Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron

With all that Pisces energy floating around, this is a time of high imagination, inspiration and illumination, but it can also mean deception, disappointment and the angst that comes with watching your dreams evaporate as you wake up to a more stringent reality.

With Jupiter can come judgment — both the kind that enables you to assess a situation and know how to understand it, as well as the kind that can blame or condemn someone based on how they measure up to your standards and ideals. Jupiter is also our connection to the higher principles of living — ethics, philosophy, moral values and the highest understanding we can grasp. In that sense, it is about religion and justice, which strive to be manifestations of the best of these.

Neptune represents our connection to the Great Unknown and the Source of all things. When you stare into the void of what lies beyond your familiar corner of life, what do you see? In that formless darkness, we might see angels or demons; shining dreams or blinding fears. Similar to Luke Skywalker standing outside the cave in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back we encounter in the Neptunian realm only what we take with us. If you expect life to hand you thorns, that is most likely what you will experience — if for no other reason than that you will miss the roses because you're so busy watching out for the thorns!

Jupiter and Neptune ~ Faith or Folly?

So... what do you believe in? Is it easier to believe life will be painful and hard, than to trust that life will provide what is needed when it is needed? Paranoia (the idea that the Universe is conspiring against you) can be easier to believe in, especially in a world that seems to be crumbling around our ears right now! Pronoia, on the other hand, is Rob Brezsny's word for when we dare to believe that the Universe just might be conspiring to support us and deliver precisely what we need when we need it.

We can be susceptible to our own power of suggestion through the expectations and beliefs we hold about life, about other people, and especially about ourselves. However, no matter what life and other people are dishing out to us (good or bad), if we lack a belief in ourselves to be able to deal with it, survive through it, and ultimately learn or benefit from our experiences, then we can become victimized and held back by our own lack of self-confidence. We will tend to attract whatever we focus on, whatever we expect to happen, whatever we believe in and whatever our minds, hearts and spirits are open to.

Unfortunately, Pollyanna can lurk in the shadows of all this "You create your own reality" philosophy. To tell someone they can walk through fire if they just put their mind to it is true in some cases, but it can also be naive and even dangerous if the person is not properly prepared or ready for the experience. It can also leave the person feeling like a self-inflicted failure, with burnt feet besides. Surely this is not what this philosophy intends!

For those who are able to manifest what they desire with ease, the effort might be simple, easy or straightforward, but the climb to get to that mountaintop is usually not. And since we live in a reality whose nature is physical, to some extent we are bound by its rules and laws if we wish to continue our physical existence in it.

We have all of our human nature to wade through — "good" and "bad" — which is full of mischievous and twisted currents that must typically be traversed before we arrive at the place where our journey comes out the other side. Human psychology being what it is, attempting to ignore or abandon our so-called "negative" beliefs and feelings without working through them first can lead to more problems, since we have only succeeded in sweeping them under the rug where we are then likely to trip over them.

From a psychological perspective, our so-called "negative" side is where essential and potentially beautiful parts of our human nature are held, like seeds in a womb not yet ready to face the light of day. Negativity is a highly subjective concept. People rarely do "bad" things because they set out to do something "bad." Usually, negative, destructive or counterproductive behaviour makes some kind of sense to the person who does it. It feels right to them; it feels justified, subjectively. It is often motivated by a need to protect oneself from hurt, humiliation, rejection, failure or intense feelings, for example. These are reflexive human traits and can be grasped by a more objective, mindful and grounded part of us only with effort, practice and time. Until that point, these parts of us need to be nurtured, encouraged and strengthened gradually. Attempts to drag them out of that womb kicking and screaming before they're ready will usually make these reflexive reactions worse, not better. So trying to get beyond our so-called "negative" beliefs or feelings might be well-intentioned and a goal we aim for, but we can't always just toss them away like yesterday's newspaper.

