Saturn and Neptune and the boundaries of compassion

April 16, 2012 By

reposted from February 2007

Last night I watched part of a Dog Whisperer episode that I missed about Howie, the (adorable) rescue dog that lived at an animal hospital in Atlanta because he was “unadoptable.” Howie had been terribly abused before his rescue, and while his body had healed he was still terrified and growled whenever anyone new came near him. The ladies who cared for him were very protective of him and did all they could to keep him safe. He lived at the animal hospital for two years before Cesar Millan came to help Howie become adoptable.

When Cesar arrived, he found that Howie had been indoors for two years. Because of his abuse, his foster moms had been afraid to put a leash on him for fear it would bring back memories of the terrible times. They felt he had been through so much, and they just wanted to keep him safe and loved. Cesar always says that dogs live in the moment, and that if we keep living in the past and reinforcing that for them that they will never heal.

Chiron teaches us that our desire to heal others often stems from a wound within ourselves. In the highest form of this “Wounded Healer” archetype, we wait to heal others until we ourselves have been healed. Once we have walked into the fire and shadows of our own wounds and the energy held in the cellular memory has been released, we then experience the empathy to be able to help others heal. However, there is a shadow side to the Wounded Healer in which the wounds of the patient activate the wounds of a healing provider who has not yet fully healed. Jung called this phenomenon “countertransference,” and in this circumstance the patient and healer become locked in a drama from which neither can escape without outside help. This is likely what happened with Howie the rescue dog and the ladies who rescued him.

Those of us (myself included) who rescue animals or who otherwise have rescue fantasies are sensitive souls who have been wounded and who seek to heal ourselves through healing the animals we rescue. This is a Neptunian experience, since Neptune bestows boundless compassion, sensitivity, and an empathy which causes us to experience the suffering of others as if it were our own. While these are beautiful qualities, without the boundaries and discipline of Saturn we become codependent and unable to be effective in either our own healing process or the process of others. Cesar Millan’s famous refrain “rules, boundaries, and limitations” is the Saturn influence that, when combined with the Neptunian empathy, creates a truly effective healer.

I have had to learn this the hard way. With Saturn on one side of my Sun and Neptune on the other, it has taken me a lifetime to learn to balance the two. For years I tried to rescue myself by rescuing others, and finally realized that until the work on myself was closer to completion I would never be able to help anyone else. In the story of Howie, his rescuers were so overcome with grief and compassion at the plight from which he was rescued, they were unable to perform the simplest act that would complete the healing process: put a leash around his neck and take him for a walk. It was evident that Cesar felt compassion for Howie when he gently encouraged Howie to take his first steps outside. But the boundaries that he maintained in not falling into the pool of Howie’s pain helped him to truly heal this dog.

In the same way, those of us with strong Neptunian influences (planets aspecting Neptune or in Pisces and the twelfth house which are ruled by Neptune) need to cultivate the influence of Saturn in order to function effectively in the world. Cesar Millan’s pragmatic approach to dog psychology teaches dog owners this balance, but his lessons are valuable for anyone who lives on Planet Earth.

Here is an update on what happened to Howie.

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Farewell to the Chiron/Neptune conjunction

November 8, 2010 By

Image from HeartSoulVisionAlthough Chiron and Neptune only have made one exact conjunction during the past two years (it occurred on February 17, 2010), they have been within a few degrees of each other for this entire time.  They are still about as close as you can get without being exactly conjunct, about six minutes of arc apart.  But having just changed direction to move forward after a long retrograde period, they will begin to separate.

Chiron and Neptune both operate on the level of the soul; neither planet is very concerned with supporting the ego or the personality.  Chiron’s work is to clear the emotional debris of past experiences by awakening dormant emotions and forging new energetic pathways of healing.  Neptune’s role is in dissolving the ground upon which we rely so that we will awaken to a higher expression of the Self.  I like to call Chiron the “Soul Healer” and Neptune the “Soul Teacher,” so under these two planets we have been inspired/urged/forced to address deeper matters in our lives.

