April 17th starts a whole new period around healing, as Chiron enters Aries for the next nine years. Known as “the wounded healer” who could help everyone but himself, the asteroid Chiron (nestled in between Saturn and Uranus) aids us in learning from our personal pain to benefit the world around us. For the past nine years, he has been swimming through the spiritual Piscean waters, showing us how to repair our souls through community and a higher purpose. Taking fifty years to cross the zodiac, Chiron alchemises fear and transformation through radical progress—reminding us the greatest obstacle of all is the relationship with the self.
As Chiron enters Aries, the firstborn of the zodiac, our childhood wounds are activated. The lesson of Chiron in Aries is self-acceptance. The need to embrace who we are, shouting our most shameful secrets from the rooftops, and break through to the other side as we learn to love the whole of ourselves. At the end of the cycle, if we haven’t moved beyond our own pain, we will have found away to help others through our lessons, finding a deeper sense of purpose by cultivating widespread changes in the world around us.
Spanning time from the 1800s to the 1970s, Chiron in the sign of the Ram has showed us it’s important to stand up for your rights and fight for your innate personal freedom to be who and what you are in this lifetime. Chiron’s history in Aries has been marked with reformist history in the much wounded LGBTQ community, sparking Pride over the decades. If Aries has one thing to teach us, it’s that only through assertion will personal-as-political changes we require take place.
On October 28, 1824, nearly halfway through Chiron’s transit through Aries, the Marquis de Custine was physically beaten for propositioning a gay soldier. He barely survived. The Marquis was forced out of the closet and lived openly with his partner in Paris. He was accepted by society, making him the first openly gay nobleman in modern Europe.
As Chiron re-entered Aries in 1868, the pen proved mightier than the sword. Writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny pushed the mainstream in Germany by printing the word “homosexuality” in a pamphlet protesting Prussian sodomy laws.
Across the pond, Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania, by Bayard Taylor was the first book to be published in the United States in 1870 about a homosexual relationship. Written during the Victorian era, the book is known to be the most prolific of its kind, pushing homosexuality into the mainstream by giving the world an inside glimpse of a loving relationship between two men.
The 20th century brought political changes after the Russian Revolution. After Chiron moved into Aries in 1918, “the roaring twenties” brought sexual reform to society, with the economic boom people began to be freer in accepting themselves and came to be more open to different lifestyles. The Jazz Age opens society’s eyes to the normalcy of homosexuality by Magnus Hirschfeld’s studies in Germany, just as Henry Gerber opens the Society for Human Rights—allowing refuge and a safe haven for those who are attacked for their sexuality. The New York Times and Radclyffe Hall addressed the topic of “homosexuality” in publications—bringing the topic to forefront for the masses. As a result, homosexuality was decriminalized in several countries including Germany, Mexico, Guatemala, and Japan, and several U.S. states followed suit and appealled sodomy laws. The wounded archer is activated with the power of words, pointing his arrow and shooting it with skill and determination through any resistance.
The Stonewall riots of 1969 marked the climax of Chiron’s extraordinary transit in Aries. The fiery planet pushed Chiron to take a stand and fight back. In true Aries form, standing up to the bullies (the police) and not allowing oneself and one’s loved ones to be terrorized came to the fore, as groups of patrons of the Stonewall Inn and the Village community came together to stand up to the police. The riots began when patrons refused to submit to orders to identify their gender during a planned police raid of the inn, and escalated over a number of days as groups from around the city showed their support for the gay community. As poet Allen Ginsberg stated after visiting the Stonewall once it reopened, “Gay power! Isn’t that great!… It’s about time we did something to assert ourselves.” Shortly after the uprising, the first LGBT Pride Parade was held in NYC in 1970 and the GLBT Round Table was formed in the United States. The fight continued on as November 1970 brought the first gay rights protest in England, occuring after the arrest of several activists. Armed with righteous rage, Chiron fights on.
The days of disco in the 1970s brought much change as Chiron used his power to heal others by unifying people together to address circumstances. Hawaii listened carefully to the cries of Chiron, becoming the first state to legalize homosexuality in 1972. The same year, Sweden took a stand pushing legislation for transgender people to legally change their sex. Chiron in warrior Aries went on to help win the fight in Michigan for protection in East Lansing and Ann Arbor. PFLAG (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) was established by Jeanne Mannaford in 1973 to help support gay youth, an example of Chiron in Aries helping to heal the childhood wound.
Mid-transit, Chiron proved to be a force to be reckoned with, as homosexuality was no longer classfiied as a mental illness. Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay politician to be elected to office in 1974, and Harvey Milk rose to power in the mi-1970s. Chiron has opened the world’s eyes to the truth; people are using their voices and openly fighting and protesting. Chiron is not taking crap and tempestuously fighting for transformation. Free to be, you and me. Chiron in Aries brings advocates and advocacy to causes. People take the lead.
Over the next nine years, there will hopefully be further breakthroughs in the LGBTQ community. Changes need to be made around healthcare initiatives, education, transgender rights, and youth issues. Together, we can join forces, using our personal voices through social media and fight for change. We have the tools now—let’s raise our voices!
top image: Celestia/Wikimedia Commons
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