It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work…
— Abraham Lincoln
Chiron resumed direct Pisces motion today after more than five months of retrograde, much as it did a century and a half ago. Chiron occupied Pisces when a disparaged but resolute President of the United States spoke briefly in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 150 years ago to this day. Chiron was stationary to the arc minute, but nonetheless direct when Abe Lincoln directed humans back towards humanity they had lost. Yet, after all this time, the work remains unfinished.
After all this time, the federal judiciary of the U.S. allows the police of New York City to stop and frisk without due cause even though the actual practice is undeniably racist, and hence illegal.
After all this time, many of the states which constitute the United States legislate to deny women autonomy as regards the health care of their own bodies, even though such measures violate the nation’s law.
After all this time, both behind the walls of prisons and on the very streets of America, de facto slavery not only persists but is enfranchised in order to further enrich and consolidate the political hegemony of the very few with most of the wealth and power.
After all this time, Chiron is repeating its performance of November 19, 1863, as a demonstration of its complex and nuanced nature in astrology.
Part of Chiron’s nature is to get your attention. Wherever a quick reflex removes a hand from danger, whenever a noise awakens you to check on a child, however your senses bring you to the moment, Chiron is there.
By emulating a direct station long ago, Chiron is asking you to emulate its nature in turn by persistently petitioning for the attention of so-called public servants — those who prioritize service to dead ideologies of dominion over service to your life, liberty and equality under the law, as mandated by the documents Lincoln cited in his Gettysburg Address.
Another quality of Chiron is how it correlates with the holistic. Wherever people of different races unite in a common interest, whenever anybody acts locally to benefit the world, however you find unity where there was once the illusion of separation, Chiron is there too.
By recalling the place and timing of a turn long past, Chiron is symbolically asking you to keep the most noble efforts of the past whole and alive in the present by at once seeing the big picture of history and the crucial turn your short lifetime takes in history’s making.
Also, in conformation with astrologer Al Morrison’s wry characterization of Chiron as an “inconvenient benefic,” you are asked to understand, as Lincoln did, that the horrible spectacle of brother killing brother in unprecedented numbers can only be redeemed through the living.
Only when you refrain from expressions of malice at every turn, and re-dedicate your life to affirm life itself at every opportunity, are you making a sensible practice of following centuries of senselessness.
Finally, there is healing, both possible and impossible. As the mythical centaur Chiron discovered, healing is impossible even for the greatest healer of antiquity so long as the wound is the focus. Once the focus becomes broader, excluding nothing, and including the wound as part of everything, then healing becomes not only possible, but inevitable — sometimes even appearing to be miraculous.
It is not a miracle that, after all this time, your time has come. It is simply fact. As Chiron has consecrated this day of November by repeating a turn taken on the same day once before, it is simply your turn to make good on it.
Abraham Lincoln is gone, never to return as he was, but you are here. You are here, and Chiron is today implying that humanity is getting yet another chance to do its best work through you. While those that follow will little note nor long remember what was written here today, they will almost certainly never forget what you choose to do with your life. Make it as good as you know yourself to be.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.”
thanks, be.
Lizzy, Strawberry. . . sometimes or even all times, when I become aware that I’m not the only one experiencing a shakeup in my little world; that others worlds (cages?) are being rattled too, it diminishes that Poor Little Me default response to make room for awareness that it (the shakeup) is only part of a process that gets us to a “new place”.
We can easily forget about the rest of the world when personal challenges catch us off guard, and maybe that’s part of the reason why shit happen. Once we get beyond or through the challenge we realize (hopefully) how much we have learned in the process and even understand why it happened. It’s called hindsight!
You don’ have to be a baby to cry either. Physically it drains off excess emotion leaving us better able to cope from a mental place. It has the ability to level out (balance) emotion and thinking, both necessary to problem solve. Yeah, people need people; especially when it all hits the fan!
be
Wow, Be. Once again, I’m with Lizzy. This ” My guess is it is associated with letting go (Pisces) of some structure (Capricorn) that Pluto has unearthed and Chiron is bringing into our awareness through some painful experience” corresponds powerfully with the two emails in my inbox this morning, from friends responding to the newsletter I sent out Tuesday, asking for help because their marriages are in crisis & they’re out of their heads with pain. The astrology truly helps a girl keep perspective. Thank you so very much for this further work.
