Chiron in Aspect to Neptune

I have written about Chiron Sun, Chiron Moon, Chiron Mercury, Chiron Venus, Chiron Mars, Chiron Jupiter, Chiron Saturn and Chiron Uranus aspects, as well as Chiron in the Houses of the birth chart. In this post, I will address Chiron Neptune aspects:

Chiron Neptune: Conjunction

As I have already written about this archetype, Neptune symbolizes the all-encompassing consciousness, a desire to return to the womb, i. e. to the source and the origin. In contrast to Uranus, which energetically cuts us away from the collective context in order to push us in the direction of individuation, Neptune lulls us back into the bosom of the divine Mother, melting away the boundaries we have rigorously erected around ourselves to become who we are. In other words, all the defense mechanisms elaborately planned and meticulously put into place by the ego, all the seemingly rock-solid certainties and convictions the mundane life revolves around are meant to cede to the sirenic charm of Neptune, as the rocks ceding to the incessant, quiet ocean waves.

When Chiron meets Neptune in the birth chart, immediate recognition of the “original wound” is possible: the wound of being who we are. To be who we are already implies an inevitable separation, an ego formation, functioning in the direction of defining and binding, setting the contours of our experience of the world, and this separation is simply beyond what the soul can bear, as the soul, by its very nature, is boundless, unfathomable, and free.

With Chiron and Neptune merging in the birth chart, the soul carries this wound, not in the realm of words or thoughts – which belong to the ego – but in the realm of images, colors or impressions, rising every now and then like bubbles from the dark depths of the sea to the surface: name-less sentiments and face-less memories from faraway pasts may emerge, floating through dreams and déjà vu, leaving an almost imperceptible trace that, nonetheless, changes us in our mundane, ego-certain existence.

Such memories may come from a time when we were dedicated to gods, serving them or sacrificing to them, and then we experienced wounding. Either we inflicted the wound or the wound was inflicted upon us, we can not be certain of that, as in Chironic processes the wounder and the wounded can seldom be fully apart. What matters, however, is understanding that there is a wound here merged with the Neptunian realm of service or sacrifice, sensitizing these themes.

Since Neptune’s waters flow under the bridge of consciousness, an individual with this configuration in her natal chart may be oblivious to these energies operating in her, yet may carry an impression that she has always been searching for something that cannot be named. Chiron touching Neptune resembles the awkwardness of Lucifer after falling from grace: an impression of perfection found and lost, yet forever yearned for.

In a similar manner, the Chiron Neptune individual may be searching for the pre-linguistic, pre-egoic perfection, yet feeling incapable of reconnecting to it. In other words, what one is now hinders the reunion with the cosmic Mother, as the pre-requisite of this reunion is precisely dissolving the contours of the ego which one has carefully constructed all one’s life. This wound is, therefore, the “original wound,” the wound of Genesis, of Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden of Eden, of repentance and remorse, of recollection of unity marred by separation.

To soothe this wound, one may remember the analogy of the drop and the ocean used in Sufi literature: as insignificant as we may feel to be, we contain the entire universe, and much like a seemingly isolated drop of rain coming down from the ocean-born cloud and falling back into the same ocean, we are never truly anything other than the ocean.

Chiron Neptune: Square

With this configuration in the natal chart, our yearning to transcend ourselves may have been deeply conditioned by the presence of a wound regarding our past, our ancestors, or our homeland.

From a psychological point of view, an individual with this configuration in her natal chart may find it quite difficult to feel one with the ocean of Being without some form of attachment to a karmic wound, for better or for worse. She may feel that this wound is functioning like an umbilical cord, keeping her connected to the womb of the cosmic Mother and thus protecting her against the isolation of being herself.

When a wound becomes necessary for our safety, we may continue nurturing it, caring for it, and letting it grow into something vital, something that maintains us afloat in our disorientation and despair. We may even start yearning for the wound more than the womb it attaches us to, and through this cozy connection, we may eventually feel nurtured and cared for in return. The wound, in fact, is not doing much other than mirroring our need to feel safe, and as such, it becomes a known space for us to nestle into.

