Fire is Life! Without the Sun in its divinely ordained position at the centre of our solar system, there would be no life on this planet. In the human realm, we need the gift of fire not only to warm and feed ourselves, but within our bodies to activate the alchemical processes of good health and vitality. Within the psyche, as will, fire is the energy of action and reaction, instinctual response, passion, motivation, and drive. Without the dance of action and reaction, life would be inert, dull. Fire is spirit! Our sense of aliveness and potential, our desire to create and evolve. Upcoming astrological energies are bringing the gift of fire to our attention as we enter the first Eclipse season of 2024.
Our fire energies can take us from one extreme to another. They inspire and impel us to act, create and accomplish. They protect us from danger through immediacy, in the movement of instinct as reaction. Our inner fire, and how we use it, can also be destructive, driving us to burn out, activating conflict within, or with others. Fire can be triggered where we have vulnerabilities. through what we perceive as psychological danger. We react to protect our sense of self where it is damaged. The degree of reaction reveals the depths of our wounds if we are willing to look. How we relate to our capacity to act and react is key to our growth. Maybe we act or react then doubt or judge ourselves, minimise or put down what we do. Some of us have been encouraged in developing a sense of self, maybe to an extreme of self-confidence. Others of us have been devalued. None of us have escaped personal and cultural programming. What we do with that now is key to humanity’s evolution. Over these next few weeks, we may seem to go back to basics with these energies. Yet we are diving deeper, finer frequencies illuminating what’s at core in the psyche.
Upcoming energies, late March through late April, highlight the movement of action/reaction within us. We’re called to a healthier conscious integration of this natural aspect of being human. It’s the enabling of conscious power: not power over but power with. These energies pinpoint where a lack of self-worth or healthy connection to our human vulnerabilities keep us trapped. They highlight the places we suffer and our journey to full aliveness in all our human vehicles. Key to this uplift, is the energy of Chiron, known as Wounded Healer, but also as Rainbow Bridge. Chiron is a key to tenderly holding our human frailties and wounding with the wisdom of soul. He’s a bridge between the truth of our divinity and the reality of our humanness. He acts as our worthy wise guide through this next uplift. The vital awareness is in how we relate to our reactions.
Where Chiron energy is strong, paradox is always at play. In the Greek pantheon, Chiron was an immortal, a centaur, half-man, half-horse, the result of rape, and rejected by both parents. Paradox ruled his existence; he was divine, yet a product of violence, half-animal too; he belonged nowhere. Thankfully twins, Sun God Apollo & Moon Goddess Artemis, saw Chiron’s potential and took on the task of raising him. They taught him the healing arts, prophecy, archery, and music. This enabled Chiron to mature beyond the usual centaur existence of self-indulgence and wildness. As he grew, he became a highly sought-after mentor to the Greek heroes. Chiron’s suffering had supported him in developing wisdom. Nonetheless, his destiny was to be wounded once more. Inadvertently caught up in a battle, Chiron was hit in the thigh by a poisoned arrow. This physical wound, he could not heal, despite his skill and knowledge. Being immortal, neither could he die. His suffering would be endless.
Wise Chiron, realising the predicament of eternal suffering, struck a bargain with Zeus, king of the gods. He would exchange his immortality for the freedom of Prometheus, who was also sentenced to endless torment. Prometheus had been bound for eternity to a rock for stealing fire from the gods and delivering it to humanity. This was deemed unacceptable to the gods. They wanted continuing control over humans who had now been granted the power of life and will. Once given, this could not be reclaimed. Prometheus’ action was a gift to humans yet also his undoing. As punishment for his audacity, he endured an eagle pecking out his immortal liver every day, only for it to grow back overnight. His suffering was never-ending … until Chiron intervened. Chiron’s deal with Zeus, his sacrifice of his own immortality, enabled the release of Prometheus. Chiron was also freed, to rest in the heavens as the constellation Sagittarius or Centaurus.
What can this myth reveal to us about our current predicament? The knowing that we are divine yet caught in the painful experience of our humanity?
Being divinely half-man, half-animal, Chiron embodies the seeming duality between our will, our animal instincts, and our divinity, between wildness and the light of our true nature, represented by Apollo and Artemis. Chiron turns to the healing arts as a means of healing himself and others. He shines the light of wisdom, giving to others that which he himself most needs. Rather than allowing the wound of rejection to fester, remaining a victim, he turns to the light and embodies it as wisdom through his suffering. In his action for Prometheus, he sacrifices; he chooses to die. As he does so, he releases another. It is his gift of life, revealing a pathway of transmuting suffering through love. He is a rare example of a god who dies. It’s interesting that his energy is so prominent this year as we move through the season of the Easter.
We are all bridging the paradoxical divide between our divinity and mortality, our beingness and woundedness, consciously or not. Some of us are perhaps reaching the living understanding that we are truly immortal yet experience the darkness of human experience. Chiron is an exemplar of how the path of integration can be approached – claiming our suffering and recognising how it is sweetly juicy with wisdom, when we don’t judge or reject it. Over this next month or so, any core wounding and/or extremes in self-worth and the capacity to act and react with immediacy, take a risk, be daring, or assert oneself, is highlighted. The first fire sign Aries is the playing field of these energies. It’s where we discover and activate new frequencies of selfhood. It’s where we find the gift of integrated individuality: I am within I AM.
This next month or so reveals a potentially fruitful journey from evolution. It is boosted in a new fifteen Jupiter-Uranus cycle of free and expanded consciousness activated in late April (more to come on that). Meanwhile, exploring how we relate to the gift of our fire energies – will and drive, aliveness and numbness, passion and anger, power and powerlessness – is key. There is no fixing our wounds; when they are held in truth, the synergy of divinity/humanity with compassion, the necessary actions of healing naturally unfold. As Rumi says, ‘the wound is the place the light enters you’. Recognition of this, rather than rejection of it, opens the alchemy of integration. Chiron reveals to us what may seem to be a sacrifice, likely it’s an old way of being. Yet what we must sacrifice is a key to our destiny. It’s a Rainbow Bridge.
The Astrology
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 5 Libra: 25 March 07.00GMT is ruled by Venus in Pisces, sextile Ceres in Capricorn, and sextile Jupiter in Taurus enabling recognition of where we suffer with openness, grounding, connection to the natural cycles of loss and renewal.
The Moon is trine Pluto in Aquarius and Mother of the Sea Sedna at 29 Taurus supporting us to access embodied trauma from patriarchal wounding. Theme: stuck in victim mentality or moving as compassionate wisdom.
Messenger Mercury Retrograde 1 – 25 April: 27 Aries to 15 Aries; conjunct Chiron 20 March, 15 April Rx, 21 April; conjunct the Lunar North Node 18 March & 25 April; conjunct Goddess of Love Venus 19 April. These dates all highlight the potentials of insight, transmutation and integration as Mercury travels retrograde then direct through Aries. The whole process culminates late April to mid-May when we are graced with the potential of new frequency embodiment.
Total Solar Eclipse 19 Aries: 8 April 19.21BST conjunct The Lunar North Node, Chiron, Disrupter Eris & Messenger Mercury Rx, ruled by Mars in Pisces conjunct Wise Elder Saturn. The Eclipse is trine Queen of the Underworld Persephone in Sagittarius. The maturity to claim our vulnerabilities through potential extremes of reaction/over-assertion or feelings of powerlessness/at odds with oneself. Revelation of what is truly at the core of self-rejection or judgment and/or the alchemy of healing needed.
