Training Warriors: Navigating Anger + Action with Chiron, Mars, Cancer and IFS

Chiron and Mars have been co-present in the sign of Aries since May 24th and they will remain so, until July 5th, 2022, when Mars leaves for Taurus.

Although Chiron will be in Aries for significantly longer, while Mars and Chiron are co-present in Mars’ home sign of Aries there may be particularly potent opportunities for us to process and rewire old pain points related to: anger, aggression, action, courage, risk-taking, change-making, competition, motivation, willpower, burn-out, and the capacity for initiative, leadership and independence.

As you read, you can reflect back to the week of June 15th and the Mars-Chiron conjunction that inspired this post, but you can also consider this material relevant until July 5th, 2022 - or even until Chiron exits Aries in 2027.

After diving into Chiron’s mythology and archetypal/astrological expressions, I explore the meaning of Chiron and Mars in Aries and I unpack an insightful, resonant book I recently read on the topic of anger. At the end of this post I speak briefly to Cancer Season and its representation in the Chariot card, and then I conclude by describing Britney Spears’ wedding as an example of the previously discussed Venus-Uranus transit - which occurred conjunct her natal Chiron.

**An addendum: I feel the need to state that I started writing this post a week ago. I was working on the final edits when the 1973 Roe V. Wade abortion ruling was shockingly (yet not so shockingly) overturned by the Supreme Court in the United States. I was worried the material in this post may be losing relevance since it was after the June 15th Mars-Chiron conjunction that first inspired it… but now eerily it seems to me that there’s a lot of thematic overlap with this post and the heated dialogue and understandable outrage dominating the online sphere and on-the-ground in the US (I live in Canada, so this is an observation at a distance).

I’ve decided to leave the post mostly as is, but I wanted to say that I did not write it with the recent Supreme Court ruling in mind, and thus there are no intentional underlying messages about the abortion ruling embedded in this piece of writing.

I hope that where resonance is felt, it serves you and this moment, wherever you are.

Chiron’s Story

Chiron is a dynamic, multifaceted archetype. “Wounded healer” is the descriptive title that is most commonly applied to this wise centaur figure, but “teacher” is another essential role Chiron embodies.

A child of rape (according to most accounts), Chiron was rejected and abandoned by both his parents, Cronus/Saturn and the nymph, Philyra. He was shunned and shamed for his half-human half-animal form, which, according to the myth, disgusted and horrified his mother so much (who was probably still reeling from the trauma of the violation) that she asked to be turned into a Linden tree.

Chiron, now essentially orphaned, eventually found refuge in the Sun and Moon. The solar and lunar sibling deities, Apollo and Artemis, became his foster parents.

This parenting pair seemed to do a pretty good job. Chiron entered adulthood with wisdom and integrity (rare among centaurs), and a wide array of many highly-valued skills in fields such as archery and hunting, herbalism and healing, music and poetry, prophecy and law.

Chiron became a sought after teacher and many famous characters in Greek mythology studied under him. In the same way Chiron benefited from the generous mentoring of his foster parents, Apollo and Artemis, he offered the same to others.

Chiron receiving baby Achilles from his father, Peleus

Despite eventually gaining the respect of his students and peers, I still think of Chiron, living with his family in a cave at the foot of Mount Pelion, as being a teacher-healer on the margins.

His many skills, his teaching and mentoring abilities, can be traced back to a place of great pain - of violence, shame, rejection, and abandonment. It’s Chiron’s origin story that first comes to mind when I hear the reference to him being a “wounded healer,” rather than the final chapter of his life that he is most famous for (i.e., when Chiron is unable to cure himself from an arrow wound he sacrifices his life in exchange for the freedom of Prometheus who was being brutally punished for bringing the gift of fire to humanity).

As Chiron makes the rounds through all the zodiac signs and all 12 houses of our birth chart, his presence can bring forth memories and painful present-day reminders of ways in which we have experienced early wounding that orbits around themes of violence, shame, rejection and abandonment.

Yet as we recoil and shrink from the pain these reminders cause, we stumble backwards, right into a soft net that launches us forth once again.

Just like Apollo and Artemis appeared in Chiron’s life as foster parents to support him with transmuting his pain and nurturing his skills, a Chiron transit may appear in your life as a teacher-healer who reminds you of your innate value and all that you have to share with the world. Or, alternatively, during a Chiron transit you may discover that amid the discomfort of your own ongoing healing process you are ready to step into the role of a teacher, mentor or healing-facilitator in someone else’s life.

Chiron’s story, Chiron’s archetype, speaks to being of service to the world in some way. It speaks to what each one of us has to contribute and the ways in which we can support our fellow humans by sharing some vital aspect of our unique essential selves.

