Chiron in Aries: Exploring The Ground of Being

Dear Friend and Reader:

On April 17, Chiron will enter Aries -- its first return to that sign since 1968-1977, an eventful era that left its mark on the world. Outer planet transits through signs tend to describe phases in history. During those particular years, Chiron was in the phase of its cycle prior to its own discovery, which took place in November 1977.

Chiron is almost always described first as an agent of healing. Aries is the sign of identity, and there are few places these days that need more love and positive attention.

Chiron is a centaur, a morph between a man and a horse. However, he stands apart from others of his race; he was a mentor and teacher to many of the great heroes of Hellenic Greece, as well as a doctor, surgeon and teacher of medicine. Other centaurs are more like the Hell's Angels.

Chiron will be arriving in Aries after seven years of Uranus in this sign, including the Uranus-Pluto square and the Uranus-Eris conjunction -- an era that has manifested a pandemic of identity chaos and a corresponding destabilization of society on nearly every level.

Much of this has been induced by the dominance of the internet, which we think of as a torrent of information, yet which is better described as a collective out-of-body experience. To the extent we're not aware of that fact, Chiron is likely to make it more obvious and easier to document.

We're also experiencing the rise of robotics. That doesn't mean R2D2 or little vacuum cleaners your cat rides around on: it means Facebook, Google, automated streaming music platforms and anything else that drives itself.

These devices are teaching people how to think and behave like machines. It's plausible that human thought patterns are approaching robotic ones faster than artificial intelligence is approaching human capabilities.

Regarding identity, it's easy to envision Chiron in Aries peeling off the crust of self-concept and pretension and guiding matters closer to an experience of actual self. This can be liberating, and will be for many people. It can also be frightening and profoundly disorienting, especially for those who have invested most or all of their identity into the internet, or into a concept of themselves that has not been tested through experience.

As an agent of healing, Chiron works first through raising awareness of matters that need to be addressed. At such a time there will often be solutions and remedies available. Though, as Adrienne Rich wrote at the dawn of the last Chiron in Aries era, "There are methods but we do not use them."

Yet the point is, we can. We have access to knowledge -- more of it than ever. We can make decisions. Most of the problems faced by humanity have already been solved. We might consider availing ourselves of the solutions that have been developed with so much devotion, love and effort.

Chiron has been in Pisces since 2010-2011, for about the past eight years. Chiron in Pisces began with a bang: the BP oil gusher into the Gulf of Mexico on the very day it first ingressed the sign of oceans; then the Fukushima quake and meltdowns (which corresponded, to the day, to Uranus leaving Pisces); and the many incredible events of 2011, including a series of protest movements (Arab Spring, the Wisconsin labor movement and Occupy Wall Street).

Now that we're at the end of this cycle, we are witnessing the most impassioned social uprisings we've seen in many decades. There is an actual youth movement, as well as significant pushback on many of society's most pressing issues. There are also some very serious problems we need to push back against. Chiron in Aries may provide just the spark: the idea, "What can one person do? I may as well try."

The First Centaur: Technical and Historical Background

Chiron, as mentioned, enters Aries for the first time on April 17. Then it will briefly retrograde back into Pisces this September, and make its last station-direct in Pisces. It will take up residence in Aries in February 2019, where it will remain until transitioning into Taurus in 2026-2027.

Chart for the discovery of Chiron, by Charles Kowal, on Nov. 1, 1977. This is the chart for the actual discovery, rather than the time that the discovery photo was taken (on Oct. 18, 1977, though the earliest pre-discovery photo is from 1895). The time stated is "a little after 10 am," which I have rectified to have the ascendant align with the Galactic Core, one defining feature of this chart. Note the presence of planets clustered around the lunar nodes, including the opposition of Pluto and Eris; as well as the discovery degree, 3+ Taurus (the 4th degree, with the Sabian symbol, "The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.")

A massive comet with some properties of an asteroid, Chiron has an elongated, elliptical orbit. It spends more time in Aries than any other sign; its aphelion, or most distant point from the Sun, is there. At the other end of the zodiac, it spends a mere 18 months in Libra (that's the perihelion, or closest point to the Sun). It bears the dual astronomical designation of minor planet (2060) Chiron, and comet 95P/Chiron.

Soon after it was first discovered in 1977, by an astronomer named Charles Kowal, Chiron got a lot of attention from astrologers in the early years. This was unprecedented in modern astrology, and something we've yet to see repeated.

By the mid-1980s there were several excellent books published (which are still among the better resources available; I'll include a list at the end of this article).

Chiron was the first of what became the centaur class of bodies (generally, orbit crossers), the second of which was Pholus (discovered in 1992, now in early Capricorn, about to take a square from Chiron). Astronomers believe that Chiron was drawn in by gravity from the Kuiper Belt, the region of space occupied by Pluto, and has now settled into a much shorter period orbit than that of a Kuiper object (about 50 years as opposed to about 300 years).

Chiron spends most of its orbit outside that of Saturn and extends almost out to that of Uranus (illustrating this point, Chiron will spend more time in Aries than Uranus spends in any sign). Note that, as far as I understand it, Chiron crosses the orbit of Saturn on the Libra side, and grazes that of Uranus on the Aries side. This is what makes Chiron the "bridge between the inner and outer planets" (borrowing from the title of a popular book), as it has the capacity to be both. Or we might say that Chiron connects the visible with the invisible planets, though under the right conditions you can see Uranus without a telescope.

