CHIRON AND STEVE: THE HYBRID AND HIS SACRED HANDS
by Nunzia Coppola (Meskalila)
I would like to introduce you to the Centaur Chiron, according to Modern Western Astrology. In India, this celestial body is still little known.
As an example, I’ve chosen Steve Jobs, a modern “myth” with all his contradictions: many details of his life are connected to the Centaur. Known for his “reality distortion field”, Steve seemed able to control the minds of others. He was a visionary leader and kept a strong capacity for wonder up to the very end. His sister says that Steve died repeating thrice: “Oh wow!” For every guest at his funeral, he had left a goodbye gift: “Autobiography of a Yogi”, a book discovered in his teenage.
Imagine the Solar System. Visualize the planets and a group of minor bodies (comets and asteroids, etc.). Concentrate on the space embroidered by two precious belts: first the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; then, the Kuiper Belt between Neptune and Pluto. Pull away from them, until you encounter the Oort Cloud, the place from which long-period comets originate. Now, back up a bit: between the Kuiper and the asteroid belts, exactly between Jupiter and Neptune, there are around 44,000 Centaurs. Another step back: in this space of the Centaurs, between Saturn and Uranus, shines Chiron with variations of luminosity, typical of comet activity.
Chiron was the name attributed in 1861 by Hermann Goldschmidt to a hypothetical ninth satellite of Saturn; its orbit was supposed to be between those of Titanus and Hyperion. The discovery was never confirmed. Later, the name Chiron was given to the asteroid 2060 Chiron, discovered on 1st November 1977 at 10:00 a.m. by Charles Kowall. Being unable to determine with certainty whether it was an asteroid or a comet, astronomers decided to include it in both categories, also calling it a planetoid. Its cometary designation is 95P/Chiro.
The term “maverick”, not aligned, was adopted by astronomer Brian Marsden who, because of its hybrid characteristics, considered Chiron a body outside of the solar system, which had escaped the Kuiper Belt and destined to disappear again beyond our system. Its very eccentric orbit is tilted 7° from the ecliptic, intersects the trajectory of Saturn, and brushes past that of Uranus. Chiron appears to be very lightweight and is subject to perturbations from large planets, despite its dimensions (diameter: 500 km). Its light is weak: magnitude 18m. It makes one revolution in 50 years and 7 months.
On 29th November 2011, thanks to the tracking of Pluto, MIT detected an occultation of Chiron, observing the shadow deriving from its transit in front of a luminous star. This made it possible to see a mysterious fog produced by two dusty rings. Chiron is surrounded by rings with a circular shell of gas and dust, 300 km away from its centre. In short, Chiron is a massive periodic comet of the solar system, but belongs to the class of Centaur asteroids, between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. Now we know that, having arrived from the Kuiper Belt, Chiron has been orbiting in its space only for a million years: almost from the same time when Homo erectus appeared.
To escape Cronus, the nymph Phylira turned into a mare. But the god, changing in turn into a horse – also to avoid attracting the attention of his wife Rhea – managed to abduct her. Their union produced a son who was half god and half horse: Chiron. Immediately after the birth, frightened by her son’s hybrid form, Phylira abandoned Chiron and turned herself into a linden tree. Apollo and Artemis immediately adopted Chiron. Apollo instructed him in the arts, medicine, music, and hunting. Artemis taught him to recognize and use herbs. Integrating the teachings of his mentors, Chiron learned how to heal the sick with the sound of the lyre. Unlike the other centaurs that were crude, savage, and violent, he became wise, educated, generous, and mild-mannered. He invented the constellations to help the Argonauts, during their voyage in search of the Golden Fleece. He was the teacher of numerous heroes: Hercules, Ajax, Achilles, Aristaeus, Asclepius, Aeneas, etc. His cave at the foot of Mount Pelion became the most famous school of all of Hellas. His teachings covered music, philosophy, medicine, hunting, and the martial arts. He was also famous for his divining talents and as a counsellor: many gods turned to him when they were in difficulty.