With horse hoofs in the back and human legs in the front (according to early depictions), along with a human torso and immortal divinity running through his veins, Chiron was a misfit. Belonging not to his parents, nor to the communities of other centaurs, humans or gods, I would imagine Chiron’s experiences of rejection gave him a unique vantage point on the world.

I’m sure all of Chiron’s teachings and offerings would have been considered cutting-edge at the time, perhaps rather fringe or “alternative”.

The perspective of an outsider always offers a new angle.

When we express Chiron’s gifts in our life…

1. they are often birthed from hard-earned wisdom and a journey that involves a lot of pain,

2. these skills are usually maverick or fringe within the context of the field in which they emerge,

3. which makes these offerings to the world even more painful and intimidating to express since doing something different than the norm makes us vulnerable to being rejected again in ways that we were previously wounded, and yet…

4. these Chironic offerings to the world are invaluable and worth the risk. Those who need your medicine will find you.

We all have Chiron somewhere in our birth chart. Our unique Chiron placement can describe our Chiron story by sign, house and aspect.

Of course Chiron does not always express through a history of being orphaned, but I will say that sometimes, depending on the chart, it can show up in a way that expresses Chiron’s literal mythic story to some extent.

Someone with a strong Chiron (or possibly when undergoing a powerful Chiron transit) may work to protect, teach or mentor marginalized youth. I’ve also seen Chiron express in powerful ways through the charts of people who are “orphaned from their country” (i.e., as refugees), or from their religious or cultural origins. Conversely Chiron can express strongly in the charts of those who assist and support refugees and others facing homelessness or discrimination. Frequently a strong Chiron placement will speak to the way a chart holder uses an unusual or alternative modality to be of service to the world outside of the main-stream.

Chiron’s archetype has an affinity with the part of us that feels like an outsider and bears the pain of rejection.

At the beginning of our journey with our natal Chiron there is typically a chapter (or a few) where our need and desire to have our wounding witnessed and tended to is so understandably prominent that our attention is solely internally focused on our pain.

While this is often a necessary part of the healing process, the risk with this area of our life is that we may be swallowed so completely by a despairing victim identity, merging entirely with our Chironic wounding, that we cannot see any other possibilities for ourselves.

This can look like constantly pulling others into orbit around our pain point and story of wounding, closing off to connection with others due to fear of further rejection, and/or shutting out the suffering of others - when our pain has not been fully witnessed and met, it can be hard to do the same for others. My experience with Chiron work has shown me that it can be sticky. We can get stuck in the muck here.

Staying in the pain may feel safer than venturing outside of it, when there is the opportunity to do so.

Yung Pueblo recently posted the following quote on Instagram, which spoke to me of the invitation (and challenge) with Chiron’s expression in our lives:

“People who experienced deep suffering and are still gentle with others do not get enough credit. To not let the hard things that happened to you win, is heroic work. To drop the bitterness and still live with an open heart despite it all is a massive gift to the world.” ~ Yung Pueblo

When we have access to the right supports (i.e., our version of Chiron’s foster parents, Apollo and Artemis) we are able to relate to our suffering in new ways and ground ourselves in the deep trust that we have something valuable to offer the world. Then Chiron in our lives can transmute the painful experiences of rejection it represents.

In an area of our life specific to the house, sign, and aspects of Chiron in our birth chart, we can then become a wise teacher, mentor, and healing-facilitator (through a variety of mediums unique to each person).

Our pain doesn’t disappear, but our relationship to it changes as we lean into Chiron’s work.

“Chiron is about the wounds that make us wise.” ~ astrologer Howard Sasportas

Chiron in Aries (with Mars)

Different zodiac signs highlight different aspects of Chiron’s myth.

Chiron in Aries brings to mind the parts of his myth that has to do with violence and aggression (both in regards to Chiron’s origins and death). It also brings to mind his need to “fend for oneself” (a very Aries phrase), the necessity of independence and courage in his life, and his training of famous warriors and heroes in his adult years.

If your chart features any of the visible planets or important points in Aries (especially the Sun, Moon, Mercury, IC, Ascendant, Venus, Mars, and the lunar nodes), it is *possible* that your early formative years were imprinted by conflict or violence, parental neglect of some kind, forced independence at too young an age, detrimental competitive environments (for scarce resources), and/or extreme settings that honed your survival skills (and probably increased the reactivity of your nervous system).

This isn’t always the case of course, it depends on the chart. However, I have seen this repeatedly and thus it is worthwhile to note that if Chiron hasn’t transited any of your Aries placements already, he will in the next 5 years. This is an excellent time to work through the early wounding these Aries planets and points may be carrying! The capacity for new insight and deep processing is increased during Chiron transits.

As mentioned, more generally for everyone, on a personal or global level this transit could look like opportunities to work through pain points around: anger, aggression, action, courage, risk-taking, change-making, competition, motivation, willpower, burn-out, and the capacity for initiative, leadership and independence.

