Chiron Time Frames
December 3, 2004 (with chart)
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/dec3.html
Hi Eric:
I feel compelled to complete the Chiron transits exercise you've described on
Jon Cainer's site several times recently, but if I understand correctly, the
time frames to examine are different for everyone. I haven't the foggiest idea
how to determine mine. Are you able to point me in the direction of a resource?
Your writing is a pleasure to read.
Thank you
Suz
Dear Suzanne,
Let's back up a little for the sake of those who may not be familiar with the
Chiron Time Frames exercise I've developed for my clients and readers.
The process involves making a life
chronology where the selected dates are determined by certain Chiron transits.
As you say, this is different for everyone, though there are some similarities
based on the year of birth; but for the most part, it's a highly individualized
pattern.
A Chiron transit is what happens when
Chiron makes an aspect to itself, to an angle in the chart such as the ascendant,
or to another planet or point (Jupiter, Venus, etc.) in the natal chart.
Because this is a highly individualized time pattern, it cannot be summed up in
an easy table in a book or with summary chapters that give interpretations. But
the results most people get make it worth the effort.
While you could program a computer to
calculate every Chiron transit from birth till the present time, that would
present an overwhelming number of events. Based on experience with many
clients, I can get it down to the five or ten most interesting ones. This
involves some experience and choice, and I can give an example of the process
in a moment using a sample chart.
The purpose of the exercise is to see
your life story as told through the lens of Chiron. This, in turn, will allow
you to see how your natal horoscope works in a way that is both revealing and
helpful. Chiron, a small planet orbiting near Saturn that was discovered in
1977, is meaningful because it specifically addresses processes of healing,
transformation and the raising of awareness. You could say all three of these
are the same thing.
Unlike most other planets, Chiron's orbit
is unusually egg-shaped, so its movement through the heavens (and thus, the
chart) creates a time pattern that is irregular and can reveal the connecting
thread between events, which, previously, seemed to have nothing to do with one
another.
Once the dates are selected, I ask people
to journal out each of the time frames separately. Then, once this is process
(which may take a couple of weeks) is done, the whole sequence is looked at as
a story and the themes, patterns and trends are explored.
Typically, the time frame on transit
event will be about nine months. I suggest that each journal entry for a
transit begin with your address at the time of the date in question, and the
story of what happened when you were living at that address. The idea is not to
look for "something big" or unusual, or a trauma; rather, it is to
describe the nature and conditions of your life at that time. So start with the
address.
The beauty of this exercise is that it
quickly gets you past the "what does my chart mean?" level of
astrology and puts you firmly in the terrain of "how does my chart
work?" There is BIG difference. On the second of these, you are not
depending on a book to tell you something about yourself; you are looking at
your own life for information, and the information will be there.
For a variety of reasons this approach
is, I believe, very productive -- but mainly because it puts astrology to work
as a self-study tool without the intervention of other people's ideas about
you, and without resorting to a pre-fab interpretation of the chart. In the
end, you bring your own interpretation. It is also a chance to see your life
from another perspective and get a feeling for how you grow. It's also a chance
to watch your chart, and astrology, in action.
In the next few paragraphs, I'm going to
provide you with the instructions for how to do this. For people who don't feel
experienced enough, I will create a special personal consultation which
involves me looking up the dates for you, followed by you completing the
journaling, and me responding to what you have written. That will be at the
bottom.
To look these dates up yourself, you need
two basic skills: 1. One is to be able to see where planets are in your chart,
by sign and degree; and 2. You need to be able to follow the ephemeris
(planetary position table) well enough to know when you are having a transit.
Both the natal chart and the Chiron ephemeris are free online. You can get your
chart at http://astro.com and you can create a customized ephemeris at
http://ephemeral.info/eph.
However, I suggest you get yourself a
book-styled ephemeris that lists Chiron. There are several. One is the American
Ephemeris, available just about anywhere, and the other is the Aureas
Ephemeris, available only in Europe and the
For now, let's use http://ephemeral.info and the natal chart
of Babe Ruth. Click on this link
and by the miracle of the Internet, a Chiron ephemeris for Babe Ruth will
appear, beginning with his birthday and covering the first 40 or so years of
his life. I have set the ephemeris to give me the position of Chiron four times
a year, for simplicity. It seemed to work fine; I used it myself to get the
dates below. However, I suggest the ephemeris to calculate the position of
Chiron once every 30 days; and remember to ask it to cover as many months as
you've lived, indicated by how many lines you want the ephemeris to be. Play
around with the thing and you will get it to work. The first line is your natal
position. You can type in any planets you like into that field.
Okay, so you got this odd thing in front
of you? Now look a the chart; you will be working back and forth between the
chart and the ephemeris, cross-referencing. Notice, first of all, that The Babe
has Chiron on the cusp of his 5th house. That is our starting point. It's the
green planet near the bottom, in Libra. It has an address: 8 Libra and 52 minutes.