Orbital diagram of Chiron, presuming that Chiron does not extend past the orbit of Uranus. In fact, Chiron's greatest distance from the Sun is slightly more than the closest distance of Uranus; but it's less than the average distance of Uranus, so in this respect at least, the diagram is probably correct. Part of why Chiron got so much attention is that it's the only body orbiting in its region of space, and the only thing currently known with an approximately 50-year orbit. Note, Chiron's orbit is elliptical (elongated), not round. All planets have elliptical orbits, though Chiron’s is especially egg-shaped. I don't know what gets into the minds of these "science" illustrators.

The Saturn-Uranus connection describes the dynamic quality of Chiron, which serves among other things to ground energy into matter and infuse energy with form. Some have observed that Chiron has its "uranian" side, and its "saturnian" side, though it almost always draws properties of both.

There's so much conflicting, incomplete or incorrect information about Chiron on the internet that it helps to approach the topic with an open mind. With Chiron, direct experience is essential to understanding.

You'll know you have an accurate sample of material to draw on when your experiences and collected tales are wildly diverse, representing the many modes of action seen associated with this body.

Important key concepts that are often left out of descriptions include mentorship, the maverick, the teacher's teacher, hybrids of seemingly incompatible things, service and patience.

However, because part of Chiron's role is to point out, reveal or expose existing problems and flaws in any system or process, it doesn't have such a good reputation among many astrologers.

Yet Chiron is not causing the problems; it's bringing them to the surface so they can be healed. In revealing any underlying issues, Chiron's presence will almost always point to an appropriate response, though it may not be convenient. And just because the issue is raised does not mean there will be a solution or much progress. That is a matter of choice. And currently there are many moving parts in operation. For example, the Chiron in Aries era will include the Pluto return of the United States, and the transiting aspect Pluto square Eris. We're gonna need all the Chiron we can get.

The Last Time Around: 1968-1977

History is not necessarily the best teacher, though it's helpful to be aware of it if we want to choose something different in the future. In that spirit, let's review Chiron's most recent visit to Aries. This spanned between early 1968 and early 1977, signifying a distinct phase of world history.

(Working with Dale O'Brien, who I quote a little later in this article, I've developed a sense of Chiron in Aries dating back to the American Revolution. The United States has Chiron in Aries; we will cover this in a future article.)

March 26, 1964, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leaning on a lectern. Dr. King was murdered just four days after Chiron made its first ingress into Aries. Today, ordinary civilians are the targets of assassination, but we call it "2nd Amendment rights." With Chiron in Aries, the racial issue tends to surface big time. Photo by Marion S. Trikosko / Library of Congress.

I associate Chiron in Pisces (1961-1969, then 2010-present) with the Beatles. You might think of Chiron in Aries as the post-Beatles Sixties -- the dark and more obviously violent side. Yet there were interesting dynamics, such as individuality ("one small step for a man") and a kind of collectivism (the Woodstock festival).

The events of 1968 were so stunning that when I was living in Paris in the mid-2000s, the phrase Soixante-huit! (Sixty-eight!) still invoked the revolutionary spirit.

There was a massive student movement in Mexico that year, which occurred during the run-up to the 1968 Summer Olympics -- the one where two American medalists gave the Black Power salute. The Mexican protest movement (whose motto was "We don't want the Olympics, we want revolution") was violently crushed by the police.

It was also the year of the Tet Offensive, a particularly atrocious phase of the Vietnam War, and the My Lai Massacre, perhaps the single most horrid event of that war -- which would rage on for another five years despite nonstop protests.

Chiron first entered Aries on April 1, 1968, and four days later, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, which in effect ended the Civil Rights movement. This came one year to the day after Dr. King linked the issues of racial oppression and the war in Vietnam. Just three months later, in June 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles, the night he won the California primary.

During Chiron in Aries, the Watergate scandal took place, as did the resignation of Pres. Richard M. Nixon (notably, Nixon was elected with Chiron retrograde in the last degree of Pisces). The Kent State massacre happened (along with shootings in Jackson and Buffalo). The Supreme Court issued many famous decisions, including Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the women the right to end pregnancies. The Stonewall incident in Greenwich Village in 1969 represented the beginning of the modern LGBT movement.

This was the era when identity politics emerged as the dominant force, something that persists to the current day. The closely unified anti-war movement of the mid-1960s (a direct outgrowth of the civil rights movement of the 1950s) began to fracture into a women's movement, an environmental movement, a student movement, a peace movement, racial equality movements, and many others.

Can you imagine a protest like this today? The time may yet come again, as the conservative majority on the Supreme Court seems determined to overturn Roe v. Wade. This scene is from 1977, during the last year of Chiron in Aries.

A New Age spiritual movement was born, which shunned both politics and sexuality, attempting to define itself with a kind of purist approach to existence. Right-wing politics began to define itself as anti-abortion, pro-guns and based on fundamentalist Christianity.

In essence, during the most recent Chiron in Aries period, the teams were chosen for the political games we are seeing played out today. Everything became a personal issue. Differences were emphasized over commonality.

