By Len Wallick
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Let’s get right down to it.
This morning at 5:40 am EDT in the United States, retrograde Chiron returned to Aquarius. There it will station direct on Nov. 6, 2010. Finally, it will come back to Pisces on Feb. 9, 2011 where it will stay until early 2019.
Tomorrow morning at 11:12 am EDT, Saturn direct will return to Libra where it will stay until late 2012. Saturn briefly visited Libra this year, returned to Virgo for one last cleanup visit, and is now about to move on to the new sign, rejoining the cardinal cross T-square from Libra.
Before you ask, “What does it mean?” pause to consider that you may already know. From patterns in your own life. Especially patterns of relationship. Feel this one out.
These are no ships passing in the night. Chiron and Saturn have had a long and auspicious relationship of their own. Chiron’s orbit crosses that of Saturn, which tells you most of what you need to know. If Saturn is a boundary, Chiron is the way through. That said, the two energies can feel identical at times. Chiron has a lot of Saturn to it.
Their mutual sign transitions on successive days continue the theme implied by the recent eclipse cycle. A theme that has integrated into the the continuing story of the cardinal t-square that we are in the process of writing: relationships are evolving because they must. Today and tomorrow are part of that evolution. [Please see footnote from Eric at the bottom of this article, explaining how outer planet sign transitions work]
Let’s start with December 2001. That’s when Chiron moved into Capricorn, a sign ruled by Saturn, the sign of the established order. This just a few months after the event we now refer to a 9-11, and concurrent with the Enron scandal, the Worldcom scandal and the collapse of auditing giant Arthur Anderson. Pause to consider how the end of 2001 was so different from just a year before when we celebrated the beginning of a new century, a new millennium. Everyone’s relationship to the established order had fundamentally changed. There was a splitting apart inside the egg and a massive collapse of integrity.
For some of us, it became a fanatic devotion to preserving and protecting the institutions, structures and framework of a culture upon which we depended, identified with and which now seemed threatened.
For others, it started a process of questioning whether the moral, economic and governmental order we had been given was serving its ostensible purpose, or was even relevant. We were questioning whether it was the enemy we should be fearing and fighting.
Then, in February 2005 Chiron did a double dip very much like it is doing now, only that time, it was from Capricorn to Aquarius, another sign ruled by Saturn*. In May it stationed retrograde while still in the first degree of Aquarius. In August it returned to Capricorn where it stationed forward in October. Chiron finally entered its second ingress to Aquarius in December and ushered in a new stage of relationship. There was a coming together outside the egg.
Think back.
What went back and forth for you in 2005? What forms of trial and error did you experience? How did your relationships shift with the government? With banks? With the health care system? Where did you feel connected? When did you experience alienation?
Another thing about 2005 is that we had just started a series of oppositions between Chiron and Saturn, which took their relationship to an even deeper level of discovery, and another layer of connection. The oppositions began Dec. 26, 2004 when a massive undersea earthquake generated a tsunami causing unprecedented damage and loss of life in Malaysia and Southeast Asia and beyond. There was a notable psychological component to that event as well. It made an impact on our consciousness that lingers to this day. All were touched and felt an awakening to a new awareness of our common existence.
Today, as Chiron starts a last, short sojourn into a Saturn-ruled sign we are experiencing yet another event originating on the bottom of the ocean. It started with Chiron’s recent ingress into Pisces, an event for which human beings are undeniably responsible, the consequences of which have yet to be calculated, and there seems no precedent for resolution. But like the Asian tsunami, the petroleum eruption in the Gulf of Mexico has touched us deeply in a place where we all live. We are aware of that place once again, awakening to a new awareness of our common responsibility.
So it is that with Chiron’s last foray into Aquarius, Saturn is still in the picture. But the relationship is not what it was. The ringed one is moving on. Saturn has completed its back and forth. Been there, done that. After tomorrow it will also be done with Virgo again for nearly three decades. Now instead of opposing Chiron for the first of five times it is applying to oppose Uranus for the last of five times. After a long, long time in a series of signs where it has been, to say the least, uncomfortable, it is finally making ingress to a place where its energy is welcome and honored. Such is the quality of its exaltation in Libra.
