Conversations with the Magi Part 2
The Magi’s Light Bearer

The Magi have their own name for the planetoid we call Chiron but, out of respect, it will not be given here in full. The reason for this is simple and inoffensive: we have our own name for this planetoid and do not need to use theirs. Westerners do not find certain of the sounds that belong to the Semitic languages easy to pronounce; nor do we always put the emphasis within a word in the correct place. Christian tradition has not encouraged any great awareness of the sacredness of sound and name. A Muslim, by contrast, brought up with the spoken and unspoken names of God, is being educated, as a matter of course, into an understanding of the power of sound and a respect for name.

To the Magi, to have the name of their light bearer extensively mispronounced would be to ask it to shine its light through dirty glass. It would be deeply disrespectful.

The Magian name for Chiron means light bringer or bearer and is constructed from the root ‘az’. The ‘az’ sound conveys the fourth ray principle. It is found in Azrael, the name of the angel in the Jewish and Islamic traditions that separates the soul from the body at death; in Azazel, the name of the desert demon from Jewish and Gnostic tradition to whom the scapegoat bearing the sins of Israel was sent out; in azoth which is the alchemical name for mercury. For Paracelseus, Azoth was the panacea. The Arabic name for mercury is az-zauq.

This connection between the sound ‘az’ and the name given to the element called mercury is of great significance. By correspondence, it connects our planet Mercury, the messenger of the gods, with the Magi’s light bearer and messenger from the stellar world, for that is what Chiron is for them. Chiron and Mercury have the same (fourth ray) function. They are mediators. Mercury is the messenger within our solar system; Chiron is the messenger from without.

According to the Magi, Chiron entered our solar system around the middle of nineteenth century. It will move through each sign of the zodiac seven times and then will leave our system. As one lap of the zodiac takes fifty years, its assignment will take 350 years to complete. As the Magi consider it to be in its third round now, it is nearly half way through its task.

When Chiron came to western attention, less than a quarter of a century ago, it was soon assumed to be a visitor from another system that might one day move out again.

So what is Chiron’s assignment? According to the Magi, it is to speak to each level (sphere) of manifested being seven times.

Chiron, with Uranus, rules the sign (Aries) that governs the creative hierarchy on the cosmic astral plane, the energy of which, D.K. informs us in Esoteric Astrology, is to be described as ‘Unity through Effort’. Therefore, as the representative of this level, Chiron brings the energy of ‘unity through effort’ into each of the signs of the zodiac as it traverses them, and to each of the creative hierarchies ruled by those signs.

When Chiron is orbiting in the signs Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius, it is speaking to those hierarchies that constitute man in incarnation and so, at this point in its 50 year orbit, its message is, therefore, most intelligible to those of us with personality consciousness. For the Magi, with their superior level of consciousness, the message of their light bearer is most readily understood when it is speaking through the signs Libra, Scorpio and Capricorn.

All these assertions will be more intelligible to people who have read the Secret Doctrine or D.K.’s comments on the creative hierarchies in Esoteric Astrology, and to our own Transitional Astrology students.

The Magi cannot clearly understand the message of Chiron when it is working through Sagittarius for the reason that they do not have lunar consciousness and Sagittarius governs the creative hierarchy (‘The Lunar Lords’, D.K.) that give man his emotional responsiveness. Chiron in Sagittarius is in a period of obfuscation for them.

Chiron was in Scorpio in 1998, when the Magi first made their approach to the Foundation, hoping that, through us, they would be able to retain contact with their light bearer when he moved into Sagittarius. They want to know what it is saying through the sign Sagittarius; they want to know, in effect, what ‘unity through effort’ means to the mass of humanity in case there is a job for them to do here, on behalf of their beloved Solar Logos. And that, basically, is the reason behind their approach to us. The humility, dedication and sense of planetary responsibility of this determination to make contact is deeply moving, especially when one considers how fearsome to them is the prospect of having to interact with western lunar consciousness. To them it is, quite literally, lunacy.

As was described in last month’s article, the arrangement made, following the first approach, broke down within six months. The second has come into being somewhat at the eleventh hour because, at the start of 2001, Chiron is to be found in the last decanate of Sagittarius, the sign that governs our emotional faculties. It will move into Capricorn at the beginning of 2002. The sign Capricorn governs our mental faculties. The significance of this, together with Chiron’s message, will be the subject of future articles.

In next month’s article we look at Chiron in western horoscopy.

Chiron: astronomical details:

	believed to have entered our solar system in the sign Pisces in the 1860s
	orbiting in the asteroid belt, between Saturn and Uranus
	takes 50 years to travel through all twelve signs of the zodiac, spending the longest time (7 years) in Pisces and the least time in Libra (under two years)
	commenced its second round of the zodiac in 1911
	commenced its third and current round in 1960
	discovered for the west in 1977 by Charles Kowal

Suzanne Rough
January 2001