Contents
Foreword ...3
by Steven McFadden...3
Introduction...5
Chapter One...14
MYTHOLOGY:...14
THE EMERGENCE OF THE WOUNDED HEALER...14
Chapter Two...24
GUIDE OF THE MAGICAL QUEST...24
THE FIRST CHIRON SQUARES—1991 and 1992...27
FROM CHIRON TO NIBIRU...29
Chapter Three...33
CHIRON AS GUIDE TO THE OUTER PLANETS...33
Chapter Four...44
CHIRON RULING VIRGO AND THE SIXTH HOUSE...44
(Chapters NOT available ON-Line)Chapter Five
Chiron In the First Through Sixth Houses Chapter Six
Chiron In the Seventh Through Twelfth Houses Chapter Seven
Chiron in the Signs Chapter Eight
The Chiron Aspect Structure Chapter Nine
Chiron in Aspect to Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, & Jupiter
...
Foreword
by Steven McFadden
In a torrent, flooding from all directions, the wisdom of the ages has of late become widely available in the world marketplace of ideas. But to be relevant, this wisdom must be considered and employed deliberately In the context of daily human affairs.
If we are to survive the mounting chaos of our era, the wisdom of the ages must be married to both our human behavior and our technological response to the urgent demands of economy, environment, and entire culture. To do less is to relegate the accumulated centuries of human learning to the category of anachronism: pretty words describing hopelessly dated insights, tools, and techniques. We can scarcely afford such folly.
As Barbara Hand Clow argues convincingly in this book, Chiron comes in precisely at this point of union. To use terms in keeping with Greek mythology, Chiron rests at the point of both paradox and synthesis. Chiron is, in fact, an embodiment of paradox and synthesis: both horse and human, both divine and mortal, both student and teacher, both wounded soul and healing touch.
• Chiron is also both mythic figure and astronomical oddity. All
that Chiron represents, all the insights it promises, are well worth a few hours of study. The person who takes time to identify Chiron in his or her horoscope, and to penetrate its meaning, will gain both profound understanding and practical tools. As a growing body of research makes explicit, we can now boldly assert, without fear of overstatement that Chiron represents a major antidote to the ills of our time. Contemplate just five key points:
• Chiron offers a clearly understandable symbolic link between
our daily activities and the wisdom of the ages. When understood, Chiron opens practical pathways that lead from the routine chores of meals and mortgages, to the sublime realm of spirit, and back again.
• Chiron shows us how to marry the hemispheres of the brain,
feminine with masculine, left with right, up with down, inner with outer.
• Chiron vividly describes our deepest psychological wound,
and clearly indicates how we might approach that wound to heal it
• Chiron embodies a key to our life quest It can symbolically
reveal the conscious pathway that leads to fulfillment of our personal destinies. Likewise, In larger contexts, it reveals the pathways to our collective destiny.
across our age of transition, to the new times we are challenged to create. When Chiron. is rightly understood and applied, we can cross this bridge in confidence.
Since well before Biblical times, during them, and ever since, human beings have looked to the sky for signs. In the Sun, Moon, and stars, they have beheld images that helped them to fathom the pattern and meaning of life. Now, by gazing upon Chiron, we can see an image that helps us to bring those understandings to bear upon the enormous challenges of our time.
Almost any careful reading of our era's news compels a singular conclusion: the years leading to the Millennium are likely to be even more turbulent and momentous than the years behind. As the outer world continues to shift wildly, the extraordinary personal transformations that people are experiencing will also intensify. Those who are aware of the mythic archetypes, in particular the key of Chiron, will be in a far stronger position to ensure that those transformations are for the good
As Barbara Hand Clow insightfully observes, “most cultural collapses have come from apathy and lack of energy.” At times of crisis and transition, not everyone rises to the occasion. Not everyone knows how. But this time, as a planetary culture is being birthed. everyone is needed—everyone is challenged.
As I read the present transit of Chiron, our challenge is to find the interest and energy to overcome massive personal and institutional inertia. We must engage the soul to transcend the chaos of transition, and to establish a high cultural order. To succeed, we will have to initiate ourselves. We must willingly become what we are capable of spiritually awakened heroes and heroines. Chiron is indisputably the key to this initiation.
Along with the thousands of other practitioners of the ancient art of pondering celestial omens, I salute Barbara Hand Clow for her pioneering efforts to understand Chiron. After Chiron was sighted in 1977, someone had to reach toward the key. In 1987, with the first edition of this book, Barbara's hand was among the first to touch upon Chiron. As readers will discover from the revisions added in 1992, her grip has grown ever more sure. With time and maturity, her dexterity has increased. In an era of perplexing paradox, we are fortunate to have her as a guide.
Steven McFadden September, 1992
Introduction
In the late 1970s, the general cultural phenomena of ESP, visionary breakthrough, spontaneous channeling, and alternative healing therapies surfaced around the world.
Historically there have always been visionaries, people who had paranormal experiences, or received communications from other dimensions. This planetary eruption of communications from other realms was a worldwide event, which is now only in its beginning stages. Coming at the end of a complex 400-year age of science, this visionary breakthrough is penetrating an intense field of rationalism and perceptual denial. As we all know, channeling, divination, and paranormal experiences are nothing new. Such skills were the norm before the rise of Christianity, and these skills still exist in most indigenous traditions. Many believe that advanced scientific and magical cultures such as Atlantis once existed. What matters now is that these kinds of forces are suddenly erupting into culture again, and we all sense that this signals a change that will alter our lives beyond recognition.
This book, first published in 1987, is based on the theory that the sighting of the new planet Chiron is behind these visionary breakthroughs. It will be helpful to look at what occurred in various cultures when other planets were sighted in modem times. Waves of blackness and fear swept the Earth in the 1930s. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin stalked the Earth like monsters from the deep. Scientists, mostly in America and Germany, were creating the early stages of the nuclear and chemical killing technologies which hove held us hostage for fifty years. Some new energy was present in this evil pall, an energy that was causing great change in individuals, societies, and religions. Worldwide, astrologers have attributed these eruptions to the sighting of the planet Pluto in 1930. Pluto rules the Underworld, the dark forces, evolution, and the most intense levels of emotional body cleansing. All that was hidden and suppressed was coming into the light—the shadow was appearing.
Most astrologers practicing in the 1960s through 1980s have lived with the integration of this Pluto archetype, and they have grown in their skills as they have used this small distant planet in their readings. Similar to the shift with Pluto, the appearance in the late 1970s of channeling, divination, body/mind healing, homeopathic medicine, and multidimensional perceptual skills is ruled by the sighting of another planet, Chiron, on November 1, 1977. Astrologers examine cultures and changes in individuals at the time a new planet is seen. In order to write this book, I interviewed many of the key leaders of the new consciousness and healing movements regarding their lives in the fall of 1977. I chose these fields because Chiron was a healing Centaur, an astrologer, an alternative medical practitioner, and a shaman, or initiator of others into their destiny, in ancient mythology. Matthew Fox began his transformational Creation Spirituality movement in Chicago on
November 5, 1977, four days after the planet was seen. Jean Houston, Patricia Sun, P.M.A. H, Atwater, Jose Arguelles, Chris Griscom, Dr. Brugh Joy, and David Spangler all reported that their central teachings broke through in the fall of 1977 or in 1978. It might be valuable for you to take a moment to reflect on what you were doing during the fall of 1977 and in 1978.