Mars transiting Aries alongside Chiron doesn’t add a new theme to the process, but as the ruler of Aries Mars’ presence does significantly amplify all the Aries themes that Chiron has been working with since its ingress in 2018 - especially around the June 15th conjunction date.

This transit has been showing up loudly for me by stretching my capacity for greater independence, self-sufficiency, and determined action.

Also, it’s offered me new insights on the topic of anger.

Sometimes a book seems to synchronistically find me with themes that perfectly matches the current sky. Sometimes I intentionally select a book to read that resonates with the transits at the time - and sometimes it is a bit of both.

This time around, it was a bit of both - as Mars joined Chiron in Aries I felt drawn to reading a book that had been on my list for a while: “Working with Anger in Internal Family Systems Therapy,” by Jay Earley.

Aries and Mars of course, have a strong affinity with the emotion of anger and our impulse to protect, defend, and attack.

Anger, Forgiveness, and IFS

Discussions of anger and rage have had a lot of air space in the last 5-ish years it seems to me - or it could be I’ve only really been paying attention to discussions about anger in the past 5 years.

Anyway, regardless, back in the fall of 2018 I wrote a blog post for the Venus retrograde in Mars-ruled Scorpio about three books on the topic of women’s rage and anger that were set to be released all within 2 months of each other.

TIME magazine published an article titled: “Women's Rage Is the Most Powerful Engine of 2018”, which also referenced the uncanny simultaneous publication of these three books with their unintentionally matching red covers (the fiery color of Aries/Mars).

Of course this was all in the aftermath of the #metoo movement being catalyzed alongside Jupiter’s ingress into Scorpio in October 2017. Recent conversations about the expression of anger and rage have frequently been gendered, as online discussions about male rage and the violence it can cause have also been simultaneously ongoing. Public conversations about anger in general, usually invoke the justified anger of the oppressed toward their oppressor, whether they are referencing gender, race, or another identity marker.

The ever-expanding online therapy realm has been circling the topic of anger quite a bit lately, seemingly trying on new perspectives and approaches. Whereas it seems to me that earlier therapeutic approaches have focused more on “anger management programs,” I think the pendulum may be swinging toward embracing the energy of anger as a path to empowerment - for some people at least.

In my blog post on anger, back in 2018, I highlighted some relevant quotes in my instagram carousel of images. Here is a quote by Toko-Pa who speaks to the importance of expressing anger, versus the dangers of denigrating the emotion and suppressing it (especially for women):

Here’s another reflection on anger that expresses a bit more caution toward its expression:

And these are some of my reflective notes I added to the post back in 2018…

caption...

As you can see with my “and yets…” I was grappling with different facets of anger, trying to find a footing on the topic.

Obviously anger can be horrifically destructive. Anger can be a catalyst for horrible acts of violence (and cycles of revenge)… yet of course anger is also a vital protective response that can fuel our engines for change (on micro or macro scales).

I really wanted more frameworks that could help me navigate anger in the public domain (which typically involve some form of activism and advocacy), the personal everyday sphere, and in therapeutic spaces.

When I read Jay Earley’s book about working with anger using IFS, I was like yes, exactly! He speaks to the conflicting messages on anger in the therapeutic realm that has clouded my clarity on the topic:

“Therapists writing about [anger] have tended to take black-and-white positions. It either is or isn’t a good idea to encourage clients to express anger… this is not a simple question. Sometimes the outward expression of anger is valuable, and sometimes it is dangerous.” ~ Jay Earley

Earley would argue that each situation where anger emerges is unique and warrants a different response depending on the function or condition of that anger - most importantly, it would depend on what “part” is holding the anger.

I’ll offer a quick summary of the Internal Family Systems psychotherapeutic model before getting into Earley’s book on anger:

There are numerous different approaches that use a form of “parts work,” which involves interacting with the psyche as multiple sub-personalities. Inner child work for example, has become really popular recently. That is a type of parts work were you interact or tend to the part of yourself that feels very young.

Arguably psychological astrology is a type of parts work where the expression of your different planetary placements are discussed as unique characters in your psyche. For example, it’s not uncommon to hear the astro-literate say things like…

“My Cancer Moon in the 12th just wants to stay home all day, but I really have to balance this with my Mars in Sag that goes stir-crazy if it is denied consistent adventures and travel experiences. My Venus in Scorpio only has time for relationships of depth and intensity - she gets so annoyed with my Sun in Gemini that is cool with being a social butterfly.”

Next to astrology, Internal Family Systems is my favourite form of parts work. I appreciate IFS because it offers a framework (a “system” if you will) that takes into account the complexity of the psyche and its innate and natural multiplicity. IFS provides navigational tools to work with a myriad of parts that are often polarized and in conflict with each other - it addresses the relationships between each of your parts (i.e., your “internal family”), in addition to the relationship between “you” (what IFS calls the core “Self”) and your parts.

