The Centaurs Series: Chariklo Part III

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Every schoolchild is taught that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. What is not as widely known is that his main focus in life was finding ways to communicate with the deaf, and his invention of the telephone was a byproduct of his research into devices that might help the deaf to hear.1

In Bell’s time, deafness was considered a defect that crippled a person’s ability to make a successful contribution to society, and deaf people themselves were deemed by many to be “monsters,” or at least less than human. Bell, however, believed that the deaf were only handicapped and could make just as valuable a contribution to society as “normal” people. His interest in deafness began when, as a child, he watched his mother gradually lose her hearing. One day, it occurred to him that there might be an entirely different way for her to “hear,” so he learned a “finger language” that enabled him to tap out for her what other people were saying. When he was a little older, his thinking went completely outside the box; he discovered a way to put his mouth directly against her forehead and speak, and she was able to hear him quite clearly. It was here that he developed the desire to help other deaf people, which became his life’s work.

Bell had Mercury at 24°53’ Pisces in the 1st house opposite the Moon at 24°46’ Virgo in the 7th, showing the paramount importance to him of communicating with other people. And sitting very close to his Mercury was a body called Chariklo at 25°09’ Pisces. Both of these bodies were in a quincunx — the aspect known for bringing about adjustments — to his Chiron at 23°32’ Libra, which

It is the desire to make people see reality in an alternative way that draws the Chariklo writer to science fiction.

was also opposite his Pluto at 24°28’ Aries. Chiron opposite Pluto makes a person highly sensitive to any hostility around them, either directed at them or at others, and confers a keen awareness of just how much others suffer from this hostility. Bell could see how badly his mother felt because of her growing deafness. Chariklo was always calling upon him to find ways to help his mother change her life, by discovering new, unconventional, creative solutions. He would turn that potential energy into inventive genius that would eventually help millions.

Bell’s wife, Mabel, was deaf herself, which gave him additional incentive. Her birth time is unknown, but her chart (not shown) is still revealing. Her North Node (the direction she needed to turn to grow in this life) was stationary at 24°26’ Pisces, tightly conjunct the Chariklo and Mercury of Alexander, the man who was her teacher even before he became her husband. Her own Chariklo, at 14°32’ Taurus, closely trined her husband’s Mars at 14°42’ Capricorn. Clearly, theirs was a relationship centered on Chariklo’s healing power.

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Aldous Huxley was born with Mars at 19°30’ Aries, closely opposite Saturn at 19°25’ Libra — a difficult aspect under any circumstances but all the more so in his case because Saturn was in the 12th house (chart not shown). Some people become overwhelmed trying to deal with the stop/ start battles this aspect gives them, and even those who don’t may feel tired all the time from the stress. But Huxley’s Chariklo added another factor in the mix; at 19°51’ Capricorn, it squared both bodies from his 3rd house. It became the focal point of a t-square that pushed him to go way, way beyond even the heaviest Saturnian limits.

One wound that Huxley suffered was being nearly blind most of his life, but that did not stop him from “seeing.” He explored the universe of the mind. His experiments with mind-expanding drugs led to his writing the amazing work, The Doors of Perception. And he wrote about a seeming utopia he saw evolving from the present he was living in; however, this Brave New World soon showed itself to be a frightening picture of a very possible future.

I grew up loving the writings of Hermann Hesse because he constantly questioned so-called reality, writing: “Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.”2 Some say that even the idea of opposites is an illusion, but whether that is valid or not, Hesse saw that one could not gain wisdom by taking sides, but only by stepping completely outside of the struggle and seeing the larger whole. His 9th-house Chariklo at 12°05’ Virgo opposed Mars at 11°44’ Pisces, giving him a mind that repeatedly and aggressively questioned what we believe or are taught to believe. His Sun at 10°52’ Cancer was sextile and trine these bodies from the 7th house. His focus was on other people, and each person he connected with stirred him to question more.

Going beyond the known reality is very much a Chariklo phrase. So are the following: discovering another way to think; perceiving old situations in new ways; and seeing “what might be” as vividly as what is. I’ve noticed Chariklo prominent in chart after chart of scientific researchers, like the aforementioned Bell, who spent their lives wondering “what would happen if ...”

© 2012, Zane B Stein – all rights reserved

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Zane B. Stein Zane B. Stein is an American astrologer (although now lives in Australia) and is known particularly for his focus on Chiron. He received the Canopus Award For Excellence in 1998. His book, Essence and Application: A View From Chiron, has been called truly groundbreaking. In 2022, he published Chiron – Healer and Wholemaker, which picks up where Essence left off. Zane has specialized in studying the many bodies discovered since Chiron, such as the many other Centaurean bodies like Pholus, Nessus and Chariklo, and TNO’s like Eris, Orcus and Sedna. He has lectured worldwide in person and online. He works with astrologer Lynette Malone to help grow the online community, Astrology Collective astrologycollective.org and his website is zanestein.com.

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(in alphabetical order)

Alexander Graham Bell, March 3, 1847; 7:00 a.m. LMT; Edinburgh, Scotland (55°N57’, 03°W13’); AA: quoted birth record.

Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, November 25, 1857; time unknown; Cambridge, MA, USA (42°N22’, 71°W06’); data from http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Mabel_Gardiner_Hubbard

Hermann Hesse, July 2, 1877; 6:30 p.m. LMT; Calw, Germany (48°N43’, 08°E44’); AA: time stated in his mother’s diary.

Aldous Huxley, July 26, 1894; time unknown; Godalming, Surrey, Eng- land (51°N11’, 00°W37’); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

Telephone Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

(All URLs, here and in the body of the article, were accessed in July 2026, unless otherwise noted.)