Asteroids & Chiron, page 2

Asteroids, page 1

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	THE ULTIMATE ASTEROID BOOK - J. Lee Lehman, Ph.D., $18.95 Contents: Introduction 1. Introducing the asteroids Part 1: Motivations 2. The mind asteroids: Psyche, Pallas, Athene, Minerva 3. Asteroid power plays: Hildago, Icarus, Attila 4. Concepts: Pandora, Pax, Armisticia, Utopia, Fanatica, Harmonia, Prudentia 5. Escapism: Bacchus, Paradise, Ganymed, Beer Part 2: Mythology 6. Moon & sky goddesses: Artemis, Diana, Lilith, Walkure 7. Earth & fertility goddesses: Gaea, Ceres, Demeter, Persephone, Hekate, Astarte, Aphrodite 8. Sky & heaven gods: Apollo, Lucifer, Helio, Quezalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca 9. The amusing muses: Erato, Urania 10. Heroes & villians: Odysseus, Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, Parsifal 11. Heroines & leading ladies: Circe, Medusa, Medea, Kassandra, Godiva 12. Egyptian lore: Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Horus Part three: Sex, passion & intimacy: 13. Sappho: Sex 14. Eros: Passion 15. Amor: Intimacy 16. Relating: Sappho, Eros, Amor, Juno, Pecker Part four: Mundane, theme & variations: 17. Business 18. The asteroid nodes 19. Conclusion Appendix 1: Listing of nearly 3000 asteroids by their nodal position. Appendix 2: Ephemeris, 1920-1999, every ten days, for Sappho, Eros, Amor, Attila, Kassandra, Godiva, Lancelot. Comment: For those who want asteroids by the dozen, this is the book to get. A do-it-yourself approach to asteroids. Learn to experiment: Customize charts with a unique combination of asteroids. Lehman gives four ways to approach asteroids: 1. By common name. The asteroid Apollo may relate to the Apollo space program, or to any company named "Apollo", or, for that matter, to a certain early 20th century French author. 2. Find asteroids by the various myths associated with them. Lehman cautions that the interpretation of myths changes over time. 3. Use historical information that relates to the name. The asteroid Apollo, in this sense, relates to an historical, one-of-a-kind national program which, once it succeeded, vanished into the mists of time. 4. Use asteroids in a variety of charts to see what turns up. An approach dependent on one of the three previous approaches. Typically, the author determines the sensitive areas of a given chart, and then use Mark & Rique Pottenger's asteroid program (which will calculate more than 400 asteroids) to find asteroids that fall in those sensitive degrees. Lehman groups asteroids by affinity. Her commentary about them is introductory in nature & looks to me like a prototype of Martha Lang-Wescott's Mechanics of Future Asteroids. Which is to say this is a good place to start on an understanding of these tiny, but influential bodies. Whitman, 352 pages.