Since 1781, when Uranus (ruler of transformation) was sighted, many of us have felt a deep inner stirring of hope for freedom to develop our individuality. Astrologers consider the French and American Revolutions to be good examples of the power of early Uranian influence. During the early 1840s spiritualist communities such as the Shakers and Transcendentalists sprang up around the world. Astrologers relate these movements to the sighting of Neptune (ruler of spiritualism) in 1846. Insight into emotional depths intensified during the early 1900s when psychology as a science of human behavior was born, and this deepened with the sighting of Pluto (ruler of emotional encountering) in 1930. Chiron (ruler of initiation) is the bridge to these outer planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—and with its sighting in 1977, we have access to the "how”, the process to utilize for accessing the energies of these outer planets. Since 1781 we have been influenced by outer planet energies, and we have been able to utilize these powers consciously since 1977.
Nothing has changed out there in the other dimensions, but we are changing. You will find this book contains many new terms such as resonance, chirotic, dimensional, and holographic. You will find this book redefines many old terms such as divination, magic, alchemy, occult, and the dark forces. A new language is required because we are in the middle of a massive energetic reorganization which is creating new perceptual skills within ourselves. This critical leap phase Into new perceptual skills cannot succeed without a new language that can describe the new feeling and experiences we all seem to be having.
At this critical juncture we are in grave danger of falling into atavism, or reversion to a more primitive state of mind, unless we define this new bridging energy according to our present day reality instead of the distant and de-energized past. For example, if we respond to the word occult according to the old definition—repository of ancient and secret magical skills—then we respond by hiding ourselves and attempting to build up secret powers that we shield from others. But we can look at the word occult in a new way and think of it in terms of the technology of the eye. Then we can utilize sight to see into the inner beauty of the cosmos. In 1987, scientists were watching a new supernova being born— Supernova 1987—while they were watching seven galaxies being born 13-billion light years from the Earth. Just as with planetary sightings, something new happens in our consciousness when these astronomical sightings occur. In this case, Mayan seers announced that this sighting heralded a great calendar event in 1987. These astronomers were watching events that supposedly occurred millions of years ago, yet since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, Supernova 1987 became visible to earth in 1987! Back to the old Berkeley/Hume debate: Does the tree
actually fall in the forest if no one is in the forest who sees it or hears it? That is, does anything happen if it is not perceived? Was that Supernova born in 1987 or millions of years ago? Looked at from this point of view, the word occult awakens optical sensations at the point where the optical nerve interfaces with the brain and awareness is the result. This is a "chirotic point," a place where subtle things—things not physical until they are perceived—can be seen.
Divination was an ancient technique for entering timelessness and other dimensions. It was re-defined by Christianity as a magical skill using augury or omens for reading the future. If we choose to be atavistic now, we could immerse ourselves in old ritual forms to get that fortune-telling power back. Or, now that we know from science and Eastern mystics that there is no past, present, or future, we could awaken to the fact that divination reads intersection points in the webs that make realities. According to the latest mathematical theories, time is simply a useful third-dimensional construct for organizing realities. Therefore, it is incorrect to use time to limit perception into other dimensions where time does not exist. Consider this: You will discover in this book that Chiron bridges our definitions of ourselves as bodies, emotions, minds, and souls, each definition being less physical than the last. Divination is a skill to be used to read the archetypal realms—emotional, mental, or soul consciousness that is not physical, but is real—and these realms are accessible by feelings, ideas and visions. The horoscope is the ultimate divination tool because it uses past, present and future simultaneously to see how a consciousness is functioning. Until the sighting of Chiron, perceptions from other realms were mostly accidental except for obscure magical practices, but now we can stretch our use of these skills by knowing how they work and using them consciously. I know that I stretch your mind with my comments about dimensions and time, but Chiron's sighting demands this. Lastly, Chiron was considered one of the greatest astrologers in ancient mythology, and this planetary sighting heralds the return of astrology as a great science. We live in a time when holographic sight is being explored. A hologram is a unifying energy structure which is exactly the same within all its parts, and holograms can be inserted into realities. Recently, many of us have been able to examine holographic photography, and we instantly perceived that reality is no more or less than a series of unified energy fields. The astrological chart describes the energy field that results in a hologram inserted into incarnation. It is a unified field of consciousness which maps the process of the soul's formation into matter from birth to death. I use the words holographic, resonance, and attunement throughout this book to help us grasp the "chirotic point," the place where dimensions intersect. According to physics we are mostly empty space inside. The distance between one atom and another could be visualized proportionately as the period at the end of this sentence and a similar period a mile away. As an astrologer, I like to imagine the distance from one atom to another inside me is like the distance from Mercury to Venus or from Uranus to Neptune. Try to imagine our solar system as an operating body, and then also realize that you are just as empty and diaphanous. Even lead, which Saturn rules, is
'empty." If we stay with the sense of matter as emptiness, what does have boundaries or can be measured? In fact, nothing. We have been looking at everything backwards because of our compelling need to define ourselves as solid in order to feel real. Now it is becoming possible to Imagine ourselves as unified energy fields. Astrologers can be great teachers of this less solid perception of ourselves because for us, realities are created by observing movement, angular relationship, and time synchronicities. From this point of view, dimensionality is an energy interface. The third dimension is defining ourselves as solid bodies that exist in linear space and time. Meanwhile, feelings and perceptions outside of space and time are becoming more accessible to us, for example, by means of divination systems such as Tarot or I Ching. Now we are beginning to be able to perceive the fourth dimension—archetype of space and times as we know it. We are having many experiences of following our feelings or hunches, they turn out to be correct, and we learn that the unsee information is valuable.
There are many places in this book where, at a loss for words, I have resorted to examples to show the dynamics of Chiron. When we were children we were taught that we could not define words by using examples, that we had to describe or define a word. This forced us to limit instead of expand definition. Chiron influence is not a thing, it is an energetic force; it is an action verb instead of a noun. Egyptian hieroglyphics are a chirotic language, and that is why the real meaning of Egyptian sacred scriptures can only be understood by those who think like an ancient Egyptian. A bird hieroglyph is not just the letter of the alphabet. It means communication from one place to another, the ability to see what is going on, the ability to know what season it is, to know how to respond to weather and star patterns, and the ability to be free. The placement of Chiron in the natal chart functions like a hieroglyph. It is a vehicle in the chart to show where and how realities intersect It is a key into a mundane zone where multidimensionality can be accessed, It is a doorway into feelings about events, knowledge of why something occurs, and a revelation of the cosmic influence. It is an occult or seeing tool. We can see how important this is for astrologers by noticing that Voyager left in 1977 to fly by and take pictures of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. When we tried to access multidimensionality before 1977, we felt like we were jumping into an abyss, but Chiron is the bridge from matter to subtle realms. We are ready to experience the cosmos—Voyager proved that— and that is why astronomer Kowal was able to see Chiron in 1977.