The term "the personal is political" was coined by the radical feminist collective Redstockings during the phase when Chiron was close to the Aries Point around 1969 -- the first degree of Aries that works as a crossroads between the individual and the collective.

"Identity" is an Aries concept, so it's understandable that one result of Chiron in Aries would focus the issue in some hyperbolic ways. Yet what happened at the end of the 1960s was predictable: identity leading to separation. In the half-century since Chiron ingressed Aries, the left and right wings of American politics have become so polarized that they seem to agree on nothing except nonstop war.

Just in time for Chiron returning to Aries, we are suddenly seeing a shift in the political environment, in the form of people getting together, and previously separate movements joining forces. As one black student said during last weekend's protest, we've emphasized differences for long enough. It's time to emphasize what we have in common.

The Chiron-Mars Dynamic

Chiron in Aries resonates with Mars-Chiron aspects (Aries is ruled by Mars). With those aspects, there's often a struggle between the impulse for aggression, and taking the 'wise warrior' approach to life and its challenges.

Martial arts ritualize violent impulses. The primary emphasis is on discipline, not on aggression. In this way, Mars is turned inwardly and mastered, rather than turned outwardly causing bloodshed.

Marshall McLuhan, in his 1968 book War and Peace in the Global Village, proposed that all violence is a quest for identity, whether national, cultural, tribal or individual. Given the staggering identity crisis society is struggling through (related to the disembodied quality of the internet), we might have cause for concern about Chiron in Aries. And we have a proposed explanation for all the violence we're already witnessing.

There are other ways to use Mars-Chiron dynamics for the purpose of self-discovery, which I'll get into in the last section, on Chiron conjunct Salacia.

You might be familiar with the 'wise warrior' tradition through the work of the Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa, in Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. "The key to warriorship and the first principle of Shambhala vision is not being afraid of who you are," he wrote. "Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself."

This would be an excellent bit of guidance to take on our Chiron in Aries journey. It would seem that the generation of young people who are taking on the NRA have this as a kind of silent credo.

He also wrote, "We must try to think beyond our homes, beyond the fire burning in the fireplace, beyond sending our children to school or getting to work in the morning. We must try to think how we can help this world. If we don't help, nobody will. It is our turn to help the world."

Concertgoers flee the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017, after a gunman opened fire from a hotel room. This is an undisciplined form of aggression, causing only pain and chaos. This is the illusion of power, not the real thing. Photo by David Becker.

This suggestion applies to many people born in the 1980s who feel they are doing their activist work by raising chickens and laying low. After all, the world needs organic eggs. If that is driven by fear of coming forward with one's politics, or the fear of confrontation, it won't be an effective form of activism.

Wednesday night, I checked in with my old friend and colleague Dale O'Brien, someone I consider a pioneer of Chiron awareness.

"When Chiron enters a sign where other outer planets have recently been, he's the triage doctor. Chiron coming behind Uranus and Eris presents an opportunity to bring wisdom to all the outrageous and terrible things that have happened," he said.

"Chiron-Mars dynamics, which apply to Aries, are about being wise about the issue of war, and of the folly of going into war; the true courage to use no violence or minimal violence; or the fearful and cowardly who go to too much violence and aggression."

Chiron in Aries is likely to "focus issues of courage versus cowardly violence. Going back to last time, in the late 1960s, it was the hawks and the doves. There was even a restaurant that opened on Capitol Hill called Hawks and Doves. The hawks tend to be those who don't go to war but send people to war."

Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa is the subject of Johanna Demetrakas's documentary "Crazy Wisdom." He liked to smoke and drink. Tantric masters are generally not what you would expect.

We are seeing this dynamic played out today in young students standing up to the NRA and people obsessed with possessing military-grade weapons in civilian society -- which are then used against civilians.

The war has come home, and the hawks and doves are trying to work out a compromise over the purported right to possess weapons of war.

"Martial arts and the sacred path of the warrior would be an appropriate yoga under Chiron-Aries conditions. The thing about the martial arts is that knowing you could fight means you don't have to.

"The opposite is being afraid that violence could be imposed, therefore I need to resort to wimpy, cowardly violence. Who is doing this wisely, and who is doing the worst possible version of it?" he asked.

Comparing the conditions of Chiron in Pisces to those in Aries, he said, "With Chiron in Pisces, there's compassion and empathy for unnecessary, widespread suffering and death. This is the prerequisite for the action taken with Chiron in Aries. With Chiron in Aries, there's the feeling that we can do something about it, each individual taking a stand against incredible odds."

But this must be peaceful action, he said. "Resorting to violence during Chiron in Aries makes it worse for the underdog who provokes things. To meet violence with violence when you're the underdog is not wise."

Chiron Conjunct Salacia in Aries

When we consider Chiron in the context of sexuality, we come closer to seeking identity through a means other than violence, which at the same time brings us closer to the ground of being. Wherever we may speculate humans or certain human tribes come from, whether Atlantis, Lemuria or the Pleiades, it is a fact that human life as we know it is created by sex.

Salacious, or just fun? This still is from an erotic video where the model never undresses or does anything overtly sexual. She just talks, on the topic of, "I know what you want." This is from a relatively new form of porn, based on psychic intimacy rather than the depiction of sex acts.

