privileged positionsharing anothers intimate struggles with being successfully human. By their
very nature, astrology consultations give entre to a tremendous amount of intimacy. The
Chironic astrologer handles this emotional intimacy as gently as tenderly as his or her first time
with a new lover.
Negative Chiron. Gail Fairfield does a wonderful job of describing the other side of Chiron in her
book, Choice Centered Astrology. [5] She says Chiron likes to fix things and people, and negative
Chiron fixes people and things that arent really broken. For negative Chiron, the need to fix-it is
so strong; they create dramas or dilemmas to keep themselves in the repair business. Negative
Chiron applies Band-Aids or administers major surgery, often without permission and/or welcome.
(If you are a positive Chiron type now, you can probably remember a time in your life when it felt
like your phone number was 911.)
Perhaps better named, not just for political correctness but also for leaving a metaphysical
opening for improvement, evolving Chiron stays stuck in woundedness and woe is me to the
point of near nausea. Those around him start avoiding himor they just dont call her anymore.
There is another important cue for spotting a negative use of Chiron in the anti-hero. This person
can assemble a group of misfits and put them up to no good, like the militia movement or other
anti-social heroes. (In the 90s, both Timothy McVeigh, accused in the Oklahoma City bombing,
and David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians, had prominent Chirons.)
Synthesis: On balance, the greatest thing we can hope to achieve as astrologers is to give our
clients a different perspective on their lives, a Chironic key phrase, and to help them learn how to
express and clear feelings rather then suppress them, since the latter can lead to pain, illness,
and disempowerment.

Chiron teaches us to go on despite our pain, to keep working on healing it, and ultimately, to
realize that a certain measure of pain goes with the territory of bringing our spirits into a body.
To be human is to run the full gamut of experience that Chiron tapped when mentoring his
students. We have to expect a little pain mixed in with pleasure here.
It takes all the heroism and guts we can muster to deal with the emotional trauma of bringing our
spirit into this dense dimension and living here, with all the ongoing challenges of our hybrid
lives, carrying our soul in body.
Imagine the loss of freedom (to float around, for one thing) and why freeing Prometheus Bound is
a key part of the Chiron story. Chiron was relieved from his immortality and got to die and go
back to pure spirit only after this altruistic act. The Chiron for Prometheus exchange implies that
as long as we are here, we must serve humanity, for Prometheus/Uranus represents society, the
collective or the tribe. This is the price we pay to come to a place where we can grow so fully. (If
you can be spiritual on Earth, you can be spiritual anywhere.) We can learn to release paina
glorious goalbut to eliminate it completely is incongruous with being human, which is to feel.
Feeling badly is the appropriate reaction to many things that happen here on Earth, especially
lately.
When we cant do something, when we are the most immobilized, we say, I just dont feel like
it. Doing it, whatever it is, doesnt feel good. Often, the blockage is from old feelings never
released that the current event activatesour Chironic wound. Unless we learn the technique of
releasing emotions and emotional blockages, we are as stuck as Chiron was by that arrow and
just as helpless, short of dying, to do anything about it.
On the other hand, when were willing to let that helpless part of us die, to offer our pain and
suffering to others for what we can all learn from it, the gods are impressed. We are released.
Then we get our first glimmer that the door Chirons skeleton key glyph opens is the home away
from Home.
Om sweet Om.
Uranians Spread Stolen Fire with Their Fingers
1992 2010 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

The reality is that the Gods no longer control the sacred firewe control it, now, as shown by
Prometheus. It is simply power, and what we do with it will determine our fate. [1]
Barbara Hand Clow
Astrology is Prometheus fire. [2] We carry the torch now. So now what?

In Part 1, we explored the unique role of evolutionary pioneerspeople who have the outer
planets prominent. (That means one or moreand especially all of the outer planetsin close
aspect to personal planets and/or placed near the angles.) [3] We started with Chiron, the
bridge between the inner and outer planets; now well stop to explore Uranus. Of all the outerto-inner planetary contacts that make a person astrologically unusual, those to Uranus often
keep an individual the most committed to the process of inner growth and spreading their
enlightenment outward to the world. (If the end result were not freedom and heaven on earth
two of the choicest gifts of Uranuswhy bother?)

Uranian: The Paradox of Group Needs and Individual Freedom

What on earth it does it mean to carry a torch for the collective? For starters, just what that
expression impliesto be in love people in generalto look to group needs, and paradoxically,
individual freedom.

Its not really such a convoluted concept. Uranus rules Aquarius, by modern rulershipbut
Saturn is its traditional ruler. Before Chiron was on hand to

bridge the gap between the two

planets, positioned between them, there was already a dual flame heating up the Promethean
torch. (Prometheus was bound to be free.) Puns aside, there is no freedom (Uranus) without
restriction (Saturn), or what is there to be free from?

These two energies are forever

intertwined. They do an endless dance, like light and dark. Each is meaningless without the
other.

Freedom within societyor any quality, for that matterexists only to the degree that it exists
for the least of our brethren. Police, ruled by Saturn, must uphold the law, the foundation for
all freedom. When basic rights and equal treatment are legislated, then society is free, at least in
theory, if not always in practice. This is a simple demonstration of the relationship between
microcosm and macrocosm and the fact that we live in ecosystems, where the actions or
restrictions of one individual affect everyone else.

The Age of Aquarius and Chirons Perihelion: The Uranians Time Has Come

The Age of Pisces is giving way to the Age of Aquarius. The controversy is still raging about just
when this earth-shaking change will take place, if it hasnt already. Because astrology is ruled by
Uranus, we need to know, love, and use Uranian energy with great reverence, for as Barbara
Clow states so well, it is power; and how we handle it will determine our future. As astrologers,
we are in a position to access that power on behalf of others. We must do it with the highest code
of ethics or reap the karmic consequences.

This was no accident: As Uranus finally moved forward into its home sign of

Aquarius after a six

month retrograde on January 12, 1996, the Internet was catching fire at breakneck speed,
doubling annually, showing signs of growing faster than the system could handle. [4] Now a
couple of Saturn cycles later, can any outerplanetary person or proper PUNC [5] imagine how
they lived without it?

What could be more Uranian than an electronic forum where people can network with the whole
world without a formal hierarchy? This is the Promethean fire at our fingertips. The Information
Revolution promises to have more impact than the last major paradigm shift, the Industrial
Revolution.

In todays world, information is power, and the power is in our fingers.

The

Uranians time has come, and s/he touches the power to change the world every time s/he
strokes the keyboard.

Heres where Chiron comes in. As the go-between Saturn and the outer planets, Uranus being
the first, the one it figuratively touches on one side of the bridge, there is a close relationship
between Chiron and Uranus. Before Chiron, the extremes of Saturn/Uranus were without an
archetype to blend or mitigate them. Since Chiron, we have a hot pad to handle the Uranian fire
to absorb its intensity, so its not too hot to handle. It is also no accident that less than a month
after Uranus went forward into Aquarius came Chirons perihelion on Valentines Day 1996. The
events were not only momentous in the cycle of each planet, but their proximity tells us of an
important relationship between these energies at this turning point in history.

While we have long held Uranus as the ruler of astrology, I believe Chiron rules the astrologer,
just as it does the Tarot reader. [6] The astrologer is the Chironic bridge, the go-between the
Uranian wisdom, insight, and brilliance and the Saturn (Earth)-bound being in the counseling
room. Chiron is the lead planet, the synthesizer, of the intense energies lived daily by all

outerplanetary people. In one way or another, these extraordinary people channel change.

The close proximity of the Uranus ingress into Aquarius and Chirons perihelion has incredible
implications on how we do astrology from now on. Chiron rules channeling and those who channel
information through their physical vehicle, particularly through their hands. The root of Cheiron
(ancient spelling), cheir, means hand. Astrologers have always worked with their hands.

Before computers, we drew charts by hand and interacted with them in a very tactile way before
meeting the client behind the chart. We still do, but now, the primary tool is very Uranianour
computers. (I do charts with a program called Solar Fire. If the Uranian information is the fire
and the power, think of the metaphor for personal empowerment at the heart of this well-named
software! [7] I believe rather than requiring hand-drawn charts in their testing procedures (at
least the skill comes in handy during power outages!), schools and organizations that certify
astrologers should assess computer literacy. To refuse to recognize the composite strength of our
hands (Chiron) and electronics (Uranus) is to remain in the Astrological Dark Ages. Its to
relinquish our power and potentialworse yet; its to refuse being a conduit to the cosmic energy
and information flow. Fortunately, the role of electronics in astrology has been more fully
embraced now, compared to when I wrote the original version of this article. Still, theres still
room for growth. Id vote for increased educational opportunities for the everyday astrologer to
make the best choices and use of the astrology software that fits his or her needs for touching
and transmitting the Uranian fire.

Mythical Keys: The Chiron/Uranus Relationship (Prometheus Unbound)

Prometheus is the mythical representative of Uranus or the collective.

Chiron caused the

dramatic resolution of the storyPrometheus Unbound. It was Chiron who traded places with
Prometheus, who was chained to a rock for stealing fire from the gods. Chiron put poor
Prometheus out of his misery, whose liver was pecked out nightly by an eagle and grew back
daily for an indeterminate sentence of suffering. As a reward for his act, Chiron was released
from his immortality, died, and was raised to the heavens in a constellation. [8] This was a winwin solution. Chiron and Prometheus were both miserable, and Chirons trade released them both
from pain and suffering.

Chiron, then, is the keythe shape of its glyph, actually a skeleton key, the kind of key that
opens all doors.

Prometheus Unboundthe best of Uranusis personal freedom, collective

progress, and win-win solutions. This is whats behind Door #1, the amazing door we have
opened in these Years before and after the Millennial Shift.

If Chiron represents the astrologer, how do we figuratively trade places with Prometheus and
get to Heaven?
professionally.)

(You are an astrologer whenever you use the fire, either personally or
The secret is in the Potholder

Principletempering the Uranian fire with

Chirons mentoring skills. Chiron was a composite being and he suggests compound solutions.
The following discussion of the extremes of Uranian expression pivots on tempering Uranus with
Chiron and focuses on Uranus in todays world where information is power.

Negative UranusCold Science, Head Without Heart

Some astrologers say Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury. Yet, there is a low-down way of
conveying Uranian information. The delivery is Fire with Ice. The style is bolts of so-called
wisdom given without the context of the persons life experienceor delivered without personal
warmth and openness to the full range of possibility.

There are thousands, maybe millions of ways any astrological metaphor can play out in a persons
life. Although the meanings are related, there is no way short of becoming God to know which
one belongs to a given individual at a specific time. If we didif life were 100% predictable
wed not only be stealing peoples fire, but taking away the magic in their lives. Astrology is both
a science and an art, and when we err on the side of science, we steal their fire and peoples
most precious giftfreedom to choosewhat we Uranians are supposed to be all about. Oddly,
this is one of those areas where the other extreme Saturncan slip in. Its authoritarian
astrology.

Astrologers are linguists who translate celestial metaphors. Not only can sky poems lose in the
translation; they are also highly archetypal with multilayered meanings like dreams. We must
check ourselves constantly for the Sin of Pronouncementpresuming to have the ultimate
interpretation of the image. The exaggerated scenario: A cloud hangs over the client, darkening,
and with a bolt of Uranian lightning, the astrologer declares, Saturn is in your 1st house. You
might start to feel your age or lack self-confidence. These are possibilities, but some others are a

time when the client restructures an ailing self-image; a period she lays new foundations for the
way she interfaces with the world; or becomes her own authority for the first time in her life.

I dont believe we should give overly Neptunian, upbeat and glossy readings with no regard for
the possible hurdles in any given transit or natal configuration. But it is unconscionable to wield
such power without showing the client at least some representative examples of the universe of
possibilities. Talking in ranges of meanings helps, then asking, Which of these seems to be
happeningor has happened most for you? Put the client in the drivers seat. (Whose life is it,
anyway?) Let him or her tell you his or her experience with this Pluto Square or that Venus
conjunction. You are together to dialogue about action and archetypes in the Play of Life. You are
not a critic. (Critics talk about how they interpret a playwhat they get out of it. Whats more
important here is what the client gets out of it or could get out of it with a broader perspective
the astrologer can hopefully offer.)

Granted, this approach makes you less of a guru and more of a guide. Back to Outerplanetary
(Extraordinary) People, Part 1: You are Chiron mentoring this hero and freeing the Uranian fire to
be expressed in its full potential. The penalty for ignoring this most basic tenet of conscious
practice for keepers of the Uranian fire is the self-fulfilling prophecy. You put the idea in your
clients mind that he or she is doomed in some way, and s/he lives to tell you about it. This is
scary stuffmind rape at its worst. The power we yield is the life force itself, and we must treat
it with extreme respect. Prepare people to deal with challenges, but better to err on the side of
the potential positive outcomes than the other way around. Then your worse self-fulfilling
prophecy will be a happy ending. The first rule of mentoring people toward all they can be is to
cheer them on toward making a home run or a touchdownor finishing the race first, choose
your favorite sports metaphor.

The hardest part of avoiding negative Uranus is constant self-vigilance. After all, channeling
lightning bolts of information from the sky, we sound omniscientsometimes even to ourselves.
For many people, all this goes without saying, but knowing the ideal and living it are often two
different things. When you see eight out of ten Saturn transits to the 1st House expressing in a
variety of difficult ways, it is easy to emphasize the trend and not the tremendous variables,
including the positive possibilities. (Besides, its shorter and easier, and you only have an hour or
so.)

If we are truly to mentor clients to fulfill themselves, they need a lot more than the negative
implications of an astrological energy. They need to know the most positive expression they are
aiming for. This also goes for ourselves as when were acting as astrologers to ourselves.

Positive UranusHumanistic Astrology

The positive expression of Uranus is the flip side of the previous discussion, where an individuals
freedom and potential are at the heart of applying astrological information.

It is astrology

reached via Chiron, the bridge between Saturn and Uranus. Chiron was discovered at a time
when we were ready to shift to a more humanistic astrology, championed by Dane Rudhyar and
others.