Chiron married the nymph Chariklo, Apollo’s daughter. Her name was given to the asteroid 10199 Chariklo. Their daughter Ocyrhoe received the gift of divination and became a prophetess. She predicted that her father would have been killed by one of his pupils. Later, because she did not observe professional secrecy, she was transformed into a mare. As for her prediction, Heracles, to whom Chiron had taught the art of hunting, arrived to fight against the centaurs at the entrance to his master’s cave. During the fight, an arrow dipped in the venomous blood of the Hydra of Lerna pierced Chiron’s knee, causing him excruciating pain. Chiron was immortal, but he felt pain like humans and animals. Unable to stand any more of the extreme suffering, he begged Zeus to revoke his immortality. In exchange, he offered to die to save Prometheus, who was chained to a rock in Tartarus for having stolen the fire of the gods and given it to men. Euthanasia, the good Death, then ended Chiron’s sufferings. Zeus, who loved Chiron, gave his permission, and to honour him, he took him into the sky as a constellation. Although the myth is the same one, the Centaurus constellation and Chiron are not the same astronomical entity.
A few months after Chiron discovery, astrologist Zane Stein added it to the astrological corpus and, in 1981, recognised its qualities of healing and instruments for obtaining it. Other astrologers, such as Richard Noelle, Al Morrison, and Barbara Hand Clow, observed the position of Centaurus in the charts of the consultants to identify others of its meanings. The first book on Chiron was written in 1985 by Zane Stein and called “Essence and Application: A View from Chiron”.
While the asteroids orbiting in the belt between Mars and Jupiter are midway between personal and generational planets, Chiron travels the Zodiac in around 50 years. So, its position in the Signs is not personal. The House of the wounded centaur indicates the contexts in which we must take care of ourselves and of others, but also the type of awareness to seek through teaching and experiencing. The opinion of Barbara Duffin in The Mountain Astrologer, Dec-Jan. 1994, is very interesting: she says that the story of Chiron suggests that the way we use or reveal knowledge is a responsibility that can turn against us. The hybrid Centaur also indicates:
1. Hybrid situations. Three parts coexisted in Chiron: divine wisdom, human intelligence, and animal instinct.
2. Wound of abandonment. Phylira abandoned her monstrous son and turned into a linden tree.
3. Virtue of the adoption. Apollo and Artemis adopted the child and forged his character.
4. Personal behaviour with the magisterium, relationship between teacher and student or viceversa. Chiron learned the arts and then passed his skills on to his pupils.
5. Transformation of intuitions, explosive emotions, and instincts: Chiron transformed his wild, instinctive centaur nature.
6. Value of one’s anomalies and oddities: Chiron was an atypical centaur but manifested his wisdom through this uniqueness.
7. Transplantation: After the ankle of Achilles was burnt by the magic practices of his mother Thetis, Chiron replaced the missing bone with one taken from the skeleton of the giant Damysos.
8. Unaspected wounds: Chiron was wounded by mistake by his pupil Heracles, to whom he had taught archery.
9. Tendency to help others more than oneself: Chiron could heal everyone but himself.
10. Awareness of vulnerabilities: Through his wound, Chiron became a profound expert in suffering.
11. Euthanasia: He gave up his immortality because of the excruciating, unbearable pain and suffering.
12. Manual drive: Chiron was very expert with his hands.
Obviously, not all these meanings appear in a single chart: our ability lies in grasping those that best fit the person being analysed. It seems that in the Chiron of Steve Jobs chart almost all these meanings are present.
According to Maria Teresa Russo, a possible etymological root of the term “Chiron” may be Keiròs, Greek for “hand”: hence “God of the expert hand”. Bypassing Russo’s interesting medical and thaumaturgical reflections, it comes to my mind that the non-zoomorphic part of the centaur was characterized by his hands, which he skilfully used to heal and touch, but also to use musical and martial instruments. An archetype of intelligence deriving from manual dexterity, Chiron combined instinctive strength with the arts, science, and creativity. As a matter of fact, hands have a close relationship with knowledge and learning: handling helps one to know and indicates that one has mastery over what one touches. The hands are the bridge between the animal and the divine; they have made us skilful, up to accomplishing the miracle of digital instruments. One of the key moments of evolution was the development of the opposable thumb, which guaranteed the firm grip with which Homo habilis could chip a stone and, later, to construct tools and utensils. From the chipped stone to the wheel, the bow, and the computer mouse, the instruments created through manual skill have accompanied human beings throughout their evolution. At the dawn of our age, looking at people’s hands was a way to understand their hidden intentions. The ordinary Centaurs used their hands for their needs and to fight, while Chiron used them to increase wisdom, knowledge, and evolution. The hybrid Centaur taught men the veneration of the Gods, the sacredness of the cosmic laws, and refined manual skills. In our age, Chiron suggests us not to get lost in the technological devices, but to humanize them with skill. He suggests us that gears are created from the combination of divine intuition, human intelligence, and animal instinct. Chiron and his relationship with hands also reminds me of the Mudrā: the sacred gestures that communicate the secrets of the universes, the qualities of the animal species, the feelings of human beings, and divine power. In Jobs’s story, hands also remind us that he learned calligraphy in a course taught by Trappist monk Robert Palladino… and that it was from that course, in which no processors were used, that the future digitized creation of the fonts emerged. His hands also bring us back to the computer, the multi-tasking smartphone, and digital animation, which have changed the way we listen to music and create movies. The genius of the digital revolution was the adopted son of a man whom he himself called “a genius with his hands”. And, like Chiron, Steve wanted to raise his craft as a designer to the mastery level. Both when he was a penniless hippie and when he became a magnate, Jobs contributed to “the stream of history”, putting technology into everyone’s hands. I invite you to listen to Jobs talk at Stanford University. Everything he said in that circumstance, intensely resonated as a chironian chronicle: https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die
CONNECTING THE DOTS: LOSS, LOVE AND DEATH
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push humanity forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do”. Steve Jobs.
