by Robert Wilkinson
Yes, Chiron is about to go stationary retrograde at 9:41 am PDT on July 15! We now get a review of what we have learned about healing/mentoring, whether our own or another’s. This gives us a new look at a potentially new identity if we don’t get too impatient with the process.
As Chiron is not merely “the wandering, wounded healer” but also the first, best mentor and teacher we could ever have, it helps us to “heal into our Higher Self” by mastering whatever lessons of science, philosophy, logic, healing, and yes, astrology we are offered. Because Mars was conjunct Chiron in July 2020 on its RX station at 10 Aries, we’re still only halfway through that two year cycle of healing by learning how to take the initiative in healing ourselves or mentoring others in our own unique way.
While Chiron is in Aries, it will be helpful to remember that Aries can only do what it does in its own way. As the first sign, it literally is inspired motion itself, moving on its own initiative toward whatever Light and/or heat it feels will bring the seed life to the surface, where it may acquire substance in Taurus. Chiron in Aries is healing and mentoring us in Aries ways; with the 2020 Chiron retrograde station conjunct Mars, this long cycle is a “flame on” to our healing, our learning, our teaching, and our journey from suffering in our woundedness to being a Master of breaking the link between the pain of life and the suffering of the lower ego.
At this point, Chiron begins its retrograde review of a span of degrees it’s occupied since mid-March. It will RX back to 9 Aries through December, when it will again go stationary direct. That means we got our first look at 9-13 Aries between March and now, and will get our “look back” at the same emotional, social, and cultural span, as well as part of the individual, mental, and spiritual span of the desire to differentiate through the end of the year.
The Sabian Symbol for Chiron’s Retrograde Station
This retrograde station falls at 13 Aries. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for 13 Aries is “An unsuccessful bomb explosion.” In the original Jones class notes Dane Rudhyar published in The Astrology of Personality, he states this degree is about “intangible fears of nascent selfhood” and “the creative stirring up of a new perspective and a new identity suddenly revealed.”
In The Astrological Mandala,, Rudhyar offers us a somewhat negative interpretation involving “an immature evaluation of the possibility of transforming suddenly the status quo.” He says this degree represents a “conflict between two concept-feelings of order,” where ego is set against some sort of formal order. He states this is “a symbol of immature refusal to conform, in the name of an overidealistic desire for harmony and peace.” He states this is in the Span of Realization, and is the synthesizing degree of the individual, mental, and spiritual level of Desire in the Act of Potency.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, offers a different view. He states this degree “is a symbol of the survival of good through evil intention and effort, and of the infinite capacity of the world to absorb and nullify the destructive acts of man.” He offers this degree is not about the success of evil deeds as much as a need for better actions arising from the deeper authentic Self.
He goes on that this symbol is “an almost complete exemption from the normal penalties for unsocial result of a hapless initiative,” and offers us the keyword IMPETUOUSNESS. He says when operating in a positive way, this symbol is “a dramatic rejection of any accomplishment falling at all short of very deep or hallowed purpose.”
So we enter a time of reviewing how these qualities have mentored us, or helped us heal in recent months, getting a different angle of understanding these as active qualities. What’s important is that this degree is one of dealing with feelings of how fast or slow the conflict between "two concept-feelings of order" is resolved. Taken with the revealing of a new identity and perspective, perhaps this degree merely synthesizes the two forms of order into a new way of responding to the truth of each.
Chiron In Aries Will Dominate the Decade
The cycle created by the 2020 Mars/Chiron conjunction will last through their next conjunction at 16 Aries in June 2022. So really, we’re in the middle of a much larger Mars/Chiron dance at this time in history.
The previous conjunction was at 29 Pisces in late December 2018. That’s a degree of things “coming apart” at the end of cycles, and it’s easy to see how many things ended in our world in 2019 and the first half of 2020. The 2020 conjunction initiated a long term Aries healing influence.
The 10 Aries themes will last through June 2022, when the next Mars-Chiron conjunction falls at 16 Aries. That will be the theme through late May 2024, when the Mars-Chiron conjunction will fall at 23 Aries. That influence lasts through their next conjunct at 29 Aries in May 2026. That means Aries is the way to heal for many years to come!
What’s Ahead?
At this station, Chiron begins its retrograde back to a sextile with Saturn and a quintile with Pluto, promising a productive second half of the year with high specialization of seed gifts which will manifest in 2022. Right now there are only two forming aspect in the days ahead, the first a biseptile from the Sun and the second a square from Mercury.
Even though Mercury is square Chiron, this can yield extraordinarily beneficial effects if we know how to use Mercury in Cancer to express the powerful healing potential through cooperating with our invisible helpers as we see techniques to forge integrative bonds within ourselves as well as with others. This is a turning point, and whether through braking, turning corners, or releasing potential energies, I can’t see a square to Chiron being a bad thing.
It also implies we’ll have to invoke good mid-Capricorn and mid-Libra energy to keep everything integrated and balanced. When provoked, plan your action with an eye to balance and proactive strategizing. Be fair, be just in your proportional responses, and remember a soldier’s greatest weapon in the field is their shield, not their sword!
If You Want To Know More About Chiron
Chiron is a greater force within us than most understand. It is truly that part of us which mentors our personality traits so we can become integrated personalities expressing the Love, Wisdom, and Intelligence of our Higher Self. This article is a fairly good exploration of Chiron’s traits and powers, so please take a look if you want to know more about this amazing power within you to become more than you have ever dreamed of!
Chiron, the Wandering Wounded Healer and Metaphysician Guiding Our Hero's Journey
For more about Chiron in Aries specifically, I wrote this in April 2018 when Chiron first entered Aries. In it I gave you some personal anecdotes for what happened in my life the last time Chiron was in Aries, so if you’re interested in that take on this position, please revisit Chiron in Aries
© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson
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