Many years ago, Dale O’Brien proposed that people who have inner planets such as Mercury, Venus and Mars making contact with Chiron, can actually feel Chiron rather than experience it as something theoretical (or not at all).
And how does Chiron feel? On a good day, it feels like the power to change oneself; to heal oneself; to have not just insight into one’s transformational journey, but actual understanding and a sense of quest. There is of course a long story leading up to that depth of contact, and a preface to the story of the quest. This journey or adventure takes place all throughout one’s life.
Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / Brussels.
Many people with Chiron prominently aspected learn young to accept the fact that they’re different. They also learn that life is for learning, or else there is no point.
If some basic conditions are met, it’s possible to concentrate great strength and influence. If basic conditions are not met, the result can be a serious struggle with adaptation, a sense of being broken, or the sensation of the never-ending issue. The purpose of Chiron (discovered in 1977, taking up the role of the astrological agent of healing) is specifically to get your attention.
This is true whether it’s boldly placed in your natal chart, making a transiting aspect to something in your natal chart, or as it is now, about to take a conjunction from Mars. That ‘mutual aspect’ — an aspect somewhere in the sky (in this case, mid-Pisces) — takes place on Jan. 31. It is however in effect now, as the two planets are close and growing closer.
Before that happens, Venus forms a conjunction to Nessus, officially the third-discovered centaur, identified in 1993. That takes place in late Aquarius. These types of aspects are never simple and they never express themselves just one way. Everyone will feel them differently. It’s only possible to point out some potential themes and suggest some lines of approach.
Venus conjunct Nessus in Aquarius is practically begging for emotional connection and empathy. That might mask itself as something mental, as some kind of concept, though this is far deeper. In this aspect I see a wide-scale need to go beyond the prevailing embarrassment, false modesty and enforced prudery that out society very nearly forces onto women. In Aquarius, conjunct Nessus, there is the question of social acceptability. There is the deeper question of whether such is even possible. The contradictory standards of our society make it impossible for anyone to be actually ‘acceptable’ by any meaningful definition of the term. The whole topic is, basically, a game.
Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / Brussels.
I am at the moment speaking of Venus, though this influences men as well as women. We could have a long conversation about even the basics of the relationship that men have to their inner woman, and how this influences their relationships to all women and indeed all men.
Venus in aspect to Nessus is summoning the willingness to notice the conditioning to accept shame and repression that nearly all female creatures seem to go through. This emotional poison influences everyone. It is a known, synthetic toxin that has spread through society as persistently as any chemical agent.
The social and cultural conditions we face today have old roots, though they are especially tragic now because there is so much potential for enlightenment. It’s possible (in part thanks to the Internet) to speak openly without experiencing consequences, and so many more people know so much more now than even 10 or 20 years ago — but do we admit that knowledge? Do we seek that enlightenment and understand that it entails freedom and courage? My impression from long observation is that the current form of repression is artificial and seen as such; that accepting it is optional, and there are many modes available to seek freedom and healing. And as Adrienne Rich said, “There are methods but we don’t use them.” However, we can if we want.
Mars is also making a conjunction to Chiron in Pisces — activating the vital force of these two planets. Mars and Chiron are perhaps the two most vivid and focused archetypes of the warrior. Both are potentially armed and dangerous. Both, as well, have the ability to heal. In Pisces they will be connected with their inherent feminine attributes.
There is much talk about all the healing that men need, how wounded and callous they supposedly are, and nearly endless commentary about their supposedly inherently violent or aggressive nature. After listening to this discussion, and sometimes participating in it since the days that men were casually referred to as chauvinist pigs, I think there’s a vast distortion that needs to be seen for what it is.
As I see it, men in our society are in a double bind. They are at once told that aggression is wrong, then put in positions where the role models are nearly all aggressive ‘real men’. Many men, fearing being labeled as aggressive and afraid of their own power, are then put into social positions where, unless they assert themselves, often to the point of dominance, nothing much happens — or rather, they can expect nothing to happen. To get out of this double bind, the first thing that needs to happen is to notice it.
Mars conjunct Chiron in Pisces is an invitation to see, and to feel, and to hear men as full-spectrum beings, as capable of feelings, as sensitive and as creative. It is also an invitation for everyone to deal with the projections of rapist, murderer, soldier, douchebag, corrupt cop, football player and gangster that tend to dominate stereotypical images of men. One might say they want men to be more sensitive, but is anyone who says that willing to allow it, to invite it, and to treat that vulnerability with some sensitivity?
One might say they want men to be less aggressive, but are they willing to meet them halfway on the sensitive matter of will and desire? Or is the proscription to be more aggressive and less aggressive at the same time?
Who are the men in your life and what do they mean to you? What judgments do you hold against them? What do you accuse them of that you personally do, or want to do? What does your inner male attribute want and need that you’re not giving it?