As both of these archetypal forces largely function outside of our conscious perception, they may come to us in the form of an elusive need to feel safe through contact with our past wounds; a necessity that is deeply felt as an invisible thread connecting us to the known space of our ancestry, our homeland, or our previous life cycles. An eternal search may thus ensue, which will not satisfy us, yet will probably unleash enormous creative potential.

One of the best examples of such a creative surge is Moby Dick, the celebrated American novel written by Herman Melville who had this configuration in his natal chart:

Captain Ahab is on a quest to find a white whale that has injured him in an earlier journey. His single-minded obsession with the whale becomes the driving force of the story. The sheer size of the whale and its mythic qualities serve as a metaphor for all that is beyond the scope of human experience, much like the unfathomable, engulfing energy of Neptune. On the surface, the Chironic figure of Ahab (who has lost a leg to the whale) may simply seem monomaniac, yet if we are to imagine his unconscious motivation for this relentless quest, we can surmise that he draws comfort from imagining and re-imagining how he is going to re-confront the whale, and how he is going to change the outcome this time.

This literary example beautifully illustrates the urge to stay within the comfort of a known wound in order to feel oriented and connected: without the good old whale that has inflicted pain on him, Captain Ahab will lose his raison d’être. His entire journey is inspired by this chase, even though the chase proves to be re-wounding at the end.

This vivid image may serve the individuals with this configuration in their natal charts as a reminder of how unconscious forces may be at play when we feel drawn to a particular path, thinking that we are merely dedicated or called. An honest examination of the archetypes involved can give us a hint in the direction of understanding ourselves, perhaps with “a sympathy and a sorrow” as the narrator of Moby Dick feels towards Captain Ahab.

Chiron Neptune: Opposition

Individuals with this configuration in their natal chart may act as a saving grace for those who are wounded or unwanted, or alternatively, may seek a savior to redeem themselves regarding their own wounds or misfortunes.

In either case, with this configuration in the natal chart, the process of redemption (Neptune) regarding one’s wounds (Chiron) may be perceived as almost always outside of one’s reach. Therefore, it may be easy to redeem others, but not oneself.

If one of the archetypes involved in this configuration is projected upon the other, as it may happen in the case of planetary oppositions, one may attract a situation that is virtually impossible to resolve unless one gives up something or simply surrenders to fate.

A good example will be Louis XIV of France, who had this configuration in his natal chart, along his ascendant/descendant axis: after many affairs with various ladies at his court, he deeply falls in love with Madame de Maintenon, the governess of his illegitimate children. After his queen’s death, Louis secretly marries this lady, but the marriage is never recognized because of the social unequal ranks of the king and his bride. In effect, Madame de Maintenon becomes a Chironic figure in Louis’ life: a wise counselor who is, nonetheless, unable to assert any of her royal rights after marriage to him.

Louis, on the other hand, undergoes a spiritual reform as a result of this association, giving up much of his pleasure-seeking lifestyle in favor of more ethereal endeavors, such as praying and meditating. In other words, he becomes Neptune. A changed man with now a “saved” soul, Louis stays married to Madame de Maintenon until the end of his life. One can say that the projection, in this case, has worked in a happy direction.

However, the Neptunian redemption of Chironic wounds does not have to always play through projection. In fact, one may be able to embrace this process by forgiving oneself, not in the sense of pardoning oneself, but “completely giving up” as this word used to mean in Old English, surrendering to one’s Chironic yearnings and fantasies, and ultimately transcending the very need for redemption in the process.

Quincunx (Inconjunction)

This configuration may signal that one’s connection to the cosmic womb has been interrupted by one’s wounds or sensitivities. Alternatively, one may not see a possibility for the redemption of the wound, no matter how strongly one yearns for it.

