Got Questions on Chiron? Get Answers!

A Time-Sensitive Announcement

Dear Radical Readers,

As mentioned in my monthly New Moongram (subscribe at the top of the sidebar if you don’t already get it), I’m in the midst of two guest Q&A sessions about Chiron on Donna Cunningham’s remarkable blog, Sky Writer. The first session on February 5 focused primarily on natal Chiron. It was a lively exchange with excellent questions by a very engaged audience. These little centaur kids are my symbol for having the right playful spirit in learning. Bring yourself and your inner centaur-child to the festivities!

Chiron Transit Q&A. The next session on Saturday, February 12 begins at 1:30 pm PST and focuses on Chiron transits. Donna’s Chiron Alert announcement has all the details including a link to view the February 5ths Q&A. While it’s not necessary to be there in real time to read the next exchange (you can always visit Sky Writer later), to ask a question, you need to be on Sky Writer at the appointed hour, ready to pop your question into the comment box. I’ll only take 25 questions, so if you have one on Chiron transits that’s burning for you, get there early for a better chance to get your question into the queue.

Chiron 101 Summer School. And by the way, here’s something to start pondering. I’m planning to do a Chiron 101 Summer School for six weeks in July and August. It will be an online class conducted by group e-mail. I have taken writing classes this way and just love the format. The idea: I write a “lesson” on Mondays and Thursdays, sent to the class via the group e-mail list. There are always questions at the end for response and comment. Each individual Replies All, and we have ongoing dialogue—and, at the end, an e-mail “book” of our learning together. (Just keep a folder for the class in your e-mail box.) There will be a generous discount for early sign-up by mid-June. If you’re interested in this offering and want an e-mail when registration is open, please contact me (joyce at joycemason.com) with Chiron Class in the header.