Chiron ~ Learning Through Conflict

It is in this fragile and ironic aspect of our human journey that Chiron has a role to play in this multiple conjunction. Chiron represents the wounds we carry on all levels — physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, etc. It also reflects the existential struggle we all have between automatic human reflexes and a more evolved perspective about our lives. The mythological Chiron was neither fully mortal nor immortal, since his father was immortal (Kronos/Saturn) and his mother was mortal (Philyra, a nymph). As a centaur, he was both human and animal: half man, half horse. When he was wounded by Heracles' (Hercules) poisonous spear, any ordinary mortal would have died instantly and any typical immortal would have shrugged it off and healed himself instantly. Instead, Chiron lived with a chronically unhealed wound that made his life difficult and painful. His attempts to learn how to heal himself were ultimately unsuccessful (although I like to think he learned to manage his condition at least part of the time). However, the learning he gained from this allowed him to heal and teach others. Through this conflict, Chiron gained something he probably would not have otherwise achieved to the same degree.

In this context, Chiron represents our human existential struggle to find a balance point between our physical limitations and our ability to rise above those limits. We must tend to our physical, "creaturehood" needs (or we won't be living creatures for very long) AND we must also cultivate, develop and feed the spiritual, mental and sentient side of our human nature (or we will grow destructive from the boredom and meaninglessness of our lives). We are both physical creatures and divine entities, and our dual nature requires us to find a balance that will satisfy both sides. To complicate this even more, that balance point is always moving because change to one side will affect the other side. And so, in a sense, life is a constant battle between the demands and limitations of our physical existence and the striving to reach the unlimited potential of our consciousness, as well as how to nurture both successfully.

Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron ~ Redemption through Acceptance

When Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron mingle together, we have the makings of a spiritual struggle that can deeply challenge our faith in life. Together, they push us to bridge the gap between our hopes and expectations, between our aspirations and our efforts, and between our principles or beliefs and how we apply these in our lives. Chiron is likely to take the splendid vision of Jupiter-Neptune and force it back down to earth — possibly with a crash. It's not enough to merely dream and believe in the magic of the Universe under this combination of energies. Rather, we need to examine these against the backdrop of the laws and practical considerations of physical existence and the reality in front of us.

This doesn't mean the bubble will necessarily burst. However, you might need to go back to square-one, to some extent, in order to rebuild the path between your current reality (that you want to change) and the vision of what you want to create. It's unlikely that simply wishing or imagining will make it so, unless you've already done a lot of the work to make yourself ready for it — and in that case, this could be a very cathartic and transformative transit.

Human nature needs to be incorporated into the plan, with all its flaws and shortcomings. It might be tempting to see this as ruining the perfection of the vision, but that's not the intent of this energy; nor is it the important lesson here. Chiron is about finding the balance — that middle ground between succumbing to a flat existence of mere survival versus becoming so mesmerized by what lies beyond the world around you that you disconnect from it completely.

So on one hand, Chiron might sometimes feel like a wet blanket thrown over the fire of Jupiter-Neptune's inspiration and hope. However, it is meant to challenge us to embrace that fire so that ALL of who we are can be uplifted by it, not just our cerebral vision or imagination or faith. This is about developing self-acceptance, warts and all, and to embrace ourselves as a work in progress who is both perfect just as we are and also full of potential to become much more. We can accept our imperfect humanness without feeling that this will exclude us from reaching or deserving that potential. Don't fall into the trap of believing it must be all one way or the other — all perfect faith or all gritty resignation — or you'll miss the most profound and precious gift of the Chiron-Jupiter-Neptune transit, which is found in between those extremes.

Consider this: if we can't find acceptance of ourselves in our human imperfection, then the love we are striving to give to ourselves is diluted by conditions and judgments. Our love of self and our love of others become paradoxically tainted by the contradictory and impossible message that we must become something we are not, in order to be accepted for who we are. This need to accept our humanness might seem to drag us down from the sublime "high" of Neptune's perfect promise, or shrink us from Jupiter's expansive vision of principled idealism. On the contrary: it is meant to lift us up from the doldrums — not by leaving our human nature behind but by finding ways to integrate it with our highest potential in loving, healing, accepting ways.

© Wendy Guy 2009, all right reserved. Beyond attributed brief quotes, please obtain written permission from the author to use this article.