The individual with this configuration in her natal chart may attempt to heal the collective one way or the other, as the longing to be held and healed is at the root of her existence. Since this thirst is largely unconscious and is not meant to be quenched, the individual may continue offering to the collective what she herself has been denied: a space for acceptance of all that is unacceptable, a voice for speaking all that is unspeakable and creating a possibility for all that is impossible.

Maurice Blanchot, the French philosopher and author who had this configuration in his natal chart is an apt example of such an endeavor:

He dedicated almost his entire life to the issue of the paradoxes involved in narrating the truth (e. g. the horrors of concentration camps), the reductionist quality of knowledge, and the conceptual impossibility of death (the death of a body attached to an immortal soul is quite Chironic). One of the central themes in Blanchot’s works is the impossibility of redemption through what is known and thus tempting for us to rely on, as succinctly reflected in this quote from The Writing of the Disaster:

Knowledge which goes so far as to accept horror in order to know it, reveals the horror of knowledge, its squalor, the discrete complicity which maintains it in a relation with the most insupportable aspects of power.

Likewise, individuals with this configuration in their natal charts are invited to meticulously question the processes involved in “knowing” the wound in themselves and others, as the truth of the wound (Chiron) may sometimes be erased (Neptune) in the process of “knowing” it.

Semi-Sextile

This configuration signals that one’s yearning for redemption or merging with the collective may operate at the periphery of one’s wounds or vulnerabilities. In other words, redemption is sought or Eden is pined after in spite of one’s Chironic vulnerabilities.

The archetypal energies of Neptune and Chiron may come together in the form of a wounded redeemer or a redeemed wounded, as is the case of the protagonist of Les Misérables, written by the French novelist Victor Hugo who had this configuration in his natal chart:

Jean Valjean steals bread to feed his sister’s children but is caught and sentenced to two decades of imprisonment. The novel is the story of his redemption through what he does for similarly-wounded characters such as Cosette. In other words, he is a wounded ex-convict and a redeemed figure. These two aspects of his psyche function in spite of each other, yet they mark him for who he is.

Likewise, individuals with this configuration in their natal charts may find new ways of working with these archetypal forces without despairing of their compatibility.

Chiron Neptune: Trine

With this configuration in the natal chart, there usually exists a “flow” between our wounds and our yearning to return to the womb, to merge with the collective, or to transcend our ego. In other words, our soul is not fettered by our wounds and is perhaps even shined by them, opening a space of creative presence.

In some cases, however, Chiron may become such an intrinsic part of our spiritual experience of life that we may feel redemption without pain is not quite satisfying. We may yearn for a grand finale of some sort, dramatizing compassion for the wounds of the world, romancing pain, or celebrating the excruciating process of redemption.

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the Czech novelist Milan Kundera, who has this configuration in his natal chart, writes:

For there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.

To stay aware of the fact that in order to merge with the collective, hold compassion, or be redeemed we do not necessarily need to always operate from a place of pain will help us “flow” with this configuration in the direction of peace rather than pain.

Chiron Neptune: Sextile

With this configuration in the natal chart, one may be presented with an opportunity to contemplate the Chironic side of life through connection, transcendence, or redemption. In other words, life itself may be observed as a sphere of confluence where wounds and wonders meet and merge.

This is beautifully reflected in the philosophical work of Jean-Luc Nancy (who had this placement in his natal chart), in the concept of Singular Plural: all existence is co-existence, all Being is Being-with, and “I” does not come before “we.”

If other placements in the natal chart are supportive of this sextile, the individual may indeed hold the key to understanding these archetypal energies through intellectual rigor and mental discipline, catching a glimpse of “truth” in all its messiness. In the words of Jean-Luc Nancy,

What this world needs is truth, not consolation. It must find itself in its ordeal and by way of its restlessness, not in the solace of edifying discourses that do nothing but pile on more testimony to its misery.

You can read about Chiron Signs and Houses in my other articles.

If you are interested in understanding your own birth chart or if you have specific questions, you can book a consultation session or take a class.