Chiron – Your Deepest Wound, Your Greatest Gift

Just like Pluto, Chiron is tiny but mighty. 

Because of its strategic placement – between Saturn and Uranus – Chiron plays a key role in our natal chart. Chiron’s symbol is a “key” – and not by coincidence. Chiron is the KEY that can unlock our chart. 

In Astrology, Chiron stands for:

1. Our Deepest Wound
2. Holistic Healing – which only happens when we integrate the wound 
3. Our greatest gifts and talents – which only become gifts when the initial wound is healed 
4. Chiron’s role is to help us find wholeness, by accepting and integrating those parts of ourselves that appear to be at cross-purposes.

Chiron points to what we need to improve, and where we need to grow so that we can find our purpose and reach our true potential.

You may already be familiar with the “Wounded Healer” archetype. 

However, there are three archetypes associated with Chiron: 

1. the Wounded Healer, 
2. the Shaman, and 
3. the Alchemist. 

These 3 archetypes represent the transcendental journey of the soul: 

we first suffer and explore our primal wound (the Wounded Healer). We then embrace it and heal it (the Shaman). Only after we explore the first 2 Chiron archetypes can we then transcend the wound and transform it into a gift (the Alchemist). 

1. The Wounded Healer

The Wounded Healer describes our first experiences with the primal wound. At this stage, the wound is not yet acknowledged. 

Some people brush their wounds off for their entire lives. Lurking in the background of their unconscious, the wound sabotages them in unconscious ways. 

Most of us continue living with the wound, because we’re not even aware that there’s ‘another way’. 

2. The Shaman

There comes a time when the wound is so painful, so acute, that it can no longer be ignored. This integration of the Chiron wound corresponds with the 2nd Chiron archetype, the Shaman. 

We associate the “Shaman” developmental stage with the so-called  “healing crisis”. 

A healing crisis means that healing is initially preceded by a worsening of the symptoms. However, this temporary sickness is, in fact, a sign that the treatment is succeeding, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

When we have a fever, we feel sick – but the fever means that our immune system is fighting against the disease. 

We call this stage the Shaman, because a Shaman, or the Medicine Man or Medicine Woman, has the ability to travel between worlds. 

This ability to ‘travel between worlds’ is a metaphor for the integration of the different areas of our psyche: the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

When we hate our bodies, are ashamed of our secret desires, or are disturbed by our anger, envy, greed, or other ‘undesirable’ traits, we can never be whole. 

When all the different parts of ourselves are integrated, then, and only then, healing is found. The Shaman is the most intense Chiron developmental stage, but it’s critical to embrace it if we want to alchemize our wounds into gifts and live wholesome lives. 

3. The Alchemist

Finally, the 3rd developmental stage, the Alchemist, corresponds to the gift that naturally emerges when we heal and integrate our wound. 

Once the wound is embraced in the previous stage, something inside of us “clicks”. The broken pieces become a beautiful whole. The puzzle comes together. The very wound that made us investigate different approaches and develop coping strategies, transforms into a healing gift. 

• Our primal identity wound helps us see our beautiful uniqueness in ourselves and others
• Our self-worth wound transforms into healthy self-reliance. We are capable of taking care of ourselves and others without burning ourselves out
• Fighting chronic illness eventually helps us discover a unique, holistic approach to healing
• Our early communication struggles make us powerful communicators 
• Our feelings of anxiety or inadequacy transform into soul-touching art
• Our unsuccessful attempts to have loving relationships develop us into wonderful partners 

But how do we transform the wound into a gift? 

How do we do “the Chiron work”? 

Chiron is much more subtle. 

Chiron is that “owie” we all feel but we can’t really put our finger on it. 

You may be in a good place in your life, but you still have a vague sense of disconnection from the world; something deep inside is 'off'.

You know you’re here for more; but you’re not sure what this “more” is. Chasing goals leaves you empty and disappointed “that’s not what I expected”.