In IFS parts are usually identified based on two main categories…

1. Exiles (parts in pain that hold our wounds)

2. and Protectors (parts that try to prevent us from feeling the pain that exiles carry).

Protectors can be further divided into managers (proactive, they try to manage our life in ways that prevent an exile from taking over), and firefighters (they impulsively rush in after an exile’s pain has surfaced in order to get rid of it as quickly as possible).

Dick Schwartz, the founder of IFS, would say that someone who is diagnosed as having a multiple personality disorder (now called dissociative identity disorder) may have parts that are more extreme than other people’s, but we all have ‘em! It’s a foundational tenet of IFS that the human mind in its natural state is composed of many distinctive parts (subpersonalities) that will emerge and respond to when called upon.

If you have never heard of this before it probably sounds absolutely bizarre, but I’ve witnessed and experienced IFS in action. Personally I’m convinced of its truth and its transformative potential!

One of the central aims of IFS is for a person to become “Self-led.” This means that rather than being compelled to act certain ways because of protective or exiled parts dictating our actions for example, we are grounded in our essential nature with full access to our agency. IFS believes that regardless of how messy the landscape of our parts may be, due to our life experiences, the core Self in each person is completely untarnished. The Self can be immediately available with all its healing strength and power when parts are convinced that it is safe to “unblend from the Self.”

We know we are likely “in Self” when we perceive our parts without judgement, but with compassion, calmness, and curiosity.

I recommend Dick Schwartz’ recently published book as the best introduction to IFS - No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model. Whereas Dick’s other books are written for therapists, this one is written for the general public.

Okay, now back to Jay Earley’s book on IFS and anger that gave me multiple a-ha moments during Mars and Chiron’s co-presence in the sign of Aries. Earley zeros in on three types of anger using the IFS framework:

1. Protector anger. This anger is held and expressed by protector parts guarding an exile’s pain. Angry protector parts (either managers or firefighters) can act out anger in a variety of ways in order to prevent the exile’s pain from surfacing - or to quickly recover and block out pain if an exile has been triggered.

2. Exile anger. This anger is held by exiled parts who are typically prevented from expressing their anger by protectors who fear what will happen to them if they do. The origins of this suppressed anger usually tracks back to early wounding experiences.

3. Disowned anger. This anger is often held by protector parts who are exiled by other protectors. In fact, Dick Schwartz calls these parts “Protectors-in-Exile”, whereas Jay Early calls them disowned parts because he believes exiles and healthy parts can also carry anger that is disowned by the internal system.

Protector Anger

Angry protector parts need to first be understood, validated and empathized with. They are doing the best they can to protect us from experiencing other painful emotions.

Jay Earley (focused on the context of the therapist-client encounter) does not typically encourage the full expression and acting out of protector anger. Protector anger may be extreme or destructive in its effort to protect us from internal pain. It may emerge frequently, or explode occasionally, but it will be internally felt, regardless of its outward expression.

Earley suggests that learning to speak for an angry protector part rather than identifying with it completely and speaking from it, can offer a more constructive way forward - e.g., “A part of me got angry when you said that.”

Even if the anger is present (i.e. not disowned) it may be difficult to fully make contact with an enraged protector part if there are other protectors that are polarized with this part of the psyche and believe it to be too dangerous and explosive to be accessed.

After an angry protector has been listened to and you’ve indicated you understand its point of view and earned its trust, the angry protector may now give you permission to access the exile that it’s been protecting. Dick Schwartz cautions that it may be best to only work directly with exiles in the psyche and healing their pain when you are with someone who can support the process.

Once the exile is unburdened (a process in IFS that involves empathetic witnessing and bringing healing to the origin wounds), the protector can now be unburdened of its anger and re-integrated into the psyche.

When the formerly angry protector part is ready to trust the Self to navigate difficult situations, it is free to now find a new role in the psyche.

Protector anger reminds me of this Brené Brown quote:

“Sometimes anger can mask a far more difficult emotion like grief, regret, or shame, and we need to use it to dig into what we’re really feeling.” ~ Brene Brown

It also reminds me of this quote and illustration I recently found on Instagram…

Image by @oxherdboy

I can certainly relate to exiled parts carrying emotions like shame, grief and fear, hiding out beneath angry armor.

Of course when I think of exiled parts I also am reminded of the Chiron myth again, and Chiron’s affinity with that which has been rejected.

Exile Anger

According to Earley, exile anger can be distinguished from protector anger “because it is felt along with the shame. If it were protector anger, [anger] would rise to block the feeling of shame.” Although, I will point out that shame can show up through another protector part that emerges after an angry protector dominates the psyche.

In contrast to working with an angry protector part, according to Earley, the exiled part carrying anger should be encouraged to feel and express its anger. Getting to this point often involves working first with protector parts that are afraid of the person expressing this anger (such as parts that are worried we may be punished or rejected for doing so).