Saturn rules making structure and form. It orbits around and contains the inner planets which rule our personal response patterns. Jupiter also rules our ability to expand to the subtle realms, and Chiron is actually inside Jupiter for 18 years of its 51-year orbit! As for the inner planets, Mercury rules how our mind functions, Venus rules our female receptivity to all that exists, Earth rules our integration of self, and Earth is the center of the geocentric astrological chart. The Moon screens perceptions coming to us on Earth and our autonomic responses to experience. Mars rules our male projective powers; Jupiter rules our harmonic response to the Sun and helps us synchronize our vibrations
with the cosmos; and Saturn makes our personal form out of its own pattern as well as the energies of all the inner planets.
Simple? Yes this part of astrology actually is quite elementary. And now we are in the midst of integrating the energetics of the outer planets— Chiron (accessing multidimensional perceptions), Uranus (transformation), Neptune (spirituality), and Pluto (emotional clearance). To be more specific, Uranus rules systemic kundalini/electrical response to the Sun or solar life-force, Neptune rules feeling response to the subtle archetypal realms in the Sun's consciousness, and Pluto rules our emotional body karmic patterns that are contained in the mind of the Sun. Now we have a bridge to these solar life forms, and Chiron can teach us how to be totally in present space and time—conscious with the Sun's evolution as a star in the cosmos. Our access to the whole universe is by means of attunement to the solar forces because the rest of the cosmos communicates to us through the Sun. The planets are expressions of solar consciousness. We are in the midst of a very exciting astrological breakthrough. When I published this book in 1987, the scientific causal principle of astrology was still not established. As I write this new introduction in 1992, we have this scientific causal principle, which was established by astronomer Dr. Percy Seymour in Astrology: According to the Evidence in 1989. Seymour established that the qualities of the solar magnetic field are created by the motions and angular relationships of the planets, and this solar magnetic field is carried to Earth by means of solar winds which then create the electromagnetic field of the Earth. The qualities of these EM fields can be read by means of the natal chart. This is why I put so much emphasis on the consciousness of the Sun. And,
Chiron is the Rainbow Bridge from our well-understood inner planet
personal patterns to the more subtle influences of the outer planets.
Since we live on Earth where we experience the solar magnetic field, we can attune to this solar mind by means of being totally in the moment at any given point in our lives. This has been called samadhi, bliss, ecstasy, or fusion as we are in physical form. I have noticed that I can receive extraordinary awareness simply by lying nude in the Sun and opening myself to its intelligence. Beware of those who tell you the Sun is dangerous! Of course, you can always get too much of it, but the Sun is the easiest way to attune to cosmic communication. Then, since according to Seymour the planets create the quality of the Sun's field in any given moment, study of planetary patterns and influence—astrology—is definitely the key to self-understanding of a given incarnation.
Chiron orbits on a 50—to—51 year cycle primarily between Saturn and Uranus, and so it bridges our more physical selves with our more subtle selves. As we are in the midst of early Chiron research, it is useful to image Chiron in relation to the outer planetary group as like Mercury to the inner planetary group. Mercury helps us to decode our female (Venus) experience a we live on Earth while Moon screens all energies coming to us, and helps us to relate our male (Mars) experience, as Jupiter expands us. Then Chironinitiates us to help us pay attention to our continual transformation (Uranus), our mystical feelings (Neptune),
and our incessant karmic push (Pluto). Mercury says, "Figure it out!" and
Chironsays. Tune in!"
This is not easy! I have had thousands of letters about Chiron
since publishing this book in 1987. I have already stated that Chironrules crystals, body/mind healing, initiation, alchemy, divination, and healing with the hands. I have become aware from letters that Chiron also rules homeopathic medicine, aromatherapy, and all kinds of new but old forms of energetics medicine. Chiron is intense, and it is by contemplating Chiron's size and weird orbit that we can see how subtle energetics work. Flower essences are the best example. Minute quantities of flower essences are capable of causing a major shift in stuck emotional patterns, if a person determines the quality of an emotion and takes the appropriate essence to release it. Chironcan and does create major initiatory shifts by transit and progression in people's lives. How does this work?
In Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages, I explored the three major shifts that we all experience in our lives—Saturn Return around age 29, Uranus opposite Uranus (mid-life crisis) around age 38 to 44, and ChironReturn around age 51. These three key shifts are a function of the dynamic between Saturn, Chiron, and Uranus. Saturn creates form and attempts to rigidify us, Uranus continually breaks up the rigidity and pushes Saturn to create new forms, and then Chironagitates us by continual penetrations of our form from the subtle realms. Chiron's elliptical orbit means that it is the planet that creates generational conflict As you will discover in the text, children's experience with Chiron
radically differs from their own parents' experience, but these same children have a pattern that is similar to their grandparents.' Remember,
Chiron rules the process of accessing subtle realms, and so the process differs, and this keeps families, generations, and societies from being tom apart by Uranian transformation or solidified into death by Saturnine rigidity.
We experience our first Chiron square to its natal position when we are ages 5-1/2 to 23. This first Chiron square causes an astonishing penetration of spiritual and evolutionary energy into the auric field. We experience the divine godliness, not just feel it or think about it. This is the column of white light, it blinds us momentarily, it is beyond time, and so people lose time or forget about the event altogether. This galvanizing experience divides us from our ego structure and fuses us with divine consciousness. For some this is an ecstatic spiritual awakening, and this is more likely to happen with the Chiron opposition, upper square, or return. With the first square, we are penetrated, with the opposition we are connected, with the upper square we become conscious of the process, and with the return, we embody the process. However, many cling to their separation From the divine and their ego structure, they are shocked into disassociation—becoming fearful of subtle energies and spiritual forces, thereby losing identity in the egoic encapsulation. For a five year old having the first square, there is little separation from spiritual reality, but many problems with necessary ego boundaries. A twenty-three year old may see that the reality he or she has created is his or her own illusion and believe it Is his or her own projection, and this can create great confusion.
rules near-death experiences. I have not been able to research this and I hope others will do so, but it is interesting to note that people's experiences with Chiron squares and opposition are remarkably similar to those having near-death experiences. Near-death experiences may be more intense because they are a physical experience—they are "real" and therefore undeniable, while the Chiron aspects are subtle but just as transforming. As I write this new introduction in 1992, we have been experiencing the first planetary Chiron square, that is, Chiron has reached a square to its discovery position of 3 degrees of Taurus, and we are in the midst of a planetary near-death experience. We are contemplating potential ecocide, and it is very powerful for our encrusted egos to see what we have been doing to our planet. There is more about this in the revised Chapter Two, which had to be completely rewritten because so much new information has come to me since 1987. This book focuses on the astrological usage of Chiron as ruler of Virgo and the sixth house and, therefore, most of the book requires no changes. Meanwhile, there is more information on the general influence of Chiron in my more recent Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages.