Chirons naming for the mythical, wise centaur suggests a composite approach where the parts of
the centaur merge: head (the human half) and instincts (the horse half). The practical application
of this merger is an intuitive astrology. We sense how astrological metaphors work for people and
share data from both heart and head, admitting we dont always get our signals right, even if
openness and humility combine to make us on target more often than not. We rely on the clients
experience as the ultimate authority. This is astrology from a fallible mentor, one who is not yet
completely healed him- or herself, like Chiron.

It is the astrologers humanity combined with wisdom (having been there) that makes him or her
so believable and helpful. If one expression of Uranus involves erratic blasts of enlightenment,
we also need Chirons earthiness to ground the charge. As already hinted, this astrology is,
above all, practical. It uses the Uranian talent for networking to refer people to all sorts of
resourcesacupuncturists, psychologists, past life regressionistsand so on. The astrologer who
expresses Uranus positively isnt into competition, but rather lives by cooperation. S/he knows
theres more than enough work to go around, and s/he knows that each actualized individual
increases the quality of his or her community. S/he supports other astrologers and practitioners
of the helping arts and is willing to contribute to the collective by writing, speaking, referring, and
generally making a good impression for astrology in the world.

Uranians, the Internet, and Astrologys New Image

The Internet is distributed by nature . . . no single entity is in control, and its pieces run
themselves, cooperating to form the network of networks that is the Internet. [9]

--Robert Orenstein

The Internet is the most Uranian thing on Earth. All you need is a computer and an e-mail
address, and you can write directly to anyone, anywhere in the world, from the powers-that-be to
unknown new friends who share a common interest who find you on a bulletin board or social
networking site. The Internet has expanded my world beyond description. It would be easier to
say where The Radical Virgo blog does not have readers (Greenland, China and much of Africa,
but just about everywhere else!). I have cyber friends all over the globe and often wake up with a
message from Australia, where its already tomorrow. How leading edge is that?

Astrology magazines and organizations have joined the Information Revolution communicating
with their readers and members online in the form of web sites, blogs, and e-mail marketing.
There are hundreds of astrology bloggers, and we talk amongst ourselves constantly on
Facebook and Twitter. The day I was updating this article, I was invited to an astrology bloggers
group on Facebook.

This is our opportunity to spread the freedom fire all over the world and personal empowerment
we have gained through astrology. There is no time like the present for putting our best foot
(fingers?) forward and hot-wiring our knowledge and integrity to the global communications
highway. How we do astrology is no longer strictly private. Word has never gotten around
faster!

Our time has come, and the tool is here to make astrology so accessible, in a few years, the
Astrological Report could be on CNN with planetary positions cited just like atmospheric conditions
in the Weather Report. (Can you envision it on the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen?
Glyphs and positions?) As much as we complain about Sun sign columns not being real
astrology, thanks to them, nearly everyone on Earth knows his or her Sun sign and some basic
key words about it. Imagine something a million times more powerful than the old newspaper
horoscope column, accessible by the touch of a finger all over the world and growing rapidly. My
latest vision is a cable network that runs astrology classes, talk shows, astro-drama and astrocomedy 24/7. If youre a Jeff Dunham fan, imagine a ventriloquist with 12 puppets representing
the signs and their interactions. The Sesame Street puppets did so much to teach kids; why not
use them to teach astrology to the inner kid in newcomers to the subject?

In this series, I emphasize that outerplanetary types have been groomed to lead global change.
It is up to each one of us to join the Revolution, tempered by Chiron to be Rapid Evolution
(slightly less scary). We need to jump in whatever way we can, and to make sure that someday
soon, astrology magazines, websites and TV shows will be read and understood by the general
public. Imagine this material as faithfully watched and read as your neighbor checks his
horoscope in the paper.

And by the way, wed better hurry up. Newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur, as are
paper books. Amazon sold more e-books than hardbacks for the first time this year! Its predicted
that e-books will outsell paperbacks, too, by years end. Start putting those program proposals
together for TZN, The Zodiac Network.

Healing is bringing mercy and awareness

into that which we have held
in judgment and fear.
~Stephen Levine
In its 50-year orbit, Chiron changes signs from Aquarius to Pisces on April 20, 2010 where it will
remain, except for a temporary retrograde back to Aquarius, until February 18, 2019. What news
can we expect in Chirons realm of wounding, healing and wholeness?
First, lets pause for perspective. Because of Chirons extremely elliptical orbit, it takes roughly 30
years to pass from Aquarius through Taurus. By comparison, it takes a mere eight years to transit
from Leo through Scorpio. [1] Imagining this division in a natural chart with 0 Aries Rising, the
Chiron signs have very uneven slices of the zodiac pie. [2] Some look like a dieters sliver
others, a birthday-sized indulgence. Pisces gets a healthy hunk of pie at nearly nine years in the
sign, one of the longer visits by Chiron. Soon youll see why this is probably a good omen.
The last time Chiron was in Pisces was from late March 1960 through January 1969. [3] This is
the cycle many of us reading these words were alive to remember. Well consult history for some
hints about what to expect in the current cycle. [4] For people with Chiron in Pisces, its your
time. You'll experience a major life transit, your Chiron Return, during the next nine years. Now
to introduce you!
If You Have Chiron in Pisces
Chiron in Pisces has absorbed the full evolution of the Chiron signs. Your wound is a loss of
individuality or your unique Self. Yet Chiron asks us to become all that we are, not just for
ourselves, but to contribute our unique gift to help others.

Your link to Chiron is your compassionate kindness, but you retain the shadow of the wild
centaurs. You want ecstatic unity, but unfortunately, you can be sucked into undertow of
Neptunes murky waters. Neptune, Pisces ruler, also can lure you into substances and addictions
that go with his realm: alcohol, drugs, sex, and a desire to avoid lifes harsher realities. Your
wound may come from an overly spiritual upbringing where you had ecstatic, mystical
experiences that were a bit advanced for your tender years and neurological system. Wounds
could be caused by parents, siblings, or other family members with bad boundariesinvading
your personal space (privacy) or your physical space (incest).
When Chiron is in Pisces, expect the issue of setting healthy boundaries to be up big time. My
Boundaries 101 post was also excerpted on Donna Cunninghams Sky Writer,where tips from the
trenches and depth insights on the subject are still being shared. Visit these posts, especially the
comments, for more on this issue. Look for a Boundaries 102 follow-up post in the near future.

Boundary issues light up the part of the Chiron myth where the wild centaurs think anything and
everybody is theirs for the takingand somehow, you have been taken. In my article, High Signs
3: Living on the Upside of the Zodiac, I talk about the sign of Pisces need for devotion and a
willingness to come back from the ecstatic state to bring the Oneness experienced down to earth
for others to share. When you are willing to be that rainbow bridge, you have mastered the Fish
swimming in opposite directions. You see yourself coming and going!
To bring heaven to earth in this ecstatic way, Chiron in Pisces make great musicians, speaking
the universal language that unites the world. You can be a dancer whose movements teach others
the path to ecstasy, a gifted psychic, or a poet. If it involves bringing that sense of bliss to earth,
its for you. Spiritual leadership, artistic talent, facility with dreams and other tools of
psychological exploration are other possible vocations. Chiron in Pisces knows the heaven side of
bringing heaven to earth. You know your gifts are solid when you begin, figuratively, to buy
round-trip tickets from earth to sky and back.

History Lessons
I reviewed the headlines for the last Chiron in Pisces cycle, year by year, and the themes were
stunning. They include racial integration in society and musicsuddenly, white people singing and
listening to traditionally black musicand the integration of other polarities, such as male/female
in the feminist movement. Racial integration and feminism both came of age during the 60s.
Heres a Chiron in Pisces giggle: Beach and surf music also dominated, a tribute to the Fish water
sign! Another amusing, Chironic if not Piscean symbol: The Ford Mustang was the most popular
car of the era, merging a drivers wits and top half with a horse-named vehicle underneath. The
Mustang allowed people in the 60s to become a sort of modern centaur, half-human and halfmechanical horse. Since mustangs are wild horses, even the wild centaurs of Chirons mythology
are represented in the eras favorite choice of wheels. I consider the American love of Mustangs
to be a precursor of the centaur planets discovery in the next decade.

Because of Chirons connection to health, healingand the fact that surgeon was one of his many
talents, I wanted to know what happened in the area of health and medicine. Health care was the
fastest growing industry and became more business-like as it grew. [5] By 1969, the average net
profit of a medical practitioner was $32,000 or four times the net income of the average worker.
One of the most revolutionary changes under Chiron in Pisces was the initiation of the Medicare
and Medicaid programs under President Lyndon B. Johnson. These programs routinely extended
good medical care to the poor and elderly for the first time in historycertainly in keeping with
the compassionate side of Pisces and Chiron as healer. On the downside, Medicare ended up
costing far more than even the most conservative planners ever imagined, a price thats still
climbingand were still wondering how well keep paying as baby boomers come of retirement
age, flooding the system with new recipients.
To hit just a few more highlights in Chirons realm of health and healing:
Implantation surgery was revolutionized with the first human liver and lung transplants in 1963.
The first heart transplant followed in 1964, using a chimpanzee heart while awaiting a more
suitable donor. While these early patients did not fare well, their surgeries were the beginning of
the commonplace organ transplants of today. (I cant imagine anything more Piscean than organ
donation, to merge a part of ones self into another literally. The recipient also becomes a
Chironic, composite being.)

In 1964, the Surgeon General first warned the public of the dangers of smoking.

Women were afforded unprecedented reproductive and sexual choices as the pill and IUD
became readily available.

As more drugs became widely available to combat a variety of diseases, rigorous FDA testing
began to prove some of those drugs to be unsafe, such as thalidomide, a morning sickness
medication that caused widespread birth defects. (Chiron was the original mythical being born
with a birth defect as a horse/man.)
The biggest, Chironic headline of all in the health care field? In the 1960s, interest in alternative
forms of health care strengthened, and it has continued ever since. [6] (Mythical Chiron was a
surgeon who used herbs and other natural methods, the original practitioner of complementary
medicine.)
Last time Chiron was in Pisces, compassion and the good of all were reflected in providing major
medical services to the elderly and the monitoring health care impacts on the public.
Black and White, Male and Female
In Wholeness and the Inner Marriage, I discuss the concept that astrological Chiron is about the

psychological integration of all polarities within us. Racial injustice is still a painful reality to many
Afro-Americans, but the dichotomy of black versus white touches everyone at an archetypal level.
Racial integration is the outer expression of the inner integration we need to make with our own
shadows and the things inside us that seem to be at odds with one another. These are the
opposing parts of us that seem, at first, too different for us to come to terms with them. The
feminist revolution pits male and female in the same way, and we all have the recessive opposite
gender inside us, the anima or animus, begging to be blended into a balanced wholeness.
The cultural shifts that occurred during Chiron in Pisces in the 1960s punctuate the role of Pisces
as the consummate sign in the cycle of twelve, the place where it all comes together. Chiron in
Pisces is the part of the cycle where we see our oneness with the Otherboth inner (our
disparate parts of Self) and outer (people different from us).
According to the opening quote by Stephen Levine, that which is unhealed is held in judgment
and fear. Nothing could be truer historically about white societys attitude toward blacks or other
people of color; and mens fear about women claiming their own power. Even the animus
(recessive male) in some women cringed at the Womens Movement. I remember a street-smart
mom of a friend who was a feminist before there was a word for it. She was a single mother who
made her way in a mans world. She thought womens lib was for the birds. Go figure. Still,
we are fortunate to see how far we have come while not denying the distance we have yet to go:
an Afro-American President (with a prominent Chiron who is actually half-black and half-white),
three women Secretaries of State (including one black woman) and most recently our first Oscarwinning woman producer. The sign of Pisces rules film, so I couldnt exclude this category,
especially given how much film influences our culture.
Barack Obama, with his prominent Chiron in Pisces in the 1st House, will experience his Chiron
Return in 2011-2012 with exact hits on May 21, June 25, and February 26. I suspect well learn
much about the archetype of Chiron and Chiron in Pisces as the leader of the free world
experiences this major midlife transit in plain public view. Ill be watching those turning-point
dates for both personal and political changes experienced by President Chiron.
Whats the Outlook? Chiron in Pisces, 2010-19
From my typing fingers to Gods ear: I hope we see more integrationracial, political,
sociological, and culturaland individual. Most of all, I hope we see the rebirth of integrity as a
paramount virtue. The words integration and integrity are interrelated.
When we are fully integratedwhen weve come to terms with the different parts of Self and no
longer judge or fear themwe are a person of integrity. We act from this whole self. What we
believe and do is one in the same.
The United States of America has not been in integrity regarding race relations, women, gays,
financial and medical equalityjust to name a few realms of society that have major gaps
between what we say we stand for and what we do. Reflecting on our Constitution and the ideals
of all men are created equal and the so-called guarantee of the pursuit of happiness, I have

sometimes wondered what country the Founding Fathers were talking about.
Even at those times I have been most depressed about how far we have to go, I am still
encouraged by our progress toward racial and gender integration made since the pivotal decade
of the 1960s. The USA is hardly the only wounded society on the face of the earth when it comes
to these things; yet, we have more resources and know-how than most to do something about
them.
A concept thats truly Chiron in Pisces is the fact that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
We are each other. That cosmic soup where Chiron in Pisces is so comfortable is the answer to
the dilemma. Some say the synergy created among people is greater than the sum of its parts.
Heal one and you heal the wholeand then some. If it spills across the globe, what a legacy.
Mend your own hurts, find your own missing parts, and your special gifts only you can giveyour
vocation. The resultant you in integrity is the beginning of a society thats the same. I call it a
divine domino effect.
Be the best, most unified you. Youll know just what to do to make a difference over this decade
while Chiron in Pisces sensitizes us, once more, to the issues of integration, integrityand our
obligation to love and care for one another.
boundary 101
his post is timely, now that both Jupiter and the Sun are in Pisces, the sign ruled by Neptune. The
subject of this post isnt just boundaries, a topic most Neptunians need to learn more about; its
about boundaries and humor (Jupiter).

I have the blessing/curse of a strong Neptune. If you have several planets in Pisces, the 12th
house, or numerous aspects to Neptunecome to my class! While I relish my intuitive abilities,
artistic eye, and think compassion is one of my best characteristics, theres the downside.
At times in my life, I really knew how to spell victim (J-o-y-c-e). Since I also have a fairly large
dose of Pluto, you can only imagine the high drama that was my daily fare until I matured enough
to handle this astrological load.

