In a recent post, which I expanded in an article published in the OPA and on Astro.com, I introduced the current transits of Chiron, Pholus and Chariklo with respect to their planetary nodes. That article took a wide view, back from the 1950s into the 2040s. Here we can focus on the present year: 2020. What a year it is. What perspective can Centaurs add?

As I’ve mentioned, the Nodal Axis of both Chariklo and Pholus span the zodiac in oppositions within a degree of each other. That is, Centaurs Pholus and Chariklo happen to share opposing nodal placements. 

From this we can infer an interchange of astrological function: a shared evolutionary axis points to a link in their planetary biographies, past and future. We can think of nodes as indicators of the planet’s purpose as a member of our astrological solar system. Like the Moon’s Nodes, planetary Nodes mark where a planet’s orbit crosses the ecliptic plane. Here we look at the nodes of planets heliocentrically, from the perspective of the Sun.

In early Leo/Aquarius, Chariklo’s nodes fall just beyond the Cancer/Capricorn boundary, where we find the Nodes of many planets including Saturn. Pholus, who travels between the known (Saturn) and unknown (Neptune), has nodal crossings at the end of the Cancer/Cap zodiacal axis. Chiron’s transit to this axis, in two decades hence (2041), will activate both additional Centaurs by means of their nodes. 

Mark Jones paraphrases Dane Rudhyar: “Nodes refer to the complete evolutionary arc of that planet and the archetype that it represents. The planetary nodes, then, refer to the meaning of the entire orbital cycle of that planet. This can include the whole history of that archetype as it operates on an individual and collective level.”

Conjunction of one planet to another’s North Node represents a time of checking in with how the transited one is getting on with its mission. As the most Uranian of Centaurs, Chiron the maverick has nodes in late Libra/Aries, which make a cross to the other centaur nodes. 

This gets touched off when our Chiron-Pholus cycle culminates in 2041, at the opposition phase of the 360 degree journey around the Sun. That future opposition aligns with the Nodes of both Pholus and Chariklo, which straddle the Capricorn-Aquarius cusp (and its opposite). At that time (in August 2041) Chiron in late Cancer will conjoin Pholus’ North Node, and Pholus will inhabit his own South Node. Three Centaurs will link together in the transits of two: Chiron will land on Chariklo’s South Node, Pholus on Chariklo’s North Node. This rare occurrence befits our first ‘conscious’ iteration of their cycle, post-discovery.

Remember that this year (one long quarter through already) began with the Saturn-Pluto-Chariklo stellium, at Pholus’ degree of aphelion. The structures have fallen in pathetic clockwork, leaving us exposed, unhoused, unprotected by the crumbled edifice of previous cycles. Chariklo hovers, whispering the trans-Uranian-new… yet now is no time for romance. “Social Distance”, utterly base-level Chariklo, can at best provide us collective healing through enforced personal space.

And Saturn enters Aquarius, the social sign. Arbiter of worldly boundaries, Saturn transits the North Node of Chariklo throughout 2020, even stationing retrograde conjunct that point. The Senex travels close all year, passing back over the South Node of Pholus, approaching the Aphelion of Pholus as it stations direct in September.

Late March was marked by the reboot energy of Mars-Saturn in the first degree of Aquarius, and something bright hovers on the horizon as Winter Solstice hosts a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the same degree.

Pleiadian Symbol for Aquarius 1: In the desert a way station to comfort travelers.