When the exile’s wounding origin story is revisited, using the power of imagination and somatic movement to activate “embodied, expressive, healthy aggression” can be extraordinarily healing as the exile part reclaims their power.

Healthy aggression in a safe, witnessed context can reverse the shame embedded in the experience and rewrite the person’s emotional and somatic memory of being weak and powerless while facing a threat or experiencing harm.

I was reminded of Somatic Experiencing while reading the chapters about exiled anger, an approach I am trained in. I was happy to see Earley give this modality a shoutout in his book - “Somatic Experiencing has a similar understanding of the value of healthy aggression in the renegotiation of trauma.”

In SE we are looking for signs of incomplete protective responses in the body (e.g., fight, flight or freeze responses) that did not have a chance to fully activate or follow-through to their desired conclusion at the time of a difficult or traumatic event. Supporting someone with completing their fight response via expressions of anger and aggression (in a titrated piece-by-piece way), can be transformative.

Releasing suppressed kinetic fight energy and giving voice to the emotion of anger can restore strength and vitality to a person.

In Earley’s transcript of a session with Client D where they focused on her exiled anger, she is able to notice her rage shifting into a “kind of invigorating energy.” As the energy of anger transformed into pure strength and travelled up her spine and her hands, and her entire body, D spoke for the energy:

“It says, “I’ve been trapped all this time. I am your right to exist. And I’ve been waiting to move through you. I’ve been waiting to inhabit you.” (~Jay Earley)

Disowned Anger

Jay Earley writes:

“Anger is probably the most common kind of disowned part. When clients have disowned their anger, they tend to lack assertiveness or strength. They may even be passive, pleasing, self-effacing, or lacking in self-confidence and drive.

This is because their strength has become disowned along with their anger.

…Strength means healthy aggression, aliveness, personal power, and the ability to assert oneself. It includes the ability to take risks, adopt a powerful stance in the world, and feel a zest for life… It is our life energy.” [these are Aries/Mars traits]

The goal with disowned anger, according to Earley, is to reclaim it. As with anger that is carried by wounded exiled parts, disowned anger needs to be given opportunity for safe expression so that it can be reintegrated into the psyche, and our strength and power can be restored.

It is common for people with disowned anger to have grown up in contexts where anger was considered completely unacceptable in any form; perhaps even sinful. Disowned anger needs a validating witness.

Within a safe container (e.g., therapy session or with social support) Earley does not recommend trying to channel disowned anger in a “constructive way” (as he did with Protector anger). This energy of anger has already been so constrained - what it needs is liberation and reclamation. Disowned anger needs to be welcomed back in an embodied way without judgement. Even more so than with the anger of exiles, disowned anger needs to be outwardly expressed with the body and voice to the fullest extent possible.

However, it will likely be more challenging to access disowned anger, in contrast to exiles that carry anger, because the entire conscious psyche and its multiple protector parts may be convinced that they absolutely, 100%, are not angry in the slightest.

Anger does not exist for people with chronically disowned anger; they are just “not angry people.”

Earley points out that if there is only ever sadness, fear and pain that emerges when sharing about experiences of harm, it may be worthwhile to check-in and see if there are protectors blocking the anger. In one case for example, his client “would go blank” and dissociate as soon as anger began to surface, because there was a protector part that was worried the client would be “abandoned by everyone for being angry and strong.”

It may take a long time for protector parts to trust that it is safe to express disowned anger - and that it is safe to be strong and powerful. Yet it is worth the effort.

If the emotion of anger has been deeply repressed for a long time there may be a process of integration, after disowned anger has been welcomed back, that involves extreme expressions as the pendulum swings the other way. However, even if this happens, Earley cautions against discouraging it and undermining the person’s process of re-owning and reclaiming their strength. Eventually, perhaps with some coaching, a healthy and balanced relationship to anger will naturally recalibrate.

What is Forgiveness in IFS?

I have never heard anyone describe the concept of forgiveness within an IFS framework, but while reading about IFS and anger it’s something I kept thinking about.

Forgiveness is a word that has become seriously congested with multiple layers of meaning and emotion at this point in time. The current multifaceted complexity of this word may have begun with how forgiveness is utilized within the religious context of Christianity, which immersed it in a particularly loaded context that has been difficult for this concept to shake off.

As with anger, the concept of forgiveness is a socially contentious one that I keep circling back to, trying to find my own perspective on the topic.

According to one lens, while forgiveness doesn’t require reconciliation, working toward forgiveness as an end goal ultimately benefits the one who has been harmed (rather than the one who has caused harm), because it sets them free from the emotional and energetic weight of the situation. The assertion of another lens is that forgiveness is completely unnecessary and pushing people to forgive can be incredibly disempowering.

There’s multiple takes on forgiveness in circulation right now.