All Dreams Are Neptunian But This One Takes the Fog

Recently I had a dream that almost made my hair stand on end. Without going into all the gory
details, heres the short version.

I was given the bums rush by a man I met at my dads dentist office. Mr. Rush followed us
home and was acting too familiar with me from the moment he crossed the thresholdwhere I
would have stopped him in waking life. After 24 hours of being charmed, I was alarmed when he
crossed my invisible line--blatantly. I told him, Too much, too fast, too soon. There was much
more to it, including a later scene where I learned he had a hidden identity. He was not what he
seemed at all, and he was stalking me. In the finale, he made an actual attempt to harm me
physically. He set me up by fogging my house with dry ice, like people do when theyre making
a Halloween spook house. I ran to the nearest (I thought) safe place where he was lying in wait,
weapon in hand.

Although it ended well (my brother arrived, ran to call the police, and I knew Id be saved), this
dream scared me into a review of where I stand with boundary issues.
In all honesty, I can only give myself a C+/B-. Ive gotten much better with chronic offenders and
their behavior I usually let go on too long without calling them on crossing the line. My tolerance
time is shorter, and Im more attuned to things not feeling right. When I state my boundaries
clearly and people continue to cross them, I sever the relationship. It takes too much life force to
fight energy theft which goes on under the table, when the other person is either in denial or
oblivious to the transaction. These encounters remind me of a line from The Desiderata: Avoid
loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

Aggression is not always loud. It is sometimes quiet and so subtle, it slips all notice until you are
in a state of advanced vexation. I do not deserve to be vexed by people who bite my neck and
suck my energy. Neither do you.
Close Encounters of the Icky Kind
The same morning I woke up with this dream, I had a close encounter of the negative Neptunian
kind, although it was a much milder one compared to my dramatic dream. These are one-act
plays in real life. Im still trying to figure out the best way to handle them.

It happened at the grocery store. The bag clerk was a young woman who made some teasing
remarks that didnt sit right with me. I didnt think her banter was funny. Anyone who has ever
encountered a bully knows that teasing can be cruel. It is only sweet if done with great affection,
care, and knowledge of the recipient.

Teasing humor is only appropriate between intimates. To kid somebody without hurting them,
you have to know their buttons, touch them, but love them enough not to push.
I didnt know this kid in the grocery store from Adam. I figure, to allow entre for that kind of
ribbing, I should at least know her name. She could have tromped all over my buttons and left
me bloody. On an energetic level, I felt like Id just been slimed.
When the older checkout clerk picked up that her sidekicks remarks didnt land well, she said,
Shes just messin with ya.
Whatever, I said, not sweetly.
In the best possible way, the older, wiser one tried to intervene.
Intervention should have not been necessary. This young womans mother, sister, teacher
someone should have taught her that certain kinds of humor are not for strangers you just met in
the grocery store. Or am I being too Virgo/ hypersensitive? I dont think any regular reader of
this blog would question that I have a sense of humor.
One of the ironies in this encounter is that I did not hear completely what the young woman said
to me, but I definitely got the vibe. The older womans comment that her workmate was messin
with me confirmed that my radar was working even if the noise level blurred some of the
particulars. Im relieved that Ive stopped doubting my intuition in these instances. I cant count
the times in the past I have been fogged and convinced myself it was just me. Later, after
unwitting participation in prolonged, anguished, and underground game-playing, Id discover that
Id read the situation clearly in the first place. I just buried the truth in self-doubt.
I find the assumption of instant intimacy to be very passive-aggressive. There used to be a
euphemism for unwanted sexual advancesgetting too familiar. Presumed intimacy, whether
sexual or psychic, feels like a violation.
Theres a woman I encounter regularly who got off on the wrong foot with me by this kind of
joking from the first day I met her. I watch her do it to others and wince. I can barely stand to be
around her and avoid her like the plague. She also does the other thing I cant abide that I
consider so passive-aggressive. She tells on you. If theres something you do that annoys her,
shell be sure to announce it with thinly veiled sarcastic humor, only when she has an audience.
Of course, she can always claimand usually does, that she was just kidding.

Apparently you dont know how to kid properly. We arent both laughing. ~Ellen DeGeneres
Lets Hear Your Tips on Busting Negative Neptune
I am really at a loss how to deal with some of these folks. Do I have to be willing to make a
scene? Be snotty, that thing my Mom couldnt stand in me when I was a mouthy kid who didnt
know any better? The possibility of being utterly honest reminds me of a tagline for a long
defunct Sacramento-area weekly newspaper.

Tell the truth and shame the devil. ~ Slogan, Suttertown News
Maybe I just have to state my truth politely. If bad feelings follow, join the party. I already feel
bad! I hate to risk a confrontation in the grocery store or at a meeting. Is there a more elegant
way? Is it worth the potential discomfort with a stranger or mere acquaintance?

In the same way I dont know some of these women well enough for their teasing humor; I
wonder if I know them well enough to tell them how much their behavior offends me. If I did,
would it fall on deaf ears and cost me a large, worrying energy expenditure that would, once
again, leave me feeling sucked dry?

Living in integrity is not as easy as it sounds. Neither is living with a chunk of chalk where you
have to keep drawing your line, especially in the nebulous, intuitive, energy realms.

Neptunian types, by our very nature, are more open at subtle energy levels and draw
inappropriate advances. For our own mental health, we simply have to learn how to identify and
deflect them.
A coda to the story: Before I took offense to the bag clerk, we had a conversation about my
bring-along bags and how the insulated one was great for all frozen foods or those that need
refrigeration. After I had drawn my line, she put all those kinds of items in the flimsiest, noninsulated bag I had brought. I laughed internally but chose not to react. More accurately, I was
rolling my eyes to myself but refused take the bait. If only I had been quick enough on the
uptake to do that the first timeor had heard that great line by Ellen DeGeneres before, instead

of after this encounter. Ellen showed me yet another optionfight Jupiter with Jupiter, "humor"
with humor.
The Radical Virgo knows theres no right answer on this one, but she welcomes a conversation
in the Comments about how you handle boundaries and interactions that go too far into your
psychic space without permission. Together, we can create the classand with our synergy,
maybe well come up with some classy solutions.

Planet Waves by Eric Francis Born in the

Sixties

'We'll meet on edges soon', said I

Proud 'neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then.
I'm younger than that now.
- Dylan
IF YOU WERE born in the 1960s and look up
some of your planets in an astrology book, you're
likely to read that people of your generation are
restless, rebellious and idealistic. You may read
that they are motivated by service to others, and
have an unusual, practical spirituality. They are
said to have fast minds, technological savvy and,
most important, an egalitarian spirit. Obviously,
you can't sum up an entire generation in one
interpretation, or even a few, but we can use a
combination of astrology, biography, and cultural
history to catch a glimpse of what's moving
beneath the surface of ordinary perception.
Sixties babies have powerful astrological charts,
which point to unusual gifts and the potential for a
mission in life that is directly associated with the
time in which they were born. In my experience as
an astrologer, what the books are saying is true.
The problems appear when we begin to recognize
to whom these ideals of service, devotion and the
mental and technological skills are devoted. Most
of them are being poured into the corporate
culture's drive for wealth and control, not the good
of the community. And most Sixties people I
know struggle with this, because they want their
energy to go to the real community, not TV land.
When astrology books sum up the Sixties or
people born in those years, they're usually talking
about a rare conjunction between two outer
planets, Uranus and Pluto, an event that peaked in
1965 and 1966, and which had effects that ripple
through time between about 1959 and the early
1970s. The Uranus-Pluto conjunction has occurred

know struggle with this, because they want their

energy to go to the real community, not TV land.
When astrology books sum up the Sixties or
people born in those years, they're usually talking
about a rare conjunction between two outer
planets, Uranus and Pluto, an event that peaked in
1965 and 1966, and which had effects that ripple
through time between about 1959 and the early
1970s. The Uranus-Pluto conjunction has occurred
just twice in American history, with the previous
time being in approximately 1850. But besides
happening in the modern world, there was
something very different about the Uranus-Pluto
conjunction of the Sixties, which was the presence
of an as-yet undiscovered planet, Chiron.

This quality of opposition/balancing is crucial to

understanding the historical threshold of the
Sixties, and the charts of people born there -- and
also vital to understanding what is happening
today, since, astrologically, our current year
relates more directly to the Sixties than any other
time since.

Uranus and Pluto were together in Virgo. Across

the sky in Pisces was Chiron, though nobody
would know this until 1977, when it was
discovered. These are all slow-moving, distant
planets, so the pattern held for much of a decade.
The basic energy was one of opposition, but also
the balancing of a polarity. This quality of
opposition/balancing is crucial to understanding
the historical threshold of the Sixties, and the
charts of people born there -- and also vital to
understanding what is happening today, since,
astrologically, our current year relates more
directly to the Sixties than any other time since.
This is a big subject, and I'm going to deal with it
in three articles, one that sets the groundwork
(bookmark and save, for reference), and next
month's, which will look at the lives of several
people born in the Sixties to give some
illustrations of how these energies can express
themselves, and how the lives of Sixties people
are changing rather profoundly at the moment.
The third, as of now, examines the Sixties
themselves and what became of that social
experiment in peace, love and understanding that
seems to have failed so miserably.
When we talk about Sixties astrology, we're

people born in the Sixties to give some

illustrations of how these energies can express
themselves, and how the lives of Sixties people
are changing rather profoundly at the moment.
The third, as of now, examines the Sixties
themselves and what became of that social
experiment in peace, love and understanding that
seems to have failed so miserably.
When we talk about Sixties astrology, we're
dealing for the most part with three planets and
two signs. Pluto is the planet associated with the
evolution of the soul, what some psychologists
call the "processing of shadow material." Pluto is
dense, unrelenting and takes no prisoners. Uranus
is all about invention, revolution, sudden and
shocking changes, and a spirit of freedom; it
should be called Prometheus, whose spirit is that
of awakening.
When we look at the Sixties, we can see how
these two energies were present in a powerful
mix. And they were together in Virgo, an
extremely grounded, intelligent energy field
associated with both mental clarity, intense
thought, and, because it is an earthy sign
representing the Earth herself, the wisdom of
nature. The birth of the environmental movement
(initiated with the book Silent Spring, published in
1962) is a perfect expression of this blend of
energies. The book was an incredibly difficult
application of mental process for its author,
Rachel Carson, and it had to do something she
was not accustomed to in her prior writing about
nature: arguing an air-tight case. The book was
responsible for the banning of the pesticide DDT,
and for calling attention to the issues of pesticides
in general, plus PCBs and dioxins.
Chiron, the third planet involved, is about the
onset of extremely focussed awareness, a specific
kind of transformation we now call healing, and
the mental attitude that it's necessary to be
different. But difference, Chiron-style, can work
very well within established patterns of living
(both Uranus and Pluto, conversely, like to blow
the past and the established present away). Chiron
brings the holistic principle into astrology in a
conscious way. It was always there (astrology is
inherently holistic), but Chiron's message is to
actually live in an integrated way (rather than
disintegrated, or out-of-integrity). Chiron needs to
focus energy and awareness. Pisces is inherently
vague, mystical, compassionate, dreamy and
difficult to grasp; Chiron pulls Piscean energy into
a kind of psychic laser. Combine this with what
was already happening over in Virgo and you

conscious way. It was always there (astrology is

inherently holistic), but Chiron's message is to
actually live in an integrated way (rather than
disintegrated, or out-of-integrity). Chiron needs to
focus energy and awareness. Pisces is inherently
vague, mystical, compassionate, dreamy and
difficult to grasp; Chiron pulls Piscean energy into
a kind of psychic laser. Combine this with what
was already happening over in Virgo and you
have some potent concentrations of energy.
Getting the picture?
But there is one last energy to bring onto the
stage, which is Saturn. In 1965 and 1966, Saturn
came through Pisces, made several conjunctions
to Chiron and several oppositions to Uranus and
Pluto. Seriously, can you imagine such a thing?
The structured, orderly and highly dependable
quality of Saturn passed through, and became part
of, the grand opposition involving Chiron, Uranus
and Pluto. There was a call to responsibility, and
also

major

test

for

all

things

Saturnian:

government, parents, and institutions of all kinds.

