In Canada, They Call it Therapy

Planet Waves

by Eric Francis Coppolino, June 26, 2008

At Omega Institute last weekend, I did something that in retrospect was pretty daring—started a bunch of relatively new astrology students working with Chiron transits. Looking at the events and experiences surrounding several past Chiron transits is one of the most efficient ways to get an understanding of a person and of their chart.

These transits include Chiron’s squares, oppositions, and return to its own natal position (each of which happens for a brief phase once per 50-year cycle), as well as Chiron conjunct the ascendant, Sun and Moon.

A friend made up a nifty 100-year Chiron ephemeris that fits on six pages (for easy copying), I brought a new, very fast printer so we could have instant charts for the class and—with a little bit of mindfulness—we had everything we needed to get going.

After a brief introduction, I demonstrated the process on one student whose transits turned out to be quite dramatic and timed precisely to the 50-year orbit of Chiron. The themes of these events all related to his Moon/Chiron conjunction in Capricorn in the fourth house; the result being a long sequence of events involving his home, family, and security base. This was astrology in real life, not in theory; and it was astrology connected to a living client we could all see and dialogue with, rather than case study in a book.

Usually, astrology studies begin with the rote memorization of the planets through the signs and houses. Each placement is presumed to have a “meaning,” and that meaning is presumed to be static and definitive. For example, I have Venus in Taurus, and once I read in a book that this means I will go to the same restaurant every day and order the same thing. Which is precisely what I do, but I think it’s purely a coincidence.