© 2010 by Joyce Mason
Healing is bringing mercy and awareness
into that which we have held
into that which we have held
in judgment and fear.
~Stephen Levine
First, let’s pause for perspective. Because of Chiron’s extremely elliptical orbit, it takes roughly 30 years to pass from Aquarius through Taurus. By comparison, it takes a mere eight years to transit from Leo through Scorpio. [1] Imagining this division in a “natural” chart with 0 Aries Rising, the Chiron signs have very uneven slices of the zodiac pie. [2] Some look like a dieter’s sliver—others, a birthday-sized indulgence. Pisces gets a healthy hunk of pie at nearly nine years in the sign, one of the longer visits by Chiron. Soon you’ll see why this is probably a good omen.
The last time Chiron was in Pisces was from late March 1960 through January 1969. [3] This is the cycle many of us reading these words were alive to remember. We’ll consult history for some hints about what to expect in the current cycle. [4] For people with Chiron in Pisces, it’s “your time.” You'll experience a major life transit, your Chiron Return, during the next nine years. Now to introduce you!
If You Have Chiron in Pisces
Chiron in Pisces has absorbed the full evolution of the Chiron signs. Your wound is a loss of individuality or your unique Self. Yet Chiron asks us to become all that we are, not just for ourselves, but to contribute our unique gift to help others.
Your link to Chiron is your compassionate kindness, but you retain the shadow of the wild centaurs. You want ecstatic unity, but unfortunately, you can be sucked into undertow of Neptune’s murky waters. Neptune, Pisces’ ruler, also can lure you into substances and addictions that go with his realm: alcohol, drugs, sex, and a desire to avoid life’s harsher realities. Your wound may come from an overly spiritual upbringing where you had ecstatic, mystical experiences that were a bit advanced for your tender years and neurological system. Wounds could be caused by parents, siblings, or other family members with bad boundaries—invading your personal space (privacy) or your physical space (incest).
When Chiron is in Pisces, expect the issue of setting healthy boundaries to be up big time. My Boundaries 101 post was also excerpted on Donna Cunningham’s Sky Writer,where tips from the trenches and depth insights on the subject are still being shared. Visit these posts, especially the comments, for more on this issue. Look for a Boundaries 102 follow-up post in the near future.
Boundary issues light up the part of the Chiron myth where the wild centaurs think anything and everybody is theirs for the taking—and somehow, you have been taken. In my article, High Signs 3: Living on the Upside of the Zodiac, I talk about the sign of Pisces’ need for devotion and a willingness to come back from the ecstatic state to bring the Oneness experienced down to earth for others to share. When you are willing to be that “rainbow bridge,” you have mastered the Fish swimming in opposite directions. You see yourself coming and going!
To bring heaven to earth in this ecstatic way, Chiron in Pisces make great musicians, “speaking” the universal language that unites the world. You can be a dancer whose movements teach others the path to ecstasy, a gifted psychic, or a poet. If it involves bringing that sense of bliss to earth, it’s for you. Spiritual leadership, artistic talent, facility with dreams and other tools of psychological exploration are other possible vocations. Chiron in Pisces knows the heaven side of bringing heaven to earth. You know your gifts are solid when you begin, figuratively, to buy round-trip tickets from earth to sky and back.
History Lessons
I reviewed the headlines for the last Chiron in Pisces cycle, year by year, and the themes were stunning. They include racial integration in society and music—suddenly, white people singing and listening to traditionally black music—and the integration of other polarities, such as male/female in the feminist movement. Racial integration and feminism both came of age during the ‘60s. Here’s a Chiron in Pisces giggle: Beach and surf music also dominated, a tribute to the Fish water sign! Another amusing, Chironic if not Piscean symbol: The Ford Mustang was the most popular car of the era, merging a driver’s wits and “top half” with a horse-named vehicle underneath. The Mustang allowed people in the ‘60s to become a sort of modern centaur, half-human and half-mechanical horse. Since mustangs are wild horses, even the wild centaurs of Chiron’s mythology are represented in the era’s favorite choice of wheels. I consider the American love of Mustangs to be a precursor of the centaur planet’s discovery in the next decade.