You experience feelings of intense longing; you crave something deep, something profound, something meaningful, something that maybe doesn’t even exist. 

This deep longing, this “owie” we all feel can go unnoticed for years. But then there’s a transit like Jupiter conjunct Chiron that brings it to the top of our awareness and DEMANDS us to do something about it. 

What’s this Chiron “owie”, this Chiron longing all about? 

We come into existence through an experience of rupture. 

Deep inside, we all miss that Neptunian sense of bliss and self-sufficiency we experienced inside our mother’s womb, and we hold some sort of resentment for being brought into the world. 

No matter how loving our parents were or how healthy our upbringing was, we still feel nostalgia for the lost paradise we emerged from. 

In the Greek myth, Chiron is abandoned by his parents at birth. This abandonment is metaphorical, and it represents the experience of rupture, the experience of being born. Expelled from paradise, from our mother’s womb, we feel like an alien in a 3D world with new laws and new rules.

Why am I here? 

Chiron - Longing For The Divine

Welcome to your Chiron wound.

Your Chiron wound is the wound of “being”. Of being alive, and of being a human being. 

The Chiron wound is engineered in our genes. Just like Chiron is a half-horse, half-god centaur, we too are half-human, half-divine. Just like Chiron, we too need to reconcile the paradox of our existence, by embracing BOTH our human and divine nature.

The feeling of longing that Chiron transits like this one awakens in us is rooted in our remembering of who we really are. We KNOW that we are more than this body, this mind, in this place at this time. We know that the empty space inside of us is divinely designed to be filled up with “something”. 

And it’s exactly this longing for “something” that will show us the way. 

Is our opportunity to heal our rupture wound and find a deeper meaning to our existence.

When we have a Chiron transit, healing the wound doesn’t only mean finding relief from pain – it means digging into the wound until we find the deeper meaning behind it.   

If there is something that keeps triggering you, chances are there is a gift there to be unveiled. A potential that is yet to materialize. Your wound is the KEY to something much greater. Your wound will continue to bug you until you recognize the gift behind it.

Chiron is now in Aries, since 2019, and it will stay in Aries until 2027. 

Of all the signs of the zodiac, Chiron spends the longest time – 8 years and one month – in Aries. 

Chiron spends so much time in Aries perhaps because it has more work to do there than in any other sign.

Chiron doesn't have it easy in Aries.

There’s something about Aries that Chiron finds difficult to process; that’s why Chiron takes its time in this sign.

Since Chiron spends so much time in Aries, most people alive today have Chiron in Aries. If you were born between April 1968 and March 1977 you too have Chiron in Aries. 

Since Chiron entered Aries back in 2018, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the phenomenon of “influencers”.

An influencer is an individual who wields influence over an audience of people, usually on social media. Influencers use blogs, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok to leverage their following to promote other brands or ideological agendas. 

Chiron in Aries has also brought us a boom in cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery. In the last year alone, the plastic surgery market increased by 55%. 

Gender fluidity or not resonating with one’s prescribed gender identity is another topic that is becoming increasingly talked about. 

All the societal trends are expressions of Chiron in Aries. Aries is our identity, Chiron is our deepest wound. 

With Chiron in Aries, what we are aiming to heal and transcendent it’s our identity wound. 

“I am not good enough”. “It is not ok to be me, I should be someone else”. When Chiron is in Aries, we question our identity, we question our very existence. 

The root cause of our dissatisfaction is whether - or not - are we living up to our true potential: “Am I truly living my life?”, “How close – or how far – am I from living my purpose?”.

Chiron In Aries – The Identity Wound

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. Its role is to help us develop a sense of identity. 

Aries rules the Self, but Chiron will challenge this affirmation of the Self to find a deeper sense of purpose.

Aries is the “Me first” sign – it is our identity, how we express our uniqueness, how we assert ourselves. 

Aries is the very first sprout to emerge from the soil in the spring, choosing life, choosing to ‘get out there’ into the world, to make a statement “I’m here”.