Perhaps more than any other planet, Saturn is in the process of putting the past behind. This will of course be a gradual thing. As long as it is in a cardinal sign it will have at least a quality of participation in the prolonged tension between Uranus and Pluto, just now shaping up. Then there is this little matter of Jupiter, original ruler of Pisces, now in Aries and soon to start its own back and forth. That alone will keep Chiron and Saturn in touch. But relationships have a purpose and when that purpose is served it is perfectly natural for them to change. Chiron and Saturn are growing apart. More and more, they will have less and less in common.
New challenges are even now presenting themselves. These challenges will require an appropriate response. The patterns of the past will not serve the purpose. What we are given will no longer be what we need. Our survival will depend on what we can create, not what we can preserve. We need to know that.
How ironic that an old stick-in-the-mud like Saturn would be the first one out the door. Then again, it’s comforting to know that the planet of conformity is behaving like we have a future. A future we will be able to adapt to by developing a new paradigm of relationship.
Offered In Service
*Note from Eric about outer planet retrogrades. Those new to astrology may wonder why these planets dip back into the old sign on the way into the new sign. That is, for example, why Saturn entered Libra, retrograded back into Virgo, then went back into Libra. This is an illusion caused by the movement of the Earth within the solar system. It’s a perspective shift, called parallax movement. Move your head and the room seems to move; that is what is happening with the Earth and distant planets such as Pluto, Saturn, Chiron, etc. Usually a slow-moving planet will re-enter the old sign before moving into the new sign “to stay.” This is what’s happening with Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron and Uranus now — they are all involved in sign changes wherein they cross back and forth from one sign to the next. For example, soon Jupiter and Uranus will retrograde back into Pisces.
Patty and BK, Thanks. That’s good to hear about how Saturn affected your second and tenth houses. Maybe the changes my husband and I have already made will be just what the Saturn ordered. 😉
Oddly enough, yesterday my husband went into the local Catholic mini cathedral (complete with outside gargoyles), lit a candle, got on his knees and prayed “God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, whoever you are, are you listening?” Seconds later the bell tower began tolling the hour. Then today he got a call from a principal in a city that is around 60 miles from here; they want to interview him for a teaching job for sixth grade. They were impressed because he has taught on the reservation (long-term substitute) and student taught out there too so he has experience with Native kids. Not our first choice (because of how far away it is and the commute it means) but hey…who is complaining? Not us; we are hopeful.
Now if I could just start writing……all my friends keep telling me I should write my life story AND compile a book of all the useful (their word) stuff I know. Finding time is the issue; I need to get together 180 days of lessons for my son for this school year. That is a daunting task in itself!
Today I found out my thyroid is low for the first time in my life. Maybe that’s why my metabolism is so slow? But my testosterone is too high…now THAT is why I have been such a horn-dog lately! LOL! Must be the maca root affecting my testosterone.
Thanks again everyone. I learn so much in this place!
Carrie, I actually have found that saturn on the second house is not such a bad placement. It can create new sources of income where an old needs to dry up for reasons only spirit knows. My husband lost his job during that transit, but had he kept working he might have died. At the same time, I got a promotion and with his retirement, it equaled what we were previously making – and he began creating a new much needed life for himself. During my 10th house saturn I received another promotion (late cancer/leo). The universe punishes wrong behavior, rewards the good – as in humble, behavior. That’s been my experience over 59 years.
The year my husband got sick I was freaking out about how to pay for everything. One night i went outside and offered tobacco as a prayer request for 4000.00 to pay for the furnace and air conditioner I had just bought (not knowing I’d be so broke). I went back in the house and on the news came a tornado warning. The tornado hit our property 10 minutes later and did quite a lot of damage to the roofs of the house and garage and decimated 16 large trees. We contracted the work out from the inurance payment (we had two estimates from contractors). Then found a friend of my brother who did remodeling at reasonable rates. He knocked at the door, and my daughter answered, then came to tell us that “charles manson is at the back door” in her deadpan way, and we laughed nervously. Yes the guy was odd, but he was fantastic, and the work he did on our house was pure art. When he finished and we paid him, we had exactly $4000.00 left over. Spirit works in mysterious ways. The contractor and his children ate lunch with us a few times, and he always said grace. I got over a lot of prejudices that year – 1995.
