Chiron and Neptune are within twelve minutes of a conjunction now, about as close as they are going to come before finally separating in late November.  Although their conjunction is not exactly at the same degree, the influence of these two planets has been making itself known since early 2009.  Chiron is the healer of the soul, and Neptune connects us to our transcendent, creative and spiritual selves so these two planets together are a powerful pair. 

Over the past eighteen months since Chiron and Neptune have been traveling in tandem there has been a powerful urge in the collective psyche for healing and reparations of all kinds.  See this link for other articles about this planetary combination.  

On a personal level, many of us have had deep emotional experiences of release that freed us from the past, or which helped us to break through a longstanding block.  For others this has been a time filled with emotional pain and worry as we struggled to hold on, not realizing that it’s the letting go which ultimately frees us.

In any case, as Chiron and Neptune, both retrograde, take their final bow we may find ourselves looking back to see where there might be wounds that still haunt us; that still prevent us from truly evolving.  These two great spiritual teachers can provide the wisdom that we need to release the stuck energy of the past.

Quoting myself from an earlier article at the dawn of the conjunction:

Both Chiron and Neptune pose difficulty for the expression of the ego. Chiron requires that we process the wounds of the psyche before the ego can manifest in a truly healthy form, and Neptune calls for the transcendence of the ego into the divine unconscious: “from a drop of water to the endless sea.” In Aquarius that transcendence of the ego is even more important as Aquarius is a transpersonal sign; the sign that loves mankind but isn’t so crazy about people as individuals. The new “transhumanism” is a signature of Aquarius, in which technology and innovation are used to perfect the human being.

Because of this transpersonal nature of Aquarius, it is not the sign best suited to the kind of emotional processing that is required by Chiron. Where Scorpio will delve deep into a rich depression and excavate the psychological wisdom that can be found there, Chiron in Aquarius may instead retreat into a world of technology where life is more easily managed and the emotional component is less compelling. The result of this can be a core loneliness and isolation that is not easily rectified. On the other hand, there is also a brilliant innovation at work under the influence of Aquarius, and Chiron in Aquarius can bring about new and unique healing modalities that occur as conventional wisdom is rejected and new ideas brought forth. Aquarius is doubly ruled by Saturn and Uranus, and Chiron is the bridge between them so with Chiron in Aquarius we have a linkage between form (Saturn) and trans-form (Uranus).

In the conjunction, we sometimes get the best of the planets involved and sometimes their more difficult faces, depending on how we approach them and how they affect the rest of our charts. With Chiron and Neptune working in tandem, we are being called to deepen our spiritual experience of life in a body (Neptune) through feeling and releasing the pain of being human (Chiron). Barbara Hand Clow, whose book Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner & Outer Planets is a wonderful resource, says that Chiron and Neptune serve to “bring the higher self into space and time” where we can become both grounded into our true natures under Chiron’s influence, and fully aligned with our higher self (Neptune) at the same time.

When Chiron and Neptune are working together, they combine to assist with the work of the soul. The body, the mind, and the ego are all most interested in living a life well-grounded in the material world that offers the maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain. The soul does not pursue pleasure and avoid pain; instead, there is an embrace of experiences that will assist us at the deepest level to completely learn the lessons that are presented to us so that we can release the past and move forward with greater wisdom.

Chiron facilitates this aspect of soul work by uncovering any wounded places that have been left unresolved so that we can be freed of the blocked energy that our unreleased wounds hold within the body/mind/spirit system. Neptune assists by reminding us that there is a world of experience that lies beyond the boundaries of the material world. Under the influence of Neptune we either open up to experiences of a powerful mystical nature, or else we become confused and deluded as the nature of our personal reality is blurred and we have nothing to replace it with. Neptune bestows creative genius and a spiritual connection to our Divine self as the physical world is transcended, or it can cause us to indulge in escapist and addictive behavior in an effort to escape the prison of our own mind.

As in everything else in the astrological language, there is a both a higher and lower manifestation of both Chiron and Neptune, so when they combine in a conjunction there is the potential to for a transcendent experience of healing spirituality, or a confusing descent into the hell of the unknown of the psyche.