For many it may still seem too early to define the astrological influence of Chiron, but after years of feedback from teaching as well as many letters, it seems much less radical to me than it was in 1987. From 1983 to 1987, I worked with 500 charts using Chiron to rule Virgo and the sixth house. Three hundred fifty of these charts were transited and progressed and read in extreme detail (six hours per chart). I used about 50 of these 350 charts for examples in this book, since it was impossible to publish all 350. To choose those 50 charts, I emphasized in individuals who seemed to be very chirotic, that is, heavily living out the Chiron archetype. Since this book was published in 1987, a huge percentage of astrologers are experimenting with Chiron ruling Virgo and the sixth house, and the majority seem to be comfortable with this theory. In 1950, twenty years after Pluto was sighted, only 10% of astrologers were reported to have been using it for readings, and the majority of them considered Mars to rule Scorpio. Before I published this book, some astrologers felt Chiron ruled Sagittarius. I still believe this is incorrect, but these astrologers are very attuned to Chiron's mastery powers. According to mythology, Chiron became a star in Sagittarius when he lost his immortality. I think this simply means that Jupiter rules Sagittarius (expanding us into mastery), but Chiron initiates us on that path by creating the process (Virgo). For me, only Chiron's tense bridging of Saturn and Uranus explains the Virgoan structural tension that is able to hold so much consciousness, light, and illumination. I always find Virgos to be sitting somewhere between Saturnine rigidity and Uranian transformation. Their midpoint is Chiron—being totally conscious in present time so that genius can be accessed into working forms.
I specialize in transformative astrology, and I try to instruct clients on how to activate their own inner healing. I have always attracted many New Age healers, astrologers, and channels. Chiron is a most potent guide for them to live with to better understand the potent energies they use. Even
in less complex folks, the most misunderstood and traumatic times in their lives are remarkably resolved by working with Chiron. This is because Chiron is the wounded healer, he triggers us into feeling the deepest inner wound so that we can clear inner pain. In that sense, Chiron
and Pluto are the most difficult and intense forces in our lives. I recommend Jeff Green's book on Pluto for more information on Pluto.1 Pluto pushes us to evolve, to grow beyond our limitations and judgments, and then Chiron takes this growth to an even more intense resonance by triggering us into feeling all the pain of our lives, of other lives, and of the planet. I have always found it interesting that Pluto's moon, Charon, was sighted in 1978, signaling that Plutonian emotional body clearing is in deep resonance with chirotic wounded healer evolution.
Once I had defined Chiron rulership in my own practice in 1983 and began to apply it in readings, a deeper understanding of the outer planets emerged, especially Neptune. If you do not yet resonate with how powerful using Chiron for ruling Virgo is, try playing around with the Virgo/Chiron/Pisces-Neptune polarity. Besides Mercury working so well with Gemini and being only partially descriptive of Virgo, Mercury has never left comfortable in polarity relationship to Neptune. A polarity, such as Cancer-Moon/Capricorn-Saturn or Leo-Sun/Aquarius-Uranus describes the full spectrum of an energetic process. Cancer-Moon in polarity to Capricorn-Saturn describes how to feel and how to hold power. On the Cancer-Moon end, we encapsulate our individuality and protect it and nurture it, and then with Capricorn-Saturn, we take that essence and use power to make realities. With Chiron opposite Neptune, we have the perfect polarity for accessing spirit Virgo-Chiron gets us to discover the real point of a physical plane situation so that we vibrate it and magnify it, and suddenly spirit is right under our noses. Virgo teaches us to really get in the moment, and suddenly contact with the divine happens, an elusive Neptune-Pisces opens to us. The six lower houses galvanize our personal form so that it can manifest our energies in the outside world via the six upper houses. Mercury, as ruler of Virgo, just does not get us to spirit/Neptune. Thinking too much blocks us from spirit!
This is a very pragmatic book because Chiron is a very pragmatic planet. It is the "how-to" planet for accessing subtle energies. Chiron's mythology has already been explored by Erminie Lantero, Richard Nolle, Tony Joseph, and Zane Stein;2 and I recommend these authors on mythology because my work on Chiron mythology is very experiential. This book concentrates on rulership, application, and house positions since we must discover how to work with Chiron as quickly as possible. Since this book explores Chiron rulership and application on a theoretical basis, there are many charts given as examples so that other astrologers can consider whether other forces in a particular chart explain the influence that I attribute to Chiron. Healers, consciousness explorers, and energetic medical researchers, as well as astrologers, have been reading this book and the chart research can be bypassed by them.
Now that a few years have passed, astrologers who have been experimenting with Chiron in charts—observing it by transit and
progression—report being as amazed as I was over this new potential in readings. This little planet is a missing link between the outer planets and the basic personality archetypes of the inner planets, Moon, and Sun.
Chiron ephemerides are readily available, Chiron is on computer programs, and Chiron is listed on the lower-right hand pages of the various Michelson ephemerides under "Astro Data." For convenience I have also listed general placements for 1900-2000 with Chiron by sign in Chapter Seven, and Liquid Light of Sex has many Chiron tables in it. Please enjoy this journey with me to find your centaur within.
Barbara Hand Clow November, 1992 Santa Fe, New Mexico
Chapter One
MYTHOLOGY:
THE EMERGENCE OF THE WOUNDED
HEALER
When a new planet is identified in the solar system, astrologers begin observing major trends going on in the culture at the time of the planetary discovery, looking for energies in the culture which the new planetary body will rule. The discovery of Uranus in 1781. coincidental with the time of the American and French Revolutions and the discovery of electricity, signaled the relationship of Uranian energy to electricity, and personal and social transformation. Society and individuals have not been the same since. The actuality of the relationship between planetary archetypal forces and identifiable cultural trends is not a "scientific fact". However, for students who are comfortable with the Hermetic principle, the relationship of the macrocosm and microcosm, sudden radical cultural shifts cannot be explained any other way.
Pluto was sighted in 1930, twelve years before the first atom was split. Soon thereafter, the chthonic death force of Nazism boiled forth from a seemingly forgotten inner Earth. Pluto rules the solar plexus, the struggle between Thanatos and Eros, primary evolution, radical alteration of matter at the molecular level, and volcanoes which erupt with sudden force from the deep, turning rock into molten liquid. Like a husband whose solar plexus erupts in uncontrollable rage when he discovers his wife in bed with another man, the volcano suddenly erupts and destroys everything in its path. These are the Plutonian issues coming from the deep, and once Pluto was sighted the world soon found itself under the threat of barbaric forces like Hitter and World Wars, as if monsters from the deep ruled the world. The world is still sickened and traumatized by the Pluto revelations—atomic release, World Wars, and genocide—and the revelation of the grip of the death archetype has been overpowering. But Chiron bridges death (Saturn) and life (Uranus). The energy to find the way back to life has emerged.