	CHIRON: Healing Body & Soul - Martin Lass, $17.95 Contents: List of charts; List of tables; Acknowledgments; Preface 1. The Chiron paradigm 2. The mythology & symbolism of Chiron 3. The discovery of Chiron 4. Friends, associations & rulers 5. Life cycles 6. Interpreting Chiron in the natal chart 7. Chiron in the signs 8. Chiron in the houses 9. Chiron in aspect 10. Chiron in planetary patterns 11. Chiron in transit 12. Chiron & past lives 13. Example chart delineation Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index. Comment: The author says that Chiron's discovery is a new paradigm (Preface, pg. xxix), making for a revolution in consciousness the likes of which the world has not known in over 2000 years (ibid). Which recalls a certain rash statement by John Lennon, but I date myself. This paradigm is wounding and healing, which forms the theme of the book. As the wounding part has previously been discussed (by Lantero, Stein, Nolle, Reinhart & Clow), Lass is the first to add an understanding of healing to it. In this, he takes his inspiration from Clow, in that healing is to be found by utilizing Chiron in the "Rainbow Bridge" in the journey from Saturn to Uranus. This is understood by Lass as, All is perfect as it is (emphasis in original, pg. 5). (Here I am reminded of Gurdjieff, but am not certain if he was jesting or not.) Our failure to see & understand this compels the journey of our lives, to become the person we were meant to be. This book is therefore the master short-cut: Nail Chiron in your chart & you can relax & take the rest of your life easy, or so I presume. While Saturn is understood to be the eternal malefic, and Pluto rates up there pretty highly, the Chironic wound, and its healing resolution, are the ultimate of ultimates. Lass doesn't say that, but that's the territory he's staked out. Or maybe he does: According to the Chiron Paradigm, we each have elements of every mental & emotional disease/dysfunction ever discovered & labeled. Such are the elements of our woundedness. (pg. 11) Rulership: Virgo, if you press him. Otherwise, Chiron rules the process that occurs between signs (pg. 50, emphasis in the original) (In this, as elsewhere in the book, there is little evidence the author has studied the finer points of astrology.) In the cookbook section (houses, signs, aspects, transits), it's woundedness that's repeated over & over again. Given his earlier statements that Chiron is about healing & that the world is perfect as it is, it would appear he has sold himself short. Chiron in aspect with: North node: destiny is healing. South node: healing from past lives. Sun: Wounded expression (he says it makes for a healer, but then adds qualifiers). Moon: Poor me. Mercury: speechlessness. Venus: Feel the other's pain. Mars: violent reactions to wounds. Jupiter: the hidden plan of wounds (with a lot on the Inner Child). Saturn (with a twinkle in its eye (pg. 144): repressed woundedness, unable to run away. Uranus: light shining upon our wound. Neptune: Lass says, escapist or saint, which makes me wonder if Chiron has any impact on Neptune at all. Pluto: our hand is forced. In the excellent Mechanics of Future Asteroids, Martha Lang-Wescott describes Chiron as, By transit, Chiron also operates in very Saturn-Uranus ways; the established key words, turning point, maverick, rule-breaking, and dealing with "mentors" and parental or authoritive expectations hold true. Where the wounded healer of Zane Stein's Chiron may apply, there is some danger of using the phrase; it easily becomes a rationalization and mask for behaviors & attitudes that amount to little more than a dressed-up version of "do as I say and not as I do." Chiron holds a fascinating danger - that of rationalizing on the basis of creative insularity. As Donne said, "No man is an island." But at Chiron, one can, as poet Edna Saint Vincent Millay put it, believe that "only I, in such utter, ancient way, do suffer love" (or whatever slings & arrows the aspects demand). (pg. 119, emphasis in original) It occurs to me that what all the trans-Saturnian planets have in common is extremism. There are those who will find Lass's book of great significance. Llewellyn, 255 pages.

	CHIRON, NEW PLANET IN YOUR HOROSCOPE, the key to your quest - Richard Nolle, $18.00 Contents: Introduction 1. An astronomical discovery: Astronomy of Chiron 2. Tale of the Centaur Chief: Mythology of Chiron 3. Chiron time: Chiron's historical milieu (discovery & orbital cycles) 4. The astrologer's astrologer: Astrological synthesis of Chiron's astronomical, mythical & historical archetypes 5. On the way to Pelion: Discovering Chiron in your birth chart through hemisphere, quality, retrograde, element, etc. 6. Sign of the Centaur Chief: Chiron by sign 7. Spelunking the Chironian: Chiron by house 8. Chiron cycles: Chiron by aspect 9. Not the last chapter: A Chiron medication Appendices: 1. Chiron sign table, 1890-1999; 2. How to get your Chiron horoscope; 3. Selected bibliography. Comment: In the Introduction, the author says, This book is written from the perspective of a deep personal conviction that the Minor Planet Chiron is in many respects the key to understanding one's natal horoscope..... But in this whole vast universe of astrological functions, there is only one that is archetypally linked to the teaching & learning of astrology. That one and only function is Chiron. I do not mean to make the claim that one's understanding of astrology is worthless without Chiron - only that it is incomplete (pg. viii) One of the earliest studies on Chiron, cited by many later writers. Explains Chiron's astronomical characteristics, extensively examines its mythology, reviews historical trends associated with its discovery - and its anticipation, looks at the orbital cycle. AFA, 149 pages.

	ASTEROID MYSTERIES & MESSAGES - Diane & Rudy Flack, $14.00 Comb bound book and a small bag of laminated cards. Contents: The asteroids - the layout, turning the cards face up, valid questions, reading the cards, the fourth card, a dropped card; The asteroid cards; The Trans-Neptunian points and Chiron cards; Blue timing cards; Notes from archaic teachings; Some example readings. 66 pages. A is A Publishing, paper.

One last note on the prehistoric Chiron:

Wemyss, Maurice - The Wheel of Life, volume 3. One of a series of five volumes. Wemyss (born 1892, died 1950-60?) invented his own system of sign rulership. Inspired by Witte, he also invented hypothetical planets, the most notable being "Wemyss-Pluto". Of interest is his hypothetical planet, Jason, ruler of Sagittarius, located between Saturn & Uranus with a 45 year orbit. On page 149 is a sketch of its orbit which in a few cases matches Chiron's supposed orbit exactly. Jason had a fairly regular orbit, Chiron has a very eccentric one. The bulk of this book is on Professions & Occupations. Just thought you'd like to know Chiron was anticipated some 30 years before its actual discovery.

Asteroids, page 1

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