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| Kithara from ancient pottery, the stringed lyre-like instrument that Chiron played and taught others how to play. |
© 2010 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved
Overnight, The Chiron Quiz: How Strong Is Your Chiron became the most visited post on my blog ever. I already knew quizzes were popular, but reader response was overwhelming! It’s clear you’re eager to learn more about Chiron—and what Chiron means to you.
My “Chi-Q” Quiz was modeled after Donna Cunningham’s tests on the strength of various planets. (Thank you, again, Donna, for encouraging me to get quizzical.) I was eager to place Chiron in the mix so we could each assess Chiron’s personal prominence, especially in relation to the outer planets: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Since Chiron orbits between Saturn and Uranus, creating a bridge to the far outers, it offers us a conduit for handling our own outerplanetary energies that constantly demand deep change from us.
The Chi-Q Quiz parallels the idea behind an IQ test where the Chiron’s signature in your chart (sign, house, aspects) is an indicator of your potential and path for expressing Chiron’s multiple meanings. However, it occurred to me that there’s another strong parallel—that’s to Emotional Intelligence
or EI as put forth in the popular book of the same name by author Daniel Golman and many others. Emotional intelligence is a popular area of research today in the field of psychology.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is "the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions."
Continuing the parallels, Chi-Q assesses your Chironic potential. Chi-Res—the test you have the opportunity to take next in this post—is primarily about your emotional response to, and identification with, those things that are associated with Chiron. Once you know your Chironic characteristics, you can consider your response to this information and how it might guide your thinking and actions.
We all know people who are extremely intelligent yet have no “horse sense.” We are often reminded that as humans, we use only a fraction of our mental resources. I have known people with so-called developmental disabilities, supposedly “slow,” who understand the important things in life better than some folks who qualify for Mensa. You could have a Chi-Q score of only 25, but if you strongly identify with the principles associated with Chiron, you may be more Chironic than a person with a Chi-Q of 65 who hasn’t connected yet to Chiron in a major way. Why? Because you are using, or at minimum, feeling the presence of the archetype of Chiron. You have used Chiron’s skeleton key glyph to open the door to his teachings in your life. The Chi-Q speaks to Chironic potential; the Chi-Res measures how you’re connecting with the Chiron archetype in your inner and outer life.
The real purpose of both these tests is to help you get to know your Chiron better and what Chiron means to you. The Chi-Res test is more subjective, yet it may actually be a better indicator of how Chiron works for you.
Basis of the Chi-Res Quiz: The Trifold Method for Discovering Planetary Meanings
The Chi-Res Quiz s drawn directly from “the continuing discovery of Chiron.” When new planets are discovered, we look to three things as astrologers to decipher their meaning:
- The myth after which they are named, which is often inspired by synchronicity
- Astronomical information
- Cultural changes in the years surrounding discovery
The Chi-Res Quiz
Mythological Factors
1. __ You were literally abandoned by one or more parents at birth, examples: given up for adoption, sent to foster care, or experienced the death of a parent as a child. (10 points)
2. __ You have felt rejected emotionally (rather than actually) by a parent (5, 10 if both parents)
3. __ You were conceived in an adulterous relationship, outside marriage, or in a relationship not “sanctioned” by society or your local culture. (10 points)
4. __ You were born with a birth defect or have a physical handicap. (10) points
5. __ (If you have a physical handicap, it involves your leg or legs, especially the thigh or knee. (10 extra points)
6. __ You were raised by a couple other than your biological parents. (5 points)
7. __This couple in #6 seemed very balanced, yin and yang, and often complemented each other. (5 points)
8. __ You spent a lot of time alone as a child. (5 points)
9. __ It has always been important to you to have an isolated nook or “cave” to retreat into when you feel overwhelmed by the world. (5 points)
10. __ You felt outcast and rejected by others, particularly peers, as a child. (10 points)
11. __ You have a lingering injury or illness of some kind—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—one with ongoing residual effects. (10 points)
12. __The residual effect of #11 includes chronic pain. (10 points)
13. __ The lingering injury or illness in #11 involves your leg or legs, especially the thigh or knee. (5 points)
14. __ You continue to work or contribute in spite of pain or discomfort. (5 points)
15. __ You were wounded at or by a wedding (someone else married the one you loved, your mother married a man you despise, your parents never married—wide possibilities, including a literal accident or injury at nuptials). (10 points)
16. __ You are a teacher or mentor. (10 points)
17. __ You work with young adults (teens through twenties) in some other way, such as counselor or club leader. (10 points)
18. __ You are a professional astrologer. (10 points)
19. __ You are a surgeon. (10 points)
20. __ You are an herbalist or work with similar healing arts that involve the gifts of the earth such as flower essences or healing teas. (10 points)
21. __ You practice complementary medicine, both modern allopathic and some of the older tried-and-true medicines such as acupuncture, Ayurveda, etc. (5 points)
22. __ You practice holistic medicine as your sole focus. (5 points)
23. __ Your teaching style is to “bring out the best” in each student or person you mentor. (5 points)
24. - 29 You practice any of the following (5 points each):
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24. __ Archery
25. __ Martial arts (t’ai chi, qi gong, etc.)