Tune in and you may find these questions have, if not answers, approaches to remedy or at least improve the situation. Venus and Mars conjunct centaurs are a clear suggestion that it’s time to address sex and sexuality. Society itself may not have a measure, though many individuals know the extent to which the sexual aspects of their nature are shrouded in guilt, shame and therefore seeming mystery. I believe most people consciously live with the sense of hiding something, which is rarely if ever spoken of, and is wrapped in a cloak of supposed goodness.
Chiron and Nessus may be about ethics, honesty, healing and actual alert consciousness (which is self-awareness). But one thing they’re not about is goodness.
Thank you for this, Eric. I’ve had the sense all along that my exact Venus/Chiron conjunction in Aquarius is one of the most revealing aspects of my chart, almost more influential than my Pisces Sun, and resonant with it, as well as Scorpio rising. Your opening paragraphs help me see where my sense of quest may rise from, and my refusal to give up, and my sense that my quest is on behalf of others as well as myself, maybe even more than myself. Because it’s 12th house by sun sign reckoning, it’s a mystery. I feel it, and I have no map. Sometimes I wander in the wilderness. QB1 and Pholus are there with Venus and Chiron too.
Yikes, I just glanced at my granddaughter’s chart. She has Nessus/Chiron sharing the 4 degree of Aquarius. What’s that conjunction stand for?
Wonderful! Especially the closing lines. Thank you Eric, As Mae West said “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ekAQ_Plxk
Great post thank you Eric. Very interesting.
One ‘solution’ may be to find other points of reference so that ‘one’ either sees oneself as one is or has another point of reference on the way to that – free speech and anything goes are quite true but surely on the way to something. Nomad by Ayaan Hirshi Ali might be a good read for both genders – an exaggerated view of our mores/concerns perhaps but I found reading both this book and The caged woman liberating. Bam bam bam of constricting social bands clarifying (and breaking?). She is writing about Islam but the themes are violence sex and money.
This is another important focus, perhaps even more important than our day to day concerns – or directly linked to it – if we can solve these issues for ourselves perhaps we can loosen the foci of conservative islam also: honour/ego/a conscious and integrated self, women as thing (the plaything of men) or beings (a conscious and integrated self and place in society), the discrepancy between male (or female) expectation (hero/princess, great being and not the knowledge techniques to integrate the reality (personal or cultural or social/career reality).
And finally lots of possibilities but who is the real ‘you’ ‘now’.
I am amazed by Ayaan Hirshi Ali – of course it was not just Education and guts and the kindness of strangers (IMO) but also her exposure to various cultures (multi lingual) as a child – Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya. And in the west translator for immigrants, university education, political work (MP, researchpost, author), and again living in other cultures (Holland, the States, …).
Amanda (or anyone!) if you ever read Nomads can we redefine Eris by AHA?
happy monday!
xxxp
seesoneself as one is or what direction to take next…
My son is currently experiencing his mars return. He has a wide rolling conjunction of Chiron, mars, Sun, moon, mercury, and Uranus all in Pisces bunched up in the 3rd house and at the IC. I am baffled at times by his sensitivity and moodiness. Very strong-willed; his favorite color is pink and he enjoys on occasion dressing up as a ballerina. We do not force him to conform to gender roles but we worry for him when school time comes and how he will react to social peer conditioning and how that will mix with his innate hypersensitivity. For now I can only hope to instill him with a strong sense of self without going too overboard on his vulnerability. Little boys are too often conditioned to hide their sensitivities- which he has no filter on at the moment…
Umm that would be Hirsi…
When one is finished up dividing, all that is left is two: good and bad ( creative or destructive). After that, there is only unity. The creation has, at its own time,destruction. That is how space is made for a creation to become. The highest good stands out because of the lowest bad. Balance. The good becomes normal, the center of the polarization, as the bad diminishes.
Just a sleepless, random thought.
Thanks Eric, had not read you for a while.
Like the Sun rises and shadows become smaller
Nicolas reading what you wrote made me wonder
if one steps out of good and bad
is there only working with the material – can I add that, what will ease that, is that true (in balance, real, sound), what adjustment…
does that extreme mirror that other extreme in some way
what does that mean…
One other thing which really struck me in AHA’s results of the Enlightenment (if I have understood correctly) was that the State takes violence between individuals in charge – if there is need for an objective view orjustice the State provides it, or necessry change is at a State level – that way the people have freedom of speech and violence between them is not necessary.
i liked that!
Thanks Pam, nevermind what I wrote, it might be off the point and I can’t delete it, thanks for your response to my comment anyhow.