In those years, there was a Saturn-Pluto
opposition, the most recent before the one
unfolding now. Put it all together and you get truly
astonishing changes, a time in history which
stands out in comparison to what happened for
centuries before.
People who missed the Sixties may have seen
pictures that seem awfully groovy, with everyone
sitting around on campus wearing granny glasses,
smoking reefer and strumming guitars. The Sixties
have been memorialized as a kind of embarrassing
cartoon, and fashion and guitar riffs from that era
are being remanufactured and sold as 'new' up to
this day. But the groovy image says nothing about
the enormous strides in music, consciousness, art,
social issues, science, philosophy and politics that
were made by highly-energetic, forward-thinking
people during those years. The era was quite
literally a time of mass-renaissance of the human
spirit following long decades that were the
cultural equivalent of novocaine.
It is worth noting that in the post-World War Two
years, a subculture called the Beat movement
cleared the way, culturally, for everything that
happened in the years that followed. There are
many direct relationships, as the Beats passed the
flame of ethos to the leaders-in-conscience of the
Sixties. Dylan says he, like everyone, was
profoundly influenced by Jack Kerouac's On The
Road. And ever notice how The Beatles, who
were among the ideological pioneers of the
Sixties, spell their name? As John once explained,

cleared the way, culturally, for everything that

happened in the years that followed. There are
many direct relationships, as the Beats passed the
flame of ethos to the leaders-in-conscience of the
Sixties. Dylan says he, like everyone, was
profoundly influenced by Jack Kerouac's On The
Road. And ever notice how The Beatles, who
were among the ideological pioneers of the
Sixties, spell their name? As John once explained,
the band had a beat, and there were the Beats.
But the brighter the light (Uranus and Chiron) the
darker the shadow (Saturn and Pluto). In the midst
of the sweeping changes of the Sixties, something
called the Vietnam War was raging on. Hundreds
of thousands of Vietnamese and more than 50,000
Americans died in combat alone, and millions
more were sprayed with dioxin in what,
collectively, is officially rated as the grandest
botch in US history -- so far. Wars are always
mean and costly, but this one happened to
accomplish nothing, for all its death. In the end, it
was protesting college students who took over
foreign policy and ended the decades-long
massacre. This is more meaningful than we may
recognize today. Young men refused to go to war.
Guys quite literally, because they didn't go, you
don't have to.
Progress even reached the most stagnant, prudish
layers of society. Sex, for instance, was turned on
its head by the advent of the birth control pill in
1960. In 1962, there was Vatican II, which turned
the altar around and put the Catholic mass into
English. Neither of these two changes represent
complete processes, but they were a beginning.
The Sixties were, in their essence, a beginning,
and that is one major key to understanding them.
We can see the beginning marked by the
conjunction of Uranus to Pluto, which is a new
cycle beginning, much like a New Moon begins
the month. The energy of Chiron opposing this
conjunction puts all of these experiences in the
context of relationship, because that is the nature
of an opposition. Many, many relationships
changed in those years. Most of the changes did
not go far enough.
But what of people born in those years? If
astrology is a valid method of looking at the
world, we would expect to see some commonality
between a time period and the people who were
born there. While the historical era passed down
the stream of time, and many of its great leaders -from Jimi Hendrix to Martin Luther King -- died
or were murdered, people born with this astrology
in their charts have taken history with them into

But what of people born in those years? If

astrology is a valid method of looking at the
world, we would expect to see some commonality
between a time period and the people who were
born there. While the historical era passed down
the stream of time, and many of its great leaders -from Jimi Hendrix to Martin Luther King -- died
or were murdered, people born with this astrology
in their charts have taken history with them into
the future. And this is the future.
If you were born in this era, or near it (I would say
any time between 1959 and 1973, but particularly
between 1963 and 1969), can you feel an unusual
wave of energy coming into your life at the
present time? Can you feel the calling for
revolution and social progress burning in your
heart? Do you feel motivated to do what seemed
impossible in the past?
In the current years (2001 and 2002) we are
experiencing the Saturn-Pluto opposition across
Gemini and Sagittarius, exact for the third time
May 25. This astrology, the peaking of the SaturnPluto cycle, stands alone as extremely influential
in both personal lives and in history. Yet for
people born in the mid-Sixties, there is a direct
link. The current Saturn-Pluto opposition meets
the Sixties grand opposition (Saturn, Chiron,
Uranus and Pluto) at an exact right-angle, called a
square, which is the least subtle aspect. A square
in any event, and in this case, a grand squre by
transit, compells personal changes, growth and
maturity.
Even people who believe in coincidences may
suspect that this is no coincidence. The two eras
intersect mathematically in a way that sends a
wave of awakening through the lives of everyone
born in that zone, and activating the chart of
everything that happened then. Whether we see
this express itself in the outer world any time soon
or not, the most noticeable place this astrology
will manifest is in the lives of people who are
getting jolted, energized and awakened today.
This is a call to conscience and action. It is a call
to take up the moment, and live and be who we
are.
Our callings are likely to grow louder and more
difficult to ignore. Our sense of responsibility for
the world is likely to feel more meaningful, and
the impracticality of taking care of the planet is
likely to matter less. The hippies moved on and,
for the most part, joined the very institutions they
were fighting after their years of glory passed into
the back pages of planetary tables.
But if you were born in the Sixties, you carry the

Our callings are likely to grow louder and more

difficult to ignore. Our sense of responsibility for
the world is likely to feel more meaningful, and
the impracticality of taking care of the planet is
likely to matter less. The hippies moved on and,
for the most part, joined the very institutions they
were fighting after their years of glory passed into
the back pages of planetary tables.
But if you were born in the Sixties, you carry the
codes, and there is a job left to be completed, as
you can tell when you click on CNN or open up
any newspaper. Pay attention: there's news in the
wind.++
With research and thinking by Denice
Taylor & the University of the Universe class.
Thanks to my astrology teacher and friend
Dave Arner who originally pointed me to
some of these ideas.

part-2

IN 1965 IN THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT,

BIRTH CONTROL WAS ILLEGAL. I don't mean you
couldn't buy condoms in 7-Eleven. I mean that a
married couple could, in theory, be arrested for using a
condom in their own bedroom. At the same time, in
Virginia and numerous other states, it was illegal for an
African-American (defined as anyone with one or more
black great-grandparents) and a white person to marry.
There were, in places like restaurants and train stations,
bathrooms marked "colored men" and "colored
women" throughout many states.
The concept of career was different back then than. If
you were a woman, you generally worked as a
secretary, a school teacher, a sales clerk or a nurse.
And any young man18 or older was subject to a
government lottery in which he could win a free
military career, i.e., be sent to kill and die halfway
around the world in Vietnam. If he survived, there was
about a 100% chance he would be sprayed with Agent
Orange, a dioxin-tainted herbicide.
We think of the Sixties as being such a radical time
without realizing that the only thing that distinguished
the early years of that decade from many years earlier
was that the ground was rumbling. A civil rights
movement was slowly heating up. A literary movement
known as the Beat Generation was spreading its
influence. Bob Dylan was newly arrived in New York
and the Beatles newly arrived in the United States.
People were waking up and things were about to
change. Imagine the tectonic force of social progress
that was required to shatter the archaic worldview of
1950s America.
In last month's essay, Born in the Sixties, I explored the

movement was slowly heating up. A literary movement

known as the Beat Generation was spreading its
influence. Bob Dylan was newly arrived in New York
and the Beatles newly arrived in the United States.
People were waking up and things were about to
change. Imagine the tectonic force of social progress
that was required to shatter the archaic worldview of
1950s America.
In last month's essay, Born in the Sixties, I explored the
conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, and the
simultaneous, equally-rare conjunction of Saturn and
Chiron in Pisces, which set the tone of this era (it is
posted at Chronogram.com in case you missed it). In
those days, the Supreme Court threw out the birth
control ban, outlawed segregated marriage laws and
strengthened the right to dissent against government.
Music, art, literature and social causes surged forward.
There was an uprising against the war and the draft.
And millions of children were born. If astrology
suggests anything, it is that people somehow contain
the energy of the time in which they came into the
world. In this essay, I'd like to introduce you to two
people who are doing that in extraordinary ways.
Fighting for Civil Rights
Steve Bergstein of New Paltz made his appearance in
early 1967, growing up a reserved kid who admittedly
had no ideals in a place where none were required. He
was raised in Massapequa, one of those Long Island
suburbs that people don't want to talk about.
But in 1986, shortly after he arrived at SUNY New
Paltz, he saw Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of
Physicians for Social Responsibility, speak about what
he describes as "nuclear proliferation, the stupidity of
Reagan and the need for immediate action." He started
reading The Nation and books by Noam Chomsky and
Michael Parenti. Then, he saw a presentation by John
Stockwell, a former CIA agent who was lecturing on
America's secret wars in Vietnam, Angola and Central
America.
"There was an undertow of political discontent that
peaked through 1987 and 1988," Bergstein recalls,
which was spurred by the Iran-Contra scandal. (This
involved Reagan's top aides selling weapons to our
then-enemy, Iran, as part of an arms-for-hostages trade,
then diverting the profits to create an illegal army in
Nicaragua called the Contras, which bombed schools,
farming cooperatives and hospitals.)
Shortly after, Bergstein was elected editor of The
Oracle, the campus newspaper, and as his editorial
plan evolved, one couldn't have distinguished it from
what a college paper might have been publishing in
1968 -- with long, in-depth articles on politics, reprints
from Z and The Nation, and critical coverage of
campus events. At this point, his ambition evolved

Nicaragua called the Contras, which bombed schools,

farming cooperatives and hospitals.)
Shortly after, Bergstein was elected editor of The
Oracle, the campus newspaper, and as his editorial
plan evolved, one couldn't have distinguished it from
what a college paper might have been publishing in
1968 -- with long, in-depth articles on politics, reprints
from Z and The Nation, and critical coverage of
campus events. At this point, his ambition evolved
becoming a political journalist, maybe writing for
Newsday.
But around when he did an internship at the Legislative
Gazette, he decided that he wanted to be a civil rights
lawyer. After graduating, he headed for CUNY Law
School, the place where students hung an American
flag upside down in the lobby during the Persian Gulf
War, raising the ire of city officials.
Around this time, I remember having many discussions
with him about how Constitutional rights were being
gutted regularly, particularly the Fourth Amendment,
which protects the right against illegal search and
seizure. But, he recalls, "complaining wasn't good
enough."
After graduating, he went to work for revered Goshenbased civil rights attorney Michael H. Sussman, about
whom he learned from local activist Peter Shipley.
Sussman ran a small office, so Bergstein had to go to
court long before most lawyers are allowed to eat lunch
without permission. Early in his career, Bergstein
argued a case in which a man who had been illegally
searched and convicted of drug possession was serving
20 years in state prison. Bergstein won the appeal
based on a Fourth Amendment argument, and the man
was freed.
"Talk about getting a second chance in life," Bergstein
said.
To date, he has argued 25 cases before the US Court of
Appeals and another 20 in state court, and he's worked
on 50 to 60 more that he has not argued. They range in
subject matter from false arrest to racial harassment
and employment discrimination, and include an
ongoing First Amendment challenge to restrictions on
political signage in New Paltz. He's certified to appear
before the Supreme Court but has not done so yet.
He's now a partner in Thornton, Bergstein and Ullrich,
a Chester-based firm specializing exclusively in civil
rights law, one of the few in the country.
Mothering with Soul
Jerilyn Brownstein, also of New Paltz, was born in
1966 and raised in Marlboro, New Jersey, another one
of those places that's not exactly the hot-bed of culture.
"I've been a family therapist since I was born," she
once remarked of her childhood.
Her attraction to therapy had firmly taken hold by high

a Chester-based firm specializing exclusively in civil

rights law, one of the few in the country.
Mothering with Soul
Jerilyn Brownstein, also of New Paltz, was born in
1966 and raised in Marlboro, New Jersey, another one
of those places that's not exactly the hot-bed of culture.
"I've been a family therapist since I was born," she
once remarked of her childhood.
Her attraction to therapy had firmly taken hold by high
school, where she was "addicted to being a peer
counselor. I went to a high school where everyone did
a lot of drugs. This was better than drugs."
At 19, curious about group process work, she started to
look for a therapist. "You were born at the wrong
time," one told her. "You're looking for something that
was happening in the 1960s."
"I wanted to be in a [therapy] group. I was looking for
deep connectedness. I felt lost. It's hard in suburban
New Jersey. I lived adrift for a while, looking for my
tribe," she explains. In college, Brownstein studied
religion and psychology. "I knew there was a
connection between spirit and psyche, but something
got lost in the translation." Psychology seemed to be
lacking soul; religion, lacking rational understanding of
life. After graduating, she worked at a homeless
women's shelter in New York City, doing grassroots
work on the front lines of civilization.
She began to find her community during her MSW
studies at Rutgers University. "I stayed on my edge of
learning, and of connecting deeply," she says of her
time there. "I also played my edge in my own spiritual
and emotional work. I stumbled into my own darkness.
I pressed up against boundaries, social, personal,
psychological and spiritual. I touched my own
darkness, and that was very curious to me. But it is the
foundation of my work today."
As is being a mother: Brownstein, now expecting her
third child. .
Today, her work centers on what she calls the shadow
side of being a mother, working with pregnant women
and new moms around the transition into parenthood.
Her therapy, she says, "uses the process of becoming a
mother -- but the darkness of motherhood -- for deep
spiritual and psychological growth."
"Motherhood initiates women into their creator energy,
and their destroyer energy," she explains. "And unless
they learn to work with their destroyer energy
consciously, it can destroy, a marriage, a partnership, a
child's life, a child's self-esteem. It doesn't have to look
like murder."
Her two group process programs currently are
Motherbirth, which explores the idea that when a child
is born, a mother is born; and Mothering With Soul,
which is aimed more toward the shadow issues and

and their destroyer energy," she explains. "And unless

they learn to work with their destroyer energy
consciously, it can destroy, a marriage, a partnership, a
child's life, a child's self-esteem. It doesn't have to look
like murder."
Her two group process programs currently are
Motherbirth, which explores the idea that when a child
is born, a mother is born; and Mothering With Soul,
which is aimed more toward the shadow issues and
frightening feelings associated with being a mother.
Her work is daring. "I'm willing to talk about
something the culture isn't," she says, "which is that
there is a dark side to motherhood. And unless it's
explored, expressed and interpreted, you get people
who drown their five children," or who secretly harbor
thoughts of doing so.
If we think of the Sixties as a time when people were
not afraid of everything, and were willing to look at
themselves and their world a little more honestly, it's
clear that both Jerilyn Brownstein and Steve Bergstein
have brought some of that spirit with them into the 21st
century, a time when it's needed as much as ever, or
maybe a little more. ++
ONE OF THE COMMONLY PERCEIVED
GREAT FAILURES of the 1960s was the sexual
revolution. In summary, what we think of as the
sexual revolution emerged from the marketing of
the birth control pill, which for the first time in
(known) history created a means by which women
could dependably have sex without getting
pregnant, but without getting a man involved in the
pregnancy prevention effort. Yet at the same time,
this included the idea that men did not necessarily
have to take responsibility for their sexual actions
(not that they ever did, but the pill emphasized the
point). And, in related news, many have pointed
out that the pill and its subsequent social uprising
did little to deepen the intimate bonds between
men and women on an emotional level.
And for some, this so-called freedom came with a
high price. In the gay community, for example, the
sexual revolution is associated with the deaths of
tens of thousands of men who practiced Free Love,
but wound up getting killed in the process.
We could see these as examples of failures of a
social movement, but we could also view them as
failures of relationship. Or we could see them as
conditions emerging from an inherently selfcentered worldview, where personal satisfaction
was held as more important than community health
or mutual well-being. That doesn't sound very
Sixties to me.
The same accusation has been made about the
draft. There was, in those years, a televised lottery

social movement, but we could also view them as

failures of relationship. Or we could see them as
conditions emerging from an inherently selfcentered worldview, where personal satisfaction
was held as more important than community health
or mutual well-being. That doesn't sound very
Sixties to me.
The same accusation has been made about the
draft. There was, in those years, a televised lottery
in which boys would have their numbers picked.
Each community had a draft board of men who
might be your gym coach or scout leader. Young
men, one version of the story goes, refused to go to
war not because they felt that the war was wrong,
but rather because they didn't want to get killed.
Yet the anti-Vietnam War movement was dressed
up in moral terms, which can be viewed as a ruse
for a deeper selfish interest, wanting to stay alive.
There are, of course, other ways to analyze history,
but this is one of the more cynical views.
The perspective is supported by the fact that most
of the people who were politically active in the
Sixties are now living pretty much the same
uninvolved lives that their parents did, and are far
more concerned about the stock market and getting
a new SUV than they are about justice or political
progress. Where are these people who were
supposedly so deeply opposed to Vietnam, now
that we have been mercilessly bombing the
daylights out of Afghanistan, and are planning (in
the further interests of business) to do the same
thing to Iraq? Well, if you figure that they have no
personal stake in stopping this war, we can see
why they wouldn't bother. If their kids are opposed
to attacking Afghanistan, or afraid of the draft, let
them stop it. And if we want to take a more
realistic view, we might say that everyone who
understands capitalism knows how good war is for
the economy, usually. Without all that oil, how do
you even make an SUV, much less drive one, and
how do you fly an F-15 to defend the Free World?
We are going to war for the economy!

