This week the Sun, newly in Cancer, forms a square to Chiron in Aries. Sun-Chiron aspects suggest a discussion about the ways in which self-expression is damaged, stunted or actively resisted by forces in society and psyche.

Sun square Chiron happens twice a year (the conjunction and opposition each happen once a year). The aspect on Thursday, June 27, is the second time for this Chiron in Aries cycle that the Sun has made a square to Chiron in Aries; the first was a year ago.

If you were listening to a client with Sun square Chiron, you might hear some version of the story about how their father was hobbled by some force they could not control: maybe they were really an inventor or an artist but were trapped in some other role in society because they had to work to pay the family bills.

The client would also be discussing their own experience. This is how charts work. A point like the Sun will often describe something about father, and then also describe how the owner of the chart experiences their own self-expression.

The Sun refers to what is often called the “masculine side.” Juan Revilla once wrote that the Sun in our chart is where we seek our glory. Take a close look at the Sun in your chart and ask yourself how you go about doing that.

The Active Principle: Hot, Fiery, Yang

The Sun’s energy is expressive, hot, fiery and what Chinese philosophy calls yang (which means bright). As the yang expression of life force, it has an opposite or complementary force, yin, which means dark. Yin is the receptive principle and yang is the active principle. We tend to assign gender roles to these modes of expression, and in that dualism, the Sun can be counted as the masculine force even though everyone has it.

This is partly the result of conditioning, and there would also seem to be some biology at work. In any event, the struggle for self-expression runs through the whole human story, no matter what kind of human we’re talking about. Such is often injured or inhibited by parents who are either bent on controlling the children, or who pass along an unwholesome example because their own lives were such an unresolved struggle.

I’ll say this a different way. Self-expression is something that everyone struggles with on some level, whatever forces they may seem to come up against. Yet when the Sun is square Chiron, anyone interested in astrology would do well to investigate what was going on with the men in their early environment, and the injuries they have suffered.

These tend to be invisible, largely because men are conditioned not to express their feelings.

People criticize men for this, often harshly, though it makes an interesting study to see how people actually respond when men open up and express themselves. Is anyone really interested? Is it “too painful”? Is it “too much” or “uncomfortable”? Does it tarnish our treasured concept of strong and stoic masculinity? What about when men are honest about their sexual desire? That’s an important form of opening up.

We think that society has come a long way here. I’m not so sure about that. Men are pressured to follow certain rules that tend to be as invisible as the special privileges they are accused of having. One of my favorite metaphors of this is visible on Oscar night or any other “red carpet” type of event. The women wear one outfit more interesting, stunning or breathtaking than the next. Then men all wear black tuxedos; we might commend them on how well their lapels are stitched.

Tuxedos are a little like formal military dress, on which they are no doubt based. When you see Sun square Chiron in someone’s chart, consider the military history of the men around them. Jim Morrison had this aspect, and his father was Admiral George S. Morrison. He’s the guy who was in charge of the Tonkin Gulf naval fleet the night of the Maddox Incident in 1964. That was the false flag non-event that was used to provoke full U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It’s fair to say that Jim used this aspect well.

Joseph McCarthy also had Sun square Chiron. So did J. Edgar Hoover and for that matter, D. H. Lawrence. Oh, and Robert Oppenheimer, co-inventor of the atomic bomb. So did Frank Sinatra and Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh. Among living persons, conservative commentator Lauren Southern comes up.

Sun Square Chiron in History

This morning I cast the chart for the Stonewall raid, which galvanized the queer movement back in the summer of 1969. This was not the beginning of the gay liberation movement; that had been going on for quite a while by that time. But it was most definitely the first major eruption of the movement, which served as a catalyst for quite a bit of progress on a global scale.

I’ll have more to say about this chart in tonight’s Planet Waves FM and Thursday’s edition. However, the one thing immediately relevant to today’s theme is that the chart has the Sun in Cancer square Chiron in Aries, just as we have this week. Chiron runs an orbit of just over 50 years, so we’re at the Chiron return of Stonewall, and this aspect repeats within one day of the anniversary.

The chart is asking us to look at something that has come full circle.

It’s clear that the gay rights movement was, at that time, about the quest for self-expression.

The thing you hear over and over again from people who were alive and paying attention during that era is: thanks to the existence of a movement, many no longer had to lie about who they were. Lying about one’s sexuality, or concealing one’s true being, is a profound burden. We’re doing a lot better on this topic vis-a-vis queer than we were doing 50 years ago. Gay is now, in every way, a protected class or category. Many see them not as ‘other’ but as people.

Yet the struggle for expression, including sexual and relational expression, still burns through society. The reason that “straight” people (to use a ridiculous word) are seemingly so safe is because they say so little about who they are and what they do. Straight is safe, as long as one is a closet case.

Thanks to my work, I’m in a position where many people tell me the details of their sexuality, which often comes with the postscript, “I cannot talk to my friends about this. They would think I was nuts.” What is the “this”? Well, it’s anything that departs from the Better Homes & Gardens-certified organic vanilla, hetero, monogamous way of going about things.

You’re OK if you’re currently partnered to exactly one person, if you claim to have only had three to five past lovers, and if you don’t talk about what you’re really into. Women are allowed to be bi-curious. Parents, including atheists, are allowed to revolt when their children’s public school wants to update the sex-ed program, or get one in the first place, since of course sex-ed leads directly to sex — kind of like heroin leads to beer.

To me, that’s a description of a struggle for expression. It’s certainly not anything resembling freedom. Anyone who shuts up because they’re afraid they’ll be judged, fired or persecuted by the school board if they talk about how they actually live out their relationships and sexuality is living in the closet. And that is a lot of people.

As Kurt Cobain wryly put it, “What else can I say? Everyone is gay.”