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HEALING/WHOLEMAKING: There are differences in opinion over exactly what constitutes a healing, but I use it to describe both the restoration of balance, and the process leading to make one whole. Thus, it is not just the removal of some undesirable condition, but a much deeper, more involved process. A healing can also take place on a larger scale, such as healing a rupture that has occurred in a relationship, or a division that has taken place in a group or organization. And thus healing need not be thought of only in medical terms, but on any level.
MAVERICK: This word came from Samuel A. Maverick, an American pioneer and rancher who did not brand his cattle, unlike all the other ranchers around him. Many people do not really understand the meaning of this word and tend to confuse it with words like rebel, and even revolutionary. When they do this, naturally they assume that Chiron is just a smaller version of Uranus. But Maverick does not mean rebel. The word came to mean one who takes a stand apart from his associates - an independent individual who refuses to conform to his own group - one who does not align himself with any particular party, faction, or particular stand - one without the mark of the herd branded into his side as it its in his contemporaries. The easiest way to understand the term Maverick is to think of Chiron's placement---in between Saturn [the authority, the established group and its rules], and Uranus [the rebel, the revolutionary, the individualist who openly breaks away from the system]. ! So Maverick does not wear any brand to say he can be labeled as following the group ideology---yet at the same time, he does not carry the banner of protest against said ideology. Maverick follows his own course---although he soon may discover that he attracts followers along the way.
My favorite description of maverick comes from a stroy written by Gordon R. Dickson entitled "Maverick":
QUEST: This is an important key. It is the root from which we get the word question, and has as its essence a seeking after truth. Along with this come romantic images conjured up from great, oft-told myths and tales. Thus the word also has come to connote a transformation that occurs in the Questor as a result of pursuing his quest.
GUIDE: This is someone, or something, which helps to lead or direct someone on a course they are taking, or in the proper direction to reach their goal. It is important to realize that a guide need not be a living being. It can be a spirit, or even some inanimate object, or the words of someone coming to one from a book.
KEY: This is something that enables one to gain access to someplace, or to something, but it is also a means of preventing such access. It can be that one small piece of information, that enables one to understand the solution to a problem. What is most important about a Key is the recognition of its existence. Before one realizes a Key exists one may not believe there is any solution to a problem---or, one may not even recognize that a problem exists. But once the Key is discovered the first step in the solution has been taken. One who has the Key actually also has control. He can keep others from opening a door, and therefore keep them from solving their problem. Thus a Key is necessary to both open---and close---a door [or even an electric circuit---Key is used to denote a small electric switch].
DOORWAY: A doorway is, in effect, not belonging to either world. Take the doorway of a house. If you are outside, you cross through to go in, while if inside, you cross through to go out. While the door may be part of the house, and block entrance or exit when closed---the doorway itself is totally neutral. It belongs to both worlds--- or neither, depending on your point of view. If you think of the walls of the house as being Saturn, the insides of the house as being the inner planets, and the outside of the house represented by Uranus, Neptune and Pluto---then the doorway itself can be seen as Chiron.
CHIROS: Time has usually been considered the realm of the planet Saturn, but in actuality, Saturn only rules one type of time--chronological time [duration]. Chiros (Kairos) represents time that is outside that realm---time that obeys an entirely different set of laws [if it does, indeed, obey any laws at all]. It is this time that Einstein referred to in his explanation of relativity: "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute---and its longer than any hour. That's relativity." And it is also this concept that Robert Heinlein focuses on, when [in his book, Stranger in a Strange Land] he has his character Michael Valentine Smith talk about a 'cusp'---a time when all else fades away, and all attention is turned to the making of a crucial decision. Chiros has even been called 'timeless time'. Many people have been able to enter this type of time through deep meditation. Remember that Chiron's orbit is, for the most part, beyond Saturn, and that will assist you in contemplating a time which is not ruled by the clock or the calendar.
LOOPHOLE: This is a very special means of escape. In a legal document, if there is some ambiguity in the text, or the omission of some important point, one can use this Loophole to get out of the contract, or evade the obligation. Taking this a bit further, a loophole is any small opening that may permit air, or light to come in---or permit what is in to come out---without destroying the document, wall, or division which contains the loophole.
QUALIFIER: Each category [ruled by Saturn] has very specific requirements or standards that describes all members of the category. A Qualifier is THE whole that sets the limit to a category. For example, if the category is the element Gold, then we cannot take one of the electrons from an atom of Gold, and call the electron Gold. An atom represents the smallest piece of matter which can still retain the name Gold. Break it into smaller pieces-such as electrons, and you no longer have Gold. Thus, an atom is a qualifier of the category 'element'.
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