Circa 1960; we have the nerve to think we're

Circa 1960; we have the nerve to think we're

geeks. And that thing behind him probably
has 5% of the brainpower of an iPod, on a
good day. But he's clearly having a lot of fun.

A Planetary Picture
When we look at this astrologically, we can see the
seeming contradictions clearly. The generation of
the anti-war protesters was made up of a
constituency of people born with Pluto in Leo
(1939 to 1957). Pluto in any given sign can bestow
as many of the attributes of that sign as does the
Sun, Rising Sign or Moon, only it affects millions
of people over a full generation or more, and can,
at least in part, define a period in history. And it
does so in a Plutonian way: with obsession, and a
subconscious drive, and what you might call
evolutionary urgency. Pluto in Leo people have a
reputation for being able to take care of
themselves. But, bless them, not much else, though
consistent with cats there have been some devoted
parents in the lot. But man, these people get
divorced like they had a subscription.
Pluto in Leo is also known as the Baby Boom;
with the war over, sperm and money began to
flow. The years in which these folks were born and
bred were pretty wild, and the hysteria of the era is
summed up nicely in a film called The Atomic
Caf. They were raised, simply, in a time when the
end of the world was said to be imminent. There
was a "Cold War," America and the USSR were
both hoping to be number one (and it was going to
be one or the other, damn it), and little kids were
practicing hiding under school desks in honor of
their parents' generation's lust for supremacy and
outrageous paranoia. We put Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg in the electric chair and felt good about
it. We "took care of #1," as my surrogate father
Barry used to say.
Many of these kids grew up and became some
shade of Hippie, Yippie or Freak.
When the Sixties came around, the planetary
emphasis had shifted to Virgo and, increasingly, to
Pisces as well. Together, these two signs have a
very different feeling, and different social themes,
than does Leo. First of all, they take us beyond

it. We "took care of #1," as my surrogate father

Barry used to say.
Many of these kids grew up and became some
shade of Hippie, Yippie or Freak.
When the Sixties came around, the planetary
emphasis had shifted to Virgo and, increasingly, to
Pisces as well. Together, these two signs have a
very different feeling, and different social themes,
than does Leo. First of all, they take us beyond
personal reality. Virgo's first keyword is service,
that is, service to others. This sign, and its
associated sixth house, includes themes such as
healing, teaching and good old unglorified
mundane work, most of which subjects derive
from Virgo's earliest known theme, servants.
Pisces is a region of consciousness that we think of
as cosmic, mystical and inherently spiritual. It has
many properties that take us, in thought and
experience, beyond this world, beyond normal
awareness. These include fantasy, dreams, alcohol
and drugs, but also meditation, direct experience of
the numinous, and creative processes such as
making film and theatre. Pisces has visionary gifts,
also has a strong theme of service, because Pisces,
most astrologers feel, can tune into the big picture
and the higher spiritual purposes of humanity.

Leonine People in a World of Virgo

What happened in the Sixties is that a whole lot of
people with very strong, even obsessive, Leonine
tendencies found themselves living in the midst of
an era where higher priorities and collective needs
were coming into focus. Rare conjunctions were
activating the Virgo-Pisces axis: Uranus conjunct
Pluto in Virgo, and Saturn conjunct Chiron in
Pisces (see part one of this series). These four
planets combined the themes of revolution and the
quest for freedom (Uranus), evolutionary necessity
and exploring deeper causes (Pluto), devotion to
healing and service (Chiron), and awareness of
responsibility and interacting directly with the
power structure (Saturn).
Both conjunctions have a special relationship to
Saturn, bestowing a lot of energy that was directed
at overthrowing the established power structure, or
at least not taking it as seriously as it had been in
the past. And, power structures such as the
Supreme Court took distinctly more liberationist
views. There were numerous rulings protecting
civil rights, for example; the Court itself was quite
literally an activist institution.
But with Nixon rising to power, with many of the
great leaders of the day being assassinated (JFK,
RFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and others),

at least not taking it as seriously as it had been in

the past. And, power structures such as the
Supreme Court took distinctly more liberationist
views. There were numerous rulings protecting
civil rights, for example; the Court itself was quite
literally an activist institution.
But with Nixon rising to power, with many of the
great leaders of the day being assassinated (JFK,
RFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and others),
with kids dying every day in a stupid, vicious and
criminal war, with others being shot on US soil (at
Kent State University, the University of Buffalo
and elsewhere) and with the incredible urgency
that many people felt for society to finally change,
there was still plenty to revolt against.
The Pluto in Leo generation picked up on this
energy, and expressed it in its own way. Frankly,
there was hell to pay for all the injustices that were
being perpetuated by the power structure. There
was what one institution called a "crisis of
democracy." And this took energy. It is unlikely
that any other generation would have had the
stamina to stand up to the power structures in the
way that this particular generation did. And they
had many truly significant achievements, among
them being the first generation of men to refuse to
go to war -- a mighty accomplishment, and one
which has been preserved to the present day. But
when the powerful Virgo-Pisces relationship
passed, there seemed to be little follow-through by
these crusaders.
But a new generation has come. Pluto moves
slowly, but he moves dependably. What happened
in the Sixties defined the issues and established the
need for deeper relationships between people, and
between people and their culture. Today, we have
inherited a legacy that we need to cultivate, nurture
and develop, but that legacy has its roots in an era
when people were not afraid to take up their selfconscious existence and demand change. That took
guts and dedication. We could learn a lot from
them. And their work spawned many social
movements that have persisted to the present day,
perhaps in less dramatic forms (less like Pluto and
more like Virgo). Now it's up to us to create and
develop the sustainable relationships that will
allow the following movements to grow and
thrive.
They include:
The Organic Movement. Organic food and
organic farming are part of the same thing but are
really two different social fronts. A population of
people is beginning to understand the need for
cleaner food, and another for cleaner agriculture.

develop the sustainable relationships that will

allow the following movements to grow and
thrive.
They include:
The Organic Movement. Organic food and
organic farming are part of the same thing but are
really two different social fronts. A population of
people is beginning to understand the need for
cleaner food, and another for cleaner agriculture.
And

there

has

been

significant,

successful

movement against GMO foods in the UK. The

phrase back to the Earth and the notion of ecology
(which means the study of home), which were so
popular in the Sixties, are now manifesting as solid
business ventures and as a new generation of
family farms and an environmental movement that
is based on an actual relationship to the Earth, not
just ideas about the Earth. And there is a concrete
idea of grassroots action and the need for structure
if we're going to have sustained success.
Goddess Religion. We no longer just need to be
against the patriarchy. The Goddess is returning in
all her diversity, as reverence for nature, as
Ammachi, as the Tantrika or Sacred Whore, as the
amazing popularity of Wiccan faith and tradition,
or as astrologers including feminine archetypes in
their chart readings. Most of the women I know,
and many of the men, are involved in some form
of spiritual devotion that directly honors the
feminine spirit of creation and the Earth, and
honors women as priestesses, drummers and the
Wise. This is about a direct relationship to
Goddess rather than a conceptual one.
Burning Man. While this is hardly a sustainable
event, it represents the birth of a spirit of freedom
and social responsibility. People are quite literally
allowed to do anything they want except fire
weapons, and there is no way to prevent that
anyway, but they live in peace and harmony. It is
the biggest experiment of radical live and let live
ever, and also an experiment in a gift economy -people come to the event with the intention of
giving away lots of what they have, and they are
generally willing to share the rest. It is really
interesting to live in a city with a free bike shop,
free dance clubs, free art exhibits, and if you need
it, free food. The Rainbow Family has done a
pretty good job of this as well at its gatherings
around the world.
The Holistic Movement. Thus was it not ever that
you

could

buy

homeopathic

remedies

in

supermarkets, get foot reflexology in a hospital or

visit an acupuncturist without wandering down
Mott Street. The holistic and human potential

free dance clubs, free art exhibits, and if you need

it, free food. The Rainbow Family has done a
pretty good job of this as well at its gatherings
around the world.
The Holistic Movement. Thus was it not ever that
you

could

buy

homeopathic

remedies

in

supermarkets, get foot reflexology in a hospital or

visit an acupuncturist without wandering down
Mott Street. The holistic and human potential
movements of the 1970s came through a door that
was blown off in the 1960s: that door was the
notion that there is no alternative to conventional
ideas. It is up to a generation of practitioners, most
of whom have Pluto in Virgo, to develop their
mastery of their art forms, to build the reputation
of the work they do so that they can have more
credibility in society, and to develop a basis of
mutual respect with their clients.
New Relationship Models. The difficult questions
of relationship that needed to be asked in the midst
of the Sixties sexual revolution are being asked
today, in movements devoted to polyamory
(responsible nonmonogamy), bisexuality and new
experiments in intentional community. They
involve efforts at making families and love affairs
more egalitarian and trusting, and more reflective
of real human needs, including the needs of
children. Equality, honesty and working on one's
issues are the basis of polyamory and most other
new relationship models. In my view, the
polyamorous community is asking the questions
that most monogamous people need to be asking
as well, and this is one example of how the sexual
revolution continues in a much more responsible,
if smaller, form than it began.
All of these examples are based on redefining
relationships. They represent a need for grassroots
action, and a sober view of things. They represent
expressions of sustained commitment to ourselves,
to one another and to an ideal that first emerged
well over a generation ago, and have miraculously
survived everything from Nancy Reagan to the
American Medical Association, and are now alive
in our hands. Power to the people, man. ++
-- Thanks to Elle McKenzy, David Arner, Denice
Taylor and Jeanne Treadway, who helped me think
this through.

An Overview of Chiron
By Eric Francis

The Centaur planet Chiron is an astrological

force

for

healing,

transformation,

service,

spiritual growth and the lifelong process of

becoming aware that some call enlightenment. In
a word, it could be summed up as "holistic,"
which means making whole. Everyone has
Chiron in his or her personal natal chart, which
may be in a more or less emphasized position. At
different times in our lives we are under the
influence of Chiron by transit, and learning about
these transits is the purpose of Part Two this
article, after the introductory materials which
follow in Part One. In the second part, I will also
include links to last year's materials on Chiron, as
well as any links to my prior articles that are still
available, and to some by other writers.
Chiron, an actual planet, was the first major
planetary

discovery

after

Pluto

in

1930.

Discovered by Charles Kowal in late October

1977 (though most reports say Nov. 1, 1977),
you probably did not learn about Chiron in
science class, and most astrologers still do not
recognize Chiron as a "legitimate" planetary
influence, much less an important one, though
the community of astrologers is starting to wake
up. Yet many astrologers did not consider Pluto a
legitimate planet until the 1970s, though its
existence had been known for 40-plus years; this,
despite its clear associations with the social
progress,

creative

eruptions

and

cultural

upheavals of the late 1960s. Though Chiron was

finally discovered in 1977, pre-discovery photos
exist from as early as 1895. In other words,
though it had been photographed repeatedly by
observatories, it was not actually noticed,
catalogued and named till nearly a century later.
Chiron is relatively small, about 160-180
kilometers across, and has properties of a planet,
an asteroid, a comet and a Pluto-like object. It
defies simple classification, borrowing different
attributes from pre-existing categories, crossing
the orbit of Saturn and extending almost out to
the orbit of Uranus. It rounds the Sun in an

observatories, it was not actually noticed,

catalogued and named till nearly a century later.
Chiron is relatively small, about 160-180
kilometers across, and has properties of a planet,
an asteroid, a comet and a Pluto-like object. It
defies simple classification, borrowing different
attributes from pre-existing categories, crossing
the orbit of Saturn and extending almost out to
the orbit of Uranus. It rounds the Sun in an
elongated path that takes 50.7 years to complete.
Because of this elongation, it stays in Libra for
just 18 months while taking 9 years to cross
Aries, being in the other signs for approximately
two to seven years. This creates unusual patterns
in our lives which may go unnoticed until we
check out the timing of Chiron transits and their
corresponding life events.
After the announcement of the discovery, a few
astrologers took an immediate interest in Chiron.
Among the first was Zane Stein, who was given
the first ephemeris (zodiac position table) for
Chiron by astronomer Dr. Brian Marsden shortly
after the discovery. This allowed Chiron to be
placed in the horoscopes of Zane's clients so that
he could research its meaning. Dr. Marsden's
cooperation with the learning goals of an
astrologer would prove to presage the later
cooperation between the Centaur Research
Project, an informal committee of astrologers
specializing in the Centaurs and other unusual
small objects, and the International Astronomical
Union (IAU), the scientific institution which is
responsible for the cataloging and formal naming
of new astronomical discoveries. Today, the
Centaur Research Project, created by Robert von
Heeren

of

Munich,

provides

the

name

suggestions for the new Centaurs, all of which

have so far been accepted by the IAU (Nessus,
Chariclo, Asbolus and Hylonome).
We live in an unprecedented era in which
astrologers