Whether this is appealing to you or not, we are all fucked into existence. And all that follows from existence itself, from the atomic bomb to the electric guitar to a vegan banquet, is the result of that fucking. I recognize this is highly controversial -- but the thoughtful question is: why?

This most basic biological truth leads to nearly all of the spiritual conflict propagated by religion. The denial of sex as a creative force leads to sex as a toxic and violent force, which in turn leads to a kind of death obsession and the impulse to kill. Given the choice between better sex with less murder, or less (or violent) sex with more murder, many people would have to stop and think about what they wanted.

This is the prevailing state of confusion today, particularly where sex is polarized by politics -- a condition that dominates nearly all of sexuality, to the point where we forget what sex actually is: a deeply personal form of creative expression and sharing of intimacy.

Contemporary sex culture is dominated by identity. Today someone can say, "I identify as trans non-binary gender queer," and that's supposed to mean something. Yes, but what do you do? How does sex feel to you? Why do you want it? To respond to those questions requires going beyond identity, labels, jargon or self-concept, into the deeper ground of being. To go deeper requires vulnerability. These allegedly precise concepts would seem, on one level, to be a form of personality armor.

Representation of the Greek goddess Salacia, consort of Neptune. The minor planet Salacia was discovered in 2004 and is now conjunct the Aries Point. Chiron will soon be in a long conjunction to Salacia.

People also tend to identify with their sexual wounds, which often seem to never heal. Perhaps because there are methods, but we do not use them; perhaps it's because the discussion of sex is so taboo, and the notion of sexual healing nearly nonexistent, outside of a political realm. Yet to heal from sexual trauma, it's necessary to subtract the political realm and address what is deeply personal. This does not need to be done in isolation, though it's not about "fighting the power."

When Chiron enters Aries, it will be joining a slow-moving planet called Salacia, which made a spectacular appearance in 2017 and 2018 as it was conjunct the first degree of Aries -- the Aries Point. We witnessed (and are witnessing) a good bit of sexuality come to the surface, most of it salacious, set in a corporate or political consciousness. We've evolved from Harvey Weinstein being its poster child to Stormy Daniels taking up the role of sexual culture-bearer.

Yet she is still an icon, a hero to some and a villain to others. This is the thing we need to get beyond: external identification with someone. We need to claim the matter of sex and sexuality first as personal property, and then as collective.

Claiming sexuality as one's birthright, and as an essential factor in existence, is confrontational. It does not feel like blending in or becoming one of the crowd. Yet the confrontation is not really with the world: it's with yourself. Initially, it's about going beyond identity and self-concept and moving closer to core self.

The next layer may feel like sorting out whether one associates sex with toxicity, violence and death, or creativity, love and life. This would seem to be the most delicate personal choice. While it is not a political statement per se, observing that your sexuality is connected to the life force, and therefore all of life, is to stand out and be different. It is the choice to relate to life on entirely different terms from what we have pushed on us, whether by mainstream culture (which views women's bodies and sexual imagery as a way to sell cars and liquor, and views actual sex as a fetish or perversion) or minority culture (which tends to view sexuality as a political statement, or a statement of wounding).

Ephemeris comparing the positions (in longitude) of Chiron (1977 UB) and Salacia (2004 SB60) as they transit through Aries. Chiron's orbit is about 50 years, and Salacia's is about 250 years. Note that the two align in a conjunction through 2019 and 2020. View ephemeris here. Experiment with this tool!

Many people put their sexuality on display, while claiming that it has nothing at all to do with sex (and how dare anyone think so). This is an approach-avoid tactic that is all about body shame.

There's another way to experience sex and sexuality. My hunch is that as Chiron enters Aries and gradually works its way toward Salacia, the sanctimonious edifice of "sexual identity" and "sexual purity" will begin to crumble, and the real thing will be exposed. This will be happening in a time when many other forms of energy are being released, seemingly without the hint of ever stopping (Pholus in Capricorn is involved -- a genie will be let out of the bottle).

While many will truly appreciate the opportunity for personal liberation, this will not all be sweetness and starlight. We're going to need people who are unashamed, unabashed and who know themselves well, to serve as assistants for those who are ready to claim their trauma as their teacher, and their pleasure as their creative expression. Thankfully there are many who have been learning these skills quietly, in the background. It is now time to come forward: to take the risk of being known for what you know, and what you do.

Closer to the point is being entirely comfortable with your body and what it does and feels, and letting go of the toxic shame that has accumulated from generations of avoidance. There are aspects of this that must be done alone, and other aspects that can only be done together.

The bottom line here is learning how to trust and be vulnerable, which is a personal choice, and a personal quest. Though, if you tune in carefully, you may notice that there's no other viable option.

with love,

PS -- I consider the oldest books on Chiron to be the best. While most are written before additional centaurs were discovered, they provide a foundation for understanding Chiron that you must build on through direct experience. These books include The Continuing Discovery of Chiron by Erminie Lantero; Essence and Application: A View from Chiron by Zane Stein; Chiron and the Healing Journey by Melanie Reinhart; To The Edge and Beyond: Saturn, Chiron and the Centaurs by Melanie Reinhart (I consider this to be the best, with its inclusion of Saturn, Pholus and Nessus), and Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets by Barbara Hand Clow. Most are easily found in a used book search. Stein and Reinhart are available new as print on demand.