In 1977 Chiron was sighted, and the symbiotic forces signaling Chiron's archetype appeared alluringly in the culture, and identification began. We got a quick start by examining Chiron mythology. Like Pluto, the mythology is rich in Chiron information. Myths come from ancestral memory which seems to be magically awakened once the physical body— the planet—is sighted. This process is indeed fascinating. As Tony Joseph
put it "The sighting of a new planet in our solar system ... provides a metaphorical key to crucial trends arising from within the collective psyche"1 Richard Nolle said, "Astrology and myth go hand-in-hand, at once partaking of the same magical order of reality."2
The association between Chiron mythology and the state of our culture since 1977 is an uncanny one and Chiron even rules the practice of the timing of this unfoldment! This is an essential part of this journey ruling the mythical quest Chiron rules the synchronicity principle and the art of divination itself, because it explicitly focuses into Saturnian time higher dimensions ruled by Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The way the story unfolds is just as important as the story itself. Later on, you will see that Chiron is the key to mastery which is ruled by Sagittarius. Therefore, many astrologers feel Chiron rules Sagittarius when in fact it rules the way, gate, or key to mastery, because it is the bridge to the outer planets. Once we have learned to use the outer planet energies, then we are capable of working with mastery. Mastery is the conscious evolution of self with magical forces. The film 2010 revealed that the masters live on Jupiter, and Chiron is the pragmatic teacher who teaches us divination, astrology, healing, sacred warrior ways, and shamnism to lead us to the masters.
In mythology, Chiron was a great astrologer-teacher who initiated healers, warriors and magicians, and therefore we began in 1977 with those identifications. If you will reflect on 1977-1979 you will notice that many New Age magical, healing and sacred warrior teachings emerged in the culture. I emphasize this issue as I begin the story of Chiron because the sighting of this planet itself signals the actual possibility of recovering all the ancient esoteric techniques for transmutation of body and soul. It has always been a sacred teaching that the adept would learn a divination skill such as Tarot astrology, runes, or I Ching when the adept was ready to begin the magical quest. And now the energy is present on the planet for people to activate divination skills.
According to Robert Graves in The Greek Myths, Cheiron (the archaic spelling) was the priest king of the Centaurs who were Pelasgians or Thracians. He was skilled at hunting, medicine, music, gymnastics, warfare, and astrology. He was the founder of the Asclepian, the ancient healing temple, and he was the teacher of Achilles. Orpheus, Jason, Hercules, Peleus and many other ancient heroes and warriors.3 I think the best modem representation of Chiron is Master Miyagi, the master warrior teacher of a young boy in The Karate Kid. The movie is a powerful example of how these new images are birthing in the culture. For those who are concerned about the nuclear dilemma, the healing warrior archetype is a profound antidote to excessive political militarism.
According to Graves, the name is the Greek derivation “Cheir,” which means “hand.” and Centron, "goat" One of the most secret esoteric orders is The Order of the Red Hand which is the same as the divination power of Chiron. Because it is red, the Order shows us that divination power is awakened by the adept's ability to face the chaotic force, the red force, the Sethian force. And because it is the hand, we see the Saturnian molding of time and place on Earth. More about that later, but notice that Chiron is always the master teacher or guide for the adept who then goes
out on the quest
Chiron's lineage is evidence of his extreme antiquity. His grandparents are Uranus (sky father) and Gala (Earth mother), his parents are Kronos (Saturn) and Rhea (Venus?), but he was born of an illicit union between Kronos who took the form of a horse, and Phylria, a sea nymph. Therefore Chiron is half-animal and half-human, and he is of the Earth and the sea. The sea connection, as well as the composite horse/ man body, is more evidence of extreme pre-Noatic antiquity, as many of the great teachers before the flood were from the sea, according to Berrosus.4 The most ancient myths, which come to us through an Appolonian screen which always distorts them somewhat often describe couplings with sky beings and animal forms. These myths are always highly charged seeds of information about the most primordial civilizations, and it is in these seeds that the Muse lurks, reveling her initiatory secrets to those who have eyes. Chiron's sighting is a physical manifestation of the revelation of significant esoteric secrets in our time.
Chiron married a water goddess, and their daughter was Thea,
which means “shining one of the moon”. Thea was an exceedingly famous early seer and astrologer. Notice that sexism is a at a minimum in Chiron myths, hinting that they go back to 1500 B.C. or earlier. Around 1300 B.C., the patriarchy assumed control in the Aegean with the Mycenean ascension. Also, notice that Chiron mates with a sea goddess, which should resonate deeply in readers who are followers of Jung. The birthing from the sea creatures brings forth the integration of the feminine in males who have the courage to pursue the path of an adept. Thea ascended to the stars and became the constellation Pegasus, and mythology teaches that Chiron went to the sky and became Sagittarius (or the horse or unicorn). This is one of the reasons some astrologers believe that Sagittarius is ruled by Chiron. Twenty-seven degrees Sagittarius is the galactic center, and that is why Chiron became Sagittarius. Notice the popularity since 1977 of the unicorn and Pegasus, and that our children know these figures are part of the magical quest.Chiron was half-horse or unicorn, and half-man. Let this resonate in your psyche as you feel this archetypal union of the animal and human in your solar plexus. Notice that the union of the animal and man is right at the solar plexus, and the phallus is on the horse body and not the man. The symbol tells us that the struggle with good and evil powers is with Pluto, and not with sex. This powerful symbol has emerged now so that our obsession with puny sins can end, and now we can struggle with the real powers and principalities. This great teacher who was animal and human, cosmic and sea immersed, was a healer and a warrior; this archetype has the power we need to face the dark side, our seemingly endless love affair with death and evil. He is the bridge to our animal selves, and the recovery of our power and energy.
In Eye of the Centaur5 I wrote that we have the same totem animal throughout all our incarnations, just as I believe that we also have the same rising sign degree which can be read with Sabian symbols. Chiron's totem animals were the wryneck and the mountain lion, and there is much wisdom in the survival of this knowledge. I suspect that the wryneck, a sacred bird like the stork in Europe, is his celestial totem (since
he was God and man), and therefore it is an oracular revelation. The wryneck was known as the messenger of lo that attracted Zeus, and according to Graves, oracular wheels were called "iynges." which means wryneck.6 The secret hidden here is that you can channel if you enter your consciousness into your neck, usually the right side, and you will have a "wryneck." I suspect that the mountain lion is his Earth totem, and this indicates that Chiron was originally a teacher from Atlantis, because the double lion is the symbol of the Atlantean theocracy.
Chiron is the teacher of the Earth connection to higher planes, and the planetary sighting indicates the time has come for us to manifest our divinity. The sacred teachings on animal energy were highly developed in Egyptian wisdom, and the animal images of the Zodiac show that the earliest attempts to understand archetypal energies were with elementals and animals. It is actually a first step down a long path, because your totem animal will take you to your oracle and then you can hear again. As Richard Nolle put it "As perfect a balance of animal and human nature as ever lived, Chiron was attuned to the secrets of both instinct and intellect"7
Ken Negus made some exceedingly valuable observations on Chiron's energy at the annual meeting of the American Federation of Astrologers in 1981.8 Ken did extensive early research examining the Chiron natal placements of famous ecologists, and had some fascinating reflections on projection. Ken noted that according to the Greeks, the Centaurs in general were rapists, sodomizers, and plunderers; exactly the same behavior the Christian conquerers of the Americas projected upon the Native Americans! Historically, the source of the justification of genocide has always been exactly this type of projection on people who are in the way, and the ability to integrate this form of destructive shadow could be within our grasp, now that Chiron has been sighted. Chiron was a model of high warrior energy, unlike the other centaurs. The low warrior energy results in rape and plunder; the high warrior energy is protection of the feminine hearth and mastery of skill. Another
manifestation of working out Chiron energy since its sighting can be seen in the sexual confusion of many modem spiritual teachers or "gurus" in America since 1977. The male and female followers of teachers have desired mastery and initiation training, and they have often gotten control and sexual exploitation.