Nicolas I might have misinterpreted you (and Jere) but I thought you were talking about unity (and transcendance) as a point of reference and not an either or dynamic. Sarah Taylor’s tarot for this week fits well too
(Of course a ‘just’ state implies people who agree with that and so by implication are seeking to be just too)
Nicolas I meant to join in (praps I should have asked) rather than question your poem
(ps for Ayaan Hirsi Ali – i so enjoyed reading her books, and finishing them feel that she has endurance and a wide cultural base that she brings to the Enlightenment experience – new genes in a sense. So important to not too define/refine that wealth of difference, just for the future generations. Tho I quite see that some struggle is necessary to help define yourself, just not so muchthat you drown or suffocate etc).
xxxp
Yes, unity as a point of reference, a base or “home” where everything is A OK, nonduality, although I’m no expert on this but I like it very much and can feel it and love being there. Well, anyway, maybe I took too long to reply but thank you for your response once again, very encouraging for me as to participate more 🙂 Best wishes to you Pam
Samantha, your son must be the same age as my grandson born on my birthday almost 4 years ago. He has all those planets + BML in Pisces though in his 5th house. He’s known as the most cheerful member of the family. He’s little brother to the aforementioned Nessus/Chiron conjunct girl. He also had a twin who miscarried at 10 weeks, and he chose to stay and be born as a super pisces. Aries moon may help. Your boy picked good parents. I trust all will be well with him.
Ahh, ‘the sense of hiding something’…
I spent a lifetime feeling like I was hiding something, and feeling the presence of Chiron, knowing I was different. Indeed the journey and the quest seem to have stretched my entire life.
I was hiding something, from myself.
Extreme trauma can be compartmentalized, stored away somewhere, not in conscious memory. Jung called Chiron, the wounded healer. For me it is that dark, murky undertone that asks me to dive deep and explore that which I cannot see or remember. I return to the wound again and again, to discover, explore, excavate and reveal.
The organism (the sum of all the parts of my being, plus the relationships between those parts) strives to return to homeostasis, to health, to healing. But only by going in and through, can I make myself well again.
As Adrienne Rich said in Diving into the Wreck:
“I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that will prevail.”
The damage and the treasures, these are the blessing of Chiron.
Thank you Eric, I always appreciate a guided and healing conversation on these female/male themes. I look forward also to the 3 conjunctions of Venus and Mars this year (Feb 21, Sept 1, Nov 3). Perhaps these will be opportunities to share what we learn on these topics with others, and to gain deep understanding through direct intimate experiences.
I have been experiencing shifting perspective such as nothing I can remember before. I go from the insecurity of shame exposed to public ridicule, where I see myself from outside and feel the shame of me for what I am with no hope for a bright future and ultimate doom . Then, like this moment, I am fearless in my truth, relaxed and self-confident, feeling quite proud of myself; I look out at my future with optimism and gratitude! I feel blessed. I have a patient acceptance of those who judge but I don’t expect to attract that. I trust the universe to match my focus and this is the focus I want. When I lose this focus the other takes me hard down so fast I need a map to crawl out.
What I am getting at is that this is some extreme energy to surf; its awesome on top but the falls are treacherous. I am riding a tsunami. Being guided by PW advice saves my life and helps me cope.
Not about goodness?!? Bullshit!
I can actually agree with your ‘double bind ‘perspective. And, I can agree with the open sensitivity.. I have no choice in this cosmic set-up.
What I question is, do ‘I’ have the capacity to not only overcome my personal demolition, but to perhaps lay down tracks for time (or others) to come?…
Best I can,
Jere
Jere on the goodness thought – think wholesome goodness… There is nothing wholesome about my trip. Otherwise you express my thoughts and drama rather clearly.
Kansas went bye-bye I’m on the ride with nowhere to hide.
Honestly, I can’t even conceptualize ‘wholesome’?!? 😛
I’m trying to see through every sense of measurement. I’m not a judge, just an actor.
(bowing),
Jere 😉
Hey Cowboyiam, as a smirking tangent… you’re bad-ass and I Love you, Friend.
Jere
Jere thanks for the complement, I think? but you use an expression I don’t quite get (smirking tangent) I have never utter the word tangent and had to look it up – but I’m still not clear your implication.
Cowboyiam, I use ‘tangent’ similarly to ‘side note’. The ‘smirk’ was thrown in ’cause it makes me smile to read your words.. I truly do appreciate your candidness.
Love,
Jere
Samantha, thanks for sharing that about your son. I am currently in a production of a play called “A Kid Like Jake”, by Daniel Pearle. The play is about a married couple in their thirties who live in Manhattan, and they have a son (Jake), who is 4 years old, and loves more than anything to play dress-up, and pretend he is Cinderella. The couple is about to submit applications to all the expensive private schools in New York, and the woman that runs his pre-school thinks it would be a good idea to include Jake’s “creative role play” in the applications. The mom struggles, but the dad is on board with this idea. It’s a very interesting play if you ever get the chance to read it, I think you would enjoy it very much.
