The natal chart of best-selling novelist Paulo Coelho features Chiron the healing centaur conjunct the Discovery Degree of Nessus in Scorpio. This implies a fruitful synastry between him and the centaur of purification: having a natal planet at another’s DD is similar to having the second conjunct the first. Any natal planet at one of these Centauric power spots draws some power from that Centaur.

Coelho’s spiritual memoir Aleph relates his real-life journey with Hilal, an obsessed fan who finds a way to join him on a trans-Siberian train adventure.

Spontaneously immersed in a dimension that he names the Aleph (after poet Jorge Luis Borges’ word for a universal power-spot), Paulo and Hilal find themselves healing a tortured love. Their Aleph-visions eventually culminate with a past life they shared during the Inquisition. The date of their healing experience happened to be recorded by the Russian press, since it took place the evening before the celebrity met with his fan, President Putin.

The chart of May 31, 2006 features a precise kite of Pholus-Vesta-Nodes. An Aleph of its own, this kite slingshots memories of the past (South Node) through potent (Pholus) adventures in relationship (Vesta). Nessus and Chiron conjoined at 8-10° Aquarius, t-squaring their own DDs (at 5 Scorpio and 4 Taurus). This transit offered a rare challenge to those able to listen to healing guidance.

Nessus is the centauric significator for the thread of karma between Paulo and Hilal, which leads to their mutual redemption. Coelho’s Centaur-Progressed Nessus lands at 5° Cancer: “Coming to a fork in the road a man has a surprising realization,” aptly divining a vision quest on a Siberian train. This symbol reveals how the writer’s natal promise of karmic redemption (Chiron at Nessus’ future DD) blossomed precisely at the time of his fateful journey with Halal.