and

astronomers

are

working

together, and in which scientists are accepting

the

research

findings

of

astrologers

as

intellectually valid. At the same time, a number

of astrologers in the Centaur field are themselves
accomplished astronomers, able to do the
difficult mathematical calculations required to
track the orbits of these planets. This is a long
way from the unprovoked and intellectually
bereft attack of the scientific community on
astrologers in the late 1970s.
Back to the beginnings of our tale, Zane Stein
wrote the first article about Chiron, published in
the January 1981 edition of Dell Horoscope

accomplished astronomers, able to do the

difficult mathematical calculations required to
track the orbits of these planets. This is a long
way from the unprovoked and intellectually
bereft attack of the scientific community on
astrologers in the late 1970s.
Back to the beginnings of our tale, Zane Stein
wrote the first article about Chiron, published in
the January 1981 edition of Dell Horoscope
magazine. With the help of Neil F. Michelsen of
Astro Computing Services (publishers of the
American Ephemeris, currently the only major
U.S. or British ephemeris to list Chiron's
position), Zane published a Chiron aspectarian
for the 20th century later that year, and had by
1983 published a pamphlet called "Interpreting
Chiron." The same year, Erminie Lantero, Ph.D.
published the first book, The Continuing
Discovery of Chiron (Samuel Weiser, 1983). In
1985, Zane's book Essence and Application: A
View from Chiron was published by astrologer
Al H. Morrison. This was followed up by what is
probably the best-known work on the new planet,
Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and
Outer Planets by Barbara Hand Clow (Llewellyn,
1987). Barbara, for her part, relied heavily on the
research of her predecessors, particularly Zane
Stein, to create her popular and informative
work. In 1994, Richard Noelle brought out a
worthwhile short work called Chiron: The New
Planet in Your Horoscope (American Federation
of Astrologers).
To date, the most in-depth look at Chiron has
been written by the London-based astrologer
Melanie Reinhart, called Chiron and the Healing
Journey (1989, Penguin/Arkana). Written during
a deeply transformative moment in the author's
own healing journey, Melanie's work brings to
bear her training and experience as a Jungian
depth

psychologist,

her

compassion

as

humanitarian, and her considerable talent and

breadth of mind as an astrologer. Melanie has
followed up with a second book, To The Edge
and Beyond (1996, Center for Psychlogical
Astrology Press) which looks at Saturn, Chiron
and the next two Centaurs, Pholus and Nessus.
While the vast majority of astrologers remain in
ignorance or denial of Chiron today, the progress
that has been made in creating a body of work
around a new planet in just 23 years is
astonishing. Consider that at the time of Chiron's
discovery in 1977, just one obscure book had
been written about Pluto, which had been
discovered 47 years earlier (Fritz Brunhubner's

and the next two Centaurs, Pholus and Nessus.

While the vast majority of astrologers remain in
ignorance or denial of Chiron today, the progress
that has been made in creating a body of work
around a new planet in just 23 years is
astonishing. Consider that at the time of Chiron's
discovery in 1977, just one obscure book had
been written about Pluto, which had been
discovered 47 years earlier (Fritz Brunhubner's
book on Pluto was written in 1934, but went
unpublished in English for 34 years). It was only
in 1985 -- 55 years after its discovery -- that the
first

comprehensive

published,

Jeffrey

book

on

Wolf

Green's

Pluto

was
Pluto:

Evolutionary Journey of the Soul (Llewellyn).

Note that the first major work on Pluto entered
consciousness just as the first books on Chiron
were appearing. This suggests that the two
energies work together, like a unified polarity;
and moreover, that Pluto, as suggested by Jeff
Green, functions as a subconscious process.
Chiron works in full awareness, it can be easily
subjected

to

scientific

and

psychological

scrutiny, and is not easily given to issues like

denial or avoidance.
Chiron's Mythos: Maverick, Mentor, Healer
Most people who have heard of Chiron associate
it with the words "wounded healer," but this
would be like summing up the life of Albert
Einstein as the "confused physicist." Chiron's
first keyword, as described by its discoverer, was
maverick. Chiron was different and stood out as
a unique scientific discovery. Mythologically,
this holds true, yet Chiron was more aptly known
for his role as mentor to the great heroes of the
Helenic world. Finally, we know that Chiron was
a healer and teacher of healing. He reflects all of
these qualities when working as an astrological
force. <><>An immortal born to Kronos (Saturn)
and Philyra, Chiron was the first of the Centaurs,
creatures who were half-man, half-horse. This
mix occurred because Kronos was fucking
Philyra behind the back of his wife Rhea; when
Rhea caught them, Kronos turned himself into a
horse as a disguise. At that moment, Chiron was
conceived. Philyra, later seeing her son after she
gave birth, was so horrified that she turned
herself into a tree. Chiron was raised by mentors
and surrogate mothers.
Yet Philyra seems to have over-reacted, for
Chiron was not the monstrosity she feared.
Zimmerman's Dictionary of Classical Mythology
(consistent with other sources) reports that
Chiron was the one "gentle, learned and wise

conceived. Philyra, later seeing her son after she

gave birth, was so horrified that she turned
herself into a tree. Chiron was raised by mentors
and surrogate mothers.
Yet Philyra seems to have over-reacted, for
Chiron was not the monstrosity she feared.
Zimmerman's Dictionary of Classical Mythology
(consistent with other sources) reports that
Chiron was the one "gentle, learned and wise
member of the Centaurs" (though the lesserknown Centaur Pholus surely fits this description
as well) and says further that Chiron was
"famous for his knowledge of medicine, music,
[and] shooting; taught mankind the use of plants
and medicinal herbs; instructed the greatest
heroes of the age [including] Achilles, Aneas,
Asclepius, Heracles, Jason [and] Peleus." Chiron
taught not just herbalism, but medicine and
surgery to Asclepius, the Greek god of these arts.
His name remains in the language today in the art
"chiropractic," which is the adjustment of the
bones of the neck and back as a means of healing
a variety of ills. In one chiropractic textbook I
was shown by a colleague, there is an old etching
of "asclepian manipulation," an early word for
the practice. Since Chiron was the teacher of
Asclepius, this suggests he may have also taught
him chiropractic as well.
It is noteworthy that Chiron's vastly significant
place in mythology was left largely to obscurity
till it was dug out and revived by astrologers
seeking to understand the meaning of a new
planet. Perhaps Chiron was forgotten because he
reveals that humanity is at least half animal in
nature, and indeed, that half below the waist,
where the human body meets the horse body of
the Centaur. Chiron, intelligent, compassionate,
and loving the teaching and healing of others
most of all, has four hoofs and a tail, a reminder
to those who think we are all the wiser for
walking upright on two feet, while killing our
fellow men and women. Chiron was content to
live and work in his cave, the Chironian, living in
peace and married to the nymph Chariclo. He is
one of the very few male figures in Greek
mythology not defined by his infidelities, sexual
conquests, military conquests, gross flaws or
false pride. Indeed, perhaps these are expressions
of the denial of one's animal nature rather than a
connection to it.
Yet those of Chiron's tribe, the thousands of
other Centaurs (most of whom were not his
blood relations), were a rogue band of thugs,
rapists and warmongers roaming the forests of

mythology not defined by his infidelities, sexual

conquests, military conquests, gross flaws or
false pride. Indeed, perhaps these are expressions
of the denial of one's animal nature rather than a
connection to it.
Yet those of Chiron's tribe, the thousands of
other Centaurs (most of whom were not his
blood relations), were a rogue band of thugs,
rapists and warmongers roaming the forests of
Greece. David Arner, one of my astrology
teachers, recently commented that the Centaurs
are the Hell's Angels of Greek mythology: "If
there had been motorcycles back then," he said,
"they would have been half-motorcycle."
Later in life, during what seemed to have been an
inevitable war between Heracles and the
Centaurs, Chiron was accidentally shot by
Heracles, and hit with an arrow poisoned by the
blood of the many-headed monster, the Hydra,
whom Heracles had killed on an earlier mission.
Though

immortal,

Chiron

was

mortally

wounded, thus doomed to suffer eternally. The

wound was to his animal-half, representing the
injured and frightened animal within us all. He
created many healing remedies in an attempt to
heal his injury, though unsuccessfully. Finally,
after long suffering, he proposed the following
arrangement to Zeus: Chiron would be released
from his pain and ascend to be the constellation
Centaurus. In turn, Prometheus would be freed
from the rock where he was chained, doomed to
suffer for eternity (with his liver being eaten each
day, only to grow back each night) in punishment
for stealing the "fire of the gods" and giving it to
humankind. Thus, Chiron and Prometheus were
freed from their unending struggles and began
new lives.
From Mythos to Logos
Mythos, that is, the tales of a mythological
figure, and the logos, how the planet named after
that figure functions astrologically, work very
differently. Mythos is to logos as the sapling is to
the tree. Somewhere within the form of a tree is
both the idea and the reality of the sapling it once
was; but the years, the environment and destiny
have created a very different being in the mature
tree.
While there are similarities in theme and storystructure, the logos is often more complex and
has surprising, subtle expressions that can
redeem

what

is

often

not-so-happy

mythological tale. Further, in the case of a new

planet, astrologers, who (like scientists) are never
free from bias, are able to assign meanings, and

have created a very different being in the mature

tree.
While there are similarities in theme and storystructure, the logos is often more complex and
has surprising, subtle expressions that can
redeem

what

is

often

not-so-happy

mythological tale. Further, in the case of a new

planet, astrologers, who (like scientists) are never
free from bias, are able to assign meanings, and
make

selective

observations

and

intuitive

associations between a planet and its expressions

in life. The planet works differently for different
people, and humans have the capacity to learn
from one another.
Because Chiron was a newly discovered planet,
astrologers went to work seeking expressions of
its logos in their clients through what amounts to
psychological research. They examined the natal
placements of clients they knew well, checked
events at times of significant transits and watched
how Chiron worked in synastry, that is, when
two charts are read in comparison to one another,
such as with married couples, parents and
children and friends.
Astrologers also examined the birth chart of the
new planet, as well as astronomical information
such as its orbit. They looked at its numerology,
and at events in history when Chiron was in
aspect to major planetary influences. Through
this organic process of reason, exploration,
investigation and intuition, a functional meaning
of Chiron emerged. Yet as Erminie Lantero
suggests in the title of the first book about
Chiron, this is indeed a continuing discovery,
made all the more adventurous by the two-dozen
new planets in Chiron's class which astrologers
and astronomers are working to understand.
Most important, we have learned from the
experiences of our own lives, and those of the
people we call clients, with whom we travel
along the road to awareness, wholeness, health
and life.
Chiron's Logos: Healing, Awareness, Power
Wounds and Transformation
Chiron has many expressions and it is impossible
to summarize them in an article or even a book.
But it's possible to skew the discussion in a
productive direction. This would start with the
idea that Chiron works as a bridge. It closes the
space between phases of growth, layers of
awareness, people, belief systems, countries and
phases of history. It provides a link between the
celestial and earthly orders of consciousness, to
the extent that these seem to be separate realities

to summarize them in an article or even a book.

But it's possible to skew the discussion in a
productive direction. This would start with the
idea that Chiron works as a bridge. It closes the
space between phases of growth, layers of
awareness, people, belief systems, countries and
phases of history. It provides a link between the
celestial and earthly orders of consciousness, to
the extent that these seem to be separate realities
from our viewpoint here. Thus, its function is as
a healer, since healing is always about closing
separation.
Another way to look at healing is as a process of
becoming aware. We give special words to
describe this awareness, such as "enlightenment,"
"mastery," "expertise," "spirituality," and so
forth. But awareness is awareness. The choice to
use it, I might add, is another story entirely.
Where Chiron is present in the natal chart, and
where Chiron is acting by transit (that is, where
the current position of Chiron is acting upon the
natal chart), we will feel some form of need,
desire or compulsion to raise our awareness.
Chiron is associated with healing crises, that is,
the conscious confrontation of that which makes
us sick or holds us back, and inspires the ultimate
use of such "negative" things as opportunities to
grow and learn. In this way, pain and suffering
do not enter our lives to teach us a lesson, but
rather, we learn how to learn lessons from that
which would otherwise be pointless struggle.
In

the

current

models

of

medicine

and

psychiatry, we view the patient as an entirely

passive entity in the healing process. In holistic
healing, astrology and many other more balanced
models of growth and wellness, a person is far
from passive but is rather the central figure in the
healing journey, with a greater element of control
over his or her destiny. In this way, the healing
crisis is a call to growth, personal empowerment,
and most of all, consciousness. We learn to let go
of what holds us back, recognize who we really
are, and to use what we know. We learn to make
choices. In these ways, what starts as sickness
becomes not just health but also a means to
arriving at a new place of strength, integrity and
freedom. One person's healing crisis can provide
important information for other people as they
grow into their own wholeness.
Some of us are familiar with the idea of the
shaman. The shaman in aboriginal cultures is the
bridge between humanity and the outer forces, a
concept very much akin to that of Chiron or a
healer. People working in this modality typically

arriving at a new place of strength, integrity and

freedom. One person's healing crisis can provide
important information for other people as they
grow into their own wholeness.
Some of us are familiar with the idea of the
shaman. The shaman in aboriginal cultures is the
bridge between humanity and the outer forces, a
concept very much akin to that of Chiron or a
healer. People working in this modality typically
will serve a community, or be in the service of
the culture, functioning in service being one of
the identifying marks of a person on a spiritual
mission in life. Without exception in the life of a
shaman there is a wound inflicted, such as early
disease, blindness, a near-death experience, a
bout with insanity or some other experience that
causes the shaman to gather their strength and
power and thus become who they are. With
Chiron we can see this process working, on some
level, in all people. This wound may be the early
loss of a parent, an injury, a disability, or even a
talent that rendered a person different and forced
them to confront a particular aspect of reality
early on, perhaps well ahead of their years.
Chiron functions as an integrating agent in the
seemingly separate mind, body, emotions and
spirit, and thus brings together the very different
elements of consciousness that may exist within
us. We are aware of these elements when, for
example, we have insights during meditation, in
rituals or on drugs that we find challenging to
relate to our "normal life." We might recognize
something about a person, perhaps someone
we're very close to, and not be able to embody
that knowledge into our relationship with the
person. Or we might encounter wise teachings of
an experienced person, but claim that they are
impossible to apply to life. The process of Chiron
works to bridge these realities: energy into
matter, the spiritual into the mundane, the cosmic
into the ordinary.
Three Kinds of Planets
To relate this idea, it will help to use some
astrological metaphors, so I hope you'll bear with
a short astrology class. Astrologers generally
speak of three kinds of planets: The personal
planets, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and
Mars; the transpersonal planets, Jupiter and
Saturn; and the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune
and Pluto.
We can all relate fairly well to the personal
planets. On the most basic level, Venus and Mars
like to fuck, eat good food and play out the
polarity of maleness and femaleness (this is a