Chiron, on the other hand, is a symbol of everything Aries is not. 

Chiron is where we feel wounded, ashamed, and inadequate. Chiron is where we second guess ourselves, where we feel guilty, vulnerable and broken. 

Chiron will challenge Aries’ expression of the Self.

Chiron in Aries’s goal is to help us address and heal our greatest wound of all – the wound of identity.

The wound of identity is when we feel we don’t have the right to exist. This is the most painful wound – because it is rooted in who we are, as human beings. Because the individual IS the wound, it’s difficult to dissociate ourselves from our identity wound. Our identity wound is our blind spot. 

We Are Born With It

We are all born with the wound of identity. When we are babies, we hardly have an identity. We are the result of the genetic makeup of our parents.

As we grow up, if our self-expression is encouraged, we slowly develop our unique identity.

But the process is not always smooth. 

Our parents may – rightly so – see us as an extension of themselves, and may have difficulties in acknowledging that we are different human beings. They do this because they want to protect us.

But trying to force the child to become something different than what they were born to be, is incredibly damaging. 

People who struggle the most with mental health usually come from upbringings where they were not allowed to be themselves, to express and develop their unique identity.

Chiron In Aries – Symptoms Of The Identity Wound

 

• “I am nobody” – an overall feeling of emptiness and disconnection
• “I am not enough” – a desire to “prove” oneself
• “I am not who I should be” - a desire to be someone else 
• “If I don’t fit in, I don’t exist” – a desire to be liked by everyone
• Feeling disoriented, alienated, wanting conflicting things 
• A tendency to imitate other people
• A desire to remain unnoticed, a fear of expressing one’s opinions and beliefs
• Difficulty connecting with one’s body or feelings
• A tendency to hurt oneself, physically or psychologically – self-inflicted wounds, abuse of drugs, alcohol and medication, overworking, feeling ‘numb’

Chiron In Aries – You Are Here For A Reason

Can we heal our wound of identity?

No achievement, no money or success can heal this wound – because being you is not about becoming something you are not, but is about becoming who you are meant to be!

Chiron in Aries will ask you to address and heal – once and for all – the wound of identity, a wound that we are all born with.

Your existence is the very proof you deserve to BE. There is a reason why out of billions of genetic possibilities, it was YOU who made it.

Not only do you have the right to exist, but you are here for a very important reason. You were born with a unique mission.

The stars, the whole universe collided so you could be here today. You were born to express the divine in your unique way, to develop and share your unique gifts, talents, and skills. 

Chiron is associated with feelings of inadequacy, shame, guilt and rejection. But beneath all of these feelings lies the root cause of Chiron’s wound: the wound of abandonment. 

To understand why Chiron’s wound is rooted in abandonment, let’s get back to Chiron’s myth. 

Saturn, Chiron’s father transformed into a horse when he mated with Philiria, Chiron’s mother. As a result, Chiron was born half-human, half-horse. Disgusted by his appearance, his mother abandoned him.

Chiron - The Abandonment Wound

This was Chiron’s primal wound – the wound of abandonment.

This abandonment is metaphorical, and represents the experience of rupture, the experience of being born.

We are born, therefore we are wounded. The process of birth itself is our first experience of abandonment. Rejection is part of our identity development process.

For people who have strong Chiron signatures, abandonment can be very literal; they are literally abandoned by one or both parents.

Others who have early experiences of abandonment, for example children who have parents that have to get back to work as soon as  the child is born or parents who leave their children with caregivers or the school system.

Other abandonment experiences can unintentionally be inflicted by caregivers who don’t respond to the child’s cries, or don’t acknowledge the child when the child initiates connection. 

Even in the most loving families, irrespective of what actually happens, the child internalizes this initial experience of abandonment and believes there is something wrong with them.