PPS -- I have written enough about Chiron to fill a book or two. For a basic introduction to the minor planets, begin with this article in The Mountain Astrologer. Then you may visit a comprehensive resource gathering links to all of my articles in one place, lovingly compiled by Amy Blaschke.

PPPS -- At the beginning of Uranus in Aries and Chiron in Pisces, I wrote an article called How to Cross an Ocean; How to Light a Fire. 

Stay Tuned for Spring Reading: Chiron in Aries, Mars Retrograde

Greetings! 

I'll soon be announcing pre-order sales for the Spring Reading, covering Chiron in Aries and Mars retrograde in Aquarius. These transits are related through the Mars connection to Aries. In tonight's issue I introduce the topic of Chiron in Aries, considering its many implications, and looking carefully at the most recent cycle, which started in 1968. 

The horoscope below is a special edition, which tracks Chiron in Aries through the signs and the rising signs, which will give you a little idea what's in store. I also cover the topic for all of the signs in The Art of Becoming.

The Spring Reading is included for Backstage Pass holders. The Midyear Reading, released over the summer, will cover Uranus in Taurus and Venus retrograde.

We'll have the pre-order announcement soon. The price for all 12 signs will begin at $77 and gradually increase as publication time approaches. For now, you can upgrade to the Backstage Pass and have the reading included with your membership. If you already have a Core Community membership, your remaining time will be upgraded to a Backstage Pass.

With love,




New Excerpts From The Art of Becoming -- All Signs

"Wow -- what a reading! I have been struggling for years trying to find that part of me, the one with drive, ambition, fearless aspirations, vision and a mission. Where has this person gone to? Why is everything I do being sabotaged or not manifesting? Now it all makes sense with Sagittarius! The disappearing, going missing, being waylaid. After this reading, I feel renewed, energized and hopeful. This came at a perfect time. Grazie mille Eric -- you hit it on the head again!!"

-- Nanci, on the Capricorn Art of Becoming reading

Dear Friend and Reader:

The Art of Becoming, our inspiring 2018 annual edition, has generated a lot of feedback like Nanci's. Eric's ability to help readers find the best in themselves is one of the qualities our customers and subscribers value the most about our work. This year's annual is no exception.

Click the links below for a snapshot of what this delightful edition contains, with brand-new excerpts from each of the written readings. We recommend you order all 12 signs here in order to benefit from the best value; you may choose your individual signs here.

Navigate directly to your sign preview:

ARIES | TAURUS | GEMINI | CANCER | LEO | VIRGO
LIBRA | SCORPIO | SAGITTARIUS | CAPRICORN | AQUARIUS | PISCES
With best wishes,

Amy Elliott Working and Communicating with the Libra Full Moon
By Amanda Painter

Are you feeling both determined and frustrated this week? The sky is not only building to a Full Moon in Libra on Saturday, there's some additional astrology that may be testing the balance between what you desire, what you feel obligated to do, and what's actually reasonable to try to accomplish.

Tropical flora on Grand Cayman; photo by Amanda Painter.

The good thing about this kind of setup is that when there is friction or opposition from others, it can actually help you get clear on your priorities.

When everything is easy and everyone is mellow, it can be harder to get focused or fired up for what needs to happen. That said, even if you think you know what you want, current aspects suggest it's wise to try on different perspectives, to listen closely to what others are expressing (including reading between the lines), and to move ahead with a measured pace.

The chart for this week's Full Moon speaks to all of these factors, in multiple ways. Exact at 8:37 am EDT on March 31 (12:37 UTC), it has the Moon in early-mid Libra opposite the Sun and retrograde Mercury in Aries.

Straight away, Mercury both retrograde and so close to the Sun (they form a conjunction on Sunday, marking the midpoint of the retrograde), signals that checking one's perspective is wise. Particularly in Aries, are you sure you are seeing beyond yourself and what you want?

Libra Moons are known for their people-pleasing quality. If you've been taking it for granted that others are okay with what you're doing, you could meet some resistance to that as we head into the weekend (the Moon enters Libra at 1:52 pm EDT / 17:52 UTC on Friday ). The thing is, it may not take as obvious a form as it might under other circumstances.

In communication there is what gets said explicitly, and then there's what is implied. With established, intimate relationships, this language of what's implied but not spoken can be where the real communication is happening -- and often what's left unsaid are underlying emotions. It may not be the most direct, mature or effective habit, but it's a real thing; and it's common enough that I suspect this Full Moon serves as a reminder to tune in to that frequency and address it.

Read more...

This Week on Planet Waves FM A Generation Awakens the World

Dear Friend and Listener:

On this week's Planet Waves FM [play episode here], I take a new look at the charts of young people primarily born after 1999, and describe in some detail the factors that I think are operative: Chiron in Sagittarius, Chiron conjunct Pluto in Sagittarius, and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Taurus.

We have coverage from both the New York and Washington March for Our Lives protests, and fantastic music beginning with a masterpiece by the local Woodstock band Go Van Go, called, "How Come Everybody's Got a Gun?"

I also consider this weekend's unusual event of Venus passing through the Uranus-Eris conjunction. When an inner planet joins an outer-planet event, the effect can be highly unusual or unlikely events in society -- and that is exactly what we are seeing happen right now. Something unprecedented is occurring: the survivors of a mass shooting are rising up against an absurd cultural norm. They are speaking in a clear voice, undaunted by the prospect of failure.