That is the degree position. When using an ephemeris, you need to watch that
degree, because it tells you when another planet is making an aspect. What I
will offer as one sentence of interpretation is we know that Babe Ruth liked to
have fun.
For this chart, I would list the
following transits, which will proceed anti-clockwise:
Autumn 1896. Chiron conjunct Saturn in
Scorpio. This is a childhood transit, so I would ask something about the known
conditions of the home at the time, such as the parent's marriage, children in
the household, the client's health, and so on. People often need to rely on
stories or ask older relatives about childhood transits, which is an
interesting aspect to the investigation (or healing) process. This transit is
part of a time frame (extending through Autumn 1897) including Chiron conjunct
Uranus (also in green), square the Sun in Aquarius, and opposite Mars in
Taurus. Ruth, a powerful, talented man, was born with a mighty T-square (three
planets making squares and an opposition) of Uranus, Sun and Mars. When Chiron
aspects one point on this T-Square, it aspects the other. It will reach the
T-square a little after it reaches Saturn. Watch the degree numbers.
Autumn 1901. Chiron square natal Chiron.
Chiron's aspects to itself are the core of the process. You could do with these
along, but the details give you a lot of interesting material to work with.
Because Ruth is born with Chiron and the Moon in a close square, when Chiron
aspects itself, it always aspects the Moon. Part of the power of aspects is
that when one planet is transited, as we've seen above, the entire aspect
structure is transited. In this case, notice that the ascendant and the
descendent are also involved. So I would consider the Chiron square, Chiron
opposite the Moon and Chiron into the 7th house to be one time frame. I would
count this whole set of transits as lasting through autumn of 1902.
Spring 1908. Chiron conjunct the Sun in
Aquarius. Notice that Chiron hasn't moved very far, but it's taken quite a
while to get there. That's because Chiron, which began in Libra (where it moves
through the signs the fastest) is now in Aquarius, where it is beginning to
move at near its slowest speed (in miles, far from the Sun, but exactly aligned
with it). When Chiron conjoins the Sun it will also square Uranus in Scorpio
and Mars in Taurus. It is no accident that Ruth had all these squares in his
chart. He was an extremely determined and driven man. I would count this
transit as going through winter 1909.
Spring 1911. Chiron conjunct Venus and
Mercury in Pisces. This is very close to the next one, and will be related to
it. I would count this through early winter 1912.
Spring 1912. Chiron conjunct the
midheaven, square Pluto and square Neptune. I would count this through winter
1913. So 1911 through 1913 are one long sequence of transits. If this happens
in your chart, patiently sort out the time frame as best you can.
Spring 1920. Chiron opposite Chiron. His
natal Chiron is in Libra; the transit is in Aries. I would count this through
spring 1921.
Spring 1930. Chiron conjunct Mars, square
the Sun and opposite Uranus. I would count this through spring 1931.
Autumn 1934. Chiron conjunct Pluto and
Neptune, square the midheaven. I would count this through spring 1936. This is
a long one.
Summer 1938. Chiron in the ascendant,
conjunct the Moon and square itself. This is the second Chiron square, always
an interesting transit. Some call it the "upper square." It is Chiron
reaching the three-quarters point in the full circle.
Chiron return. This happens at about age
50-51. This is Chiron coming full circle. Most people experience the Chiron
return as lasting, in actual effects, through the age of 53.
You may be wondering why I left some
transits out. It's not necessary to do the entire chart. I was choosing events
that seemed interesting, relevant and energized. One thing I might have
included is Chiron's aspects to Jupiter, which is depicted in purple, rising,
in Gemini, just above the ascendant. Jupiter is opposite the galactic core in
Sagittarius, and it rules his 10th house because he has Pisces on the 10th
cusp. Given that Babe Ruth was so famous we're still talking about him 110
years after he was born, the 10th ruler and Jupiter might be good things to
check, but remember that you don't want to get overwhelmed with data here. In
doing the first session with a client, sometimes checking three of these dates
is adequate -- but for self-study and learning your chart, I would do about
eight or 10.
Then, take those dates and do the journal
exercise. And, if you don't get this far, at least I got some good writing
exercise writing out these dates and putting this method on paper for the first
time.
If someone is a good sports trivia
researcher, I would love to hear how these dates square against the story of
Babe Ruth's life (I just checked one chronology and saw some interesting
correspondences). Also, we can do this again with an actual, live reader of
this page and discuss the results of the inquiry in this space.
Okay, last aspect for this item. If you
would like me to prepare a custom list of your Chiron time frames, contact my
office at chiron@planetwaves.net and
we will send you an email explaining how we can do that, and the fee involved.
As part of this service, I will write a response to your time frames and spot
the relevant themes. Details will come in the return email.
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