Many committed ecologists are Chiron-prominent natally,9 and in the sections of this book defining usage, the qualities in people who are Chiron-prominent will be looked at. At this point, it is time to say that the sighting of Chiron indicates we will find the way to stop polluting the Earth and being victimized by elemental destructive forces. In the words of Tony Joseph. "By separating ourselves from nature in our attempts to harness and control it, we have paradoxically become like the destructive centaurs unable to constrain ourselves."10
We have all been taught that we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again until we learn our history; that history repeats itself. But all we see around us is ignorance of that teaching.
History is at this time, "his story", women and animals are ruled out like a centaur with no horse body!11 What are we left with, then, as a method to cease repeating the same endless repetitive dynamic? The answer is actually simple to see, now that the planet ruling this question has been sighted. The answer is that we are to become ensouled, to bring the soul into the body and bless our bodies and the Earth existence with our full essence. We are to bring in full (Uranian energy into Saturn form on Earth. How? Remember, Chiron is the way, the teacher of pragmatism who leads us to mastery. What is mastery? Mastery is complete ensoulment it is conscious embodiment of our highest essence or highest octave deep into ourselves.
Chiron's pupils came to him to discover their destiny, to have Chiron show them the pragmatic way to fulfill their highest potential. He taught the essential skills leading to the highest octave which was the first part of a four-part process. He taught Jason how to undertake the quest and he taught Achilles to be a sacred runner and to play the kithara. He taught Asclepios the art of healing, and thus Chiron is actually the father of medicine. Chiron also founded the Chironium, a healing temple on Mt. Pelius, and this temple was the second part of his four-part healing process. Chiron first identified the gift of each pupil and then integrated the gift into full consciousness. Now that the usage of Chiron is available, astrologers will be gifted with the power to identify the destiny and healing gift of their clients and initiate this into the awareness of the client. Chiron is the missing key to this work, but more on mythology first
We know much about ancient Greek, Thracian, and Minoan healing temples from archaeological, mythological, and channeled sources. Healing of illness was done by having the sick person sleep in the temple, and the person would have a dream which would identify the sickness, and therapy followed. The temple was also used to bring the highest potential octave into the essence of the initiates, and this was done with hypnosis or light sleep techniques. To put it simply, when the initiate was ready, all of the past life knowledge and training was reaccessed into the initiate's body.12 Then the initiate could go forward at that point and be all they were and more as they lived out their destiny. Or, a sick person could recall a past life injury or illness latent in the body, and by recognizing it, they could choose to not reawaken it.
Chiron, by transit, will often identify the maximum pressure times in a lifetime which are also illumination times. Those times are often when the relentless pressure of Saturn can be left behind, and the electrical healing potential of Uranus released. Chiron rules crystals. Crystals can be great healing tools because crystals are frozen white light in hexagonal rigid Saturnian mineral form. If you have a past life trauma or illness some place in your body, during each lifetime your higher self will try to push throughout that point, that density. That is, you will get sick in that place until you clear it, until you turn that place to pure crystalline white light. The point is, this second step of being taught the way to mastery involved a systematic clearing through of negativities in the system, in the body, which involved some past life reassessment before the client could go forward successfully. If the Saturnian blocks are left uncleared, disease begins in the blocks. If one goes ahead in
consciousness raising without clearing blocks, he or she will get sick. Each incarnation is a chance to clear past life blocks and become whole in this lifetime, and this was the second step of Chiron's teaching.
Then Chiron trained the pupil to undertake the destiny path in the culture. All of the myths of Chiron say he was a great healer, an astrologer, and an oracle. After healing, next was the identification of the gift to be given in this life. This was essentially an astrological skill, because the cultural gift is revealed by the eleventh house which is ruled by Uranus. The third path was oracular. Chiron was an oracle himself, which shows that the oracular or divination skills come into prominence once one is cleared of negativity, and once the skill level has become automatic. This all has to do with recapturing our animal essence which is where we started, because the oracular divination skill comes after the first two steps. We are living now in a culture which has devalued and feared oracular and divination skills; but in fact this level of skill is simply reaching a wholistic level of integration where we act without the intervention of conscious thought. Like the silver wolf, so revered as a symbol by Chiron's culture, we become instinct we stop observing ourselves, and we become energy. Or, to put it astrologically, when the Uranian electro and Neptunian magnetic energies are infused into the Saturn form, oracular and divination skills flood the consciousness. Later in this book I will develop these four paths of teaching to become a master healer by using Jason and Medea as examples. But before going into the fourth path, which is mastery of death, there is one secret to give about this level of teaching: if you let yourself become instinct you will find the way of the wolf—you will know how to live without rational forms.
The Chiron mythology on death is particularly fascinating because, as you will see in my work on Jason and Medea, Chiron lived in a time like ours. He lived through much death; I'm sure it was just as hard to make sense of it then as it is now. But his true teaching is revealed in his own crises. The centaurs were drinkers and carousers, and it got to the point where Chiron was the only one left. He picked up one of the poisoned arrows of Hercules, dropped it on his foot and poisoned himself. This was a poison that Chiron had taught Hercules to make, and the parallels with modern weaponry are obvious.
There are many variations on this legend, but the most interesting one is that Chiron returned to his cave in agony13 but could not die because he was immortal. Later Hercules made his way to the Caucasus where Prometheus was fettered with vultures tearing at him.14 He had been imprisoned by Zeus for giving fire to the human race, and Zeus set him free in exchange for Chiron's descent into Hades.15 To me, this is the most powerful part of the mythology, because Chiron's sighting heralds a divine reprieve Is coming from the nuclear dilemma. And. a powerful teaching about AIDS will come as we better understand Chirotic energy. As humans attempt to bring eros—Uranian sexual life force—into Saturnian form (the body), so far, diseases have manifested. This problem will continue as long as humans fear death. Chirotic energy will teach us to let go of fear so that we can embody eros/Uranus and not generate imbalances and disease.
from the Underworld by Prometheus. This was done so that humankind could continue to try to learn to use power in the right way. This is a powerful statement about letting go for the greater good of the people. We live in a time when people spend thousands of dollars and resources to prolong their lives for a little while because they are so afraid of facing what comes next. Disadvantaged young people and children often die of poor care and lack of food, while half-dead rich old people radiate their bodies, transplant organs into themselves, and then leave the hospital to smoke and drink some more. Chiron was a teacher who taught healing by means of clearing and bravery, and then letting go without fear when the time comes. The planetary energies an d resources are extremely stressed by ecologically unsound medical technology utilized to keep older people alive a little longer so that they won't have to face something they can't control—(Iranian energy, it is like a tree with diseased limbs which go unpruned and kill the tree itself. Chiron is a teacher of bravery, a teacher of clearing that which isn't strong and healthy. Chiron deals with Pluto willingly instead of avoiding the Underworld till the very last second. There is much to learn about death from Chiron—notice how powerful the hospice movement has become since 1977. It is hard to face Pluto without Chiron as a guide, and now we have the assistance.
