We get a lot of energy building and changing tone in a short amount of time to begin this week. Kicking it all off is one of the most significant astrological events of the year: as of 4:08 am EST (9:07:11 UTC) Monday morning, Chiron will be in Aries.
Pyramid of rams by by Taiwanese artist Hung Yin in Manhattan. Photo by Amanda Painter.
Later on Monday, the Sun enters Pisces (6:04 pm EST / 23:03:49 UTC). And then on Tuesday we get the Virgo Full Moon, in the first degree of that sign (opposite the Sun in the first degree of Pisces).
Although Chiron and the Sun may feel like a release or settling of energy (after some rather edgy or pressurized aspects lately), Full Moons tend to increase the sense of pressure, or a sense of some situation coming to a head or not budging.
Generally speaking, when there’s a mix of dynamics like that, the best idea is to hang loose — or as loose as you can — and roll with what emerges.
Notice what you notice; that is, if something comes to your attention, register it as fully as you can. Consider its context: what happened just before and just after? What were you thinking in that moment? Why does it seem important to you? Try to document whatever is striking about anything that comes into your awareness in a meaningful way.
Bear in mind that Mercury is conjunct Neptune in mid Pisces. This is one reason why the idea of documentation matters (the other being that Chiron seems to have an affinity for documenting experience): it could be easy right now for your imagination to get a little carried away into illusion or delusion. Making notes about actual facts may help to keep their apparent significance in balance.
Yet Mercury-Neptune conjunctions are also great for artistic expression — especially in Pisces. The Virgo-Pisces axis is an ideal facilitator for bringing creative ideas into tangible form. So if you’re feeling the building Full Moon particularly acutely, how can you get what’s whirling around in your head (or in the ethers) onto paper or canvas, or into musical or dramatic form? Who can you play with in that endeavor?
Consider that creative expression — whether you consider yourself an ‘artist’ or not, or any good at it or not — is ultimately an expression of self. Even if you’re playing a character on a stage very unlike who you are in ‘real’ life, you’re still imbuing that persona with some part of you; it is emerging through the channel of your psyche, body, voice and energetic signature. And it seems that if Chiron in Aries is going to help us to do anything, it will help us to be more fully ourselves. Even if that entails some kind of search and rescue mission.
Simplified chart section for the Virgo Full Moon, showing (counter-clockwise from top): Sun, Nessus, Vesta, Neptune and Mercury in Pisces; Chiron, Eris and Uranus in Aries; Mars in Taurus; Juno in Gemini; Virgo Moon not shown. View the Chiron ingress chart here and glyph key here.
As Barbara Hand Clow describes in her seminal book Chiron: Transforming Bridge Between the Inner & Outer Planets, the ‘warrior energy’ of Chiron is quite well attuned to Mars-ruled Aries, which can help it to break through the barriers of Saturn and harness the idealism of Uranus. However, that must still be balanced with the discipline of Saturn to be able to access the subtler teachings of Chiron.
Always, the aim is integration rather than abandoning one planetary archetype for another. This appears to be the journey we’re embarking on, the ongoing process of self-actualization, though how it transpires remains to be seen.
As for tomorrow (and for the near future), you might also keep an eye out for any significant natural events, political events, and incidents that seem to combine the two realms — particularly if they involve fire. Does that mean literal fire, spiritual fire, sexual sparks, warfare, political firepower or fired-up groups of activists?
I’m not sure. But as Eric’s note beneath this piece reminds us, Chiron’s entrance into Pisces brought the world’s oceans to the main stage. We have a long way to go in mitigating the damage we’re collectively causing to the seas, as evidenced in the interdependent systems governing sea health and overall climate temperature. The warmer the planet becomes, the warmer the oceans get; the warmer the oceans get, the further out of whack all kinds of global weather patterns get, and the higher sea level rises.
Could Chiron in Aries be when we finally accept the role we play in the ‘fire’ of global warming? Perhaps. At any rate, it seems to be one area where we could use more disciplined warrior energy that’s spiritually tuned in — meaning ethical, empathetic and honest. Each person in their own time, in their own way, yet — hopefully — all together.
Couldn’t help but check out what was happening the last time Chiron ingressed Aries on January 30, 1969, Amanda. Hard to believe, but that was before it had been discovered. It has certainly ingressed our consciousness since then.
The major event of that day as listed by Wikipedia is that The Beatles played their final live performance atop their offices at 3 Savile Row, London W1. Now that was an era-closing moment.
It’s hard to believe, too, that Chiron was exactly trine Venus on December 6 of that year when the violence-hit Altamont Festival featuring The Rolling Stones, now often described as “the end of the sixties,” took place.
For most of us, though, the big event of Chiron’s first year in Aries last time around must have been man’s first footstep on the Moon – an era-opening moment the like of which is not going to be equalled until we reach Mars.
Ahhh, very cool how you just connected those dots, Geoff. Thank you! I had seen the Beatles’ rooftop concert in the Wiki list while putting together the “This Day in History” segment for the Four Winds page the other day, but did not have the time or bandwidth to associate it with the end of the ’60s in that way.
Thanks, Amanda. It was a very personal moment for me. I was working on the fringes of the London underground press when I heard that the Beatles were performing for a last time on the roof of their offices. Fellow workers said: “Let’s go. This is history in the making.” For whatever reason I chose not to go. I knew The Beatles were finished, and I didn’t want to watch. Good luck to John if he had fallen in love with Yoko. As George Harrison would later say, “All things must pass.”
I had a curious thought when I discovered that Chiron was exactly trine Venus on the day of the Altamont Festival. Was the ‘Love and Peace’ era I had lived through an aberration? In reality, is life on this planet about the aggressive drive for survival, where love, comfort and loving relationships are a short interlude in a life of strife and warfare? Answers on a tab of LSD please.