Chiron at the Concordance
An Interview with Joyce Mason
Joyce Mason is one of the world’s most eloquent spokespersons for Chiron. Jan and I met with her on a beautiful
early May afternoon in a halcyon setting on the Sacramento River north of San Francisco. We discussed a broad
range of Chiron’s multi-faceted energies and Joyce enthusiastically addressed the ways in which she sees the
Chironic energies influencing the Concordance moment.
Johnny: First of all, let me say thank you for finding time in your very busy schedule to speak with us today. So, let me get right to it, and start by asking if you believe that the Harmonic Concordance chart marks a significant moment in time, and if so, why?
Joyce: Well, first of all, obviously, the Star of David configuration is a pretty profound thing. Now here I want to refer to the work of Mary Shea. She’s a real Star of David watcher. You have made reference to her work and web site yourself. Admittedly, the Star of David in the Harmonic Concordance chart is a very profound one because it happens no matter where you’re at on the planet, because its planets are all in compatible signs, and because it contains a total Lunar eclipse. But I like what Mary has to say about the Stars of David in general, and I wanted to talk about that for a minute because it ties in with my observation about Chiron in the Concordance chart.
First of all, she talks about the Stars of David and how they speak to a spiritual “path,” one that flows from the heart. From my perspective, she’s sort of speaking about them almost as though they are “report cards” of how the Earth plane is progressing in consciousness. She goes on to say that the Star of David pattern symbolizes the integration of Heaven and Earth, or Divinity and Humanity “through the rainbow bridge of an open heart,” and I’m quoting her there.
Those are the same meanings that Barbara Hand Clow attaches to Chiron in her book, “Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets.” And, as you’ve pointed out, this Star of David pattern only appears when Chiron is considered. That is even more significant because Chiron has a really important place in this chart. So if you want to think about it, there’s similar symbolism between the Star of David and what Chiron is supposed to be for us, which is to act as that same Heaven to Earth link.
Johnny: Of course, in activating that link, our good friend Chiron becomes the agent of our transmutation and wholeness.
Joyce: Yes. I really love what an astrologer named Stan Riddle says about transmutation. He refers to it as having the same experience but seeing it differently. There’s your goal. Your goal is to change the way you perceive what’s going on. I find that a very exciting concept.
We do live, and perceive, in a plane of duality. Wholeness, on the other hand, has something to do with completion, and an end of duality. And that’s one of the reasons that I think that Chiron’s part in this chart is so important, because it’s the completion factor of the chart. For instance, at the Chiron Return at about the age of fifty, we tend to review our lives, to fill in the “hole” with what we need in order to become “whole,” which I think is a kind of a cosmic joke.
Chiron’s completion of the Harmonic Concordance chart reminds us to look at Chiron as a source of what we need to know and do to round out any issue we’re grappling with. So I think that its part in this Concordance chart is that whole-making function. And, that whole thing about transmutation is about how we look at what’s going on in a new way, and thus to transmute it, alchemically, into something brand new.
Since both these symbols, the Star of David and Chiron, have something to do with this Heaven to Earth dialogue, I see this as being a time when our “heaven to earth dialogue” becomes commonplace.
Johnny: That dialogue begins with the openness to a higher consciousness, in the first place for Mother Earth, since the chart is more properly Her’s than it is any of ours, and then secondly to the higher consciousness of the souls who inhabit the Mother’s body. The phrase that comes to mind for me, over and over in regards to that higher consciousness, is the Christ Consciousness. And that I think is very appropriate, given what you have written about the similarities between the archetypes of Chiron and Christ.
Joyce: Exactly. As a matter of fact, the archetype of Chiron pre-dates Christ, but they are the same archetype. What we tend to forget is that both of them were teachers and healers, both went through this very painful experience of suffering, both died, were resurrected, and went up to the sky. The point is that, at some point, we have to get off the cross of matter and into the resurrection.
I think that this Concordance chart talks a lot about a resurrecting moment in time, a time when this idea comes into the mass consciousness, possibly as the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back,” or the “100thMonkey.” This could be what the chart is all about, and that’s really pretty exciting, actually!
Jan: You are aware, I’m sure, of the predictions for the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. I find it interesting that the prognostications for 2012 are in many instances the same as those for the Concordance date. Do you have any comment on this?
Joyce: Well, the world ends, as we know it, then. That’s why at the millennium there had been all these predictions about the end of the world. The world, as we used to know it, is ending.
Johnny: Could we say that the world as we used to “see” it is ending?
Joyce: That would even be a better way to say it because I do think that it has so much to do with perception. Again, I refer you to Stan Riddle’s comment about transmutation meaning having the same experience but seeing it differently.