The true essence of any energy can be revealed linguistically since all of the most esoteric traditions have taught that words and sounds carry the secrets or arcanum. Language, as a communicator of esoteric teaching such as sacred chanting or Hebrew tonal teaching, comes forth from the pineal gland, the densest and darkest region of the brain, where intellect or inner light fuses with outer vibration or sound. The ancient Hebrew wisdom teaching is rich in this ancient awareness, and still today Orthodox Jews learn sacred scriptures in the ancient tongue. Chiron is a being coming from shadowy antiquity, as I will show with the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, and the pre-Greek language which gives us his name is a remnant of the Atlantean theocracy.16
Often when the truth is obscured, linguistic resonance will yield keys to secrets as if the sound "cheiros" were only uttered yesterday. So powerful was that sound that it is still today the root word of many of the ancient healing arts first revealed by the great centaur. Chiral means the polarization of light from one hand to the other; chiromancy is reading of the hand or palmistry; chiropracty is healing of the joints and bones by means of manipulation; chirothesia is energy in the hands during sacred rites; a blessing with the hands is chirotony; and chirurgery is an ancient usage which became surgery. In the languages of the Americas, the root word became "mana," and this word still connotes sacred energy or power to Native Americans. Chirography is the art of writing, and as already said, the transmission of words and writing is always the beginning of the sacred teaching, the Order of Thoth. Magic has always relied heavily upon secret word formulas which are also written down, and the actual sighting of Chiron may hint that the power of the priesthood may be over with, that anyone can learn the sacred sounds and words to enter into the revelation of the secrets.
The magical divination form of Chiron is chiromancy, which is the Tarot. The Tarot is a way into understanding how Chiron rules the search
for the exact place and time of awareness which then is the gateway to its opposite, Neptune or the whole cosmos. Chiron continually hints by his essence as animal/human fusion, by his continual pragmatic teaching, that the way to mysticism or Neptune is through the body. Thus, the first Tarot card is the Magician, the master of the method or way into the arcana. To quote the great anonymous new work on the Tarot, "An arcanum is a 'ferment' or an 'enzyme' whose presence stimulates the spiritual and psychic life of man."17 The magician shows the way into concentration without effort which occurs when the will has been transcended by spiritual practice, and the result is perfect calm. Then the magician is at one in the self and at one with the spiritual world. This is the essence of the sixth and twelfth house polarity which is only definable since Chiron's sighting. Just as the Magician, the first card, is the beginning of the magical quest, so is Chiron our individual astrological guidepost to the focal point of Neptune. Chiron is here now to show that the beginning of the path is to start by playing or dancing the cosmic energy. And, it should be noted that there is not a Tarot card for Chiron because Chiron rules the Tarot reader, the chiromancer.
Richard Nolle finds interesting archetypal symbolism in the root word "Cheir" or hand. He sees it as a wholistic union of intellect and instinct mind and body—just like the centaur is human and animal. In creating a work of art, both the head and hand are essential, and something magical happens when they work together to create.18 The hand itself is form or Saturn, the intellect is Uranus, and it seemed that never would the twain meet, and yet it is now resolved. The bridge— alchemy— is manifesting, and just as the third house (integration and communication) results in the depth awareness of the fourth house, so the key to the still misunderstood sixth house, Chiron, will yield the secret to the true essence of the seventh house, the other.
Lately, I have become uncomfortable with Venus ruling Libra and the seventh house, although it works ruling Taurus and the second house. It is the same as when I became uncomfortable with Mercury ruling Virgo and the sixth house during the late seventies. Mercury works beautifully with Gemini and the third house. I will address the seventh house and Libra as a speculation after I have finished defining the rulership of Virgo and the sixth house based upon extensive research. True alchemical work can now be accomplished on the self by using Chiron for the sixth house. The full nature of the other, ruled by the seventh house (Libra), can be sought as we understand the sixth house better. Astrology is ruled by Uranus, but Chiron is the energetic gate from form to higher awareness, Uranus. Uranus is illumination; it is kundalini breakthrough. No one ever attains understanding of Uranus without understanding the other (the mirror) because Uranus rules polarity along with Mercury. Chiron, gateway to Uranus from Saturn, is also the magical gateway to the other. Libra.
Something magical happens when the astrologer carefully draws out the natal chart and meditates on the symbols. Suddenly a whole energetics comes alive which makes true creative awareness possible when this dynamic is well-communicated to the client Astrology is alchemical, and astrology will not move beyond Saturn and be able to
utilize the true nature of the outer planets until astrologers resonate—in the body—with their alchemical powers. Now they must realize that astrologers have been given stellar divination so that they can initiate clients into the powers of the outer planets. Since November 1, 1977, astrologers are empowered to initiate any client who manifests for them, as long as the astrologer can find the client's true purpose in the chart. This is a great power indeed, and yet if you realize this skill has been stolen from you for thousands of years by the orthodox priesthood, and by those in control, you might be willing to take your power on. Simply use Chiron, the original master teacher of astrology. If a warrior comes to you, initiate him/her into the sacred warrior; if a person comes who can pass souls to the other side, initiate that servant; if one comes ready for marriage, give them the trust if a child comes to you, initiate/baptize the child. We are ready for Uranus now, so connect the heart, mind, and hand in your readings, and then Chiron will show you the way to initiation.
It is all really about energy passage, moving Saturn form to Uranus electricity. If the answer for your client is not initiation, then the result may be death or the beginning of dying. The human organism continually moves through Saturn form into new reorganization until it is tired, and then death can be as easily taken in as life, if death is worked with consciously. Now that Chiron has been sighted, the truth is available to us: how each person dies is just as critical as how each person lives.
This issue is most clearly presented to us in the Egyptian ritual of Weighing the Heart of the Soul. The soul is instructed to go through forty-two gates by being able to utter the correct sacred word at each gate. The way to understand this ritual takes us right back to the first Tarot card, the Magician. Each one of the forty-two gates is an arcanun or enzyme which stimulates the psychic understanding of the seeker. All of the Egyptian death rituals are teachings about life, and forty-two years is the finishing of the Uranus opposite Uranus cycle of transformation and kundalini integration. When this cycle is finished at age 41, all the inner gates or electrical body circuits are open so that electrical consciousness can attune to a higher frequency. It is like upping your amps from 110 to 220. The Uranus opposite Uranus transit is the second major life transit after the Saturn return at thirty. The preparation for Chiron's return at age 50-51, the third major life transit, begins after the Uranus opposition at age thirty-eight to forty. We also experience Pluto square Pluto and Neptune square Neptune usually after the Uranus opposition. Also, the individual transmutation cycle of the client takes hold after age forty-two because the body is all prepared by the kundalini energy moving up the spine and clearing the chakras. Implicit in the Egyptian teaching on Weighing the Heart is the teaching of Chiron that the arcanum, the enzymes, must be taken into the body at forty-two and activated. To put it simply, at mid-life the body holds the secrets ready to be released, and the Egyptians taught mastery training at that time whereby true body resonation could be attained by passing the forty-two gates. If not, death and a return to Saturn form was next.
