Melanie Reinhart - Chiron, Pholus and Nessus: To the Edge and Beyond

[1.] Translated from the German original by Graham Hope, with minor collaboration from myself. Sterne Sprachen einst zu Menschen first appeared in Wahrspruchworte by Rudolf Steiner, Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland, 1922.

[2.] Reinhart, Melanie: Chiron and the Healing Journey. First published in 1989 Arkana, Penguin; 3rd edition Starwalker Press, UK, 2010, extensively revised.

[3.] Stern, Alan: Astronomy Magazine, August 1994, p. 33.

[4.] See New Discoveries Beyond the Orbits of Neptune and Pluto, by Robert von Heeren, published in The Mountain Astrologer, January 1996, pp. 33-35. Notes also that the TNO/SDO now-called dwarf planet named Eris is approximately the same size as Pluto. Research is ongoing (2011) to accurately determine its diameter.

[5.] This symbolism, of the Centaurs being pulled in by Neptune, is not unlike the image of the Bodhisattva. In the Buddhist tradition, a Bodhisattva is a being who has reached a stage of sufficient enlightenment to be able to choose whether or not to reincarnate, and who does so out of compassion for the suffering of others.

a. Note also that since 2006, when there was a major re-categorization undertaken by the IAU, Neptune is now officially the outermost planet, since it was recognized that Pluto does not belong in the category of planet.

b. The new astronomy confirms the symbolic appropriateness of this decision, controversial though it was.

[6.] See The Naming of Nessus in this edition.

[7.] In June 1996, 1993HA2 was given the catalogue number of 7066 as a prelude to the official naming in 1997. At the time of writing the first edition (early 1996), only two Centaurs had been named Chiron and Pholus but Nessus had been suggested.

[8.] Since the publication of the first edition of this book, many sources of information on the internet have become available, and the reader is directed to the Wikipedia pages on Centaur and Kuiper Belt. See also the Technical Information section in this digital edition.

[9.] Thanks to Farida Inayat Khan for telling me this story, originally published by Knopf, N.Y., 1918, in The Madman: His Parable and Poems, and republished by Penguin UK, in the 1995 Kahlil Gibran anniversary series.

[10.] Mott, Francis J.: The Nature of the Self, Starwalker Press, UK, 2012.

[11.] Ibid. pp. 152, 310.

[12.] See books and articles by Mott, Boadella and Wasdell, listed in the Bibliography.

[13.] Opinions vary as to what is the correct moment to consider as the birth moment for astrological purposes. In any case, it is rare for this precise time to be written down, even in so-called accurately recorded birth times.

[14.] Mott, op. cit. pp. 49-50, 255-260.

[15.] Mott, op. cit. p. 48-50: the placenta is the universal human Teacher who conveys to the foetal Hero the imprinted wisdom of our human past a level of inheritance too inorganic for the action of the genes, and too organic for the conscious mind of the parent to be able to convey it after birth.

[16.] Mott, op. cit. p. 77: The real dichotomy is not as between spirit and matter, but as between Point and Periphery ... All creation is built of these two basic elements ... interwoven again and again into unbearable complexity, but ever retaining their basic simplicity.

[17.] Consider Pluto and its moon Charon, who together constitute a binary star system, symbolising the obsessional quality of Pluto, where we become attached to possessing someone or something, and it feels like a matter of life and death. They revolve around each other in 6.4 days, and as they move through space form a pattern like the helix of the DNA.

[18.] Mott, op. cit. pp. 243, 244.

[19.] See Foetal Drama and the Roots of Religion, by David Wasdell, published in Self and Society, Vol. 23. No. 5, November 1995, p. 6.

[20.] See Twins, Triplets and More by Dr. Elisabeth Bryan, p. 5-6. The initial twin usually dies before 12 weeks in what is known as the vanishing twin syndrome. However, this can occur as late as 28 weeks, when the foetus is not reabsorbed, but gradually shrivels, remaining in utero with the main foetus. It will be delivered with the baby, but the birth of a foetus papyraceus a papery foetus will not be recorded. The implications of these facts, as cellular memories, are profound, and shed new light on the symbolism of the sign of Gemini, and the theme of soul mates or twin flames.

[21.] Maccoby, Hyam: The Sacred Executioner: Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt, Thames and Hudson, 1982.

[22.] Wasdell, op. cit.

[23.] See Tad Manns work on the logarithmic time scale, where this cusp is said to be the Conception/Death point: The Round Art, p. 111-135.

[24.] Campion, Nick: The Book of World Horoscopes.

[25.] Clark, Brian: Keys to Understanding Chiron, Astro*Synthesis, Melbourne, 1994, p. 31-35.

[26.] Jung, C.G.: Four Archetypes, p. 136.

[27.] See Reinhart, op. cit. for further discussion of rulership in relation to the shifting of the precessional ages, p. 101-110.

[28.] Wasdell, op.cit.

[29.] Rosenberg, Diana: Skyroads, a Tour of the Constellations, in The Mountain Astrologer, Aug/Sept 1993, pp. 10, 50.

[30.] Robert von Heeren and Dieter Koch: Pholus: Wandler zwischen Saturn und Neptune.

[31.] Graves, Robert: The Greek Myths, Vol. 2, p. 195. See also Saturn: Time, Heritage and Substance by Melanie Reinhart, where the connection between Saturn and the goat-god Pan is discussed.

[32.] See Reinhart, op.cit. p. 127-8 for a discussion of the connection between the blacksmith and the magician or shaman.

[33.] Graves, op.cit. p. 116, where he also mentions that the centaurs were present at Eleusis, having been hidden by Poseidon in a mountain there, after fleeing from the arrows of Hercules and seeking refuge with him.

[34.] See the Technical Information section herein.

[35.] Koch and von Heeren: The New Planet Pholus, The Mountain Astrologer, July 1996.

[36.] Graves, op. cit. Vol. I, p. 281 ff.

[37.] While writing the first draft of this book, Nessus was approaching Station Direct, and still closely conjunct Pluto in early Sagittarius. I read in a newspaper that on 1 August 1996, thousands of frozen embryos from an artificial insemination unit in London were burned, having been unclaimed by the parents. No comment.

[38.] Thanks to Teresa Moring for telling me about this.

[39.] My thanks to Eric Francis for sharing with me his article on the January 2011 shooting of congresswoman Giffords in Tucson, AZ location of the observatory which discovered some of the Centaurs, including Nessus. In Beneath the Guns and Politics, Gender Rage, he discusses at length the consequences of the politicization of repressed sexual energy, and the potent toxicity of gender rage.

Melanie Reinhart

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Melanie Reinhart 1996, 2002, 2011, 2013

All rights reserved.

Melanie Reinhart has asserted the right to be identified as the author of this Work,
under the Copyright Act of 1988.

With the exception of brief quotations for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced, shared, recorded, stored or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the copyright owner.

1st edition: To the Edge and Beyond (CPA Press 1996 h/b)

2nd edition: Saturn, Chiron and the Centaurs (re-titled, CPA Press, 2002 p/b)

3rd revised edition: Starwalker Press 2011

4th edition: Smashwords 2013 (stand-alone version of Part II)