This has been particularly true for those of us in our 50s who have Pluto in the later degrees of Leo.  Chiron and Neptune have been opposite Pluto in these charts, instilling a sense of urgency in healing the wounds of the past.  I have been able to watch the process of the Chiron/Neptune conjunction in the experiences of my clients.  Back in early 2009, when the conjunction first began to align (peaking in April through July when Jupiter was involved as well) clients of all ages  were reporting intense experiences of grief and mourning as old wounds resurfaced, seemingly out of nowhere.   As Chiron and Neptune continued their dance, the intensity of the emotional clearing began to subside and clients began to report a sense of completion and a desire to begin making external changes in their lives to reflect the internal changes that had transpired.

Much of this healing occurred because the intensity of the inner experiences forced many of us to seek external healing modalities in order to become more completely aligned as physical, spiritual and mental beings.  The Chiron/Neptune conjunction has occurred in Aquarius which has a transpersonal effect, helping us to detach from the needs of ego and teaching the wisdom of pure Spirit.

The conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus that has been occurring since the spring of 2010 may have served as an awakening force, helping us to detach somewhat  (the Uranus/Aquarius factor) from the emotional story (Chiron) so that we can start to unwind ourselves from the bondage of our emotional and psychic wounds.

In any case, the emotional intensity of the past few years seems to be subsiding for the time being.  If you are being personally affected by a Chiron transit, or one of the other challenging planetary gods like Saturn or Pluto, you may still be experiencing some difficulty.  But when we do the emotional work of Chiron we are left with a deep wisdom that comes from letting go of the past and facing the future for which we have come to Planet Earth.  An amazing story!

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Practice makes permanent

September 16, 2010 By

I heard this quote over the weekend at a hammered dulcimer workshop: “Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does make permanent.”  Evidently Warren Buffett obtained this piece of wisdom from a golf pro, the point of which is that if you do the same thing over and over again, you will obtain the same results.

As an astrological counselor and guide I often have clients who want to know when their lives will get better.  Usually I can point to a particular planetary cycle that is activating a challenging place in their birthchart, and I can tell them that on such and such a date that cycle will ease up and they will start to feel better.  But sometimes, especially after a long slog of Saturn or Pluto cycles, habits of negativity and fear start to build up and it takes more than the movement of those planets off the natal chart to provide release.  It takes a complete change of perspective, and a new course of action.

If a musician practices a tune over and over, but practices it incorrectly, the mistakes will become habit and a part of his repertoire.  Tony Robbins used to say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  Whether you play the piano, or golf, or tennis, or practice yoga, bad habits can lead to injury and a failure to accomplish the goal of the practice session.

If we want to change our lives, we have to shift our course and do things differently. Holding a vision is crucial to making this change, but the actions that we take must reflect that vision if change is to occur.

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The Chiron/Neptune conjunction: Part II

April 9, 2009 By

When Chiron and Neptune are working together, they combine to assist with the work of the soul.  The body,, the mind, and the ego are all most interested in living a life well-grounded in the material world that offers the maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain.  The soul does not pursue pleasure and avoid pain; instead, there is an embrace of experiences that will assist us at the deepest level to completely learn the lessons that are presented to us so that we can release the past and move forward with greater wisdom.

Chiron facilitates this aspect of soul work by uncovering any wounded places that have been left unresolved so that we can be freed of the blocked energy that our unreleased wounds hold within the body/mind/spirit system.  Neptune assists by reminding us that there is a world of experience that lies beyond the boundaries of the material world.  Under the influence of Neptune we either open up to experiences of a powerful mystical nature, or else we become confused and deluded as the nature of our personal reality is blurred and we have nothing to replace it with.  Neptune bestows creative genius and a spiritual connection to our Divine self as the physical world is transcended, or it can cause us to indulge in escapist and addictive behavior in an effort to escape the prison of our own mind.

As in everything else in the astrological language, there is a both a higher and lower manifestation of both Chiron and Neptune, so when they combine in a conjunction there is the potential to for a transcendent experience of healing spirituality, or a confusing descent into the hell of the unknown of the psyche.

