Conversation with the Magi:3
Chiron, Sapient and Healer

According to the terms of our arrangement, when my Magian friend had said what he wished to say about their Light Bearer, it was over to me to describe to him how we western astrologers perceive Chiron. During my explanation, outlined below, my friend was silent, tense and far from comfortable, and I can only guess at the reasons. We do not crowd each other at such times because we do not expect to be able to fix anything. Our differences are our differences, and, if it is to work, the arrangement has to be able to accommodate them. For the Magi, turning personalities into factors of isolated importance is to split the atom that is soul consciousness. It is to feed and encourage the process of involution and fragmentation which is the cause of all the madness in the world. Undeniably, this is the case, right up until that point is reached when the self-conscious personality turns back towards the soul and enables the personality to achieve alignment with it. Then you have a human being who is equipped to walk in two worlds, a bridge between this world and the next. And a man or woman who has achieved this integration is better placed that almost any other being to serve our planet.

From the time that Chiron was discovered by Kowal in 1978, the western astrological community formed two camps. There were those astrologers who considered Chiron was connected to the sign Sagittarius and those who considered the connection was with Virgo. Usually, the arguments were presented as an either/or situation, but not always. After all, it is not uncommon in orthodox astrology for one planet to rule two signs. And the possibility of Chiron having two domiciles is immediately explicable if we think of it having an orthodox home and an esoteric home. In fact Chiron has a total of three different domiciles, because it has a third, hierarchical home in Aries where it represents the group comprised of those beings in incarnation who have achieved soul-personality alignment.

All too often in recent times, the two systems of astrology themselves, the orthodox and esoteric, are presented in terms of either/or, which is unfortunate because if we opt for one and not the other, we deprive ourselves of a valuable tool (see Endnote 1).

The name Chiron conferred an association with wisdom. The Chiron of mythology, the centaur, was a sapient, a repository of knowledge and a teacher of kings.

For the purposes of orthodox astrology, Chiron is domiciled in Sagittarius, the symbol of which is the centaur. This sign governs questing and the acquisition of knowledge as it is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansiveness and significator of the higher mind. Chiron can be said to be the ‘lodger’ of Jupiter and, as its lodger, takes on its qualities.

In all its various domiciles, Chiron takes on the qualities of its ‘landlords’.

In a horoscope, according to orthodox astrology, Chiron indicates an area of particular interest to that person. If this interest is pursued, it may inspire and uplift, and raise a person’s focus to a higher level of the astral plane. The mere gratification of animal desires involves only the lower strata of the astral plane. But it is essentially a quest for something external, for knowledge and experiences that are perceived as existing outside oneself, as something to be approached and acquired.

Consider the placement of Chiron in the first house. In an averagely developed person this placement will confer a fascination with charisma, charm and talent, those qualities that enable a personality to leave a mark on his or her surroundings. Ordinary people with this placement are likely be very interested in techniques that make the personality stronger and will be attracted to charismatic people because they like the idea of colourful characters. They go towards this goal in a spirit of adventure and acquisitiveness, unaware of the crises that may result.

For the purposes of esoteric astrology, Chiron is domiciled in Virgo and its therefore the lodger of the Moon, the esoteric ruler of Virgo, and the symbol of the birth of Christ consciousness. Chiron in this sign represents the construction of the causal body on the upper mental plane. The causal body is to be defined as three permanent atoms enveloped in mental essence. It is the assemblage place of egoic consciousness.

The idea of a planet changing its function in accordance with the rising level of consciousness may be unfamiliar to many people but it is a basic assumption of esoteric astrology.

Let us consider what this means in effect. If we return to our example of Chiron in the first house, then, as he becomes more aware and more conscious of himself in relation to the interest that he has begun to pursue, a person will begin to realise that he is fascinated by the idea of charisma and personal effectiveness precisely because he finds himself to be deficient and crippled in this respect. He can see now that he is attracted to that which he so obviously lacks. This discovery that he is so seriously handicapped in this quality which is of such importance to him can be a serious blow to the self-regard and the self-confidence. This realisation creates a sense of vulnerability as he reconnects with the past-life memory of experiencing trauma in this area. It is this crisis experience of Chiron that has earned it the appellation, the ‘scar upon the soul’.

After this realisation, a person has a choice: he can either limp on, knowing himself to be inadequate in this respect, and dependent upon the input from others, or he can set-to and start trying to understand why he should be so wounded in this part of his consciousness. This is the start of the quest for wholeness and it can bring much trauma. For example, the person with Chiron in the first house can expect to confront, again and again, situations and personalities that threaten to destroy his fragile self-confidence and power of assertiveness but these situations are opportunities to learn and to come to understand how his own behaviour patterns, expectations and assumptions deepen the wound. At root, the problem is because he is set on taking in this area when in fact he should be giving. The flow of energy needs to be reversed.

It is a recognised fact in learning situations that to try and explain for the benefit of others what we ourselves are struggling to understand will increase the chance of us gaining clarity. In In Search of the Miraculous, P. D. Ouspensky gives a detailed account of how this happened to him. Ordered to do so by Gurdjieff, he was standing in front of a group, in a state of unhappy confusion, preparing to talk to them about a complex system that he did not understand himself, a situation doubtless embarrassing as well as uncomfortable to the scrupulous scientist that Ouspensky was. In similar circumstances, those of us who do not have a Mr.Gurdjieff to push us on, would probably conclude that we had better stay silent until we understand better because we would be afraid of looking foolish or misleading others. But if we hold back, we will never experience what Ouspensky experienced when he realised that, as he embarked upon his explanation of the system, in compliance with his teacher’s wishes, his confusion cleared and he saw quite clearly how this system worked.

It is like this with Chiron. When we stop worrying about the perceived deficiency and start using such capacity as we have to help others in some way, we will be released from the pain and doubt which is a product of vulnerability. This is Chiron in its role as the wounded healer. To return to our example: if the first house person would only take action and, for example, stand up for other people in support of their interests, or try to entertain others to raise their spirits, then he would lose his sense of inadequacy.

Once this has been understood, then new possibilities come into play. In the area of the chart where Chiron is found, the person who has learned to give out, rather than take, moves on from being the wounded healer to become a guiding light, and preparing to become, in the words of D.K, ‘the doh note of a new octave’ (see Endnote 2) or, star of direction. For this final stage in the process, Chiron’s domicile is Aries and it becomes the lodger of Uranus (unveiled), the symbol of egoic consciousness.

We will look at the meaning of this next month because this is the stage in consciousness when Chiron and the Magi’s Light Bearer can be seen to resemble each other very closely.