If, according to Psychology Today, “forgiveness is the release of resentment or anger,” could the concept of forgiveness be descriptive of what naturally happens when exiled parts are unburdened, thereby releasing angry protector parts to find new roles in the psyche?

For a while I played with the idea that forgiveness (as the release of resentment or anger) was something that naturally occurred once the wound/hurt/loss had been grieved. This interpretation would fit with the unburdening of exiles in IFS, that hold hurt and grief - and the subsequent release of the protectors’ anger that is no longer needed to prevent the exiles’ pain from surfacing and overwhelming the person.

However, if forgiveness is pushed onto a person who has been harmed, as something they should do, then, using an IFS framework, it seems to me this risks creating exiles who are stuck with unprocessed pain and anger.

Furthermore, forced or rushed forgiveness probably results in disowned anger, which siphons off a person’s strength, vitality and life energy.

SELF Anger

Jay Earley doesn’t dedicate much space to discussing the healthy anger that surfaces while in Self. However, he does make it clear that he believes anger is a natural reaction “to injustice, boundary violations, mistreatment, or frustration of one’s aims.”

Earley indicates that the core Self does not judge this anger; it accepts it and may even appreciate it, while using its agency to refrain (vs suppress) from acting out anger that would not be helpful to its aims.

While we are in Self, rather than acting out anger in ways that threaten others, “we can call on our healthy sense of power, forcefulness, and limit setting to handle these situations,” according to Earley.

Of course I can think of lots of survival situations where this type of self-control combined with assertiveness and strength, is not possible.

From a nervous system and somatic perspective we are more capable of staying in Self and making conscious choices to work constructively with anger when our prefrontal cortex is still online. When the sympathetic nervous system involuntary springs into action with the innate “fight response” on full blast, our cognitive capacity is limited and a protector has taken over, to use IFS language.

In some situations we need this extreme involuntary fight response in order to survive.

In other situations, perhaps we have become blended with protector parts that need to find new roles in the psyche once the exiles they guard, are compassionately witnessed and unburdened.

I continue to reflect on these questions: how does this framework for understanding and working with anger - written from a therapist’s perspective - potentially scale up to a global level? How does it apply to the anger at injustices that fuel activism?

I won’t dive into his book here, but in regards to my second question I was fascinated with how Dick Schwartz addressed this in his IFS book, No Bad Parts. Schwartz introduces Chapter 7 with these words:

“For a few years now, I’ve been training social activists to lead from Self. In my experience, many people are called to become activists because they were badly hurt in the past, carry lots of exiles, and consequently have protectors who don’t want anyone else to suffer the way they did. As a result, their activism is sometimes protector-led, which can further polarize issues and alienate potential allies. That’s certainly understandable, but I think we can do better.” (~Dick Schwartz)

He then includes this powerful transcript of a session with a couple who have committed their lives to social activism, as a demonstration of his IFS work with them.

This is one perspective, but I think it’s an interesting one.

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Jay Earley’s book on IFS and anger was part of my Chiron + Mars in Aries learnings over this past month.

I have a few more different books on anger I hope to digest in the coming months - and I always avoid committing entirely to any one framework - but as an IFS fan, I really appreciate Earley’s insights!

I found the three categories of protector anger, exile anger, and disowned anger, to be really helpful in understanding and responding to the different types of anger that surface within me, and around me.

We all have different relationships with anger, with Mars energy, with Aries. As Chiron continues to travel through this sign, the ongoing healing process will be unique to each of us.

Mars will leave Chiron in Aries (still co-present with Jupiter) on July 5th, when he enter Taurus. In the meantime, there is plenty of opportunity to lean into healing and growth processes related to anger.

Mars in Aries is building to an intense square with Pluto in Capricorn that perfects at the end of the week (on July 1st/2nd), but its angsty churning can be felt at least a week in advance. Personally I find Mars to be more intense before it perfects a tense aspect - it’s the building and accumulation of that energy as it gains momentum that I find most uncomfortable.

After the square aspect peaks this weekend, Mars will spend the next few days hanging out at the very end of Aries. Mars at the last anaretic degrees of a sign is unpleasant at best. The twelve 29th degrees in the zodiac are uncertain, impulsive, and crisis-oriented. It creates a lot of intensity in the collective when Mars, the warrior, lands on these powerful, restless degrees.

For example, when Mars reached the anaretic degree in Pisces, just hours before entering Aries, the tragic Uvalde school shooting occurred. The last time Mars was in Aries, just hours before entering Taurus, the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol occurred in 2021.

On a more mundane, personal level, we may feel under intense pressure to wrap something up and get a major project done between now and July 5th. It’s important to employ all your grounding tools during this period.

The Chariot is Calling

With Chiron currently transiting Aries (the sign of the warrior, hero, daredevil athlete) I’ve been reflecting on Chiron’s involvement in training so many of the great ones in Greek mythology, including Achilles, Heracles, Odysseus, the Gemini twins Castor and Pollux, and even the famed healer Asclepius, to whom he taught the art of medicine.