I can feel your sigh of relief Virgos! With Libra in my sun and venus, I am all eyes and ears. The last 2 years have been anything but a respite, and I am so so wanting a little break 🙂 Some sunshine please.
With Saturn going into Libra for (gasp!) 2 years I fear it may be too much to ask…
onward and upward I suppose.
Any advice, Virgos?
An out of sorts Libra…..,
ZK
gladys & shebear (& all), i toast with you at 9.11mst for this blessed release of saturn from virgo, and for blissings as we begin again with libra (mine’s in venus too) – SALUD!!! 😉
Hi Carrie,
I can appreciate your concern over Saturn transiting into your 2nd house, and your husband’s 10th house, what with all the anxiety you have experienced for the last five or six years. My heart goes out to you guys and all the other Americans who are in similar situations. I just wanted to remind you that Saturn isn’t just limitation though. Just as important, it is structure and containment.
Saturn will be the first big guy out of the cardinal t-square that has us all in it’s grip. Just keep the faith that you are on the right track even though it is extremely scary, what with little children to consider. It sounds like you have a wonderful family, and since you didn’t mention any illness, I pray that you all are well and stay that way.
Just remember that Saturn can be your friend and rewarder; he DID have something to do with your weight loss since he was in your first house! Saturn increases our wisdom through experiences that test us and I’m betting that you will be strengthened and find the spiritual community you seek after Saturn moves into Libra. Good luck to you and your lovely family.
be
In 2005, my husband lost his job (the second job loss in a year) and we almost became homeless. We filed for bankruptcy that year and felt so isolated. The kids slid into a depression and that lasted through the next year (2006) when my husband got and lost three jobs in a different city. All in all, he lost SEVEN jobs between 2004 and late 2007. This depleated all our savings. It was a family nightmare. He went back to school in late 2005 because, unable to find work, we needed the student loans to live on and support our four kids. I went back to school in fall of 2006 to increase the student loans because his were just not enough in the rising cost of living economy; all our expenses kept going up (rent, food, utilities).
I am not happy about Saturn going into Libra because it will cross my second house cusp (house of personal finances) in November. This measn it will cross my husbans’s 10th house cusp his career) at around the same time. We are still on very shaky financial ground so having Saturn (limitations) strike both of us in places that have to do with our very already limited income is frightening. I am still in school but though my husband graduated, there are no jobs for his teaching certification despite the fact that when he began that master’s program they needed teachers desperately. We thought of moving but that was so costly that we couldn’t do it (no savings left) and the local school district isn’t hiring. Even the not-so-local districts are not hiring. So, we will continue to live on my student loan money and his substitute teaching pay ($75 a day) and hope for something to improve. His longer than usual student teaching (the first teacher was flunking him because he was a male teacher) and the lack of work over the summer means we will get very little Earned Income Credit next year as well.
I have twins who will be 18 this fall and they need to be able to start doing their lives but our situation is keeping them from getting work (no jobs) or driving (we can’t afford the exctra insurance). They will try to get Pell grants to start half-time online at a local community college.
Chiron going backward means my Chiron return may feel like it will never end.
Both my husband and I feel like we need some kind of friends and a sense of community with a spiritual outlet but we are so different from most people that the packaged religions (I think of them as akin to insurance policies that you have to take or leave the whole package) don’t work for us. We are in our 50’s, have young children in the house, have no retirement in sight, act and think younger than most people our age, and are open minded, aware thinkers and intuitive caring people. We are pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, and just not religious.
Despite all this, the eclipse seems to have made a huge difference in my sex life; after several years of having NO libido, both my husband and I have found a diet that helped us lose weight (he 25 lbs, me almost 60) and suddenly we have been having a very active sex life again. That’s a very good thing for both of us.
So to sum up: we are broke, having no idea what the financial future holds except the same scary holding pattern we have been in since 2004, feeling isolated and in need of some spiritual community, have four kids to still finish parenting, but we are having a great relationship and sex life.