Thanks I will look into it. Fitting that the child is 4 in the play, as my son will be 4 in March and we are researching local preschools. I appreciate the suggestion.
Eric, thank you so much. This is the medicine I needed to read right now cause I just came from a discussion on another social media channel where someone dismissed the abuse I described as irrelevant just because I’m a cis-gendered male. I grew up in a verbally abusive house where I lived as the family scapegoat but this doesn’t matter to them. My dad nearly broke my spine at the lumbar-sacral junction when I was 6 and then he goes and says that he’s sorry that happened to me but it doesn’t matter cause I’m a cis gendered male, that I have no direct experience of the Empire’s abuse. They want to dismantle the patriarchy but they don’t want to talk about how men are abused. I don’t see how this can work.
Great post Eric, it’s filled with relevant stuff. Just the other day I commented on Erin Cressida Wilson piece, acknowledging how my mom repressed her sexuality when I was a boy. I believe she did so out of the near “force” you speak of.
Also, I can wholeheartedly relate to the feeling of a prominent Chiron in my natal chart, on conjunct the MC, and the focus of a Yod. Your words “life is for learning or else there is no point”, rings very true.
Do we admit our knowledge? I know kids do. They bypass to Youtube or Google anytime they want to learn something. So, I think the kids are becoming knowledge, which bolsters my faith in them. The kids I meet, and talk to when I substitute teach admit their knowledge. I think many of them have parents, caretakers, or other teachers that fear their knowledge because it gives the kids power to bash through hollow authority, hypocrisy. Also, I don’t think these parents, caretakers, or teachers admit their knowledge to their kids. I think one solution is to allow ourselves to be open, honest, and forthright with the youth.
Another thing you mentioned that I would like to own up to is my “projection” of “corrupt cop” on pretty much every cop I see. A lot of it probably stems from the fact that my dad was an actual outlaw, in the “Outlaws Motorcycle Gang”, and I was raised with quite the distaste for police, at least on my dad’s side. Never the less, I don’t want to fester whenever I see a cop doing their job, serving me.
Hoowee, this describes me at the moment. Chiron was virtually exact on my nativity (much less than a degree), and Eric, you’ve described me fairly well. The push/pull of the current times has had me feeling worn out and used up a good deal of the time. Not fun, but expanding as all get out as I keep seeing elements of myself that need re-doing or re-defining. An Aquarian to boot, I feel like demanding everything go faster, like we’re not changing fast enough for us to make it to the goal line before we all disappear in a whirlwind of anger. We don’t have the time to dick around…
Excellent words for these difficult times.
Eric,
Every word is measured.
You change the world when you write like this
Eric doesn’t each man have to find out for himself what it is to be a man. Women too to be woman. In a sense the binding and social and derogatory factors are secondary to this – ie how would a real wo/man be in these unideal circumstances. How can I learn that. How far can I go.
One of your horoscopes once said something like either you get it or you don’t (that was about ‘spiritual awareness’ but it applies to most things – where can I find information etc that enables me to be more aware, who has authority (who do I agree with, and who do I not agree with but do when I have grown greater in awareness. Who am I, what is Love etc etc
I liked the comment about kids googling stuff – if internet is available that is a great source of info!
Perhaps we do not spend enough time appreciating either the sacred feminine or the sacred masculine. While we spend too much time demonizing the shadow sides of those icons. Personally, I like and admire equally the feminine trait of nurturing and the masculine trait of courage. But we all know men can be nurturing and women can be courageous. Every individual needs to embrace and express how his or her personal gender identity in his or her own way.
Learning about sex trafficking in the US – specifically Nashville, Boston, Chicago (my city).
Family member had a miscarriage.
Reminds me of long ago abortion.
I think a huge problem is most men and women really have no idea what a sacred masculine or feminine would look like or be. What does it mean to “be a man” really? What does it mean to “be a woman” really? Is biology also destiny? What about trans people? Or asexuals? Or any of the LBGTQ folks? Sexuality and gender are becoming far more varied than just male and female; reminds me of the Native two-spirit people; they had no gender and both genders and were accepted as such.
Until humans figure out all those varied genders and sexual expressions, it will be difficult to change from the male-female dichotomy that has permeated humanity for so long. It starts in infancy with people eagerly asking “is it a boy or girl?” Different cultures express this gender and sexuality polarization differently but overall globally patriarchy and the dichotomy of the genders is entrenched and hard to shake off.
Oh and just as a mention, the Pluto in Scorpio generation are in their twenties right now and changing gender definitions and sexuality as we speak. Just thought I would throw that out there.