Chiron and the search for extraterrestrial life
The Search for Life
Dear Friend and Reader:
About 10 weeks before the Nov. 1, 1977 discovery of Chiron, astronomers at Ohio State University picked up a signal from deep space. OSU was the origin and home of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, founded in 1973. Its “Big Ear” telescope, assembled by students and shown in the photograph below, was located on the grounds of a neighboring liberal arts college, Ohio Wesleyan University.
The Wow! signal was long considered the most promising candidate for an extraterrestrial signal ever received by Earth radioastronomers. It was a 72-second signal picked up by the Big Ear, surging way above the background noise level. Nothing like it has ever been detected again.
Film buffs will recognize the Wow! signal as being the inspiration for early events in the movie Contact: SETI picking up an interstellar signal from a nearby star. But the true quest of Chiron is not about finding life “out there,” but rather “in here.” The word for this from psychology is retroflection.
Historical Events and the Inner Quest
When I delineate a newly discovered planet (or any modern planet), I take into account historical events proximate to the discovery. So for example with the first discovered planet, Uranus, discovered in 1781, we find ourselves in the age of nascent science and electricity, and those are indelible parts of its delineation.
The era of Chiron’s discovery was one where human potential was an active concept, but so too was an outwardly focused emphasis on what you might call magical spirituality. Then there were historical events.
In 1977, Voyager I and II were launched within weeks of the Wow! signal. The first Star Wars film was released that May. So people’s minds were on the cosmos. Humans in fact were reaching out. Carl Sagan chaired the committee that created the sounds on the gold records shipped with the twin Voyager spacecrafts.
The records included spoken messages in 55 different languages; natural and human sounds, including thunder, whale songs, footsteps, and a heartbeat; a 90-minute selection of global music, featuring works by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven alongside traditional music from around the world and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”; and 115 analog-encoded photographs and diagrams depicting human anatomy, science, nature, and human culture.
What the Wow! signal would sound like, if it was sound.
Standing Out from the Background
One of the earliest concepts with Chiron is where one stands apart (originally stated by its discoverer as “maverick”). The Wow! signal certainly stood out and apart from the usual background of cosmic static, a property that can rightly be ascribed to Chiron.
The question, though, surrounds whether the Wow! signal was some kind of meaningful communication; was it a surge of background static, or was the Big Ear picking up the signal of a distant event that could have occurred millions of years ago?
I think that the same question must be applied to Chiron in the lives of individuals. There are often events where people say Wow! and there exists the question of whether that thing was meaningful in the context of their life.
The Quest for Wholeness
Chiron describes the quest for wholeness; it is the very sigil of holistic consciousness. As a verb, a life action, Chiron represents psychological and spiritual integration. Most people experience this as background static.
Yet this can be turned into a Wow! What might manifest as an instinct for holistic health is often experienced as doctor visits and diet fads. Spiritual instincts are frequently directed at religion, a guru or the latest self-help meme.
Chiron is commonly experienced as living from one crisis to the next. This is a sign that its process is being pushed out of awareness into what some call “the unconscious.” Chiron events can represent a wake-up call, though often these are missed.
Wow! and the Big Ear as Metaphor
When Chiron was discovered, a small group of astrologers listened. Because there had never been the discovery of a planet or asteroid in its unusual orbit, it stood out. As far as I know (and I’ve been actively curious) there has never been the kind of systematic, collective search for the meaning of a new planet that soon after its discovery, nor has it happened since.
When I began astrology in the mid-1990s, it had been just 10 years since the first Chiron books started coming out, so it was still a new influence. Many of the leading astrologers I interviewed were not interested. As Jonathan Cainer wrote in around 2005. “The jury is still out on Chiron.” But was it charged with any crime?
From my own transits I could see the profound influence that the cycle had. I learned early — in fact, from reviewing my first astrology reading — that I needed to use Chiron as a guide to sounding out my clients’ charts. I did this by checking the effects of a series of Chiron transits in the client’s life.
Chiron Reveals the Nature of the Moment
From both this process and the example set by homeopathy, I developed the skill of listening to my clients and letting them reveal the true nature of their chart, as they experienced it. Then, I could use astrology to go deeper.
Among the lifetime Chiron events, many times I checked late 1977. Almost always, it was one of the crucial turning points in a person’s life. Now, we are all about to get a Chiron key life transit as it returns to its natal position in April for the first time since its discovery.
We live in an era of big astrology. Much has happened since the great waves of 2020 and 2026. The cycles of time and providence have saved the best for last.
With love,
Your faithful astrologer,