This is what you see in those Chironic people who have really done a lot of suffering, people who have overcome handicaps. Think of someone like Itzhak Perlman. You don’t even realize that he’s crippled. He’s SO incredible. That’s the way it is for so many Chironic people, and that’s the way it was for Chiron; rejected by both his father and mother, an outcast who fit with neither men nor horses. He went to his cave, where he was nurtured by Apollo and Artemis in the guise of the Sun and the Moon. In other words, he had a rounded education that could only be imparted by the wholeness of the Sun and Moon. In turn, he became the teacher to many of the heroes and key members of the Greek pantheon.
That kind of overcoming and re-perceiving is there for us too, through the agency of Chiron, in the Concordance chart, and for the more than fifty percent of humanity which is going to have that more direct relationship with spirit. This is a good thing.
Jan: In another of your very fine articles on Chiron and the outer planets, the group that you refer to as the PUNCs (Pluto, Uranus, Neptune and Chiron), you have mentioned Chiron’s role in the process of coming to “shamanic wholeness.” Could this be yet another way of looking at Chiron’s role at the Concordance?
Joyce: Well, the shaman’s role in society is to die and be reborn, to go through these terrible trials, to be dismembered, and to come back, and in the “resurrection,” to be perceived as authentic by the community. This is the initiation on the earth plane to become a real helper. At some point, we have to get onto the resurrection side of those PUNCs, and this is what I think that this new era is all about.
It may not come without our having to feel some pain as a part of it ourselves. After all, Chiron is not the “Tickle Healer.” He’s the Wounded Healer. He’s not necessarily about learning things through Joy. I mean, pain is most often our best teacher. Ultimately we’ll get to Joy, but to get there we’ll need that “re-perception” which has to do with letting go of the old emotions that are encrusted around us. The tearing away of those “scabs” is often painful, but the healed body that lies beneath the crust can only emerge when it has been removed. In order to do that, a re-visioned wholeness must be seen.
Johnny: It strikes me that the “crust” you speak of is one way to refer to Saturn, Chiron’s “partner” in this chart. In one of his guises, Saturn represents the “crust” or “shell” of the material world that confines us. I think it’s interesting that Chiron’s position in the 7th house in Capricorn, the sign ruled by Saturn, places it in opposition to Saturn at the cusp of the 1st house. In its fall in Cancer, I see Saturn’s position here as slightly weakened. So, being somewhat vulnerable, he’s more susceptible to Chiron’s promptings to transmute that “crust” through relationship with another. At the cusp of the first house, the transformation would certainly extend to the way we “see” the World. And again, this reinforces the idea that the world as we used to see it is ending.
Joyce: On the downside, one of my concerns about the chart is that Saturnisin Cancer.Becauseit is, I can’t help but be concerned about the literal interpretation ofCancer.You know, we have only now come to recognize the resultsof some of our so-called modern advances – and the problems that haveresulted in our food chain, and water supply.It may be that itwill take a crises of this nature to bring us together; or that willcause us to apply the nurturing approach that we need in order to healthe environment.
Also in regard to Saturn there, I was looking at the idea that difficulties stimulate people to come together in partnership to overcome them. For example, two people can become so focused on overcoming an external problem that a great dynamic arises that allows them to overcome a lot of things. This can happen to such an extent that they become oblivious to internal incompatibilities. And that’s possibly one meaning of Chiron in the 7th house.
With Chiron in Capricorn and Saturn on the Ascendant, I tend to think of it, not as difficulty in relationships, but rather more about getting our relationships “stuck together,” if you will, getting them organized. That’s what Capricorn and Saturn do. Saturn is not going to be on the Ascendant everywhere, as it is in the “discovery” chart but it will be opposite Chiron, no matter where we’re at.
Over all, it has much more to do with my theory about the “inner marriage” and Chiron. (See: Wholeness and the Inner Marriage ~ The Chiron Sector and Relationship) This theory has to do with the feeling that Chiron actually has rulership of a sector of the zodiac that represents a process, and that would be from Virgo through Sagittarius. Or if you wanted to parallel it to the houses, it would be from the 6th through the 9th houses. The idea is that in order for us to be really whole, we have to have the inner marriage of wholeness before we can really offer ourselves fully to another person.
With Chiron being in the relationship house in the Concordance chart, I think that it has a lot to do with that wholeness issue. What may happen is that we finally understand that the person that we have to first relate to is ourselves. I relate Chiron, at 14° Capricorn, to the Sabian symbol there: “In a hospital, the children’s ward is filled with toys.” Marc Edmund Jones’ original keyword for that degree is “Abundance.” I think that with this chart people are going to finally learn what “relationship” is all about.
Not to mention that Chiron also conjuncts the Part of Fortune in the Concordance “discovery” chart. And the phrase for that in Jones’ original Sabian text is: “An ancient bas-relief carved in granite remains a witness to a long-forgotten culture,” and the Keyword is FOUNDATION. When it’s positive, it’s a gift for bringing all things into a pattern of convenience, and thereupon precipitating the desired results.
I think that what these two Sabians are saying together, for both the Part of Fortune and Chiron, is that we have an opportunity to finally create the true foundation of a relationship, to experience the abundance and real potential of that, on the deepest level.
