Editor’s Note: It seemed that every bar, supermarket, streetcorner and subwoofer in town had Jacko blaring through the city over the weekend. The shockwave of MJ’s passing continues to linger throughout the world, his back catalogue wailing ubiquitously through the streets, honouring and healing. As Eric mentioned previously, Nessus was the most prominent planet (really, a centaur planet) in MJ’s death chart, an energy that relates to patterns of abuse: physical, psychological and sexual. With the Moon currently trine Nessus in mid-Aquarius, below is refresher on Nessus written by Eric Francis, republished from Next World Stories, our 2009 annual edition of Planet Waves.
— Cam Hassard
New York City
Nessus is a Centaur planet that assists with identifying and healing of abuse patterns. But on another level, it reveals the complex interplay of causes and effects; of stated motives, underlying motives and of outcomes. While it can address cycles of karma, the most poignant key concept comes from Melanie Reinhart: the buck stops here, indicating that in some situations it speaks to the conclusion of the karmic cycle involved: the truth revealed, the perpetrator caught, the situation resolved, responsibility taken.
Though it comes with a particularly nasty myth, its effect is not necessarily malefic; it can just as easily help with resolving difficult situations as it can be involved with their creation. Someone with a strong or well-aspected Nessus may have used their own struggle, sense of guilt and deep feeling of personal responsibility to evolve into a position of being truly helpful to others with many of the same issues. While a price was paid for this gift, few would doubt that it was worth it.
Nessus was the third-ever discovered Centaur (discovered in 1993) and was, notably, the first planet named at the recommendation of astrologers. Its orbital period is 122.5 years, and it crosses the orbits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
In mythology, Nessus is part of the cycle involving the deaths of Chiron, Pholus and himself. In this group of connected stories, Chiron, an immortal, was injured accidentally and dies by choice after a long struggle, during which he creates many drugs and remedies.
Pholus was killed instantly due to his idle curiosity, and his death seems to be the pointless consequence of his unconscious actions.
Nessus was killed by Heracles in revenge for having sex with Heracles’ wife Deianeira. He manages to kill Heracles in return using Deianeira as a kind of unwitting contract murderer whom he deceives into ending her husband’s life years later. Of the three, Nessus’ death is the most complex, which is noteworthy because a structural key to understanding the action or meaning of a Centaur planet is how the Centaur dies in the myth. Death, as in the tarot, represents the means of transformation.