When I was learning the Tarot I thought it was weird that Cancer was assigned to this card. Doesn’t it look like it has greater affinity with the sign of Aries?

Major warrior vibes here.

If it were up to me, even today I wouldn’t select this major arcana card to best represent Cancer, but I’ve gradually come to appreciate the crab in this card.

Interestingly, in contrast to the mutable and fixed signs, I find all four of the cardinal signs have this strong warrior-type energy of defending, protecting, attacking. Cardinal signs in general, are also all action-oriented and purpose-driven.

With Aries, it’s obvious. Aries, as cardinal fire represented by the symbol of a ram, IS the archetypal Mars-ruled warrior. Libra, as cardinal air depicted by a set of scales, is a passionate advocate for inclusion and justice. Capricorn as cardinal earth, is the fortress builder; the paternal daddy sign of the zodiac who is renown for its fierce determination as it battles resistance to construct protective walls - or to climb over them.

Cancer, the crab of cardinal water, is the moon-ruled archetypal mother of the zodiac. Yet Cancer is about more than having babies.

Cancer is a fierce protector who is dedicated to bringing something new into the world - which oftentimes is not a human baby.

Because the association between Cancer and having babies is so strong, a lot of Cancer types can have an astro identity crisis if they are not the start-a-nuclear-family-with-kids type.

When I think about Cancer, I think about metaphorical womb, home or nest spaces where the inception and growth of something new is able to occur because

• a) it has access to all the nutrients it needs to flourish and

• b) it is protected from harsh external environments while it is still vulnerable.

For these reasons, literal food and home themes often arise with Cancer, although access to nutrients and protection are not limited to these manifestations.

Cancer excels at nurturing and protecting new creations. This sign intuitively knows exactly what its seedling creations need for each step of their journey, in order to prepare them for the moment when they fly the nest in search of a new home - just like how hermit crabs molt their shells and look for a larger one as they grow.

If the new creation is a book that wants to be published, Cancer provides the perfect writing nook, free from distractions.

If the new creation is a plant that wants to grow, Cancer ensures the garden is fenced in to keep out intruders (with help from its opposite sign of Capricorn) and diligently waters and tends to the seedlings daily.

If the new creation is the expansion of human potential within a network of supportive relationships, Cancer will invest the emotional energy and leadership skills to build a community where people can feel safe to explore and express themselves.

Cancer’s crab claws come out when the new thing they are nurturing and protecting is in some way threatened. In these situations Cancer is said to be the fiercest of all the zodiac signs.

So, back to the Chariot - I suppose the card’s warrior symbolism has some relevance to the sign of Cancer!

I’ve been spending a lot of time with this card for a few reasons - it’s currently Cancer season, the card reminds me of Chiron’s role in training warriors, and using numerology, the Chariot card (major arcana #7) is my life card and it’s also my card of the year for 2022.

With Chiron in Aries, in addition to engaging in healing processes around the topic of anger, this transit may also highlight your relationship to taking action, your capacity to initiate, to lead, to charge forward into something, to create change.

Aries is a go-getter just-do-it sign that feels most alive when jumping into a high intensity, high-risk new endeavor - but as a result, this sign is prone to burn-out. Similarly, interpretations of the Chariot card often caution about the risk of burn-out and exhaustion resulting from a driven focus on accomplishing (or fighting for) one’s goals.

It depends on who you follow online I suppose, but there seems to be a growing movement that is advocating for disengaging from capitalism’s culture of productivity and workaholic tendencies.

Maybe Chiron in Aries is a lesson around how to manage our energy and prevent burn-out, while still nourishing our enthusiasm for tackling new projects that allow us to channel our desire to create.

For me personally, I had a complete “burn-out” moment about 6 years ago and by necessity, I have had to completely disengage from my workaholic tendencies.

When I was doing an IFS visualization exercise recently, I met the (protector) part of me that use to drive my life as a type-A high-achiever workaholic. She was a small girl with short, straight red hair at chin-length, and she came into my consciousness as someone who drives a train - or did.

She crashed the train. That was my burn-out crash, my breakdown in 2016.

I realized that my other protector parts hate her for how she never slowed down despite the warning signs. They hate her for how she kept her foot slammed on the gas pedal until the train - until I - flew off the tracks and crashed. This train-driver part of my psyche has become a protector-in-exile, who is not allowed in the driver’s seat of my psyche.

Now, whenever I try to attempt a new project, protective parts whisper to my subconscious - “Remember what happened the last time you tried to start something new? Remember what happened the last time you let her take the wheel of your life?”

It dawned on me after the visualization exercise that my train-driver, workaholic part is an expression of the Chariot card. Both are determined to drive forward no matter what.