Gladys, I think I’ll join with you and do a little hollering myself around 11:12 EST tomorrow, as we both wave bye-bye to Saturn’s passage out of Virgo! It was definitely challenging to say the very least and while I know I’m all the better for it, I’m eager to see what gets created in the land of Libra.
If you hear a loud cheer tomorrow morning somewhere around 8:12 PST – it’s only me, a Virgo with Saturn in Virgo celebrating the end of two of the roughest years of my life. One of my toughest lessons during this time was about my changing relationships. I hesitate to celebrate, however, since Saturn is moving into Libra and this will be a two year period about relationships – and this Virgo just happens to have her Venus in Libra. Oh my goodness – I thought I was going to get a little bit of a break here – to recharge the batteries of my heart and soul – but I can see where my new ‘challenges’ will be working hard for another two years creating the relationships that are the best for me. I hope I’ve learned my lessons the past two years and that Saturn in Libra won’t leave me as emotionally battered and bruised as it did while it was in Virgo.
Just when I think I’ve found understanding that digs all the way deep to the bottom of things, you take me another level and teach me more – much (and profoundly) more.
Thanks, Len.
Hello all, here is a directory of those articles.
http://snipurl.com/chiron-eric-francis
I also suggest this:
http://planetwaves.net/smallworlds/contents/planets/chiron.html
and this very old one:
http://planetwaves.net/Chiron2001.listening.html
yesterday i felt moved to read some of Eric’s articles on Chiron. I then drew out its transits to my angles. I noticed that they coincided with some MAJOR life changing events in my life—one in particular at the age of 9–I was shocked.. though I knew I shouldn’t be.
Here, Today I find out that yesterday was Chiron’s… last day in Pisces before retreating back into Aquarius…
Thank you for the external validation. In 2005, I separated from my husband, sold my home on the East Coast, my father died, and I moved to the West Coast. This meant leaving behind all of my East Coast relatives from previous generations, and reconnecting with West Coast relatives of my own (and the next) generation (brothers and sister and nieces and nephews).
Now, in 2010, I have been feeling the urge to move again. I’ve pretty much done what I came here to do. I finalized my divorce, I spent time with my family, I watched my nieces and nephews grow up. Most of them have left home now–off to college, etc. I am nearly done taking care of the “unfinished business” I had with my brothers and sister here. Got to let them grow up, as well (I am the eldest child–time to trust all of them to make their own way in the world). Also, to realize that nothing stays the same: This town is not what it was 20-30 years ago, when I was here in school, and no longer supports me or offers what I want or need.
Moving again feels necessary, but produces both anxiety and anticipation. Holding on to the past, experiencing and grieving loss, provokes the anxiety. Being in touch with the reality of now motivates me to anticipate the excitement ahead. Talk about back and forth!
So, time to say goodbye to so much, to move on. Time to address some fundamental questions:
Who am I now, and who am I becoming?
What is my purpose?
Where can I best fulfill my reason for being?
So, the adventure begins anew.
Thanks to Planet Waves for its guidance on my journey.
mermaid
“If Saturn is a boundary, Chiron is the way through. ”
Lovely, and something to meditate on today. Thanks!
After a long, long time in a series of signs where it has been, to say the least, uncomfortable, it is finally making ingress to a place where its energy is welcome and honored. Such is the quality of its exaltation in Libra…. Our survival will depend on what we can create, not what we can preserve.
Thank you especially for these reminders today, Len. Namaste.
“How ironic that an old stick-in-the-mud like Saturn would be the first one out the door. Then again, it’s comforting to know that the planet of conformity is behaving like we have a future. A future we will be able to adapt to by developing a new paradigm of relationship.”
How comforting it is Len, to know that on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning, you turn up here at PW to consistently affirm that hope for a brighter future. The rhythm has a Saturnalian feel to it and this Virgo likes it!
I vivdly recall my 2005 as being a c-razy roller coaster ride that is eerily familiar to this year. I was finding it hard to admit that to myself that it’s a “Here we go again” situation, but it is sadly that. However, I’ve been calling 2005 my dry run, because knowing that I survived it and learned from it, has given me the possibility of moving forward with a greater confidence, to make this time around completely different.
It feels mighty fine, I must say!
Here’s to all our brave new worlds unfolding.
As within so without.