What a strange few days it has been.
I was thinking about a topic for this blog and Neptune and Chiron kept coming into my mind. Although their ongoing conjunction is in orb between 2008 – 2011, they are now both retrograde at 27º Aquarius. Since Chiron was only discovered in 1977, this is the first series of conjunctions we’ve had the opportunity to experience.
In my personal life, the presence of these planets has been strong: These last few days I’ve been contemplating impermanence, as an old family friend is in a coma and near death.
I also have someone in my close extended family with 27º Aquarius on the Ascendant. She has Neptune conjunct the Midheaven in the natal chart — unsurprisingly, she has dealt with addictions, but the deeper issue may be about acknowledging and grounding her spiritual gifts and heightened sensitivities.
She is in a powerful moment in her healing journey now as the wounded healer is on the Ascendant — the wisest of the centaurs has come right to her awareness and into her life directly. Chiron conjunct Neptune is so literal in this case: healing her natal Neptune. Neptune has heretofore been difficult for her, as it can be for all of us. This is a multidimensional process — subtle, powerful, potentially life changing, and also very delicate. I can feel the presence of the invisible worlds around her. Chiron is also the shaman, the bridger of worlds; she is surrounded now by people who can guide and hold her into a new state of being.
So, I knew I was being drawn to the archetypes of Chiron and Neptune in my personal life, and I wanted to try to find examples from the global sphere to capture this illusive pair. I knew I was feeling this combination, but putting it into coherent words is another matter.
I had a few obvious ideas as a starting point: The Moon, of course, signifies the public in a national horoscope, and the U.S. Sibly Moon is 27º Aquarius, so somehow the U.S. public is experiencing a long spell of confusion. We are symbolically going through an extended healing crisis. Everyone is feeling confused and that we’ve lost our way — the Tea Partiers, the progressives, all of us on “main street” are feeling some version of anxiety and lack of direction. The latest wave of home foreclosures is a sign of the basic insecurity that people across the nation are experiencing.
President Obama’s South Node is at 27º Aquarius; he is going through some sort of (temporary) diminishment or loss of energy and we are all feeling something similar.
A politically-minded friend (not an astrologer) described her sense of disillusionment with the president yesterday. She said, “What seemed at first like the triumph of the little guy has started to feel like the slickest move yet.”
Transiting Neptune and Chiron on the national Moon: We are all somehow delicate and easily wounded. I was thinking about all of this on Sunday as I took my usual walk (too late to swim) at the lake. (The lake! Ah Neptune, who doesn’t love to be by large bodies of water?)
I was in some sort of Chiron-Neptune trance for my walk. It was an exquisite day and the air felt still and perfect. When I got back to the car, it had been broken into and my purse had been stolen. Quite a lot of cash, credit cards, my Rescue Remedy, etc — all the necessities of modern life.
It took awhile for me to register what had happened. I went through the necessary motions of calling the police and canceling the cards. But my mind had been so far away, in contemplation of greater matters (i.e., thinking about Neptune and Chiron and feeling connected to my friends in their acute healing crises), that it took until this morning to notice that I was in a bit of shock. I was vulnerable. I had been violated and wounded (Chiron). My boundaries were too porous (Neptune).
Transiting Saturn is strong now, too; at 7º Libra, it is at the bending, that is, squaring the nodal axis, now at 7º Cancer and Capricorn. A planet square the nodes is at a critical point and must be integrated into our awareness. With Saturn, we have to look at our own responsibility for what is happening. In this car episode, I have to wonder why I was so foolish as to leave a crack in the window and so much cash in the car?
As I was writing this, a friend called to tell me about an acute violation. A clear agreement in her closest partnership had been broken and she is dealing with a deep sense of betrayal and renegotiation of boundaries. (Again, Chiron wounds and Neptune allows permeability.)
True to this pair, I’m not sure what my main point is here in this blog. I do have a sense that what I was thinking about is also arising in my life, and that it is somehow connected to the magical boundary-less display I can associate with Chiron and Neptune. Although I wanted to focus on examples of Chiron and Neptune in the broader sphere of world events, somehow it all got very personal and close at hand.
As another astrological note, I have the South Node conjunct my solar return Ascendant (19º25’ Cancer) this year. This is the degree of the total solar eclipse on July 11 at 19º23’, so the experience of loss suggested by the South Node is an ongoing theme for me this year.
I’m glad the Moon is in Taurus today and I have no clients. I need to tend to the practical matters of getting a new wallet, driver’s license, etc.
I’ll look forward to your comments and insights.
Have a good week, one and all.