The Body as Divination
What Chiron in Taurus Teaches Us about Embodiment
Your body knows the way into the tangible, into the truth of what action is needed in almost any moment. But Chiron in Taurus, in the decan of fearful preparation, of the fragility of the spring sprout, so close to the degree of the moon's exaltation, punctuates how far we are from those needs being met collectively. Water, food, air, land, and what it means to create sustainability and hope for the future are pulsing with ache now. The wounding is deep. The fear and uncertainty are real.
Though Neptune and Saturn will not join again in Aries in our lifetimes, they still color this era with the singe of soot and sweat. What are we to do under such heaviness? The surefooted Chiron in Taurus stands still and asks us to emulate him. Feel the floor beneath you, the ground below that. Reach your awareness into the topsoil, the life-feeding decay, down into the sediment, through fossils and the tangible layers of time. Keep going. Find the stones that form your region, forge deeper down to the bedrock and remember what it is you stand for in this moment.
The solidness of the Earth, the potentiality of all she contains, of all she can be holds us and is held in us. Each of our bodies carries the power in the micro to shift the macro. With Chiron's retrograde in Taurus, I want you to focus on what it means to return to awareness of your body's power. As we slowly transition from Taurus back into Aries to finish our processing of what wounds we have in warriorship and leadership, recognize the transition. Root into this lengthy time at 0° of Taurus.
What have you begun here? What wisdom does the body want to share now? Breathe into your head. What thoughts are dancing and distracting you from listening? With love, let them go from your focus. Breathe into your heart. What yearnings are pulling you out into life? With hope, let them open you. Breathe into your belly. What hunger calls you to tend yourself? With awareness, move to feed it.
Your body is the best divination partner you could ask for, but only if you learn not just to listen but to ask. Bring your questions to your only 24/7 companion in this life. Before spirit, cards, coins, bones, or stars, stir the inner landscape, the embodied knowing, and ask. Say your question aloud then wait and notice what rises, where your sensory rhythm responds to words. After a pause, offer up an answer to the question and then listen again. Look for the signs of comfort, discomfort, excitement and ease or fear and tension. Read yourself. Then offer up another answer to the question and read again. Find the answer in the body language, because it is your language. You must learn how to speak it.
When we cannot come home to ourselves, we cannot easily travel out into our lives. When we cannot listen ourselves, we cannot hear others over our bodies' whispers and doubts. Understanding can only come alive in presence, in the light of purposeful attention. So as Chiron stands still, awaiting the kiss of a moon so soon on her way to exaltation, invite your body into the brave work of a dialogue too often denied by the persistent pace of life harried and hurried at the heels of systems too turgid to function for much long. Beat them to the stop. Win the race by refusing to run, even if only for a moment. Your body is waiting.
With tenderness, on Venus night and hour,
A child of the detriment moon
