Chiron Files by Eric Francis

Neptune entered Pisces last month, joining Chiron in that sign. This is the full activation of Pisces, and combined, these transits are shifting the background of our lives. There may be other effects, which will be more or less subtle depending on your relationship to your intuition, your emotional body and your creativity.

This is the first time Neptune has entered Pisces since 1847, that is, long before the Civil War. So this development is news. Neptune, discovered in 1846, is considered to be the modern ruling planet of Pisces (the traditional ruling planet is Jupiter, which still counts). So for our time, this is significant. No living person has been through this transit. We are actually the first to experience something.

And what would that something be? Many have noticed that we’ve been growing more clairvoyant over the past few decades. Does anyone remember back when it was taboo to mention clairvoyance, as if it were the equivalent of admitting to Devil worship? Now it’s considered normal, if only because so many people experience it directly, or know someone who does. At least once in their lives just about everyone has had a dream that gave a glimpse of the future.

Chiron made a brief ingress to Pisces last year, before entering to stay earlier this year. From the first moment, Chiron in Pisces emphasized the need for healing the oceans. BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill began within hours of its initial visit before stationing retrograde. Neptune’s current arrival for a longer stay has been synchronous with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which is having profound effects on water as well. Yet both of these seem to be metaphors for the prevailing emotional state of humanity.

Chiron is calling for awareness, and Neptune is calling for cleansing. We need both. Many people flee to ‘spiritual’ solutions without recognizing that what they’re processing is much closer to the human realm. With healing on the level of water, it’s necessary to do the flush gradually. There are no fast solutions, though adding awareness is a very good first step, and adding water is an excellent second step.

My take is that this involves drinking more water, and at the same time cutting back on toxic substances in our diets and medicine cabinets. Every time you take a pharmaceutical product, I suggest you read the label and run the product through Google, looking for un-advertised effects. You might be surprised what you find.

You may be noticing an increase or distinctive change in your dreaming patterns. For example, someone who never remembers his or her dreams might notice they’re remembering them vividly.

Pisces has subtler frequencies, and these are often connected to imagery. We are bombarded with toxic images through news, advertising and cinema. Often this is violent and manipulative — and it takes a toll both on wellbeing and creativity. I think we would all be a lot more emotionally stable without advertising, and we would have a lot better sense of who we are. Indeed, if advertising promotes instability, the root is likely to be in getting us to doubt and even hate ourselves.

With these Pisces factors being so strong, and lasting for so long (Chiron for eight years and Neptune for more than 12 years) we need to pay attention to these influences, and choose healthy inflows in this watery realm. This choice of what we take in is one of the most basic elements of emotional healing. Often the more basic issue is being able to choose to let go of a toxic influence. How many times have you heard, or experienced, that one? The person who is in the damaging relationship or job but who cannot leave, for some reason they don’t understand?

Then there is the Piscean theme of creativity. One sad fact of childhood is that the naturally spontaneous, precocious quality of children is gradually supplanted with adult versions of rationality. We may not think we miss our creativity; we may think it’s okay to let others do this for us; but I think that secretly or not, everyone craves being an expressive person.

All of this Pisces is an invitation to express yourself, and this isn’t just a recreational indulgence. As my old therapist Joe is fond of saying, expression is the opposite of depression.