“Our tragedy is not that we suffer, but that we waste suffering. We waste the opportunity of growing into compassion.”
There’s a deep sadness in me as I write this month which coincides with Chiron’s transit (around 20 degrees Pisces) of my natal Mercury and the retrograde of Saturn (around 3 degrees Sagittarius) as he makes his way back over the challenge to my natal Venus. Melanie Reinhart talks about Thoth as representative of Mercury in Virgo (she references a book by Pam Tyler) – he “represents control, discipline and the productive use of mental energy… the ability to withstand conflict, to encompass the duties of daily life with dignity, and thus to be productive.” Chiron’s influence brings in the Trickster (and yes, the figure of the Trickster is often about during Mercury’s retrograde phases, and the next is almost upon us – from 19th May, 2015 at 13Gemini08 to 11th June, 2015 at 4Gemini34 😉 ).
“Self-knowledge comes to us only in the dark times, when we are stripped of illusion and naked to truth.”
My recent reading has taken me deeper into the subject of obsession (in Ricki Reeves book about the quindecile aspect – a 165 degree angle between planets and/or angles in the chart). She says, of obsession that it’s “a by-product of accumulated anxiety… the mind’s way of… defending itself against painful emotions…”, and compulsion (which often goes together with obsession) is described as “the action taken to release this accumulated anxiety”. I wasn’t really surprised to discover several planets in quindecile aspect in my own chart, shedding yet more light on a childhood experience of obsessive-compulsive behaviours (which I kept well hidden at the time ;)) during a transit of Pluto to my natal sun (both planets being in natal quindecile aspects in my chart).
“Silence does not always mean indifference.”
Chiron’s continued journey through the sign of Pisces (until late February, 2019), at a time when we’re still experiencing the sudden upheaval and deep loss connected with the Uranus/Pluto square, could exacerbate the sensitivity we have to the painful events happening on both a global and a more personal scale. It’s more difficult to hide from our woundedness when this planetoid is affecting our lives. We’re called to move through the pain to a place of greater compassion – for others as well as for ourselves. (Oriah has a lovely ‘meditation for waiting’ in the book about her poem, ‘The Invitation’ – she says that it, “helps me wait, without closing to life, when I have no faith or hope.”)
Mercury’s retrograde (see above) will be picking up Neptune in Pisces, so we may need to wait it out and not draw conclusions for a while (Mercury enters his own shadow from 4th May, 2015). And for those with planets in mid-cardinal placements, Pluto’s retrograde may feel like being pulled back into the Underworld – and that unpredictable Uranian influence is always a force to be reckoned with!
Et crois-tu donc distrait le Dieu qui t’a frappe? L’homme est un apprenti, la douleur est son maître, Et nul ne se connait tant qu’il n’a pas souffert.
The quotations (in bold type) are all from a book by Mary Craig entitled, ‘Blessings’. I read it years ago – before I knew anything about astrology, never mind Chiron! And the words that I kept from it resonate so well with his energy, which also seems to heighten our sense of synchronicity…
Love and blessings from Helen x
PS: I’m hoping that my newly-formulated website will be up and running by next month’s newsletter!
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