speak of three kinds of planets: The personal

planets, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and
Mars; the transpersonal planets, Jupiter and
Saturn; and the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune
and Pluto.
We can all relate fairly well to the personal
planets. On the most basic level, Venus and Mars
like to fuck, eat good food and play out the
polarity of maleness and femaleness (this is a
somewhat superficial explanation, but not really).
This is easy to grasp. Mercury is the process of
communication, the inner light of the mind, and
the self that is not bound by definitions but rather
fleets from one idea about itself to another. The
Sun represents who we feel we really are. The
Moon represents our most basic needs and
security issues, the place in consciousness where
emotions are manifested, as well as the physical
body. These are the personal or "inner" planets.
Often these have been personified in the form of
gods, which are really archetypal expressions of
inner human reality. In other words, when I
become a warrior, I invoke Mars, but I am really
using an energy within my own being, which I
perhaps recognized in myself because I know
something about the great archetypal warriors.
Next are the transpersonal planets, which were
the two most distant planets of antiquity: Jupiter
and Saturn. These represent forces that don't
seem to be so internal, but rather function as part
of society; though there are some people who
embody them very effectively, for good or for ill.
Jupiter represents great fortune (as if from
outside), the process of culture, the idea of
justice, and the sphere of embodied wisdom
(such as the knowledge contained in libraries,
universities and religions). Internally, Jupiter can
represent the aspects of a person that are
magnanimous (generous and kind of judgment),
spiritual (Jupiter relates to Pisces and Sagittarius)
excessive (Jupiter is big), and full of hot air
(Jupiter is not a solid planet). Metaphysically it
represents the principle of expansion. Perhaps
this is why (according to Forbes magazine) there
are so many Pisces millionaires.
Saturn represents concrete structures, such as
buildings, corporations, traditions, institutions
(like the church itself rather than the teachings of
the church). Internally, Saturn represents the
boundaries and structures of mind, body and
interaction with and within which we must live.
For example, we need bones, and we tend to treat
our mother like our mother and our father like
our father. Metaphysically Saturn represents the

Saturn represents concrete structures, such as

buildings, corporations, traditions, institutions
(like the church itself rather than the teachings of
the church). Internally, Saturn represents the
boundaries and structures of mind, body and
interaction with and within which we must live.
For example, we need bones, and we tend to treat
our mother like our mother and our father like
our father. Metaphysically Saturn represents the
principle of limitation and discipline. Saturn is
the edge. Beyond the edge, there is the vast
chaotic

cosmos,

both

internally

(the

subconscious realm, into which psychotics,

artists and genius-types may dip regularly) and
externally (speed limits and DUI laws that land
us

in

court).

Without

Saturn

functioning

normally, which includes tending to our process

of becoming mature and creating structures to
live within, we have a very hard time staying
sane or stable. When we do not work with Saturn
as an internal energy (discipline) it will
invariably manifest as an external energy
(disciplinarians).
Last are the outer planets, also called the
"modern planets" because they are the products
of the modern world and its technology, and also
because they represent humanity's delves into the
deep space of consciousness in the form of
psychoanalysis, spirituality, invention, industry,
and mysticism -- not to mention mass insanity,
holocausts, world wars and ecocide, that is, the
poisoning of our earthly home and the mass
poisoning of its living creatures.
The first of these planets, Uranus, discovered in
1781, is the first planet beyond the edge of
Saturn. It is the planet of revolution, innovation,
invention, and the divine electricity of the mind.
Its processes can up-end or destroy the structures
of Saturn, or with a light touch, those familiar
with Uranian energy can modify, reinvent and
adapt structure to meet current needs. It tends to
operate far outside the reach of most people,
since very few of us here are inventors, most of
us cling to structure, and hardly anyone
welcomes change. When it's functioning well in
a person's chart, it will lead them to seek
freedom, to be different, to think outside of
boxes and to aspire to greater ideas about life and
their personal experience on the planet.
Neptune, discovered in 1846, is even more
difficult to grasp. It represents the presence of the
numinous -- that is, the supernatural; the
unspeakable, the invisible and the mysterious. In
its

less

wholesome

and

most

common

a person's chart, it will lead them to seek

freedom, to be different, to think outside of
boxes and to aspire to greater ideas about life and
their personal experience on the planet.
Neptune, discovered in 1846, is even more
difficult to grasp. It represents the presence of the
numinous -- that is, the supernatural; the
unspeakable, the invisible and the mysterious. In
its

less

wholesome

and

most

common

manifestations, it shows up in life as drugs,

drink,

delusion,

Unfortunately,

the

deception
sprit

we

and

denial.

call

alcohol

substitutes for the spirit we call love or God, and

the two have a very hard time co-existing.
Usually one is a direct substitute for the other.
Note that alcoholics have a strong tendency to
deceive people, to be delusional and to be in
denial. People who are on a conscious spiritual
path generally work to be aware of their
addictions, work to live for truth and not be in
denial of what simply is so. In general, people
work one side of Neptune or the other, though in
all respects Neptune is a difficult concept to
grasp, largely because it works through invisible
means.
Before moving onto Pluto, it is very, very well
worth noting that on New Year's Day 1801, two
hundred years ago, a new kind of planet was
discovered. This was Ceres, the first asteroid.
Ceres was the second planet ever named for a
woman and the first new planet named for a
woman; and of course, she was "not a planet."
Planets were only the big things going deeper
and deeper into space. Ceres is the Roman name
of the Greek goddess of agriculture, Demeter;
she is about the Earth and its fruits, grains (hence
"cereal") and the guardian of marriage. In
discovering Ceres, not counting her for a planet
(an issue for both astrologers and astronomers),
and then abandoning her, we seemed to be
reflecting a cultural process that would, in a very
short time, foul the nest known as Earth and lead
to many generations of failure to honor
relationships,

nutrition

and

nurturing

one

another.
Finally, in 1930, we have the outermost
conventional planet, Pluto, discovered at the
Lowell Observatory in the United States. My
Zimmerman mythology dictionary tells me that
Pluto is, "The Greek name for the king of hell, or
for hell itself; his other names are Ades, Aides,
Aidoneus, Hades and Pluton." It's clear that this
was hardly an inviting or tempting energy for
astrologers to want to dabble in casually. And,

Finally, in 1930, we have the outermost

conventional planet, Pluto, discovered at the
Lowell Observatory in the United States. My
Zimmerman mythology dictionary tells me that
Pluto is, "The Greek name for the king of hell, or
for hell itself; his other names are Ades, Aides,
Aidoneus, Hades and Pluton." It's clear that this
was hardly an inviting or tempting energy for
astrologers to want to dabble in casually. And,
first came Pluto, then came Hitler, who came to
power in February 1933 and started the
Holocaust, or all-consuming fire (holo = whole,
and caust = burn, like in caustic), a hellish
enough image to make the point.
But Pluto, as he works astrologically, is not so
simple. His primary function or effect is to drive
evolution forward. Pluto, akin to Shiva the
Destroyer of Hindu mythology, does indeed burn
off old karma, remove old situations, and get to
the heat of the matter. People with strong Pluto
placements are able to cut to the truth, and push
others to do the same. But Pluto rarely manifests
as an entirely welcome energy. He is difficult to
take all by himself, far more difficult than the
other outer planets, none of which are especially
easy to accept, comprehend or work with alone.
They are all forces far beyond our control,
greater than we are, affecting millions of people
and compelling us to deal with the ultimate
realities of life and death. Pluto takes what seem
to be the most negative forces and possibilities
and, with awareness, transforms them into
constructive experiences and learning. But this is
often extremely difficult because the further
away planets are, the more difficult their energy
is to grasp or comprehend.
Enter Chiron, and a New Kind of Planet
Astronomically, Chiron bears attributes of a
comet (harbinger or messenger of change), an
asteroid (a seemingly minor influence, though of
great importance -- yet often ignored), a planet (a
recognizable element in the consciousness of
many people). But Chiron functions as an inner
planet, piercing through the realm of Saturn at its
closest point to the Sun and an outer planet,
going way beyond Saturn, almost out to Uranus.
He is, in this way, a bridge between the outer
planets and the transpersonal planets.
He is like a utility which allows us to a) deal with
the limitations of Saturn, and make productive
use of Saturn and b) work with the cosmic
energies of the outer planets. Chiron allows us to
ground the pure energy of Uranus into the form
and structure of Saturn, and vice versa. It works

going way beyond Saturn, almost out to Uranus.

He is, in this way, a bridge between the outer
planets and the transpersonal planets.
He is like a utility which allows us to a) deal with
the limitations of Saturn, and make productive
use of Saturn and b) work with the cosmic
energies of the outer planets. Chiron allows us to
ground the pure energy of Uranus into the form
and structure of Saturn, and vice versa. It works
as a collector of Neptunian energy, allowing us
to cut through the delusion and denial that so
often accompanies spirituality, and to apply
spiritual lessons in practical ways; and to deal
with Pluto by bringing the subconscious forces to
full awareness, where we can address it in a sane
context (healing, ritual, committed relationship
and so on).
Chiron typically works through experiences,
talents

and

relationships,

often

in

some

combination. We know Chiron is active in our

charts when we strive to make difficulty
meaningful, when we seek healing rather than
escape, and when we strive for awareness when
in the past we desired to go to sleep.
The discovery of Chiron indeed proceeds, and
now,

there

are

nearly

two-dozen

planets

identified as belonging to the Centaur class. The

second was Pholus, discovered in 1992. The third
was Nessus, disdovered in 1993. With these
discoveries, the Centaur class was designated,
the propterties of which include small objects in
elongated orbits, usually crossing the orbits of
larger planets. Most of these have no names.
Pholus, to my knowledge, is mentioned in
English only in To The Edge in Beyond, though I
have a couple of articles about it which you may
request, and I will be posting more here this year.
One excellent book is available in German. To
cast the Centaurs into your natal chart, you may
use the free online ephemeris at the Centaur
Research Project homepage. Printed epemerides
may be obtained from Robert in Europe and from
Phillip Sedgwick in the United States. If you
want information about how to get a copy of To
The Edge and Beyond, which I consider to be an
excellent starting astrology book, please drop me
a note. I also do Chiron astrological readings,
and teach other astrologers the techniques I have
developed.
When Astrology Listens
Chiron in the astrological
counseling process

excellent starting astrology book, please drop me

a note. I also do Chiron astrological readings,
and teach other astrologers the techniques I have
developed.
When Astrology Listens
Chiron in the astrological
counseling process
When I began working with a client
named Orca, she wanted information
about her career and had decided to
contact an astrologer. She is a highly
creative, intelligent, and intuitive
person with diverse skills and strong
leanings toward serving others, so she
was understandably unhappy doing
software product development. In
graduate school, her dream had been
to develop a technology that would
allow deaf people to communicate in a
written form of sign language, which is
a language in its own right, apart from
English. But instead, she was trapped
in an office, doing boring research.

Illustration, "GenEx
Star," artist unknown.
I started with a question: "What was
going on when you were about ten
months old?" Perhaps this seems like a
strange question for a career reading.
Here is the story she told.
At that time, Orca was a toddler and
could not walk on two feet but could
amble along the wall using her hands.
She was the first child and was home
alone with her mother. One day, Orca
smelled some blueberry muffins baking
in the oven. She wanted a muffin, so
she toddled along the wall toward the
oven and, arriving there, pressed her
hands against it. Her hands burned

could not walk on two feet but could

amble along the wall using her hands.
She was the first child and was home
alone with her mother. One day, Orca
smelled some blueberry muffins baking
in the oven. She wanted a muffin, so
she toddled along the wall toward the
oven and, arriving there, pressed her
hands against it. Her hands burned
and stuck to the side of the hot oven.
She screamed, and her mother, who
had stepped out of the room, ran in
and scraped Orca's hands off the oven
with a spatula.
The family did not have a car; they
had just moved to a San Diego suburb,
which was fairly empty during the
workday, and they knew none of their
neighbors. But the mother picked up
her child and ran outside the house. At
that moment, a woman was getting
into her car right out in front. Mother
said, "My baby has been burned. Help
us!"
The woman responded that she was
just now on her way to see a
dermatologist who was also a burn
specialist, and she drove them to the
doctor. The specialist saw Orca
immediately. It happened that he was
doing research on contact skin burns
for the benefit of napalm victims in
Vietnam (this was during the Vietnam
War). He explained that there were
two ways to treat contact burns: the
traditional way that involved breaking
the blisters but could send a small
child into shock and possibly be
deadly, and an experimental method
that he was developing. Mother opted
for the experimental method; Orca's
hands healed with full dexterity and
sensitivity and only slight, barely
visible scarring.
I had asked her about that time in her
life because she has Chiron retrograde
in the 6th house, five degrees from the
7th-house cusp. When she was ten
months old, Chiron crossed the 7thhouse angle, and that seemed
interesting and possibly important; I

visible scarring.
I had asked her about that time in her
life because she has Chiron retrograde
in the 6th house, five degrees from the
7th-house cusp. When she was ten
months old, Chiron crossed the 7thhouse angle, and that seemed
interesting and possibly important; I
was guided to ask about this mainly by
my curiosity, which is intuitive. This
transit had turned out to be a lifeshaping event, a miracle that she
would remember and acknowledge all
her days.
Had I not asked Orca this question,
our experience of working together
would have been rather different.
The Charting of Experience
Even if two people had the same chart,
we know that they would still
experience the same astrology in
significantly different ways. Using the
chart to ask questions and then
engaging in an active listening process
gives both the astrologer and the client
clues about the particular way the
client is experiencing and expressing
the energy of their astrology -- but
without the prejudice of telling the
client who they are or what they were
supposed to have experienced. This
allows clients to be themselves and to
open up, enabling them to actively
develop trust in the process, because
they are being heard.
This process gives the astrologer a
chance to see how the theoretical and
static device of the natal chart works
when you add the energy dynamics of
moving time, real-life circumstances,
and apparent destiny. It affords an
opportunity to plot the trajectory of an
individual's lifetime. Most important, it
establishes a situation where the
astrologer does not have to make
speculative statements about a client's
life based only on their chart. Rather,
the important information comes from
the client's history, ideas, and