” My guess is it is associated with letting go (Pisces) of some structure (Capricorn) that Pluto has unearthed and Chiron is bringing into our awareness through some painful experience”. A light wemt on when I read these words, be, and I think it’s the resistance to this process that makes it extra hard. Being conscious of it helps to let go. Thank you.
Many many thanks, sweet be! I seem to be going through some kind of detox on many levels, and it isn’t pleasant. Your words help a lot.
be: Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you!
Excuse me, Mercury started the day with a trine (not a sextile) to Chiron. Also, just so you know, Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963 and Chiron stationed direct on November 21, 1963 at 10 Pisces 13. Damocles was on the ascendant at 12:30 PM in Dallas on the 22nd when the President was shot.
be
It would seem Chiron’s repeat performance of stationing direct in Pisces (recalling for U.S. citizens Abraham Lincoln’s prophetic words and deeds) is part of a bigger picture of connected events. Chiron’s remarkably coincidental pattern with an historical event brought to our attention by Len coincides with Chiron’s sextile to Pluto (exact on October 28th and again in February) who began this month with his 4th square with Uranus in a series of 7. During this month we have also paused to remember the anniversary of another U.S. President gunned down, Jack Kennedy.
The Number 7 is considered irrational in mathematics because it can’t be reduced to a simple fraction. Dividing the 360 degrees of the zodiac by 7 gives us a series of aspects with very special meaning which includes irrationality as part of their manifestation. The most widely recognized aspect in this group is the septile (51 degrees 26 minutes) and right now transiting Mercury is septile to Mars (exact on Sunday). If you haven’t already felt the mutual reception between Mars and Mercury (Mars in Virgo ruled by Mercury and Mercury in Scorpio ruled by Mars and Pluto) then maybe today you felt something as Mercury started the day with a sextile to Chiron and this evening he sextiled Pluto. It is Mercury that ties these points together with a common thread of seeing a bigger picture.
Septiles bring us the energy of larger forces of destiny or fate. Things happen that can’t be explained rationally. Because Mars and Mercury work on the level we experience consciously, you and I may be encountering some illogical happenings that Robert Wilkinson (aquariuspapers.com) calls ” critical forks in the road of destiny”. This conscious effect of the merging of Mercury/Virgo/Mars/Scorpio is also connected to the less conscious energy of Chiron in Pisces and Pluto in Capricorn in some way. My guess is it is associated with letting go (Pisces) of some structure (Capricorn) that Pluto has unearthed and Chiron is bringing into our awareness through some painful experience. On a larger scale this is happening with the multitude of media (Mercury) attention focusing on the tragedy (Chiron) of the assignation of President Kennedy 50 years ago. (A Chiron cycle is 50 years and in November, 1963, Chiron was at 10+ Pisces)
By the end of November transiting Neptune and transiting Pluto will be within a 1 degree orb of their off and on septile which will hold together up to the March 2014 equinox. The septile provides forks in the road of destiny that relate to the earlier conjunction between the two planets. In this case, Neptune and Pluto were conjunct in Gemini at or near 8 degrees where the U.S. natal (Sibly) Uranus is located. Septile aspects are associated with strong polarization, and they undermine the stability of relationships and other structures. There is a need to re-balance views and concepts through wider understanding and increased consciousness when the septile aspect is in effect.
As transiting Chiron has recalled painful moments in history with his station direct, along with his sextile to Pluto and his connection to the Mars-Mercury mutual reception and now, their approaching septile, you will surely recognize it in the news of the day, but also you may recognize this energy in your own personal sphere. Many commenters seem to be going through transitions at this time and it helps to know there is a reason for what happens. Even if it is irrational!
be
be: Thank you so very much for demonstrating your own sense of Zen with your contemplations and correlations. Taking us back to the Chiron discovery chart (which is one of my favorite “natal” charts ever) is a master’s stroke on your part, and completing the connections as you did with current transits and a touch on Sibly add to a more complete (and comforting) picture Chiron himself would have admired.
firegirl: Welcome. Please accept my gratitude in return for your kind words.
aword: Thank you for your generous assessment as well, and for reinforcing be’s point.
