An excerpt from the soon to be published book
Insights into Evolutionary Astrology
Chapter 8:
Chiron, the Evolutionary Perspective: Chiron’s Planetary Nodes
By Rose Marcus
The resources found through the planetary nodes of Chiron pertain to specific and peak emotional memory imprints – those of significant crises points and painful remembrances, mixed with the sourcing of extraordinary healing gifts and potentials advanced through these experiences. The planetary nodes along with their rulers will serve to provide a more complete analysis of Chiron’s chart position as a key prompt for accelerated evolution. The process is one of saturating consciousness with repetitive “feature” or intensified experiences. Once the saturation process has reached its peak, energy transforms.
Chiron’s evolutionary progress bridges over a number of lifetimes. From the contemporary viewpoint (the contemporary life), the repetitive calling forth of experience through Chiron’s magnetic draw is often experienced as a chronic or unsurpassable theme. This evaluation can only be an apparent assessment as our viewpoint is obviously limited by the perspective of reality we gather in this life. Subscribing to the theory of reincarnation, the soul’s consciousness lives on; its creation is infinite.
The information provided through the nodes of the outer planets (including Chiron) will reference the interweaving of historical threads – that of both key personal tapestries and of the larger collective imprints.
Chiron’s south node and its ruler will represent what has come before – a composite of the deepest wounds housed within cellular memory that remain at a vibrant and readily accessible, albeit primarily subconscious, level. The south node memory imprints represent the echoes of our most intense and peak emotional histories, those that have shaped our current conditioning (subconscious needs, fears, security patterns, and expectations) and which subsequently perpetuate our experiential realities through Chiron’s chart position (house, sign, ruler and aspects).
The north node represents the compass point of the intended evolutionary direction, while the ruler of the north node is indicative of access keys, or in other words, “where and how tools” that can be employed toward the successful achievement of this intended evolution. The south node content represents an accumulation of stand-out memories (critical points). Revisiting these memories is like restocking the warehouse – as they are replayed, they are also relived. As these memories are (re-)woven into the current life experience (Chiron and its ruler’s chart placement), the north node potentials evolve. Restated, present experiences (the Chiron chart position) simultaneously recreate the previous experience (the memory imprints of the south node and ruler) and reshape the future (the evolution of the north node and its ruler, which lead the way to Chiron’s polarity point intention). Thus, the journey continues with an endless array of experiential possibilities.
Chiron’s planetary north and south nodes describe the collective influence on the individual, while the location of rulers of the nodes in a natal chart gives further details regarding the personal journey. Chiron’s south node is located in Aries or Taurus for all of us. The north node is located in Scorpio or Libra. The rulers of Chiron’s nodes will further describe specific key influences, people, and circumstances that animate the personal evolving story. Archetypically, what is begun in Aries seeks to survive and thrive, and becomes the new status quo through Taurus. Choices reconciled through Libra’s evaluations (the balancing act) pave the way for a new social order through Scorpio’s “survival of the fittest” resurrections.
When planets aspect Chiron’s planetary nodes their magnetism and expression become greatly amplified. Exceptional experiences and capacities are ignited through the planet’s signatures. Thus, a Sun contact will single the individual out in some way, igniting special talents or exceptional life circumstances. A Moon contact can bring difficult emotional or mothering experiences, a wounded self-image, problems with fertility, or can display an exceptional capacity for nurturing, caretaking, healing, and so forth.
Transits and progressions by Chiron to the natal chart, or transits and progressions that activate Chiron, Chiron’s nodes, or rulers, will provide key or highlight moments, exceptional opportunities, teachers and teachings – generating painful and/or healing experiences. When Chiron’s planetary nodes are in contact to specific points in the natal chart, that planet, angle, or sensitive point will be a feature vehicle through which particularly intensified themes or experiences will ignite in order to prompt accelerated growth and healing.
Chiron’s influence (including its nodes) acts as a support catalyst to the evolutionary process. It does so by energizing an increased friction (crisis momentum) of a specific and critical nature, which serves to alert greater attention to life essentials in need of response, repair and reconciliation, at both the personal and the collective level.
The planetary nodes move very slowly. In relationship to each other, the planetary nodes supply information regarding collective evolution. Chiron’s planetary nodal positions are in square aspect (“crisis in action” momentum) to the planetary south nodes of Pluto (the collective soul), and Saturn (crystallized consciousness, the materialization of form; formations, structures, status quos, political systems). This dynamic aspect (the square influence) is suggestive of Chiron’s influence as a stimulant, energizer, and accelerator for collective growth; through it’s planetary nodes, Chiron’s influence can be traced back through the astrological ages and sub-ages to key transition points in the collective experience.