and apparent destiny. It affords an

opportunity to plot the trajectory of an
individual's lifetime. Most important, it
establishes a situation where the
astrologer does not have to make
speculative statements about a client's
life based only on their chart. Rather,
the important information comes from
the client's history, ideas, and
perceptions, while the astrologer's
questioning process is guided by the
chart. Then, the resulting
interpretation is guided by both the
client and the chart.
This process has the added benefit of
removing the need to overcome a
client's possible skepticism about
astrology, because there is no
guesswork involved. Good questions
are strong statements in themselves
and tend to validate the intelligence of
astrology and the astrologer -- and the
client.
I work with Chiron extensively, so I
usually check Chiron's transits to itself
-- the (waxing) square, opposition,
(waning) square, and return to its
natal position -- whichever apply,
depending upon the client's age. I also
check Chiron's transits over the four
angles, and I note whatever else
seems significant or looks interesting,
such as the Moon. I'll often check the
Saturn return and the Uranus
opposition, if these apply to the client.
When assessing the timing of a transit,
I generally ask about the seasons of
the exact contact. Many transits of
Chiron, Saturn, and Uranus are exact
three times, so I might ask about the
spring of 1971, the Christmas season
of 1971, and the summer of 1972.
People tend to remember seasons but
not exact months anyway, so this
works well.
Other times (as with Orca), I will be
more specific, sometimes asking
clients to check a given day or week
against their diary or old appointment
book; however, experience has
demonstrated that the most

not exact months anyway, so this

works well.
Other times (as with Orca), I will be
more specific, sometimes asking
clients to check a given day or week
against their diary or old appointment
book; however, experience has
demonstrated that the most
meaningful manifestations of transits
occur over the course of a season or a
year.
When checking transits, I prefer not to
ask "what happened?" as if there were
one big event, but rather, "What was
happening at this time?" Then I listen
to the basic circumstances, such as
who their friends were at school, what
was going on in the family, with lovers,
their job, and so on. If there are
significant events (there usually are at
those times), they will come out in the
discussion. Sometimes a client will say
that "nothing happened," so I will ask
whether they remember their address,
and work from there: What was the
neighborhood like? Who were your
classmates? Who was your lover?
What was happening with Mom and
Dad? Often, they will spontaneously
remember a very striking event or
bring one up in the next session.
Meanwhile, what you learn about the
family dog can give you a lot of insight
into how the client processes reality.
In career work, you can reverse this
technique and also track the rsum
against transits -- a convenient and
effective tool; then you can ask how
the client felt about each job, which
will tell you a lot.
The Astrology of Listening
In the first session, which is more like
a casual interview, I might cover five
experiences associated with transits;
by the time the meeting is through, I
will have a pretty good hunch about at
least one theme of the client's life -elements of plot and story line add up
to a theme, if you listen. I book new

In the first session, which is more like

a casual interview, I might cover five
experiences associated with transits;
by the time the meeting is through, I
will have a pretty good hunch about at
least one theme of the client's life -elements of plot and story line add up
to a theme, if you listen. I book new
clients for three sessions, so we will
have time during the next two sessions
to understand the meaning of the
events and experiences, and very
naturally we will work our way into the
present. After three meetings, we have
usually done some very good work,
and the client has gotten far more
from the process than expected -- and
we have established a solid working
relationship for the future. When the
client comes back the following month
or year, we have a good foundation to
build upon.
Not every client is thrilled with the idea
of multiple sessions at first, but most
people are very open to this approach
(which is detailed on my Web page). If
the client questions this as we are
scheduling the initial appointment, I
explain that we are past the days of
instant fortunetelling, and more solid
processes are now available to
astrologers for doing their work here in
the modern world. Of course, careful
listening is not new, but it's the best
healing and the greatest comfort that
you can offer most people. These days,
many clients know that; most of my
clients want something halfway
between astrology and therapy, minus
the technical jargon and the Ph.D.
Unfortunately, listening is usually
incidental to the traditional astrology
process: The astrologer is there to
"give the client information" and "do a
reading of the chart," which means
doing most of the talking. This can be
very productive and useful to some
clients. However, I started working
with Chiron early on; most of us who
work with Chiron understand that this
process involves research of a newer

process: The astrologer is there to

"give the client information" and "do a
reading of the chart," which means
doing most of the talking. This can be
very productive and useful to some
clients. However, I started working
with Chiron early on; most of us who
work with Chiron understand that this
process involves research of a newer
planet, so we had better ask questions
if we want a clue to what's up with the
person.
But what do the clues add up to? How
could Orca's experience at ten months
of age influence her career choice 34
years later? Other transits revealed
much, but this first one set the tone,
establishing a firm basis for her true
values. With this on the table, we
could have a serious talk about her
rather than just discussing her
ambitions.
If we had begun with a detailed
discussion of Orca's career, the burn
incident might never have emerged,
and a major clue would have been
missed. She said recently that she
probably would not have mentioned
the event, had I not asked her about
what happened when she was ten
months old. This kind of early miracle
is a defining moment in a person's life,
even though they may be very young
and not fully recall every detail. In
Orca's case, something terrible
happened, but the Universe was ready,
with an expert physician nearby and
an amazing synchronicity to transport
the child to him. Had the burn
occurred a minute or even 30 seconds
later, the woman would have already
driven off to the doctor, leaving Orca
and her mother stranded there in front
of the house in a lonely neighborhood.
Treated by a less competent doctor,
Orca might have died or been
disfigured, or disabled, for life.
The Themes of Chiron Emerge
Notice that, in this one experience, we
see many of the themes of Chiron

of the house in a lonely neighborhood.

Treated by a less competent doctor,
Orca might have died or been
disfigured, or disabled, for life.
The Themes of Chiron Emerge
Notice that, in this one experience, we
see many of the themes of Chiron
emerge spontaneously: a wound; an
injury to the hands (given Chiron's
associations with the hands -- in
Greek, Chiron, who was a centaur, or
half-man/half-horse, means "one who
has hands"1); the emergence of a
healer and physician who entered into
a relationship with Orca when Chiron
was sitting on her 7th-house cusp, the
most direct relationship angle. The
doctor was a humanitarian who was
helping the Vietnamese (a Chiron-inPisces theme); he was a maverick
because he was doing unconventional,
experimental work -- "maverick" being
the first Chiron keyword, given to it by
an astronomer. And Orca's doctor was
a master healer, like the centaur
Chiron himself, which corresponds well
to Orca's retrograde Chiron in the 6th
house. The doctor later claimed that
his experience with Orca contributed to
his research; this touches on another
Chiron theme: the benefits of
suffering.
Chiron

is

associated

with

synchronicities, which Carl Jung called

"acausal" but deeply meaningful
associations of otherwise unrelated
events (in religious terms, miracles).
Each time I reflect on the fact that a
ride to the doctor was waiting outside
Orca's front door, I am amazed. I
believe that synchronicity is a merging
or meeting of two orders of reality: In
a sense, it's the intersection of the
spiritual world with the material world.
Because Chiron is understood to
represent the "bridge" between these
two orders of reality, I observe that its
prominence in a chart can and does
often indicate precisely such a
conscious intersection of realities. In
my Chiron process work, I follow this

a sense, it's the intersection of the

spiritual world with the material world.
Because Chiron is understood to
represent the "bridge" between these
two orders of reality, I observe that its
prominence in a chart can and does
often indicate precisely such a
conscious intersection of realities. In
my Chiron process work, I follow this
hypothesis and specifically use
Chiron's transits to natal chart
elements to search out synchronicities
that reveal important facts about the
person's life and growth. I recall the
case of a client who was drugged in a
bar and raped twice in her life -- both
times close to the Chiron squares to
her natal Chiron position, separated by
20 years. (From this, we can see that
Chiron transits can have very different
manifestations.)
How this process works is another
question. Here is my theory. In a timebased model, Saturn, "Kronos," is the
structure of rational or chronological
time; Chiron, or what you could call
"chiros," is the gateway beyond
rational time, or rational perception of
time, into another sequence
(sometimes called aboriginal
dreamtime). Therefore, when there are
synchronicities or anomalies in time, I
propose that we look to Chiron first.
The overarching theme of Chiron is the
kind of event that appears at first to
wound us but actually teaches us vital
lessons and, in some important way,
empowers us.
Orca explains: "A lot of those sorts of
things happened to us when I was
growing up because of the kind of
lifestyle we led. We were often in a
very precarious position. When you're
in precarious situations a lot, you have
plenty of opportunities for something
miraculous to save you. When you
take care of everything all the time,
you don't have those same
opportunities. Things were always
happening to us where, at the last
minute, something would show up."

very precarious position. When you're

in precarious situations a lot, you have
plenty of opportunities for something
miraculous to save you. When you
take care of everything all the time,
you don't have those same
opportunities. Things were always
happening to us where, at the last
minute, something would show up."
Leaps of Faith
I asked Orca recently whether it was
fair to say that the pivotal event that
transpired when she was ten months
old taught her faith. "I don't know,"
she replied. "The word 'faith' makes
you think of mindless belief, which has
been hard for me to identify with."
But, she added, she's learned that, in
life, "You just keep going forward even
if things look really bad. And even
when things look bad, you leave room
to be surprised."
"Some would say that is the definition
of faith," I replied.
"When I was doing paragliding, I was
thinking a lot about this kind of thing,"
she responded. "Many people see
paragliding as an exciting adventure
sport. To me, it was like a
philosophical or spiritual act. You can't
do anything more dramatic than
leaping off a cliff; you're taking your
whole body, and you have to run with
all your force off a hill, straight out into
the void. You just have to run, because
if you don't run with all your trust, it's
not going to work. The wings are going
to collapse, and you're going to fall
down. If there is a cliff under you and
you don't put all your energy and all
your trust into the act of running, then
you can easily hurt yourself. If you run
with a pure heart, then you just run
right off the edge of the cliff and fly."
Orca has both Uranus and Pluto in the
12th house: Jeffrey Wolf Green has
aptly pointed out that either position
denotes a relationship to the abyss. In
Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the

you can easily hurt yourself. If you run

with a pure heart, then you just run
right off the edge of the cliff and fly."
Orca has both Uranus and Pluto in the
12th house: Jeffrey Wolf Green has
aptly pointed out that either position
denotes a relationship to the abyss. In
Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the
Soul, he suggests that these people
are in one of three possible positions:
They have either pulled way back from
the edge or they have taken the leap.
Or, they are standing there, deciding
what to do,2 which is where I first
found Orca in her career.
"We talk about things like leaping into
the chasm or taking a leap of faith,"
she continued, "as if they are only
metaphors, things you can't physically
do with your body. It was very
interesting to experience this with my
whole body, not just something that
was a metaphor. I am very afraid of
heights. I can't stand on a chair to
change a light bulb. I have to ask
someone to do it, because I get dizzy
with vertigo. So, it was not really easy
for me to do paragliding, but I found it
to be very powerful. This is more like
the feeling that I had a lot when we
were children, this feeling of just going
into the void and not having any idea
what would come out of it -- allowing
for the possibility that you'll die and
allowing for the possibility that
something new will happen."
At the conclusion of our work, we had
not resolved her career issue, but we
had raised a lot of interesting
questions.
When I talked to Orca a year later, she
reminded me that, at the end of our
last session, I had mentioned seeing
the image of a synagogue in her chart.
3 She explained that much had
changed in her life. She had quit her
job after deciding that the work she
had done in her career did not really
help people. She had met a man and,
as part of that relationship, converted

reminded me that, at the end of our

last session, I had mentioned seeing
the image of a synagogue in her chart.
3 She explained that much had
changed in her life. She had quit her
job after deciding that the work she
had done in her career did not really
help people. She had met a man and,
as part of that relationship, converted
to Judaism, her father's religion; she
and this man had gotten married. She
did not have another job, but her life
circumstances had allowed her to do a
one-month, full-time art intensive and
then pursue her interest in religion,
which was cultivated in childhood;
most of the family friends when she
was a child had been Buddhists of
various kinds. She is now studying
Sanskrit.
Regarding observance of the Sabbath
as a devout Jew, she said that it is
interesting to see what happens when,
one day a week, you "don't try to
change the world."
I asked her whether she was thinking
about becoming a rabbi. "That's what
everyone asks me," she said. It was an
obvious consideration. Knowing her
story -- and her retrograde Chiron in
Pisces in the 6th house -- I would say
that she's already there.++
References and Notes
1. Chiron is the root of the words
"chiropractic," which means adjusting
the

body

with

the

hands;

"chiromancy," which means reading

the hands; and "chirurgerie," the
French word for surgery. According to
Swiss astrologer and ancient Greek
scholar Dieter Koch, Chiron comes
from one of the oldest roots in the
Greek language.
2. Jeffrey Wolf Green, Pluto: The
Evolutionary Journey of the Soul, Vol.
I, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1985, pp. 215216.
3. I did not remember saying this to

from one of the oldest roots in the

Greek language.
2. Jeffrey Wolf Green, Pluto: The
Evolutionary Journey of the Soul, Vol.
I, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1985, pp. 215216.
3. I did not remember saying this to
her. I do remember noticing that Mars
and Venus are placed in Sagittarius on
either side of Orca's IC, and I recall
( i n w ar d l y ) as s o c i at i n g t h i s w i t h
Adrienne Rich's 1982 essay on
women's Jewish identity, "Split at the
Root" (republished in her book, Blood,
Bread and Poetry); however, I did not
mention this to Orca. Rich's essay
explores the task of dealing with a
multicultural reality in a cookie-cutter
world, at a time when people cannot
say definitively who or what they are.
Rich tells the story of the search that
led her to realize that she was a Jewish
lesbian after being raised as a
heterosexual Gentile. Orca's chart and
her questing, original, intellectual spirit
reminded me of Rich and that
reference.