The energy of Chiron, the healer-redeemer, is in the air. I find this a most fascinating subject when thinking of humanity and our ongoing struggle to find peace, harmony and health. Life is such a paradox of tears and ecstasy, and embodying this conflict is the story of the Centaur. Chiron was the product of a rape and abandoned by his parents he had to set out alone to find his true power, until one day he got struck by an arrow dipped in poison that kept him in excruciating pain until his release into death.

He was a teacher of the path of the hero, the path of how to overcome weaknesses. And yet, his story reminds us that even the hero has a body and the body has certain limitations no matter how far your consciousness has traveled. So earth life is a firm reminder that the spiritual non-dualism isn’t truly non-dual until the dimension of Chiron is integrated. We are all like Jesus until we slip on a banana peel. Freedom and love is, in other words, easy on a sunny day when the bank account is full.

But when the sun doesn’t shine, we wake up to an Earth tainted by its history. A history rich with deceit, betrayal, weakness and pain, so intense sometimes that it can make you really wonder if there is any point to anything and where is God in this soup?

Chiron is currently in the sign of the ultimate, Pisces, and this adds another dimension to the hopelessness of the situation. Earth is drained, we are overpopulated and our wounds are on incessant repeat. The real pain lies in our misconception of reality and our lack of proper lines to divinity. Maybe that is the wound that Chiron in Pisces, a sign that deals with spirituality and oneness with God, has to heal in us? What is salvation? And where can we buy some?

Chiron consciousness is the awareness that life is dukkha, pain or lack of satisfaction, or as the Buddha said “Life is suffering” Sounds negative? Maybe, but the story of Chiron is one about being caught up in a body and in a life where Spirit often is neglected due to our needs to simply stay alive.

However, there is a higher approach to Chiron, one that is beyond the wound story. My colleague Lynda Hill describes it like this: “Chiron is the story we tell ourselves” In other words, it is our narrative. The way we choose to translate life and how we meet our obstacles.

The astrologer is a narrator. He or she informs either to sell fear or to set free humanity from the fatalist approach. The astrologer either translates life as they wish themselves, or they set people free. As a narrator, the astrologer can help people with their narrative, the stories they tell themselves.

Sounds very easy. But. Always a but(t)!

But Chiron also symbolizes the magnificent paradox of being half man, full of unlimited potential, reaching for the divine,  and half horse, centaur harbouring the limits of the body and diseases, and wild instincts.

A man who knew quite a bit about Chiron was DH Lawrence: He was born with a pretty tight Sun-square-Chiron, so he lived the archetype.

“I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections.

And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly, that I am ill.

I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self

and the wounds to the soul take a long, long time, only time can help

and patience, and a certain difficult repentance

long, difficult repentance, realization of life’s mistake, and the freeing oneself

from the endless repetition of the mistake

which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.”

He suffered from tuberculosis and felt deeply wounded by this illness that kept him from living his full potential. Changing the narrative of an illness demands a deep healing, a redemption, a fundamental change. The energy of disease has to die to be released. But if we arrogantly think that we can just think away disease or be a hero when we are not ready yet, we might fall flat on our face. Chiron teaches us that we cannot be like Icarus who attempted to escape prison by flying too close to the sun. Chiron allows no hubris. Chiron does not live in La-La Land.

The wounds of earth are real. History has left its trace and most of us are completely blank when faced with the challenge of healing these energies. Most of us simply repeat them and they spread like venom.

This is why we have teachers like Jesus and Buddha to look to when it comes to understanding the basic skills we need to integrate in order to get to a state of healing.

Compassion is one of the virtues that humanity could profit from cultivating, so we can let go of poisons and pains and release it into the light. 

Chiron knew a lot about compassion, embodying the principle of acceptance. His is a story of an inflicted wound that held him in incurable pain, and the release and liberation through the cultivation of acceptance.

Personally, I truly believe that one day we will all be free, we will all learn basic healing and self-healing, but until then, Chiron reminds us that this is a process. It teaches us that life on earth will perhaps never reach perfection, neither will we in the way we think we should. The lesson is to learn to live with what is, and make the best of everything. Start even though we will never be beyond potentially being wounded somehow yet again.

Start with learning true acceptance of how things are right now!.

The stages of healing could be summed up like this:

1. Denial: I am not wounded.
2. Anger: I cannot do anything with and it is not fair. Why did this happen to me?
3. Negotiation: If I become a better human being and do some good, can I be free?
4. Depression; Now all is lost.
5. The beginning of healing: Acceptance: Ok, so my foot won’t grow out again, I can still have a life.
6. Rebirth: A time to meet yourself in a new way, integrating truth into life.
7. Creating a new life: Living more fully. Healed from the past.

The dark night of the Soul is these first stages of the healing process. It takes time to see deep into the patterns of life and to truly find healing. So many are stuck on level one, pretending to be above the need to heal. To be vulnerable and open up challenges our self-image to such an extent that the “king” or “queen” in us believe that no one will respect him or her if they open up. The wound protects itself. Just like a cat that will hiss at you if you touch a wounded place. So first thing is to learn to trust again. Let things breathe a bit.

These days are healing days. Healing takes time, effort and the cultivation of love. And patience. A healthy dose of patience. That is perhaps the most difficult thing when we are feeling stuck and our spirit is feeling trapped. Still, the point of release lies in releasing the struggle. There is no healing in fighting.

With this, I wish you a wonderful healing Chiron transit.

And just to cheer you up further, here is a list of fabulous people who lived well and prosperous with a Chiron-Sun conjunction.

Jon Bon Jovi
Pat Boone
Johannes Brahms
Marlon Brando
Jeff Bridges
Giovanni Casanova
Hillary Clinton
Nat King Cole
Doris Day
Robert De Niro
Charles Dickens
Michael Douglas
Richard Dreyfuss
Marlene Dietrich
Queen Elisabeth
Prince Charles
Hugh Hefner
Audrey Hepburn
Harry Houdini
Don Johnson
Coretta Scott King
Juan Peron
Ringo Starr
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Mae West