Most significantly, they are willing to be confrontational. We have not seen anything like this in a long, long time. We may indeed be witnessing something new.

For some years, I've been analyzing Uranus and Eris in Aries as the digital haze, the hyper-stimulated-and-then-cut-off condition of existing at the bottom of the digital ocean. Any technological effect, however, has the potential to flip into its opposite when pushed to a far enough extreme, and that is what I see young people, nearly all of them born 1999 or later, doing.

For whatever reasons, these young people are especially sensitive to the incoming influence of the Uranus-Eris conjunction that is happening now. For a historic precedent, consider the way in which those with Pluto in Leo were sensitive to the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s.

Please tune in.

With love,

Planet Waves: Heart-Centered Path to Growth

---

Listen to Vision Quest on Live Stream

Planet Waves has an in-house music ensemble, called Vision Quest. We have a 38-hour loop of our music, which you can listen to any time. Included are finished pieces, rehearsals, live concerts, drum grooves, and spoken word recordings. I consider it a kind of musical divination. Click in randomly at different times of day and see what you discover.

---

Four Winds Almanac Now Includes Daily Horoscope

Planet Waves publishes a nifty daily astrology newsletter called the Four Winds Report. Designed as a fast read arriving early in the morning, we're now trying an experiment -- we're including the daily horoscope for everyone.

Were it not for horoscopes, I wouldn't be an astrologer. It was the Patric Walker daily that convinced me there was actually something to astrology, and I got my basic education studying his column each day in the New York Post.

I pack a lot of energy into each sign's 50-word write up. Part of the value of astrology is the timing, and daily allows for precision, as well as chronicling a narrative day by day.

Your almanac also includes information about Mayan astrology (long count and short count dates), several formats of the current date (including Hebrew and Islamic), a daily birthday reading, and special discounts on products and services.

Best of all, we take no outside advertising.

Sign up free here. Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April are published below in this issue. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March on Thursday, Feb. 22. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Thursday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Aries Birthdays 2018 On the Cusp of a New Journey

"I love that he does not just give 'information,' like what planets are coming and going, but also what that means for my sign, and how to make the best use of that transit or placement. Like having the issues that might be a challenge, and he offers insight on how best to work it for my highest good. Always informative! Presented with humor, and sensitivity."
-- Laura Garrity

Dear Friend with Aries Sun, Rising or Moon:

Not only is this your time of year, but this year marks the beginning of a uniquely dynamic time in your life. Just a couple days before the Sun leaves your sign, Chiron arrives for a nine-year journey.

Snapshot of objects in Aries when Chiron arrives. Top to bottom: Chiron, Mercury (in direct motion), Eris, the Sun and Uranus (which is getting ready to leave).

As Eric recently wrote to Aries readers, "It's time to pull your life into focus, and to devote yourself to the changes you know you have to make," adding, "It represents an extended opportunity to devote yourself to a concentrated, meaningful healing process."

Whether you anticipate Chiron's arrival with eagerness to get started on what's coming next, or you're feeling nervous about the changes and challenges in store, one thing is clear: beginning the process with Eric's 2018 Aries Birthday Reading in your pocket could make all the difference in the world.

Eric designs these readings to provide encouragement, reassurance, and actual information about your transits -- in language you can understand, and with ideas you can put into practice immediately.

In the two astrology segments (each at least 30 minutes long), he'll walk you through the opportunities you can expect in your relationships, career, finances, family dynamics, self-esteem and healing process, to name a few typical areas. When you pre-order your 2018 Birthday Reading early, you lock in the lowest price we offer: just $33 for the downloadable audio, the extended description of your sign, and all supporting materials.

Please note that the price will increase the closer Eric gets to publishing your reading.

"Today I was listening to last year's reading and I kept feeling that I needed to get this year's reading; I'm so glad I did. It answered everything, or at least helped me to realize I'm okay and actually very excited."
-- Rhonda Benson

I hope your solar year has begun with a surge of energy and creative ways to use it.

Wishing you the best for your Chiron journey,

Amanda Painter P.S. You can listen for free to last year's Aries reading here, to review Eric's accuracy, before you pre-order the 2018 Aries reading -- for yourself, or as a gift for a loved one.