Till the next offering on my Mobile Mt. Pelion,

Joyce

~~~

Photo Credit: Cute Toon Centaurs Playing in the Snow | © Algol | Dreamstime.com

Is the Semi-Sextile a Good Aspect or a Bad One?

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Guest Writer, Round Blog-In

Have you read or been taught much about the semi-sextile?  I’m guessing that you haven’t—in most astrology writings, it tends to get shrugged off as a minor aspect after a half-hearted sentence or two of description. 

It’s a 30° aspect, plus or minus 2-3°. For instance, a planet in Aries may form a semi-sextile to a planet at approximately the same degree of either of the two adjacent signs, Pisces or Taurus. 

Briefly, the aspect involves planets in neighboring signs. But are they good neighbors or bad? That is to say, are they harmonious or at odds, do they support each other or bicker, and do they bolster each other’s efforts or sabotage them?

My answer is: all of the above…depending on the signs and planets involved. There aren’t really any good or bad aspects, you know—just evolved and unevolved ways of using the two planets in the combination. The ultimate effect depends on the choices you make about how to use them at any given moment. 

However, I’ve been watching semi-sextiles in my own life and the lives of friends and clients for 40 years, and for the most part I like them. The good traits of one of the signs can usually offset the less than wonderful traits of the other, especially if we learn to use them consciously. I have several in my chart, and they tend to pull me back off the ledge when I’m about to bungee dive into the worst qualities of the signs involved.

Two of my four are in Gemini-Cancer, so let me tell you what I like about that combination. Gemini can too often be glibly cerebral, and when I get that way about something that’s going on, Cancer reminds me of the emotions I’m glossing over.

On the other hand, one of Cancer’s worst traits is to be hypersensitive and to take someone else’s remarks too personally, then withdraw in injured silence. Gemini teaches to me laugh at myself nd communicate with the person about what was meant. All too often, they didn’t mean what I thought they did, but were off on some track of their own.

Here’s a full list of signs that are semi-sextile to one another, so you can check for this aspect in your own chart. Remember, the degree numbers of the planets should be no more than 2-3° apart. For example, a planet at 23° of Libra could be semi-sextile to planets between 20-26° of either Virgo or Scorpio. If you have a chart with the aspects printed out, look for the symbol shown at the side. 

 What about some other next-door-neighbor signs?  

Aries’ powerful urge to take action can offset Taurus’ typical inertia, but Taurus’ patience in bringing things to fruition can counteract Aries’ impulsive tendency to abandon projects when they don’t get immediate results. Pisces’ compassion can temper Aries warlike qualities, while Aries can provide the initiative to realize Pisces visions.

Libra can tone down Virgo’s criticisms and deliver those essentially well-intentioned corrections with a spoonful of honey. On the other hand, Virgo’s discriminating analyses can offset Libra’s tendencies to fall for a pretty face and charming line. 

Sagittarius can lend optimism to Scorpio’s cynical outlook, but Scorpio can discern what’s really going on underneath that charismatic new guru’s message that Sag is prone to take on faith.  Capricorn’s capacity to create structures, and administer them, can take Aquarius’ theories out of the ivory tower and into the planning stage.

Did you notice how many cans there were in the examples given above? Can presupposes that only one of the signs is showing its rotten side at the moment, and that the other sign is trying to help them evolve out of the murk and mire. What would happen if both signs were taking the lower path? To be perfectly fair, these two signs can also aid and abet each other in mayhem if the combination is misused.

Perfect example: With my Cancer/Gemini semi-sextiles, before I got so bloody evolved, I was capable of firing off some fairly devastating written commentaries to people who offended me. I’d detail what they did, why I was so deeply wounded by it, exactly what sort of worthless human being they were, and what they could do with themselves from here on out.

And I allowed no comeback—this was in those dimly-remembered days when people still wrote letters rather than emails.  Any written reply was returned marked “refused delivery.” No exaggeration. Nope, you wouldn’t have wanted to receive one of those poison pen letters of mine. After a LOT of work on myself, I foreswore that behavior quite some time ago. (It also helped when my progressed Mercury moved into Libra.)

Still, when the positive qualities of both signs are carefully cultivated, next-door-neighbor signs like these can prop one another up like good neighbors do in real life. A solid sense of respect for your own and other people’s boundaries is part of what makes the difference with this aspect, as in so many other areas.  Be guided by what Robert Frost wrote: “Good fences make good neighbors.”

Incidentally, folks, my series of articles about aspects that ran in The Mountain Astrologer in 2008-9 is now available as an e-booklet, Aspect Analysis. It’s designed to teach the nuts and bolts of analyzing aspects–the real building blocks of chart interpretation, whether you’re studying natal, transits, chart comparison, mundane, electional, or horary.

Now that I’m done sharing what I’ve garnered about semi-sextiles over the years, here are some additional perspectives on this aspect found in an internet search today: 

• Annie Heese at Cafe Astrology delineates tons of examples—a quality sadly lacking in most writings about this aspect.
  
  
•  Semi-Sextile from AstroDienst’s AstroWiki
  
  
•  Semi-sextile from a collection of articles on aspects at astrology.com
  
  
•  In AdZe’s Classroom
  
  
•  Rhudyar lovers will be interested to know that there are actually a pair of distinctly different semi-sextiles, as articulated by Michael R. Meyer: the waxing aspect and the waning aspect. (Of Virgo’s two semi-sextiles, the sign afterward–Libra–would be the waxing one and the sign before–Leo–would be the waning one.)

Completely unrelated but a find anyway at Wikimedia Commons is this collection of astrological aspect symbols available to use as graphics:    The semi-sextile glyph used here is from that collection.

More Articles from the Series about the Lesser-Known Aspects

• Understanding Semisquares—Your Input Needed
  
• Understanding the Sesquiquadrate—Your Input Needed

•  Understanding Septiles–Your Input Needed

•  Understanding Quintiles—What’s YOUR Talent?
  
•  Understanding the BiQuintile—Your Input Needed

•  Quincunx vs. BiQuintile–an Answer from Numerology?

• Understanding the Mundane Square—Your Input Needed
  
• Mundane square case study: Outtake from a Moon-Pluto Life
  
• The Not so Minor Aspects—Results of Our Research

~~~

Photo Credit: © Madartists | Dreamstime.com

About the Author: Donna Cunningham, MSW is an internationally-respected author of books, articles, and columns about astrology, flower essences and other metaphysical topics. Her insights reflect her dual background in astrology and psychotherapy. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University and over 40 years of experience in working with people. Her ebooks can be found at Moon Maven Publications Visit her blog, Sky Writer.

Auntie Joyce's recent humor post, Love Thy Neighbor, was all about semi-sextile neighbors. You might want to revisit it with Donna's insights in mind. It might be even funnier the second time around!

Chiron Quiz: How Strong is Your Chiron?

© 2010 by Joyce Mason

Donna Cunningham has been encouraging me to create a Chiron quiz to complement her other planetary quizzes that have been so popular on her blog, Sky Writer. Although she has quizzes on most planets including the Moon and Mercury, I’m focusing in this article on how Chiron fits into her quizzes on the outer planets. As the bridge between Saturn and Uranus, Chiron fits smack dab in the middle of the mix. We need this Chiron quiz!

My perspective? I consider Chiron to be an outer planet—or at least half-outer. In its bridging position between Saturn and Uranus, Chiron is anchored in both worlds of the inner and outer planets. But before we get going, for those who want to take their quizzes in sequence, I’m starting with the links to the outerplanetary quizzes on Donna’s site:

Donna Cunningham’s Quizzes on the Outer Planets


How Strong is Your Saturn?


How Strong is Your Uranus?


How Strong is Your Neptune?