In our first years of life, we live in a narcissistic state and don’t have the cognitive ability to distinguish ourselves from the world. That’s why if something ‘bad’ happens, it must be our fault. “There’s something wrong with me”. “My parents don’t love me because I am flawed”. 

In astrology, Chiron is where we feel abandoned and rejected.

Chiron - The Gift Is In The Wound

Let’s get back to Chiron’s myth. 

Chiron was born different: half-god, half-horse. But it was exactly his unique makeup that allowed Chiron to develop into a wise, revered and respected teacher. 

Apollo, his adoptive father, taught Chiron the art of archery, poetry, botany and astrology. These teachings, combined with Chiron’s half-horse AKA animal and instinctual nature, gave Chiron a unique advantage, and helped him become a revered and respected teacher. 

He understood both the workings of nature and the workings of the divine, and became a Whole-istic healer. 

IMPORTANT: If Chiron was not abandoned at birth, he couldn’t have been adopted by Apollo, and he wouldn’t have had the chance to bridge the gap from nature to spirit. This initial abandonment, this initial wound, was precisely what made Chiron so special. 

Our Chiron wound is the “initial condition” – we all share the abandonment wound, and it’s precisely this wound that becomes our catalyst for growth. If we won't feel abandoned, we wouldn't have the incentive to grow. 

Of course, there are healthy ways of overcoming abandonment and finding healing, and less healthy ways. 

When we integrate our feelings of shame, guilt and abandonment, we then allow them to become a catalyst of growth. 

However, when we overcompensate them, the divide between our instinctual nature and our divine nature only grows wider.

As we grow up, we work hard to hide from these feelings of abandonment and rejection. We believe that if we achieve worldly success, we are worthy, and we will never ever be abandoned again. 

These are those people who appear to be extremely confident and to have high self-esteem, however, no matter how validated and successful they are, they still feel empty inside, they lack a sense of true fulfillment. And the addiction to worldly success becomes a vicious circle. 

We want more and more, because we believe that the more successful we are, the fewer chances to be abandoned. 

However, worldly success is only half of the equation.

There’s also the other half of the centaur, the godly side, that asks to be integrated. That’s why many people who become successful in the material world feel empty inside and very often leave everything behind, in search of a higher meaning. 

Case Studies - Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk

Let’s take some examples. Do you know what Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk share in common? 

First, they are all incredibly successful, at least by society’s standards. And 2nd, they have all been abandoned by their fathers. 

Jeff Bezos’s parents divorced when Bezos was a baby, and his mother remarried. Bezos knew who his biological father was, but never wanted to meet him. His biological father, Ted Jorgensen died in 2015, without meeting Jeff. Jorgensen’s final wish before dying was to meet Jeff again, but Bezos still refused. 

Steve Jobs has been abandoned by both his mother and his father. His biological parents, Abdulfattah Jandali and Schieble put the future co-founder of Apple up for adoption the year he was born, in 1955. Years later, Jobs would “bristle whenever anyone referred to Paul and Clara Jobs as his `adoptive’ parents or implied that they were not his `real’ parents,” Isaacson wrote. 

Jobs, who died in 2011, referred to his biological parents as “my sperm and egg bank.” It’s interesting to note that Jobs repeated history with his first born, daughter Lisa. His paternity denial led to a legal battle where a DNA test proved he was indeed the father.  

Elon Musk, while he was not literally abandoned, is estranged from his father. Elon called his father, Errol “a terrible human being”.

Elon first experienced a rift with his father, when he was a child, following his parents’ divorce. “It would certainly be accurate to say that I did not have a good childhood… It was not absent of good, but it was not a happy childhood. It was like misery.”

These celebrity examples prove how damaging early abandonment is, and also how these experiences have fueled Jobs, Bezos or Musk’s drive for achieving success.

The abandonment wound, when unhealed, leads to resentment, contempt and regret. The inner conflict never goes away.

However difficult, if we want to heal, it’s imperative we embrace our abandonment wound. 

Astro Butterfly