Chiron: The wounded healer

Chiron Sweeps the Path to Healing

Chiron in our charts shows us just where we have the opportunity to turn that collective and subjective disharmony into pure healing love.

Chiron gives a relevant account of pain nature, with which we reincarnated to mature: wound < > wisdom. During our early childhood we received a certain education by default. For example, with Chiron in aspect to Mars, competitive or even violent influences in early life might mean we grow up into strong conflicts and issues with self-identity or self-will. We might have vied for attention or even fought over the window seat in the car! Revolution then takes the place of evolution, and possibly we mature into defensive and "me-first" adults.

Chiron's transiting through Pisces offers the gift of searching for the deepest wound. Through it, we become committed to a healing path, completing a cycle of recognition and taking responsibility for our emotions. Inquiry is the key to unlocking our Chironic purpose.

Our design and purpose as human beings is to release and deliver compassion and love.

In the chart, Chiron's placement connects the individual with his or her suffering and offers a route through to healing and possibly the nature of the healing. Wherever Pisces is placed can mark the spot to reach deeper understanding of that route.

Though we're working with energies that never completely resolve, we can transform them by putting them to work, whether we are in a healing profession or not. An example would be Chiron in aspect to Jupiter, expressed as an orthodox religious upbringing that matured into an independent faith in Spirit. The maturity might allow for the native to express full toleration toward all religions, and therefore pass it on to the environment, leading by example. This is exactly what Chiron retrograde in Pisces offers us.

I bring the archetype alive by presenting my own chart as an example. Chiron approached my natal Chiron just before it turned retrograde, early in the third house. It will arrive again for its final conjunct aspect with the natal minor planet (for argument's sake, we'll go with NASA's definition). It's not a surprise that two major changes occurred before the retrograde: one, I moved from academic editing to writing about spiritual subjects (strongly tenanted 9th- and North-Node-3rd-house split). After Chiron retrograded, I made consistent inner work efforts to allow the grief I felt for the world and its current state of chaos to flow (Pisces) freely. "Something" swept aside whatever was blocking and suppressing the pain, to recognize it as an acute and personal affront against my beliefs (opposition 9th house). I got angry, I wept, and slowly these emotions transformed through expression into compassion. I could begin to extend genuine thoughts and feelings of love for those less fortunate than myself or those going through similar life situations. As my psyche began to purge this habitual and distorted state of empathy into pure compassion, my external life circumstances began to change of their own accord.

I woke up one morning with the thought that I must call the local country club to see if they needed a massage therapist. I have seven years of education in massage therapy, including TCM. I have not practiced alternative medicine in 20 years; instead my life took a different trajectory into academic editing, so the "return" was right out of the blue (Pisces). I chose to honor the process and I called the country club, which lo and behold needed a massage therapist. I went for an interview—something I hadn't done in 25 years!—and within two days I was working there. This quickly led to opening my own studio here in my village, where I now practice astrology, tarot, massage, and acupuncture part-time. The events happened naturally, and my only effort was to listen and say "yes"; these somewhat spooky doors opened in front of me, and I simply chose to walk through them.

My intense grieving for the world still exists, but it no longer strews itself across my path. It was covering the life and love that I have to offer others. Spirit gave me this grief to experience and not to suppress in my shadow. Now my suffering works through me, as the filter, transforms into love and compassion, which meet others. It then works through them, as the filter, and spreads into their environment in centrifugal rings. These extended waves of love are the gift that retrograde Chiron in Pisces offers us. We can return to our childhood wounds, love that hurting child, and tell them it's cool to take your hand to walk toward their future, as you. So great!

Chiron is a shaman. Chiron is an inner teacher. This is the archetype with which I work most in my practice. It moves slowly through the chart, each quarter revolution, balsamic or new phase, allows natal aspects to mature, revealing your healing powers. Knowing this archetype in your chart is invaluable to confidence-building and understanding your sensitivities and your strengths as you move through life. Will you let the rush of this scientist centaur clear your path?

In Part 3 we address specific aspects to Chiron in the birth chart, to allow us a better perspective on how we might feel wounded or wound others unintentionally.