Many contrasts coexisted in Jobs: abrasive character, fastidiousness, arrogance, impassiveness, fury, need for control, intuitiveness, ingeniousness, wisdom, compassion, responsibility, aesthetic sense, and spirituality. These contradictions derived from traits of his DNA (Centaur nature) interwoven with the environment around his adoptive parents (Apollo and Artemis loved and educated Chiron). The wisdom of Jobs became legendary, as did his anger. He was consulted for advice by friends, common people, presidents, and rock stars (humans and gods asked Chiron for advice). Steve Jobs was a complex, ambitious man, a perfectionist with a grand vision who changed history. A real Chironian, he was a hybrid between a Zen Buddhist and a salesman. His profession was a fusion between art and technology.
Accurate “AA rated” birth data
Except for quick references, I will mainly concentrate on the systemic group regarding Chiron
• First glance: ultra-sensitive nature behind the irascible tyrant.
Spirituality, sensitivity, creativity (Sun in Pisces) paired with perfectionism and detail-driven attitude (Rising Virgo). Depth and strategic methodology in everyday management (Sun in Pisces on the 6th, ASC Virgo, MC Gemini). Evident, creative, and nonconformist creativity (Mercury in 5th Aquarius ruling First and Tenth). Fiery, impulsive nature that translates into conflictual actions and destructive reactions (Mars dignified in Aries square Pluto on the 12th). Wisdom, spirituality, and leadership “outside the box” (Jupiter, Uranus and South Node in 10th). His ability to love was a fundamental value, but somewhat selective and severe, despite a strong, unsatisfying need for love (Venus in Capricorn rules the 2nd and the 9th; Saturn rules the 5th). And yet, he mesmerized people with his burning emotional sensitivity (Moon in Aries on the 7th rules the 11th).
If we move gradually toward the Chironian zone, we arrive at the 5th Cusp in Capricorn. The 5th extends in Aquarius with Mercury the ruler of ASC and MC, squaring Saturn in Scorpio on the 3rd: strategic and brilliant, always ready to take risks, to inform, educate, and entertain, Steve behaved as a manipulator in selling the results of his technological visions. Eager to test his creative nature (Chiron in the 5th), Jobs experimented with drugs, spiritual practices (Sun in Pisces, Jupiter in Cancer on the 10th, Neptune on the 2nd), fasting, and rigid, unconventional foods (Sun on the 6th. Sixth House ruled by Saturn and Uranus).
• Approaching Chiron on the 5th, square Neptune on the 2nd: primary wound and genealogical confusion.
“And many, many years later, I realized that the Syrian guy I had shaken hands with in the Falafel restaurant named Jandali was the same Jandali my mom and sister had told me about in 1982”. Steven Jobs
In Karmic Astrology the Fifth, in addition to the sphere of pleasure, creativity, and manual dexterity, indicates genealogy and the knowledge passed down from the paternal family.
Steve was loved by his adoptive father, who had transmitted healthy values and taught him to use his hands to create useful objects. However, certain of Steve’s character traits were different from those of his adoptive parents. Later, he discovered that his birth father was a non-practising Syrian Muslim, and that his paternal grandfather had been a self-made millionaire.
• T Square with Chiron on the 5th – Neptune on the 2nd – Mars on the 8th: The spasmodic wound feeds on anger and compassion, hate and forgiveness.
The awareness of having been abandoned accentuated his angry nature and his abrasive reactions, creating short circuits with his compassionate side and need for spirituality.