---

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- You do exist. If you consider that long enough, and carefully enough, you will cause an earthquake. Much of the crisis of our society, its sickness and its violence and its obsession with identity, is all about a struggle to acknowledge existence. There are many ways to do this. Marshall McLuhan, the brilliant and infamous media theorist of the Sixties, said that identity is always established through aggression. I would say that's true, when other more elementary biological factors are missing, such as living passionately, and engaging your sexuality. Chiron is about to enter your birth sign and, after a brief phase-in, will be there for the next nine years. Along with Chiron is a potent, more recently discovered point called Salacia. Representing all things salty, you might say that Salacia offers the opportunity to grow and evolve through understanding and exploring your sexuality. When you combine this with Chiron -- which will be the case for the next few years -- you get an extended, though once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to focus on an aspect of healing that everyone seems to understand needs emphasis, but few know how to approach. And how do you approach it? You just start; and keep reading, having conversations and exploring physically till you catch on to the rhythm. There is a world awaiting you, and the taboo is rapidly falling away. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Inner awareness is a gift, and it's one you can cultivate for yourself. This month, the very search-beam of consciousness -- the minor planet Chiron -- moves into the most sensitive and, in truth, amazing angle of your solar chart: your 12th solar house, Aries. I am always amazed when I hear about the lack of personal association with the notion of inner life or inner awareness, as if the whole universe exists outside of us. You, however, are aware that your reality is mostly within you; and though at times you may feel like a hot mess (particularly in recent years, with Uranus passing through Aries), you are very much awake and alert to your existence within yourself. Chiron is going to focus this for you, and make your quest for identity feel like a natural process -- if you are willing to cooperate. People tend to cling to ideas about who they are, rather than seeking to understand what exactly they are drawing up out of the Earth, and synthesizing into the fabric of their soul. This is not a conceptual process. It's not an intellectual exercise. You are a cosmic being, co-creating yourself with the universal creative force that sustains all life. You bring your absolutely unique approach to existence. Chiron will help you let yourself grow, and let yourself shine. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- Yours is one of the most social signs. This is partly about your being willing to converse with anyone, such as gangsters, monks, fromageurs, philosophers and space aliens. Yet the more interesting thing is why you do that: you establish and stabilize your presence in the world through social means. It would be nice if everyone did that; we would have more potluck dinners and fewer school shootings. However, there is an astonishing social phobia in the world, which is fueled by an obsession with elitism that is just torturing many, many people. Psychologists have studied ingroup/outgroup phenomena for years, and that has not helped matters much. You can, however. Your healing role through the extended run of Chiron in Aries (which will last into 2027) is that of social ambassador. You are excellent at subverting absurd social rules, mainly by walking up to people and talking to them. In everything you do, you will be helping usher people through the barriers, the security checkpoints and the glass walls of our world. This is the work of a master healer; and if you don't qualify today, you will embark on that path. At the outset, consider that what benefits others benefits you -- and that the secret to your magic is self-acceptance. A fairer, more open and communicative world, without absurd social barriers, will be a much happier world. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Chiron in Aries is the transit you've been waiting for. You will either discover your true calling or, more likely, confirm that you've been following it all along. The added factor of Chiron is one of leadership. You must be willing to be visible, and to be an example and mentor to others. And it's essential that you venture into some new territory every single day. You may not think of yourself as a pioneer, though at least you tend to be an early settler in new and unusual country. You are counted on as someone who establishes basic norms, roles and protocols, because your mind works well that way. You might think of these as family traditions. There is more, though. Chiron moving through the 10th has been described in the early literature as taking on the mantle of power. This may be subtle; it may be overt; though one thing is for sure: our world and our society needs a new concept of authority; one that is responsive to people's feelings, needs and personal gifts, and is not strictly centered on profit as its concept of the greatest good. If all this sounds appealing, the potential downside will be the need to live as if you have a TV camera trained on you at all times. In terms of your ethics, you will have zero wiggle room. You don't need much anyway. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- The notion of "God" or even "god" has been so abused over the centuries that it's warned many people off of their natural spiritual quest. Then, looking at things from the other direction, the notion of religion has been turned into a kind of mental virus, turning everything from Coca-Cola to the Republican Party into an act of worship. Yet you have a relationship to existence, and your sense of being and your relationship to the world depend on it. Enter Chiron into your 9th house, which is the astrological sigil of the spiritual quest. This is not about theory or armchair travel: it's about gaining experience. It's about the genuine practice of Know Thyself, seek and ye shall find, and learning as discovering that something is possible. There is an aspect to your journey that will benefit from reading and study, though I suggest you go to the old books rather than the new ones. You want literature written by authors, not marketing execs, and that never came close to the New York Times bestseller list. The way to travel places is by yourself, not with a group. You want the independence to spend three days somewhere that a group might spend three hours. Most of all, you need to seek your own understanding of reality and of existence. This is the beginning of a great adventure. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- Barbara Hand Clow, author of one of the original books on Chiron, said she had very few clients with Chiron in the 8th house, because they were so secretive. Now, Chiron is about to enter your 8th solar house; after a nine-month transition in, it will remain there for almost a decade, which is similar to a natal placement. One thing we can say for sure is that this will take you on a journey through the mysteries of sex, death, transformation, rebirth and money -- all usually cloaked from view or considered too taboo to discuss. Your most vital task in these years will be to practice self-disclosure. Virgo has a way of acting conspiratorially, concealing your plans till the last minute and conducting your life on a "need to know" basis, like in a spy novel. While this focuses your sense of your own power, it limits your capacity for intimacy. It has a way of isolating you, and making you seem self-centered in a way that you don't want to be. Revealing the truth of your reality, especially to the people you consider intimates, is the very essence of what will set you free. Allowing yourself to transcend any fear that might block you from doing this will help you learn how to be vulnerable; which, contrary to popular belief, is the only way to feel safe. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Have you been able to make any sense at all of your relationships during the past seven years or so? There have been nonstop changes, genuinely odd people coming and going, various misadventures, and perhaps some who have stuck with you through thick and thin. With Chiron entering Aries, your mirror house of partnerships, you will soon feel drawn to engaging in a healing process where close partners are concerned. This will apply to relationships in general, and the way that you see and experience the world (all of which also count for your experience of your environment). Chiron is going to drop a lens in front of this facet of your reality, and all at once you will see what you've been missing. I propose one discovery you'll make is that you've learned things you would never give up or do over, even if it meant your life being simpler or more stable. One of the crucial things you did during this phase is a kind of unlearning of patterns and tendencies that may have ruled your life in the past. You now get to re-focus, and redesign your relationships in a way that works for you. Or, at least, you get to set some goals and boundaries, and experiment with whether the people currently in your life are interested in playing along. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- Work is a vital part of your life, your growth, your wellbeing and who you feel you are. This is sometimes said to be an American phenomenon, though anyone who likes going to work is extremely fortunate. Seen another way, such people are not wasting their lives -- and this is something that you of all people cannot do. Your work must be meaningful to you, and you must be the person you really are, when you're in your day job. If this does not apply to you, you can still have a good long (or maybe short) talk with yourself about what you really want to do with your precious time and your precious mind. You have a calling. There is something you want to spend your days doing. Does it pay as well as what you do now? If it does not at the beginning, there's nothing blocking your success in that regard, since you happen to be good with money. However, money is not the issue. Your ability to live with yourself is. Your ability to thrive is. Whatever you do, you will find a way to identify with it. Therefore, invest your energy into what you value, what you can be proud of, and what you can actually love. There is a word for this: Dharma, acting as if to hold the world together. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- You're in something of a personal renaissance. That's a beautiful thing. From the look of your solar chart, you seem open to all kinds of experiences, which you want in actual, physical form -- not in virtual form. You can afford to push your courage, and try things you never would have done, as long as you remember that life is an experiment (which I like to call an experi-o-ment, because it's about gaining experience). Now, Chiron is about to enter Aries. This is going to push the matter more than it already has been, which is quite a lot, over the past few years. If you've been living out your astrology during that time, you may have made a decision similar to my Sagittarius bandmate and music teacher Daniel Marc: you quit being the assistant manager of a little club in upstate New York, so you can play music all the time. This is the moment when your art has to take over your life. Your art is the thing you do where you stay awake and alive the whole time. Your art is where you want to keep extending your awareness, creativity and consciousness into existence, and you don't want to pull back because it gets too intense. Your art is your passion, your true erotic connection, your sense of personal quest, and validation that you're alive for a very good reason. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- The theme of your life these days involves understanding your family connection. Family is tribe, in the closest sense we as members of Western civilization can get to the hunter-gatherers roaming around Africa eating magic mushrooms a million years ago. You identify strongly both with family and with the concept of the tribe; though, with Chiron's arrival in Aries, you may start to question that. The thing with a tribe is that it tends to subjugate, or outright ban, too much individuality. And it would seem that the thing you want the most is to live life as a discrete being rather than as a member of a hive or collective organism. One way to do some reality testing is to consider all the things you cannot say to your family of origin or your family of choice (including your closest friends). What you cannot say may be something you've stuffed so deep under the surface, in order to conform, that you've lost track of it. If you retrieve that feeling, thought or idea, you get a little panicky about whether you'll still be acceptable to those you seemingly identify with so strongly. Pick the thing that would potentially be the most offensive, shocking or embarrassing, and imagine having a little coming-out party. Could you actually do it? Could you say what you really say, do, feel, want, or know is true? For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Yours is somewhat famously the sign associated with inventors, inventions and technology. That's another way of saying that Aquarius is one of the signs most associated with ideas. This appears astrologically for you as Aries, the sign of identity, in your 3rd solar house of ideas. You are your ideas; you cannot help yourself. Others may think you're into abstractions and concepts for their own sake, but they are like food and water to you. Later this month, Chiron will make its first foray into Aries since the late 1960s. Your experience of life as mind as idea as invention will find a new peak and, in particular, a point of focus. Here is a clue: apart from any intellectual pursuit you may spark up, or deepen, the 3rd house is also about your community. It has its origins in describing the little cluster of homes that starts as a family farm and then becomes a hamlet and then a village. This is not community as in all the nurses of the world, or people on a Facebook group; this is the community where you can walk around, open doors and visit people face to face. It's the community that can have potluck dinners and Scrabble night or contra dancing, or a political event; that can get together and solve a vexing problem requiring the brainpower of intelligent people. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Chiron has been in your sign since April 20, 2010. That was a long time ago. In a certain way, despite much other astrology going by, this one transit has been a defining factor in your life. Chiron (a not-so-minor minor planet discovered in 1977) has a way of doing that: it makes itself known, and the more you acknowledge the subject matter that it's presenting, the more productive that is. Chiron can also bring crisis (or one after the next), which would be especially possible if you were born between 1960 and 1968 and experienced your Chiron return in recent years. Yet despite any inconvenience, the role of Chiron is to help clarify and resolve the past, and to put you in contact with your deeper being. It is fair to say that in these past eight years, you have made significant discoveries about who you are. Now that Chiron is entering Aries, you're being called to invest these ideas into yourself, with full commitment. Aries is about taking action, based on what you have learned. You've been experimenting with this for a long time, since there's been no shortage of planets in Aries, going back many years. Yet Chiron's change of signs will enhance your focusing power, help you identify your priorities and, most of all, guide you to connect with the resources (both inner and outer) to make things happen. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

---