Chiron Enters Pisces and the Gulf of Mexico Eco-Disaster

“We are all melting in one way or another. That’s a given. The only question is whether we can do so with awareness…. [O]ne can pour oneself into a collective effort that makes one feel like a meaningful participant in the great churning thrum of humanity.” – Jessica Murray

Chiron the Wounded Healer moved from Aquarius to Pisces on April 19, 11:37 pm (Pacific time). This is Chiron’s first entry into Pisces since discovered in 1977 — and it’s dramatic.

On April 20, what is likely to be the worst environmental disaster in our lifetimes was unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico. Without some miraculous human or divine intervention, the oil that’s gushing from a wound deep within our beloved planet — at an estimated rate of 210,000 gallons a day — will ultimately poison all of the Earth’s oceans.

Pisces the Fish, the last sign of the zodiac, rules the ocean, consciousness, the imagination, the Mystery, the ineffable, bliss and oneness. The ocean is the origin of all of life on Earth, the Source. The ocean is the literal, physical, manifestation of the concept that we are all one. If one ocean becomes toxic, all of Earth’s waters become toxic. There are no boundaries, no borders, when it comes to water — or oil, which is also ruled by Pisces.

Chiron represents our deepest wounds and pain. Melanie Reinhart points out that the Civil War, World War I, and most recently Vietnam all coincided with transits of Chiron through Pisces. The last time was 1960-69:

“Countless young men were killed or maimed; many returned disillusioned or addicted to hard drugs; others disappeared without a trace. Here also are the Piscean themes: unseen enemies, deception, sacrifice, disillusionment, drug addiction.… Characteristically Piscean experiences of material and emotional chaos, insecurity and mourning are evoked on a mass scale through war. Imagine how many mourn the loss of one person, and extend that to the millions lost in these large-scale wars that occurred while Chiron was in Pisces: this gives a sense of the collective emotional experience generated by war.” (Reinhart, Chiron and the Healing Journey)

The BP disaster carries all the Pisces signatures: oil and water, a situation that is out of control, chaos. Feelings of overwhelm, grief, despair, insecurity, fear.

The magnitude of this event, its unimaginable consequences, triggers a spiritual crisis. How can we respond effectively? In the face of the potential destruction of our planet, what really matters? Where is the divine in all of this, what is the role of the imagination, magic, meditation, music, prayer?

Feeling the Pain of Separation

“Pisces lives in the unconscious of the collective. It is in touch with what the culture has forgotten or repressed…. The Piscean task is to retrieve what the culture has denied, to bring it back to surface awareness.” – Caroline Casey, Making the Gods Work for You

Chiron in Pisces triggers the ultimate wound — the pain of separation from Source. Barbara Hand Clow describes Chiron in Pisces as a “crisis over connecting with the God force, the universal oneness” (Chiron: Rainbow Bridge). Melanie Reinhart calls it “existential grief.”

Western culture is constructed around avoiding, repressing and anesthetizing this grief. Television, shopping, food, legal and illegal drugs… — so many ways to go unconscious rather than feeling the pain. But Chiron teaches that the only way out is through, and that the pain itself holds a gift. What will it take to feel the pain, the grief, that we’ve been avoiding all our lives?

The healing potential of Chiron in Pisces is to dissolve and heal these wounds through tears. Feeling the pain, scary and overwhelming as it can seem, opens the heart, and brings us into a state of compassion and unconditional love. Opening the heart reconnects us with Source by dissolving the barriers we had erected out of fear, all the ways we learned to defend ourselves.

Spirit, Imagination, and Response-ability

While Chiron moves into Pisces, Uranus is making his explosive exit from this sign (see Pioneering A New World). On April 26, Uranus opposed Saturn for the last time while Uranus is still in Pisces. (Saturn and Uranus will oppose each other one last time, in July, in the signs Libra and Aries.)

Saturn is the planet of response-ability, our ability to respond — which is clearly being tested by the BP oil deluge. Regardless of whose fault it is or how much money it’s going to cost or who’s going to pay for it, the bottom line is, the humans on the front lines of this disaster don’t know how to stop what’s been put into motion. The mind-boggling technology that got us into this — drilling for “deep oil” 30,000 feet into the crust of the Earth, 5,000-feet deep in the ocean — is apparently incapable of solving the catastrophe it created.

For those of us who don’t live near the Gulf of Mexico, it’s tempting to see this crisis as someone else’s problem. It’s also easy to go into the Piscean shadow of victim consciousness, overwhelm and despair, and reach for our favorite addiction to soothe the discomfort.

Clearly, this disaster is an unignorable wake-up call about the necessity (Saturn) of radically changing (Uranus) our way of life in order to keep from killing ourselves and so many other lives and life-forms, if not the Earth herself. While a mature Saturn responds with wisdom to circumstances (e.g., in this case, immediately banning all off-shore drilling and taking action to transform our oil-based economy to a sustainable one), an immature Saturn reacts out of fear and stays stuck in suffering rather than taking the risk of trying something different.

At the same time, there is another kind of response being called for, one we can all participate in, right now. Uranus in Pisces for the past seven years has awakened a revolution in consciousness, inspiring spiritual technologies based on the understanding that everything is energy and our inner and outer worlds are inherently connected.

Pisces rules magic and wonder and miracles. In the realm of energy, in dreams, in the imagination, anything is possible. With Jupiter — planet of expansion, opportunity, abundance and unlimited possibilities — also now in Pisces, we have an enhanced ability to tap into this spiritual power.

Saturn asks, What do we do with it? How do we apply the consciousness work we’ve been cultivating? Masaru Emoto and Lynn McTaggart’s experiments with water come to mind — if it’s true that consciousness, human thought and intention can affect the structure of water, then now would be the time to utilize this knowledge. If prayer has been proven to be effective in healing, then bring it on. If human engineering technology is insufficient to the task, then what about asking for help from guides, angels, the Divine?

Everyone on the planet will ultimately be affected by this event — how can each of us respond? Feeling is the first step, and through our feelings, accessing the wisdom of Source, which will guide us each toward the unique role we came here to play, and the most effective action we can take in the moment.