Lizzy: My appreciation in turn to you for your gracious support for me and the others who comment here.
P. Sophia: Your cogent synopsis is well taken, and deeply appreciated.
Strawberry: Congratulations and thank you for being so resourceful in your aspirations.
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you for sharing yet again the depth of your connection wiih the Universe, and your gracious support as well.
arrowforwhere: Please accept our gratitude for sharing how this particular moment of your formal matriculation has synchronize so well (an added so profoundly) to the moment of astrology described.
suria: Wow – thank you so very much for a supplemental interpretation both subtle and profoundly deep, ten further correlating it with a generously shared (and revealing) experience of your own. You have revealed yourself as both poet and patiently kind, while revealing additional depth to the astrology also.
Thank you, Len, to me this tastes like good preventative medicine – an anti-amnesiac perhaps?
What you say is so true. I can recall receiving a phone call a few years ago from someone I’d only met once or twice before about 15 or so years previously. A short while into the conversation I realised that he had called me ‘on behalf of someone else’ to ‘have a go’. I allowed him to say what he had to say and about five hours into the conversation I said. “I am not entirely sure what you expect to achieve from this, but the reason I am still on the phone is that when this call started we were not friends; and when it finishes I do not wish us to be enemies. There is no need for that”. About an hour and a half later the call finished. We were not friends. We were not enemies. The next time I saw him was at a the memorial service of a mutual friend. It always amuses me that death seems to focus minds brilliantly, despite the occasional resurrection. I suppose it’s the facticity of it as the ultimate change. Do we really need to be reminded of our mortality in order to live? in order to live well? All very Chironic, yes – Chiron station with the Sun in late Scorpio.
I reckon there are at least a few good alternatives…perhaps I’ll take some time out and write them down.
“I am very glad to see that you are here,” he said. “I am glad you appreciate my being here”, I replied. Then we all did the eat, drink and be merry thing.
Miracles are always possible. We have only to allow them the space to do their magic.
Yeah Strawberry! Go girl! What a great time to start!
Would love to see it, when you feel ready.
Dreamed last night that I was holding a group of healing amd meditation for traumatised women, and woke up this mornng thinking that eventually, that’s what I’d like to do. But in the meantime, needs must…
Your healing sounds amazing, Chief Niwots.Son, ‘My mind cannot name the healing, but I know it more deeply.’. Wonderful!
Hi Len, thanks for your great article. I have been taking a class this semester simply called “Minority Groups” One of our main texts is Takaki’s “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America”, an amazing book. One of the main liberating things I’ve learned is how racial prejudice was really a sort of propaganda creation by rich elites to justify the beginnings of slavery and pit whites against blacks. This decision was made, in part, by the rich elites because of the fears engendered by white and black indentured servants banding together to protest broken promises of payment once there contracted servitude was complete(holistic chiron) There were actually free black folks in this country prior to the gradual establishment of slavery as we know it and some of them were landowners. And this week we begin on the American Prison system…. One thing about studying the real history of this country: you see how the underhanded coercive methods of of the political elite have roots way , way , way in the past.
Thank you! It’s been that kind of week. The spry young thing holds, however 😉
Strawberrylaughter- your imagination is playing tricks on your memory, I am far more spry than that! I did mention that I share a birthday with JFK, but not a birth year. Thanks for your good wishes.
Chief Niwots Son, am I imaging things, or did I hear you say you were born before 1917? (This week, anything is possible.) You sound like such a spry young thing!
Happy to hear you came out of the mill renewed. Seems many of us took that Full Moon in quite personally 🙂
Oh, it was Chiron! Yesterday was hard, my organism went through the Mill, ground to dust. This morning I awoke feeling resurrected, experiencing a somatic freedom that has been elusive for some time. My mind cannot name the healing, but I know it more deeply.