How Strong Is Your Pluto

I’ve designed the Chiron quiz to parallel Donna’s structure on the other quizzes as much as possible, so you’re using a similar system to compare your Chiron score to the other outer planets. Particularly if you’re what Donna and I both call an OPP (an Outer-Planetary Person) or what I call a PUNC (Plutonian, Uranian, Neptunian and Chironic—all the outers emphasized), you’ll navigate your personal overload of evolutionary change planets better if you have some idea which one is your leading planet, so you can salute him and follow his direction.

When it comes to the outer planets, the quiz on which you score the highest is the engine in the string of influences that nag you to morph at light speed. Not to mention, while we're talking about Little Engines That Could, Outerplanetary People are desperately needed in the current, intense change cycle involving the outer planets in chronic tension. You know who you are and that you've received your intuitive draft notice! Remember, if you think change is challenging for you, imagine how difficult it is for people who aren't having a dialogue with these Gods of Change every second of their lives. We are the way showers.

And now for the one who helps keep the outer planets more on track and easier to navigate in his role as a go-between, Chiron.


What’s Your CQ (Chiron Quotient)?

As Donna always points out in her quizzes, it’s impossible to consider every single influence when creating a planetary “weighting” system, especially without complicating it so much, it’s no fun. You may find you feel more Chironic than your ultimate score would indicate. That’s when you have to consider more subtle nuances. For example, the Moon is my most elevated planet, it’s out of bounds, [1] and closely square Neptune. I have a very “sensitive” and overemphasized Moon, to which Chiron has a nearly exact sextile. Chiron acts as a safety valve to the high pressure of my lunar overload; thus, I have become that sweet centaur’s devotee in undying gratitude for the relief! These particulars jack up my Chiron Quotient, as any close aspect between Chiron and a planet with similar prominence might intensify its strength. Don’t take these quizzes as the Ten Commandments, etched in stone. They’re guidelines to weigh emphasis. Adjust according to personal experience.


I use orbs of up 8° for major aspects (conjunction, opposition, square or trine). For minor aspects, I use 3° for quintile, semisquare, and sesquiquadrate. I go up to 4° on a quincunx  and 6° for the sextile. (The last two are a little generous compared to some astrologers.) As Donna also does in her quizzes, I consider 10° for conjunctions to the Midheaven and ASC based on the research by Michel Gauquelin.

Suggestion: Be radical and don’t even resemble a traditional Virgo nitpicker when it comes to orbs. If you feel it at 9°, count it. If you say “huh?” and don’t relate to the aspect whatsoever in a degree of arc you're "supposed to," then a smaller orb is the one for you. Our sensitivity to the planets is personal and varies somewhat. The whole idea here is to make you more aware of your comparative planetary sensitivities. It would be "off" to deny your actual intuition as you examine the issue. If you do major comparisons with others, you'll need to agree on an orbital definition, but for your own purposes, do what feels right consistently across your outerplanetary quizzes.

Now, hang onto your horse half. Here goes!


The Quiz


___ Chiron is conjunct, square, trine, or opposite the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven (10 points each)

__ Chiron is conjunct, square, trine, or opposite other planets (5 points each)

__ Chiron is in minor aspect (sextile, quincunx, quintile, semisquare, or sesquiquadrate) to the Sun, Moon or other planets (2 points each)

__ You have Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven in Virgo (5 points each).


Note: This comes from my theory about The Chiron Sector, the part of the zodiac from Virgo through Sagittarius that I associate with Chiron. Virgo is the pivotal sign between the planets that deal with “I” and the planets that deal with “Us and Them or Others.” Its bridging nature, just as Chiron bridges us from the inner to the outer planets in its orbital position, makes Virgo the most Chironic sign in my mind. Virgo is the last “I” sign, but it starts the transition to Libra/Other by focusing on service.


__   Bonus Points for Chiron in Virgo, Chiron in the 6th, or Virgo on the 6th House cusp (5 points each)

___ Other planets in Virgo (3 points each)

__   Other planets in The Chiron Sector (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius) – (2 points each)

__   Sun or Moon in the 6th House (5 points each)




Total your points. A score of 0-14 is a relatively low Chiron Quotient (CQ). A score of 15-25 is moderate CQ. If your points total more than 25, you’ve got a high CQ and should really start looking for a farrier—one of those folks that puts shoes on horses, because you’re a centaur through and through!


Sharing Feedback

It would be great to hear your scores in the Comments and whether or not you think the test is relatively accurate. This is an experiment, and your comments will help make the CQ Quiz better. In case you’re wondering, my own score is 43, without adjustment for Chiron’s role in releasing my lunar pressure. (My hero!)

Please let us know what you learn! Maybe we can start the equivalent of Mensa for people with high CQs. I know what you’ll say. “Hold your horses!” We’d never get any one of us off our figurative Mt. Pelion, away from helping others long enough to attend a meeting. (By the way, there’s a flower essence for serving others to a fault. It’s called Centaury! No kidding.)