The pathway to the other is not accomplished by Saturn pushing the rock up the hill as Sisyphus did. Instead of pushing the rock up, let it go, or find an alchemical method for lightening it, just as the pyramid
builders did. They left the pyramid behind for us as the lesson. Or, become the rock, become dense, take the energies into the body and know them. Tony Joseph says that the nature of Chiron's death is filled with important clues to understanding his role in the human condition.19 And I agree. No one has yet come up with an understanding of Chiron's motivation for letting go immediately so that Prometheus could be freed from Hades. I think it is obvious: the Fire will no longer destroy us if we embrace death when its time comes. The danger we face at the present time, which is truly Promethean, is that a bunch of aging men who need to let go are busy building the weapons of destruction because they are unwilling to transform their awareness and face the other.
The ultimate irony of our times is hidden in the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus was chained and vultures ate his liver daily. The liver is the organ which holds violence and destruction, and it is also the body's controller of purification and energy. The generation which is holding the world in atomic bondage, mostly the Pluto in Cancer generation, has one of the highest rates of alcoholism ever known to mankind. They invested much of their capital in the liquor manufacturers, who created the vultures that eat their cirrhotic livers. Thus Chiron is the energy in the natal chart to be studied to help clear the planet of alcoholism and slow deliberate death. That is why the co-dependence movement—helping people to cure themselves of addictions—is so empowered at this time.
The paralyzing fear of the other side is lessening hour by hour as the younger generation, which is more comfortable with transmutation, natural healing, and clearing, comes into power. Like all actions of Chiron by transit, the outcome will be revealed in a sudden and very surprising way. For, once the fear of death is dissipated, anything is possible. That is the key to Chiron's choice to go to Pluto in the Underworld and free Prometheus from having his liver eaten eternally by vultures.
Chapter Two
GUIDE OF THE MAGICAL QUEST
The magical quest is a sacred journey which reopens inner-brain centers— the secret to survival and the life-force. There was a time before 1500 BC when all humans were initiated and aligned with their inner powers, and this enabled them to bring their full creativity into bloom. Some were initiated into sacred warrior or dancer, or maiden for the sacred marriage, or as sacred king, the carrier of seed power for the clan. In those days, each person was made conscious of their sacral force—chirotic energy— making them become activated nerves of their communities. That power in each individual made communities vital, but in our time, societies are weakened because this personal initiation rarely occurs. These days the "warrior" is in the Pentagon, the "dancer" writhes on videotapes; the sacred marriage has been forgotten; and the sense of male as seed earner in symbiotic relationship to the Earth and growing fields is gone. It would appear that healthy community is lost unless we recover the ancient wisdom about the initiatory keys that can awaken each person, which then activates his or her sense of personal destiny for empowering the community.
A great awakening of interest in initiatory powers began around the time of Chiron's sighting in the sky in 1977. Although there had been a growing pursuit of initiatory powers by secret societies for two hundred years, the awakening in 1977 was a more general phenomenon. I do not mean we are going backwards. We will not be reinstituting the sacrifice of the sacred king for celebration of the harvest. But we will find new ways to sacralize our work. For example, one of my clients is a roofer who blesses the houses he roofs; another builds fireplaces and blesses the hearth in these homes; another is a doctor who deeply feels his healing powers; and another is a housekeeper who blesses the spaces she cleans. Chiron rules the process of work since it rules the sixth house. The process matters as much as the end result. Chiron's sighting also signals the end of the patriarchy, since our female sides tend to focus on process while our male sides focus on goals. For the female, how things are done matters as much as the eventual outcome—control and power cease being the ultimate goal of all activity. The female gets lost in just being. And, for astrologers, Chiron's sighting heralds our reclaiming of our most important skill—initiation via the astrological chart.
If the sense of personal destiny within the community is to be ours again, it can only be accomplished by remembering the stories of our origins. Why? Because our original emergence stories offer a sense of
destiny to the individual, and they link the individual members of society. In the case of Chiron, the story that offers meaning for our purposes is Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. According to ancient sources, Chiron initiated Jason and his 50 Argonauts (signals synchronicity with Chiron's orbit of 50 years) to go on a quest for the survival of the human race about 3500 years ago. The Aegean Sea culture was threatened at that time with extermination due to continual eruptions of Santorini Thera, and we now face very similar survival issues on a planetary level. Our planetary situation is analogous because the Aegean area was then the civilized world of the Western mind, and the Greek civilization that emerged out of its ashes seeded the Western mind. The story of Jason is so ancient that it was already a legend in Greek times, and so it is difficult to resurrect its original core. However, it holds so much meaning for our time that I have attempted to dig it out of later Greek sources by seeing it through the eyes of Chiron. This is written in Chapter Fourteen, which you may wish to read for a more poetic approach before continuing.
Most cultural collapses have occurred when individuals lost a sense of destiny, apathy set in, and everyday survival needs became overwhelming. Or they have occurred in the midst of significant climatic or political shifting, when there always is opportunity for great progress or regression. Now we live in the midst of the demise of the patriarchy and we wonder, what will come next? Some wonder if we will have matriarchal cultures again. Since Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece occurred during the demise of the last of the matriarchal cultures in the Aegean around 1500 BC, and this occurred when Chiron lived on Earth according to legend, this story is currently very significant for us. Jason's quest seems to have been an attempt to recapture the lost earlier ways.
It is fascinating to consider that the worship of the Golden Calf during the wandering of the Jews may be a parallel story. "Golden" is a key to both stories, and this indicates the shift from lunar/silver, or female, into solar/gold, or male, symbology. To me, Jason and Moses are parallel archetypes that exhibit opposing solutions. They are mythical quests into the outer world while inner transmutation is occurring. If you tune into such journeys, you can see how outer reality is permeated with symbols that profoundly activate inner knowing. It is as if the potent inner meaning is creating the outer reality, and it all seems very dreamlike. As the characters take on roles that create fantastic events, new outer realities create new worlds. Or a sense of collective destiny is lost, and participants begin to sleepwalk in a dreamscape with no road signs. This is the classic danger we face as the Piscean Age transforms into the Age of Aquarius. As I write this revision in late 1992, five years after the first edition of this book was published, the Uranus/Neptune conjunctions are agitating our inner knowledge that we have lost our sense of destiny. People are in a great state of confusion. Meanwhile, after observing the reemergence of the chirotic force during the 1980s and early 1990s, I am convinced that Chiron is a major aid for recapturing our desires and vision. As the power of Chiron's influence has become more and more evident through work by bodyworkers, healers, astrologers, diviners, and practitioners of energetics medicine, we are beginning to see that only we can shape our future. Many people on the quest are remembering how to