Jan: Ah, yes! It’s what Johnny and I see in the Concordance Moment. We call it “The Ascended Relationship.”
Joyce: Well, looking at the chart from the perspective of Chiron, I’d say it means that you are about to meet your partner on the path to the Second Coming. The thing that I can’t get out of my mind is that the biblical Magi, who were astrologers, came for the birth of Christ. Now when we see that depicted in iconography, it is often depicted as a Star of David. Doesn’t that tell you something!
Johnny: Have you read the article on Astrosite which references the heliocentric chart discovered by John Charles Webb that he claims is the birth chart of Christ? Webb’s chart is for March 4, 5 B.C. Its Star of David pattern matches the Concordance chart in earth and water signs, and is just a very few degrees off of being an exact duplicate. He says that it will not recur in some millions of years.
Joyce: That’s amazing! Actually, most of the Stars of David since 1990 have also been in earth and water. Now, the catchphrase most associated with Chiron is “The Wounded Healer,” and our original and universal Chironic wound, the one we all share, is the primary birth trauma or the shock of going from the pre-incarnational waters of the Neptunian state to the rude awakening of being plunged into physical form, where we experience the illusion of separation. Therefore our original wound occurs when we are pulled from a watery, merged state, down to earth. I feel like this Star of David in the water and earth elements speaks to healing this birth trauma, especially where Chiron itself is involved.
If you really think about that from a spiritual perspective, God is your partner here. If I were Chiron, I’d be looking at me in this chart, saying, “Hey I’m here.” This is the second coming of the inner Christedness. This is the second coming of Christ being your partner within, and knowing that even though your spirit is in this physical form, your Spirit, or Godness, came along with you. To me, that’s the great realization of the Concordance chart.
Johnny: And “seeing” that Christ Consciousness within us is what will allow us to see the phase shift the occurs for Mother Earth. From that point onward, we SEE the world differently. The Yuga’s talk about it, the Pacachutti’s talk about it, as the idea that the Earth gets born again. The way I see it is that this consciousness is birthed into Man, and we wake up and understand who we really are.
Joyce: And we are infused with more light in our very genetic structure. The switch is turned on. It was always there, but the switch is turned on now, and we see it!
Johnny: We’ve talked about Chiron opposite to Saturn. What do you think about the trines from the Moon and Jupiter, the sextiles from Mars and the Sun?
Joyce: It’s like a big positive energy flow. Although there may be societal challenges we have to overcome together, everything is pulling for us in this energy. Everything is moving the way it should. I love that in this chart, we’ve got the Sun and Moon opposition, at a Full Moon eclipse. The Sun and the Moon were Chiron’s teachers, but they should not be thought of as warring within in us. When we have an eclipse and we look up, what do we see, but the integration of the Sun and the Moon.
Johnny: Even during the total eclipse, there is a penumbra.
Joyce: It’s just a grand pattern with this healer – and whole-maker in it. We have an opportunity to see it differently, and to do it differently. When your Chiron is working right, you have overcome a lot of things. Chiron lived with the darkness, but he overcame it.
I want to conclude with this reminder about the parallels between Chiron and Christ. It almost goes without saying that there’s the association, at the birth of Christ, to a star, sometimes depicted as a Star of David, and sometimes even being depicted as a comet…which after all, is what Chiron is. And we have this Concordance event where Chiron is so involved, in the most down to earth sign of Capricorn. Now, I’m sure that there is some connection between your having chosen the name “Harmonic Concordance” and the “Harmonic Convergence,” but I’m also convinced that it was a very accurately channeled phrase because a “harmonic concordance” is exactly what you have when your Chiron is working in his most Christ-like mode. You have put many things behind you, you have battled duality and darkness, you live in Light and you have experienced the joy of giving your gifts. In doing so, you bring the light and partnership of the Spirit consciousness into your daily life, and that’s what will really make us whole.
So in the end I believe that the Harmonic Concordance is about a planet that’s a lot more peaceful, even if we do have to surmount some obstacles before we get there.
Johnny: That’s such a great note on which to end, Joyce. And it has been such a pleasure to meet you face to face. Thanks for taking the time to get to know us and the Concordance chart.
Jan: And I want to thank you for picking such a beautiful setting. I couldn’t think of a nicer way to spend such a beautiful Spring day.
Joyce Mason, astrologer, writer, and poet is a fountain of energy. She has a BA in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin, a “Ph.D. in Life,” and over 30 years combined experience as a caseworker and spiritual mentor. She is a respected astrologer, eclectic metaphysician, and a certified flower essence practitioner. Joyce’s writings and expertise on Chiron and the outer planets are known and appreciated around the world. Her style is deep, yet laced liberally with comic relief. She never forgets for a moment that being spiritual and spirited is to live by the double entendre, “Lighten Up!” She can be reached at: skyhints@aol.com