Chiron in Aquarius

 

March 11, 2005

 

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/mar11.html

 

Dear Eric:

 

I have heard that Chiron is moving out of Capricorn and into Aquarius, right about now.

 

I also understand that Chiron will move back into Capricorn for a brief stint in August. What does this movement in and out mean for Capricorns?

 

Warmest regards,

 

Sharon

 

Australia

 

 

Dear Sharon,

 

I covered part of this question in the Feb. 18 edition of this series as the lead article, and from another perspective on Planet Waves. I could add a bit more about the details of the Aug. transit of Chiron back into Capricorn, and then its final return to Aquarius.

 

Chiron is a planet that moves around the Sun fairly slowly, at least compared to the Earth. So when the Earth orbits the Sun, it changes our perspective on the location of Chiron, and at times Chiron appears to move backwards. This is called parallax motion. It is an illusion, on one level, but it accounts for the retrograde effect of outer planets.

 

Sometimes when an outer planet (Chiron, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto) changes signs, it goes from one sign straight into the next. But more often, it will dip into the new sign, then return to the old sign, and then go back to the new sign 'for good'.

 

Astrology is a symbolic system as much as it is a 'real' one. So we can read this kind of transition symbolically as a more gradual change of eras rather than a sudden, abrupt transition. This is how time flows, and in this case, the astrology reflects it. But since we have not lived through this particular transit or anything like it for 50 years (which factors out most of us), we have to see what happens.

 

As for how this affects Capricorns, there are two answers. For newspaper horoscope writers (those using Chiron, anyway, but the same would be true with any outer planet), we use this as a general symbol that has specific meaning to the degree that the astrologer using the symbol is able to make general statements about the condition of the sign. Certainly it's a rich image, Chiron shuttling back and forth over the line between Capricorn and Aquarius, which associated with Saturn and Uranus -- the two planets most associated with Chiron. And many of those statements will have some resonance.

 

For astrologers doing natal charts, this change will be particularly vivid in the lives of people who have anything at all in the last degrees of Capricorn; who are born on the last days of Capricorn; or who have late Capricorn rising. And, of course, early Aquarius -- since Aquarius is the new sign that is getting the influence of Chiron.

 

Any way you look at it, it's the end of an era -- particularly in political and social history. Which, I am quite sure, just about everyone is going to welcome with open arms.

 

Here's a bit about Chiron in Capricorn, written nearly four years ago.