That’s what’s so cool about the Internet. The High CQ Club can come to your mountain through The Radical Virgo and other Chiron-friendly sites, and you can read them between sessions—healing, teaching, mentoring—those things we Chironics do, sometimes over-do.

~~~

Note

[1] There’s a good discussion of Moon out-of-bounds (OOB) and OOB planets in general on the post, Moonwalk: Cancer.

Photo Credit: Posing strong female © Smagal Dreamstime.com enhanced by Joyce.

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Comments Are Now Closed for This Post. Thanks to everyone who participated—some 50 people!—in this lively discussion.

Take the follow-quiz on your Chiron Resonance!

The Astrobabble Quiz

What’s Your AQ – Astrobabble Quotient?

© 2010
by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved
 
April is National Humor Month. Of course, if you’re a regular reader of The Radical Virgo, you know that every month is humor month here. Witness Quotes for the Signs and Auntie Joyce’s Astro-Aphorisms, not to mention my general inability to pass up a good pun, no matter how serious the subject.

Donna Cunningham, on her fabulous blog Sky Writer, notes that the astrologically-inclined like quizzes. She is also an expert on the Tower of Astrobabble. English for Astrologers—No Astrologese, Please will give you a direct experience of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of such gibberish, clueless about a single word that's being spoken to you. I remembered Donna’s talk on this topic at a United Astrology Congress (UAC) in the ‘90s. That memory and her report about our astro-quizzical nature gave birth to the following self-test. Be painfully honest!

One point for each YES answer unless otherwise noted:

1. You have changed your name to Celestial, Starr, Venus or some other astro-inspired moniker. (2 points)

2. You cannot introduce yourself by name alone. It goes something like, “Hi, I’m Athena—double Aries part of a four-planet stellium, Grand Water Trine including Mars, Venus, and Uranus, Cap Rising … in my second Saturn Return.”

3. At astrology conferences, you can’t give it a rest, even at lunch or dinner. You throw out verbal chart details for people to project on the planetarium of their minds till they’re dizzy. By dessert, they’re nauseous with Information Indigestion.

4. You have the chutzpah to use words like quincunx and rectification in front of strangers you’ve never met, people who are highly unlikely to speak in star tongues. They're probably wondering if some of your lingo refers to other body parts. (3 points)

5. You refuse to talk to, much less have relationships with, people who don’t know their exact birth time. (3 points)

6. You don’t just go to Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) to look up the stars in every movie you see; you go to Astro Data Bank to look up their charts. Then you talk about it to everyone you meet, as if they cared.

7. When friends have a baby, you can’t resist giving them your two-cents’ worth on the kid’s future, even if your information was (a) not requested, (b) they’re not particularly believers, (c) astrology might be against their religion, and/or (d) the kid’s a Scorpio and you don’t use filters to tell them what they’ve got in store. So what if you contained yourself enough not to say “my condolences.” (6 points.)

8. You don’t leave home during Mercury Retrograde, you blab about it for weeks before and afterwards to strangers on street corners, and you send all your friends the Murky Retro dates with your annual holiday letter so they’re prepared for the New Year.

9. You have never forgiven the State of New York (or wherever you were born) for not recording birth times—or your mother for not writing it down to the second in your baby book. If she’s still alive, you still remind her—often. (2 points.)

10. Your answering machine message includes the daily planetary positions. When Aunt Tillie calls, she thinks you’re “talking dirty” and in some kind of sex code with those positions, numbers, and funny words. She’s heard of that book, Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus! That’s why she hangs up without leaving a message,


Your AQ Score

0-2: You are a great astrological ambassador. You don’t pollute the air with a lot of astrobabble. You make star talk just intriguing enough that newbies are curious about learning the language of astrology.

3-6: You could afford to learn some empathy. Visit a neighborhood or country that speaks a language other than English or whatever’s your usual. Do not take a translation phrase book with you. And don’t be a wuss. You must, at minimum, ask directions, haggle at a market, and make small talk at a coffee shop.

7-9: You’re broaching the realm of giving astrology and astrologers a bad name. Go wash your mouth out with soap and start learning to translate all this crap into something John or Jane Q. Public can comprehend.

10-20: You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You make us look terrible! You are obsessed, possessed, and need to go to AA—Astroholics Anonymous. They offer a 12-Step program—and don’t even think about how that that parallels the 12 signs and houses, much less talk about it.

PS ~ See you at the next AA meeting!

~~~

Photo Credit: All Talk - Sign Series |© Mediaonela | Dreamstime.com 
Slightly astrologized by the author

Don’t forget the gift with purchase of Chiron and Wholeness: A Primer through April 30!