Memory pools of key growth periods of collective history that are imbedded within cellular memory also now act as a stimulant for the contemporary global/environmental unrest and initiate yet another growth spurt of significance. This energizing/mobilization and unrest has been steadily growing since the outer planets Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto, crossed over the Cancer/Capricorn planetary nodes (of Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter) and squared the nodes of Chiron in the early 1900’s. We have only to look back at the past century to see how much accelerated and extraordinary change has occurred in a relatively short period of time.
In the years 1909 – 1911, transiting Saturn in Aries moved into square aspect with Chiron’s nodes. (Mexican revolution started, South Africa became a union, an economic rebuilding period took place in the US, women’s suffragette movement grows.) By the time WW1 occurred (1914 – 1917), transiting Neptune was in late Cancer/early Leo and formed squares to Chiron’s nodes. Transiting Saturn, moving from late Gemini in Cancer also engaged in a square to Chiron’s nodes and passed over not only its own north node but that of Jupiter and Pluto. Jupiter’s transit spanned Aries and Taurus and also made aspects to Chiron’s nodes. Chiron squared it’s own nodes in the mid 1920’s (stage setting time), by the stock market crash of 1929, transiting Chiron in Taurus made a conjunction to the transiting north node of the moon, and transiting Pluto was opposition to both it’s own south node and the south node of Saturn, it also was in conjunction to the north node of Jupiter. For most of 1930’s, Pluto in Cancer continued to activate its own nodes, Saturn’s nodes, and (by square relationship) Chiron’s planetary nodes.
Long Term Perspective:
The closure of an Age creates an intensified resurgence of “unfinished business” in order to facilitate the shift to new paradigms.
Much awakening and mobilization has occurred in the ensuing years since Chiron’s discovery in 1977. Rapid advances have been made in science, communication technologies, and transportation industries. Most notably, computer advances have significantly altered our everyday reality. At the time of Chiron’s discovery, the shockwave of the AIDS epidemic was just starting to ripple through the collective awareness. This epidemic, which has become one of the major killers on the planet, is but one example of the extreme times we are now living. On the flip-side, Chiron’s discovery also coincided with a resurgence of interest in homeopathy and alternative healing fields.
Our contemporary times have been marked with the deterioration of status quos at all levels (societal, economic and religious; the controversies of the Catholic Church, its members and servants are a prime example). Atmospheric conditions now create havoc, and destruction. We are witnessing not only a more rapid mutation of living organisms such as bacteria and viruses, but that of our own human species due to daily radiation exposure, caused not only through our atmosphere, but also through the use of every day technologies (computers, cell phones, etc.) We now stand poised at another key stage in our collective evolution, just as we were at the inception of the Industrial Age, which marked another key time when Chiron’s south nodes in Aries through Taurus aligned with the sub-cycles chapters of the Astrological Ages (1610 – 1700 Aries; 1700 -1790 Taurus sub-cycles. These years represents the third quarter marker point of the Age of Pisces, Virgo Sub-Age. (For a table of the Astrological Ages first developed by Marc Robertson, see: Measuring the Night, Volume One, Steven Forrest & Jeffrey Wolf Green, or “Insights into Evolutionary Astrology, Volume One, edited by Rose Marcus.)
Chiron’s planetary node activations can be traced back to “hotspot” points in the collective experience. For those alive today, Chiron’s nodes link back to the time-periods when the sub-cycles of the sub-ages occur in the signs of Aries, Taurus, Libra, or Scorpio.
Chiron’s south node fluctuation between 26 Aries to 6 Taurus, along with its square aspect to the Capricorn south nodes of Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter, also link our collective remembrances back to another critical and key transition period, that of the life and death of Christ and the ensuing years as the revolutionary wave of Christianity was taking shape. (Aries Sub-Age 10 BCE to 80 CE; Taurus Sub-Age, 80 -179 CE.)
Traveling much further back in time, Chiron’s south node relationship to the south nodes of Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter also refers to another critical timeframe of collective development – that of the transition between matriarchal existence (man unified with/co-existing with nature) to the development of patriarchal consciousness, defined by man’s progressive urge for domination and control (over fellow man and over nature.) The two sign axis of Chiron’s nodes, Aries/Libra, and Taurus/Scorpio, are suggestive of specific intervals in history when critical or key collective development was occurring.
Coming now to full circle, Mother Nature now delivers her message with ever-increasing intensity. Survival is again our most urgent challenge. Global warming will teach humbling/poignant lessons in the uniting of resources. The race against time accelerates.
The past and the future are intertwined. An Age comes to closure as a new Age emerges. It is a key time of major transition in our collective history. Along with the tragic markers of our contemporary collective experience, evidence of a rebirth of matriarchal consciousness is now making its presence better known – that of sharing, caring and inclusion. We have but to look around our everyday realities to witness a much greater frequency of extraordinary events and the amazing people who rise to the challenge to make them happen.