Congrats Strawberrylaugther, for going ‘live’ and putting yourself before the world in alignment with your purpose.
“It is not a miracle that, after all this time, your time has come. It is simply fact. As Chiron has consecrated this day of November by repeating a turn taken on the same day once before, it is simply your turn to make good on it.”
Indeed. I finally went live on my website, newsletter and facebook today. Sigh. Hello, visibility!! And thank you, Len, for everything.
Forgiveness! Thank you Len for illuminating the truth of this aspect in it’s precious time.
To us, all -the courage and clarity to reach for that light, in faith
In creation –
Going for that Garland of Gold, in acceptance and humility
Yes, as aword wrote, “your blog today contains one “gem” after another”, dear Len. Thank you so much. Am feeling Chiron’s shift particularly strongly.
And thank you, aword, for your beautiful and inspiring comment.
I think it’s alll good, Be. That is, I have come to recognize that my children (our new generation/s) ARE healing That is ‘healing’ as a noun. My “job” is to be a part of this healing (adjective) the best way I can be – and the more I look to the children for my knowing of what “healing” is, the more I can find my way – blind though I am. I have felt like Sysiphus for a long long time, and in this moment I feel movement and freedom. Let’s hope – like much of my personal astrology being on the mark here politically – that this is so.
Len, your blog today contains one “gem” after another – just as did Lincoln’s address to Gettysburg.
You don’t need me to repeat your words for you – but as with Lincoln’s words, many of yours also bear repeating;
“whenever anybody acts locally to benefit the world, however you find unity where there was once the illusion of separation, Chiron is there”
“Once the focus becomes broader, excluding nothing, and including the wound as part of everything, then healing becomes not only possible, but inevitable”
It’s that feeling of being both large and small at the same time, that of being but a part of a cell in the organism of the universe, yet being all of the universe at the same time. I’ve had that feeling since I was a child and it was not my mind playing tricks. We are indeed small enough to do one focused act, each moment, to heal. And that healing, one moment at a time is changing the world. Thank you Len.
“Only when you refrain from expressions of malice at every turn, and re-dedicate your life to affirm life itself at every opportunity, are you making a sensible practice of following centuries of senselessness.”
Wow Len. Simply brilliant astrology and writing throughout. Gratitude.
Well, indeed this is my moment of Zen Len. Were it not for you I would not know that Chiron was in Pisces when Pres. Lincoln spoke in Gettysburg, and that Chiron was stationed direct at the time. Such profound implication to our present time is not without a sense of weariness that so much remains to be done. What are we not doing right? We are too focused on the wound itself. Why is it taking so long to fix the broken parts? Like Sisyphus, we just keep pushing the rock up the hill only to see it roll back down again.
Perhaps today as Chiron retraces his own history, his own chart might shed some light on the matter. Today transiting retrograde Amor the asteroid sits on 3+ Taurus, the degree where Chiron was when discovered. Rapidly approaching Amor is retrograde asteroid Hygia only arc minutes away from 3+ Taurus. A conjunction between two symbols, one that symbolizes love and the other that symbolizes healing, both retracing the path they share that, at the moment, is on the very degree Chiron was when our consciousness was finally ready to recognize him. When they go direct they may or may not meet again at this degree, but they will have joined in retrograde and thus have started a new cycle combining their energies of love and healing with the energy of the great teacher Chiron.
Also today transiting Sisyphus is at 19+ Scorpio and opposes the U.S. natal (Sibly) chart’s Vesta at 19+ Taurus, a degree where, this past May, a solar eclipse occurred. If Sisyphus symbolizes the repeated efforts (rolling the big rock up the hill over and over) for naught, and the U.S. Vesta symbolizes what America focuses on and is committed to then having transiting Sisyphus in opposition can look like an exercise in futility. Perhaps this is what you mean when you say “once the focus becomes broader, excluding nothing and including the wound as part of everything, then healing becomes not only possible, but inevitable – sometimes even appearing to be miraculous.”
It appears we must persevere for the sake of history and our own humanity. Thanks Len.
be