This part meant well. She had been trying to protect me through constant achievements; by racing me away from the “nothingness” that was trying to devour me and was eating up the train tracks in my wake. She also thought I was still in my late teens, which is typical with IFS work. Protector parts usually don’t trust the Self to take over because they believe they are protecting a child that is powerless to handle situations on their own.

Our reunion that played out in my imagination felt tender and held grief. Honestly I really miss this part of me, a part that was once so central to my identity. I get so frustrated with my psyche’s protective impulse that wants to block my efforts to move forward toward goals. I find myself wishing this train-driver part would return.

Can I reintegrate this train-driver/chariot part of me without it taking over and burning me out? Can I trust my ability to nourish myself while proceeding toward my goals with dedication, determination and a laser beam focus?

I hope so. That’s part of the Chiron in Aries challenge for me personally, as well as an invitation of Cancer season, which wants to nourish and protect us.

Late on June 28th (or on the 29th, depending on your time zone) we experience the New Moon in Cancer - which so far has had mixed interpretations in the astro sphere.

Those who think it will be wonderful, focus on the Moon at full strength in its home sign of Cancer and the Moon’s exact square to Jupiter (while Venus sextiles Jupiter).

Those who are more cautious, highlight that this new moon is conjunct Lilith (whose conjunction with the Sun perfects about 30 hours later), while eyeing Jupiter’s involvement with some suspicion since Jupiter can expand something for better or worse. Neptune is also stationing retrograde simultaneously with this New Moon which can be disorienting, disillusioning, but also revealing.

As I mentioned previously, the tension and intensity of the Mars-Pluto square is dominating this week as it builds to its peak on the weekend.

My take is that this New Moon offers emotional support to do hard things.

The Chariot is calling.

Britney’s wedding with Venus, Uranus & Chiron

My last post, published several weeks ago, pulled symbolism from the cake-smeared Mona Lisa painting incident at the Lourve Museum, to offer a forecast for the Venus-Uranus conjunction in Taurus on June 11th, 2022.

More cake-smeared art & roses this weekend?

The Venus-Uranus conjunction was a particularly intense transit in the way that it perfected while in opposition to the Moon in Scorpio. I was aware of people dealing with serious matters that were unexpected, unusual and developed quickly - serious matters that involved funerals and medical events, for example.

On a lighter note, Britney Spears married Sam Asghari on June 9th, several days before the Venus-Uranus conjunction was exact, but well within its range. The wedding was on a Thursday, yet the announcement and the pictures began to circulate over the weekend when the conjunction was at its loudest.

This for me is a clear archetypal expression of Venus and Uranus.

The Venus-Uranus conjunction of June 11th occurred within 3 degrees of Britney’s natal Chiron placement in the 8th house - the house of mergers and shared resources. The 8th house is where money, assets, resources and power get tangled or woven together in ways that bind people to each other, for better or worse.

Britney Spears spent 13 years of her life under the conservatorship of her father, which began during a short period of time when she was admitted to a hospital for psychiatric care in 2008. For 13 years, until August 2021, her father “held all legal responsibility over her, including managing all of her personal and financial affairs” (~biography.com).

This is an 8th house situation.

Chiron in the 8th house indicates there may be pain around the topic of shared resources for Britney. This placement suggests Brittney may experience rejection and exile when she attempts to manage her own resources.

As a distant observer, Britney’s wedding looked like a Chironic healing moment. Long prevented from marrying again or having more children under the conservatorship, now age 40, Britney is free to marry the man she loves.

In my earlier post I wrote: “Venus wants to attach and be close to others, whereas Uranus wants to detach and be free.”

Britney’s wedding symbolized her freedom from the conservatorship and detaching from the control of her family (who were not invited to the wedding). Yet simultaneously Britney was exercising her Uranian right to choose to marry and attach to the man she loves - an expression of Venus.

Shortly after getting married she seems to have moved out of her home, into a shared house with Sam - an expression of Venus in the 8th house.

The wedding was small (about 50 people I believe) and the event was decorated and orchestrated in a way that expressed a Venusian fairytale theme. It looks like it was a beautiful and elegant day, but also, in keeping with Brit’s Sag Sun energy, the celebration looks informally fun in a way that seems unusual for a celebrity birthday.

One of the photos that emerged afterward, was of Britney with a small group of famous women who, I assume, supported her in some way throughout her ordeal. Highly meme-able, set against a Taurean backdrop of flowers, this picture seems to capture the Venus-Uranus conjunction via girl power vibes. Madonna’s random dark sunglasses are oddly fitting to the scene!

As Venus and Uranus came together in my chart, I was learning how to use power tools to destroy my bedroom - in order to make it more beautiful! A job I should return to…

I hope your Venus-Uranus transit was of the best kind.

May you move through the upcoming transits with the courage of Mars and the guidance of Chiron.