A Healer from Poland
Zip Dobyns
I first met Mietek Wirkus and his wife Margaret at the symposium on new approaches to health which is sponsored every year by the A.R.E. Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. His story is a fascinating one, reminding us of the danger of stereotyping people or countries. In spite of our freedom in the U.S., it is hard to imagine our government and our official medical establishment, the A.M.A., being open-minded enough to carry out research similar to that of the Communist regime in Poland. It is true that the preponderant majority of the people of Poland are devout Catholics, so their Communist leaders have either not wanted or not dared to push too hard for the official atheism. But at least for some years, their work with Mietek went much farther than hands-off forbearance.
Mietek was born a few weeks before the Nazis invaded Poland, on July 19, 1939 at Raciaz which is approximately 52 N 47 and 20 E 6. His birth was reported to have occurred just as the sun was rising, which turned out to be shortly before four in the morning at that high latitude in mid-summer. His early years were marked by the Nazis, with male relatives killed in the war or fighting with the underground. The power struggle of his homeland shows in his fixed grand cross in cardinal houses. Pluto is rising in zero Leo exactly opposite Mars in zero Aquarius and square the tenth house Saturn in zero Taurus. Vesta at one Taurus and the nodes of the Moon at four Taurus-Scorpio intensify the picture. Another exact fixed square comes in from Mercury at twenty-one Leo to Uranus at twenty-one Taurus.
Character creates destiny, and we are born where we fit. A power-struggle character enters a power-struggle situation and faces the challenge of learning to use power wisely; not to give it all away (as can happen with Mars in the seventh house), or to keep it all (as can happen with Saturn in the tenth house and Pluto in the first house), or to retreat from risking closeness for fear of being hurt (as can happen with any of these combinations). Mietek either had to learn the three positive ways to handle power (sharing it, having healthy competition, and helping people), or he may have been born already knowing how to do that. In light of his life, I suspect that the latter was the case.
Mietek was apparently born a healer. His mother noted that his older sister’s asthma got better when she spent time with him when he was still a toddler. The family doctor also noticed, and started taking Mietek along to visit sick patients who then got better. By the time he reached his late teens, Mietek was firmly on the road to being a healer within the parameters of the Catholic church which accepted such things as given by God. But his most remarkable years occurred in his twenties when he was one of a number of “spiritual” healers working under official government sanctions and under the supervision of a group of doctors. The ability of the healers was actually tested against the progress of patients toward recovery, and Mietek’s success rate earned him an official government certificate as a healer. Despite his success, the ferment in the Polish government eventually ended the program and Mietek and his wife came west hoping to continue their work. He has been highly successful in his work in Washington, DC, not only working as a healer but also teaching large classes of M.D.s and other health practitioners.
Turning again to Mietek’s horoscope, we can note the identification with God shown by Jupiter in Aries and the Sun, as a ruler of the Leo in the first house, being placed just inside the twelfth house. Remember that we can express that idealism in many ways. We can feel that our will is absolute and we have a right to whatever we want. Or we can feel that unless we are perfect we are worthless. The compromise solution is to accept our humanness but try to become more perfect and to contribute to making the world more perfect. A spiritual or idealistic career is also strongly suggested by Sagittarius in the sixth house, Pisces and Jupiter in the tenth house, Venus ruling part of the tenth house being placed in the twelfth house as well as conjunct Chiron, and Neptune in Virgo.
Idealism is also connected to love relationships with Juno, the marriage asteroid, in Pisces in the ninth house while Venus, natural ruler of Libra and partnership, is in the twelfth house conjunct Chiron (which I see as much like Jupiter). The Cancer-Leo emphasis in Mietek’s chart indicates a very warm nature with a need for a home and family, while the house emphasis on ten to twelve shows a life much concerned with transpersonal areas. The fixed emphasis dominates the chart, including the Sun with the nature of Leo placed on the eastern horizon. The whole chart repeats the importance of enduring will. Readers will remember that Jim Jones had a Vesta-Saturn-south node conjunction and that he started as a healer but ended up destroying his own followers. I have described combinations of Vesta-Pluto-Saturn (or houses six-eight-ten or Virgo-Scorpio-Capricorn as weaker statements of the same principles) as keys to psychokinetic power: mind over matter. Such power to concentrate or focus the attention and will can be used to directly influence the physical world whether we use it to bend spoons, to find parking places, to win lotteries, to conquer the world, or for spiritual healing. Mietek says that he realized when very young that he had great potential power and will, and that he consciously chose not to engage in power struggles or in trying to control anyone else. It is fortunate, for Mietek and for the world, that he has chosen to use his will and power for healing and helping humanity.
Margaret Wirkus was a journalist before she married Mietek and she is a fluent linguist in several languages. She was born in Warsaw on November 13, 1943 at 3:45 P.M. I was especially interested to note that she also has a very strong Vesta. It is conjunct her Mars and at the exact midpoint of Moon and Saturn. She also has a strong fixed emphasis with the Taurus Ascendant opposite the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio, and Pluto on the north node in Leo opposite the south node in Aquarius. Her Mars conjunct Saturn repeats the theme of having to deal with power. Mars, representing self-will, meets Saturn, the limits of self-will. With this combination we have to choose whether we will master ourselves and not try to control anyone else, or try to control the world, or let the world control us. Like Mietek, Margaret lived in a power-struggle environment, spending her early years under the Nazi terror and her later ones under the Communists. Margaret also has a strong streak of independence with her Moon-Uranus conjunction and her Pallas, East Point, and Antivertex in Aries. When two such strong-willed people are able to remain happily married, we are reassured that a fixed emphasis does not deny the capacity for compromise. With her Venus conjunct Neptune, Jupiter in Leo in the fifth house, and Chiron also in the fifth house, we can see that Margaret tends to idealize love, family and mate. The couple have a single child, a teenaged daughter. Margaret works closely with Mietek in his healing work. Fitting her strong Gemini, her own contribution is largely verbal, translating for him as he is still struggling to improve his English, and helping to teach his healing principles.