• Mars on the 8th square Jupiter-Uranus both retrogrades on the 10th.
His resentment over being abandoned formed the basis for his social fulfilment, via extraordinary routes, suspended between utopia and reality. Not recognizing himself in ordinary corporation situations, Jobs was forced to deal with conflictual situations both outside and within his own ingeniousness.
• Martian fire weakened by the Water of Neptune and disputed by the square with Jupiter/Uranus.
Steve was vulnerable and easily felt attacked. Anger, success, ingeniousness, and empathy were the ingredients of the balm to soothe his pain. He often channelled his excesses of rage into expressions of derisive originality.
• Conjunction Jupiter-Uranus on the 10th in square to Neptune on the 2nd.
The price to be paid for the recognition of his identity and his ingenious visions was the lacerating conflict between the pursuit of social success and the spiritual values.
• Cardinal Grand Cross.
Steve loved his adoptive parents and was loved by them, but he felt a vague sense of not belonging. This idiosyncrasy generated the need to be successful at all costs, but his way.
• Venus in Capricorn on the 4th opposing Jupiter-Uranus on the 10th.
His relationships were linked to something solid which he needed, but which frightened him because they risked jeopardizing his social fulfilment and freedom.
• The Opposition of Venus on the 4th to Jupiter on the 10th intersects the Opposition between Mars on the 8th and Neptune on the 2nd:
The polarity of character between the spur for success and the underlying need for protection accentuated his aggressiveness. His competitive feelings implemented the dream to be realized. His fear of betrayal pushed him to personally and meticulously select all the personnel for his team; he never delegated this task to anyone else.
• The Cardinal Grand Cross and the Chironian T square: great suffering, but an active response to challenges.
The painful wound led him to a pilgrimage into his depths and intensified his out-of-the-box initiative. He found relief by projecting the tension into technological innovation.
• Gran Trine: Mars on the 8th, Pluto on 12th – North Node on 4th –: power, death, and rebirth were the values that motivated him to change.
A relentless tyrant, he was fierce with his enemies, and desirous of keeping total control, but he also was deeply aware of his own plan: to change the world, starting with himself!
He was always in search for something! The Grand Trine helped him manage the continuous challenges of the Grand Cross.
• Sun in the 6th of Pisces transforms the Grand Trine (Mars-Pluto-N. Node) into a Kite.
With an excessive power in work environment, his leadership could change into disparaging dictatorship (Sun on the 6th opposing Pluto on the 12th), despite his empathetic nature and spiritual practices (Sun in Pisces disposed by Neptune). Challenges may have caused explosions of anger (Dignified Mars Trine Pluto) but also assertiveness, while founding outlets in his existential plan. His karmic project (Nodal axes on the 4th/10th) was supported by the spirit of transformation intrinsic in the generation to which he belonged (Node Trine Pluto).
“The first story is about connecting the dots”. Steve Jobs
• Kite: Jupiter-Uranus trine DSC in Pisces and trine Saturn in Scorpio on the 3rd. Venus in Capricorn opposite Jupiter-Uranus. Venus sextile DSC and Saturn.
His salvation laid in his capacity to magnetize and create loyalty in his collaborators, by showing them a future success structured in the here and now.
The Venusian coldness in Capricorn changed into an insightful communication style with Saturn in the 3rd ruling the 5th, and absorbing the creativity of Chiron: wound, love, resilience… and the capacity to leave the obsolete road for new prospects of beauty.
• Mercury and Chiron in Aquarius on the 5th disposed by Uranus on the 10th and Saturn on the 3rd.
He left the official curricula and instead studied… calligraphy and oriental disciplines.
He used creative communication for social fulfilment. Steve was perceived as an innovative Master in the art of communication, professional success, and selling (Mercury on the 5th in Aquarius rules ASC and MC). He had incredible concentration powers and shaped reality, through the energy deriving from conflict (Mercury square Saturn and Trine MC).
Because of its elliptical orbit, Chiron’s movement across the Zodiac is irregular, with a different speed in every Sign: from the longest period in Aries to the shortest in Libra, the duration of its stay varies, as can be seen in the table.
Time employed by Chiron in each Sign, in order of speed
As for the other planets, there are 4 salient moments in its cycle: first waxing square to itself, opposition, waning square, and return. However, the phases do not all occur for all individuals at the same age. The image shows the approximate age when the phases of the cycle take place, according to the natal Chiron.