I suspect that the epidemic of mass shootings we have seen over the past few months as Chiron and Neptune approach their exact conjunction is the result of the conjunction taking a darker turn in the personal lives of many people  Chiron can intensify any wounds that are already challenging, and Neptune can make it difficult to evaluate those experiences with any kind of rational thought.  We like to think of Jupiter as being a “benefic” planet, but it is also the great liberator and expands whatever it comes into contact with, so when Jupiter hooks up with Chiron the process of exposing the wounds for greater healing potential can create an abundance of sensitivity that under Neptune’s influence has no real outlet without a conscious application.

There is also an opportunity here for tremendous spiritual growth and insight if we look within for the wisdom that awaits there.  The process of spiritual evolution does often require that we step confidently through a dark night of the soul or two, and this may be a necessity over the next couple of months.  Jupiter and Neptune expand the potential for creativity as the inspiration of the divine showers easily through the veil of the mind, and the voice of our guidance and the divinity of our choice can be clearly heard now.  Jupiter in Aquarius is humanistic and altruistic, and there is a strong focus on the call for change, both within ourselves and in the world in which we live as well!

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Caroline Kennedy’s Journey of Healing

December 22, 2008 By

Caroline KennedyThis is not an evaluation of Ms. Kennedy’s qualifications for the New York senator seat, but a look at what motivates a private person to seek a very public office. by Lynn Hayes

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy has led a life that has been at once charmed and full of tragedy. The only survivor of the political era fondly remembered by some as “Camelot” for its beautiful illusion of perfection, she has long shied away from publicity and preferred to work behind the scenes as a writer and as a board member of various nonprofits.

Ms. Kennedy (born 11/27/1957, 8:15 am, NY)  has the Sun in Sagittarius and, if the 8:15 am birthtime is correct, Sagittarius on the ascendant. Normally a Sagittarian Sun and Ascendant denotes an individual of jovial (Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter/Jove) temperament and character.  But here we also see a 12th House Sun, describing the longing for privacy and a need to be hidden, and Saturn conjunct Mercury, illustrating a serious (Saturn) mind (Mercury) that perhaps leans towards depression despite the naturally buoyant Sagittarian influence.

Pluto forms a square (challenging aspect) to Ms. Kennedy’s Sun, a dynamic which often (but not always) denotes a familiarity with either death or abuse at some level.  Pluto’s intensity can exhibit many forms, and while the Pluto/Sun square does sometimes reveal a violent victimhood, it can also describe the death of a parent or a lifetime associated with death.  We have certainly seen this with Ms. Kennedy, whose father was killed when she was only six, and who also lost her uncle at a young age.

Ms. Kennedy also has a tight conjunction of Chiron (the Wounded Healer) to her Moon (emotions), suggesting a life of emotional pain that requires consistent application of conscious healing in order to be resolved.  The Chiron/Moon conjunction is nearly exactly square to Saturn, which deepens the pain of this dynamic but also builds tremendous strength of character through crisis.

Caroline Kennedy was virtually invisible to the public through much of her adult life, and only emerged on the public stage when she spoke to the Democratic Convention in the year 2000 following the death of her brother, John Kennedy Jr.  The death of her brother was certainly a devastating event, and it occurred as transiting Saturn (challenge and disappointment) formed an exact square to the Chiron/Moon square.  Over the next year, however, Pluto began to make a harmonious transit (a sextile) to the Chiron/Moon conjunction at that time which would have helped to facilitate the transformation of her healing process.

n January of 2008, when Ms. Kennedy announced her support for Obama’s presidency, transiting Chiron was completing a transit to her Moon and natal Chiron.  At this moment, Venus in her progressed chart is exactly conjunct her progressed Ascendant, the point at which we become visible to the outer world.  At the same time, transiting Chiron is making a sextile to her natal Ascendant, completing the process of healing and deepening into a personal comfort level.  This has likely been a long journey of healing for her, and her emergence onto the political stage is very likely a part of this personal healing journey.

Over the next year Chiron will continue to work on her chart in harmonious transits to Jupiter in her chart, the point at which we find faith and belief that life has meaning, and also to Mercury in her chart, opening up new levels of understanding.  She will also have a large number of Jupiter opportunity transits, including a trine of Jupiter to her natal Jupiter which is a very positive event.  The New York governor will appoint the next senator of New York, so she will not have to run for the seat.  I cannot predict whether or not she will be appointed, but it does seem clear that her public life is really just beginning.

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