26. __ Playing a stringed instrument (examples: guitar, banjo, piano)
27. __ Astrology (non-professional)
28. __ Matching people’s skills to a job or need
29. __ Turning out heroes or stars in whatever form
~~~
30. __ You are altruistic and very giving of your time and talents. (10 points)
31. __ Others have always come to you informally for advice or counsel. (10 points)
32. __ You have overcome a problem or hurt in your life and made a career of helping others “in the same boat,” such as an alcoholic who facilitates at AA meetings, or a formerly speech impaired person who is active in mentoring others in Toastmasters, or a person with a disease (Michael J. Fox) who becomes a spokesperson or advocate to find a cure. (10 points)
33.__ You “look different” in some way which has been wounding to you. (10 points)
34. __ You feel neither here nor there, like you don’t fit in, yet you can “work the perimeter” of very different worlds. (10 points)
35.__ You a weaver, someone who can take diverse ideas, artwork, talents—whatever—and stitch them into a tapestry of wholeness. (10 points)
36. __ You have strong intuitional skills. (5 points)
37. __ You are not right or left-brain dominant; you’re both brained, with a balance of logic and intuition. You’re possibly even ambidextrous. (10 points)
38. __ You have a great sense of humor and appreciate humor’s healing potential. (5 points)
39. __When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. You know how to find the silver lining, lessons, or good in situations. (10 points)
40.__ Finding your place in the community where you can give your talents and experience is important to you. (10 points)
Astronomical Factors
41. __ You have progressive ideas, yet get along with conservative people and are able to open their minds to new ways of looking at things without alienating them. Similarly, you can get the most outspoken liberal people to understand the perspective of a convervative, even if just a little. (5 points)
42. __Humor is often your bridge in this process described in #41. (5 points)
43. __ You consider yourself a maverick or a rogue. (5 points)
44. __ You are a composite being in some way, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, or bionic (mechanical body part replacements such as an artificial limb, knee). (10 points)
45__ It’s difficult to categorize you or “put you in a box.” You’re one of a kind. (5 points)
46. __ You often find yourself in the role of go-between or acting as a bridge between differing others or concepts. (5 points)
47. __ You are relatively small in size but often considered powerful by others. (5 points)
48. __ You have an uncanny sense of timing. (5 points)
49. __ You experience many synchronicities or meaningful coincidences. (5 points)
50. __ Something personally important happened to you in the year 1977. (5 points)
Cultural Factors
51. __ You resonate to the ideal of integration, whether cultural, racial or the integration of ideas. (5 points)
52. __ You strongly support feminism and gender equality. (5 points)
53. __ You often like extremely “opposite” people or ideas. Example: You might have close friends who are atheists and others who are religiously conservative. (5 points)
54. __ You resonated to the ‘70s—sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll—at least two out of three. If you didn’t do drugs, you still sought physical or emotional highs. (5 points)
55. __ You feel the movie Star Wars changed the world. (“May the Force be with you.”) (5 points)
56. __ You believe the music of the ‘70s (Elvis, Beatles, Motown, etc.) changed the world. (5 points)
Scoring
Highest possible score is 400.
0 – 62: Low resonance to Chiron at this time
62 – 320: Moderate resonance to Chiron *
321 – 400: High resonance to Chiron
* This wide moderate range assumes scores will fall in a normal bell curve. With such a high point range in the middle, it makes sense to subcategorize. Let's call 62-100 low moderate, up to 101-200 mid-moderate, and up to 201-320 high moderate.
What’s Next?
Here are some suggestions for putting this information to work for you.
1. Compare Your Chi-Q and Chi-Res quiz results. Are they similar in quality—both moderate, both high—or are they dissimilar (one low, one high). Contemplate what that means for you. Do you have more Chironic potential than you’re expressing? Conversely, are you maximizing the Chironic potential these tests light up?
2. If you have a high Chi-Res score, how does knowing this make a difference for you? How do you feel about it, and does it suggest any redirection in vocation or approach to personal growth? (For example, my Chi-Q is on the higher side at 43, but it pales compared to some of our test takers on the previous quiz who got way upwards of that score. My Chi-Res, however, is 330—quite high. It explains why I've been a Chironoholic since 1988 and suggests that I found the right astrological specialty.)
3. Participate in research. If you’d like to be part of the research for my book in progress, please contact me with “Chiron research” in the header. This will involve sharing your birth data, Chi-Q and Chi-Res scores, and personal information that exemplifies how Chiron works in your life. Your identity will be kept confidential.
Remember, your Chi-Q is fixed at birth with your Chiron configuration in your natal chart. It is a map of how Chiron can potentially work for you. However, your Chi-Res or Chiron Resonance is fluid. You could take this quiz at various times in your life and probably come out with a considerably different score. Some things will stay the same, like whether or not you have a physical disability, but others will vary as you accumulate Chironic experiences and identification with Chiron's wholemaking role. The Chi-Res quiz shows how you relate to Chironic principles at this time.
I look forward to your comments and hearing how the two quizzes compare for making Chiron more personal and accessible. Your feedback will help me refine the quizzes and to make them more helpful for others in the future.