Steve had natal Chiron in Aquarius, so the waxing square occurred between the ages of 21 and 23 years, the opposition between 32 and 36 years, the waning square between 38 and 41 years. Obviously, the exact age must be calculated with the aid of the ephemerides.
I will only consider the positions of Chiron, since a complete analysis is not covered in this article
BIRTH – WOUND AND ANOMALY: 1955 Chiron in Aquarius on the 5th.
Start of the process with the birth circumstances: his parents abandon him. His mother wanted him to be adopted by college graduates. When she discovered that his adoptive mother hadn’t finished college, and her husband hadn’t even finished high school, she refused to sign the papers, until they guaranteed they would send him to college.
FIRST SQUARE – CONFLICT: Taurus on the 8th and Aquarius on the 5th: 1977/1978. 22 – 23 years.
An event causes the wound to flare up based on the issue of the natal Chiron placement. Tendency to repeat it on others. Steve reiterated and projected his wound of abandonment, refusing fatherhood and he refused to recognize his daughter. Just like his birth parents, he didn’t feel ready.
TRINE: IMPORTANT ACCESSORY PHASE
Gemini on the 9th and Aquarius on the 5th: 1984. 31 years.
Jobs met his birth mother and sister; part of the abandonment wound was healed. The pain over his rejection was replaced by love for his sister, who remained at his side.
OPPOSITION-REJECTION: Leo on the 11th and Aquarius on the 5th. 1991. 36 years.
Possibility to learn the mechanism that revives the wound which, throbbing, craves for a remedy. He married Lauren Lowell and decided to have a family.
2nd SQUARE – ELABORATION. Scorpio on the 2nd and Aquarius on the 5th. 1997. 42 years.
The old suffering is reactivated, through another existential sector to be re-examined. Steve elaborated his exacerbated feeling of payback, as he returned to the office as CEO.
RETURN-INTEGRATION. Chiron in Fifth. 2005. 50 years.
Time is starting to teach or to heal others. Depending on the inner work done in the previous aspects, it may be accompanied by an appalling or insightful event. Evolution leads to the pursuit of the wholeness, to an abandonment of the suffering. During a talk at the University, Steve spoke about the elaboration of his wound, as a teaching to youngsters for their future.
Progressed New Moon on the 8th squares natal Chiron. 24th July 2011. The closing phase begins. “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: - If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? - And whenever the answer has been -No- for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”. Steve Jobs
On the day of his death, 5th October 2011 at 3:00 pm, transiting Chiron was in sextile to his progressed Sun, promising liberation. Transiting Neptune in trine to natal Neptune: time for cosmic connection.
Steven did whatever his primitive Centaurean part impelled him to do, but also became a wise genius with his Chironian nature. And lastly, as a true Chironian, he assessed the scope of mortality. I am very impressed by the words uttered by his sister Mona: "It seemed to me that he counted his steps, trying to go--as was the case with the wheelchair--ever farther. Steve was not caught by the death, he reached it”.
I like to conclude with a thought I deeply dedicate to all astrologers.
We all are teachers somewhere and students somewhere else. Chiron inspires us how to maintain the balance between these two roles. With its hybrid nature and such an odd orbit, Chiron also teaches us as how to get released by the fear for our own fads. By looking at our oddities we could start to accept those of other people.
Some wounds can be healed, and others only alleviated. Some cannot be healed, but we can learn how to live with them. Chiron teaches us, as astrologers, how to take care of ourselves, before nurturing people with their wounds. He shows us the way to help them finding their own path towards healing, where possible and where access is allowed.
We shall also remember to care for the thresholds by paying attention to the boundaries between us and the person we take care of: Heracles, inadvertently, hurled the poisoned arrow, just as he crossed the threshold of the cave where his master Chiron lived. And so, he smote his beloved Guru.
Bibliography
• Gainsburg, Adam, Chiron: The Wisdom of a Deeply Open Heart, Soulsign, United States, 2006.
• Hand Clow, Barbara, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota, 2002.
• Lass, Martin, Chiron: Healing Body and Soul, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota, 2005.
• Reinhart, Melanie, Chiron and the Healing Journey, Starwalker Press, London 2010.
• Russo, Maria Teresa, La ferita di Chirone: Itinerari di antropologia ed etica in medicina, Edizioni Vita e pensiero, 2006.
• Stein, Zane B, Essence and Application: A View from Chiron, Centaurean Astrology, Western Australia, 1995.
• Wilson, Suzan, Steve Jobs: Wizard of Apple Computer. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2001.
• Young, Jeffrey S., Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1988.